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[APHFIC - C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S] Half-Price

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When it came to Christmas shopping and his partner, Roderich was always puzzled. No, it wasn’t that Vash was a difficult person to shop for – well, he was if you didn’t know him well, but that was not a category Roderich fell under. He’d known Vash his entire life and he always knew of little ways to make the other happy, even if it resulted in flustered embarrassment and ridiculous bucket punching. But over the years, there was a question that had been building up in the mystified Austrian’s mind and had reached the boiling point.

Maybe today would be the day he would confront Vash about it. He wanted to know the truth, no, he needed to know the truth, or it would drive him crazy. And by crazy, that usually meant sporadic piano tunes for hours on end stopped only with the power of free cake.

It was bizarre what bothered Roderich this much too, but there was no way he could shake this off. He knew he liked to save money whenever possible, but Christmas always ruined him. Roderich had this habit of wanting to keep up good appearances, so he felt a need to buy Christmas presents for all his friends and family – and not just cheap, knock-off presents, but wonderful, thoughtful presents… that just so happened to make his credit card cry. He wished he was like Erica and had the talent to do handmade gifts that could last a lifetime. All Roderich knew he was good with was making delicious cakes and composing songs and well… there’s only so many times he could get away with that. So eventually he gave in the materialistic holiday, not because he personally believed in all this gift spending but because everyone else loved him for it.

And he knew Vash was almost exactly the same, at least nowadays. Roderich remembered a time that Vash would never buy Christmas presents for anyone, with the mere exception of Erica. He also remembered when he and Vash first started dating and Vash didn’t buy him anything for Christmas the first year. (Roderich was quite offended at the time, until Vash reminded him that it was Roderich himself who insisted “Ah, I understand if you do not buy me anything for Christmas this year! Just make sure you turn up for my Christmas dinner, ja?”)

But ever since that first Christmas, something had changed. The following Christmas, Vash had bought a present for Roderich – it was an incredibly fancy watch. Now, Vash wasn’t one for buying fancy things ever, and if he did, he would always rant on and on about the cost of the item. Not once did Vash raise a voice of complaint when Roderich thanked him, telling him that it must have cost a lot and that he really appreciated it. Instead, he muttered something about seeing Roderich eye up that watch. Roderich never recalled that memory, but Vash had a way of remembering unexpected things, so of course he took his word for it.

It got even weirder. Vash usually only bought gifts for Erica, then Erica and Roderich… but suddenly almost everyone who Roderich bought gifts for started to get little gifts from Vash too. He wasn’t always good at choosing gifts, but they were there and must have cost quite a lot to buy… but he never complained once. What’s more, Vash even started to buy birthday presents. What on earth was going on? Is the apocalypse really on its way?

Roderich would have understood it better if Vash had actually turned a new leaf, that he’d decided to be less frugal and complain less about the prices of things… but Vash was still doing that about everything else. He’d wander around the grocery store and mutter to himself if he noticed the price rise from the previous week. Goodness, he’d even make his voice heard if he discovered one of his true enemies: false advertising. That aspect did not change at all.

He recalled a conversation he’d had with him earlier in the year.

“Oh, Vash… I was thinking I should make a start on buying Christmas gifts,” Roderich began, causing his Swiss boyfriend to look up from his newspaper. “Seeing as you have now joined the rest of us with doing so, how about we do some of our Christmas shopping together?”

Vash shook his head. “I’ve already done that.”

“What?” Roderich raised his eyebrows, taken aback by the response. “…October has barely even started… How could you have possibly sorted out gifts already?”

“I’m just organised, that’s all,” Vash replied, turning a page. Roderich frowned slightly at the implication of being less organised… though it was probably true. “I’ll come with you though, just to make sure you don’t lose yourself in the mall.”

Roderich’s cheeks flushed slightly. “Oh, how kind of you,” he muttered. It was October 1st – Roderich thought he was fairly early with picking out the presents, but he never realised just how ahead of him Vash was.

Since when did Vash suddenly get so enthused about getting gifts early? He just couldn’t work it out.

---

It was a few days before Christmas when Roderich decided to get to the point. Vash was in the middle of polishing one of his guns – not that he’d even been using it, he just preferred to have them clean looking. Roderich didn’t always like to approach Vash during these moments – guns weren’t really his thing, but he needed to do this.

“Roderich,” Vash said, immediately acknowledging the other entering the room in which he was working. “You don’t usually come in here.”

“Vash, please bear with me – I am going to word this as bluntly as I can.”

“…Go on?”

Roderich took a deep breath. “…Did I influence you with gift buying somehow? Our first Christmas as a couple, you did not buy me anything… I remember being rather… erm…”

“And then I bought you gifts from then on?” Vash asked with a raised eyebrow. Roderich nodded, and he sighed. “…Ja, I guess you did. You uh… seemed really happy when I gave you that watch. Before that first Christmas, I saw you looking at it, but you didn’t want to buy it because of the price… but you still seemed to really want it, and…” He stood up from his seat and made his way to Roderich, his cheeks slightly flushed. Then he reached over to brush his fingers over Roderich’s wrist, where the watch was. “…you wear it all the time. It was nice to see you using it so much, uh…” His cheeks reddened further.

The Austrian’s expression softened. “I love this watch… but even I was surprised that you bought it! It was quite expensive, and I know how you are about spending your money.”

Vash shrugged. “The day after our first Christmas, I saw that it was half-price… so I bought it.”

Roderich’s eyes widened. That explains it! No wonder Vash wasn’t complaining when he gave him the watch… Wait a minute though – “…And then you started buying more and more presents for the Christmases that followed.”

The blond turned his head, a bit too embarrassed to look his partner in the eye. “Well… I guess being generous to you felt good. Erica convinced me I’d be happier when I’m being generous around Christmas…”

“And you didn’t complain when—”

“Half-price, Roderich, half-price,” Vash responded, placing distinct emphasis on the repeated words. “I didn’t complain because after every single Christmas Day, shops start selling all their product so much cheaper! There! Are you happy now?”

Silence fell between the two as Roderich thought it through. So all those wonderful gifts that Vash was affording, he was only affording because he found the best prices? And if he was buying all his gifts immediately after Christmas was over, when nobody else would even think of buying next year’s presents… Roderich couldn’t help but laugh a little.

Vash was already thinking ahead of everyone else with his generosity, even though he was just doing so in the cheapest way possible.

“Why are you laughing?’ the blond asked, frowning up at Roderich.

“…I’m sorry… it’s just… you’re ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous?! How dare—”

“I love you. Okay, I’ll let you get back to your work now, I’ve got what I needed to know.” And with that, Roderich turned to go, leaving his boyfriend speechless and dumbfounded.

Not many would think of Vash as a giving person, especially with the way he is about money. But leave it to Vash to find a way to be generous, but still frugal as can be! He put way too much thought into something that everyone else would find rather ridiculous. Intelligent in a way, but ridiculous.

---

One day after Christmas, Roderich Edelstein joined Vash Zwingli for a bit of Christmas Gift shopping.

FINE CHRISTMASSY NINE MAKES FOR A FINE CHRISTMASSY TIME

Nine stories that relate to our delightful holiday season, based around nine different couples.

C - [APHFIC - C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S] Cynic
H - right here!
R - [APHFIC - C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S] Reunion
I - [APHFIC - C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S] Illness
S - [APHFIC - C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S] Sitting
T - WIP
M - WIP
A - WIP
S - WIP

---

This is the second story in my miniseries, which is based around my Fine Nine. I'm dedicating this to my wonderful best friend :iconadannaya:, aka Britt, because her and I have had SUCH amazing RPs involving this ship. This is one of my biggest canon/canon OTPs and even though most of my friends prefer Austria with Hungary and so on, I adore Austria/Switzerland. I have my own reasons for thinking they're perfect together, and you actually got to look into their history and relations! It's so deep - it's quite dramatic, but I love them to depth. HHHNNGGHHH<33

Feel free to turn any of my ficlets into mini-comics or w/e, just let me know if you're planning to do that, kay?

Austria / Roderich Edelstein & Switzerland / Vash Zwingli belong to :iconhimaruyaplz:

© 2014 - 2024 melondramatics
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Naxylie's avatar
YES ANOTHER ONE OF MY LOVE SHIPS THAT I WILL LOVE TO DEATH
my love for these two must be the longest canon/canon couple i love since i joined the fandom! Cute old married couple --/slapped