Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its chars. I only own my Santa hat and my Christmas muse.

Warning: Mpreg. Slightly AU. Yaoi one-shot.

Pairings: Tezuka X Echizen, Momoshiro X Ann

A/N: Be warned that this story cannot stand on its own, and is a side-fic for the main story – Trials of Life. I'm taking one scene from the main fic and putting it here (because the chapter turned into a monster. Again. T.T).

The update of Trials of Life will not be so soon, so this fic will be my apology to all readers. (bows)

This will be a fic especially for Ryoma's birthday/Christmas.

To the story then…

Trials of Life (Christmas Edition)

By: Gwynhafra

Ryoma stared out of the windows, watching quietly at the cars passing by his house. It was hard to see since the windows had fogged up from the cold, and when Ryoma pressed his face closer to the glass, his breath caused it to fog up too.

"It's snowing…" he mused to himself quietly, feeling a little happy. Watching the snow, he recalled watching a similar scene before, from the window of a pure white room. There was a light snowfall that day too, just one year ago. Did time really pass so quickly?

Speaking of time, his friends were late. Ryoma raised his head, taking a quick glance at the clock before turning his attention back out of the window. As far as he knew, they were supposed to meet up at Kawamura Sushi first before heading over to his place. The appointed time was 7PM. It was now nearly five minutes past that time. At least someone should have shown up at his doorstep by now. All he saw out there were passing cars, more passing cars, and a random neighbour's cat that had just scurried past.

"Ryoma, it's cold there. Come join us here." His husband's concerned voice could be heard somewhere behind him. Ryoma sensed his presence before he felt the familiar weight of his husband's hand on his shoulder.

He also felt the hard yank on his hair.

Ryoma turned around to throw the offender a stare, and his baby son's innocent golden-hazel eyes stared back at him. The baby gave a giggle, tugging on his hair again.

Tezuka gently pried their son's fingers from Ryoma's hair despite the baby's sound of protest. He readjusted his hold on the baby before reaching out with a free hand to smoothen Ryoma's slightly mussed hair.

"They're late." Tezuka's voice held a hint of sternness, almost like the one he used back when his Seigaku regulars committed an offense.

Ryoma shrugged. "They're probably wrapping presents." He deduced, looking out of the window again.

No sooner had he said that when a loud crash upstairs startled them both. This was followed by a thump, thump, thump sound, and the next moment, the Tezuka family found themselves staring at Momoshiro and Kikumaru, both of whom were dressed in Santa outfits, and were lying in a pile of arms and legs on the floor, obviously having toppled down the stairs. It was a good thing they wore some kind of padding under their outfits for that slightly more filled look, as it was probably what saved them from an otherwise bone-breaking fall.

Kikumaru recovered first, getting to his feet and straightening his outfit. "Mou! That's why I said to do this alone! Your sense of balance is terrible!"

"I can't help it, Eiji-san. The snow made my boots all slippery." He looked up and noticed Tezuka's extremely lethal glare. Very quickly, he got to his feet, brushing his clothes as he did so. "Er…ho ho ho, Merry Christmas?"

"Momoshiro. Kikumaru. Care to explain what are you doing in my house, and how did you get in here in the first place?" Tezuka's voice was low, a sign that he was just a few seconds short of assigning them laps.

The two began speaking at the same time.

"My boys wanted me to play Santa and climb in. Who am I to deny their requests?" Momoshiro said, looking at Tezuka like that was a most natural way to enter someone's house.

"Your window was open, and a branch reached just outside it, so we climbed in." At least Kikumaru's version was more helpful.

Kunifuyu gave a whimper at seeing the two scary men in his house, and he reached out for Ryoma, looking up at the black-green haired man with teary eyes. Tezuka passed the baby over to his spouse before turning his attention back to the two intruders. "You two…20 laps around the neighbourhood!"

The doorbell rang at that moment. Apparently their friends were finally here. The first one to enter the house was Fuji, who was apparently recording the whole thing. He gave a serene smile at seeing the less than happy look on Tezuka's face. "My…why the scary face, Tezuka? Momoshiro and Kikumaru were very entertaining to watch earlier."

Takumi and Takaya scurried past Fuji, making a beeline towards Momoshiro before tugging happily on his pants. "Papa! Santa! Sugoi" Takumi exclaimed, to which Takaya gave a happy laugh of agreement.

Momoshiro looked like he would gladly run all the laps in the world for his boys if he could make them happy, as he picked them up easily, carrying them in one arm each. The rest of the group walked in at that moment. Ryoma had a feeling they had been behind his house watching the two clowns in action earlier.

There was the usual exchange of greetings and presents, and of course…

"Happy birthday, Echizen." Oishi greeted, thrusting a present over to him. Ryoma spotted both birthday and Christmas greetings written on the wrapping paper. By the looks of it, his son was going to suffer the same fate too, though not at the moment. His friends practically showered all the children with gifts, and while the two babies didn't know what was going on, the two toddlers were delighted to see the presents. It was difficult to keep them away from the Christmas tree after that, since the presents were stashed there.

The birthday celebration came first. Despite Ryoma's protests, his friends insisted that he took a picture with the cake, alongside the other two birthday kids. He definitely felt like the odd one out, sitting there towering over the other two. Kunifuyu was being carried safely in his arms, and Ryoma held him just close enough to see the cake, but not close enough to reach out for the pretty candles. Ann was doing the same to Tsugumi, who was a lot more difficult to handle and was a lot more vocal as compared to Kunifuyu. Momoshiro's baby daughter squirmed in her mother's arms, wanting to reach out for the cake. Kunifuyu on the other hand stayed put quietly in Ryoma's arms, staring warily at all the adults, who were singing the birthday song.

After the song, which had 'Echizen', 'Kunifuyu-kun' and 'Tsugumi-chan' jumbled all together in the lyrics, was sung, they proceeded to dig into the cake. Tsugumi babbled happily to the adults, who were amused to see her attempt to feed herself some cake. She was more successful in giving herself a sugary facial mask though.

Ryoma fed his son some cake, while Tezuka wiped his face to keep him clean. The others came over to watch them for a while before Kikumaru decided to try playing with the baby a little.

"Chibi ochibi! It's Eiji jii-san here. How are you today?" he chirped enthusiastically.

Kunifuyu stared at him wide-eyed for a while, then tightened his hold on Ryoma's shirt and buried his face into Ryoma's chest, hiding from Kikumaru. Ryoma smirked at seeing how crestfallen the redhead looked. The baby gave a whimper, not liking the scarily hyper 'jii-san'.

Ryoma spoke to his son softly for a while. The baby eventually looked up, staring at Ryoma for a few moments before braving another stare at Kikumaru, while still clinging tightly to Ryoma's shirt.

Kikumaru grinned back at him. "Chibi ochibi! Peek-a-boo!" He tried to play with the baby again.

Kunifuyu shrank back against Ryoma, and moments later he started crying, turning back to hide his face against Ryoma's chest again.

Kikumaru looked like he was going to wail too as he popped over to his former doubles partner's side. "Oishi…what should I do? Chibi ochibi doesn't seem to like me…"

Ryoma tried to calm his son, while Oishi tried to calm the redhead. During that time, Takumi walked over to the baby, tapping him lightly on the shoulder. "Ne, ne, Fuyukuni. Don't cry. See, nii-chan has snow here. Pretty snow. Look, look." The boy continued coaxing until the baby looked up.

Curious golden-hazel eyes lit up at the white, fluffy thing held in Takumi's hand. It was actually faux snow- bits of cotton placed all over the Christmas tree to look like snow, but of course the baby didn't know that. As Ryoma was wondering just when did the black-haired toddler nick that bit of cotton off the tree, Kunifuyu reached out and picked the 'snow' out of Takumi's hand. Before Ryoma could stop him, the baby had popped it into his mouth.

A look of disgust crossed the baby's face. He spat out the cotton, then started crying even more fiercely than before. Takumi looked panicky at that. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Takumi is bad." The toddler apologized tearfully.

Ryoma started speaking softly to his son again, rubbing the baby lightly on the back. Kunifuyu stopped crying quickly, giving soft hiccoughs as he looked up at Ryoma. The black-green haired man bounced his baby lightly on his lap, and eventually his son began to smile, looking considerably more cheered.

Tezuka had been watching his family all that time, and he gave a nearly invisible smile at seeing his spouse and child interact. Oishi approached him, to which Tezuka gave him a nod to acknowledge his presence.

"Your son sure listens to his mommy," Oishi commented. Tezuka was glad that Ryoma wasn't around to hear that.

"Aa. Kunifuyu is very attached to Ryoma." Tezuka informed.

The birthday celebration was done with, and now it was time for the Christmas celebrations. Just like last year, Momoshiro and Kikumaru started singing on the top of their voices. It was a good thing there was no Nanjirou to join them this year. However, the two older Momoshiro children started joining in for Christmas carols, and Ryoma found himself wishing for some peace and quiet. Tsugumi too started babbling even more excitedly, adding in to the chorus.

Fuji approached Ryoma, holding his camera in his hands. "Say cheese, Echizen-kun," he smiled, taking a picture of Ryoma with the baby in his arms. His son was wearing a mini Santa suit that day, courtesy of the Momoshiro's, who wanted to put all their children in the same outfit. Fuji certainly looked like he was enjoying himself, even as he snapped away with his camera.

"I don't see why you like taking pictures so much, Fuji-san," Ryoma muttered. "It's boring."

Fuji lowered his camera, opening his eyes slightly as he did so. "Oh? You think so?" he reached into his bag and took out a number of photo albums, opening it to show Ryoma all of Kunifuyu's baby pictures. "I get to preserve time in my pictures, so what's so boring about that?"

Ryoma couldn't help looking appreciatively at all the pictures in the album. Seeing the photographs, it was only then was he able to see his son's growth. He deposited his son in Tezuka's arms and went to look at the albums, flipping through them. Apparently Fuji did the same thing to Momoshiro's children, and Ann too placed Tsugumi in Momo's arms before joining Ryoma at browsing through Fuji's collection.

While Ryoma and Ann busied themselves with choosing the kind of albums and frames for the pictures, Tezuka and Momoshiro were given the full responsibility of carrying out parenting duties. Tezuka looked stoic, even with his son in his arms, but he didn't look so scary. For Kunifuyu had reached up and was playing with his face, kneading it like play-dough. Tezuka let his son do whatever he liked, smiling slightly when the baby patted his face.

"He looks a lot like you." Momoshiro commented.

Tezuka bounced his son, earning a smile from the baby. "Aa." His son looked a lot like him thanks to his brown hair (much to Ryoma's delight), but he has Ryoma's golden-hazel eyes (much to Tezuka's delight).

Ryoma heard him, and deciding to join in the conversation, walked over to them. "Fuyu looks just like Kunimitsu when he was a baby." He grinned at his husband, remembering the one time he managed to see Tezuka's baby pictures.

Momoshiro looked at the stoic daddy, to the innocently cute baby, then back again. "What happened since then?" he asked, bewildered at the thought that such a cute baby might one day grow to look as much of a wooden block as Tezuka.

Ryoma smirked. "Saa…he met me, of course." The black-green haired man reached up to stroke his husband's face lightly.

Momoshiro looked at the baby, then looked at Ryoma and shifted his gaze to Tezuka. "Hmm…he looks nothing like you, Echizen, except for his eyes. Your genes are so weak na."

Ryoma threw a red sock at him.

XXXXXXXXX

By the end of the Christmas party, the children were finally allowed to open the presents, a task Takumi and Takaya carried out enthusiastically. Ryoma put his son on his lap and helped him to open the presents, while Fuji recorded the whole thing.

The two boys got new toy swords from the former Golden Pair, and they started running around the house, doing a mock battle with each other. Ryoma set aside the toys for Kunifuyu, since he was too young to play with most of them. He put his son down next to Tsugumi, letting Kunifuyu interact with someone his age. Once that was done, he checked the tree for any more present for his son.

He spotted one green parcel under the tree, and reaching out, he managed to get it out. Apparently it was from Inui, and Ryoma hesitated a moment before opening it.

When he spotted the UFO (Unidentified Frothy Object), however, he threw it out of the window unceremoniously. The drink exploded with a loud bang in his garden, sounding like a gunshot had gone off.

That startled the two playing brothers. Takaya accidentally bumped into Momoshiro, who went flying into Kikumaru, who fell onto the pudding, which splattered all over Oishi, who accidentally backed into Fuji when he tried to avoid it, who bumped into the tree, which toppled over, right at the two playing babies underneath the tree.

"Fuyu!" Ryoma threw himself at the two babies, shielding them with his body. He anticipated the feeling and weight of the tree falling on him, but none of that came. Looking up, he realized that his husband was holding up the tree, having leapt into action at seeing the tree fall, preventing it from hitting Ryoma.

"Are you alright?" Tezuka was soon helped by Oishi and Momo, and the three eventually set the tree upright again.

Ryoma nodded, handing Tsugumi back to Ann before picking Kunifuyu up. Tezuka took one look around the house, and his expression darkened. The rest of the house was still in a chaos, no thanks to all that had happened. By the looks of it, the mess was going to take a pretty long time to clean up.

"All of you! 20 laps now!" Tezuka's voice echoed through the house.

XXXXXXXXX

By 10PM, the guests have all left the house, and the Tezuka couple set about cleaning up the house. They cleaned some of it, deciding to deal with the rest tomorrow. Tezuka put Kunifuyu to bed, then returned to his room, only to find Ryoma seated on their bed, with a parcel placed in his lap.

"We should have our own Christmas celebration." Ryoma smirked, handing his husband the present.

Tezuka blinked, still surprised, though he recovered and started unwrapping the present. When he was done, a hard cover tome of all the mountains in the world rolled out onto the bed. Tezuka blinked again, this time in amazement. When did Ryoma get this anyway? Wasn't this just out in the stores not too long ago?

Taking the expression as a good sign, Ryoma reached up to wrap his arms around his brunette husband, pulling him down for a kiss.

"Merry Christmas, Kunimitsu."

The End

A/N: That's the end of the one-shot. I won't be seeing you this year, since I will be going on a holiday starting tomorrow, and after that, I'll be moving to somewhere pretty far away from home, so things are going to be chaotic. The updates for TOL will be slow. :p (bows again)

If I made any mistakes with this one-shot, please point it out to me.

Finally, before I run off, May you have a Happy Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Please Read and Review. No Flames Please.

-Gwyn