Christmas Wishes Do Come True.

Bernwald stepped forwards in the line to the small shed that stood surrounded by fake snow, members of staff dressed as elves and young children. He was waiting to see Santa Claus.

He felt his face burn as he was eyed strangely by middle-class mothers, their pre-school children holding their winter coats in fear of the tall blonde Swede waiting in line patiently to be let in.

As embarrassed as he was Bernwald did have a reason for coming to visit Santa, it was a tradition that he had never gotten to do in his childhood in Sweden. An abusive father had never made his Christmases pleasant and after five years of drinking his pains away Bernwald had decided he was going to turn it around. He would do all the things he had missed out on as a child and once those dreams were fulfilled he'd get a job and become a normal adult. And this led him here, moments away from meeting the Christmas legend.

The line moved forward and suddenly Bernwald was at the front of the line. A little girl pushed back the red curtain, giving Bernwald a narrow shot of the warm light inside the shed before the fabric fell back into place leaving the rest of the interior to his imagination.

It took five minutes before he noticed the excited girl leave from the back exit, skipping to her parents, a colourfully wrapped present in her small hands.

The male elf looked at Bernwald in half confusion, noticing the 21 year old man had no child with him. Bernwald didn't meet his eyes; he knew he probably seemed like a head-case, here to see Santa at his age. But he was ushered in nonetheless and was free to push aside the curtain and step into the shed.

He looked around the room; it had cotton wool stapled to the walls to look like snow, complete with plastic icicles. There was a large brown sack in the corner that had presents scattered artfully around it. Beside the sack there was a large-throne like chair, big enough for children to be sat down on Santa's knee.

It was the man who played Santa himself that really shocked Bernwald, he was a young man, so young in fact, that he looked around Bernwald's age, far too young for his role yet somehow suited it. Bernwald found he was staring at the man, he was striking, he had pale skin but naturally rosy cheeks on his youthful face. His frame was small, with his feet barely on the floor and since the Santa suit was almost hanging on him Bernwald guessed he was slender. He was all in all definitely pretty but the feature that caught his interest was his eyes, almost violet, big and innocent but also mischievous. Light coloured bangs poked out from under his hat almost cutely that almost covered those eyes, but didn't, somehow added to their value.

Bernwald pushed up his glasses up his nose, feeling rather flustered at the sudden turn of events, he was very aware that the Santa had started to blush and shift in his seat,

"Hello... Um... Aren't you going to sit down?" Bernwald immediately noticed the Santa was accented, very subtly, not many people would have noticed but Bernwald was from Sweden himself, he knew a Scandinavian accent when he heard one... This man was perhaps Finnish.

He approached the chair nervously, he knew he was supposed to get onto Santa's lap but with this guy he didn't know how that was even supposed to work,

"'M not sure I can..." Bernwald furrowed his brow.

The Santa shook his head, smiling kindly, "It's alright, I'm stronger than I look."

Bernwald hesitated before lowering himself onto the lap of the young man, pretending to be casual as he put his arms around Santa's neck to support himself.

"So, what's your name?" Bernwald was amazed at how cool this man was about this. Here he was, an adult come to visit Santa and the poor Finnish man was allowing him to be in his lap and acting like things were normal. Bernwald had decided he liked this person very much.

"Bernwald..." He resisted the urge to say, 'and you?' despite his wish to know the man's name.

"Okay then, Bernwald," He smiled sweetly as he tried the name out, "What would you like for Christmas?"

"I want y' to be m' wife." Bernwald blurted before thinking. He then froze realising what he had said.

The Santa blinked, "What?" He said innocently. Bernwald studied his face, did he really not hear or was he just pretending that he hadn't just said that?

"I... I want a bike..." Bernwald gave a generic answer, not wanting to make things any worse. He had messed up and embarrassed himself with this gorgeous person from just one stupid slip of the tongue.

Santa seemed to be behaving normally though, nodding at the request. Bernwald tried to ignore the adorable way the white ball on his hat bobbed up and down as he nodded, "Well then, Bernwald, I'll see what I can do!" He gave him a toothy grin before reaching over to the pile of presents that sat beside them and picked one at random, "But for now, here's a present from me to you."

The Santa pulled out a Sharpie pen and started to write on the attached label, glancing up at him before finishing and handing over the gift.

"Th'nks." Bernwald tried to smile back, though signs of positive emotion were never his strong point. He slid himself off that small lap and gave the young man his final thanks before leaving with a sigh. If he knew that Santa was going to look like that then he would have never come. It made him more depressed than happy that he had done that. He'd probably never see that pretty man again.

He flipped open his gift label in interest and stopped still to read it at least three times but the world in lovely swirly writing stated the same,

'To Bernwald,

I'm not sure about being your wife but getting coffee sometime sounds great!

07583312894 - Call me!

Merry Christmas

From, Santa (My name's Tino) ~'

Bernwald moved his thumb across the writing and felt a rush of excitement. He would definitely call Tino later and get a date.

He walked back into the masses of the shopping centre, holding package tight to his chest and deciding that he was having a very merry Christmas.

A/N: Thank you for reading and a very Merry Christmas to you all!