[fic] LH Secret Santa 2012 (Peru + ParaBoli)
Characters/Pairings: Miguel (Perú), Julia (Bolivia), and Daniel (Paraguay); Bolivia→Paraguay with mentions of Perú/Chile
Warnings: None
Word Count: 2000~
Characters fro latin_hetalia. Secret Santa fic for melocotonisma, based on this prompt: Miguel tries to give Juli@ love advice. It doesn't go well. (Bolivia pairing--I don't really care who, but bonus points for Paraguay owo). It's actually more about Julia looking for Christmas gift-giving advice from her brother. Sorry I'm terrible at following prompts, but I hope you like it, Sisi ♥
December 20th
Miguel was seated at the kitchen table with a mess of papers around him when Julia entered the kitchen and fixed him with a stare that sent him furiously thinking of excuses for why he hadn’t bought any Christmas presents yet. It was tradition to spend a few precious minutes in a corner of the guest bedroom on Noche Buena before the festivities began, wrapping the gifts he had bought just the day before. “You can’t rush perfection,” he said, “It’s like when you’re slow cooking a roast-”
Julia wrinkled her brow. She slumped into the chair across from him and stole his drink. “Who’s cooking a roast?” she asked.
Miguel faltered there, thrown off so early in his narrative. “It’s a, a metaphor.” He winced. Before the transfer arrived in the office he’d only vaguely remembered what a metaphor was from high school, and even then he thought it was some kind of scientific instrument, but now he was using them in every day explanations. “No one’s actually cooking anything, I’m just using it as an example.”
Julia rested her chin on her hand and stole one of the papers to fan herself. “I know what a metaphor is, stupid. Why are you using one in the first place?”
“It’s not like I’m trying to be all fancy,” Miguel said defensively. “Remember that Chilean chick at work who-”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” She demanded with a scowl.
“Julita! You shouldn’t say stuff like that! What if mama hears?”
“What do I care?” Julia grumbled, but she blushed as she did so. “You’re avoiding the question.”
“What question?” When Julia sighed in exasperation, it clicked. “Oh! I was explaining why I haven’t bought presents for Christmas yet.”
“You haven’t bought presents because you’re lazy and forgetful. Why were you trying to tell me something I already knew?”
Miguel decided that arguing his case in this matter would be a futile cause. “You walked into the room and gave me this look.”
“What look?”
“A look! Like you were getting ready to get on my case about something.”
Julia fidgeted in her seat. “I just came in here to get a drink,” she replied as she finished Miguel’s. “No rule against that. What are you doing? Did you actually bring work home?” She waved a hand at the mess.
Glancing down at the papers, Miguel slid a sheet over the masterpiece he had doodled in the margins of a graph showing monthly sales: a ceviche-monster ascending from the Pacific to devastate metropolitan Lima. “Javi’s my partner for this project and she wanted me to organize the portfolio before she leaves for Valparaíso for the holidays. She said I’d be eating my balls for Noche Buena if it wasn’t done by the time she comes to pick it up tomorrow.”
With a snort Julia said, “Tell her to do it herself if she wants it done before the holidays.”
“I thought about that, but she hasn’t seen her family since Fiestas Patrias, so I’m trying to be nice.”
“Too nice.”
“You know,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “I should get her something for Christmas. You know, to be nice.”
“No you don’t.” She chewed on the side of her thumb as she spoke so that the words were muffled. “But I might need a little help with a gift…”
“So you still have stuff to buy too? See, I keep saying it’s crazy to even think about Christmas gifts before the week before the holiday. Er, half week before. Who do you have left of buy for?”
Here was the moment she had been dreading. Her cheeks flushed red and prickled, but of course her brother was too dense to figure it out from her reaction. She would have to tell him. “There’s this friend from the Geological Engineering School. He’s in the same class rotation I’m in. And he’s in my swim class. I couldn’t figure out what to get him.”
Now she could see the gears grinding and screaming in Miguel’s head as he pieced this information together. She knew he had it when a gleam flashed in his eyes. “Him? Have I met this friend?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. Probably not,” she lied with a shrug. Miguel had met her after class for lunch about a month ago and had caught Julia waiting with Daniel in their little corner of campus. She had said quick goodbyes to him and ran to her brother before he could have a chance to do anything stupid and brotherly to embarrass her in front of him. After assuring Miguel that he was just a friend, which was true, he dropped it. Not that he would be able to find anything to hate about Daniel, but if Julia were to write a dictionary, his picture would be included with the entry for ‘overprotective brother’. She hated to get him involved now, but she was at her wits end and he was the only person she could trust.
“And you need a special gift for this special friend…boy? Boy friend? Do I need to give him a little talk?”
“No! I mean yes. I mean I need a gift, not a talk.”
“Do you need love advice, too?” He waggled his eyebrows.
“No!”
Miguel wasn’t listening anymore. “My baby sister, all grown up and about to snag a guy….that I’ll have to approve, of course. We’ll find the right gift. If you listen to me, you might be having a wedding by Easter.”
“Wedding?!” Julia sputtered. She just wanted a kiss! And maybe to touch his abs…
Ignoring her still, Miguel rubbed a knuckle through the sparse beginnings of a two day beard on his chin. “What does he like?”
“I-I don’t know. Guy stuff. What do guys like?”
“You’re not going to get him what ‘guys like’ for Christmas, not if I can help it,” he said with a wild gleam in his eyes.
Julia flushed at this. She’d had to endure the ‘this is a condom, I don’t want nephews and nieces till you’re married’ talk when she was sixteen, and she didn’t want a rendition of it again right now. “He likes football, but he’s not as crazy as your friends. And I remember he was freezing this winter, but his mama sent him a hat and scarf, so I don’t want to get him the same thing.” She didn’t want to give Daniel another reason to tell her how much she reminded him of his mother, although her knitting skills were pretty amazing. But that’s about where her talents ended, unless she wanted to wow him with her mineral identification prowess.
“Is he from here? When do you have to give him this present?”
Julia’s face burned now. “No, he’s going home the day after tomorrow.”
“So is Javi!” Miguel exclaimed. “Damn it, I have to get her a gift by tomorrow.”
“Yes, I heard.” Julia remembered him talking about her the first month she began working in his department, first about the hot new co-worker, and then soon after about the new co-worker with a stick up her ass. That first month of second-hand accounts had led to Julia’s intense, totally rational hatred of this woman she had never met. “Anyway, a gift for my friend…”
“What’s his favorite food? Do you know it?”
Julia thought back to the time she had quietly set her tray down at the table in the University cafeteria where Daniel and his friends were sitting as Daniel pushed the slop around his plate and told them about the meals and snacks he missed from his home. “He likes chipa,” she said, trying to pronounce it like he had that day, “but I’m not going to make him that when he’s going home to his mama’s cooking!” This was not even addressing the fact that her greatest cooking attempts involved reheating her brother’s leftovers on the stove.
“Of course you’re not going to make that. You’re going to make something similar.” He took one last look at the papers before pushing them all to one side of the table, an attempt at organization. “Trust me, the way to his heart is through his stomach. Well, also through his-” He snapped his mouth shut and leaned over the table to pat her head. “Yes, the stomach’s the way to go. Let me get my wallet and we’ll grab some stuff from the store.”
They made pukacapas, enough for Daniel, their own household, and even Javiera. Well, Miguel made them while Julia made a mess all over the counter, but those were just details. And besides, she returned the favor by helping him put his paperwork in order as they both drooled over the scent of warm, spiced cheese wafting from the oven. She even refrained from spitting in Javi’s batch, which took a lot of will power. Let no one say she lacked Christmas spirit.
December 21st
It took two hours of calls to friends of friends of friends until she had the address of Daniel’s apartment. Then it took an hour and a half to find the perfect outfit that didn’t make her look like she had just rolled out of bed, and forty five minutes to actually make her way across town to his compound. By the time she stood in front of his door, waiting for him to come out, she felt like she might collapse with anxiety. The box in her hands was crumpled where she gripped it, but it was too late to fix it now. It was also too late to dive for the nearest hiding place because here was Daniel opening the door with a look of happy surprise as he ushered her inside.
His apartment looked like a two year old had had a full blown tantrum in it. There were dirty clothes and books from their recent exam everywhere, and two empty suitcases sat open in the middle of the room. Daniel pushed some T-shirts off the couch and invited her to sit down before going to the kitchen to pour some drinks. By the time he came back, Julia was trying hard not to hyperventilate. She thrust the box in his face. “It’s a stupid gift and my brother made it, but maybe you’ll like it,” she said.
Daniel sat beside her close enough that she could get a good whiff of how fantastic his deodorant smelled. Before he opened the box, he gave her a mournful look that absolved all his shortcomings in her mind as he apologized for not having a present for her.
“Don’t worry about it,” she mumbled.
“No, really, I’ll bring you back something from home. Or I’ll take you out for a drink or a nice dinner. Or both.”
Julia forced herself not to fantasize about these promises and focused on watching him open the present. She felt like she was going to be sick until she saw the toothy grin spread across his face as he pulled out one of the empanadas.
“Thanks!” he said, and then he took a bite, paused, and pulled a slip of paper out of his mouth. All the blood drained from Julia’s face. She lunged for it.
Daniel’s stupid, sexy arms were too long. It was too easy for him to keep it out of her reach, open it above his head, and read aloud, “Touch him and die?”
“That was supposed to be for my brother’s co-worker,” she sobbed.
“A Christmas threat?” he asked with a grin.
“Not a threat,” she corrected. “A warning.” She sighed heavily and rose. “I’ll go now. Merry Christmas.”
Daniel laughed as he grabbed her elbow in an electric touch. “Wait, no. Don’t worry about it! At least stay and finish your drink…unless you have somewhere else you have to be right now?”
She forced herself to sit down again, take deep, slow breaths, and say, “I guess I could stay for a few more minutes.”
“You guess you could.” He laughed again. “Man, I’m going to miss you this summer. You’re still going to be in swim class next year, right?” She nodded in confirmation, and he said, “Good. It wouldn’t be the same without you.”
“W-wouldn’t be the same without you, either,” she stuttered back stupidly, and then she couldn’t help return his infectious smile. It was the best Christmas gift she had ever received.
Warnings: None
Word Count: 2000~
Characters fro latin_hetalia. Secret Santa fic for melocotonisma, based on this prompt: Miguel tries to give Juli@ love advice. It doesn't go well. (Bolivia pairing--I don't really care who, but bonus points for Paraguay owo). It's actually more about Julia looking for Christmas gift-giving advice from her brother. Sorry I'm terrible at following prompts, but I hope you like it, Sisi ♥
December 20th
Miguel was seated at the kitchen table with a mess of papers around him when Julia entered the kitchen and fixed him with a stare that sent him furiously thinking of excuses for why he hadn’t bought any Christmas presents yet. It was tradition to spend a few precious minutes in a corner of the guest bedroom on Noche Buena before the festivities began, wrapping the gifts he had bought just the day before. “You can’t rush perfection,” he said, “It’s like when you’re slow cooking a roast-”
Julia wrinkled her brow. She slumped into the chair across from him and stole his drink. “Who’s cooking a roast?” she asked.
Miguel faltered there, thrown off so early in his narrative. “It’s a, a metaphor.” He winced. Before the transfer arrived in the office he’d only vaguely remembered what a metaphor was from high school, and even then he thought it was some kind of scientific instrument, but now he was using them in every day explanations. “No one’s actually cooking anything, I’m just using it as an example.”
Julia rested her chin on her hand and stole one of the papers to fan herself. “I know what a metaphor is, stupid. Why are you using one in the first place?”
“It’s not like I’m trying to be all fancy,” Miguel said defensively. “Remember that Chilean chick at work who-”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” She demanded with a scowl.
“Julita! You shouldn’t say stuff like that! What if mama hears?”
“What do I care?” Julia grumbled, but she blushed as she did so. “You’re avoiding the question.”
“What question?” When Julia sighed in exasperation, it clicked. “Oh! I was explaining why I haven’t bought presents for Christmas yet.”
“You haven’t bought presents because you’re lazy and forgetful. Why were you trying to tell me something I already knew?”
Miguel decided that arguing his case in this matter would be a futile cause. “You walked into the room and gave me this look.”
“What look?”
“A look! Like you were getting ready to get on my case about something.”
Julia fidgeted in her seat. “I just came in here to get a drink,” she replied as she finished Miguel’s. “No rule against that. What are you doing? Did you actually bring work home?” She waved a hand at the mess.
Glancing down at the papers, Miguel slid a sheet over the masterpiece he had doodled in the margins of a graph showing monthly sales: a ceviche-monster ascending from the Pacific to devastate metropolitan Lima. “Javi’s my partner for this project and she wanted me to organize the portfolio before she leaves for Valparaíso for the holidays. She said I’d be eating my balls for Noche Buena if it wasn’t done by the time she comes to pick it up tomorrow.”
With a snort Julia said, “Tell her to do it herself if she wants it done before the holidays.”
“I thought about that, but she hasn’t seen her family since Fiestas Patrias, so I’m trying to be nice.”
“Too nice.”
“You know,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “I should get her something for Christmas. You know, to be nice.”
“No you don’t.” She chewed on the side of her thumb as she spoke so that the words were muffled. “But I might need a little help with a gift…”
“So you still have stuff to buy too? See, I keep saying it’s crazy to even think about Christmas gifts before the week before the holiday. Er, half week before. Who do you have left of buy for?”
Here was the moment she had been dreading. Her cheeks flushed red and prickled, but of course her brother was too dense to figure it out from her reaction. She would have to tell him. “There’s this friend from the Geological Engineering School. He’s in the same class rotation I’m in. And he’s in my swim class. I couldn’t figure out what to get him.”
Now she could see the gears grinding and screaming in Miguel’s head as he pieced this information together. She knew he had it when a gleam flashed in his eyes. “Him? Have I met this friend?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. Probably not,” she lied with a shrug. Miguel had met her after class for lunch about a month ago and had caught Julia waiting with Daniel in their little corner of campus. She had said quick goodbyes to him and ran to her brother before he could have a chance to do anything stupid and brotherly to embarrass her in front of him. After assuring Miguel that he was just a friend, which was true, he dropped it. Not that he would be able to find anything to hate about Daniel, but if Julia were to write a dictionary, his picture would be included with the entry for ‘overprotective brother’. She hated to get him involved now, but she was at her wits end and he was the only person she could trust.
“And you need a special gift for this special friend…boy? Boy friend? Do I need to give him a little talk?”
“No! I mean yes. I mean I need a gift, not a talk.”
“Do you need love advice, too?” He waggled his eyebrows.
“No!”
Miguel wasn’t listening anymore. “My baby sister, all grown up and about to snag a guy….that I’ll have to approve, of course. We’ll find the right gift. If you listen to me, you might be having a wedding by Easter.”
“Wedding?!” Julia sputtered. She just wanted a kiss! And maybe to touch his abs…
Ignoring her still, Miguel rubbed a knuckle through the sparse beginnings of a two day beard on his chin. “What does he like?”
“I-I don’t know. Guy stuff. What do guys like?”
“You’re not going to get him what ‘guys like’ for Christmas, not if I can help it,” he said with a wild gleam in his eyes.
Julia flushed at this. She’d had to endure the ‘this is a condom, I don’t want nephews and nieces till you’re married’ talk when she was sixteen, and she didn’t want a rendition of it again right now. “He likes football, but he’s not as crazy as your friends. And I remember he was freezing this winter, but his mama sent him a hat and scarf, so I don’t want to get him the same thing.” She didn’t want to give Daniel another reason to tell her how much she reminded him of his mother, although her knitting skills were pretty amazing. But that’s about where her talents ended, unless she wanted to wow him with her mineral identification prowess.
“Is he from here? When do you have to give him this present?”
Julia’s face burned now. “No, he’s going home the day after tomorrow.”
“So is Javi!” Miguel exclaimed. “Damn it, I have to get her a gift by tomorrow.”
“Yes, I heard.” Julia remembered him talking about her the first month she began working in his department, first about the hot new co-worker, and then soon after about the new co-worker with a stick up her ass. That first month of second-hand accounts had led to Julia’s intense, totally rational hatred of this woman she had never met. “Anyway, a gift for my friend…”
“What’s his favorite food? Do you know it?”
Julia thought back to the time she had quietly set her tray down at the table in the University cafeteria where Daniel and his friends were sitting as Daniel pushed the slop around his plate and told them about the meals and snacks he missed from his home. “He likes chipa,” she said, trying to pronounce it like he had that day, “but I’m not going to make him that when he’s going home to his mama’s cooking!” This was not even addressing the fact that her greatest cooking attempts involved reheating her brother’s leftovers on the stove.
“Of course you’re not going to make that. You’re going to make something similar.” He took one last look at the papers before pushing them all to one side of the table, an attempt at organization. “Trust me, the way to his heart is through his stomach. Well, also through his-” He snapped his mouth shut and leaned over the table to pat her head. “Yes, the stomach’s the way to go. Let me get my wallet and we’ll grab some stuff from the store.”
They made pukacapas, enough for Daniel, their own household, and even Javiera. Well, Miguel made them while Julia made a mess all over the counter, but those were just details. And besides, she returned the favor by helping him put his paperwork in order as they both drooled over the scent of warm, spiced cheese wafting from the oven. She even refrained from spitting in Javi’s batch, which took a lot of will power. Let no one say she lacked Christmas spirit.
December 21st
It took two hours of calls to friends of friends of friends until she had the address of Daniel’s apartment. Then it took an hour and a half to find the perfect outfit that didn’t make her look like she had just rolled out of bed, and forty five minutes to actually make her way across town to his compound. By the time she stood in front of his door, waiting for him to come out, she felt like she might collapse with anxiety. The box in her hands was crumpled where she gripped it, but it was too late to fix it now. It was also too late to dive for the nearest hiding place because here was Daniel opening the door with a look of happy surprise as he ushered her inside.
His apartment looked like a two year old had had a full blown tantrum in it. There were dirty clothes and books from their recent exam everywhere, and two empty suitcases sat open in the middle of the room. Daniel pushed some T-shirts off the couch and invited her to sit down before going to the kitchen to pour some drinks. By the time he came back, Julia was trying hard not to hyperventilate. She thrust the box in his face. “It’s a stupid gift and my brother made it, but maybe you’ll like it,” she said.
Daniel sat beside her close enough that she could get a good whiff of how fantastic his deodorant smelled. Before he opened the box, he gave her a mournful look that absolved all his shortcomings in her mind as he apologized for not having a present for her.
“Don’t worry about it,” she mumbled.
“No, really, I’ll bring you back something from home. Or I’ll take you out for a drink or a nice dinner. Or both.”
Julia forced herself not to fantasize about these promises and focused on watching him open the present. She felt like she was going to be sick until she saw the toothy grin spread across his face as he pulled out one of the empanadas.
“Thanks!” he said, and then he took a bite, paused, and pulled a slip of paper out of his mouth. All the blood drained from Julia’s face. She lunged for it.
Daniel’s stupid, sexy arms were too long. It was too easy for him to keep it out of her reach, open it above his head, and read aloud, “Touch him and die?”
“That was supposed to be for my brother’s co-worker,” she sobbed.
“A Christmas threat?” he asked with a grin.
“Not a threat,” she corrected. “A warning.” She sighed heavily and rose. “I’ll go now. Merry Christmas.”
Daniel laughed as he grabbed her elbow in an electric touch. “Wait, no. Don’t worry about it! At least stay and finish your drink…unless you have somewhere else you have to be right now?”
She forced herself to sit down again, take deep, slow breaths, and say, “I guess I could stay for a few more minutes.”
“You guess you could.” He laughed again. “Man, I’m going to miss you this summer. You’re still going to be in swim class next year, right?” She nodded in confirmation, and he said, “Good. It wouldn’t be the same without you.”
“W-wouldn’t be the same without you, either,” she stuttered back stupidly, and then she couldn’t help return his infectious smile. It was the best Christmas gift she had ever received.