Ugly Sweater

Rong Hua is always surprised by what his littermates offer him at this time of year, except it’s almost always Lucy’s idea. They always have something up their sleeve and from the looks of it, Lucius has given up on trying to stop them from handing Rong Hua progressively more ridiculous gifts. Rather, it makes him wonder how many strange gifts Lucius has buried in his room at the Church of Sulfur. 

Regardless, this year’s gift is one that makes him befuddled at best and confused at worst. He’ll never wear this piece of clothing and yet Lucy is seemingly expecting him to wear it to their upcoming concert even though he never bought tickets. 

“I like my current clothing though,” is the first thing that comes out of his mouth. Lucy simply looks unimpressed at his statement, then again, they’re probably expecting him to put it on first. Lucius shrugs when he looks over in hopes of getting out of this. 

“Look, they got the three of us a matching set,” the priest explains. “And I obviously can’t wear mine inside the church given the dress code.”

“It says Honk on it! I’m not a literal goose, Lucy,” Rong Hua whines. It’s times like this that he wants to play up that annoying little brother persona towards his littermates but Lucy’s had to deal with him for years that it does nothing. “What does that even mean?” 

Lucy sighs. “Why don’t you try to see if it fits or not– And you sure do act like one with how you pick fights over some really small things.” 

“Most importantly is the fact that you got us both sweaters but not yourself?” Rong Hua manages to cut in. “Does the agency really not allow you idols to have some fun?” 

They simply look like they’ve had this conversation countless times. “The only place I could post it would be on a private account and someone would find that eventually so the only place where I can have some fun is like this. Now put it on.” 

Rong Hua looks at the sweater, back at his two littermates and decides that he’ll do this just for them. And if every other piece of clothing of his is in the wash then he’ll also put this on if that ever happens. He can’t see it happening though which is oddly assuring. Still, he takes the sweater back from Lucy and turns around to put it on. 

He realizes one thing very quickly though: it’s too big for him. It’s so long that he’s almost drowning in the sweater itself with the long sleeves trailing down his shoulders. Rong Hua turns around to look at his two littermates with the most unimpressed look on his face that he can muster. It's incredibly fake as he tries to look serious - something that he's never good at. 

Instead, Lucy smiles as if he’s just walked into a joke that they planned for too long. The two of them really are cut from the same cloth and Rong Hua can’t even find it in him to be angry about this. It’s something he wants to pull off again in the future. Really, this really feels planned just because Lucy felt like they could do this. 

“How long did it take you to think this up?” he prompts as the sweater hangs off of his frame. Damn, and here Rong Hua thought that he wasn’t this short even if Lucius practically towers over him. “Really funny.” 

“Technically I saw it when shopping and thought you’d like it as a gift you can give to someone else later in the future. I just wanted to see how much larger it was,” Lucy admits with mirth in their eyes. “Do you remember when you used to be the tallest out of the three of us?” 

Lucius sure does with that look in his gold eyes. And to think the priest was also the same one who would shake in his shoes whenever he had to talk to someone, nowadays Rong Hua thinks he could bullshit any presentation or even a sermon without any practice at all. They’ve all come so far even if Rong Hua’s old habits die particularly hard. 

“I do have someone in mind,” he admits even though he’s sure that his giftee is going to find it much less funny than he does. It may not fit him but the bun that he has in mind would probably die internally when they see it. Or maybe he should offer it to Primrose even if it’s just to see the Cherubun’s expression, or he can learn how to knit to make one that’s so cheesy– 

“Oh you’re planning something again,” Lucius muses. “Don’t get me involved, thank you. I love you but not enough to get into the same shit that you find yourself in.” 

“To be fair, this started as Lucy’s idea to literally give me a sweater that is a sign to cause even more problems.” 

Lucy only grins, truly the angel that they are. Rong Hua decides that he quite likes his littermate actually.