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"You know you dont have to worry that much, right?"
Lorenzo's voice startled Francesco, who was too consumed in finding something to wear to christmas dinner.
"Easy for you to say, they're your family." Francesco said as he frustratedly smashed a drawer close and threw a burgundy button up to the floor. He slid the dark green sweater he had on over his head, sitting on the bed with his arms crossed over his bare chest.
"Come on, 'Cesco, you could go like that and you'd still turn heads." Lorenzo's grinning form as he leaned against the doorway made Francesco blush slightly, before he snapped out of it and sighed.
"You don't get it, Lorenzo," He began as he dropped himself flat on the bed. "I want them to like me. It's been so long since I've had a... you know, a proper christmas."
A family, It didn't matter if the words got stuck on Francesco's throat, Lorenzo knew. Which coaxed him to sit down on the bed, looking down at his boyfriend.
"They all like you, you know that already."
"Giuliano hates me."
"Well, that's one out of a crowd of five... pretty good statistics, right?"
Even against his wishes, Lorenzo's words coaxed a genuine chuckle out of Francesco, making him get up and smile widely at him. That was all Lorenzo needed, it didn't matter if he didn't voice it, for a smile coming from Francesco's lips is more precious to him than some words.
"And for the record," Lorenzo spoke up, making Francesco turn around and stop tyding up the mess he had made looking for an outfit. "you look great in that red flannel."
For once in his life, Francesco shut up about it being burgundy.
∞∞∞
Florence's streets aren't t as busy as other christmases, or at least that's what Lorenzo says. Francesco retorts it might've to do with the time, seeing as they are already running late and most people arrived to their destinies around an hour ago.
But anyway, what would Francesco know? His last christmas wasn't that bad, he'd invited his best friend, Novella, to his apartment. It wasn't like she didn't have any other friends or family, but they were all in Venice. But the one before that was spent entirely alone, Jacopo had already died and Guglielmo couldn't convince his back then bitter ass for the life of him to spend christmas with him and the Medici. He knew his brother wouldn't let him spend it alone, so he lied and said he had some friends to spend it with and Guglielmo reluctantly gave in.
The one before that had been as most christmases had been in his life, or at least the ones he remembers. He, his brother, and his uncle. As drepessing as it could get. The only highlight of the night was sneaking out to see fireworks with Guglielmo.
"Alright, anything else you want to fuss over before we go in?" Lorenzo's voice shook him out of his thoughts, making him realize they had already parked and were outside of the Medici's house.
"I think I'm fine." Francesco muttered, lacking the sarcasm he'd intended to put on his tone. "Make sure you take the presents out of the back." He then said as he slammed the door shut, and looked up to meet Lorenzo's puzzled face over the car roof.
"What...? I thought you were going to grab the gifts when we left."
Francesco's face dropped, genuinely frowning before it turned into a half-glare half-scowl at Lorenzo's "Kidding! " that was followed by a grin and a held up hand holding bags full of presents.
Francesco rolled his eyes, though a fond look appeared on his face when he turned around and he and Lorenzo walked up to the front foor. Lorenzo confidently rang the doorbell as Francesco fixed his collar, he was sweating. Twelve degrees celcius is way too hot.
"Ah, we were waiting for you two, stuck in traffic?"
Lucrezia Tornabuoni was always the same, warm and inviting while still holding that respectable aura to herself. She was a true mother, much like her friend Nicolosa had been before she passed way too young.
She finished kissing her sons cheek and turned. "Francesco, it's a pleasure to have you spending christmas here" Francesco was about to... he didn't know what he was about to do. Any sort of greeting, but it certainly got caught short by Lucrezia's unexpected hug. Sure, she knew him. She had known him as a shy yet happy child, and then as a hurt one. Only to see him become the worst from afar, and then greet him back with open arms when he'd made amends and started dating her son.
"Pleasure is mine... Thank you for inviting me." Francesco muttered with a smile as he and Lorenzo stepped in.
"You two look great, red suits you." Lucrezia added as he looked betwen the two, her gaze falling on Francesco once again. He'd worn black most of his life, from his parents's funeral to Jacopo's, but truly he'd always taken a liking to colors like red and green.
"And your hair's getting longer, it's on purpose? I'm not up with trends right now..." He could hear Lucrezia keep talking to Lorenzo, but all he could focus on was the chatter becoming louder as they strode through the foyer and then into the dining room.
When they stepped in, Guglielmo turned to greet them. "Brother!" He grinned and stood up, meeting Francesco half-way as the latter approached him and hugged him. "So glad you could join us." The former added before his girlfriend stood up and mimicked his gesture.
"Giuliano." Francesco adressed with a tight smile, not looking to ruin his own night with petty feuds.
Apparently, the youngest Medici did not share his sentiment.
"Long time no see, Pazzi." Giuliano said as he straightened himself in his chair. "Nice shirt, you look like an ornament-"
"Giuliano." Lucrezia warned, making Giuliano mutter an apology and roll his eyes. Everytime Francesco came to the Medici house, Giuliano was always unarguably be the most difficult one. Even in middle school, they'd hated each other. Now, the term wasn't hate... they just found fun in provoking each other. Or at least, that's how Francesco saw it.
"It's alright." Francesco said, before muttering so that only Giuliano sitting across him could hear him. "Next thing you say I'll stab you with a fork."
This time, All Giuliano did was laugh. And to his dismay and surprise, Francesco found himself heartily laughing too.
∞∞∞
Soon enough, Lucrezia began bringing the food. Of course, not without instructing Francesco to stay put and not help, even if he insisted. They all sat on the table, Lucrezia across Lorenzo, Lorenzo next to Francesco, Guglielmo at the latter's other side, Bianca in front of him, and Giuliano between Lucrezia and Bianca
"Let us all say grace, for the food that we're about to eat." Lucrezia began as they all held hands, before they all muttered "Amen" and began to eat. They all came to a comfortable silence asides from a few small conversations or small coments on Lucrezia's great cooking abilities. Francesco remained quiet for the most part, but he had to admit this wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be. It was certainly better than all of his previous christmases since he started living with his uncle.
"There's red velvet after this, right?" Giuliano broke the silence a few minutes in, shooting a look at Lucrezia.
"Of course!" She replied fondly. "The Medici have had red velvet as the star of Christmas desserts for years." She replied in general, but mostly to Francesco who nodded.
"Speaking of traditions, I'm curious to know, do the Pazzi have any?" Lucrezia then added, looking between Guglielmo and Franceso expectantly.
"Um..." Francesco, hummed as he tried to remember, looking over to Guiglielmo for aid. He barely remembered things of his days spending holidays with his parents, and he truly dind't want to say how Christmases were with Jacopo.
"Well, most years we'd get on the roof to watch the fireworks with our parents." Francesco froze up at the mention of their parents, yes, he remembered quite well sneaking out of Jacopo's house to the roof to watch the fireworks but... he never knew where that tradition came from. Or at least, he didn't remember. Like he didn't most things related to his parents.
"The roof...? Isn't that like, you know... a hazard?" Bianca said as he puzzedly looked over to her boyfriend. He merely shrugged.
"It sounds fun for a change." Lorenzo said with a smile, glancing at Guglielmo and then at Francesco next to him. The latter smiled, feeling slightly flustered as everybody nodded along to Lorenzo's words, even Giuliano.
∞∞∞
Francesco sat on the couch of the living room, having eaten more than usual and already feeling tired from so much socializing. He was supposedly talking about winter vacation plans with Lorenzo and Bianca, but currently he was tuning them out and texting Novella, all he could hear was Bianca say they should do a double-date trip from the arm chair opposite of them and Lorenzo agree as he leaned against his shoulder.
hows everything going? do you need a rescue from giuliano de medici? Novella asked, making Francesco smile.
Surprisingly, no. He's being strangely amicable. He replied
omg seriously? no insults?
He did say I look like a christmas ornament.
What are you wearing?
Burgundy flannel.
Then you probably do look like an ornament
Francesco's intent to browse for the middle finger emoji was cut short by Lucrezia tapping a tea spoon against a champagne glass.
"Alright, I think it's time for presents!" She said with a fond smile. "We can eat the red velvet cake and the rest of desserts after." She added as she turned to Giuliano and shot him a glare, making him groan.
They all walked towards the tree, where all the gifts were already placed. Francesco wasn't expecting many gifts when they were handed to him, of course one from Lorenzo and one from Guglielmo, but not five, even if he had bought everyone at least something small.
"Open mine first." Giuliano said as he crossed his arms over his chest and Francesco obliged with a skeptical look.
"A... hangman?" Francesco tilted his head as he took the game out of the gift wrapping.
"You need to be fun." Giuliano shrugged, but Guglielmo smiled from behind him and nudged him. How did Giuliano know that he loved playing hangman as a child? That he and his mother would secretly look up overly long and complicated words to inconvinience his father and brother. It was one of the only things he recalled from his childhood. He glanced to Guglielmo for an answer, and he just smiled.
Next, he opened Bianca's, and it was a scarf. He always the knew the girl had a good sense of fashion, but he genuinely grinned when he saw it was based on his style. Then, he picked up Lucrezia's, an expensive perfume.
Feeling pleased so far, he took Lorenzo's and placed the small square box on his lap as he leaned against the couch. When he lifted the lid, his eyes shined. There was a carefully placed ring.
"My god, Lorenzo. It must've cost a fortune..." He said softly under his breath, inspecting it. It was just right, up to the last detail. He loved it, and he wanted to say he did, but his throat was closing up from so much emotion, so he hugged Lorenzo to try and convey his thoughts. He wasn't a fan of pda, everybody knew that, so at the rareness of the prescious moment everybody echoed an "awww."
"It fits me like a glove," Francesco observed as he slid the ring on his right ring finger before turning to Lorenzo. "How'd you do it?"
"Well..." Lorenzo began. "You know that one ring you always say fits you perfectly?"
"The one I lost like a month ago and literally cried over?"
Lorenzo nodded as the rest of the family laughed. "Yeah, I slid it off your finger one night so I could get it measured and make this one the exact same size."
Normally, Francesco would've scowled. But he smiled fondly, rolling his eyes and asking Lorenzo for his ring back when they got home.
"Alright, well, if you're done already." Guglielmo said as he stepped up to Francesco and handed him his gift. It was directly wrapped instead of in a box, so Francesco could guess it was some sort of book.
He, as gently as he could, ripped the wrapping paper and took the gift in. It was a scrapbook. But not any scrapbook...
"I found it while deep cleaning a while ago... and I even added some new ones. It's yours, you can put happy memories like we did before."
It didn't matter what Guglielmo said, because Francesco was tuning him out. In his ears rang words from years ago
"We should make a family scrapbook, my friend Lorenzo says his family has one!" He'd said one night as a small child, and they'd kept it for years. As he flipped through the pages, he saw dozens of pictures of himself as a child, with his parents and with his brother. On birthdays, vacations, holidays, etc. On happy days.
In the last page there was a selfie taken by a thirteen-year-old Guglielmo. In the background, there was Francesco sitting betwee his parents, all three of them paying attention to the fireworks above them. It had been the last christmas before his parents had passed away.
"Is he crying?" Giuliano questioned, before yelling "Ow! " as Bianca smacked him in the arm. "Hey! It was out of concern!"
"N-no... it's just..." Francesco began as he glanced at Giuliano and then at Guglielmo. He couldn't deny the familiar stinging in his eyes. "I barely remembered this shit... even less assumed you still had it." He said soflty, smiling fondly as he saw the next pages. He and Guglielmo had continued it for one or two years after their parents passed, just the two of them and cutting Jacopo's face out of pictures with scissors, but after that it just fell forgotten.
They hugged and everybody echoed "awww! " once again, making Francesco let out a watery laugh.
They finished exchanging gifts, laughing as a family would. Because they were. And Francesco was part of it.
As they all walked to the dessert table, Lucrezia rushed to the middle of it. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, a family picture first!"
Giuliano groaned while muttering something about his red velvet before Lucrezia tugged on his arm for him to enter the picture. She set her phone on a tripod and set a ten second timer as she stepped back and extended her arms for everyone. Before Francesco could even think of doing such thing as stepping out, Bianca tugged him in closer between her and Lorenzo and just in time, the picture snapped. Everybody looked at each other with love.
Except Giuliano, he was eyeing the red velvet.
"Hey, Lucrezia." Francesco said once everybody was already taking their seats at the table and Lucrezia was inspecting the picture in her phone. "Would you mind... printing that?" He said softly, gesturing at the phone. All it took was one glance at the table for him to smile and say his next words.
"It's going on the scrapbook."