It was 8 pm, right after dinner...

LXXVIII

The bubble tea he got at the end was indeed very tempting, but he quickly remembered Dr. Han's words of no caffeine and no changing his diets before New Year, so he handed it back to Eddy to enjoy in his stead. They tried the potty piano for good measure to show the world it was actually legit and Brett told the camera a bit about how he had been without going into details though. After Eddy wished everyone a merry Christmas and the camera got turned off, Brett turned to Eddy and just shook his head.

"You're crazy!", he stated.
"I know! Pretty awesome, right?", Eddy grinned, "Who sucks at surprises now? I bet you had no idea!"
"I did not see that one coming, that's for sure", Brett admitted. "Thank you, Eddy. For reals! All this...", he gestured at the many gifts, "It's awesome! It's a bit dumb too, and pretty funny. But it's great! Thanks so much!"
Eddy gazed at him and there was so much warmth in his soft eyes, it took all Brett had to not pull him into his arms.
"No worries, mate. I'm glad you like it!"
"When did you even..."
"I ordered most of it online. Except for the bubble tea", Eddy explained and took a long sip.
"Which I cannot drink", Brett clarified.
"I wanted to give myself a little something too", Eddy pouted, causing Brett to slap his shoulders with a smirk dancing around his lips, while at the same time, there were alarm bells ringing in all sorts of pitches in Brett's brain, reminding Brett he didn't have a Christmas gift for Eddy yet.
"You deserve it! Thanks again", he said and made a mental note to himself to acquire a present as soon as possible.

Brett thought, that would have been it. How could it not, with five or six hilariously wrapped up items? So, after he put most of the things into his bedroom, he went on to practice the violin in the studio, concentrating on getting clean tenths and the insane runs in Paganiniana as smooth as possible. Brett quickly lost himself in his practice session, quite content with how his fingers worked even after an almost sacrilegiously long break.

Eddy came in at some point and fiddled with the camera, but Brett was too focused to notice anything, until the other stepped to him, his phone in hand and chanting: "Bonus present! Bonus gift!"
Brett lowered his violin a bit. "What is this?"
Eddy held his phone in front of Brett for him to see the still picture of what seemed to be a video of a bunch of guys wearing blue, probably traditional skirts. He pressed play and the guys started dancing around and chanting something in a foreign language.

Then, they sat down.
Revealing a small board with Brett's name on it.

Brett's eyes widened. What?

One of the guys started to spell out the writing while the others repeated after him. First, Brett thought, his name had been photoshopped into a generic film or something, until they also spelled out his name.

How was that even possible?

Eddy was having the time of his life next to Brett, while Brett was wondering if he'd lived his life with a magician next to him without ever getting a whiff of it.

"Go practice, Brett!", it rang out of the speakers.
"Go practice, Brett!"
He had to ask. "Is that legit?"
"Yeah", Eddy just shrugged.
"Go practice Brett!"
"Nooo", Brett covered his mouth in disbelief and delight. That shit was beyond awesome! And to top everything, the guys danced to Tschaik's third movement at the end of the clip, waving the "Go practice Brett"-board around like some trophy.
"Bro, they tell you to practice, man", Eddy chuckled.
"Duude, that is the funniest thing I've seen!", Brett exclaimed and Eddy laughed.
"Is that legit?"
"Yeah!"
"I was trying to wrap my head around it."
"It's from Fiverr."
"Ohhh." That, of course, explained a lot.
"Go practice Breett!", Eddy mimicked.
Brett laughed, gave a little sample of what he'd been playing for the last thirty minutes and they bid their goodbyes to the camera.

"Duuude!!!", Brett laughed again.
"Hahahaha", Eddy doubled over and leaned on the wall behind him.
"How did you even... Where do you get these ideas from?"
"Well... You've been sleeping a lot recently", Eddy explained, "so I had a lot of time to think. And I really wanted to do something special for Christmas this year. For you, being so brave."
"Eddy...", Brett sighed, "if there's someone who's brave, it's you! And how do you expect me to ever top that?" Every gift idea Brett would ever have would probably just suck and pale in comparison.
"I don't want you to top anything", Eddy smiled, "Just receive and enjoy, okay? I'm sorry you're getting all your gifts earlier, but if we want to post the video on Christmas, it kind of had to be done today."

Brett looked at his best friend fondly. The best of best friends, really. He put down his violin, made his way over to Eddy and enveloped him in a tight hug, finally giving in to the urge from earlier. There were no cameras, so he was allowed.
"Thank you", Brett mumbled into Eddy's shirt.
Eddy hugged him back.
"You're very welcome."

And then, on a whim, Brett tiptoed and placed a chaste peck on Eddy's cheek. Eddy's eyes got big and round, as Brett stepped back.
"Just receive and enjoy!", Brett winked, sauntered out of the room, leaving behind a stunned Eddy.

How satisfying to know, that he was able to throw Eddy off with a small, innocent kiss on the side of his face.