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You swear up and down that the hoodie that you wear everyday is cool.
It's not particularly cool, it's just a red sweatshirt that's a bit too big for you, that you wear every single day. Like, you wash it and stuff, every single Saturday morning, but then as soon as it's out of the drier, it's back on your body.
Because it's cool.
It has nothing to do with the fact that just wearing tshirts is almost torturous to you. It's okay every once in a while, but most of the time? God, it's bullshit. The touches are too light on your skin and it's just wrong wrong wrong wrong. It's also not because when you wear it, it's a lot easier to hide your stimming. Hand flapping? Nope, that's just you readjusting your sleeves. When you run your fingers under the hem line because you like the texture, no one ever notices.
So you wear a hoodie.
Bro doesn't say anything about it, but you can tell that he wants to. He probably figures it's just another 'quirk' you have because of the autism, and, well. He's not wrong. But he doesn't really get the logistics of it. You don't mind the looks though, he doesn't try and tell you to stop wearing it, so you're good.
No one at school says anything to you about it either, you think you probably scare them a little. After all, you're like a foot and a half taller than most of them and you have permission to wear your shades no matter where you are (because light sensitivity is no one's friend).
So you're good. You wear your hoodies and no one says anything and everyone's happy.
-
It's Christmas and you're talking to your friends on the computer. You haven't seen Bro all morning, which normally isn't anything unusual, but it is Christmas. He usually goes all out with some ironically traditional Christmas complete with preposterous sweaters, but you haven't seen him.
You would maybe be concerned, but you're talking to your friends, you can be concerned later. John is talking about how his dad has christmas cookies practically coming out of his asshole he's making so many, Rose is complaining about the fucking horse her mother bought her for Christmas, and Jade is talking about her dog taking her to space or some shit, you don't know if that's like, a simile or whatever, you just tell her that you think that's fan-fucking-tastic because what else do you say to that?
But you're in the middle of typing a sentence when you finally hear Bro yell, "Alright Li'l man, get your ass down here we got presents to open! We're doing it man!" A flare of irritation and distress bursts in your chest because he's interrupting you and ... but you rock in your seat a little and wait for yourself to calm down before you sign off and head downstairs.
"What took you so long to start Bro?" you ask as you plod down the final steps, "You usually wake me up at four in the morning."
"I decided to mix things up a little." he says simply, shrugging off your question easily while he adjusts the smuppet perched at the top of the outrageously large christmas tree. You opt not to question him further and you take up your usual residence on the couch, curling your legs up inside of your sweatshirt.
Bro notices this and smirks, and then drags an actual sack out from behind the tree and starts dolling out boxes. You're never really sure where he gets so many gifts for himself. You usually give him one or two, but you have no idea where he gets the other boxes. You're pretty sure he buys them for himself. You're not really sure what to think about that.
"Alright, you're going first this year." Bro says, pushing the sizable pile of boxes in your direction. It's a lot bigger than it was last year, and your eyes narrow a little, knowing him, you wouldn't be surprised if half of them were filled with those fucking puppets.
You grab the top one and open it hesitantly, ignoring the weird little wiggling that Bro is doing as he watches you, and you pull out a hoodie.
It's the same color red as the one you're wearing, and the only real difference between them is the spikes that go down the back, it takes you a minute to connect that it's supposed to be like a dinosaur. He grins at you, but doesn't say anything.
It turns out that literally every single box from your brother has a different hoodie in it. Different colors, different patterns, different designs, but they're all the same size.
"Did I get the weight right?" Bro asks finally.
"You seriously got me all of these?" you ask, you're barely holding back a grin, you'll have to try them on to actually make sure, but they all feel amazing.
"Yeah man, you can't go around wearing the same thing every day, it starts to get repetitive and Strider's don't do boring. You like 'em?"
"They're great, Bro." you manage, "thanks".
You spend the rest of christmas partially buried under an enormous pile of sweatshirts and thinking that it's quite possible that you have the best brother ever.