Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of this work of fiction, and no profit, monetary or otherwise, is being made through the writing of this.
A/N: This was written for who requested Shawn/Gus and cotton candy. Merry after, after, after, Christmas. Cotton candy bingo square – won't fall in love…oops in love (perhaps loosely interpreted). Characters might be OOC, but I'm working with the premise that Gus and Shawn have secretly liked each other for years, and cotton candy is the catalyst which ends up bringing them together.
It was a few days after Christmas, and they were just now exchanging presents. Shawn had given Gus a box of chocolates, of which he had already eaten a third. It was typical of Shawn, who claimed that he'd only eaten those pieces of chocolate which he knew that Gus wouldn't like. Gus didn't tell Shawn that he liked the hazelnut buttons that the psychic detective had eaten. Something that Shawn really should have known by virtue of their friendship alone.
He was nervous about giving Shawn what he'd gotten for him. Gus had debated between this, and another gift that he knew his best friend would love. As a matter-of-fact, he had actually gotten Shawn both presents, not because he was afraid Shawn wouldn't like either of them, but because he was eager to see how his friend would respond to both of them.
"Where's my prezzie?" Shawn asked. He opened and closed his fingers, rather like a little kid would do, and bounced on the balls of his feet.
Gus shook his head at his grown friend's enthusiasm, but he handed the carefully wrapped present to Shawn, and bit his bottom lip as he watched Shawn inspect the present. Shawn 'listened' to the outside of the package, wriggled his fingers over it, sniffed it, frowned, and then patted it before finally opening it.
Gus held his breath, but couldn't contain the broad smile which graced his face when Shawn's jaw dropped, and he turned to Gus with a look of utter awe. Shawn blinked his eyes and looked from Gus to the gift he'd just finished tearing the wrapping paper off of. Shawn clutched the box to his chest and hugged it.
"Didn't see that one coming, did you?" Gus asked, feeling proud of himself for finally giving his friend a gift he hadn't 'predicted' getting.
Shawn shook his head. His eyes were wide and shining with wonder.
Gus' heart swelled with something that he couldn't put a name to when Shawn gently dropped his present onto his desk and embraced him in a bear hug. He lifted Gus off of his feet and twirled him around the office. When Shawn finally let go of him, depositing him in the middle of the floor, Gus swayed on his feet.
"Thank you, oh, thank you, thank you, thank you," Shawn said, and then he grabbed Gus' face and kissed him on either cheek, leaving the pharmaceutical salesman dizzy and slightly breathless.
Gus blinked at Shawn when the man, his best friend since he was a little boy barely out of diapers, continued to hold him. This close, Gus could see green and gold flecks in his friend's hazel eyes. He also found it rather difficult to think straight and breathing was something he was starting to believe to be downright impossible.
"Uh, is it getting hot in here?" Gus asked, inching away from his friend's face.
He looked at the wall where the thermostat showed that it was sixty-eight degrees. Not exactly what anyone would deem to be hot.
Shawn swallowed, and Gus watched the man's throat undulate – his Adam's apple bobbing in an almost tantalizing fashion. Shawn blinked slowly and then shook himself, as though trying to wake himself from a dream. He licked his lips, and Gus caught himself staring at his best friend's mouth, noticing how full his lips were, and how they glistened in the bit of sunlight that crept in through the still closed blinds of their office.
Gus' heart skipped a beat, and black dots danced in front of his vision, obscuring his view of Shawn. This close, he could smell Shawn's cologne, and a faint trace of pineapple. It was dizzying.
Shawn's hands were warm on his face. The fake psychic's body was pressed flush against his in an impromptu embrace of gratitude. It was impossible for Gus to tell where he began and where Shawn ended.
Shawn's hands cupped the back of his neck, and they stared into each other's eyes, mouths slowly moving closer until their lips were only millimeter's apart and Gus could feel Shawn's breath ghosting over his lips. Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion, and yet it was all happening much too quickly. Shawn's fingers kneaded the back of Gus' neck as he closed the imperceptible gap between them and mashed their lips together.
Gus gasped in surprise, and Shawn wasted no time in pushing his tongue into Gus' mouth, taking advantage as he was wont to do. Gus was past caring though, because, now that they were kissing, he couldn't think of a better way for them to celebrate their day after the day after Christmas festivities as Shawn had taken to calling their unique Christmas celebration. It's something that they've both been celebrating for at least two decades now.
And, yeah, they were both accomplished kissers at this stage, having practiced with each other when they were much, much younger, and wanted to know how to kiss before they actually attempted to kiss for real. There was none of that awkward teeth clacking against teeth and nose smashing, that they had to contend with in their pre-teens when they were practicing on each other so they could impress girls.
No. It was comfortable, and more importantly, it felt right when one of Shawn's hand snuck down to Gus' ass and squeezed, eliciting a pleasured moan from him. Gus' hands were content to rest on either side of Shawn's hips, and pull the man closer to him as they continued to kiss.
It was a lazy, unhurried kiss that felt like it had started on a Sunday and could very well end on a Monday. It made him feel light-headed, and, when they parted to draw in much needed oxygen, Gus found himself leaning heavily against Shawn and gazing into his best friend's eyes, which looked a little glazed, the pupils blown wide with lust.
"Merry after, after Christmas," Shawn said thickly.
"Ditto," Gus said, once he could find his voice.
He was grateful that the door to their office was locked, because it wouldn't be good for business if a client walked in on the two of them wrapped up in each other as they were – Shawn's hands on his ass, his on Shawn's hips, lips barely parted.
"So, I take it you like your present?" Gus asked, uncertain as to what exactly had triggered such a reaction from Shawn.
Shawn nodded. He was grinning like a loon, and his gaze shifted to look at the box which sat on his desk.
"When we're done kissing," Shawn said, a childlike glee in his voice, "how about if we make some cotton candy?"
Gus laughed. "Sounds like a plan."
He imagined what it would be like to kiss Shawn after he'd imbibed on cotton candy – if the sugary taste would usurp that of pineapple and cocoa puffs that Gus had tasted when they'd kissed, or if it would merely merge with the flavors, creating some new flavor craze that Gus would forever long for. Shawn licked Gus' bottom lip, and then nipped at it before turning once more toward the cotton candy maker that Gus had given him for Christmas.
A low whine – not at all unlike what Gus imagined Shawn's other Christmas present, the one he'd yet to give him because it was at the elder Spencer's home, waiting for Shawn – escaped Shawn's lips. Gus chuckled and shook his head.
"How about if we make some cotton candy first, and then kiss?" he asked.
Shawn nodded eagerly and then gave Gus a wet, smacking kiss on the lips before disentangling himself and rushing to open the box. Five rounds of cotton candy making, eating and kissing later and Gus was quite happily spent, lying on their office couch with Shawn sprawled out on top of him, patting the little cotton candy bump in his belly.
"It's a boy!" Shawn exclaimed. "You knocked me up. Gus, you're going to be a daddy!" Shawn craned his neck to look at his friend.
Gus snorted and shook his head. "You've had too much cotton candy, my friend. I think it's time to cut you off."
Shawn pouted and reached a hand out toward the machine which sat on the floor.
"Besides, if we don't get moving soon, your dad will probably have given away the other present I got you for Christmas."
Shawn moved so quickly that it made Gus dizzy just watching. The man accidentally elbowed him in the gut, eliciting an, "Oomph," from Gus as the air was knocked out of him.
"Another prezzie, for me?" Shawn asked.
"Yes, for you, Shawn," Gus said, shaking his head and rolling his eyes.
Shawn pouted and fluttered his eyelashes. He trailed a finger down the front of Gus' shirt, tugging at every other button as he went.
"Tell me?'
"No," Gus said, laughing. "This one you've got to see with your own eyes."
Gus spied a handkerchief on Shawn's desk, and though there was a part of him that wondered what Shawn was doing with a handkerchief, he didn't question the other man. Instead, he grabbed the handkerchief and covered Shawn's eyes with it, admonishing him not to peek as he drove them to the Spencer home.
Gus had to slap Shawn's hands away several times to keep him from messing with the makeshift blindfold. By the time they reached Henry's, Shawn was almost bursting at the seams with excitement, and Gus mused that the sugar from all of the cotton candy he'd consumed wasn't helping matters.
Gus helped Shawn out of the car and into the house, sitting him down on the couch. Throughout it all, Henry remained silent, and Gus wondered if the elder Spencer was okay with the present that he'd gotten for Shawn.
"Now? Can I look now?" Shawn asked for the hundredth time, and Gus sighed.
"Not yet, just wait right here, okay? And don't peek!" Gus called back over his shoulder.
Henry watched Gus gather Shawn's second surprise with an unreadable look, and Gus' heart fluttered a little with a touch of anxiety. But, just as Gus placed the present at Shawn's feet, Henry smiled and nodded, mouthing, 'He's going to love it,' and then the older man disappeared into the kitchen.
Unless Gus' nose was mistaken, and it rarely was, Henry was preparing his famous chocolate pancakes with coconut and banana that they always ate on the day after, the day after Christmas. Gus' stomach growled in anticipation of the mouth-watering treat.
"Okay, you can take the blindfold off now," Gus said, and he held his breath as Shawn tore the blindfold off and then blinked at the sudden light.
"Where is it?" Shawn asked, and Gus laughed when the man's 'present' licked his hand and Shawn jumped about a foot in the air.
When Shawn finally saw his gift, his jaw dropped once again and he looked from Gus to his second present and Gus relished the rare moment that Shawn Spencer was left speechless. He gave himself a little mental pat on the back and then watched as Shawn dropped to the floor and enveloped the yellow Labrador retriever puppy, letting it kiss him on the face.
Laugher and puppy dog growls floated across the room, and before Gus fully realized what was happening, he was being drawn into the fold, and Shawn's lips were once more on his.
"Thank you," Shawn murmured against his lips.
"Eh-hem," Henry Spencer cleared his throat, and both men swiveled their heads.
Shawn had a hand on Gus' chest; the other was buried in the puppy's fur. Gus' fingers were twined in Shawn's hair, and his lips were pressed against the other man's cheek where they once had been on Shawn's lips.
Henry stood in the doorframe, a Santa hat perched on the top of his head and a camera in hand. He snapped off a picture and then another, before either man could move. He gave them a wide smile, and, chuckling, walked back into the kitchen.
"I told your mother that it was only a matter of time before the two of you would get together," Henry called out over his shoulder.
Gus frowned, but then he had other things (other than how long Henry Spencer had been predicting that he and Shawn would get together) to ponder when Shawn drew him into another, cotton candy tainted kiss. The puppy wiggled itself between them, and they reluctantly parted.
"I love you," Shawn said, after a pause, and then he smiled crookedly. "And I think Cotton Candy, Jr. here, loves you too," he said when the puppy kissed Gus on the lips.
"Ew." Gus grimaced and wiped at his lips.
"Aw, Gus, he's just showing you how much he wuvs you." Shawn laughed when Gus rolled his eyes. "See, I told you it was a boy." Shawn patted his now flat belly, and gestured at the puppy dog which was curled up on his lap.
"Hey, Dad," Shawn shouted.
Henry popped his head out of the kitchen.
"Guess what?" Shawn's face was split wide with a grin.
"What?"
"You're a granddad," Shawn said happily. "Gus knocked me up with too much cotton candy, and now we're the proud papas of a puppy. And you are Cotton Candy Junior's granddaddy."
Henry rolled his eyes. "Think you two can keep your hands and lips off of each other long enough to help me set the table?"
Gus and Shawn nodded.
"Put the puppy outside in his pen, first," Henry said, and he pointed toward the door with his spatula when Shawn started to protest. "Grandpa doesn't want to clean up any accidents."
"You got it Mr. Spencer," Gus said, and he plucked the wiggly puppy out of Shawn's hands before Shawn could hide him somewhere.
"Uh, given what I just witnessed between the two of you, I think it's about time you called me Henry."
Gus blushed, and hurried outside, depositing the puppy in its pen. Shawn frowned and fussed over the puppy, vowing to come back outside and rescue it once they'd finished breakfast.
It wasn't until the festivities had wound down, toward the end of the day, and Gus had been invited to stay the night, that he started to question what it was that was happening between him and Shawn. He'd spent the night over at the Spencer house too many times to count, but this time it's different, and his stomach is twisted in knots.
Gus had vowed to himself – 'round about the time that he realized he was equally attracted to both the fair and the not-so fair sexes – that he'd never fall for his best friend. Shawn had never really been in the realm of attainability in the first place. He was a known playboy and flirt. Shawn couldn't make a commitment to save his life – except for the past couple of years, he had managed to start a business and stick with it.
Gus doesn't know when he first started to fall in love with Shawn. He doesn't know what got into Shawn today, what made his best friend kiss him. But, when they laid down in bed, together, later on that night, Shawn snuggled up close; his head resting beneath Gus' chin, Gus decided not to question it.
"Love you, Snuggle Bear," Shawn murmured against his chest.
"Go to sleep, Shawn," Gus said, closing his eyes.
Both men groaned, but didn't protest when Henry quietly entered the room and placed a whining puppy at the foot of their bed.
"Cotton Candy Junior wants his papas, and granddad wants his sleep. Promise me that, next time you two decide to engage in overconsumption of cotton candy, that you'll use protection?"
Shawn laughed, his warm breath sending puffs of air against Gus' chest, tickling him. The puppy inched his way up between their feet, and, after circling a few times, he curled up into a ball and fell asleep.
"We promise, Dad," Shawn whispered.
Shawn pressed his lips to Gus' chest and wound his arms around Gus's middle. The puppy sighed contentedly, and before he knew it, Gus' eyelids grew heavy, and he fell asleep, wrapped up in Shawn, dreaming about the rest of his life that would begin tomorrow.
Reviews would be greatly appreciated.