It was two days until Christmas and an outright blizzard had buried the entire area. The weather channel said that this was one of the coldest days that this area had seen in about two decades, so it made perfect sense for Gyro and Johnny's heat to go out right in the middle of it. Thankfully, their electricity was functioning so the pair could still huddle near the oven with a space heater and a nest of blankets.
In order to have the oven on as an added heat source, Gyro had an apple pie baking. It wasn't really a flavor he particularly liked, but it was the only fruit they had, and he really just wanted an excuse to have the oven on. Johnny normally would have chided him for wasting electricity, but he also wanted the extra warmth. In fact, he had been thinking of recipes he could throw together to keep the oven going. Blondies were his favorite, and they weren't too hard to make.
But Johnny had himself wrapped up in 3 different blankets, one thrown over his legs, another covering his chest, arms, and chin, and another over his head. No matter how easy it was to make blondies, he wasn't ready to untangle himself and get over to his wheelchair yet. He and Gyro had been leaning against the cabinets across from the oven with a small space heater pointed directly at the both of them for hours now. Only Gyro was brave enough to venture out of their burrow, first to put the pie together, and then again to make coffee.
"Caffeine should warm us up, right?" he asked his partner as he lowered himself back into the blankets, careful not to let any of the thick liquid spill out of their mugs. Johnny accepted the mug with a quick 'thanks' before immediately taking a sip of the scalding hot coffee, burning his tongue a little in the process.
Gyro wiggles and worms himself under the blankets and scoots closer to Johnny. One of his pant legs got hiked up a little in the process, and an uncharacteristically high-pitched yelp bubbles out of him when his leg touches Johnny's icy cold bare feet. Johnny jumps and spits into his coffee a little bit before he starts giggling.
"You alright over there?" he asks with a smirk.
"Jesus, Johnny! Why aren't you wearing socks!?" he exclaimed, setting his mug down and grabbing Johnny's feet.
"Couldn't really tell I wasn't. I guess they just went numb from the cold." Johnny's joking tone was ruined by the pointed stare directed at the Italian man. Gyro faltered, blushed a little bit, averted his eyes, and mumbled a quick apology.
"Okay, fair, but you're gonna get frostbite at this rate."
"You're almost done with med school though, don't you know how to fix that yet?"
Gyro raised an eyebrow and gave the smaller man an unamused look. It wasn't nearly as effective once he began rubbing Johnny's feet between his hands in an attempt to warm them up. Johnny, of course, could only tell he was doing this from seeing the other man's hands move under the blankets. The pair falls quiet for a few moments, both of them wishing Johnny could feel Gyro's attempt to warm his chilly feet, one much more than the other though.
"Sorry to say I don't know how to fix that yet, but I might have another idea."
Johnny watched with curiosity as Gyro extracted himself from the blankets, and speed-padded into their living room on his green fuzzy grippy socks. He stopped and crouched in front of their small Christmas tree, and Johnny could tell from the way the bigger man's caramel blonde locks swayed from the slight movements of his head that he was looking for something. After a few moments of searching, Gyro pulled a small wrapped package from the modest pile of gifts and quickly strode back to the nest in the kitchen. He balanced it on top of Johnny's head, sank back down to the floor, and started layering blankets on top of himself again.
"Open it." came a muffled voice from the pile of fabric next to the Kentucky boy. Johnny tipped his head forward so the little bundle fell into his lap. Untangling his hands from the blankets, he picked up the package and squeezed it, hearing the paper crinkle around the soft object inside. It was a little bit bigger than his fist, and wrapped with what looked like the scraps of 5 different rolls of paper. Written in black marker on the top was:
"TO: JOE KID FROM: NYO HO HO"
Johnny tried to stick his lips out in a pout to keep from smiling, but the edges of his mouth gave his grin away. He tore through the mismatched wrapping paper and unrolled a pair of long blue and gray striped socks. They were soft and stretchy and felt like they would definitely keep his legs warm.
"Here, roll up your pant legs." Gyro said with a smile as he took the socks and began bunching one up around his thumbs. Johnny rolled up his sweatpants and pulled his legs out from underneath the blankets. Gyro picked up one of Johnny's legs and rested it on one of his own crossed legs before gently rolling on one of the socks. Johnny watched as his pale skin disappeared under the striped cotton and also as the socks just kept going.
"Can you push those up a little more?" Johnny pulled his pant legs up as far as he could stretch them as Gyro finished putting on the pair of thigh highs. As he started putting on the other one, Johnny just ran his hand up and down his leg. It felt warm to his hand, and it added a splash of color to his skin. When Gyro finished putting the other sock on, he flashed a shiny gold smile at his partner and raised his eyebrows in a silent 'well? what do you think?' motion.
Johnny grinned down at his now vibrant-looking legs, and then up at Gyro.
"I love them." he said, opening his arms toward his partner. With Johnny's legs between them, it was more of an arm-hug until Gyro grabbed him by the waist and scooted him closer so that their hips were touching.
"I won't even scold you for giving me a present before Christmas if you stay and block the cold till the pie is done."
"That can be arranged." Gyro said, wrapping his arms around Johnny and squeezing him.
why on earth doesn't gyro have a tag on this website oh my g
this is also on ao3 with more notes