A/N: This fic is a gift for the fabulous Lauryn (EvilValenStrife). I hope you enjoy it wifey, and have a holiday season as incredible as you are. She also wrote a fic for me on her profile, so make sure you guys check it out and review. All of her stories are absolutely stunning and definitely worth the read. Happy Holidays to you all!
The sunlight was still dim when the wheels of Mr. Chu's truck lined up against the snow covered curb, coming to a slow and steady halt. With all its lights off and the obvious absence of anyone inside, the Milligan house seemed almost eerie against the dark sky. Miles parked and took a brief moment to revel in how well he had managed to drive the unfamiliar vehicle. Although the amount of snow was a bit unusual for this time of year in Toronto, he was thankful it wasn't anywhere near unsafe driving conditions. The air outside was entirely deceitful – much too cold to not be producing a record breaking snowstorm right before their eyes. As he opened the car door the first gust of wind gave him immediate goose-bumps. He would much rather stay inside the truck and enjoy the comfort of the heater. Hell, he would much rather be at home sleeping like every other sane person in Canada was clearly doing at this time of day. The absence of life in the streets was apparent by how insanely quiet the neighborhood was – that is, until the silence was interrupted by the piercing crash of a box of Christmas decorations being dropped to the ground.
"Keep it down!" Miles hissed, his teeth clenched as he turned to glare at the culprit.
Winston only rolled his eyes as he grabbed the fallen parcel and offered his free hand to his girlfriend. She took it as she jumped out of the elevated back seat and landed wobbly on both feet.
"Remind me again why we're all here helping you fix your mess?" Frankie asked bitterly, crossing her arms tightly against her chest.
"Because I'm paying you." Miles answered flatly.
But then his demeanor softened. His shoulders slumped and he shook his head in defeat before looking back up at his sister. His eyes held a degree of desperation that was so rare to see in the oldest Hollingsworth child.
"And I-I really screwed up. I need all the help I can get to pull this off. I have to make things right with Tristan. I'll do anything. I'll double the money. I'll take you all out for breakfast. Anything. Please."
He was begging now, with enough sincerity to break down even the toughest wall. By now Hunter and Arlene had scrambled out of the car and exchanged knowing glances with Winston and Frankie before they all turned back to Miles.
"Well geez, no need to get all mushy on us. We're already here, aren't we?" His sister teased with a shit-eating grin plastered across her face.
Miles averted his gaze and released a soft laugh, his breath visible in the chilled air before him. There was so much more he knew he should say, but not enough time to say it. Instead, he went to instructing everyone on what needed to be done. Chewy took off with a shovel to start clearing the path from the walkway to the front door. Arlene and Frankie began unloading the mass of boxes from the backseat and bed of the truck, tearing at the tape with box cutters to see what they could find inside. Hunter went to assisting Miles in unloading the ladder out of the truck bed. They carried it to the side of the house and the youngest boy helped stabilize it the best he could while his older brother ascended up the steps. One of the girls chucked a box their way and Hunter began to feed the string of lights inside up to Miles. There was so much to be done, but as he worked he couldn't help but lose himself in the recollection of what brought them all here in the first place.
"Tristan, come on. Throw me a bone here!" Miles pleaded with a chuckle as he pulled at his boyfriend's hand. "There has to be something you want."
Miles had dragged Tristan up and down nearly every storefront in the city hoping something would catch his eye. It was only five days until Christmas and he was at a loss over what he should get him. But Tristan had seen it all before - the materialistic items just arranged in different displays that did nothing to lift his broken spirits.
"Miles, I already told you I don't want anything." The newly raven-haired boy sighed. "I'm taking a holiday hiatus this year."
"What? Why?" You love Christmas." Miles answered, knowing damn well how true his statement was.
He clearly remembered a certain blonde boy nearly prancing up and down the halls of Degrassi last winter handing out candy canes and badly wrapped presents to almost everyone in sight. He had sworn that only the 'important people' received gifts, but Miles saw right through him. He had come down with a severe case of Christmas fever, and Miles could tell it wasn't the first. But he opted out of making the boy feel foolish and instead accepted his present with a friendly hug before Tristan whisked Maya off to help him find the next name on his list.
"I used to." Tristan corrected with a tone of bitter sadness creeping up his vocal chords. "But the holiday cheer seems to be nonexistent this time around."
"Okay…um, are we living in two totally different worlds here?"
Miles scanned their surroundings carefully in case he had missed some sort of anti-holiday shield that had somehow surrounded them since the last time he looked. He saw people leaving stores with arms full of bags and boxes waiting to be wrapped. He saw kids in beanies -much younger than themselves-sipping on hot chocolate to bring back some color to their frostbitten faces. There were thin layers of melting snow beneath their feet that remained from the flurries that graced them earlier. Every window was adorned with lights and tinsel and well known holiday paraphernalia. The typical Christmas music blasted from speakers and mixed perfectly with the scent of pine needles and freshly brewed coffee. He and Tristan both were sporting gloves and coats too thick to wear on an everyday basis. It sure seemed like the holiday spirit was alive and well.
"Out here, no. But none of this matters. At home, everything is different."
Tristan hung his head, and Miles knew immediately what he was referring to. Tristan's parents had recently confirmed his previous fear that they were getting a divorce. Boxes that should be holding surprises and placed under the tree were instead filled with pieces of his life to be packed up and carried away. His mom was so consumed with getting his dad out of the house that she hadn't bothered to buy a tree anyways. He tried to hang their stockings above the fireplace, but that only resulted in his parents arguing over which house he and Owen would be visiting on Christmas morning. Needless to say, it was easier to just take them down. A time for giving had become a time of taking – with both parents obsessed over who gets what and what goes where. It would require e more than a Christmas miracle to repair their relationship at this point.
"Oh come on, Tris. Stop acting like any of that family togetherness crap has to matter anyways." The brunette stated, rolling his eyes at the thought. "If I moped around every time my parents were being idiots on Christmas, I'd have 15 years of shitty holidays to bitch about."
Tristan stopped walking immediately, jerking Miles to an unexpected stop with him. He pulled his hand away from his boyfriend's grip sharply, gawking up at him with a pained expression. Miles got that sinking feeling in his gut that told him he screwed up even before Tristan spoke.
"I can't believe you'd say that to me!" Tristan spat in disgust.
"What? You know it's true-"Miles started but Tristan cut him off the way he always did when he was angry.
"No. No it's not. You don't get it, okay?" He answered, shaking his head. The tears began to surface in the corners of his sky blue eyes. "Maybe things are different in the Hollingsworth manor, but family is exactly what the holidays have been about my entire life. Christmas was our thing. We always got a tree and decorated the house and watched stupid Santa movies. Now things are missing and nobody even wants to look at each other. I don't even recognize my own home anymore, Miles. Fifteen fucking years of stability and now I just have to sit back and watch it all get tossed away like it never even happened! "
By now Tristan was shaking, and not from the cold. Miles tried to take back his hand but Tristan crossed his arms tightly against his chest. He knew Tristan was upset about the divorce, but this was the first time he had heard him vocalize it. He had no idea it was affecting him so deeply. Miles tried his hardest to apologize and get Tristan to stay and talk to him. But he wanted nothing to do with any of it. He wouldn't even let Miles drive him home. He insisted on calling a cab instead. Miles hated the idea of letting him go, but he knew that if he pushed his boyfriend would only resent him more. So he let him have his space and waited from a distance until Tristan got in the cab and took off. The next day all of his calls went straight to voicemail and his texts went unanswered. Miles knew then that he a grand gesture would be needed to cheer Tristan up.
So here he was on Christmas Eve, outside in the freezing cold with the only four people he had managed to convince to join him as the sun was rising. He was thankful he had the help – this project was way more than he could have handled on his own. Years' worth of Christmas décor his mom had since rejected was being put to the best use. Everything needed to be over the top, and it needed to look flawless. They worked until they no longer needed to rely on strategically placed flashlights and the truck's headlights to shine on their productions. They took advantage of every second they had, hanging on to Miles' every instruction between tasks. He refused to look at the entire picture until his watch told him they were on their last bit of allotted time. Warily he stepped into the street to admire their work, completely satisfied with how they'd done. Everything was just as he had imagined it. If he knew Tristan as well as he thought he did, he would love it. But that didn't stop him from being on his toes with anxiety until he knew for sure. The five quickly shoved all the empty boxes back into the truck.
At that moment only a few minutes away, Tristan was pretending to be asleep in the backseat of his mom's car. The side of his tear-stained face was uncomfortably pressed against a pillow that was propped up against the door. An old blanket lay over his awkwardly curled up frame, not doing anything to keep him warmer. He had actually managed to sleep like that for quite some time, but he wasn't quite ready to re-open his swollen eyes and face the day. His mom kept trying to talk to him to see if he was awake, but he ignored her. The longer he could avoid having to talk about last night, the better. He and his mom had spent it unloading things into his dad's new apartment in a city two hours away. Just the thought of having to travel so far every other weekend to see someone he was supposed to be living with made him feel sick to his stomach. Top it off with the fact that his mom had gotten a hotel room because she couldn't bear to spend one more night in a house with his father – and he was downright ill. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep until January.
"Oh my! Tristan, look!" He heard his mom gush from the front seat and he reluctantly sat up, knowing they were almost home anyways.
He wasn't positive what he was expecting to see when he looked out the window, but what he did see still caught him by surprise. He gasped as his mom's car pulled up to the curb. His boring old house had been transformed into a creation fit for a magazine. Everything was decked out from the rooftop to the windows to the front yard. Even the nasty old tree in his front yard was covered in lights and tinsel and ornaments – and although it wasn't a pine, it now appeared to be a fair contender for all other Christmas trees. He blinked a few time to be sure he wasn't imagining things. It looked absolutely beautiful. But the most alluring thing of all was the sight of his boyfriend standing on the walkway in a lopsided Santa hat with bags under his eyes and a nervous grin painted across his lips. As he exited the vehicle it took him a minute to form the right words, too astonished to think.
"What's all this?" He finally managed to sputter out as he faced Miles.
"The Christmas you deserve." Miles answered confidently, taking his hands in his own before continuing with a sheepish look. "And…an apology?"
Tristan didn't speak another word, but the way he practically launched himself onto his boyfriend and wrapped his arms around his neck was acceptance enough. Miles was nearly thrown off balance but managed to stay upright as he caught him, his arms snaking around the boy's waist as Tristan's legs did the same to his. They embraced tightly with a mutual, silent refusal to let go until they physically had to. Their lips locked passionately, and Miles could feel the words that Tristan was about to say before they even pulled apart.
"I love you." Tristan whispered breathlessly against the other boy's lips
"I love you too." The brunette responded boldly, lifting his gaze to Tristan's own.
Even though he and Tristan had never spoken those words to each other, they came out so easily. He didn't have to worry about whether they were true. Miles sighed in relief as he absorbed what it felt like to be in love. It was a powerful feeling, one that he wouldn't trade for the world. Both boys could agree that in that moment, with the man he loved in his arms – everything was perfect.