Adam sighed, leaning his head against the cold glass of his window as he watched the snow fall gently outside. It was cold outside and absolutely dismal in his little room above the church. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day had never really been a big deal before; it had been just another day spent avoiding his father and laying in his tiny bed, waiting for school to start again. Now that his father was no longer a concern, though, Adam didn't know what to do with himself. He didn't want to intrude on the celebration down at Monmouth with Gansey and Ronan and Noah, and he couldn't interrupt Blue's family's… whatever it was that they did. So he found himself alone, wishing he was anywhere else and still incredibly glad that he wasn't. Adam couldn't tell if he wanted to cry or laugh at his situation.
He ended up doing neither, just staring out the window with an almost melancholy numbness, wrapped tightly in his too-thin blanket.
A knock brought him out of his state of half-consciousness. Blearily, he looked over at the clock, confused to see that it was midnight. Unless it was Ronan, no one visited him that late.
He reluctantly got up, stretching his stiff limbs and moving to open the door. To his surprise, it was Ronan, with a space heater and a plastic bag in his arms. Not to mention that he was dressed in a suit that was seemed much too formal for his personality.
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Noah and Gansey?" Adam asked, trying his best to ignore how completely alone he had sounded.
Ronan pushed passed him and tossed the bag on the bed, plugging in the space heater and turning it on. He straightened up and gestured at the bag, locking eyes with Adam. "Get changed. You're coming to midnight mass and you'll be damned well be happy about it."
Adam hesitated a moment before sighing and grabbing the bag. Ronan left, but Adam knew that he was waiting outside. He found a matching suit and a pair of dress shoes in the bag, which he wrestled with for a few minutes before deciding fuck it, he was presentable enough. Surprisingly, everything fit him perfectly, which made Adam suspect that Ronan had dreamt them, but he doubted that. Ronan had to want something almost desperately to pull it out of a dream on purpose, and there was nothing about Adam that someone like Ronan could ever possibly want that bad.
Adam wasn't surprised to find that he had been correct; Ronan had waited right outside the door for him. He stood awkwardly as Ronan looked him up and down critically a few times, and jerked away when the other reached toward his neck.
Ronan's eyes softened almost invisibly and he lowered his hands a bit. "Calm down, Parrish. Your tie is crooked; I'm just fixing it."
That time, Adam stood still as Ronan did exactly what he had said he'd do, hands never once brushing up against his skin. Adam couldn't tell if it was on purpose, but he appreciated it nonetheless. Ronan was more careful of people than most realized.
They went down and joined Declan and Matthew in the pew. Declan barely spared Adam a glance before looking away with a huff but Matthew smiled and waved a little at him. Ronan ignored both his brothers and settled down beside Adam, putting him between Matthew and Ronan.
Mass was about as mindless as Adam had expected. He didn't really pay any attention to what was going on, murmuring soft, meaningless things under his breath. Instead, he watched Ronan. Ronan, who put almost as much effort and hidden care into his prayers and hymns as he did his Latin. Ronan, who looks so out of place yet so perfect sitting there, illuminated by the dirty streetlight filtering through the stained glass windows above him.
When that was over, Adam and Ronan returned to Adam's room, kicking off shoes and tossing ties to the floor. Ronan looked somehow right, in a crumpled suit with the top two buttons undone. Adam could only imagine how he looked: disheveled, weak, out of place. Nothing like Ronan and his sharp edges and the power that scared Adam and yet made everything about the other so damned intriguing.
They slept as they always did; Ronan on the floor and Adam on the too-old, too-small bed. A few times, Adam woke briefly from one nightmare or another and felt gentle fingers carding through his hair accompanied by soft words murmured in languages he didn't know. Later, he'd be almost certain he'd dreamed it.
In the morning, though, was something Adam had never, ever expected to see. It smelt like pine and the source was obvious: small tree, decorated with probably-expensive ornaments and strings of multicolored lights. The lights were everywhere, when Adam chose to look, and it was more than he had ever expected to have.
Ronan sat on the floor at the foot of the bed, legs stretched in front of him and his head leaned back against the wall. His eyes were closed, but Adam knew Ronan was awake.
"Did you do this, Lynch?" Adam's voice was softer than intended but he couldn't find it in himself to care. He was too awestruck by the obvious care that had been put into every little detail, despite the lack of space that Ronan had had to work with.
"And what if I did, Parrish?" Ronan cracked an eye open and looked over at Adam, but his rough tone was negated by the tiny smile on his face and the glint of satisfaction in his gaze.
Adam laughed. It was soft and barely there, but Ronan heard it. He was surprised by it, too, apparently, what with the way he said up and arched an eyebrow.
Adam laughed again, soft giggles turning into full out howls turning into soft, joyful sobs. Ronan moved to his side at some point and set a hand on his back, gentler than Adam thought possible of him. Earlier, Adam hadn't been able to decide whether or not to laugh or cry. Then, he did both, leaning into Ronan's solid, sturdy warmth and staring at the blurry shape of the Christmas tree Ronan had dreamt through his tears. It was warm in that little room, even though it was still snowing outside.