A/N: Hey all! I don't know how many of you are new to my account- probably most of you tbh- but to any old followers who are here, thank you for recognizing my username and coming to check this out! I'm sorry my homecoming fic may not be for a fandom you recognize.

I've got some other things in the works for fandoms I've written for already, and there will be a proper apology/explanation for my absence in one of those. But for now, please enjoy this little holiday fic I wrote for my friend!

(Disclaimer: romance ain't my area but I tried my best.)

Happy holidays!

Candlenights was in full swing, as were the festivities. On the planet below, in the ironically-named town of Neverwinter, the ground was resting under a shimmering cloak of snow. Candlenights lights shone brightly throughout the town, infusing the atmosphere with a sense of cheer.

High above the surface, the scene in the Moon Base was not much different. The employees were enjoying the various celebrations with their friends in the Bureau, and the decorations lined the dorms.

Of note, however, was the hallway just around the corner from the elevator that lead to the suite of the Bureau's resident Reclaimers. In said hallway huddled four figures: a half-elf, a small dragonborn, an orc, and a dwarf. The latter three appeared to be either razzing the half-elf, or giving him a pep talk- possibly both.

"You ready for this, Lover Boy?" Carey teased.

The rogue chuckled as Johann swallowed nervously.

"I hope so."

Killian rolled her eyes fondly at the dragonborn and nudged her with her elbow. "Leave the teasing for later, Carey." She turned her attention to the half-elf, bending down to his eye level. "Come on, Johann. You've got three people rooting for ya, and besides, Carey's got some good intel. You'll be fine." Her efforts earned her a small smile, and she straightened up with a grin. "Now, let's get going. Don't wanna be late."

As the two turned to leave, Boyland caught a glimpse of a small, wrapped box peeking out of Johann's jacket pocket. "Hold up... son... what's that?"

Johann stopped and sheepishly turned back around. "It's... my backup. In case I can't do it."

The dwarf sternly held out his hand in a clear "hand it over" signal.

"...Fine."

Boyland pocketed it and smirked. "You'll... get this back... when you... give that boy... a damned kiss."

Killian chuckled. "Come on, let's go," she said, placing an arm over the reluctant half-elf's shoulders and steering him towards the Reclaimers' suite.

"Good luck, Johann!" Carey called as they left.

The two made their way into the elevator, and when the door opened, Killian's arm was still around Johann. From the other side of the room, Merle saw and waggled his eyebrows. Realizing their position, they quickly separated and tried to look as innocent as they were. It didn't work; Merle simply smirked and made a kissy face. Johann facepalmed, while Killian sighed and took stock of the room.

There weren't many others there yet. Aside from Merle, Magnus, and Taako, the only person in the room was Angus McDonald, who was reading on one of the chairs while the three snickered about something. She nudged the bard standing next to her. "Well, Johann, looks like you get to stall a little bit longer. He's not here yet."

Said bard let out a small sigh of relief, and she chuckled. "Key word is yet. I'll make certain you get your chance."

Johann opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by Magnus's cheerful voice booming across the room. "Hey guys, glad to see ya! Johann, mind cranking out some sweet tunes for this jam?"

Merle, somewhat-hoarse voice strained as though suppressing laughter, added, "Yeah, did you bring your violin with?"

Sharing a bemused glance with Killian, Johann called back, "No, but I brought my fiddle if that's alright." He angled his shoulder so they could see the instrument's case strapped to his back.

To the pair's utter confusion, the fighter and the cleric descended into a fit of poorly disguised snickers. In the end it was Taako, who was also shooting his friends a quizzical but very amused glance, who answered. "Fiddle's fine, my dude! Have at it!"

The pair looked at each other and shrugged again, but chose not to ask- those three never gave a straight answer. Johann set up near the front of the room and launched into some festive as fuck fiddle music, if he did say so himself, while Killian went to talk with their newest Seeker.

The rest of the guests filed in over the next quarter of an hour. First came the Director, with Davenport, true to form, trailing not far behind. Finally, Avi stepped out of the elevator. Killian grinned and quickly wrapped up her conversation with Angus.

She strode over to the bard and murmured, "There he is, Johann. You ready?"

He shook his head, not missing a beat as he continued to play. "He's handing out presents, I don't want to interrupt him. I should get that done too."

The orc rolled her eye. "Okay, whatever you say. Just remember, you promised us you'd do this by the end of the night. Don't," she stopped to make exaggerated quotation marks with her fingers, "'forget.'"

Johann reached the end of his song, making a nervous, noncommittal noise as he put away his fiddle and walked over to their hosts. Killian sighed, the corners of her lips quirking upwards as she began giving out her own presents.

After roughly ten minutes, during which Merle and Magnus' earlier snickering was explained through a rather heart-stopping conversation with the Reclaimers concerning Johann's rosewood violin, all of Killian's presents were handed out and only one of Johann's remained. The two met up near the elevator, Johann apprehensively watching Avi sip at his drink on the sofa as Killian approached.

She gave him a teasingly-stern side-glare and leaned against the wall next to him, arms crossed. "You've given presents to everyone else, Johann. What're you waiting for? Candlenights?"

Johann's lip twitched up for a second before it sunk back into its worried frown. "Killian... if we're wrong, he won't want to be fr-"

The Regulator quickly cut off his train of thought. "Carey knows her stuff. Even if she's wrong this time, him finding out won't ruin anything, whether or not he feels the same."

"...Are you sure?"

The orc nodded firmly. "I'm sure." Her expression softened into a smile, and she shrugged. "It's Avi."

The bard hesitated a moment longer before giving a shaky nod back. "Okay. I'm going in."

Killian grinned and gave Johann an almost-too-strong clap on the back as he turned around. "You've got this."

Johann caught his balance and sent the Regulator a weak smile over his shoulder as he continued on.

When he was a few feet away, Avi looked up and caught sight of him. His face lit up and he got off the couch. "Johann! Happy Candlenights, man!"

Johann smiled as Avi caught him in a hug. He hugged the man back. "Hey, Av. Happy Candlenights."

The hug ended, and Avi frowned slightly as he took a closer look at Johann. "Hey, you alright? You look a little shaken."

The half-elf responded with a weak chuckle. "I'm fine. Just, um..." He glanced around for an excuse and saw their hosts speaking with the Director. "...Merle and Magnus. Up to their usual tricks. I thought I misplaced one of my violins a few days ago, but apparently, Merle stole it so that Magnus could convince me that he used it to carve the figurine he gave me."

"Oof. That's a well-planned joke, I'll give them that, but that seems a bit..."

"Iffy?"

"Yeah, iffy. They gave it back, right?"

"Mm-hm," Johann hummed, gesturing to the violin case that he left next to his fiddle.

"Good. And speaking of Candlenights gifts..." He rummaged through his bag, pulled out a flat, wrapped parcel, and held it out with a grin. The half-elf smiled back and took the gift, then neatly tore away the paper.

Inside was a wooden case, which housed a gorgeous quill pen. The feather was a deep, glossy black, and it was affixed to a longer, white-tipped quill with an elaborately designed silver nib. The metal pattern spiraled up the quill itself, until it disappeared into the feather.

Johann's hand hovered over the quill. "Is this...?"

"Raven feather and porcupine quill, yeah." A beat of silence followed as Johann stared at the pen, so Avi kept talking. "I found it at a traveling blacksmith's booth. He's pretty well-known in Neverwinter, but hard as hell to find-"

"Avi." Johann cut off his friend's rambling and looked up at his face, grinning ear-to-ear. "I love it. Thank you."

Avi relaxed with a grin of his own, rubbing the back of his neck. "You said a few weeks ago that you would need a new quill soon. It seemed too perfect to pass up."

"I'm glad you didn't." Johann returned his gaze to the pen, before replacing the lid and carefully storing it in his bag. Simultaneously, he removed his last mixtape. "I, uh... here's your's."

While Avi removed the wrapping, Johann closed his eyes and tried to psyche himself up for phase two.

It's not so hard, Johann, he thought. Just walk over and... A horde of butterflies descended on his stomach, and he shuddered. Nope. Nuh-uh.

"Johann?"

His eyes flew open and landed on a somewhat concerned Avi.

The man's eyebrows furrowed. "You okay?"

Johann nodded a little too quickly. "Mm-hm, yeah, I... I, just, I g-gotta go..."

Avi looked disappointed for a split second, but then he smiled. "Yeah, of course. I get it. Other parties to get to, probably want to get those instruments away from Merle and Magnus I'm sure..." He tucked the box into his pocket with a chuckle and held his arms out slightly for a hug.

The half-elf nodded with a faint smile. He forced his reluctant feet to step into the hug, and quickly squirmed his way out.

"Happy Candlenights," he said with a stilted wave.

Avi sent him a warm smile. "Happy Candlenights."

Johann smiled a little wider and turned to leave, but froze after just a few steps. He lingered there for a couple of beats. Casting his eyes around the room, he quickly found Killian, who was moving her hands in a shooing motion back towards Avi.

Gathering his courage, he turned back and haltingly retraced those few steps. "Actually," he said, "there's one more thing I wanted to give you."

Avi, who had taken the box out of his pocket and was inspecting it, looked up and saw the uncertain look on his friend's face. He felt his heart skip, but quickly halted his rom-com influenced imagination that was desperately trying to connect the dots. There was no way. It was probably just a dorky novelty shot glass or some other (adorable gesture) thing Johann had seen and thought he would like. Maybe he was just hesitant because he was embarrassed to be in possession of it, or wasn't sure if he would like it.

So the man just smiled at the shorter half-elf and pocketed his gift yet again. "Awesome! What is it?"

Johann closed his eyes and took a deep breath. After a few seconds, he locked gazes with Avi, a nervous smile on his face as he shuffled just a bit closer.

"Happy Candlenights," he whispered, and stood on tiptoe to brush a split second kiss against Avi's lips. Red faced, but grinning, he scampered off.

He quickly reached Killian, who was ready to start celebrating then and there. But Johann held up a hand and fixed his eyes on Avi, waiting for his reaction.

The shocked human stood motionless, staring off into space. Slowly, he brought his hand to his mouth and hovered over where the kiss had been planted. Then, just as slowly, a grin crept onto his face.

That had just happened.

Johann had just kissed him.

Hot diggity shit.

Dimly, he noticed Killian sweep Johann up into a crushing bear hug and start twirling him around, both with huge grins on their faces. Later, he would laugh as he realized how well all this had been planned, but for now he was too high on Cloud Nine to truly register it.

He didn't crash back to Moon Base until a minute later, when the Director yelled, "YOU DID WHAT?!"

Then she was marching over with new coordinates, and suddenly it was back to work again.

Hours passed, and another day of Candlenights started coming to a close. In Neverwinter, people started trickling out of their various parties in ones and twos. Heartfelt farewells and wishes of a Happy Candlenights were exchanged, and the strange case of the reversing moon was almost forgotten. The Candlenights lights still shone bright, bringing peace to the darkness.

In the Moon Base, however, a very tense night was finally over. With the triumphant return of the Reclaimers, two-thirds of the Regulators, and a robot, those of the Bureau who had stayed awake were now making their way to bed.

Among those awake was Avi, who found himself slouching towards his room. It had been a long night for everyone, and in the commotion, he hadn't had much time to talk to Johann about what had happened at the party. They had exchanged a few reassuring smiles and a handful of concerned looks throughout the night, but that kiss was something they definitely needed to speak about.

As much as Avi wanted to discuss it- and perhaps continue it- he figured four in the morning was far too late for such a conversation. Surely the bard wanted to sleep as much as he did. So he ignored the urge to talk to him anyway and stepped through the doorway into his dorm.

It was as he was changing for bed that Avi remembered the little bronze box in his pocket. Everything had gotten so crazy directly after he got it that it had completely slipped his mind.

The man took it out and examined it under the light of his Candlenights shrub. The box was fairly simple; just a cube of polished bronze about the size of his fist, with a handle sticking out of the side. No ornate designs or precious stones, but well-made nonetheless.

Besides, Avi thought, it's what's inside that counts, and he knew for a fact that what was inside this box would far outweigh the plainness of the exterior.

He sat criss-cross on his bed, opened the lid, and slowly turned the handle.

He was not disappointed.

Immediately, beautiful violin music started spilling from the box, hitting Avi with a gentle wave of sound that made him close his eyes and smile.

Time passed and the music gradually grew slower as Avi drifted off into a world of dreams- dreams of what could happen next.