Author's Note: Inspired by Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl", and Dee Dee Sharp's "Calendar Boy" cover - each chapter's plot is prompted by the lyrics of the songs (with some creative interpretation for a couple of the months).

This story is a This story is a sorta continuation of my 2017 Pride fic, When We Rise.

January - "We start the year off fine"

The first sound of 2018 to greet Hamish Haddock was the disgruntled meows of his cat, Toothless.

"Ugggghhh." He groaned as he flopped over onto his back, his legs tangled up in his bed sheet. The mass of black fur looked at him expectantly, and pawed at his face for a few minutes before the cat's owner finally gave in. "Alright, alright... I'm up, Toothless."

Disentangling his limbs, Hamish sat up and gave the feline (which they were still yet to determine whether he was a Norwegian Forest Cat or a Maine Coon) a rub under the chin, and just above the base of his partially-amputated tail. Toothless purred happily for a moment, before he leapt down from the bed and onto the carpeted floor. "We've got to have another conversation about which one of us is the master and which one of us is the pet."

Hamish quickly dressed and grabbed his phone from his desk. He unplugged the charging cable and swiped the screen to check if he'd gotten any messages. He scrolled through the various New Years' well-wishing and Facebook posts he'd gotten, his face lighting up the instant he noticed a quick message from Jack:

Happi New Yearr!

He grinned and let out a short chuckle as he made his way to the kitchen with the hungry cat, it looked like the other young man had had a good time last night.

Hamish indulged Toothless with a moment to make sure the feline was enjoying the tin of chicken the green-eyed man had just prepared. Satisfied with the fact the four-pawed ninja was tucking into his breakfast with gusto, Hamish fed himself with a quick bowl of cereal before he brought up Jack's message again.

He checked the time on his phone; it was a little after half-past ten. He pressed the call button on Jack's contact and hoped that the other young man hadn't gone to bed at dawn... Although that was possible.

The phone rang three times before it was answered with an indecipherable: "Hurrhn?"

Hamish let out an amused snort. "Well, good morning and Happy New Year!"

The muffled sounds of movement made their way down the line, and after a minute Jack's voice returned, much more awake. "Heeeey. Happy New Year gorgeous."

"Sorry about waking you."

"S'okay. I probably would've slept in 'til the afternoon if you hadn't called, so you did me a solid."

"What time did you go to bed last night?"

There was a notable pause before Jack's hesitant response. "Late?"

Hamish shook his head in playful ruefulness. "You're your own worst enemy."

"Actually that would be Bunny. I get on just swell with myself."

"If you say so. Welcome to twenty-eighteen!" Hamish announced.

"Yaaay!" Jack responded with a thick layer of sarcasm. "Where are the robots and flying cars?"

"They were banned. By Trump. Apparently the robots were going to be made by South Korea and the flying cars by Japan, so he stopped them because they weren't American-made."

"Thanks Trump."

"Yeah." Hamish jokingly agreed. "They were gonna be amazing." He added in mock wistfulness.

"I know it can't be fake news when you say it." Jack chuckled. "How was your party last night?"

Hamish shifted on the kitchen stool to recline a little against the countertop. "Try to imagine it: Dad and Gobber, at least a couple of glasses of Akvavit in them already, greeting everyone enthusiastically and really letting themselves go with singing Auld Lang Syne."

Hamish winced a little at the volume of Jack's laugh. "I wish I could've seen that!"

"Dad's always been a good singer, but I'm surprised Gobber didn't break anything made of glass when he finished off the song."

"Hah!"

"I'm not expecting to see either one of them up any time soon, and I guess they both deserve to have the morning off."

"Yeah. Was Astrid there?"

"For a little bit. Her Uncle and his family visits her's for Christmas and New Year's every year, so they usually have a family gathering."

"Ah."

"So talking about things we've been doing, what are you doing this week?"

Jack made a thoughtful noise down the phone line. "Nick's having a few of the family friends over later for a New Year's Day meal. I'm probably going to hang out with Jamie and some of his friends tomorrow... But beyond that I haven't gotten anything planned."

The auburn-haired man had been banking on Jack's weekend being free. "Do you want to meet up this weekend?"

Jack's voice sounded even more awake at Hamish's proposal. "Yeah! Sure! We could maybe grab lunch or something... Is there anything specific you'd like to do? I think the ice rink is still running in Kennedy Plaza."

"We could do that." Hamish nodded absently. "Just so long as I don't fall on my butt again."

"I'm happy to hold your hand. And massage your butt again if, you know, you fall over... Or stuff."

"You're always happy to hold my hand, and that way I can take you down with me. I'm not complaining about the getting my butt massaged again either."

The phone line didn't do Jack's laugh justice. "I've noted that down for future reference. And for the record having your pride hurt doesn't seem so bad when there's someone there to suffer with you." There was another laugh. "I'll look up the skating rink on Google, maybe a few other things too, just in case they're of interest."

"Awesome."

"I'll go do that now before I get distracted. I'll text-slash-phone you in a bit with ideas."

"Cool."

"Love you."

"Love you too."

It had been just over half a year since Hamish had first met Jackson Overland at Rhode Island Pride, and even though the admissions of love to each other were still a relatively new development, they continued to leave him grinning like an idiot for several minutes after hearing Jack say those words.

It wasn't long at all before the first weekend of January had arrived, and bundled up in an emerald scarf and a black leather jacket, Hamish glanced around The Providence Rink, which had been set into a submerged section of the plaza, which itself lay in the geographic centre of Downtown Providence. There were a fair few people out and about enjoying the chilly air, and he was keeping his eyes peeled for his date who had disappeared (despite how white his hair was).

He locked sight on the blue hoodie wearer, who was perched against the side wall of the skating rink, his phone out and trained on Hamish. As the green-eyed man approached, Jack looked up and gave him a broad grin.

"Do a barrel-roll!" He laughed.

Hamish let out a hearty chuckle. "That wouldn't be physically possible."

Jack shrugged. "It'd be a lot of fun to watch though."

"I thought we were both hoping I wouldn't end up falling over again."

"Sure." Jack shrugged. "But I wouldn't mind kissing any bruises better."

"While I appreciate the thought, I'd rather not risk getting a sprained ankle."

Jack grimaced, but didn't respond to that idea. "Could you at least do a little twirl?"

Hamish let out an exasperated sigh, but then turned a daring smile towards his companion and his camera. "If you insist."

With a degree of grace that he didn't usually embody in pretty much any other part of his life, Hamish managed to perform enough of a spin on the ice to draw an approving whistle from the other man, although the finish was a little wobbly.

"Happy now?"

"Very." Jack smiled. "Hot chocolate? My treat for putting up for me."

"Lead the way." Hamish smiled, and they made their way off of the ice to remove their skates.

The two young men settled down near the on some steps near the Exchange Terrance end of the ice rink, with a Subway hot chocolate and double chocolate chip cookie each. From their position they had good views of the plaza Christmas tree, the Superman Building, and Providence City Hall.

"Thanks for this. The skating and the food."

Jack waved it off as if it were nothing. "I like skating, I like hot chocolate and cookies, and I like you, it's rolling four of my favourite things into one awesome day out."

"Yeah." Hamish nodded, and he took a sip of his drink.

The silence was friendly, but it was a little uncharacteristic for Jack, who was usually a livewire and a chatterbox. Glancing up at the man sat beside him, Hamish realised Jack looked a little solemn and pensive.

"Whoa, am I dying or something? I don't think I've ever seen you look this serious."

"It's nothing bad, I'm just... Thinking about something big."

"How big?"

"Big as in... 'Would you like to be my boyfriend' big?"

Hamish took another sip. "Aren't we boyfriends already?"

Jack gently rolled his drink in his gloved hands. "I mean, sure we go on dates all the time and sometimes spend the night at each other's places, but we've never really used the 'B' word officially. I'd like to make this completely official."

Hamish gave Jack a broad smile from across the table. "Then it's official. Jackson Overland is my boyfriend."

"And Hamish Haddock is my boyfriend. Although it'll probably be next week before I can get the cards saying that printed up."

Hamish shook his head as he chuckled. "Part of me is worried you'd actually do that."

"What can I say? I'm proud to come out and show I'm a card-carrying 'Hamishaholic'."

"'Hamishsexual'." The green-eyed man proposed.

"Hiccurious."

Hamish snorted. "Gods, stop it."

"Make me."

With a daring glint in his eye, Hamish leaned over and planted a rough kiss on Jack's cheek.

A minute later, and after having taken a quick swig from his own drink, Jack retaliated with a smooch that had both men laughing ridiculously with molten chocolate on their lips. Based on how 2018 had been going so far, they'd started the year off fine.