Disclaimer: Don't own, don't flame, don't sue.
Warning: none
A Not So Tragic Christmas
It was that time of year again and once again he'd waited till the last minute to get Christmas gifts. He was a procrastinator by nature and thus how he always ended up at the completely packed shopping center. Oh the things he did for the ones he cared about. He even got a job for this, because there was no other way he'd willing come home smelling like friends. And the only gift that really mattered was Mush's. Everyone else was pretty easy to shop for cigarettes, a pack of playing cards, video games, and CD's. It didn't matter the occasion it always worked, but Mush, that was different. It seemed like Mush always knew just what to get him, but when it came to getting Mush a gift it always ended up being a t-shirt. Not the worlds most romantic gift in the world for a lover. God he hated shopping. He got off the bench, fully intent to head into Hot Topics to check out the band T's when a woman carrying an array of shopping bags and a large soda accidentally turned sharply, causing the Styrofoam cup she was holding to slam into him and burst open.
"Oh my god, I'm so so sorry!" she didn't seem too concerned, probably apologizing more out of habit.
"It's ok, don't worry, its fine," he supplied quickly.
"Oh, ok, good, sorry again," and she left tossing the cup as she headed in the direction of the bathrooms
This was not going to be a good day he decided, and thanked God he wore two shirts that day, always a fan of layering his clothes. As he pulled off the top shirt he was wearing he caught sight of someone's gold watch, maybe he could get Mush a cool watch? He stuffed his shirt into his belt loop and headed to Gottschalks. After staring into the glass display case for almost fifteen minutes and avoiding the sales woman trying to sell him a gold chain cross necklace for a girl, he got fed up and walked over to the cologne section. He always hated that section. It usually made him nauseous, but he'd put up with it long enough to find something suitable for his boy. Mush was a year younger than him, but you wouldn't be able to tell that by just looking at him. He picked up a few bottles and smelled them. He liked the second one best, it had a warm and inviting sent, like the way he thought Mush was. After purchasing the bottle and having them just wrap it in a thin box, because he couldn't afford the entire case it came with, he headed back towards the Hot Topics, who was he to mess with tradition?
"This one is nice," he commented out loud to himself.
Just as he reached for the t-shirt another hand reached for it and snatched it. Blink stood for all of two seconds then grabbed hold of the shirt still in the other persons hands.
"Freaking let go!" yelled a short kid who looked about fourteen at best.
"No, I need this shirt," he said, tugging on it.
"There's like, a trillion others, get one of them!" yelled the kid, pulling as hard as he could.
"I don't think so, it's the last one like this!" he growled, tugging the shirt as best he could without stretching it and tugged the kid forward as well.
"Kiss it!" yelled the kid as he set his teeth on Blink's hand.
"Ow! You bit me!? You can't bite someone with an eyepatch, its illegal!" with out really caring at this point, but still quickly glancing around, he got a tight hold on the shirt and then swung his foot under the kids.
The kid stared wide eyed up at him, looking half enraged half shocked, "You-you!"
"See ya twerp!" and he headed for the register, hugging the shirt happily to his chest.
It took a while to get to the actually purchasing, but when he exited the store he was happy. Maybe this wasn't going to be a bad Christmas after all. He made his ways towards JC Penny's where his car was parked just outside, having actually got a good spot for once. As he made his way towards the exit, a large crowd tried to get around him without actually moving and out of nowhere someone pushed him from behind. There was a two second pause in time as he caught a look at that damn kid from Hot Topics gloating and then he hit the ground, dropping the wrapped box and his keys flying.
"Aww…..why me?"
He set about crawling around on the floor on hands and knees searching for his fallen items. He found Mush's present near a fallen wrack of coats and stuffed it into the Hot Topics bag with the shirt. Then continued to crawl, looking for his keys. After another minute or so of searching he saw them next to a bunch of slippers on the ground. Quickly he crawled his way towards his keys and just as he reached for them another hand had moved to grab them. He blinked for a second.
"I know that hand," said Blink sitting up.
"That's what I said about the keys!" said Mush sitting across from him, holding the keys.
"So what're you doing here?"
"Shopping, you?"
"Getting harassed by cannibalistic fourteen year olds."
"What?"
"Don't ask," said Blink, shaking his head.
"Hey, I was wondering, I was just about to head home and no one's there and I know you're not gonna be home for Christmas, so uh, maybe we could spend tonight together as a sort of, well you know," he shrugged a shoulder.
"Yeah, sure, just, you know, let me head home first and change," he hated the fact that even though they'd been together for at least of couple months, they had a tendency to be awkward, though if he thought about it long enough, it was kind of cute in a way.
"Cool, I'll make sure to make something to eat before you get there!" he smiled brightly at him.
Blink had a strange feeling that Mush may have been plotting this. They quickly gave a chaste kiss and split in different directions of the store. Getting into his car, Blink let a satisfied smile grace his feature. It was finally a perfect Christmas, well, early in their case since his family was going out of state in a day to spend it at his aunts. Turning on the car, his music boomed out of the speakers. He'd put the gifts on the passenger side seat and rolled down the windows out of habit, he liked the cold air rapidly brushing his skin for some reason. As he whipped down the road he could swear he could smell the cologne he'd bought for Mush. He shook his head, nah, the smell was probably just stuck in his nose. When he made it home he quickly changed and told his mom he was going to Mush's house for a couple hours. Standing outside Mush's house, he suddenly felt like maybe he should have changed into something more suitable for an evening alone with his boy. Just as he reached his hand up to knock, the front door swung open, Mush was smiling at him.
"Hey," he motioned him in.
He looked so good in his black button up shirt, "What ever you're making smells awesome."
"Nothing like restaurant meals sent to your house."
"And that my friends, is called cheating," he smiled then wrapped his arms around his boyfriends waist and kissed him.
"Mmm…..we can't all be Hamburger Helper masters," mumbled Mush from behind his lips.
"Don't be jealous of my awesome culinary skills," he smiled brightly at him then said, "I think I finally did things right this Christmas."
Mush lead him to the gorgeous kitchen, "Really now? Found the perfect band T?"
"Laugh riot, really," he rolled his eye.
"You get the lovin' don't worry," he smiled at him as he sat down at the oddly out of place hand-me-down table.
"I so got the lovin'!" and of course they couldn't help but smile at each other from across the table.
"You know, I think I did right this Christmas as well, he smiled warmly at Blink.
He groaned, "You always give way better gifts than I do!"
"So not true! 'member that time I made you a mixed tape!"
"It was romantic, what're you talking about?"
"Because there's no such thing called a, I don't know, CD?" he paused for a second, then laughed at himself slightly, "Anywho."
"It's so cute when you do the pause and laugh," mused Blink.
Mush flicked his bread at him, then managed to catch the piece Blink flicked at him, "Mm….tasty."
"I-" he stopped himself, "was so going to say something dirty."
"Whoa, too much time with someone," he laughed.
"And how! When really, I just want to spend my time with you," he smiled.
"God I love you."
Dinner finished out like most meals when it was just the two of them, eating food off of each others plates, more food tossing, and back and forth loving compliments, which usually annoyed their collective friends.
Sitting in the living room next to the fire place, rather then the couch in front of the TV, they'd brought out their gifts for each other. Blink felt bad because he hadn't wrapped the t-shirt up, as he stared at the nicely wrapped gift Mush had in his hands. Mush handed him the gift and Blink smiled because Mush had a tendency to wrap it nice, but used too much tape on the sides to keep it closed. He opened it.
"It's a photo album with pictures from our first date and all the holidays we spent together, see, we get to add Christmas to it. But to top the gift off, here," he handed him what he'd bought at the shopping center that night.
"Oh my God, original Planet of the Apes box set, I love you so much, on many levels!" he kissed him deeply.
After recouping from his Plant of the Apes fanboy moment he gave Mush the small box with the cologne.
"I think I can smell it already," he opened it, the bottle was half empty.
"What the?"
"I like it, it has a warm smell to it, smells nice."
"It was full when I bought it," he sounded way confused.
"It's ok, don't worry, Ry."
"But Niiiiick," he dragged out his name as he inspected the sleek deep green bottle, "Oh crap."
"What?"
"There's a crack in it! Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!" he put the bottle down and frantically grabbed the shirt out of the bag. "Noooo!"
"Um…….Ryan, babe, that shirt seems kind of um……"
"Oh God I got the wrong size, I was so busy making sure it was this shirt I didn't realize…….and it smells strongly of the cologne!" he dropped his head.
Mush just smirked and quickly undid his shirt and put the band T on, "See, look I can still wear it."
"Ni-" he paused and appreciated the semi skin tight shirt, that would likely get tighter in the wash, he smiled, "I so outdid myself this Christmas."
XXX
A/N: this was loads of fun and tiresome rewrites awesome. lol