Summary: Cisco is helping Hartley transform their living room back into a haunted Halloween graveyard camping trip when he realizes that the songs Hartley humming are for a rather different season.
Notes: For the Hartmon Halloween prompt "Christmas? It's not even Halloween yet."
This ended up being a follow up to last year's Halloween story "The Sweetest Treat" so I've linked them as a series over on Ao3 now. :D
Earworms
Despite the pandemic still going on, Cisco's mental health is at a better place this year than it had been the year before. Which has been a nice thing this Halloween season, since it meant he had the energy to make new Halloween costumes for the very private Team Flash holiday party they had earlier that week. Hartley looked lovely as Flynn from Tales of Vesperia and Cisco made a very authentic Yuri Lowell from the same game - his hair wasn't as long as Yuri's, but close enough given the extra inches that he'd let his hair grow over the last year. It was getting closer and closer to mid-back and Hartley seemed to enjoy learning all the different way's Cisco's much longer hair could be styled. Though mostly Cisco just loved how much more often Hartley was brushing and combing his hair.
But today is the day before Halloween and Hartley and Cisco are now doing a little redecorating in their living room. The year before, Hartley had woken up early on Halloween itself and, while Cisco still slept, had gone on a redecorating binge that transformed their living room into a haunted Halloween graveyard, turned their sleeper couch into an indoor tent, and set up an entire playlist of Halloween appropriate movies for them to watch. (More comedy than horror, but still thematically appropriate.) It had all been done as a surprise for Cisco in an effort to help cheer him up.
This year it's not a surprise, but maybe doing it twice makes the indoor graveyard a tradition and Cisco rather likes the idea of that. Despite how awful the pandemic has been, the idea that they can create new traditions together that bring them comfort and joy is a silver lining that puts a smile on Cisco's face as they scoot the furniture around so that there's enough space to open up the sleeper couch and then add the bed tent on top.
Which is when Cisco hears Hartley's humming. It's a familiar tune, but Cisco can't quite place it.
He frowns, considers turning on their media server and tuning into their Halloween music playlist, but decides not to. Whatever Hartley's humming may not be seasonal, but Hart had a lovely singing voice so his humming was rather nice to listen to as well. Cisco wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to listen to his husband's voice turn all melodic.
Once the couch is in the right spot, they unfold the sleeper to reveal the bare mattress. Which, of course, gets covered in the cute Halloween themed sheets Hartley'd found the year before. Which is when Hartley switches to humming a different song. Still familiar, but still not one Cisco can place.
It's as they're awkwardly putting the tent together - and how did Hartley manage this on his own last year? - that Cisco places the third song that Hartley hums and, finally, recognizes what the first two were as well.
"Christmas? Really Hartley? It's not even Halloween yet and you're humming Christmas music?" Cisco gives him a judgy look over the pole that they've half-wrestled into place on the tent.
"Sorry," Hartley replied in far too cheerful a tone to be even slightly genuine in his apology. "I just woke up with Christmas music stuck in my head. In my defense, it's all Mannheim Steamroller versions that I hear looping in my brain."
Mannheim Steamroller was an orchestra group that did some of the most gorgeous variations of Christmas carols that Cisco had ever heard. Hartley had introduced him to the orchestra's music and Cisco could definitely understand how their versions, of what he now realized were Good King Wenceslas, Bring a Torch... something or other (Cisco could never remember the full name of that one), and Stille Nacht (which had given Hartley's Christmas theme away), could so easily get stuck in Hartley's mind. "If I start humming Deck the Halls," Cisco threatened, finally getting the first pole fully in place.
Now for the other pole. Yay...
"I'll turn on the media server," Hartley conceded, turning on the tv. "We can't hum carols if we're too busy singing about werewolves in London." A few minutes later and Hartley was gleefully singing along to I've Put a Spell on You which would have been more awesome had Cisco not had the sound of Mannheim Steamroller's God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen buzzing in his brain now. Which wasn't at all fair - Hartley hadn't even hummed that one.
The moment the tent was finished and in place, Cisco flopped onto the bed and stared up at the star covered fabric. "Not even the Halloween music is helping, Hart. You've earworm-ed me. I've got Christmas tunes on the brain now. How could you do this to me?" he mock wailed.
Hartley chuckled and clambered atop Cisco, grabbing his wrists and stretching them out above Cisco's head in a slow, seductive move that had Cisco contemplating other activities that could be had in that tent, aside from cuddling and movie binging like last year. "Shall I nibble your ears until I've gotten all the unseasonal music out of your brain?" he teased.
"I'm not sure you're taking this seriously," Cisco retorted, gently testing Hartley's grip on his wrists before, in a move that had Hartley gasping in an all too pleasurable way, flipped them over on the bed. And also rolled them further into the tent. "I'm pretty sure I threatened consequences if I got carols stuck in my brain."
"Oh really..." Hartley gasped and giggled as Cisco began to nibble and suck along Hartley's neck.
"Really. Very much consequences." Cisco grinned impishly and rolled his hips, hands sliding down beneath Hartley's shirt. "Though I think we're gonna have to take the tent off to change the sheets when I'm done with you."
"Why is this tent simultaneously so awesome and such a pain?" Hartley muttered, reaching up to card his fingers into Cisco's long, soft hair. His voice caught and then he whined as Cisco's fingers found their way to a pebbled nipple and began to tease him there. Elvira's Haunted House was playing in the background but neither of them were paying attention to the Halloween music anymore as, tauntingly, Hartley began to hum Deck the Halls... or tried to amidst the symphony of other sounds that Cisco was determined to drag out of him.
Notes: The carol that Cisco can't remember the name of is "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella" - all the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas carols mentioned are off the 1984 album which is my favorite. Though it is older than I am by several years. (You can find the album on YouTube pretty easily.)