Grif isn't overly fond of New Year's Eve.
Pairings Beyond Grimmons:
~Background Kimbalina
Other Notes for This Story:
~Set some time after the events of Season 17, so SPOILERS exist.
Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs. Blue or any of the show's characters. They are the rightful properties of Rooster Teeth.
New Year's Eve
New Year's wasn't a holiday that Dexter Grif fondly remembered. At all. During the rare occasions when his mother was actually home, she used the holiday as an excuse to get drunk. Not that she needed much of an excuse.
Otherwise, the New Year went by unnoticed, save that when she was really little, Kai was excited to stay up late. Not that she could often make it all the way to midnight, although she'd often complain if he tried to put her to bed when their neighborhood seemed to be having the party to end all parties. Truth be told, Grif just assumed that the neighbors got dumber and louder on New Year's Eve.
As he got older, the orange-wearing man still didn't have much appreciation for the holiday. Oh yeah, another shitty year was over and done with, now a new one was ready to take its place. Yippee. Even drinking oneself into a stupor lost much of its charm after the first few times, especially since the hangovers didn't help either.
When the Reds and Blues were all stationed at Blood Gulch? Who the fuck even knew when the years passed then, especially once the calendar on his HUD broke? Nothing ever changed there beyond ghosts or Freelancers cropping up. The years all blended together. Who in their right mind would celebrate a never-ending loop of inane things?
Following Blood Gulch, there had been a period of time when things had been simply too chaotic and crashy. Yes, "crashy" was so a word he had heard over the internet. He didn't need Simmons to check his damn grammar! When the hell would there be time for celebrating, what with the nefarious top-secret government programs, forced upon them revenge quests, and planet-wide civil wars to contend with?
Last time the group really had a chance to celebrate the New Year properly was on Iris before the whole time travel clusterfuck occurred, and Donut pretty much ruined that with his scented candles. So yeah, it wasn't exactly a holiday he cared too much about celebrating. Besides, resolutions were shit. What was the point of setting goals he knew he wouldn't even try accomplishing? Even making a resolution was too much work.
This year, the Reds and Blues had gotten word from Chorus that they were invited to the long-suffering planet's first official New Year's celebration now that there was a tentative sort-of peace. Obviously with no thanks to the UNSC. Because it had been a personal invite from Kimball, Carolina insisted that they were all attending. So of course they were going. She still scared the shit out of them! Truth be told, none of the others, Kai included, needed an excuse to have themselves a good time by getting treated like heroes again. Hell, normally Grif would be all for it too, but the second the festivities had gotten underway, the heavyset man retreated back to their temporary living quarters on Chorus and refused to attend any of the New Year celebrations.
In all honesty, the noise was loud enough as it was without his being present. Besides, everyone wishing each other a Happy New Year was just too much for him. After all, what were the odds something else wouldn't come up to make the whole thing moot again anyways? They fucking literally just did a whole escapade of time travel shit! None of them could win real peace, could they?
Grif was startled out of his overly broody thoughts by a knock on the door. He knew it wasn't Kai, as she would have just poked her dark head of hair in and loudly proclaimed he needed to move his ass and join in the fun or something, and most of the other Reds and Blues wouldn't have bothered knocking either because they were all rude assholes who were way too familiar with one another, "Come in." Grif grumbled, surprised to find a sheepish-looking Simmons standing on the other side of the entrance. The lanky cyborg had in his hands what appeared to be two champagne flutes filled with a bubbling amber liquid as he walked into the space.
"Dude, did you actually put beer in those?" Grif asked, unable to not tease the redhead as he gestured to the flutes.
The flesh and blood portion of Simmons' face turned bright red at the joke, "I asked Jensen for it since I knew you weren't fond of champagne," he said, "Because your taste sucks, fat-ass."
"Good man," Grif replied as he nodded appreciatively, "Could have just used the bottles or can though."
"Wouldn't have been classy." Simmons muttered sheepishly under his breath as if realizing now just how foolish an idea it was not to have done that. He awkwardly held one of the drinks out towards Grif, "Anyways, here."
The chubby soldier took the beer gratefully, "Has Kai's shirt come off yet?" Grif asked, clearly expecting his sister to ruin the family's honor tonight.
Simmons blushed again at the mental image, "Not yet, no thanks to Tucker," he answered, "Agent Washington is keeping an eye on both of them."
"Huh." Grif mused, looking down absentmindedly at the flute in his hand, "He must really want Kimball and Carolina's date to go well."
"Y-yeah." A nod, and Simmons was looking at the tan-skinned man in what seemed a surprisingly concerned way, "So why aren't you out there living it up too?" He asked, clearly curious.
Grif shrugged disinterestedly, "Eh, you know me, Simmons. A holiday which forces people to stay awake? Naturally I'm boycotting that shit." Simmons gave him a blank look, and Grif knew the maroon-armored soldier didn't buy his excuse. He quickly wracked his brain to come up with some change of topic, "Why aren't you sucking up to Sarge right now?" He finally settled on, somewhat curious himself.
"Sarge is busy trying to explain why shotguns are the superior firearm to the Lieutenants." Simmons sniffed dismissively, before looking down at the ground sheepishly again as if realizing for the first time that maybe he'd made a huge mistake, "Besides, I wanted to come find you."
"Really? Just to pass me half a bottle's worth of beer?" Grif asked, raising a dark-colored eyebrow incredulously.
Simmons' face turned beet red all the way to his metal plating once again, "My family has a New Year's tradition." He shakily explained, as if the entire conversation was mortifying.
"Oh?" Grif was only half listening as he inwardly debated chugging his beer down right then and there. Beer was beer after all. Who the hell cared about the container it was in?
"On New Year's Eve you're supposed to spend the final moments of the year and the first ones of the new year with the person you're closest to." Simmons quickly got out all in one breath, grimacing, "At least, my grandparents always did and I thought it was a nice tradition even though my parents never did it, so..." He quickly took a shaky step back, obviously misinterpreting Grif's silence negatively, "This was...this was a really bad idea! The alcohol got to me. Yeah, that's it! I must be totally buzzed!" Simmons stated hurriedly as he retreated closer to the door, "Gotta go. Bye, Grif!"
Grif surprised both men by suddenly reaching out and gently grabbing onto Simmons' arm, preventing the other man from leaving. Simmons froze, the two staring at their entwined appendages for a few moments. The only sound outside was the loud countdown from all of their friends on Chorus.
"That isn't such a bad idea at all, kiss-ass." Grif stated at length with a smirk forming on his face as his hand found Simmons' own and gave it a squeeze, "Happy New Year, Simmons."
The smile that Simmons gave him in return was one memory Grif definitely wanted to bring with him into the new year as he gently returned the squeeze, "Happy New Year, Grif." The redhead murmured.
Maybe, just maybe, there were some things about the upcoming year that Grif would be looking forward to after all. But he still wasn't doing that resolution shit. He'd leave that crap to Simmons.
Author's Notes: Happy New Year, everyone! :D I hope to get back to a regular update schedule now that the holidays are behind us, but I couldn't help but want to bring in the New Year with some good old-fashioned Grimmons fluff. I hope you had fun reading!
