*Disclaimer: Downton Abbey tv series and movie and/or the characters are not owned by me*
Note: Another Thomas/Richard story following on from my previous fanfic 'In Thirty Years, I'll Still Love You'.
The first things that Thomas thought of as he woke in the very early morning was the fact that it was absolutely freezing, though it had been this way for weeks now, since it was the middle of December. He and Richard had every blanket they owned on their bed, and they warmed the bed with a hot water bottle before they went to sleep each night which helped, but the chill was very noticeable in the morning. Thomas honestly wouldn't have been surprised if the glass of water next to his side of the bed was frozen solid. Thankfully, it wasn't but there was no way he was drinking it. Nope, he'd be having tea or hot chocolate, anything warm and inviting. Speaking of warm and inviting, the second thought that occurred to him as he became more awake was that Richard was not in bed next to him. It was early. Half past five to be exact, woken before the alarm again, Thomas thought. The third thought to float through his sleepy mind. Though his mind shifted back to the second thought of where was Richard at this time in the morning? Perhaps he went to the bathroom, Thomas wondered. He was about to get out of bed to look for his lover when he heard a loud scraping sound on the stairs, followed by a crash and then several words uttered from Richard's mouth that he would not dare repeat upstairs in front of Lord Grantham if he valued his position as head of staff.
Thomas reluctantly relinquished what little warmth he had from being in bed and quickly pulled on a dressing gown and went to see what all that noise was about. When he opened the door between the living room and the top of the stairs, he did not expect to be greeted by a large amount of foliage belonging to, what Thomas could recognise in the dim light of the stairway, as a christmas tree. A rather large one judging by the fact that it was almost as wide as the stairs, and that he couldn't see Richard at first. "Richard what are you doing?"
There was a scrambling noise and more scraping of branches against the wall before Richard answered, "Oh, morning dear. I was hoping not to wake you. Did I wake you?"
"You did," Thomas said, an amused expression on his face.
"Oh I'm sorry. I thought I'd try to get this thing upstairs before you got up. It would have been a nice surprise for you to see it upstairs, instead of on the stairs with me underneath it at the bottom of the stairs," Richard said, though Thomas could still not properly see Richard as he spoke.
"Are you okay? I heard a crash," Thomas asked.
"Oh I'm fine, though my dignity has been destroyed I'm afraid," Richard replied from beyond the christmas tree. Thomas could hear the smile in his voice, that in spite of himself, he found the situation amusing. "It looked a lot smaller outside."
Thomas pushed a few branches out of the way so he could now see Richard near the bottom of the stairs. "You should have woken me. I could have helped. It would still have been a nice surprise," Thomas said.
"I didn't want to. We were late last night, you needed to sleep," Richard said.
"Well, I'm here now so I suggest on three, and we get this thing upstairs?" Thomas said.
"Thanks," Richard said. "On three then. One. Two. Three." On the third count Thomas pulled the top of the tree upwards, while Richard lifted the bottom of it. After a bit of careful maneuvering around the various hazards of the living room such as the chairs, the lampshade on the ceiling and the clock on the mantelpiece that almost became a casualty of Richard's festive spirits, they positioned the tree in the corner of the room, so that it would be the first thing anyone sees as they walk upstairs. "There. Not bad," Richard said, hands on hips looking at the tree in the corner of the room.
Thomas found Richard's childlike joy at the Christmas tree being in place adorable, but he himself couldn't help but think more practically. He walked over to the clock and straightened it from its crooked position on the mantelpiece, and then saw the messy trail of pine needles leading towards the stairs and down them. "That's what I can't stand about these things," Thomas said. "They leave a trail of needles that are impossible to completely clean up. The tree the upstairs lot have leaves so many, that the maids are come across them weeks after the tree is taken down."
"Oh relax my dear. It's part of the fun of it," Richard said. "I'll clean them up later I promise," he said, facing Thomas and placing both his hands on Thomas's hips, whilst kissing away the frown on Thomas's face. Thomas tried to resist, but Richard's kisses would always make him feel good inside so it was impossible to even pretend to be angry.
"Fine," Thomas said, smiling back. "Don't suppose there's any point in me going back to sleep?"
"No I suppose not, sorry," Richard said. "I'll make it up to you. Bring you up a mug of something warm for when you come out the bathroom?"
"It's fine really, but some hot chocolate would be nice," Thomas said.
"Consider it done," Richard said, giving Thomas a quick kiss before going downstairs.
"Richard!" Thomas called after him. "The shirt you're wearing will need changing. Not sure if you noticed but there is a rip in the sleeve."
"Oh wonderful," Richard said sarcastically.
"I'll fix it for you later if you like?" Thomas offered.
"No, don't worry about it. I'll do that this evening. I'll have more time than you," Richard said.
...
Twenty minutes later and Thomas came out the bathroom and into the bedroom to find Richard putting a new shirt on, his hair now a lot neater and missing the few pine needles that had found their way into his hair from the incident earlier. "As promised," Richard said, handing Thomas a warm mug of hot chocolate, which was appreciated on such a cold morning.
"Mmm, thank you," Thomas said, after taking a couple of sips, warming his hands in the process, before placing it on the table to finish in a moment or two. "Did I hear Chris come in earlier? Thought I heard the door shut."
"Yes you probably did. He's been early the past few days," Richard said, doing up the top button on his shirt and fixing his tie. He no longer had to dress as if he was going to see the King of England, but Thomas knew that it was in Richard's nature to appear presentable, and he had been living according to some pretty high standards for most of his life. Thomas didn't mind in the slightest. Richard looks good in a tie, afterall.
"You shouldn't ask him in this early though surely?" Thomas asked.
"Oh I didn't. He has been coming in early of his own accord," Richard said, crossing the room to stand in front of Thomas to sort out his tie as well. Thomas could do it himself obviously, but Richard liked to do it and Thomas, again, couldn't complain. "I think he likes to be kept busy."
Thomas never could tire of having Richard this close to him. He could easily become mesmerized by watching Richard's eyelashes flick up and down delicately as he finished doing Thomas's tie up for him. "Do you think he's okay?" he asked.
"How do you mean?" Richard asked.
"Well you said he likes to be kept busy. I had a phase of wanting that and it was only to keep myself distracted from my own thoughts," Thomas said.
"I always thought it was more because of it being in his character. But I suppose it can't be easy for him, being around us a lot of the time," Richard said.
"Because of me," Thomas said.
"You gave him a second chance Thomas, not something he would have got in many other places that's for sure. It was never going to be easy, but he knew that. You can't turn love off like a switch. I understand that now," Richard said.
"You and him are getting on okay then?" Thomas asked.
"Oh Thomas, don't worry. But your concern is touching and I love you for it," Richard said, giving him a kiss when he finished with Thomas's tie. "But yes we are, I think, more than either of us imagined. It is a breath of fresh air being able to work alongside someone whom I don't have to hide my true self from. He is also very good at his job, better than me I reckon. I suppose he would be considering he has technically been doing this job for longer than me." Thomas finished his mug of hot chocolate, cool enough to drink a bit quicker now. "I know you will have to be leaving soon, but could you come down to the shop before you go? Chris has been working on something that I think is a rather original idea," Richard said, sounding impressed.
"I could have a quick look, yes, though I'm eating breakfast at Downton today. I thought I should, I've been here most of the week," Thomas said as they went downstairs.
...
Despite the fact that he'd only been asleep for about five hours that last night (and the past few nights, if he was completely honest with himself), Chris didn't feel that tired. Perhaps it was because he had been busy since he got to the shop at six in the morning. He had gone to sleep late and found himself awake in the early hours, and he didn't see the point of just lying there unable to sleep so he left at around half past five in the morning and walked slowly (he didn't go anywhere that quickly anymore because of his leg) into Downton. He had just started renting a little place outside Downton that was owned by a woman who lived there alone with her three cats. Her husband passed a few years ago and her son never came back from the war so Chris felt she liked having someone living nearby. It also suited him as it was out of the way. He didn't mind arriving at the shop really early as he liked to feel useful and ever since he started working for Richard Ellis, he had felt more of a purpose in his life. His experience in prison had left its mark on him, in both a literal and a metaphorical sense. He would be very happy to forget those three years, the sounds and smells that he could still experience even now, especially when he was left alone with his thoughts. One thing that he hated though, that might surprise those who had never experienced prison, was the feeling of uselessness that he had. He was technically alive during those years but he didn't feel like he was living. He was just wasting time and he hated that. And in the year before he saw Thomas again, he was only surviving. He would forever be in Thomas and Richard's debt for giving him a purpose again. It was hard watching him and Richard together; having Thomas as a friend was great as he had no friends at all before really, but it was hard because he wanted Thomas to be more. That was a fact he would just have to get used too. It was a tricky fact as he wanted Thomas to be with himself, but he couldn't because he also wanted Thomas to have every happiness and he could see that Richard had given him that. He shook his head, as if that would dismiss these thoughts, and tried to focus on what he had to do this morning. He had to sort out the latest installment of the repayment on the loan that Richard had taken out on this place, but there was no point doing that until the bank in Thirsk opened later in the morning. He was glad to see yesterday that the figures have been adding up sufficiently, to allow him to be on track with any repayments. As for now, he was searching through a few large boxes of books that came in yesterday. For his little creation he is working on, he needs books of varying sizes and colours and was picking out suitable books to use, when the door behind the counter opened and Thomas came into the shop, followed by Richard. "Morning Thomas, Richard" he said. "You heading off to Downton now?"
"Hello Chris," Thomas said, looking around at the piles of books on the floor, that seemed to be organised by size. "In a minute or two yes, but Richard said you're working on something?"
"Shame you can't ask Lord Grantham to serve his own breakfast. I'm sure he could manage it on his own," Chris said, with his characteristic grin.
"He could but then I'd be out of a job," Thomas said.
"Suppose you are right," Chris said. "Anyway, I had an idea for a couple of window displays a few days ago. Christmas trees." He could see that Thomas hadn't caught on to what he was getting at yet. "Well you see, any old fool can put a couple of trees and some holly in their shop windows to keep customers in the Christmas mood so to speak, but I thought I'd try something different." He led the two men around the corner of a shelf so that they could then see the structure being built in front of one of the windows.
"A christmas tree sculpted out of books?" Thomas said. Larger books were placed at the bottom in a circular pattern, each book layered to look like a branch of a tree. As the feature increased in height, the books became smaller and so it started to resemble a tree like cone shape. Each book had a different shade or coloured book next to it or above it, and mainly in shades of red, green or brown to add to the festive mood of the feature.
"Precisely," Chris said, sounding pleased with himself. "Well two of them eventually, for symmetry. It's not exactly on the same page as the windows of Selfridges but it fits well with the shop and I think it works."
"I love the idea," Richard said. "When do you think it will be finished?"
"Next few days hopefully," Chris said. "What do you think Thomas?"
"I think that it's a great idea, and well it would make my staff's lives easier, post-Christmas, if the Crawleys could have one of these instead of an actual tree. A lot less messy," Thomas said, seeing Chris's smile as he gave his approval. "One problem though. What if a customer wants a book at the bottom of the tree?"
"Well they will have to make do with those from the very top for now," Chris said. "No one is messing with my sculpture!"
"That will give them a choice of A history of pig farming, or Fifteen ways of cooking pine nuts," Richard said, looking amused as he picked up the two top books from the book-tree.
"Well I'm sure someone will read them," Thomas said. "I should be off. I'll be back early this evening as I'm off to Thirsk this afternoon."
"Wish I knew why you were going," Richard said.
"Hmm I bet you do!" Thomas said with a wink as he put on his hat and walked out of the shop door.
"Christmas presents I bet Richard," Chris said, folding his arms. "It's usually the reason people are so weirdly secretive this time of the year."
Note: The Christmas tree sculpture made out of books is something I have seen a few times in the library of the university I used to go to, I always liked the idea and thought it was rather original.