A/N: Hi there you guys! Still can't believe how much support this story has.
I'm sorry that it took this long for me to update. I know I promised that I would have updated as soon as my finals were over, but I had other stuff to do and a wedding to attend. Again, I apologize.
Also for those people I promised to write one-shots as birthday presents, please give me till the 27th to finish them. I'm having a bit of writer's block but I promise to post it by the 27th.
Oh and congratulations you guys, we survived the apocalypse! It's already 12/22 here in the Philippines. So yay us!
Disclaimer: I do not own BTR.
Chapter 4:Merry Christmas, You Jerk.
It had been a month since Carlos had met Nana's grandson, and ever since then everything became weird. If you had told Carlos a month and a day ago that James would visit him every day at work, Carlos would've ran away and called the nearest mental institution to admit whoever had been crazy enough to tell him so. But lo and behold, ever since they had gone to that gay bar, James never failed to visit Carlos at the Palm Woods and even sometimes ate lunch with all of them.
Logan and Carlos tried to be more civil not only for Nana Mitchell's sake, but also in the spirit of Christmas. On days that Logan didn't have to teach at the university, he helped Carlos put up Christmas decorations in Nana's room. Carlos would sometimes notice that Logan would accidentally brush against his hand, when he passed a decoration or two. Carlos would also sometimes catch himself staring at the doctor, and sometimes Logan stared right back.
However, when James was around, Logan would revert back to his usual self. He would insult and belittle Carlos as much as he can. Instead of their hands brushing, Logan would push him aside. Instead of staring, Logan would glare at him. Of course Carlos would retaliate, but somehow it wasn't the same anymore- at least for him. Logan on the other hand seemed angrier when he was in a foul mood- which was when James was around. Carlos knows that Logan wasn't angry at James, because the insults were always directed at Carlos, but he still found it weird that it only happened when James was around. Carlos finally had enough and decided to ask Kendall about it.
"It should really be obvious, Carlos. If you don't see it, then I'm not going to tell you." Was all that Kendall replied. Carlos cursed inwardly. It seemed that everyone was conspiring against him.
It was around a few days before Christmas before something eventful finally happened. Of course, James was there- since he was the one who instigated it.
"So what are your plans for Christmas Eve?" James asked. Everyone turned to him.
"I've got nothing planned." Kendall tapped his chin as if it would suddenly make him remember a Christmas plan that he might have forgotten.
"I'm spending it with Grammy." Logan answered without looking up from the book that he was reading.
"I don't think I'm allowed to leave the Palm Woods." Nana smiled at James.
James turned to Carlos and raised an eyebrow which was also met by a raised eyebrow from the Latino. "What?"
"Didn't you hear my question?" James crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently.
"I heard you. But you already know what I do during Christmas Eve." Carlos frowned at James. "No need to ask me."
"True, true." James nodded. "But I don't think our other friends know what you do on Christmas Eve." Kendall raised an eyebrow at him, Nana smiled at him, and Logan was peering over his book, trying his best not to look interested.
"They don't need to know what I do on Christmas Eve. Nana already knows what I have planned, Kendall is barely my friend, no offense Kendall; and heaven knows that Logan hates me." Carlos heard Logan slam his book shut and glared at Carlos.
"Just answer the damn question already. James would just probably continue to pester you into telling us what you really do, and I just want to read my book in peace." Logan gave an exasperated sigh. "I could care less if you screwed with someone-" James noticed that Logan glanced at him for a moment before glaring again at Carlos. "-on Christmas Eve. Just answer the question so we could get this over with and James can finally get to his point." Logan opened his book again and continued to read.
"Fine." Carlos refused to look at anyone. "I spend my Christmas Eve at home, alone with my dog Sydney. You happy?" Carlos felt embarrassed and stormed out of the room to cool his head.
Carlos sat down on the couch at a nearby lounge area. Carlos looked outside the windows and noticed that it was already dark and that it was snowing. Tonight would be his last shift for the holidays and the next time he would have to report for work would be on the 26th. Since James' vacation from their family business started a few days ago, the brunet spent as much time as possible at the Palm Woods. Same thing goes for Logan. And Carlos wasn't so sure if Kendall was forced to be at the Palm Woods or if he was already on vacation from Logan, but chose to hang out with them instead.
Carlos was interrupted from his musings when he felt someone sit beside him. He saw Logan who was just staring at him and was extending a hand that held a mug. "I made hot chocolate and put marshmallows in it." Logan stated as if it explained everything in the universe. "I don't like marshmallows." Logan added when Carlos just blinked at him. Carlos accepted the mug and murmured a "Thanks," before taking a sip. Logan took a sip from his own mug, and Carlos swore that he saw marshmallows on Logan's mug as well, but he decided not to question it; sensing that it will just lead into an argument. "So why don't you visit your family or something, if you don't like being alone for Christmas Eve, so much?" Logan took another sip from his hot chocolate, trying to sound as casual as possible.
Carlos didn't really want to answer the question, but Logan was trying to be nice to him and Carlos could repay that kindness by answering. "My family and I stopped talking years ago. I think it was during my Senior Year." Carlos took another sip from his hot chocolate. "That was the time I started living with James, well up until I managed to support myself."
"I see."Carlos was grateful that Logan didn't give words of pity or tried to apologize, as if those things would change anything.
"How about you? If you don't mind me asking-" Carlos hoped that Logan wouldn't chew his head off for asking. "What did you do back in Britain during the holidays?"
"Spent it with Kendall and his ex-boyfriend." Logan answered nonchalantly.
"Kendall isn't really just your assistant, is he?" Carlos asked.
"I'm going back inside." Logan stood up, and just like that Carlos ruined the moment.
Carlos followed Logan inside shortly after their chat. He felt calmer and more at ease. James looked apologetic, but Carlos just smiled at him- his way of saying that all was forgiven. Carlos noticed that Logan was peering again over his book before going back to reading and frowning. They spent the rest of the night with everyone doing their own thing. Nana and Carlos was engrossed in watching a Christmas film. Logan continued reading his book, and Kendall and James decided to get coffee at a nearby coffee place.
Around ten minutes after Carlos' shift ended, Kendall and James returned from the coffee shop. James and Carlos said their goodbyes and wished everyone a happy holiday, Carlos also promised to drop by on Christmas morning to give Nana, Logan, and Kendall their presents. James drove Carlos home, and just as Carlos was about to leave the car, James stopped him.
"You're not leaving until I give you my present." James stepped out of the car and started rummaging through his trunk. After a few seconds, James emerged with a green box that had a pretty red bow sitting on top of it. "Merry Christmas, Carlos." He handed the box towards Carlos and lightly punched Carlos' arm.
"Let me go get yours. It's still inside." Carlos was about to run inside when James stopped him again.
"You can just give it to me on Christmas day itself. I'll drop by to get it." James smiled.
"Then you could have just dropped your present then." Carlos laughed.
"Well, my present is special," James explained. "-because you have to open it exactly when the clock strikes twelve on Christmas, okay?" Carlos nodded. "No matter what you're doing, you have to stop and immediately and open my present on Christmas. Understood?"
"Yeah, I understand. But why- ?"
"Tut. Tut. Tut." James wagged his fingers. "No ruining the surprise. Depending on how everything goes, this could be the best or worst present you could ever have." This got Carlos more curious, but decided to play along with James' antics. "So don't open that box till twelve. Don't worry; I'll call you a few minutes before to remind you about it."
"Whatever you say, James. Happy Hanukkah!"
It was Christmas Eve and Carlos was in his pyjamas. He was watching another Christmas movie as he waited for the ham to cook. Just because he spent Christmas Eve alone, didn't mean that he would be a scrooge about it. Even though he was going to eat alone, Carlos still tried to set up the table and tried to make it as fancy as possible.
He felt a small pang when he realized that he was going to spend another Christmas alone. It had been a few years since he spent it with someone special, and Carlos can't help but feel a little lonely at that. He was shaken out of his stupor when he heard someone knock on the door.
"Just a moment!" Carlos yelled, as Sydney trotted towards the door as well. Carlos opened the door and saw Kelly standing outside.
"Hi, Carlos." She smiled. "Just wanted to wish you a happy Christmas, and give you your gift." Carlos noticed that she was wearing a red dress and black pumps, as she handed Carlos' gift.
"Thanks, Kelly. Why don't you come inside while I fetch you your gift." He opened the door wider for her to step inside. "I'm guessing that things are going well with the guy you met?" Carlos asked as he looked under his Christmas tree for Kelly's gift.
"Yeah. Gustavo's taking me to meet his family tonight." She blushed at the mention of the man's name. Carlos stopped looking under his tree and hugged Kelly.
"Congratulations! I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't jealous of you." Carlos chuckled.
"Don't worry, Carlos. I'm sure whoever is meant for you is out there just waiting for the right circumstances to show up." Carlos finally found his gift for Kelly and handed it to her.
"Merry Christmas, Kelly! Hope you have fun on your date." Carlos as they said their goodbyes.
Carlos went into the kitchen and took out the ham from the oven. He also took out the wine that he was saving for tonight and prepared for dinner. He was about to sit when he heard another knock on the door. Curious as to who it might be, Carlos hurried towards the door. Outside was Logan who was smiling sheepishly.
"Um. Hi." Logan shifted from one foot to another and gave another sheepish grin. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas, Logan." Carlos gave him a confused smile. "Uhh.. I was just about to have dinner, would you like to join me?"
"Yes, that would be great." Logan scratched his head. The doctor stepped inside Carlos' apartment. He saw that the place was decorated. Figures, Carlos seemed the type who would go overboard when it comes to Christmas. A brown German Shepherd circled around him and sniffed at him tentatively, then it barked out and trotted off somewhere.
"That was my dog, Sydney. That means she likes you." Carlos chuckled and led him towards the dining area. Carlos pulled the seat for him, and Logan sat down. Carlos went into the kitchen and started setting up for Logan. "Sorry for my state of dress." Carlos said as he placed a plate and necessary utensils in front of Logan. "I wasn't expecting company. Do you mind waiting, while I go change into something more appropriate for company?"
"No need. This is your home and I'm an uninvited visitor. No need to change for me." Logan smiled when Carlos gave him a "are you sure" look.
Logan was impressed at Carlos' cooking and decided to bring it up as they had sat there in uncomfortable silence for the past ten minutes. "Where did you learn to cook?"
"I guess, it's something that you really have to learn when you live on your own." Carlos smiled. "Don't take this the wrong way, but why are you here, Logan?"
"I hope you don't take this the wrong way either, but grammy requested it as her Christmas gift." Logan looked apologetic and played with his food.
"You left Nana alone on Christmas Eve?" Carlos didn't know whether to be shocked, happy, or angry. Shocked because Logan actually agreed to Nana's wishes, happy because he wasn't going to spend Christmas Eve alone, and angry because Logan left Nana alone on Christmas Eve.
"No. James and Kendall are there to keep her company." Logan smiled again.
"And since when was this planned?" Carlos asked as he finished swallowing the last piece of his ham.
"About a week ago. I'll tell you more about it later." Carlos frowned but nodded anyways. He stood up again and took the cake out of the fridge.
"I baked it by myself." Carlos beamed proudly. "It's red velvet."
"Looks delicious."
"Thanks. I actually thought of setting up a bakery when I failed my nursing board exam." Carlos said as he cut a slice of cake.
"And why didn't you?" Logan asked as he accepted the slice of cake.
"Well, I didn't have enough money to set up my own bakery. James offered to lend me the money but I told him that that was already too much." Logan noticed that Carlos was watching him, so he took a bite. He couldn't help but moan at how delicious the cake was.
"This is really good." Logan said as he licked his lips for any left-over cream. Carlos blushed, not because of the compliment but because of the dirty thoughts that entered his mind when he heard Logan moan and lick his lips off of white cream.
"Thanks, I guess." Logan was too busy eating his cake to make some sort of conversation so Carlos decided to take the initiative. "So what pushed you to become a doctor?"
"Well, my parents I guess. Grammy and Granddad used to tell me that my parents had the chance to live if they were able to afford a world-renowned surgeon, but they weren't able to. So I told myself that I would be the best doctor that I could be and offer my services for free to those who really need it."
"Then, why are you teaching instead of practicing?" Carlos asked.
"I really don't want to talk about it." Logan smiled sadly. "Can I have some more cake?" Carlos sliced him another one and dropped the subject.
After cleaning up, to which Logan insisted that he help with, the two of them sat down in front of the television and watched more Christmas movies. They would comment here and there about the actors and actresses, but didn't really talk about anything serious.
It was around eleven o'clock in the evening, when they had their seventh glass of wine that Logan looked at Carlos in the eyes. "I'm sorry."
"Huh?" Carlos eyebrows drew together in confusion. "What for?"
"For being such a jerk to you."
"I forgive you." Carlos chuckled. "But do you mind me asking why?"
"I was jealous of you." Logan shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Every time Grammy and I talked when I was still in Britain, she would always tell me how wonderful you were. I guess I was jealous that you got to spend more time with her than I did."
"I never tried to replace you." Carlos offered. "And even if I did, I could never replace you. You're a successful doctor, and I'm just a nurse wannabe."
Logan chuckled at this. "You give too much importance on title. It doesn't matter whether you passed the stupid board or not. You're better than any nurse because you have a bond with your patient that a nurse could never have."
"Thanks, Logan. That really means a lot to me." Carlos glanced at the clock and saw that it was five minutes till Christmas. "Oh, let me go get your present!" Carlos stood up and retrieved a box under the tree and handed it to Logan. "Merry Christmas! Go ahead and open it already."
"Thanks." Logan neatly unwrapped the box and found a toaster. "How'd you know?"
"Nana told me that your favourite food was toast and that you left your toaster back in Britain." Carlos grinned, proud of himself that Logan liked his gift.
"My gift for you will be here in a while." Logan smiled mischievously. "It's actually from Kendall, James, Nana, and I."
"Oh. And since when you and James had been friends?" Carlos crossed his arms and looked at Logan questioningly.
"Hush. I'll explain everything later." Carlos was about to argue about it when his phone started ringing. "Shouldn't you get that? You know that James doesn't like to be kept waiting."
Carlos gave him an incredulous look before he answered his phone. "Hello, James? Please tell me what's going on..."
"Nope."
"Fine. Let's just get this over with. Whatever this is."
"Okay then. Grab the box I gave you and hold it. But don't open it till I tell you to do so."
"Okay. Let me go grab it." Carlos fetched the gift from under the tree, having already placed it somewhere that was easy to be seen. "Okay, I got it. Now what?"
"You stand in front of Logan and give it to him. He'll know what to do. Merry Christmas, Carlitos! Kendall and Nana says that we hope you'll like our present. Byeeee~." Carlos was about to ask what James meant by Logan knowing what to do, but the dial tone went dead already. So he did as he was instructed and handed the box to Logan.
"Here, James said you'd know what to do with it." Logan gulped and nodded. He stepped closer to Carlos and raised the box with both of his arms. Carlos gave him a questioning look when Logan turned the box over which caused the lid to fall. Carlos glanced up and saw a mistletoe, tied to a string, hanging from the box.
"Merry Christmas?" Logan blushed and tried his best to look at Carlos in the eyes. Carlos blushed as well and grinned.
"Merry Christmas." Carlos repeated, before kissing Logan. Logan dropped the box with the mistletoe and wrapped his arms Carlos' neck. Carlos' tongue darted out and pushed slightly at Logan's lips. Logan parted his lips and coaxed Carlos' tongue with his own. Carlos sighed or moaned- Logan didn't really know nor cared- into Logan's mouth, which caused shivers to run down Logan's spine. When their lungs could no longer take it and demanded for air, they pulled away.
"I like that better than fighting." Carlos commented. "Also when we're not both drunk and horny." Logan raised an eyebrow. "Okay, maybe we're both a little buzzed, but we're not drunk."
"Yeah, we aren't." Logan agreed. "You giggle a lot when you're drunk."
"I do not!" Carlos pouted and crossed his arms. "Anyways, I don't understand. Please explain this to me." Carlos gestured towards the discarded box that had the mistletoe in it.
"Let's see..."Logan sat down on the couch and patted the spot beside him, which Carlos immediately took and leaned on Logan's shoulder. "Ever since we met at the gay bar and you offered a truce, I realized how petty I was. The day after, I asked that you be reassigned again to Grammy. I just didn't realize how much time I would spend with you, back then."
"But you're glad that you did?" Carlos interrupted, even though he knew the answer.
"At first, no." Both of them chuckled. "But spending time with you made me see how nice you really were. I understood why Grammy spoke so much about you. And I think that's when I started to like you."
"But then, why did you still insult me when James was around?"
"I was jealous, because Kendall kept on insisting that James had a thing for you. You already told me that you only saw him as a brother, but I thought he liked you."
"Then why were you being mean to me and not to him?! Jerk."
"Because I was angry at you for allowing him to flirt with you without even knowing it." Logan huffed.
"That has got to be one of the most irrational arguments I have ever heard." Carlos laughed. "But I think it's cute that you were jealous." Logan frowned. "Anyways, how did you and James end up being friends?"
"Well about a week ago, I couldn't take it any longer. I confronted James and told him that I knew that he liked you and told him that you weren't interested. He looked really worried and ran away. I chased after him and caught him talking to Kendall on the phone. I snatched the phone away from him and asked Kendall what was going on." Logan chuckled at something he must have remembered before continuing. "Turns out, Kendall and James had been faking all along. The two of them, including Nana had been concocting a plan, ever since Kendall and James met at the gay bar, to get the two of us together."
"WHAT?! So this is their idea?!" Carlos was about to call James and yell his ear off, when Logan grabbed his hand.
"Don't. Ever since I found out about their plan, I told them that I wanted to be part of the plan, because I liked you, and I wanted to make up for the things I did. So we came up with this plan." Logan grinned. "I pretended that I didn't know anything, and we wanted to see if you would figure out that I was actually jealous, but that didn't turn out well. And well, we all came up with this idea..." Carlos didn't speak for a while, still deciding whether or not he was okay that he was manipulated into this situation.
"I seriously don't know if I want to punch you or kiss you." Carlos finally sighed after what seemed forever for Logan.
"Kissing sounds good." Logan shrugged. "And besides, didn't you just say you liked kissing better than fighting?" This made Carlos chuckle before he kissed Logan for a second time.
"Merry Christmas, you jerk." Carlos joked when they pulled away.
A/N: Well, I told myself that this would just be a short Christmas filler, but things never turn out the way that they should... Seriously, it's like I'm not even in control of these stories anymore. Hahaha. The characters seem to write their own dialogue and just tells me what to type...
Oh and some of you might have expected smut in this chapter... but I didn't want to put it in here for several reasons. One of the birthday requests I'm writing involves a holiday themed smut, I think that it would be too similar if I included it here. Also, even though they already had sex back in chapter two, they were drunk and never considered that they would eventually like each other to be in a relationship, so they really didn't care about sex, but now that they are (or will be- I still haven't decided if they're already officially together or not) –in a relationship, well they wouldn't want to rush things now... I hope people understand my logic.
So how was it? Was it too fluffy or not fluffy enough? Loved it? Hated it? Please tell me.
Please review.
Love lots and keep on rushing!