Title: At Long Last - A Wedding Bells Alternate
Category: Who's the Boss
Summary: What happens when you mix too much wine and a secret love?
Rating:NC-17, NSFW, M
Spoilers: Wedding Bells
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.
This story contains content for mature audiences only - please be warned. If people want, I can try to mark the sections so you can skip those parts if you prefer not to read them but still want the rest of the story. If enough people ask I can try!
This story is complete (I think) but it has multiple chapters. I'll upload them as fast as I can. I kept them to 1200-1500 words for the most part because I think that's manageable to read without having to binge the whole thing!
I wrote most of these a long time ago. I apologize for any mistakes, but I will try to edit as I go!
I'm moving my Who's the Boss fics from various other sites to here. Feedback welcome - good or bad - and appreciated :) Enjoy.
9.
They are supposed to decorate the house for Christmas together as a family, but everyone else finds an excuse. Sam and Jonathan quickly find friends to go out with, and Mona flat out refuses.
"Call me when Santa gets here," she says, as she tosses her coat over her shoulders, a big bowl of popcorn in her hands. She goes out the back door to her apartment.
"That popcorn was for stringing the tree!" Angela says.
"I'll make some more," Tony says. "Come on. Here. Take this green stuff. We'll put it on the mantle. Why do you have all this green stuff anyway?"
"I like it. Michael hated it. Maybe I got it out of spite. Do you like it?"
"I like it. We never had stuff like this. No one I knew had stuff like this. Actually, that's not true. Our neighbour used to put all this gold and silver tinsel everywhere. It was so annoying because they would track it into the halls and it would stick to our boots or our jackets. We looked like walking Christmas trees."
"Mother loved silver tinsel when I was young. She used to decorate the tree in so much tinsel you could barely see the green. She used to tell my father that with all that silver on the tree, there better be something gold underneath it."
"Sounds like Mona!"
"Oh, Tony, look… I bought this when I was pregnant with Jonathan. I wanted so badly to make a beautiful home for him with the perfect family and perfect holiday traditions." She starts to tear up. "And look, Jonathan made this in his first year of school. He said he made it just for me."
"Angela… Angela… jeez, come on." Tony goes to her and takes the decorations from her. "It's nice. It's really nice. And hey, Jonathan's got a great family. He's got you. And now he's got us!"
"Yeah," she says, weepily. Tony hands her a tissue.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Sorry, I don't know what came over me. Tony, let's take a break."
"A break? We barely got half the decorations up. This box is still full."
"We've been at this all morning. Let's make popcorn."
"I should have known," he says. "Oh, hey, I got an idea," he says, leading her to the kitchen, "let's make mulled wine."
"Ohhh, that sounds good!"
"I've got the perfect bottle of chianti. And I think… I think…." He opens up a few cupboards. "Aha! Brandy."
"Brandy?"
"Oh, you'll love it. A bit of brandy in the wine and it'll be perfect. Here. You get the peel from the oranges. I just want the orange part, not the white part." He tosses her an orange that she catches with a squeal of surprise, and he brings her a knife.
"How do I get just the orange part?" she asks, using the knife to slice a chunk of peel off.
"Angela. Not like that. Look, hold the orange in this hand." He puts it in her hand. "Take the knife in the other hand, and now just really lightly shave off the top part. Here, like this." Tony comes up behind her, holding her hand that holds the orange, and then wraps his other hand over hers on the knife, his arms around her body. "It's easy," he says, his chest against her back, his breath ruffling her hair. "See? Just be gentle, and you get the orange part."
Tony got into this position on purpose, he wanted to be close to her, but he underestimated the effect she has on him. He's hyper aware of how nice she feels, how good she smells, how easy it would be to let go of the knife and orange and wrap his arms around her waist, kiss her neck, press himself against her behind…. But they haven't properly worked on their non-sexual relationship, and she wanted to do that first. Instead, he clears his throat and straightens his back. "Um, got it?" he asks.
"Got it," she says softly as he lets go of her. He avoids looking at her and she focuses on the orange.
"Um, okay, well, what d'you say, we'll make the whole bottle," Tony says, his voice exuberant again as he tries to distract from how nice it was to have her in his arms. "I'm sure Mona will pop by again." He pours the entire bottle into a pot, and then finds all the spices and drops them in without measuring. Angela is too focused on peeling the oranges just right to pay attention.
"How much of this do you need?" she asks, letting another peel drop to the cutting board.
"The whole orange!"
"The whole thing?" she asks. She's only barely done a quarter of it.
"Give me that," he says, taking it from her. He peels it expertly while she moves around him to sit on the counter and watch him. It's one of their favourite things to do.
"How do you know how to do everything?" she asks him.
"I learned this when I was on the road in the minors. We had so much time on the bus going from city to city I used to read cook books. Then when we were at hotels we had a hot plate and one night I made this. It was such a hit, and I didn't even have half the ingredients. The next time I made it the guys went nuts. The manager was furious, but the guys loved it."
He drops the orange peels in. He cleans up the orange and splits it in half, giving her some and keeping half for himself. She plops a piece into her mouth.
xx
"It smells like Christmas," she says. "Mother and daddy used to drag me to so many Christmas parties and this is exactly what it smelled like."
"Must have been some wild parties," he laughs.
"Yeah, the kids awkwardly shoved into one room while the parents went wild in another."
"Mrs Rosini had big parties. Actually, almost everyone there was a family member, but it still filled her apartment and spilled into the hall. Lots of drinking but no mulled wine."
"You know what would go great with this? Cookies."
"Cookies? Cookies don't go with this."
"Cheese? Do we have any cheese?"
"Yeah, I think we do."
Angela goes to the fridge and finds a new wheel of brie and pulls it out triumphantly.
"I found it!" she announces. He looks at her.
"Congratulations."
Angela works hard at creating a cheese board while Tony lets the wine simmer. He pours in some brandy and shuts off the heat. He gets a glass for himself and one for her and hands it to her.
"It'll still be warm, watch out," he says as she goes to take a sip.
"Oh my god, Tony! That's delicious!"
"See? What did I tell you - it's the perfect recipe!"
Angela smiles at him. There really isn't anything he can't do. She loves the comfort his cooking brings to her and the whole family. She has a strong urge to hug him so she does, wrapping one arm around his waist. He responds just as she wanted him to, by placing a kiss on her lips.
"Come on. We've got work to do," she says.
They take their drinks and the cheese plate and go back to the living room. They spend the afternoon drinking and decorating and arguing and laughing. As they drink more and more, they get sillier and sillier.
"I can't believe there are men like you, Tony."
"There are very few men like me, Angela."
"No, I mean it. You love decorating the house with me. I think most men would get annoyed."
"What can I say, most men don't have the talent I have. Most men don't have such good company."