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 Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2023 10:25 am
Large plastic boxes cluttered the living room, rising around Lovely in neat stacks — some taller than he was. By their festive green and red colors, the contents of these boxes were probably obvious. A few had their lids pulled off already, spilling out strings of lights and lush garlands, as if he’d been in the process of starting his task before deciding there were other things that needed doing first.
Lovely sat in the center of it all, dressed in a warm coat and scarf, with a sketchbook open in his lap. A black pen scratched across its surface — the first thing he’d been able to find in his hasty search for sketching supplies — leaving behind the rough sketch of a house and its accompanying front yard.
He looked quite serious, brows drawn, frown firmly in place, but a frenetic gleam lit his eyes as he planned and plotted.
December was an important time of year in the Jones household. (Ignore the fact that he wasn’t technically a Jones; he’d never actually bothered to go through the trouble of changing his last name.) Not because either of them were religious (the opposite, really). Not because Lovely had a particular affinity for good will and holiday cheer (the opposite, again). But because the Christmas season always reminded Lovely of the happiest weeks of their youth. (They still had plenty of youth left to go, of course, but they’d certainly been younger.)
Which, naturally, translated to obsessive decorating now that they actually had a nice house to decorate. Lovely refused to be outdone. He would outdo the Lovely of last year, and every other house in their neighborhood this year, or he would die trying.
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2023 5:41 pm
“They’ve already got their lights up. And wreaths on the windows,” Ilian reported as he peered out the window at the houses across the street. He knew how Lovely was when it came to decorating, and he was definitely not going to be standing in his way.
The holiday season was… a strangely cheerful time for him. At least since Lovely and he had gotten together. The years before that? Not so much. But now the enthusiasm Lovely had for things like decorating and even hosting events in the Dark Kingdom was enough to make him enthusiastic as well.
Which was why he was helping Lovely determine how much more they had to do in order to out decorate their neighbors.
“They had an inflatable gravestone and ghost for Halloween. They’ll probably get an inflatable… something… for Christmas too,” he guessed. “We could get some of that white fabric and roll it out on the yard to make it look like snow,” he suggested with a grin.
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Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2023 6:56 pm
“Ugh, I hate inflatables,” Lovely complained, continuing his obsessive sketching. “They’re so tacky.” Nevermind that he used tacky decorations for things that required decorating in the Dark Kingdom. That was purposeful, and also the Dark Kingdom. This was Christmas with Ilian. “This is a nice neighborhood. I know they have money. They have a kid, don’t they? The inflatable must be for their twelve year old.”
He rambled and sketched and sketched and rambled, trying to remember how much they had stored away from last year. Would it be enough? Yes, probably, but also no. They’d have to brave the seasonal crowds and buy more if they wanted to top their decorations from last year.
First things first, they had to begin.
Not expecting an answer to a question he didn’t actually care for an answer to, Lovely went on without pause, “I know we have window wreaths. We could add lights to them. I want to get some of those big ornaments to hang from the elm tree. We could get a snow machine if you want fake snow instead of fabric, but it’ll probably snow soon anyway. Global warming’s got nothing on Destiny City.”
He could almost guarantee they’d have a blizzard before Christmas.
Finishing his sketch, Lovely tossed the pen aside without paying attention to where it rolled off to, then jumped to his feet with a flourish of his sketchbook.
“What do you think?” he asked, showing his hastily drawn plans to Ilian. “Lights across everything that makes a straight line. Roof line, eaves, railings, window frames, door frame, corner posts, foundation. Wrapped around the columns. Trees, bushes, pathway, mailbox. Deer everywhere. Those spiral trees we have... somewhere. ********, did I leave them in at the attic? Also I saw this big lit archway—... ********, actually, I forget what store it was, I’ll look for it again, but I was going to get it for the pathway. Do we want everything in warm white, or do we want red, green, and warm white this year? We’ve got enough lights to get a good start on either.”
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2023 10:15 am
As Lovely rambled and ranted, Ilian just turned to cross his arms and lean against the window frame and smile. Lovely was cute. In a brash, you gotta get used to it, kind of way. But Ilian didn’t mind. He’d built up a lot of tolerance to a lot of things, and being able to handle Lovely’s… personality… was just one of those things.
“You’re the artist,” he pointed out, but he still had a smile and he laughed at how detailed Lovely was with his drawing. “If you really want my opinion, I think the warm white with the green and red will help things stand out more. If we’re going to be covering everything in lights. Oh, make sure we add some more extension cords to the list. And a couple of those outlets that have the timers.”
He wasn’t the best when it came to design, but he wanted to support Lovely however he could. It was good that Lovely’s energy was being directed into something… not necessarily productive but something that brought him joy it seemed.
“We should get a fog machine for Halloween next year. Hell, we can use it for our Christmas decorations if you want.”
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Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2023 2:54 pm
Lovely knew that look on Ilian’s face. That was Ilian’s ‘you’re so cute’ smile. Which Lovely did not agree with. He was not cute, he was gorgeous. There was a difference! But he also didn’t mind if Ilian thought he was cute, because the more Ilian liked about him, the more likely he would be to keep overlooking the fact that Lovely was a hateful b***h and Ilian could do so much better.
So, while Lovely’s nose crinkled and his eyes narrowed ever so slightly, he did his best not to glower. He felt one of those disgusting flutters in his chest — the sort that always sprang up when Ilian was being cute and indulgent and smiling like that.
“A fog machine?” Lovely said. “Does anyone use fog machines during Christmas? Maybe hold that thought for next year. We can do spooky Christmas for Halloween. Zombie Santa and skeleton reindeer and that sort of s**t.”
His sketch approved, Lovely turned to begin digging through one of the open boxes. Some of them were labeled. ‘Plugs and extension cords’ being one of them. Ilian was probably right that they’d need more of those. It took a bit of searching to find the lights he was looking for, but eventually Lovely came upon a box full of spools of red, green, and white lights.
“Let’s get up what we can so we can figure out how much we need to buy,” he said, tossing the sketch into the box so he could have his hands free. “Grab those present lights and whichever deer you can carry.”
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Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2023 1:14 pm
He couldn’t help but think Lovely was cute when he was so unapologetically passionate about certain things! It wasn’t everything that he got really focused on, so this was quite enjoyable for Ilian to witness.
“Sure no problem,” he grinned, clearly amused by Lovely’s agreement to getting a fog machine. It would be fun! And maybe he could convince him to use it for Christmas too if he kept suggesting it.
As for the deer, those were no problem. He pushed a couple of them close together, and then a couple more, and finally gathered all four up by holding the two legs closest to each other in both hands. Sure he had to adjust for the awkwardness, but he could definitely show off how much he could carry. Oh, and he needed the present lights, which was fine too! He just needed to tuck a part of it under his arm.
“Same place as last year for these?” he asked, trying to keep himself from smiling too much and irritating Lovely by accident.
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Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2023 11:14 am
Lovely was already on his way out the door, shoving out the box of lights first, then grabbing the box of plugs and extension cords.
“Didn’t you just look at my sketch?” he asked, letting his voice lower like he was annoyed, but it lacked the cold scathingness or hot resentment that would’ve made the attempt genuine. “Or were you too ******** busy making googly eyes?”
With the first couple of boxes out on the porch, Lovely turned to hold the door open for Ilian, leveling him with a flat look, mouth frowning, eyes empty of all but the tiniest spark of interest. (He couldn’t help it. Ilian was good looking. Lovely might not have noticed until long after the fact, but ever since he had he could no longer overlook it.
Alas, colder weather meant more clothing, which meant he was unable to appreciate all of Ilian’s newly attractive qualities to the extent that they deserved.)
“Forgot about squeezing through the door in your attempt to show off, didn’t you,” Lovely said. To anyone else, he might not have seemed all that amused. To Ilian, the humor in his voice would be more obvious. “Go on, I want to watch you struggle.”
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Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2023 5:36 pm
Ilian flashed Lovely a charming grin when he was accused of not looking at the sketch.
“It’s difficult to pay attention to art when you’re in the room,” he explained, because clearly Lovely was more beautiful than art. He didn’t think it was his fault! But now that he was reminded of the sketch that he’d literally just looked at, he did recall where Lovely positioned the deer.
“Not at all, I definitely planned how I was going to manage this,” he insisted, but the expression on his face seemed to reveal that he was actually only trying to carry as much as possible.
“It would be a lot easier if we could, you know… teleport,” he suggested. He adjusted one set of deer so that they stuck their heads through the door first, and then carefully side stepped to try and get the rest of everything out without having to drop anything. Sure, he could have conceded and set them down and try again, but where was the fun in that?
The only problem was the antlers on the second set of deer. As much as he just wanted to pull them through, he didn’t want Lovely to be mad at him for breaking them. So he did end up setting down the first two dear and present lights so he could better manipulate the other two out of the door.
“See? I told you I could do it just fine.”
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Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2023 10:16 am
Lovely snorted, rolled his eyes, and fought the little smile threatening to break out on his face. If his cheeks got a little pink after Ilian’s heavy-handed attempt at flattery, he’d blame it on the cold.
Global warming did indeed have nothing on Destiny City. There might not be snow yet, but the temperatures had dropped significantly, even at midday.
Lovely watched Ilian struggle, brows lifting, mouth twitching into a smirk despite his best efforts. He snickered once but suppressed it quickly, moving out of the way to let Ilian and the decorations through. Someone kinder might have offered their help, even in jest. Lovely would rather seize the opportunity to tease and pester and joke.
Once Ilian, the deer, and the presents were through, Lovely let the door shut. He gave Ilian a playful shove against it, crowding close, leaning up to take a gentle bite out of Ilian’s jaw.
“You’re disgustingly cute,” he said, pulling away before Ilian could grab him and keep him there. They had too much to do to let themselves be distracted, so he turned for the box of lights and dug out the first spool. “Put those where they belong,” he added, shoving the sketch into Ilian’s chest since he hadn’t bothered to retain the information. “Then get the wreaths and garland out here.”
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2023 8:11 am
Ilian made no attempt to get away from Lovely when he decided to push him against the door and apply teeth to his jaw.
Unfortunately, Lovely was clearly able to read his mind, because before he could wrap his arms around him to hold him close, Lovely was already moving away. But not before shoving the sketch to his chest.
“You think I’m cute?” Ilian grinned and teasingly batted his eyelashes. If he was going to be disgustingly cute then he would just have to make sure Lovely knew how ridiculous he could be. He was enjoying himself, though. He could feel a huge weight off his shoulders when compared to years past.
He carefully folded the sketch and placed it in his back pocket before picking up the deer once more to arrange them.
“That thing you did on Thanksgiving. With everyone. Would it be too egotistical for me to guess that it was for me?” he hummed, glancing curiously over his shoulder to Lovely. He didn’t want to put him on the spot, but he’d been thinking about it and… well… creating social opportunities wasn’t exactly something Lovely was known for.
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Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2023 1:11 pm
Lovely did not deign Ilian’s further attempts at being cute with a response, pretending as if he hadn’t noticed but was instead completely invested in wrapping lights along the porch railings.
Then Ilian had to go and ask about Thanksgiving.
“I don’t know what the ******** you’re talking about,” Lovely said, voice flat, as if he truly had no idea. “I have no memory of Thanksgiving.”
Which was true, to an extent. He remembered eating some of the food. He remembered suffering through some conversation. He remembered drinking wine, courtesy of Alys and Jet. He remembered dancing with Jet, but beyond that? Most of the evening was a blur. He didn’t know when they’d gone home, or how. Occasionally Lovely wondered if he’d done or said anything embarrassing, like that time he’d come on to Lepidolite, but if he’d done anything worse he was sure he’d have heard about it by now, what with the way rumors and gossip liked to spread in the Dark Kingdom.
“But I only ever do anything for you, so…” Lovely shrugged. It wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t. He did s**t for Ilian all the time.
Like now. Christmas was for Ilian, and everything that was for Ilian was for Lovely. So, in a way, it was entirely self-serving.
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Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2023 8:00 pm
Ilian’s smile softened some more as he reached out to help prep the cord to wrap around the bannister. He made sure not to get in Lovely’s way as he worked, but working together made things easier, right?
It wasn’t lost on him that Lovely did do so many things for him. He doubted he would have cared so much to make the holidays normal if it wasn’t for him. Maybe it was because Lovely took pity on him, for not having a normal childhood. Maybe this was just his way of showing he cared.
He didn’t want to give Lovely a hard time about it. He’d just been curious if he was imagining things or if Lovely really was thinking about him in everything he did.
“Our house is going to be the best looking on the street,” he decided, but that was probably something Lovely would claim was obvious. Still. He hoped it was enough of a change of subject to let Lovely know that he understood and appreciated him.
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Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2023 8:03 am
Lovely rolled his eyes again, grateful for the subject change even if his gratitude was rarely blatant.
“Not with the rate you’re going,” he grumbled, jabbing an affectionate elbow into Ilian’s chest. It shouldn’t hurt, but Lovely turned to make up for it anyway, crowding into Ilian’s space to share his warmth and nose at his jaw.
The distraction certainly wasn’t going to help either. Lovely chose not to care. They had time. For once, the hours and days seemed to stretch before them instead of hurtling past at breakneck speed, threatening to run out.
Lovely let himself savor it. He put his mouth to Ilian’s cheek, then his lips, heedless of the string of lights that tangled around their legs. Lovely couldn’t remember a time when he’d been this happy. He remembered even less a time when he’d wanted to show it. The signs were subtle, slipping out here and there when he could no longer keep them reigned in, but Ilian would see them, and Lovely, despite his protests, wanted him to.
Love was disgusting.
Lovely didn’t totally hate it.
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