A Christmas drabble gift thing for @mamascream and @choochoomotherslagger.
This is also pretty much a rough draft so expect an ungodly amount of errors. OTL
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the apartment not a creature was stirring, not even the trained dog who laid protectively at his stand-in master’s bedside.
That peace would not last very long though.
At the stroke of midnight, Casey slips out of the covers and sneaks through the bedroom. Upon reaching the door he looks back to check on his partner, who continues to sleep the night away, then the dog, who holds their head high and slightly tilted. Casey gives a hushed command for the dog to stay, and with a sigh Junior lowers his head but does not close his eyes.
Confident that he's now in the clear, Casey slips past the door and tip toes over to Eve’s room, slowly cracking open her door and wedging his face into the gap. “Pssssst.”
Nothing.
“Eeeeveeee.”
Still nothing.
“Eve, are you awake?”
After a moment of silence, there is a hushed, “I am awake.”
“Cool,” Casey opens the door all the way and grins at his pseudo-adopted-daughter. “Wanna go check out our Christmas presents?”
She responds to his question with a frown. “I don’t think we’re suppose to open our presents until Christmas morning.”
“Well, yeah, but it’s Christmas!” Casey beamed at her. “It’s officially Christmas. Pretty sure AM means morning, right?”
“That is correct.”
“And it’s,” a quick glance at the clock. “Looks like twelve o... something. It’s past midnight, twelve AM. It’s morning, specifically Christmas morning.”
The frown on Eve’s face shrinks a bit then gradually turns into a smile. “It is.”
“Sooooooo,” Casey’s grin broadens, “whaddya say, kiddo?”
Eve sits up in her bed and asks, “is Gabe awake?”
“Nah. Geezer is still restin’. We’re okay though. I can wrap everything up again so we can reopen our presents when he gets up later.”
Eve frown returns as she gets out of bed and meets Casey at the door. “That doesn’t seem very...” She waves her hand around, trying to come up with a word. “Right?”
"It’s cool.” Casey leads her to the living room, where their tiny, plastic, presenting guarding tree awaits. He plops himself on the floor near the tree and starts grabbing for presents while Eve takes a seat beside him. “Alright, kiddo,” he holds up two of her presents in his hands, one wrapped in red paper; the other blue. “Which one you wanna open first?”
“Pick the red one.” Gabe answers, startling them both. Yawning, the older man shuffles his way to the kitchen area and pours himself a cup of coffee while Junior trots over to lay between Eve and Casey.
“Gaaabe, hey,” Casey tosses the presents back under the tree, nearly knocking it over and stands up. “Whatchu doing up this late?”
“I could ask you both the same thing.” Gabe puts his cup in the microwave for a minute and smiles at his flatmates, easing some of the tension in the room.
“Pssh, we were.. We were just--”
“Going to start Christmas early without me,” the older man interrupts then taps at his left ear. “Just because this ear is burnt does not mean I cannot hear you two plotting behind my back.”
“We’re sorry, Gabe,” Eve chimes in, looking sorrowful. “We didn’t mean to exclude you.”
“It’s fine, Masā.” The microwave dings and Gabe pulls out his coffee, then shuffles over to the couch. “It’s natural for children to be excited on such a holiday.”
Casey puffs out his chest defensively. “Are you calling me a child?”
“I have called you many things, Qiṭār,” Gabe hums. “Child is hardly an insult.”
Casey huffs in disagreement and sits back down. “Yeah, well, I’m taking back your Christmas present, you butt.”
“Then I will also take back your’s.” Gabe smiles as he sips his coffee. “Now then - I believe Eve was going to open my present first.”