Merry Christmas, forbiddentrails!
A very merry Christmas, I hope this will bring you some joy & happiness on this special day!
***
Derek kept turning around in his bed, unable to sleep. He tried putting the duvet over his head to hide the brightness of the room, but he didn’t even make it through a whole minute before he couldn’t breathe because it was too hot. So he took a deep breath and tried counting sheep. He got to a hundred and fifty three before throwing his duvet on the side of his bed and getting up. He grabbed the sweats he had left on the chair in the corner of the bedroom and starting making his way downstairs.
It had gone on long enough. It was the 6th of December, and Derek hadn’t had a proper night of sleep ever since the beginning of the month. All because of his neighbor from across the street who seemed to be overly invested in Christmas and not caring about the environment at all. Everyday for the past week, as soon as the sun had set and right until it rose again the next morning, the house, right across from the one Derek lived in, was illuminated. And it wasn’t just some fairy lights around the house, no. It was a full on decorated garden like you could see in the movies. Sure, it was very pretty and very festive, but it was also very bright and since he didn’t have any blinds, Derek had gotten used to sleeping with the bit of light getting through his curtains. But his neighbor lights were just too much. He had been patient, okay. He had waited a whole week, hoping his neighbor was just testing the lights or something for actual Christmas Eve, but it actually seemed like the lights were going to be on every night until Christmas, and Derek couldn’t have that. He needed his sleep. He worked at his sister’s bakery. He was the actual baker which meant he had to get up at three in the morning so he could get a crack on for the day, and what with Christmas approaching he wouldn’t survive if he didn’t get at least six hours of sleep every night.
So Derek was going to tell his neighbor as much. He knocked on the door a first time and waited a few minutes, but there was no noise in the house indicating someone was coming. So he started knocking again, harder and harder so it would get louder, and he did not stop until someone came to actually open the bloody door. It took nearly five minutes, but the door finally disappeared from Derek’s view, and a young guy was standing in its place.
“What the fuck dude! It’s fucking 1am. What are you pounding on my door for?” asked the guy in a sleepy voice.
“You need to turn your lights off. They’re fucking bright and I have to be up in two hours, but I can’t sleep.” Derek said, arms crossed on his naked chest.
“And why do I care that you can’t sleep? How is that my problem? Just because you can’t sleep doesn’t mean you get to wake up the whole neighborhood pounding on their door.”
“Did you miss the part where if I can’t sleep it’s because of your fucking Christmas lights? Why do you even let them on all night? It’s really bad for the environment and your electricity bill. Can’t you turn them off at eleven like a normal person?” Derek added getting angrier by the second. He had hoped the guy would be understanding but…
“Just buy some fucking blinds or something. If I want to let my Christmas lights on I will.”
“Well. If you don’t turn them off yourself I will. Don’t have me call the Sheriff over this.” Derek was through trying to be reasonable. But his threat didn’t seem to have much effect on his neighbor who just snorted a “Good luck with that!” and shut the door in Derek’s face.
Derek was fuming. Considering it was past 1am it was pretty useless to get any more worked up about it, so he turned around and stomped back to his house trying to catch two more hours of sleep despite the lights flooding his bedroom. His alarm woke him up at 3.15am while he was in the middle of a dream involving a very angry and freckled faced guy, strangely resembling his neighbor.
***
That day Derek didn’t even wait for midnight. After an hour of trying to block out the light in vain he went back across the road. It was only ten but he didn’t care. He needed his sleep, and he wasn’t going to get it if he didn’t do something about it himself. This time, Derek didn’t knock on the door though. He looked around all the decorations trying to find where they all converged. He found them all linked together on the side of the house, a timer set with the time they were supposed to turn on and off. Derek took a deep breath and smiled as he unplugged each decoration one by one. Once the house was back in the dark, only illuminated by the faint light of the lamppost at the end of the road, Derek let out a satisfied laugh and made his way back to his own house. He enjoyed getting into his bedroom, as dark as it had been before this stupid month of December started. He kept his eyes open for a few minutes to fully appreciate the lack of light before settling in comfortably. As he was drifting off to sleep though, brightness attacked his room once more. Derek grabbed his pillow and screamed into it. His neighbor wanted a war, he was going to get one. But tomorrow. Because after the night before, Derek was too tired to move again so he finally fell asleep with his pillow on his face half smothering him to death.
The baker arrived at work half an hour late with dark circles under his eyes. Luckily for him, Laura only came in to open the bakery at seven so no one was here to witness how horrible he looked. He put the coffee machine on and got cracking, hoping he could somehow make up for being late before his sister arrived. Two hours later, the front display was almost full of baking goods, and the door chimed as Laura came in.
“Hello dear little brother of mine, how are you doing this fine morning?” She asked cheerfully. All she got as a response was a grunt as Derek retreated in the kitchen. He could feel her roll her eyes, but she knew better than to bother him when he was in one of his mood. He heard her getting to work and sighed in relief, not feeling like explaining the stupid fight that was going on with his neighbor.
The next time he was at the front of the bakery their first client had just came in and it was the same one as usual, whose eyes lit up upon seeing the tray full of doughnuts that Derek was carrying.
“Hello Sheriff! How many do you want this morning?”
“Hi Derek. Only a couple, please. I’m actually on my way to bed, I had the night shift and I’m knackered.”
“I feel you.” Derek said, grabbing the Sheriff’s favorite two flavors and putting them in a bag. “Here you go, that will be 4.55, please.”
“Thanks. You’re all right, son? You don’t look too good.” The Sheriff enquired, grabbing the bag and putting the change in the tip jar.
“I’m okay, thank you. It’s just, my neighbor is a bit of a Christmas freak and his lights are so bright I have trouble sleeping.”
“Oh yeah. My son is one of those. You should try talking to them. Usually they’re quite comprehensive. I know my boy like to get in the Christmas spirit with putting up decorations everywhere, but he’s not one to bother people. I hope your neighbor is the same.”
“I tried that already, and it didn’t work. I’ll write a note and bribe them with cookies or something. Anyways. Enjoy your doughnuts and get some rest. See you tomorrow, Sheriff.”
“See you Derek. And if things do get too bad with that neighbor of yours, call the department. I wouldn’t want my favorite baker to die of exhaustion.”
“Thank you.” Derek said with a laugh, waving the Sheriff away. He really hoped he wouldn’t have to come to this extreme though.
***
His alarm indicated 9pm and despite all the curtains and towels Derek had hung on his window, the lights from across the street were still too bright in his bedroom. So he grabbed a shirt, put on some sweats and with his duvet on his shoulders, Derek went to knock on his neighbor’s door for the second time this week. The answer was much quicker since this time around the guy wasn’t asleep. But Derek didn’t let him say anything. He strode past him and stood in the living room.
“What the hell are you doing?” asked his neighbor, who looked very good with no shirt on, not that Derek noticed, because Derek was angry and therefore not paying attention to how low the lacrosse shorts were hanging on his annoying neighbor’s hips.
“Since you won’t turn off your lights, I decided to come sleeping here.” Derek explained. “Where’s your bedroom?” and without waiting for an answer, he started to make his way through the house.
“My bedro… What the fuck? You’re not…” His neighbor followed him, but Derek had already found a room in which he could barely see a big bed in the darkness. As he walked towards it, he heard his neighbor coming behind him. When Derek turned around, sitting on the bed, his neighbor was leaning on the doorframe a smirk on his face.
“You might want to wash the sheets if you really plan on sleeping in my bed, you know.”
Clearly, his neighbor didn’t think Derek was serious about this. Well, too bad for him.
“I’ll just settle on top of the covers since I brought my own, thank you.” And he did just that.
“Are you fucking serious? You can’t just storm into someone’s house and claim their bed, you know.”
“Just turn your freaking lights off, and I’ll gladly sleep in my own bed.” Derek answered, closing his eyes.
“Do I need to call the Sheriff?” Wondered his neighbor, and wasn’t that a wonderful idea.
“Yes. Please do so. That way he can arrest you and introduce you to his son who is a Christmas freak just like you, but also a nice person. Maybe he can teach you how to be that.”
“Oh. The Sheriff’s son is a nice Christmas freak is he? Interesting.”
Derek hummed, already starting drifting off to sleep in the warm darkness of the bedroom. The last thing he heard was the door shutting, and his neighbor walking away. His final thought before falling asleep was that he didn’t even know his name.
***
When the alarm of his phone woke him up at three, Derek was confused. The room was completely dark and…
“Will you turn it off for Christ sake?” a voice said from beside him.
Derek quickly shut off his alarm as he remembered what he had done last night. It still didn’t explain why he wasn’t alone in bed though.
“What are you doing here?”
“Are you kidding me? It’s my bed! I wasn’t going to sleep on the couch just because you decided your room wasn’t good enough anymore. Now just go to work or whatever you do at fuck o’clock in the morning and let me sleep.”
Derek didn’t insist and made his way out. It was the best night he had had in the last ten days. He quickly lost his good mood though, as he stepped outside his neighbor’s house and was reminded of the reason he was there in the first place, when the lights blinded him in the darkness of the street.
Over the next days, it became kind of a routine. Derek also finally learnt his neighbor was called Stiles. He hadn’t believed him at first, but apparently, his birth name was so horrendous that no one had ever been able to pronounce it, hence the Stiles. Neither of them ever called the Sheriff. In fact, the day after the first time he had gone over to Stiles, Derek noticed his neighbor had changed the sheets. So apart from his days off, Derek was now spending his nights across the street from his own room. Stiles always waited until Derek was asleep before joining him, and he always kicked him until the baker turned his alarm off in the morning. But they never talked about it.
However, things took an awkward turn during the week leading up to Christmas. As usual, Derek went to his room that was overflowed by the brightness of Stiles’ lights. Sighing, he made his way across the street and didn’t even bother knocking on the door before heading for the bedroom upstairs, grunting in answer to Stiles cheerful “Hello Derek!” from the couch. He fell asleep pretty quickly, exhausted by all the baking he had to do for the holidays. But it’s not his alarm that woke him up in the middle of night. It was something, or rather someone, groaning and mumbling in his ear, words that he couldn’t quite make out. He quickly understand what was going on though, when he felt Stiles’ hand making his way around his waist while thrusting against his thighs. Blushing because he was starting to get hard too, Derek grabbed Stiles’ hand and turned around shaking his neighbor’s shoulder.
“Stiles! Wake up. Stiles!”
“Unnnnngh. Waaah?” Stiles rubbed his eyes before opening them, trying to understand what was going on. Upon hearing Derek’s short breath and looking down, he finally remembered the dream he was having right before his sexy neighbor had woken him up.
“Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I’ll just…” And before Derek could say anything Stiles fled the room. Derek had no idea where he had gone since he wasn’t on the couch when he left for work…
***
The day after was a day off for Derek so he wasn’t planning on going over to sleep at Stiles. But he was surprised when he got to his room at midnight and the light was only coming from the lamppost at the end of the street. There were no illuminations at all on Stiles’ house. It was really strange for Derek to go to sleep in his own bed without any lights keeping him awake. For a reason he rather not dwell on, he also had more trouble falling asleep than he usually did.
Derek woke up around 11am after a horrible night. He had seen every hour tick by until exhaustion finally got the better of him around six, and he didn’t know why. Or he rather not think about it at least. But that meant he was only half awake throughout his entire day. He stayed in front of the TV catching up on his favorites shows on Netflix. At around five, he decided to take a shower before making some dinner with whatever he could find in his fridge. At eight, he was getting ready for bed and as he was coming out of the bathroom to step into his bedroom, he realized something was off. Literally. The lights across the street were still in the dark. And while it was all Derek had wished for two weeks ago, now it just didn’t feel right. So he found his way to Stiles’ door. Feeling weird just walking in, like he had for the past few days, with the lights off, he knocked and waited until his neighbor opened it.
“Derek. What are you doing here? The lights are off. Isn’t it what you wanted?” Stiles said tiredly before Derek could even open his mouth.
“Why though? Why are they off? And since yesterday too?”
“It’s what you wanted, right?” Stiles insisted not answering the question.
“Yeah, I guess but…”
“Listen. I’m sorry for the other night. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’ll leave the lights off from now on. It was a dick move leaving them on after you asked me not to, I just…”
“Why? Why do you leave the lights on all night? I mean, there must be a reason you’re willing to pay such a big electricity bill in December?” Derek found himself asking to his own surprise.
“I… You want to know now?” Stiles was looking at him like he was crazy, but Derek simply nodded. “I guess you should come in then.” He led Derek to the couch and offered him some hot chocolate he had been preparing.
They stayed silent for a few minutes until Stiles took a deep breath.
“There is a reason why I leave the lights on throughout the night. It’s not just to be a dick.” He assured Derek who just smiled. “As far as I can remember, Christmas was always a big occasion in the family. My mum and I used to decorate the tree as soon as the first of December. We also put up decorations as much as we could. There was more and more every year cause we kept buying new ones. And she was the one who let them on all night. She was always very cautious about saving water and turning the lights off as soon as we left a room. But that was the one thing she wouldn’t care about. I never question it at first, and then she got sick and died before she explained it to me. But I got it on my own a couple of years ago. See, after she died, Christmas kind of stopped being such a big deal because my Dad would always be working, and Santa couldn’t bring back my Mom no matter how much of a good boy I had been, so yeah… But last year, as I was riding with my Dad on one of his night shift, I finally understood. All the people that work during the nights, the cops, the paramedics, the firefighters… It’s already hard for them having to drive around town, usually going towards bad news, you know… So I feel like leaving the lights on all night long, and not just until we go to sleep, is a way to bring them some of the Christmas spirit and help them get through the night. It might be stupid, but my Dad always tells me about the nice illuminated houses he passed by during his shift. So yeah… That’s why I didn’t want to turn them off when you ask. And hum… it might also have had something to do with the fact that you didn’t have a shirt on and my brain figured that you would come back if I didn’t give in.” Stiles added in a blush, trying to lighten the atmosphere after his declaration.
Derek looked at Stiles without saying a word for some excruciating seconds, but before Stiles could ask what was wrong, he leaned forward and kissed him.
“Gosh you’re the nicest annoying Christmas freak I’ve ever met.” Derek whispered against Stiles’ lips who just laughed and kissed him again. “Go turn them back on and meet me in your bed.”
“Bossy, are we?” Stiles said wiggling his eyebrows. He laughed when Derek rolled his eyes and stole another kiss as he got up to illuminate his garden once more, now that he could have both his lights and his hot neighbor.
