@tigerincahoots continued from here
“YOU DIDN’T NEED TO DO THIS.” It had been weeks since they escaped the Organization and been on the run. Weeks since they had gone underground and kept their heads low --- barely enjoying the season the way it was supposed to be enjoyed. Maybe not for him. Kevin never really liked Christmas to begin with but for all he knew --- Bryce could love it. It was a matter of preference and memories.
BACK IN THE DAY, BRYCE ATTENDED TO HIS PARENTS PARTIES WITH HIS OWN FOLKS. All around a table, eating and listening to the grown-ups talk. They would be on their best behavior until the time the men would move to another room to smoke their cigars and the ladies would stay behind talking about things so trivial that made him sick to his stomach.
THEY USED TO SNEAK AROUND THE HOUSE. There were things Kevin couldn’t remember. Pieces of his memory that were foggy and clouded. But he remembered Bryce being there. Even when they were teenagers, even before he was sent to the military academy. Bryce had been there. Making the best of a terrible night. Everyone else got love and presents and kisses... Kevin and Erik would have shit.
“YOU DIDN’T STEAL THIS ONE FROM MY OLD MAN, DID YOU?” Kevin chuckled as he relaxed against the wall, turning the wine bottle on his had to read the label. He remembered laughing with Bryce one time. It was Christmas. He couldn’t make the most of it --- maybe the memories in his head were fake or maybe confused and juggled. “Did we kiss that night?” He couldn’t remember. Whatever the Organization had done to him before, memories of his past were long gone. “I remember you being there. The best part of a shitty night. I guess not even time changed that, uh...?”
Bryce liked Christmas as it was long ago. When his family was still alive, with all the baking together, decorating. The visits at Kevin’s home at Christmas Eve... not for the adults, not for the presents. But because the other had been there. Him and his beautiful blue eyes and that smile whenever Bryce did something he liked. A smile that fed Bryce more than any turkey or potatoes. Not just metaphorically, but also in a magical sense.
“I am a fey, not a grim reaper. Even I can’t steal from the dead,” Bryce replied with a laugh. If he could turn back time, he’d take more than a bottle of wine.
His laugh died and the smile that stayed was warm and sad equally with half-lidded eyes. “We did...” he confessed, a hand raising to have fingers run through the tiger’s blond hair. Bryce’s first kiss, followed by disappearing the very next day. The last good memory he clung to from his old life.
“So... what could I do to make this night even less shitty for you? We could watch bad movies and use that bottle and some others for a drinking game? Or we watch horror movies, the anti-Christmas genre...” Part of Bryce wanted to offer other activities too. But he kept that to himself. Being close to his old, dear friend was enough. He’d not push for more.
“You know... I am glad I got to blow up my house... because it also brought you back into my life...”












