He Did Ballet |Virgato|

Chapter 9 (Epilogue): This is how the story ends

~Three weeks later~

Joel wiggles around on top of Chris and lets out a yawn as the TV plays some Christmas film in the background.

"Come on, let's cook some dinner," Chris murmurs into Joel's hair.

"No. Comfy," Joel says into the fabric of Christopher's hoodie, hiding his face and wrapping his arms even tighter around Chris.

"You have to eat. You'll be even grumpier if you don't," Chris says with a laugh, smoothing his hands over Joel's hair, pushing the curls away from his eyes.

"I'm not grumpy," Joel says, looking up at Chris with a pout.

Christopher's eyes glitter as he slides his hands around the back of Joel's head and bends his head down to land a kiss on his lips. Joel sighs into it as Chris gently kisses him, tongue swiping along his lower lip.

"You're such a drama queen," Chris says, breaking away after a moment.

"I'm not, I'm just comfy," Joel says, tucking his face into Christopher's neck.

"How about this," Chris says. "You let me get up, and I'll cook you dinner, how's that?"

"No," Joel says, kissing Christopher's neck. "I'd rather starve."

Joel feels Chris sigh underneath him.

"Sometimes I think I should have stayed in California," he says.

Joel looks up to throw him a dirty look, seeing a smile dancing around Christopher's lips.

"Right, there's nothing for it then," Chris says, and with that he swings his legs off the sofa and stands up, his hands sliding underneath Joel to haul him up with him. Joel squeaks and struggles for a second, but his arms are already secured around Chris and Chris is already off, setting a quick pace to the kitchen, despite having his arms full of a five foot ten inch professional ballerina.

"Chris," Joel protests.

Chris unceremoniously dumps him on the counter next to the sink, the counter that Joel always sits on when Chris cooks, and Joel gets his bearing enough to keep his limbs wrapped around Chris, interlocking his heels and holding onto his hands to keep him in position.

"Alright," Chris laughs. "That's enough koala hugging from you. Let me go or I'll put mushrooms in the pasta sauce."

Joel reluctantly unwraps his arms from around Chris.

"Not fair," Joel says, and Chris just blows him a kiss.

He watches Chris as he moves about the kitchen, and just takes a moment to appreciate that this is now his life, Chris in his space, a part of his space. The thought of it will never fail to make him feel warm and glowing, tingles of happiness spilling from his heart down to his fingers and toes. Chris turns the speaker on and connects his phone and Joel smiles, as much as he complains, it's often his favorite part of his day, when he gets to watch Chris cook. He gets to do so on his alternate days when he's not on stage, and he thinks that it might be one of the only things that keeps him sane during this run.

Chris puts a Christmas playlist on and Joel rolls his eyes.

"Stop that, it's festive!" Chris says, brandishing a knife at Joel. "It's only a couple of days till Christmas."

"All I do is be festive," Joel says. "I'm literally the Nutcracker. I dance with presents and snowflakes every day."

"Well I'm still trying to get into the spirit," Chris says, now waving a carrot at Joel. "So shut up, Scrooge."