Where the Heart Is |Virgato|

Chapter 37

Joined together as a family in the living room, they return to opening the last of the Christmas gifts. Chris and Joel give their friends a gift card for expensive spa treatments, since they're definitely going to need the relaxation sooner or later. In return, Richard and Erick give them a gift that apparently can't be opened in front of the children, so Chris can easily guess that it has something sexual in nature. Although he rolls his eyes, his gratitude is genuine.

When that's all said and done with, there's just one last thing needed for this to be the most perfect Christmas.

"Daddy, there's still one gift left under the tree," Ana points out, and she tries to reach for the hidden gift behind it. Her arm is just a tad too short to reach it, however, so she pulls back with a sigh.

"No worries, I'll get it," Chris announces. He walks over to the Christmas tree and winks at his daughter, relieved that everything is going according to plan. It takes little to no effort for him to reach the medium sized gift, since he's the one who hid it there in the first place amongst the many others. When he stands up again, he feigns surprise with a gasp. "Says here that it's for Joel!"

As anticipated, Joel is taken by surprise to hear that he has another gift. He stops scratching Cat behind the ears and turns his attention to Chris, who brings the present over to the sofa and sets it in Joel's lap, smiling so wide that his cheeks will begin to hurt soon. He can't help himself, though. Smiling is all that Chris can do to hide how nervous he is, and Joel seems to buy it, anyway. He smiles back at the other man and says that he really didn't have to buy another gift, but when Chris urges him to open it, he doesn't resist.

"Wow, I wonder what it could be!" Richard speaks up from where he's sitting on the opposite sofa next to Erick. His obvious tone and the wicked grin on his face clearly hints that he knows exactly what's up, and because it's supposed to be a surprise, Chris loudly clears his throat and shoots Richard a death glare. Erick's subsequent giggling only makes it worse.

"Whatever you guys are up to, I'll find out soon enough," Joel says. It seems to motivate him to open the box at a faster pace, and once he finally manages to get a peek inside, he frowns when all that he sees is a bunch of polystyrene foam. "I don't understand. It's empty?"

Chris laughs and shakes his head. "Look deeper, baby."

His little trickery earns another confused frown from Joel, but he does as he's told and sticks both hands into the box, feeling around for something more. Little does he know that he's the only person in the room who is completely oblivious to what's about to happen, which explains the overly excited grins on everyone else's faces - well, aside from Benny who is just too young to understand, and Nico, who has nearly fallen asleep against Erick's chest. Oh, and the dog, of course, for obvious reasons.

After several agonizing seconds, Joel eventually discovers the hidden object buried within the foam. He gasps when his hand touches it and quickly lifts it out of the box, and then time stops for a moment as the room falls totally silent. His eyes go wide and his mouth drops open when he realizes that the small cubed box he's holding can only contain one thing. His shock serves as Christopher's cue to get the show on the road, so he pushes the decoy box aside and offers Joel a hand.

Joel simply stares at the hand for a moment, looking as if he wants to say something but has no idea what.

Erick decides to help him out. "Stand up!" he whispers just loud enough to be heard.

That's when Joel seems to gather his wits, or at least some of them, because he takes Christopher's hand and allows himself to be pulled up from the sofa. He continues to stare in shock as Chris takes the small box from his and drops down onto one knee, and once his mind finally catches up to him and shouts that this is really happening, Joel actually squeals. And it's adorable, how he's already starting to tear up and Chris hasn't even asked the question yet.