A Christmas Cocktail

Chapter 2

Staring down at the screen of his phone, his brows furrowed in confusion. Faintly, he heard the soft sound of the door opening followed shortly by the light click of it being closed carefully. "Nissy, is something the matter?" Tearing his gaze away from the text, he met the rose colored slits head on. Was something the matter? He couldn't particularly say something was "wrong" per say, simply "weird". Out of the ordinary at its finest. Shaking his head, he set his phone on the desktop with a sigh.

"No?" The idea argued in his mind. "Yes? I don't know. I got this random ass text from my brother and I just..." He shook his head idly once more.

"You don't know how to respond? Is he asking for a favor again?" The serpent crossed the room and slid onto the corner of his desk.

"Not this time." Leaning back in his chair, Arackniss looked back up at his lover. "Pen, he's asking about traditions." Pentious tilted his head curiously.

"Traditions? What kind of traditions?" The way the other man leaned forward for a better look at the text was fluid and graceful, showing off his prowess and control over his own body. "Christmas traditions?"

"Exactly. What the fuck could he need to remember those for?" His lover shrugged.

"Perhaps he's feeling nostalgic. Haven't you ever wanted to look back on the past fondly on familiar dates?" No, he couldn't say that he had.

"We didn't exactly have many great and happy traditions, Pen. In our family, traditions were things like kissing the right person's ass whenever they walked into a room, or getting rid of whoever we were told to. Not like some families." He looked down at his phone again. "Not like yours." There was a small stretch of silence and his mind slowly roved over the last time he'd even celebrated Christmas, when he was alive.

"Every year," The sudden sound of the snake talking made him jump, but a quick, deep breath calmed him a bit. "Me and my brother would go on a hunt in the morning. Not for anything specific, but simply for fun and sport." The distant look in Pentious' eyes was accompanied by an almost sorrowful smile. "It was more a chance for us to spend time together than anything else. The older we got, the less we saw each other, so those moments were precious."

"I thought you hated your brother." Of course, he knew about the hatred of a sibling and how it was rarely ever a true hatred. More of an annoyance than anything, in his experience.

"Oh, on some accounts, I did. I loathed his adoration of the "perfect man"; this dream he and so many had that a man was only as good as his strength and wealth." He rolled his eyes. "However, that doesn't mean he didn't have some good qualities too, I suppose." He thought for a moment before his smile brightened. "When we'd go hunting, we had to actually work together, because if one person goes off on their own, making all of their own noise, it chases all the game away. So, it was one of the few times that Benjamin would actually listen to me." Arackniss couldn't help but smile at the thought.

"That sounds like a pretty good tradition, if that's what you got out of it."

"Which is why I'm certain that you must have at least one." Arackniss shrugged. "There must have been something that you and your siblings were excited for every year." Sighing, he turned his attention back to the text and thought back to when they were all alive. To when they were young and happy, and innocent to the horrors of their families realities. Shaking his head, he gave his lover a weak smile and a shrug. Pentious sighed and slid off the desk. "Well, perhaps it's for the best, then."

"What do you mean by that?" The serpent slipped toward the door.

"If you remembered something good, Nissy... You might actually miss it." He watched his love slide out of the room and silently shut the panel behind him. Picking up his phone, he selected his brother's name and pressed one button; call. The line rang once, then twice, and by the third ring he was ready to give up instead. Maybe this was a bad idea after all.