A One Shot Holiday

Christmas Morning With Alex and Xavier

Alex smiled as Xavier gently rested his head on Alex's shoulder, Xavier's coal-black hair falling softly on his fair skin, his tired sky blue eyes watching the movie on the TV. Alex rested his lightly tanned arm on Xavier's shoulders, the two teenagers snuggling close to each other on the green leather couch, the smell of pine permeating the air from the brightly lit and generously decorated Christmas tree in the corner of the room.

They laughed as the main character of the movie went on a rather expressive cursing spree, ending it with: "Hallelujah, holy sh*t! Where's the Tylenol?" They paused it when Alex's phone alarm went off, the jazzy saxophone ringtone letting them know that it was midnight.

"Merry Christmas," Xavier said sweetly, repositioning himself so he could kiss Alex on the lips without having to worry about missing and accidentally kissing the blond boy's hair instead. Alex couldn't have kept himself from smiling if he'd tried.

"Merry Christmas," Alex replied, looking deep into Xavier's eyes with his own cloudy grey ones. Xavier smiled and slowly got up off the couch, his arms far above his head in a full body stretch. He ventured over to the tree in the corner and picked up two presents, one wrapped in blue with silver snowflakes decorating the surface and the other clad in green with little Santa Clauses all over it.

"Do you want to go first?" Xavier asked, offering the blue present to Alex.

"Nah, you can go first," Alex declared. Xavier handed Alex the present anyway, sitting down next to the blonde and setting the other gift down on his own lap. Xavier stuck his tongue out of his mouth a little as he gently peeled back the green wrapping paper in a failed attempt not to damage it as it ripped anyway.

Xavier pulled out the first half of the gift with a laugh. It was a Hufflepuff scarf, which Alex had evidently gotten when they'd gone to Universal together. Xavier immediately wrapped the scarf around his neck and the lower half of his face, smiling with his eyes since the soft black and yellow fabric hid his mouth from view.

"Aw, thank you," Xavier chimed. He pulled out the second half of the present and turned it over in his hands. "A journal for us," Xavier read the title aloud, the scarf muffling his voice.

"Every day the journal will ask us a question and then we'll answer it together," Alex said simply, fidgeting and blushing slightly. Xavier surprised him with a hug, the shorter boy's lithe arms draped around Alex's shoulders.

"I love it," Xavier murmured gently. He opened the book to the first page and read the first question.

'If you love somebody _________'

Xavier took the pen that was permanently attached to the journal with a string and tapped it against his chin. After a minute of silent thought he wrote:

'Let them cry on your shoulder'

Alex's mind went to the countless nights when he'd woken up, terrified of his visions of the future, and Xavier had been there for him. His stomach swam with an emotion he couldn't identify as he looked Xavier in the eye. The black-haired boy handed Alex the book and the pen, curling up next to him and resting his head on his boyfriend's shoulder. After a minute Alex wrote his down, which drew a hysterical laugh out of Xavier.

'Let them steal your food'

Soon enough it was Alex's turn to open his gift, and he tore the package open only a little faster than Xavier did, also failing to preserve the wrapping and giving up partway through. He pulled a Gryffindor scarf out of the box and wrapped it around his neck once.

"Great minds think alike," he joked, cracking up slightly. So that was what they'd been hiding from each other. He peeked at the bottom of the box to see two small rectangular slips of paper.

"They're tickets to a pottery place," Xavier explained. "For painting coffee cups and stuff, so we can do that together." Alex's face split into a grin and he ruffled Xavier's hair lightly.

"Thank you, Xavi." Alex leaned against Xavier, who gave him a goofy smile. The couple resumed the movie and, before either of them realized it, they fell asleep holding hands.