Solby One Shots ✔

74.Merry Christmas

Megan and Jeff are Colby's siblings in this scenario

It doesn't really catch up to Colby until he's on the phone with Megan, just back from midnight services and yawning through her sniffles of "I hate that you won't be here. I know it's the weather and all, but I hate it." Colby starts to say that it'll be okay, he'll see everyone in a day or two, as soon as he can get a flight, but then it hits him that he's already missed the choir and congregation combining for Silent Night and O, Come All Ye Faithful and that there's not going to be anyone (Megan) sitting at the foot of his bed in the morning, staring at him until he wakes up from the feeling of being watched, so that they can raid the kitchen for the doughnuts Jeff always hides away and start poking and prodding the presents that Mom's much more successfully hidden until sometime after everyone's fallen asleep.

"I know," he finally manages to answer, his voice caught somewhere in his throat. "I hate it, too, Megs."

He pulls himself together and tells Megan to go to bed, that he'll talk to her in the morning. She swears she'll call when she gets to his present and he manages to hang up without any further complications.

When the dogs finally convince Colby to drag his lame ass out of his bedroom, he finds Sam in the great room, watching the newspaper in the fireplace.

"Everything okay?" Sam asks.

"Yeah." Colby surprises himself by laughing. "I don't know who's worse, me or Meg."

"Since she's actually a teenage girl, I'm gonna go with you on this one, Colbs."

"Fuck off," Colby answers. "You might have the rest of the world snowed, but I'm the one who called the florist when you were stuck filming on your mom's birthday."

"Hey," Sam says. "Sending flowers is completely okay under the guy-code."

"Yeah, " Colby snorts. "Breaking four figures in tulips 'cause you're missing a birthday is very manly."

"They're her favorite flow--" Sam starts, then catches sight of Colby's grin and gives up. "Yeah, okay; it was a little much."

"We're both hopeless." Colby drops down on the floor, settling his back against the couch and stretching his legs toward the truly impressive fire Sam's gotten going. Navi drapes herself across his lap; Buddy noses in close. Colby scratches behind both sets of ears, then gestures toward the fireplace.

"Good job" Colby grins, because Sam is blushing. "As long as you don't catch the chimney on fire, we're golden."

Colby could keep going on like that, because it's never not fun to tease Sam a little. Like Colby hadn't figured that out within 0.2 seconds of meeting the guy--but it's Christmas Eve and it really is awesome to have a fire going, so he shuts his mouth and leans back to get comfortable.

Sam quits fussing with the logs and puts the screen up, so they don't have to dodge exploding bits of wood, which Colby appreciates, seeing as how he's got a hundred pounds of dog pinning him in place. Sam joins them on the floor, sitting beside them for a bit, then reaches for his guitar.

He doesn't play anything for real, just lets his fingers slide through random bits and pieces, and Colby tips his head back against the couch cushions and feels the tension drain out of him. He maybe dozes off a little, but Sam doesn't give him any grief when he finally picks his head up again.

"Hey," Colby says. "I know we usually do the present thing at the airport or later, but..."

Sam doesn't make him say that it's almost Christmas and he's homesick and presents are always a good cure. He just grins and puts his guitar down, getting to his feet with enough energy that Colby knows there's something up.

Colby really likes presents--giving them, as well as getting them. He could be better at keeping track of what he buys--one year, Jeff ended up with seven things under the tree from Colby -but he always gets a huge kick out of watching people unwrap stuff.

He thinks Sam likes it, too, but Sam worries about shit a whole lot more than Colby does, which is stupid, because, as far as Colby can tell, Sam's better than most people at just about everything, and getting people presents isn't any different.

But that's Sam for you, Colby thinks, as he shifts Navi off his lap and takes the steps up to his bedroom two at a time. Always thinking too much. Of course, Colby doesn't think nearly enough sometimes, so he guesses it all balances out.

"You first," Colby says, when he gets back down to the living room. He drops the envelope in Sam's lap before he settles back on the floor. Navi gives him the patient look, the one that wants to know if he's done bopping around yet, so her nap won't be interrupted again.

Colby smooths his hand down her back and grins at Sam. He'd thought about wrapping a bunch of boxes inside each other, with the envelope in the middle, but he'd thought they'd be in the airport when they did this, and Sam probably would have smacked him by about the third box. This is okay, though--he'll get to see Sammy's reaction quicker this way.

Sam doesn't fool around, just rips into to it and grins when he realizes what the certificate is for. Normally, in Colby's school of thought, gift certificates count as cheating, but this one is for a custom pair of Nike running shoes, the kind they mold around your feet, plus 3 big chocolate bars.

"Awesome, man," Sam says, and his smile shifts into the one Colby knows is reserved for his family, which means Colby's done good with the gifting.

Sam reaches behind him and comes up with an envelope of his own; he holds it thoughtfully for a second, just to tease, Colby can tell, but then tosses it over to Colby. Colby should tease back, let Sam twist in the wind while Colby takes his time opening it, but seriously. Where's the fun in that?

The envelope comes apart easily in his hands and he's left holding a couple of sheets of paper printed out from the Internet, the first one from TicketMaster--tickets to the Lakers game in the spring. "Dude," Colby says. "How the hell did you manage to get your hands on these?" Sam doesn't answer, just makes a 'keep going' gesture.

Colby shuffles the papers, staring blankly until he figures out that the rest of them are menus and then it hits him that the first page wasn't just for tickets. "A suite?" His voice finds some weird note that it hasn't hit since it started changing in high school and he can feel his jaw dropping, but there it is: 26 tickets to the game, with full catering and parking, and he doesn't exactly know what else, because his brain is pretty much just going round in circles. "Holy shit."

"Yeah, well, you won't let me pay rent, so..." Sam smiles again, and Colby's not sure he's ever seen one like that, but it could just be his head still spinning. "I'm pretty sure it'll be okay with shooting; I ran the date by Eric before I went for it and--"

Colby actually doesn't think before he moves, just nudges Navi out of the way, so he can get up on his knees and lean over. He slides one hand behind Sam's head and has one split-second of sanity,one quick flash of what the fuck are you doing, but then Sam's moving into him and it all goes away. The angle's completely wrong, awkward and just plain weird, but Sam's mouth is hot and greedy under Colby's, and after the first few seconds, his hand comes up to steady Colby's head, his thumb tracing a path along Colby's cheekbone, one slow touch that Colby swears he feels along every nerve in his body.

"Merry Christmas, Colbs," Sam whispers, and Colby whispers back
"Merry Christmas, Sammy"