Il libro di Jaylos

Alone on Christmas (Ball)

taken from: frostedgoddess on Ao3

"-And I hope I get some toys for Dude, but I'm also getting him toys for his Christmas, and I got my mother a fake fur jacket and maybe Ben can help me get it to her. Jay, stop looking at me like that!"
Jay was gazing at his over excited friend fondly.
"Sorry Carlos, I know we never had Christmas on the Isle but I've never seen you this excited for anything!"
The son of Cruella blushed lightly, eyes downcast. Jay was hit by a solid wall of guilt and his thick fingers uncurled as he clapped a hand on Carlos' shoulder. "Sorry, 'Los, I'm super excited for you. Giving stuff away may go against my old honour code but I'm happy to celebrate with you."
The two boys were trapped in some stilted dance, their relationship falling in the awkward crack between best friends and boyfriends. Both of them openly acting like couples would, a little too much touching to be completely platonic, but a little too many insults to be together. Jay and Carlos were sure of their own feeling but not quite of the other's. But as Mal said, they were practically married already.
But aside from their relationship or lack thereof, the two of them had been told last week about Christmas, a concept completely alien to the four of them. Mal had been suspicious but was reluctantly swept into the celebrations, so her royal boyfriend didn't have to go to the myriad of ball and dances without a date. Evie was utterly indifferent, and made it clear that no one at all would be getting gifts from her and Jay would have agreed with her decision if it hadn't been for the way Carlos had thrown himself head long into the celebration.
Christmas wasn't for at least another week and yet Carlos had already abandoned wearing anything black in his wardrobe. In just red and white, he bore a striking resemblance to the candy canes he was handing out in spades to anyone who so much as made eye contact with him. Wanting to keep Carlos happy, Jay followed along without contributing any holiday cheer himself. The only present Jay had bought and wrapped was for Carlos, he just hoped the boy would like it.
"Jay?" The tourney MVP looked up, snapping out of his reverie.
"What was that? I totally missed it." Jap apologised and Carlos sighed.
"Do you know anyone who would be willing to take me to the Christmas Ball? I don't want to go alone."
"Wait, what? You're going to that?"
"Well yes, Mal is going and I'm sure Doug is going to convince Evie to go. Besides, I love dancing and I feel the need to remind everyone that even as the smallest VK, I can still kick ass."
"Carlos, everyone knows you're an incredible dancer, they all saw your break it down when Ben sung that song for Mal. But you don't need a date to go to a school dance."
"But Jay I want one, I want a guy to show up at my door at eight with red roses, take me by the hand and take me in a golden carriage to the ball..."
"You've been standing too close to Chad in tourney practise." Jay retorted after several second of crushing silence, the image of him sweeping Carlos off his feet evaporating like morning dew.
"Do you know anyone or not? I don't need you crushing my dreams."
"I was wrong, you haven't been standing too close to Chad, you've inhaled too much of Evie's hairspray."
Carlos leaped up, looking genuinely hurt. "Whatever, I'll go ask someone then, I have robotics now, see you whenever."
Jay leaped up as if to follow his friend, but sighed in resignation and crashed back down onto their couch, maybe they could make up later after his friend had time to cool off a little bit. Meanwhile, Jay had to figure out a way to make Carlos settle for him, so he wouldn't have to watch the teenager go with some goody two-shoes prince. He needed Evie for this.
Evie was just laughing, "God, Jay, it took you long enough to realise it. Mal and I noticed you two were perfect for each other that day after the tourney match where Ben sung. That time you said 'he's kind of like my brain'?"
Jay went pink, "How on earth did you know I said that?"
Evie indulged him with one of her rare smirks. "Carlos talks about it all the time. It's a little ridiculous."
"He wants some ridiculous fanfare, I literally have no money and he knows that, so clearly he wants a prince to take him, but I would rather die than let some royal jerk take him to this ball."
"I saw you had some serious cash the other day! Well have you tried just asking him? Bring him flowers or chocolates or something if you're really feeling the pressure but he would say yes in a heartbeat."
Jay definitely was feeling the pressure, he was a little ashamed that he had to steal some money from lost property, acting confused and asking if anyone had handed in five dollars. Jay bought a bag of the chocolate peanut butter things that Carlos adored so much and guiltily put the change straight into the tip jar. Hopefully his minor digression didn't snowball or anything, and that the person who had actually lost five dollars didn't desperately need it.
The truth was that Jay had spent all of his money on Carlos' Christmas gifts. New games for the video game console in their room that was just as much for him as they were for Carlos. He'd also bought a new laptop for Carlos, as his current one was technically borrowed from the ever-generous King Ben. It wasn't the best model but it was still a lot better than Jay should have been able to afford, and so much better than anything he'd ever bought for himself. Jay had even included the receipt, so Carlos could be sure that Jay had purchased it for real. He couldn't afford to buy himself lunch yesterday but he trusted that it would all be worth it, when Carlos opened that gift on Christmas morning.
Since he'd bought that, the only thing he had left to offer Carlos was himself and the nutty chocolates.
Walking to their room, Jay checked the clock on his phone for the hundredth time to make sure Carlos would be there. He was.
"Jay? Are those peanut butter cups?"
Jay cleared his throat, "Yeah, but sorry, they're for my date to the Christmas dance."
Carlos' face fell, avoiding Jay's eyes. "Oh...right then."
Jay knocked his red beanie off of his head as he approached the bed where Carlos had been working. "Of course, the chocolates are all yours, the whole bag, if you come with me to the Christmas ball."
"Like a date?"
"Well yeah, if you want to, but if you're against it we can go - stag I think they call it?"
"No, date is good, date is great, and I'd love to go with you."
Good. Jay chucked the bag of chocolates at Carlos, who caught them with a smile. While his date was occupied with opening the bag, Jay advanced quickly and when Carlos looked up at him, almost starting in surprise at the proximity, he leant forward and stole a kiss. Carlos kissed him right back, eyes screwed shut as he turned what was supposed to be a chaste peck into a full on make out session.
"Thanks for doing this Jay, I know you aren't as much of a fan of Christmas as me."
"Are you kidding? I love Christmas."