#theo tug molly

[toast-com]

10-15-22

Theodore could only watch as Molly the Vehement rushed him, sword raised and ready to strike. "NO!"  Theodore gasped as Molly's blade was parried by a claymore, the blade sent flying into one of the pillars. The wielder of the claymore, was someone Theodore had never expected to see. 

 "Theodore..." Oliver stood in front of him, sword drawn. "Go. I'll handle it from here." Molly was rising to her feet, bleeding from a gash in her armor. She looked enraged, the fury in her eyes tempered by her cold voice.

 "Oliver the Vast, I should've known..." She raised her hand, and her blade dislodged itself from the pillar, and returned to her grasp. With a snarl, the two knights collided, blades crossed. Oliver was bigger than Molly, but she was quicker. 

 "Oliver! Let me help! I can-" 

 "No! Theodore, you have to leave!"  Oliver snapped, and swung his blade at Molly, who nimbly sidestepped and retaliated. "Take your friends and go! It isn't safe here!" A little ways away from Theodore, George the Valiant was rising to his feet. He was in bad shape, his armor was gashed and dented in places, and his broadsword lay broken. He rushed at Emily and Hank, who lay fallen, and picked them up. He broke off into a staggered run, heading for the exit. Molly was still embroiled in her battle with Oliver, the two knights' blades crossed, neither giving.

 "Theodore!" George's desperate shout tore the young adventurer's gaze away from the battle. "Come on!" 

 "But Oliver, Molly will-" Theodore yelped as George grabbed him, and headed for the exit. Oliver watched them leave out of the corner of his eye, his gaze flickering back to Molly, who was striding towards him. 

 "It's a shame really." She began. "We could've joined forces Oliver, and destroyed those pathetic adventurers."

"I'd never join forces with you!" Oliver coughed, and spat blood. Molly frowned slightly. 

 "I thought you'd say that, traitor." Quicker than his eye could see, Molly slashed at him, bringing the warrior to his knees. Molly pointed her blade at his throat, ready to send him to the distant lands beyond. 

 "Enough, Molly." She froze, and sheathed her sword, turning to the direction of the voice. "If it took all you had to bring the Vast to his knees," Molly frowned at this. "Then, he has the potential..." Darkness blurred the edges of Oliver's vision, and he collapsed.

[remmyswritings]

‘Til the End

Here you go my puffs! There’s a ton of angst, but no worries there’s so much fluff and love at the end that will replace it. Although, I might have even made myself cry just writing this thing. :) <3

tag list: @summer-writes​, @willowbleedsonpaper​, @curious-curios​, @booksmusicteaandanimals​, @strawberriesonsummer​

warning: there is cursing

You woke up to the sun filling your room with light, not enough for it to bother you but just enough to cover everything in a golden haze. In your sleepy state, you rolled over hoping to get just a couple more minutes of rest with your love only to find the other side of the bed cold to the touch. The second your hand found it’s way to the pillow instead of your love’s chest your mind was filled with the memory of what happened the night before. 

“Teddy we are in the middle of a war! How could you possibly even think about marriage at this time?” Hot tears rushing down your face, your throat raspy from all the screaming you had done.

Theo couldn’t help but look at you with disdain, “I think out of everyone in this goddamn world you’d be the one to understand where I’m coming from. You’re the one who’s constantly talking about needing hope and something to fight for. You’re it for me!”

“When I said that I meant a cause Theodore, not a person!” Your arms clutching your chest harder and harder as you tried to calm yourself down.

You inched yourself forward knowing that being at least closer to Theo would help, only for him to inch back in response. His eyes were filled with heartbreak and hurt, or at least you thought it did, since he wouldn’t look you in the eye.

You heard him sniffle a bit and then whimper, “I gave up everything… I am risking my very life by being with you, by loving you, by just believing that maybe you love me enough to even consider marriage… I genuinely thought that you wanted this as much as I did.”

“Theo, mi amor,” he turned his back to your words as they felt like a punch in the gut, “I would love to marry you. Every fiber in my body screams in happiness about marrying you… just not now. Right now isn’t a good time.”

His back still faced you, becoming even more tense at your words, “Well,” he cleared his throat, “I don’t see why I’d want to be with someone who couldn’t even say yes to wanting to marry me yet say that they want to do that very thing.”

Your tears became stronger, and as you reached your arm out in hopes of at least brushing his shoulder, a crack broke the silence in the air and you ended up alone. 

You could feel those tears returning again, brushing them away as you considered the prospect of staying in bed all day, until you heard it. Little movements coming from your kitchen. You knew it wasn’t Teddy because he would have told you it was him. Grabbing your wand, you silently shuffled your feet so as to not let whoever it was hear your footsteps. Inching your body against the wall, you raised your wand preparing to fire a jinx when you saw pink hair in the periphery of your vision.

“Tonks!” Your body relaxing slightly at the sight, “What the fuck are you doing here?”

She merely looked at you, “You called me, remember…” 

You shook your head not trusting your voice. 

“Oh honey,” her arms spread out wide as she brought you into a hug, “Remus and I decided to pop by to check on you, and before you ask Remus went to get some food over from the Weasleys. He figured I should stay here and watch over til you woke up.”

Suddenly, as if by being summoned with his name, Remus appeared just a couple feet outside your door with a certain red-head matriarch that you had slowly considered to be a second mother to you. The two of them walked in and at the sight of you wrapped up in Tonks’ hug, they gave you a sad smile. Molly walked through your kitchen towards the cupboards where your mugs were and began to prepare everything to make you a soothing hot chocolate. When Tonks finally released you from her grasp, you turned around to greet both Remus and Molly with a smile and a hug. 

Remus patted your head and gave you a look of empathy, having gone through something similar when he first started his relationship with Tonks, “Why don’t you go take a shower and get dressed Y/N? We’ve got everything handled here.”

“Alright if you are sure,” you smiled meekly. 

After feeling at least slightly refreshed by the shower, you returned to the kitchen to find not just hot chocolate, but a full feast prepared.

Your eyes began to water as you felt the love and care for the three adults who had been watching over you, “Thank you so much,” you breathed out.

“Well come on then dear, we need to get some food in you,” Molly tugged you along to the dining table, serving you a little bit of everything.The four of you ate in silence, relishing in the calm that came over you. 

When you were finishing your hot chocolate you suddenly felt it, a pit in your stomach, as if something were off in the world. Y

ou looked up to the three adults, “I think it’s going to happen today. This,” you struggled to find the right words, “battle… it’ll be soon.”

“How do you know?” Remus couldn’t help but look intrigued.

You turned back to your drink, “I don’t know how to explain it, but I just do.” 

With that, you bid them goodbye and promised to strengthen your wards after they left. You prayed that you were wrong, that it wouldn’t happen, but you knew that it would.A couple hours later, waiting for Theo to return so you could at least be together, you got the message from the Potterwatch. Only one thought ran through your head, It’s time.

You apparated to the school you called your second home, running through the hallways until you found them, the rest of the Order. Everything went by in a flash and next thing you knew the protective barrier that had provided a speck of hope was going down in flames. Your brain then went on autopilot, fighting anyone who attacked you, moving students out of harm's way, healing anyone you could and moving the ones that you couldn’t to the Great Hall. Yet during all of that you couldn’t help but worry for Theo. If anything happened to either of you, you didn’t want your final words to be that argument from the night before. 

As you helped a fellow student, you failed to recognize the Death Eater that had started to approach you. To be honest, you hadn’t met the man, but he knew exactly who you were: to him, you were the woman who corrupted his son and damaged his family’s image. You didn’t see him when he lifted his wand up, when he started to utter the words for the spell that would end your very existence. No, you only saw him when you heard your lover’s voice yell another unforgivable spell, “Crucio.”You turned around wide-eyes at the scene in front of you. Your lover tackling the Death Eater after the spell had worn off, continually punching him even after he had stopped resisting. 

“Theo,” you ran towards him, “Theo, that’s enough.” In that moment, you weren’t strong enough to pull him off but hearing your voice made him falter.

You slowly dragged Theo off of his father, still not knowing who the man was, and cupped his face, searching his body for more injuries, “What the fuck was that?”

Theo merely smiled at the sight of you, “That was him, my father I mean.”

“Ok,” you brought him closer to you, no longer caring about the fighting that went on around you. 

He suddenly pushed you away, and you saddened at the thought that he was still mad, a whimper escaping your mouth, “I’m just checking you for injuries, my love.”

“I’m sorry, I’m so so so sorry,” you cried out as you brought him into another hug.

 “It’s okay, my love, I understand why you said no,” he brushed a hand through your hair, so as to stop your tears.

You shook your head, “You were right though. I thought that I did everything I did because I was fighting for the Order, for good but in reality I was fighting for you, for the chance to grow old with you and have a family.”

“What are you saying?” His eyes searched yours as if he would find the answer there.

“I’m saying we get married,” you brought him down into a passionate kiss.

“Right-“ his lips touched yours again, “now?”

“Yes.”

The two of you then ran through the battle hand-through-hand determined to find someone that would help. Along the way, the two of you fought, back to back, sending protective spells when the other couldn’t see and jinxes to Death Eaters trying to surprise you. The two of you were unstoppable. 

Then you came along Kingsley Shackelbot, the solution to your problem, “Kingsley!”

“Y/N! What is it?” He turned to face you.

You sent a couple more spells around you just to make sure the both of you would make it through the conversation, “I need you to marry Theo and I.”

“Right now?” He looked to you as though you had grown another head.

You smiled and nodded, “If anything happens to either of us, I want to at least have been married to the love of my life.” 

“Alright, if you say so,” as he finished those very words another horde of Death Eaters started to attack.

Yet, the three of you working in tandem were able to fight them off. If anyone had seen it they would have just fought that you were yelling out curses, but no, Shacklebot read through the wedding vows.“Do you Y/N take Theodore to be your lawfully wedded husband,” he sent another curse out. 

“Yes, I fucking do,” a curse whizzed past your head, grazing your shoulder.

“And do you Theodore-“ “Absolutely, you don’t even have to finish the question.”

“Well by the power-“ Shakelbot grunted as he moved to avoid a curse, “vested in me by the Ministry of Magic I declare you husband and wife.”

You and Theo stared at one another and shared what you believed to be one of your most passionate kisses to date. Your whole body felt like it was on fire with electric currents running up and down your arms. Even when you pulled away and rested your forehead against his, your lips continued to tingle. 

“You are my everything,” You couldn’t help but whisper, “mi amor, mi vida.”

Theo opened his eyes and peered down into yours with an expression that could only be defined as love, “I am with you ‘Til the end.” 

[linskywords]

Wolfverse Advent: Day 24

[Note: I decided to write a brief snippet for each couple so far for Christmas Eve, and they somehow (ha ha ha) got long. After the cut!]

December 24, 2019

Coralie wants to stay up and watch for Santa. “But Gabi told me she did it when she was little!” she says when Jamie tries to get her to go to bed.

“Gabi also told you she was way older than you when she did it,” Jamie says. Actually what Gabi said was that she was so sorry she’d said anything, but that part was only to him and Tyler.

Coralie puts her lower lip out. “But I want to see Santa.”

“Santa only comes to good little kids who are asleep in their beds, remember?” Jamie says. “Come on, baby Theo was in bed half an hour ago. You don’t want him to be the only one who gets toys, do you?”

Coralie pouts for another minute. “Fine,” she says finally. “But I want to go on the airplane again.”

The airplane is Tyler, who’s lying on the rug next to the Christmas tree, giving the kids airplane rides on his feet. He has Anna up in the air now, his hands on hers and his feet holding up his belly while she shrieks in delight. Tyler sees Jamie looking and zooms her to the ground. “Oh no, everyone, the airplane’s crashing!” he says.

“No, you’re not!” Peter says.

“Totally crashed,” Tyler says, sprawling out bonelessly on the rug. “Look, everything’s broken.”

The kids start testing his limbs for breaks. Tyler grins up at Jamie, his hair rumpled and his shirt riding up and his scent bright with happiness. Jamie leans down and kisses him on the mouth.

“Ew!” the kids chorus, and Tyler tugs Jamie down so he’s lying next to him on the rug, displacing Daniel and Lyra.

“Wow, it’s just so comfy here,” Tyler says. “Your dad and I might just stay here all night.” He winks at Jamie.

“You know, that sounds great,” Jamie says loudly. “I mean, Santa wouldn’t be able to come, but you don’t mind that, do you?”

“No!” Coralie shouts. “You have to go to bed!”

Jamie looks at Tyler. “Hm, I don’t know. What do you think?”

Tyler stretches. “I’m pretty comfortable here.”

“Come on, Dad, come on,” Coralie says, tugging at his sleeve.

They end up being towed upstairs by the kids. “Come on, we have to hurry so that Santa can come,” Peter says while they change into their pajamas and brush their teeth.

“Uh-oh, Jamie, do you think they have time?” Tyler asks.

Jamie checks his watch. “He is supposed to show up pretty soon,” he says, and Lyra shrieks with her head halfway into her pajama top.

Five minutes later all five of them are lying in a row on the bed. “I think that’s the fastest bedtime has ever gone,” Tyler whispers to Jamie after they’ve kissed everyone goodnight.

Jordie and Jess come out of the room next door, where they’ve been getting Theo down. He’s still too young to share a room with the others, but they’re thinking maybe this spring. “Did they actually go to bed on time?” Jordie says. “Does this mean we don’t get to return their presents to the store?”

“We’ll see if they stay there all night before we throw out the receipts,” Tyler says.

Jamie wraps his arms around Tyler from behind and rests his chin on his shoulder. He kind of wants to get Tyler alone and finish the kiss they barely started on the carpet downstairs. But also: it’s Christmas Eve. There’s a tree downstairs and candles in the windows and a couch that’s calling their collective name, not to mention a tree that needs presents piled underneath it. “Eggnog?” he says.

“Bring it on,” Jess says, rolling up her sleeves.

***

“But I don’t get why Molly and Kayla aren’t here,” Violet says.

“Because they have families of their own to go to,” Patrick says. “It’s Christmas Eve, so they want to be with their parents.”

“But we’re their family,” Eric says. “They should be here.”

Patrick gathers the two of them into his arms. They’re five and a half, and getting too heavy to lift more than one at a time, but it’s still just about doable. “Families can have lots of different parts that do different things sometimes,” he says. “Molly and Kayla love you and will be so excited to see you again in a few days.”

“No,” Violet says, and starts crying.

She’s overtired. Patrick’s parents and sisters are staying with them, which means the kids have been running around all day, and the quadruplets haven’t been taking regular naps since they started kindergarten this year. “Hey, why don’t we go read a story?” he says.

By the time they finish reading about Polly Diamond and her magic book, Violet’s conked out, and Eric and Luke and Sophie are nodding off. Patrick’ll give them an hour and a half; any more than that and they won’t fall asleep tonight.

He’s just made it out of their room when his phone rings. He listens for a while, then says, “Of course, sure,” and goes to find Jonny.

Jonny’s in the living room, holding down the fort with the older kids and Patrick’s family. “Okay, who let him play Monopoly?” Patrick asks when he comes in the room.

Jonny shoots him a glare. “Shut up, I’m winning.”

“We don’t say shut up to each other,” Jackie-the-younger sing-songs from the couch, where she’s curled up with a book.

Erica laughs. “Oh man, you guys so deserve this. I love it.”

“Can I steal you for a minute?” Patrick says to Jonny, and when Jonny looks a question at him: “Molly just called. They’re coming back here.”

Joe sits up with a yelp. “What? They’re coming back?”

“Yup, should be here soon,” Patrick says to Joe, and jerks his head to Jonny to join him in the other room.

Jonny listens to what Molly told Patrick, and his expression slowly darkens. “Those fuckers,” he says.

“I know. I thought they’d gotten over it,” Patrick says. It makes him remember how lucky he and Jonny are: neither of their families had any problem with the gay thing. Not to mention the wolf thing, which Molly and Kayla still have to deal with a little, if only indirectly through their jobs. Patrick’s dealt with some crap in his life, but it could have been so much worse.

Molly and Kayla show up a couple of hours later and get mobbed by kids. “We thought you went to your other family!” Violet shouts while she jumps up and down, hugging Kayla’s leg.

“Nope, we’re gonna be here with you instead,” Kayla says.

They both look a little done with the world. That’s probably what happens when you drive multiple hours to be with one set of your parents for the holidays, get yelled at for half an hour for being married to another woman, and turn right around and drive back. Patrick gives both of them a really long hug. “Go hang out in your room if you want, we’ve got things taken care of down here.”

The rest of the day is a whirlwind of church and dinner and trying to convince nine kids that they don’t need to stay up to watch the end of A Christmas Story. Patrick’s family is staying at a hotel—they have guest rooms, but not enough of them for five extra people—so after the kids go to bed it’s just Patrick and Jonny and Molly and Kayla.

Patrick gets out the wine. “You guys don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but also feel free to rant,” he says.

“Ugh, I don’t even know where to start,” Molly says.

“They’re my parents, I’ll do it,” Kayla says, and gives them what’s probably an edited version of what her parents said to them.

It’s rough, and she starts crying. Patrick ends up hugging both of them and also sniffling a little because that’s how he does things. “Thank you so much for letting us come back here,” Molly says. “I know you already have a lot of people in the house. It means a lot.”

“Of course. You’re completely welcome,” Jonny says, but there’s something else coming through the bond—like he doesn’t quite mean it. Patrick shoots him a sharp glance but doesn’t get a response.

He asks him about it later, when they’ve gone up to bed. “What? No, of course I’m happy to have them here,” Jonny says.

“You’d better be. They’re the best,” Patrick says.

“No, obviously, it’s just—” Jonny pulls off his socks. “They’re sitting there fucking thanking us for letting them into our home. Where they live forty-eight weeks out of the year.”

Patrick’s missing the point here. “And…”

“And they should think of it as their home by now.” Jonny throws his shirt into the hamper and looks at Patrick. “I want to invite them into our pack.”

He’s saying it defiantly, like he expects Patrick to argue. “Okay,” Patrick says after a minute.

Jonny raises his eyebrows. “‘Okay’?”

“Okay, we can talk to them about that,” Patrick says. “I think it would be awesome. Obviously. They’re part of the family by now. But they might not want to. I mean, it’s their jobs, they might not want to blur the lines like that.”

“Yeah, I thought about that, but we can work it out,” Jonny says. “They practically raised our kids. I want this to be their family. If they want it to be.”

“Yeah.” Patrick grins and pulls Jonny down onto the bed. “Yeah, we’ll ask.” They’ve got a pretty great pack. He can see how someone might have their reasons for not wanting to join it…but honestly, he doesn’t think that’s what’s going to happen.

***

Being in Arizona is weird. Like, it’s great that Taylor and Ebs get to keep playing for the same team, but…it was rough, having to move the kids. The house doesn’t feel like theirs yet. And the weather is all wrong. It’s not natural for it to be fifteen degrees Celsius at Christmas.

At least things should feel more normal once Sarah gets home. Taylor gets that this whole college thing is important, but it’s just weird, not having all their kids in the house.

Althoough he kind of wishes Sarah were coming back alone.

“What do you think he’ll be like?” Ebs asks while they wait around for the Lyft to get here.

“I don’t know,” Taylor says. “Isn’t it just, like, super soon for her to bring someone home?”

Ebs gives him a sly look. “We adopted kids six months after we got together.”

“Yeah, but we were different,” Taylor says, shoving him and then putting his arm around Ebs’ waist.

The Lyft pulls up a few minutes later. The guy who gets out after Sarah is skinny, dark-haired, wearing a t-shirt that’s way too big for him. Taylor definitely didn’t look that young when he was nineteen. Maybe ever.

“Sarah!” Charlotte shrieks, and runs out of the house into Sarah’s arms. Sarah laughs and catches her, and Sarah’s boyfriend picks up her bag along with his own and waves at the Lyft driver. Taylor likes him marginally more.

Sarah gets to the front door, and Taylor and Ebs engulf her in hugs of their own. She looks good: her hair is streaked with blue and green and purple, which looks awesome, and her face is a little less thin than it was when she left for school. She’s all smiles for them, and for Charlotte, and for her teenage brothers who are drifting down the stairs.

“And this is Nick,” she says, dragging him forward, and Taylor feels Ebs go rigid.

He sees it, and he also feels it through the bond. He can’t tell why, though. The bond is annoyingly imprecise that way: he can tell that Ebs’ heart is racing, that he’s struck with—horror? Anxiety? Fear?—but he can’t tell exactly what it is, or what’s causing it. He shoots Ebs a look, but Ebs isn’t looking back at him. He’s staring at Nick, and at Sarah.

Taylor takes charge of welcoming them and tries to be extra warm to Nick to make up for the way Ebs is just staring. Then, as soon as Nick and Sarah go upstairs to put their bags away, he pulls Ebs aside.

“What the fuck is wrong?” he whispers. Whispering is always a questionable strategy in a house full of wolves—Taylor can never quite guess just how well they can hear—but also: what the fuck is wrong?

“They’re,” Ebs says, and then words seem to fail him. His eyes are all big and buggy. “They’re bonded.”

“What?” Taylor says. He looks around, like Ebs could even possibly be talking about someone else. “What? No, they only just met, like, four months ago.”

“They’re bonded,” Ebs says again, and Taylor knows better than to doubt Ebs on wolf stuff. But also: what.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Sarah says when they get her alone twenty minutes later.

Ebs still seems to be stuck on partial-shutdown mode. Taylor isn’t in shock to the same degree, but also, he’s not sure he totally believes it. “What did…how?” he asks.

“We didn’t mean for it to happen,” Sarah says. She’s looking at them a little defiantly, her chin up. “It just did.”

“Wow,” Taylor says. He glances at Ebs. He kind of wants him to say something; this is his territory more than Taylor’s. “Is he, uh, is he a good guy?”

“He’s the best,” Sarah says. “He’s a freshman, too, and he’s studying marine biology. He’s getting great grades, and he’s super responsible, and—”

“And he bonded with you after four months,” Ebs says.

Okay, Taylor no longer wants Ebs to say something. Sarah’s face goes immediately into fighting-with-parents mode. “It wasn’t like that,” she says.

“There are things you have to do to bond,” Ebs says. “You can’t tell me it happened by accident. You should both have known better—”

“We weren’t even dating!” Sarah bursts out.

Ebs pauses at the outburst. Sarah’s face goes very red. “I mean—we weren’t hooking up, even, or anything,” she says. “We were just friends. And—”

Something passes over Sarah’s face. Taylor’s hit with instant recognition: he remembers that feeling. He remembers feeling something very like it when he lived with Ebs that first year, before they were together, when he didn’t think there was any hope for them getting together but he wanted Ebs so bad he thought he would die of it. He takes an involuntary step toward Sarah before catching himself. He wants to let her finish what she’s saying.

“It was really bad,” she says. “I thought—but then he felt it too. And we figured it out.” Her eyes are bright. “It’s so good now, Dads. It’s—it’s better than anything.”

Taylor looks at Ebs. His expression is stricken. “And—you’re happy?” Ebs asks.

“I’m so happy,” she says, her voice catching. “I’m so happy.”

Taylor can’t help it. He has to hug her. A moment later Ebs joins him, both of them with their arms around her.

“Then I’m happy for you,” Ebs whispers into the hug. She’s crying, and they both start, too. They stand there for long minutes, hugging, with tears streaming down their faces.

***

It takes months for Alex and Dylan to decide on Christmas plans, mostly because their families don’t seem to get why they don’t want to spend it apart. “You guys have only been together for like ten months,” Ryan says. “You can be apart for three days.”

Yeah, they technically can. They wouldn’t die or anything. “Maybe we’re being silly,” Dylan says to Alex after they’ve gotten pushback for a few days.

“No, we’re not,” Alex says, like it’s that simple, like they don’t need to even think about the possibility. Dylan’s glad he’s saying that but still kind of antsy about it.

When he talks to his mom, though, she understands right away. “Of course you don’t want to spend Christmas apart,” she says. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure something out.”

In the end, the DeBrincats end up coming to Toronto for the break so they can all spend it at the Stromes’. Dylan feels a little self-conscious about it in the days leading up to the break, but when Christmas Eve rolls around and he and Alex get to snuggle on the same couch and watch It’s a Wonderful Life with both their families around them, and later when they get to go up to bed together, he knows they couldn’t have done it any other way.

“Remember Christmas last year?” he asks Alex when they’re in bed, waiting to fall asleep.

“Mm. What about it?” Alex asks.

“You called me, to show me that thing your dog was wearing,” Dylan says.

“Oh, yeah.” Alex laughs. “That was so dumb. I just—I did it to hear your voice.”

“It was, like, the only thing that kept me going,” Dylan says. “I was such a mess for those three days.”

Alex has his hands in Dylan’s hair, fingertips rubbing Dylan’s scalp the way he likes. “My mom asked if I was getting the flu, I was so out of it.”

Dylan can still remember it, viscerally: that choking feeling in his gut, like he couldn’t get enough air or food. Like something was slowly drawing the life out of him. “Let’s never spend it apart again,” he whispers.

“You’ve got a deal,” Alex says, and rolls on top of him to kiss him soundly.

***

Sid and Geno spend Christmas Eve lying in front of the fire, just the two of them. There’s some Christmas movie on in the background, but Sid isn’t really watching. He’s paying attention to the feeling of Geno’s chest rising and falling behind him, to the way Geno’s softly tracing patterns on his arm.

“ESPN finally realizing what Geno always knows,” Geno says.

“Huh?” Sid must have drifted off for a minute there. He realizes the Christmas move is over, and there’s a news program saying something about hockey. “Oh. The list?”

“Sid best of decade,” Geno says smugly.

So many people say so many good things about Sid all the time. But still, somehow, Geno saying them always makes Sid want to duck his head, embarrassed. “It’s just a list,” he says, heat coming into his cheeks.

Geno takes his shoulder and presses him back against the rug. Then he levers himself on top of him. “No,” he says. “Sid best.” And Sid would try to protest, but it’s hard to make a coherent argument when you’re being kissed that thoroughly.

Sid decides there are some things worth conceding. For the greater good.

(master post)