What Happens at Christmas (12 page)

Justin marched over to a quiet corner of the park, packed a lump of snow in his hands until it was about the size of a cannonball, then put it down and started to roll it.

“Snowman?” Sean asked.

“Nope. Snow dick, of course.”

“Seriously?” Sean looked around. “There are children present.”

“They won’t be able to tell what it is from a distance. Don’t be such a spoilsport.” Justin’s first snowball was now about the size of a basketball. “That’ll do,” he said. “Now we just need a few more like that. We’ll stick them together in a tower, and we can sculpt it to make it smooth.”

“You’re an embarrassment,” Sean grumbled, but he joined in, shaping some snow in his gloves and then stooping to roll it into a larger ball.

Justin grinned, amused by Sean’s reluctance. Justin had always been the one to lead him astray. Good to see some things never changed.

Once they’d stacked several snowballs together and smoothed them into a column, they had some artistic differences. They argued for a while about whether the snow dick should be cut or uncut.

“Cut’s easier,” Sean said. “Less fiddly and it will look more obviously like a dick if we can shape the head.”

Apparently Sean’s reluctance about Project Snow Peen had evaporated once his creative instincts had kicked in. Justin chuckled. “This isn’t America, Sean. Anyway, it’s clearly erect, so the foreskin can be pulled back. You get shaping. I’m going to start making the bollocks.”

By the time they’d finished, even Justin had to admit it was pretty pornographic in its anatomical detail. Thankfully nobody had come close enough to see what they were doing.

“It’s a thing of beauty,” Sean said, standing back, his arms folded as they studied it.

“It really is.” Justin got out his phone. He took photos from every conceivable angle. “I’ll put the best one on Instagram later. Hashtag: snowdickpic. Maybe I can get it trending.”

“Oh God, there are kids coming,” Sean said in alarm. “Can we leave now, please? Either that or I’m going to put a face on it and add some sticks for arms.”

“No!” Justin said in mock horror. “You can’t ruin it. It’s art. Leave it for posterity or until it melts or gets stomped on. But yeah, let’s go. My gloves are soaked through and my toes are frozen. I think my boots leaked.”

When they got home, Sean folded his bed back into sofa form while Justin turned the heating up and made hot chocolate for them. Then they snuggled on the sofa under blankets while they thawed out.

“My feet are still like ice blocks,” Justin complained. “My circulation is shit.” He wiggled his toes against Sean’s thigh where he sat at the opposite end. He could still hardly feel them. “I need a hot water bottle or something.”

“Here.” Sean set his mug down and pulled Justin’s feet into his lap. He stripped the sock off one foot and rubbed it between his hands, which were warm from holding his drink. “Bloody hell, they are freezing.”

Sean wrapped his hands around Justin’s foot and held it tight, letting the warmth seep into Justin’s icy skin. Then he rubbed it again until Justin felt the tingle of blood coming back to the surface with the familiar stinging feeling associated with being too cold for too long. Once that foot thawed out, Sean swapped and did the other one. But his hands were cold from the first foot now, so it took longer for the friction of his hands to work. The rubbing turned into a foot massage. Justin lay back and closed his eyes, mind drifting as he lost himself in the sensation of Sean’s thumbs working the arch of his foot. He only came back to himself when Sean patted his leg.

“You okay now?”

“Yeah, thanks.” Justin opened his eyes, blinking at the brightness. He yawned and stretched. “I’m ready for a nap.”

“Oh no. No way. Not after you woke me up at what-the-fuck o’clock to go and make snow penises. I’m wide awake now, so you’re not going back to bed. We’ve got decorating to do, remember?”

“Oh, yes.” Justin perked up, excited at the thought of making his flat look festive. “Where are my socks?”

“Here.” Sean threw them at his head and Justin caught them, laughing.

“So helpful.”

An hour and a half later they were done.

Justin turned the main lights off, plunging the flat into dusky gloom. Although it was only lunchtime, it had clouded over again outside, and the sky was the sort of dirty grey that usually heralded more snow.

“Ready?” Sean asked, finger paused over the switch that would turn the Christmas lights on—one set on the tree, another other draped over the mantelpiece, and a third that they’d wrapped around the standard lamp in the corner of the room.

“I feel like we should have invited a minor celebrity over to switch them on for us,” Justin said.

Sean chuckled. “Plenty of them around in London. I’m sure we could have got one of them to take a break from their hectic panto schedule. But it’s too late now, so you’re gonna have to make do with me. Okay. Three, two, one….” He hit the lights.

Justin breathed out a happy sigh, a smile spreading across his face. He’d always adored the strings of fairy lights that his family put up every Christmas. Of all the decorations, they were the ones he loved the most. Their soft light transformed the mundane into something magical. The tinsel on the tree caught the light, and the silver and gold baubles gleamed, tiny mirrors reflecting the different colours like a shattered rainbow.

“It’s beautiful.” Happiness rose in his chest, light and bubbly as he stepped forward to admire the tree.

Sean came and stood beside him. “Yeah. It really is.”

On an impulse, Justin put an arm around Sean’s waist and brushed a quick, chaste kiss against his cheek. “I’m really glad you’re here. It would suck to be stuck here alone for Christmas.”

Sean put his arm around Justin’s shoulders and squeezed. “I’m glad I’m here too.”

They stared at the tree in silence for a little while longer, but then Justin’s stomach rumbled and reminded him that it was past one o’clock. “Let’s get some lunch, then we can chill. I fancy some of that Mario and Sonic game this afternoon—you know, the one at the Olympics with all the skiing and snowboarding.”

They gathered up the empty bags and boxes that had held the decorations.

“We forgot to put these ones up.” Sean held up another box of fairy lights.

“Oh, I kept those to go over my bed.” Justin took them. “I’ve always wanted some. I might leave them up all year round.”

Sean smirked.

“What?” Justin demanded. “Fairy lights are awesome.”

“But over your bed? What are you, a thirteen-year-old girl?”

“Fuck off.” Justin flipped him the finger. “I’m secure enough in my masculinity that I can indulge my love of pretty things. I’m sad for you that you have to prove yourself by living a life devoid of beauty.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Now, what’s for lunch?”

They spent the afternoon playing in virtual snow on the Wii rather than in the real stuff. When they were tired of snowboarding, skiing, and figure skating, they put some mince pies in the oven to warm up.

“I think it’s beer o’clock,” Sean suggested.

“Beer doesn’t go with mince pies. I fancy some red wine.”

“Oh yeah. That sounds good.”

Justin opened a bottle and was pouring them both glasses when the oven timer went off. They carried everything to the coffee table and took up residence on the sofa again.

Justin turned on the TV and found that
Love Actually
had just started.

Sean groaned. “You’re going to make me watch this aren’t you?”

“Yep.” Justin loved romcoms. Always had, always would. There was something about watching other people get happy endings that gave him hope. Maybe one day he’d finally find a nice guy whom he’d love more than Sean and who could cure him of his terminal crush.

Once they’d demolished the mince pies, Justin pulled the blanket off the back of the sofa and spread it over them both, moving closer to Sean.

“You cold again?” Sean lifted his arm obligingly, letting Justin slide underneath it to snuggle.

“A bit,” Justin lied. He was perfect. But he had to take his chances to get close to Sean wherever he could find them.

They spent the rest of the evening on the sofa, indulging in a Christmas movie marathon. They finished the first bottle of wine and opened a second, but they slowed down, only getting halfway through that bottle by the time
The Holiday
had finished.

Justin yawned, but stayed put as the finished credits rolled. Warm and comfortable with his head in Sean’s lap and Sean’s fingers idly stroking his hair, he didn’t want to move. He could lie like this forever. He glanced up at Sean’s face, the strong jaw covered with stubble, the way his dark eyes glittered in the fairy lights. Justin’s stomach did a pathetic little flop of longing, hopeless, like a stranded fish.

Sean looked down at him and Justin held his gaze, wishing, but not daring to hope.

Sean cleared his throat, and his voice was soft and husky when he spoke. “It feels like we’re pretending to be boyfriends again.”

Justin’s heart surged, pounding in double time as he studied Sean’s face, searching for something, anything to give him the courage to ask for what he wanted. The tenderness he saw there made the words come.

“We could try it again,” he managed, his voice small, strangled by emotion too strong to contain. “I liked being boyfriends.”

Sean’s chest lifted, his breath coming faster. “Me too,” he whispered.

Justin was almost afraid to move, terrified of getting it wrong and breaking the spell between them. But he forced himself to be brave. He lifted his hand and touched Sean’s cheek, caressing the scruff on his jaw as he asked, “If you were my boyfriend. What would you do next?”

Sean licked his lips. “I’d kiss you.”

Justin felt as though the world stopped and waited. Caught in the moment, they stared at each other, utterly still. And then suddenly they both moved at once, Sean lowering his head as Justin pushed up on his elbows. Their mouths met in a graceless smash of lips and clack of teeth, and their noses bumped painfully.

They pulled apart, both laughing as Sean rubbed his nose.

Fuck it
. Justin wasn’t letting this slip away from him. He sat up and got into Sean’s lap, straddling him and grinning down at Sean’s surprised face. “Call that a kiss?”

This time Justin took control, claiming Sean’s mouth and kissing him deep and dirty. Sean brought his arms up and held Justin close, his hands sliding under Justin’s T-shirt and over his skin, making Justin moan and grind down on the hard bulge in Sean’s sweatpants.

Sean dragged his lips away from Justin’s, scratching his thick stubble over Justin’s softer two-day growth. “God, Justin,” he muttered as he sucked on Justin’s neck. He was probably pulling a mark to the surface, but Justin couldn’t bring himself to care.

“What else?” Justin asked breathlessly.

“Huh?” Sean sucked again, harder.

“What else would you do? If we were a couple? Oh—”

Sean worked a hand down the front of Justin’s pyjama bottoms and circled his cock with a firm grip, tugging and stroking. He drew back, pupils blown with desire, lips wet from their kisses. “I’d ask you to take me to bed and fuck me.” He carried on stroking Justin as he spoke.

Justin stared at him. “You’d want me to top?” His cock pulsed in Sean’s hand, pushing out a bead of precome, apparently on board with this plan. “Wow. I always figured you’d be a top.”

“I don’t bottom that often, because I only like it with someone I really trust.” Sean flushed. “But my prostate is really sensitive. So I’m kind of a cock slut when I get the chance.”

“Fuck.” Justin reached down and gripped Sean’s wrist. “You can’t say stuff like that to me while you’re jerking me off. Not if you want me to actually get my dick in your arse.” He searched Sean’s face for a sign that this was going to happen, that it wasn’t just dirty talk while they fooled around on the sofa. He couldn’t tell. “Do you want to go and, um, do that?”

“If you do?”

“Fuck,
yes
.”

Sean chuckled at his enthusiasm. “Have you got lube and condoms?”

“In the bedroom.” Justin scrambled off Sean’s lap and held out a hand to pull him up.

In Justin’s room, Sean stripped to his boxers while Justin got out the supplies. Then Sean gestured to the bathroom door. “I’m just gonna go clean up a bit.”

“Need any help?” Justin grinned.

Sean rolled his eyes. “Uh. No. Not my kink. Back in a few.”

Justin turned on the string of fairy lights he’d draped over the headboard and turned off the normal lamp. Then he got naked and slipped under the covers. His cock brushed against the sheets as he settled on his back, still hard despite the break in the proceedings. He took himself in hand and stroked slowly, listening to the sound of the shower running. The bed warmed around him as he moved his hand over his cock, not close to coming but ready to get straight back to business.

Sean came back a few minutes later. His hair was dry, but he had a towel around his waist. Justin lifted up the covers for him. When Sean dropped the towel, Justin let his gaze lock on to Sean’s cock. It was soft, but it thickened and rose as Justin stared.

“Fuck, you’re gorgeous.” Justin moved over to make space. He ran his hand down Sean’s flank, reaching around to squeeze his arse. His fingers slipped into the damp crack and Sean threw his leg over Justin’s hip, opening up for him. “Let me get the lube.”

He opened Sean up like that. Not the easiest position for access, but it meant he could kiss him while he did it, and he didn’t think he’d ever get tired of kissing Sean. Sean’s mouth opened for Justin’s tongue as his hole softened under Justin’s fingers, little needy moans and gasps escaping as Justin worked his fingers into him, stretching his rim and getting him ready.

When Justin sensed that Sean was getting impatient, he eased his fingers out and patted Sean on the hip. “You ready? Pass me a condom.”

Sean rolled it on for him, and Justin bit his lip at the stroke of his hand.

“Okay, how do you want to do this?” Justin asked.