wickerpark | Christmas Bells are Ringing [Carlos/Gael]

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Christmas Bells are Ringing [Carlos/Gael]

Carlos had been at work, something he'd apparently volunteered for, so it made slipping into his rooms by mid-afternoon. He'd spent the morning and most of the afternoon with his father and sister, the three of them gathered in Daniel's kitchen and happily watching Leon's favorite Christmas movies in honor of their missing member. They'd opened gifts and ate. At least until Daniel had kissed the heads of both his children and told them to go- see their friends, lovers, which ever they wanted. Gael suspected it had been more for his benefit than Noelle's as his sister seemed content to stay put on the couch.

He took that time to set up a tree with a small gift in the otherwise cheerless living room. He then set about cooking a dinner, which with a little bit of Ty's help, that he was certain would be ready before the other man finally came home. He set the table after dinner was done, and poured the wine before he glanced at the clock and wondered if he should have just waited and done a dinner for Carlos and his siblings tomorrow. His nerves kicked up, and there was an anxious knot in his stomach as he found soft instrumental music to play in the background as he looked over the scene.

He'd changed while the food had cooked, but suddenly felt over dressed as he looked at himself in the hallway mirror. Was he really going to do this? Was he really doing all of this with the express intention of admitting to Carlos something he didn't think he could do more than once. For that matter, what the hell did it say about him that he felt sick to his stomach, nerves firing off as worry and doubt crept into his being as a whole. Who was he to think this was all a good idea?

Not that he mattered, he thought as he heard the door start to open. He really didn't get much chance out of this, did he? He was stuck, he had to go through with it... Lightheaded, dizziness aside, he was without escape and that meant all he could do was.....

Move to the bedroom and close the door to hide just a few moments longer. At least until he felt less like throwing up and more like he could handle this like a grown up.

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Christmas had, Carlos thought, always been one of those holidays where he'd felt reminded that his parents had had too many of them. Before he was disowned they hadn't been bad, but the easiest time for the shyest Sanchez to feel lost in the shuffle, between mass and dinners and presents. Then, of course he'd been disowned and as much as it hadn't been his favorite time, it quickly became his least favorite. It was empty, he thought; the Kagans had tried, but Christmas wasn't really their thing.

Carlos had learned quickly to aggressively treat it as any other day, and he hadn't considered doing any differently now that he and Gael were dating. Gael would want the time with his family, after all, and even if Carlos didn't have a dislike of Christmas, he didn't expect that theirs was the kind of relationship that involved holidays.

His eyes narrowed a bit, then, when he smelled the scent of holiday dinner as he approached his rooms and he frowned a bit as he unlocked the door and looked at the rather transformed apartment. It would be Gael, because who else would?

"Gael?" He said out loud as he closed the door. "Are you here, or am I supposed to think that Santa Claus made a late visit?"

Internally he cursed at Carlos and his calm words for no other reason than he suddenly regretted doing this. Still, he supposed there was no point in hiding forever as could hear Carlos moving about in the other room. Pulling himself together, Gael looked himself over one more time before took a deep breath and opened the door into the living area.

"Feliz Navidad, cherie." He said as he stepped out of the room and smiled at Carlos. "I...um." He looked down at his hands, as he clasped them in front of himself and licked his lips. Gael hadn't planed out what he'd wanted to say, and found himself stuck and without words. He felt silly, and every piece of self-confidence was melting away as he came back to the idea that that was a mistake. "I wanted....to...I wanted to spend part of the day with you. So I thought, dinner. And um..." He reached out and picked up the small box that was sitting under the tree he'd bright with him from his apartment. "I....got you a gift. I know you, you said you didn't care. But...I wanted to. And um, I...I-i hope you like it."

Edited 2017-09-01 03:17 (UTC)

He had seen Gael a lot of ways, Carlos thought as he watched his lover twist his fingers and look down at the floor. But never nervous, never unsure. His confidence was like a second skin, and at one point Carlos would have said it was impossible for Gael to be anxious like this. "Joyeux Noël," he said after a moment. Something was up other than a holiday surprise, he thought. Christmas dinner, even if he worried that Carlos would be annoyed by it, wouldn't work him up like this.

He smiled a bit and loosened his shirt collar and took the present before shooing Mr. Meowgi away from the Very Interesting Christmas tree. "You didn't have to," he said, "but thank you." He had gotten Gael something, but he'd planned to give it to him the next day.

And...he thought as he unwrapped the box and opened it, this wasn't what he would expect. He knew what claddagh rings were for. Ty's aunt Zoë wore one on her left hand. He looked up with a questioning look. "Are you...what is this, cariño?"

"It is...what you want it to be," he said after a moment, looking up at Carlos. "Be it whatever, but..." He fell silent resisting the urge to look down at his hands as his fingers wrung around themselves tightly. His heart was still pounding in his chest, and he didn't know if this was the way any of these sorts of confessions were supposed to go. Wasn't this supposed to be the easy part?

"I...I love you." He said, finally, softly even as his eyes searched Carlos features quickly for a moment before he ducked his head down and frowned. "I know, it has been....a long time since we started all of this, and I know that your feelings could have changed. Or..." He took a deep breath, pursing his lips. "I just, I don't...."

This was dumb, he thought. It was a silly way to try to explain himself, it was the wrong sort of gift perhaps. He should have just written a note like he was in middle school and passed it to Carlos in the middle of class.

"I thought you might..." This was so stupid, why was he acting like a fourteen year old boy trying to ask his crush out on a date? Aside from the fact that maybe Carlos' feelings had changed- after all, they didn't bring up that night very often. Sometimes he thought Carlos had just wanted something like a relationship, someone to come home to- and that had been twisted into something he'd decided was love. What if the whole 'love' nonsense was just because he relished the sex? They could both agree there was something utterly addicting about the sex.

"Say something....please." He said, looking back up at Carlos who was still giving him that look, as if he wasn't sure he believed Gael. It was crushing, he thought, that there was a doubt and yet it was reality, wasn't it? Why did Carlos need to believe him? Why should he? Gael had always been firm in his beliefs about love, firm in his rules. If it hadn't been for Patrick all those months ago- this wouldn't have been possible, would it? So why should Carlos believe that Gael had allowed something in himself to change?

"I....can go....if...." Be didn't need Carlos to see the fangs of self-doubt closing in so tight that it was hard to breathe.

Those words, Carlos thought, were words he never expected to hear. Wished for, yes, but actually hear? No, he'd still been convinced that Gael would never love him, either because Gael couldn't let himself - or simply because he couldn't love Carlos. So to hear them, it brought a look of shock to his face, then a certain guarded expression, as if he was wondering if this was actually true.

He rubbed his thumb across the surface of the ring as he watched Gael stammer through the words. Really, it was the uncertainty that made him believe, he thought. Gael was never uncertain, and while with most people he'd say that was a sign of a lie...no. Gael was too good an actor. This was real. His heart seemed to squeeze in his chest a little, and his lips curved into a smile that Gael didn't see, not with his attention on the floor.

"No," he said softly, and he leaned up to capture one of Gael's hands, tugging him down onto the couch with him. "My feelings haven't changed. I love you, very much." His hand skimmed over Gael's hair and he looked at him a bit wonderingly. "I didn't think you loved me back," he said. "But you do, don't you? It's true."

Gael feel back on the couch, not quite sure if he was relieved or more terrified now that Carlos had spoken. He looked back at the man, a part of him worried that Carlos was going to doubt him, question it, from Gael. But then he didn't, and Gael's surprise was hard to mask as slowly smiled weakly.

"Well," he started, closing his eyes as he leaned into Carlos, trying to will the tension out of his body. "You're impossible not love. I did try, you know. I did. And...." He smiled a little more as he took in a deeper, calming breath and looked back up at Carlos. "You're just too much, too perfect for me- there wasn't any hope. Not really."

Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a matching ring and held it up for Carlos. "This, uh...this is probably ridiculous, and cheesy. Something teenagers are supposed to do, and what have you. But, um....I wanted to have something to show how...I feel, and I'm not..."

He paused as he slipped the ring on his right hand with the heart pointed toward him to show he was in a relationship. "Liam told me about them, and I just thought maybe this could help me learn to not be afraid of something everyone around me seems to want. Because I don't want to be terrified of this and whatever future it could bring." He explained, finally. "Though....can...Can we make sure not all Christmas' are as anxiety inducing as this one?"

If someone had told him Gael loved him, Carlos would have scoffed at the idea. Called it impossible. Yet, when Gael had done this - all of this, the decorating, the dinner he could smell warming in the oven still, the rings and Gael's words - he found himself unexpectedly able to believe.

He wasn't sure he could say he was impossible not to love, really, but he shook off thoughts of his parents - probably having Christmas dinner at home with his siblings now, after Midnight Mass the night before - and took Gael's weight as he leaned on him. "I love you," he said. "The ridiculous and the cheesy is just right, honestly." The ring was like a promise, he thought as he watched Gael put it on his right hand, and he took his out of the box and followed suit.

"Liam's mother wears one," he murmured as he looked at the rings on his and Gael's hand. It was a simple piece of jewelry that sometimes seemed out of place on the polished, elegant Spade. "That's how I recognized it." He smiled at Gael, and it was without the tinge of discontent that had darkened his expression for the last couple of months. "The future is something we can deal with together," he said, and tilted his head to one side. "Even Christmases. I've heard they're supposed to be fun."

"Yeah," He said, sighing a bit in relief as he pushed himself upright. Bringing his hand up, he cupped Carlos' face before he leaned in to give the other man a quick, soft kiss before he pulled away and stood. "Alright....so...I've made dinner for you. And um, that is much less likely to induce a panic attack and make my heart explode. However, um...you need to shower, and change- and you have about ten minutes to do that."

He smiled at Carlos, holding out his hand to pull the man up to his feet before he smirked. "And then, I don't know. We could watch a movie- Love Actually, or something." He'd actually just watched that movie earlier. Leon had been a romantic at heart, even if someone on the outside couldn't see it.

"But- shower. Go....ten minutes. The clock is ticking on if you can get back out here and dressed before I start eating."

"You're acting like I didn't mostly spend the day behind a desk catching up on Ty's paperwork," Carlos said a bit dryly. But then, he could take a cue from the way Gael was dressed, and he leaned in for a soft kiss before he disappeared into the bathroom to shower, and then into the bedroom to dress.

He wasn't a man who dressed up much - he had a suit or two for when he got dragged to the too frequent balls the Deck had, but his life didn't exactly warrant much in the way of dress clothes. But, he thought, that's where Hadyn tended to come in. Ty used to complain about it, the way Hadyn would come home with this or that, some fashionable something or other for all of the kids. It was almost never really quite Ty's style - he'd inherited Elisha's lack of interest in fashion, in general. But Carlos couldn't complain about it, especially since it meant he could be presentable for a holiday dinner barely over the ten minutes Gael had given him.

He hadn't expected this outfit to be something he put on to sit in his own apartment, he thought as he combed his fingers through his damp and curling black hair and flicked open the top button on his shirt before stepping back into the living room with a raised brow. "And here I was expecting you to be halfway the first course," he said as he slipped behind Gael and wrapped an arm around him.

Gael was pouring the wine as Carlos came back, smiling despite himself as he put the cork in the bottle and leaned back into the man. It was so very easy to relax into all of this, now that the most terrifying part was done. One arm fell back, covering Carlos' arm as he tilted to the side and looked back at his lover.

"I did consider it, I'm starving, my love." He said, stealing a kiss before he looked back at the food on the table. "Tonight we have a Seared Steak and Peppers with Cilantro Chimichurri, which...is not turkey, but whatever. I think it turned out pretty well, oh- and a mashed sweet potatoe thing that my father makes every holiday. And a lovely Cabernet Sauvignon, which as been allowed to breath and is just...perfection."

There was a desert too, but he figured he wouldn't rush it too much. Picking up the glasses of wine, he held one out for Carlos before he took a sip of his own and smiled. "You know....I'd originally planned for us to eat first, and then to give you the rings. And then I almost ran away as you opened the door. But...so, I'm not entirely sure if I over cooked it or not."

"As I recall, the most important part of Christmas dinner is the dessert anyway," Carlos said as he took his glass of wine and took a sip. "At least that's how it used to work." It was probably a sign at how well the evening was actually going - now that they were mostly past the panic - that his expression didn't even flicker at the reference to his family and he rounded the table to sit as Gael followed suit.

The steak wasn't overdone, like Gael had feared, and Carlos led the conversation away from how the evening had started and to other topics - their friends, what Gael had done with his family the day before, and then the upcoming Boxing Day. That, again, was normally just another day for him - but since he'd worked Christmas, Ty had put his foot down and they were both off.

"Boxing Day isn't particularly a thing in my family," he said. "So, no, I don't think Ali and Matt are going to be doing anything, unless they've made plans. Matt has a new girlfriend, I think." Ali was perpetually between boyfriends, and might be working herself - she'd not been cast in the winter play, so she'd been scrambling most of the winter.

"Darling, you have to wait for dessert, that is how it works." He said, sitting at the table before looking up at Carlos with a smile. "But I dearly hope it does not disappoint." He laughed a little as he went on- talking about their days.

Gael related that his family was not overly full of celebrations, but a lot of remembrance. Gael Shaw, Leon's brother, had been rather fond of Christmas, and after he'd died Leon had been determined to celebrate Christmas with fervor. As a result, Noelle and Gael had grown up with a love for the day as well. There was presents, of course, but most their was cooking and goofing about together.

"Yes well, you've got a new boyfriend so you can't judge the boy." He said, finishing up his food with a satisfied sigh before he looked back toward the kitchen and where the bread pudding was sitting in the oven to keep it warm. "But, if they wouldn't mind it- I think I could manage to cook them a little dinner. Matt can bring his girlfriend. Ali can bring a friend if she wants."

"They'd probably like it," Carlos said, refilling his glass of wine before leaning forward to refill Gael's. "I can text them. Matt's probably an easy yes, especially if there's food. Ali might be working, though, or practicing." She'd picked up ballet again in hopes of getting off-season work in the ballet company. "You could probably invite Oliver if you wanted, too." He paused. "And maybe Bas." They hadn't spent much time with Bas, he thought, where the three of them weren't tangled in the sheets. It might be good for them.

His brother and sister would probably be shocked to hear from him, he reflected as he took a sip of wine. Carlos had, since he was seventeen, virtually disappeared during the holiday season, and his family tended not to hear from him again until after the new year. But in part it was because there had never been anything to replace the Sanchez Christmases with. Maybe there was now.

"So," he said with a bit of a smile. "How long have you been planning this? I didn't expect to see you at all today."

"Now we are just making this an event. If I invite Oliver, Ty will surely come. And if Ty comes, you simply must invite Sarah and her boyfriend. So there it is- we'll have to have a get together with only a dozen or so people, so we might as well have it at my apartment. We've more room, Sarah and I." And it wasn't overly decorated, but it was festive. At least festive enough for a group of mostly non-religious sorts to gather for a meal, and conversation. "And if Ali is working....we'll just kidnap her." Problem solved.

He smirked as he lifted his glass of wine up and sipped at it before shook his head and laughed just a little at Carlos' question. Looking about the room, he shrugged a little. "A bit." He admitted, tapping his fingers on the table. "Bas, actually, encouraged it along. So...it will make him happy to know I did it." He was certain that had he not run into Bas a bit ago, he might never have done this. He might have found a reason to hide, instead.

"You know, I find myself missing you when you're not around. When I sleep in my bed alone, for example. So, I decided I didn't want to sleep in my bed alone on Christmas night." He said, smiling at Carlos as he sipped his wine and leaned back in the chair. "Did you enjoy the food? I mean...I almost did consider going to Culinary School for a while- I think cooking can be quite relaxing."

"I can't imagine Sarah ever renting an apartment if there wasn't enough room for a party," Carlos said. Not that she was a complete social butterfly; she wasn't. But she was the most outgoing of the three of them, by far. "I'm sure Edgar'd be into it, though." Edgar Caustello-Reynolds was almost pathologically easygoing, a Heart, and not at all who he imagined Sarah ever dating. But they seemed good together, and he'd made it through the rough period when Ty had been in his coma.

"Did he?" He wasn't, really, entirely surprised that Bas was involved. Sebastian Novak reminded Carlos of...well, he reminded him of Hadyn, to be perfectly honest. Hadyn almost always had good advice. They must have seen each other when Gael had been working in London. "So you should invite him over so you can tell him it worked out."

"I liked it enough that you should probably make it a rule that you only do this much of it on holidays, or else I'm going to have to add an extra three miles to my morning run." And no one, not even him, wanted to get up that early. "You would have been a great chef, running your own restaurant, except I've heard that's it's own kind of stressful." And it was, he thought, hard to imagine Gael not acting.

"He does not get a choice, because I am texting her now." Gael said with a bright, smug smirk on his face as he texted Sarah about the surprise 'we're hosting a dinner party' plan for the next day. Though, now he did need to figure out what to cook. He could just repeat his dinner from tonight, or he could get a little more ambitious.

As he considered it, he texted Ollie and Bas about their presence being required tomorrow for a dinner party and looked back up at Carlos with a smile. "Oh, of course. I'm sure he can break away from all the family fun now that the actually holiday is over. And now that we've all finished celebrating the birth of a baby, we can just get...lewd. And drunk. Definitely drunk."

He laughed at the thought, more at himself than anything as he took another sip of his wine and set his phone down. "Maybe, but...I don't know. It is fun. Though, I'd have to learn to make up my own food, and that seems less fun at times. Still, I will always have a back up plan should I ever be too ugly for the stage." Backup plans were, after all, very important.

"Should we watch....a movie, or eat dessert. Or both at the same time?" He asked, standing to pick up his plate to take to the kitchen sink. Someone could do the dishes afterwards, but for now they could wait.

Carlos laughed a bit as he pulled out his own phone and fired off a text to Matt and Ali, telling them both to plan to be at Gael's tomorrow and to bring a guest if they wanted. "Very much, on both of those. I'm sure Eddie would be more than happy to convince Sarah to go home with him tomorrow." Sarah still stubbornly claimed not to mind. but the addition of her little cousin to the whole thing probably strained even her ability to pretend to not care.

His smile heated a bit as he sipped his own wine, putting his phone back in his jacket pocket. "You should probably attempt to teach me something," he said. "I've never bothered, since I've lived in the castle. Food is always just a matter of walking through a few halls." Or getting it delivered, now that he was in the more exalted ranks, really. He didn't generally take advantage of that though. "I'd say, though, that the backup would only be if you got tired of the stage, because I doubt the stage would tire of your face."

He stacked a few more dishes neatly as he stood, following Gael to the sink. "Both, I think," he said. "Since you've done all the work today, you can choose the movie, cariño." Later, he'd wonder how they'd gone from love confession to complete normalcy so quickly, but right now? He looped his fingers in Gael's belt loops and tugged slightly so he could cover his mouth in a brief kiss. "I do love you," he murmured.

Sarah, was and always would, probably side-eye Gael's sex life. Even if just a little. Still, Gael spent most of his time with Carlos in some fashion these days, so he also suspected she had been side-eyeing his stubborn reluctance to admit the truth, at least until now. And for now, he could simply ignore it... For now.

"Oh, it isn't hard. Most recipes are pretty simple, and it is always about salt. Salt makes the flavors explode, which is why food is bland if you aren't careful." It happened, mostly, when people were trying to cut back on the salt in their diets. But if used properly, there wasn't a lot of salt and a lot of flavor instead. As for his backup, Gael laughed and shrugged. Eventually, maybe, it would come to that, but he didn't know when or if it ever would grow boring for him. He loved the attention a little too much. "We'll see. Someday, perhaps, I'd grow tried of it. Certainly not today, though. Or tomorrow."

As for the movie, he smiled. "Well, I'm glad to here that I have free reign over your TV. Especially since I did already choose a movie. Love Actually, the perfect holiday Rom-Com that simply must be watched yearly. Or just, whenever possible. That and Bridget Jones, I believe, are masterpieces."

He did move to the oven, though, and pulled out the bread pudding and served up a portion into a bowl with two spoons. He imagined they could share it well enough, and luckily he'd only baked a half portion to keep it from spoiling in the fridge. It was, after all, an indulgence that even Gael wasn't in need of daily. He'd have to work off all his gained calories, and it wouldn't do to go too overboard if he still wanted to fit nicely into all costumes.

"Come on, then." He said, smiling against Carlos' lips as the man stole a brief kiss. "I...love you too, and if you aren't careful we'll skip that movie in fair of sex."

"Well," Carlos said. "Since I've never seen Love Actually, I guess we can go with the movie." Rather than the sex, he meant. But then, he hadn't been lying earlier when he'd said dessert was the best part of a holiday dinner.

He smiled, though, as he stepped back, getting two bowls out his cupboard and carrying them to his coffee table before he shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it over the arm. "Of course, I can't promise we aren't going makeup on the couch like we're sixteen." He had done a lot of that, then.

"I would be very disappointed if it didn't, you know. I didn't dress up for you not to rip it off." Gael teased, before stopping as they reached the couch and turning to hold out a hand to stop Carlos. "Except....I would really prefer you didn't actually....rip them off. They did cost a pretty penny, and my sister just got me this coat."

And that was a conversation one didn't need to have with one's sister. 'I ripped my coat having sex, sorry.'

He started the film though, and they ate their dessert and finished the bottle of wine before Gael decided to open another. A white wine this time. "We should drink wine more often," he said as they watched Martin Freeman pose awkwardly with a woman as they pretended to have sex for the scene they were helping block. "I mean....It certainly makes me feel more...sophisticated. That's the word for it, right? Sophisticated."

His lips twitched a little as he sank down on the couch. "Oh, well, I'll have to contain myself, then. We're both too young to die from the wrath of Noelle." Gael's sister, after all, followed the Spade tradition in several key ways: dark hair, bright eyes, absolutely terrifying when she wanted to be. It'd been several months since he'd been interrogated about his intentions, but honestly, he still kind of felt like she'd have been a great addition to security.

Carlos laughed as he looked away from the screen. "I've never really thought of myself as a sophisticated type," he said. He'd grown up strictly working-class after all, even if his best friend had been as close to an actual prince as there was. "But I like wine more than beer." He picked up the glass of Riesling Gael had poured him and sipped it before setting it down and leaning in to unknot Gael's tie.

"I'm not sure how you can look relaxed with that around your neck," he said as he pulled it off and folded it on the table. "There, much better, love."

Well, when the clothes started coming off....it was a sign, right? It was something. Gael could only smirk as Carlos pulled the tie off him, watching him fold it as he sipped his class of wine before leaning forward to set it on the coffee table. He unbuttoned his jacket, then, and slipped it off before laying it carefully down across the table and leaning back.

"You do realize I am the same man who enjoys being tied down, right?" He asked, an amused look on his before he leaned in to steal a long, deep kiss before he turned and fell back against the couch.

"Mm, I think I'm drunk." He announced, looking at his glass of wine with a serious consideration on if he should finish it out not. Though, if he didn't....he would be wasting good wine. And who wanted to waste good wine? Certainly not him.

"I want to...Mm," he started, before sliding down the back of the couch until he was laying flat with his feet lazily flipped off the side of the couch. He probably did not need anymore wine in the slightest bit. "I definitely want you."

They'd probably hit a record, Carlos thought, for longest time alone without ending up naked. "You're drunk, querido," he said as he slowly unbuttoned Gael's shirt, revealing pale skin. "If you're not careful you might fall off my couch here." Or someone might take advantage of him.

Of course, Carlos thought as he leaned down and scraped his teeth across Gael's collarbone, that was the fun part. "Lift up your arms. I'd hate to rip your shirt because I couldn't get to your cufflinks."

Yes, yes he was drunk. Not so drunk I couldn't have his fun if he wanted it, but probably drunk enough to regret life in the morning. Wine was wonderful, but the hangover he always got from it was the worst. Though, if he did drink enough, he'd just wake up with a buzz...but probably still regret life as he tried to shop for and then cook dinner for a rather large group.

That, however, did not stop him from sitting up on his elbows when Carlos gave him space and reaching out to pick up his glass. He looked at it with careful consideration before draining the remaining half of the glass before falling back on the couch and offering up his arms for Carlos to fiddle with the cufflinks.

Besides, he would sober up a little after sex. And then he could drink his weight in water. Maybe take a shower and aspirin.

"Thank you for being very considerate of my shirt and it's feelings. It does not want to be ripped at all." He said, smiling as Carlos press his lips to Gael's bare skin again. He was a tangled mess, he was sure, and jealous of Carlos' ability to hold his wine so much better...but he wasn't going to object to what his partner was doing right now. Not even a little bit.

"Mm, it's more that I'd rather you not punish me for it later," Carlos said with a briefly flashing grin as he set Gael's cufflinks on the table behind them and paused to unfasten his own cuffs. "Though sometimes that can be fun."

He took the glass from Gael after he drained it and set it back on the table too, leaning down to kiss the base of Gael's throat as he pinned his wrists together over his head. "Now, what if I had plans for that?" He murmured, his lips moving first higher, brushing against Gael's jaw, before moving lower again. "I bet licking riesling off your skin would be extra sophisticated, don't you? But we went and finished the entire bottle."

Which made him a little drunk too, he thought. Something...mostly new. He usually didn't trust himself with the games they played unless he was most of the way sober.

"Oops," was all Gael said before he laughed and turned his head to the side. What else, really, could he have said to 'what if I had wanted to lick that off you'? Though, really...Gael had never been a fan of the whole food and play thing. Mostly because he was not a fan of being sticky, which the food often left a person afterward, even if it was a little sexy at the time.

"I suppose you'll never know, now." He said, lifting his hips up a little as he tried his best to shift on the couch. Honestly, laying back the way he was was not the most comfortable, but there wasn't a lot of room to maneuver around, especially with Carlos leaning over him, pinning his arms and lavishing attention upon his exposed skin. "And I would suggest another bottle, but...I don't think I would make it out awake." He was too drunk to even remotely want another bottle. He liked wine, but it did hit him like a freight train every time. Beer was nothing in comparison.

"How does that line go, in that movie....with Cruise and the planes. 'Take me to bed, or lose me forever'?" Gael said, biting his lip after a moment before he pushed his hips up again as he tried to at least get one leg back up on the couch.

There was a heavy-lidded, sleepy look to Carlos' eyes as he looked down at Gael. He was right, really; neither one of them needed more wine. "No, my chance has been lost," he said, leaning up again to kiss Gael on the lips again. He didn't yet let go of Gael, even though it was clear that his couch wasn't large enough for their kind of maneuvering. Not, probably, something his sister had thought much about when she'd decorated his apartment. Just as well, really. He didn't think he wanted Victoria thinking about what he got up to with any boy that came home with him.

Which was just Gael now, of course. Had just been Gael for months, would be staying that way for a long time. It was odd to know that now, with a certainty he hadn't had even the way they had been living in each other's pockets for months.

He finally released Gael's arms, chuckling a little as he got off the couch with the care of someone who'd had a full bottle of wine, before he leaned back down to tug Gael up. "You know I only get about a third of your movie references, right?" He said. "I have a feeling you're going to have to educate me." Later, though, he thought as he tugged Gael back to the bedroom. No rope tonight, he thought. He was too drunk to tie Gael up, and definitely too drunk to figure out knots when it was time to release him.

"Th-that....that breaks my heart, you know." Gael said in a bit of a dumbfounded look on his face as he lets Carlos pull him up to his feet. It wasn't that Gael watched a ton of movies, it was just....well, he did watch a lot of movies. He liked movies, as he was an actor. He let him study someone else's art, and such. "Movie night will just...have to occur, and no trying to...distract yourself." Which, admittedly, would be hard. Though, they did say sex was less frequent when a couple was dated long term.

He walked with Carlos into the bed room, leaning in to kiss the other man deeply before they reached the bed, shedding his shirt onto the floor. There was likely to be little in the way of ropes or heavy play, but that didn't stop Gael from grinning against Carlos' lips as he toed off his shoes before spinning the pair and pushing Carlos back against the bed.

He kissed Carlos again as the man sat down on the edge of the bed, his hands coming up to thread through Carlos' hair as he leaned in to the men. "Je t'aime; ma chérie, mon amour." He murmured against the man's lips, kissing him deeply again before one of his hands pulled away Carlos' hair to travel down the man's clothed body, down between his legs where what he was looking for. He pressed down, rubbing against the growing member through the fabric of Carlos' pants.

He kissed him again, before pulling away to kiss the side of Carlos' jaw, then his neck as he started to slowly down to his knees. Eventually he pulled his other hand down, and started to unbutton the man's pants and belt to uncover his prize.

Carlos laughed a little, wrapping his arm around Gael's waist as they went into the bedroom, then releasing him so Gael could push him towards the bed. "Yes, well, I am uneducated," he said, as he sat down on the bed, tugging Gael towards him, "and you're just cursed with having to teach me all about art." Well, some art. He was well-educated enough when it came to music, and theatre. He'd suffered through some ballet performances. But movies weren't exactly something he'd paid much attention to.

They kissed, and he smiled at the words. He knew enough French for that, he thought, and his fingers sifted into Gael's hair as he pulled away slightly. "Je t'aime aussi," he murmured, smoothly enough that one might wonder if Bas Novak had been slipping in French lessons somewhere. Then he groaned, his eyes closing for a moment before they opened again and he watched. Watched Gael slide to his knees, and shifted his own legs apart to make room for him. "If you do this, I may not be much good for you later, love," he murmured. He was twenty-six, but he was also pretty drunk. Recovery time wasn't exactly going to be the usual.

"So you don't want me to suck your cock?" Gael asked skeptically as he pulled Carlos pants down, waiting for the other man to lift up his hips enough that Gael could pull the pants and boxers clear of the man's bottom. "I mean, I could....just look at it. It is very nice, after all. Maybe I could put a bow on it. But, uh...I don't know." He dropped Carlos' pants down to the floor, lifting the man's feet one at a time to pull his shoes and socks off before discarding the pants and boxers. He leaned in to kiss Carlos' inner thigh gently, before lewdly licking it.

Eventually he turned his attention to the cock that was standing tall and proud. His hand wrapped around the stiff member, pumping it slowly as he smirked up at Carlos. "Also, I guess there is the fact you could use your mouth too...or just take what you want, how you want." Though that certainly didn't stop him from licking the cock from root to tip, his tongue circling the tip seductively and teasingly before he eventually swallowed it.

"Always with the interesting ideas," Carlos said a bit dryly. "But as pretty as I'm sure I'd be with my cock dressed up for Christmas, I think I'll let you finish what you're starting." He leaned back on his hands, his eyelashes lowering as he watched Gael smirk a bit as he leaned forward, working his with his hand and his mouth until Carlos felt that heat and pleasure sparking at the base of his spine.

When he caught his breath again, he tugged Gael up on the bed so he could kiss him, tasting himself on Gael's tongue even as his hand wrapped around Gael's cock and he worked him closer to his own edge. It was only after, when they were collapsed against the sheets that Carlos spoke again, sleepily. "Well, I guess Christmas is okay after all."

"I've always fancied it," Gael replied, his head resting on Carlos' shoulder as he draped an arm over the man's chest. He really wanted to push himself up to get water, but at the same time...did not want to leave the warmth and comfort that Carlos provided. "I like it more when it snows, and I have an excuse to bundle up by a fire. Maybe I'm a bit of a romantic at heart." Or maybe it was just that Carlos brought out the romantic in him, because the only person he could see himself curled up in front of a fire with was Carlos.

For that matter, he'd never been overly prone to romantic gestures before Carlos barreled into his life. For Carlos' birthday, he'd taken the man out for a nice, candle lit dinner that had been followed by a stroll through the Green as a light snow fell around them. They'd spent most of the night just talking, eating chocolate covered strawberries and drinking wine as they say on his bedroom floor after the walk. They'd even shared a warm bath, complete with bubbles and candles...

Far more romantic than he'd been with anyone else- ever.

Daniel had always claimed Leon could be romantic when it suited him, and Gael sometimes suspected it was a genetic trait that only expressed itself in careless, care free moments. But it was always in the direction of Carlos.

"If I have a hangover tomorrow....remind me that it was worth it." He said, turning his head to press his lips to Carlos' shoulder before he yawned despite himself. "And that making dinner for everyone else was my idea; I might regret that in the morning."

"I think it's safe to say you're as much a closet romantic as I am," Carlos said. Water, though, was a good idea for both of them, and it was with a deep sigh that he sat up and untangled himself from Gael, before getting up to get two bottles of water from the kitchen and bringing them back to bed.

"We're probably both going to be hungover in the morning," he said as he handed one to Gael and flopped back on the bed. "But maybe that'll keep you from wanting to die while cooking for, what, eight?" Probably Gael had lost his mind a little, he thought. Half of it was his own fault, though, since he'd come up with inviting half of them. "Maybe if we make puppy eyes you can con Sarah into some of it. Baking, at least."

Gael groaned as Carlos got up from the bed, hating him for moving. If he hadn't known better, he'd swear his hangover was starting now, already. Still, he pushed himself up on the bed and opened the bottle before he looked at Carlos. "Oh no, I'm absolutely making you help tomorrow. Don't try to push it on Sarah." He said, before smirking just a little as he lifted the bottle to his lips.

He drained most of it quickly, leaning back against the headboard before he sighed a little. "So....pick a dish, and I'll make sure you don't ruin it." He winked at that, before smiling a little more at Carlos. He was a little more sober, at least, even before the water. And he could swear he could feel the water spreading out into his bottle as he drank it- like it thristed for it. So it was really no surprise that he finished the bottle in short order.

"And hey, if we're too hung over...we'll have a doctor in the house at least."

"That's a major risk, you know. That kitchen out there is mostly used for unpacking takeout." That wasn't entirely true, Carlos thought as he sipped his own water, but his cooking skills were basic at best. "Plus Sarah is really good at pies. She could make chocolate pie. Or chocolate croissants." She'd probably only kill him a little for asking for croissants with only 24 hours notice.

He took a deeper drink of the water and glanced over at Gael. "I'm not sure what we're even cooking for six. Pizza? I could probably make a pizza without it going terribly wrong. Or garlic bread to go along with it. A salad. If you're going to be fancy again, though, you'd better pick a side dish and keep a laser eye on me."

He finished the bottle with another couple of drinks and leaned over Gael to set it on the nightstand. "In any case, if you trust me not to burn down your kitchen I could probably come up with something."

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Christmas Bells are Ringing [Carlos/Gael]

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