Work Text:
Nick stares at the sweater in his hands in silent awe for a good sixty seconds at least before he can manage to find words. “What… is this?”
“It’s an ugly Christmas sweater,” Joe answers, “like you wanted.”
“An ugly Christmas sweater with two head holes,” Nick states because, really, he needs that out there that this is a thing that exists.
“You said you wanted an ugly Christmas sweater for us,” Joe shrugs.
Nick takes a deep breath, dropping the sweater back into the bag. “Yeah, one for each of us. I said buy two ugly Christmas sweaters, not ONE with two head holes…”
“Eh,” Joe shrugs again, leaning toward Nick with a leer and a smirk, “we’ll end up all wrapped up in each other anyway.”
Nick sighs. It’s not like he doesn’t know that . He knows that. Holidays that they’re able to spend together always end up with Nick and Joe curled around each other by the end of the night. But it’s not like they broadcast it to everyone else in the room. “This was supposed to be subtle, Joe. A subtle way to be, you know, with each other, even when we’re on opposite sides of the room.”
“Well, now we don’t have to be on opposite sides of the room,” Joe quips with a wink.
It does not make Nick feel any better.
“Joe.”
“I know,” Joe says, eyes flooded with fondness as he steps closer to Nick. He lifts a hand to Nick’s shoulder squeezing it lightly. “I know that you meant for this to be a romantic gesture. I get it. But maybe this is my way of saying that I don’t need romantic gestures because like it or not, you’re stuck with me.”
Nick rolls his eyes but somehow Joe always has this magical way of making the weight of everything stressing Nick out sit a little lighter on his shoulders. A smile tugs at his mouth despite himself.
Joe laughs seeing the smile slowly take over Nick’s face. “See? You love me.”
God help him, he really does.
“Come here, you dork,” Nick says, tugging Joe in by the front of his shirt to kiss him hard on the mouth.
“Mmm,” Joe hums into the kiss, licking into Nick’s mouth hungrily. He hadn’t quite expected this response to the sweater. Although….
“Take off your shirt,” Joe insists, tugging at Nick’s clothes already and then abandoning Nick’s to pull his own shirt off.
Maybe Nick should know better. Maybe he should know to expect Joe to have something ridiculous planned instead of just trying to get him naked, but it doesn’t actually occur to him until Joe is tugging the sweater over both of their heads.
One arm sticking out of the sleeve on his side of the sweater, he reaches for Nick again, the arm still inside wrapping around the warmth of his waist, skin to skin.
“You’re ridiculous,” Nick huffs, pushing his arm through his sleeve of the sweater anyway.
“You’re still gonna make out with me in this stupid sweater anyway,” Joe replies cockily.
Well, he's not wrong.
Nothing brings people together like the holidays. Especially an ugly Christmas sweater with two head holes.