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Andrew wasn’t expecting Neil to be awake when he got home at three in the afternoon. But he was.
Andrew also wasn’t expecting Neil to be dragging one of his plastic Christmas trees down from the attic. But he was doing that, too.
Apparently he had been doing that for a while, because five of the trees were already set up around the living room.
At least Neil had pants on - bright orange sweats rolled up at the ankles and slung low on his hips. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. Andrew would count his wins where he could get them.
“Didn’t I just put those trees away last week?” Andrew asked.
“Yep,” Neil said, dropping tree number six and grinning.
There was a loud crash from the kitchen, and a muffled screech. Andrew frowned in that general direction, but Neil tucked a finger into Andrew’s button down and tugged him close. “We should check on that,” Andrew said, but he was distracted when Neil pulled his hands to his waist and he was met with warm skin.
“It’s fine,” Neil said against Andrew’s lips. “Missed you all day.”
“You should have been asleep all day,” Andrew said, formulating an excellent plan to kiss him silly but then Neil tucked his face into his neck, and that was good too.
“Missed you while I was sleeping,” Neil mumbled, rubbing his nose back and forth along Andrew’s collar bone. There was another bang from the kitchen just then and Neil huffed in amusement.
“What is he doing?”
“I don’t know,” Neil laughed. “He won’t let me in there.”
“Neil,” Andrew said, rubbing small circles on Neil’s back.
“Hmm?”
“Why are the trees back in the living room?”
“For the picnic.”
“Picnic,” Andrew repeated.
“Kevin wanted to give us a picnic. For Valentine’s Day. I explained that you would be too cold. He looked so sad though - you know those sad eyes he does?”
Andrew did indeed know Kevin’s sad eyes. He didn’t do it on purpose - yet. Andrew was dreading the day when Kevin realized that when that particular look settled on his face, Andrew and Neil both scrambled to do anything humanly (squirrely?) possible to make it go away.
“Yes I know the look.”
“Yeah well, he did the look. And then it got worse when I told him we don’t really care about Valentine’s Day.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did. Anyway, the whole thing ended up with me shoving a handful of credit cards at him and pulling the trees down from the attic,” Neil shrugged a little in his arms.
“So we can picnic in the living room,” Andrew concluded.
“So we can picnic in the living room,” Neil agreed.
Kevin popped his head out of the kitchen. “Andrew home?”
“Duh,” Neil said.
“Don’t come in here,” Kevin warned.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Andrew said as Kevin disappeared again.
Andrew kicked off his shoes and dropped his bag before following Neil to the attic and carrying down the last two trees. He shoved the couch against the far corner while Neil went hunting for quilts.
“Is this enough?” Neil said when he reappeared with a stack of multicolored blankets so high that Andrew couldn’t see his face.
“I think we’ll manage,” Andrew said drily. It was cosy once they had the blankets piled one on top of the other, all the trees plugged in and twinkling. Neil popped squirrel, crawled out of the puddle of orange sweatpants and scurried up the branches of the nearest tree before launching himself at Andrew without warning.
Andrew caught him.
Andrew would never not catch him.
Neil hopped to Andrew’s chest and clung there for a moment before popping back human, his feet on the ground and Andrew’s arms now wrapped around one very naked Neil - a trick Neil had perfected, Andrew was certain, for the sole purpose of driving him mad.
“Maybe we should just leave the trees out year round,” Neil suggested.
“Maybe we should,” Andrew agreed, kissing Neil in punctuation.
“Hey,” Kevin said from the doorway. Andrew pulled away and raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m not going to be ready for at least an hour. You two can go upstairs and have sex.”
Andrew blinked. Neil wheezed laughter into his neck for the second time that afternoon. “What?” Andrew finally managed, sure he had heard Kevin wrong.
“Sex,” Kevin said again matter of factly, pointing a wooden spoon at them. “Neil is already naked. An hour is enough time, right?”
Neil struggled for another minute to get his laughter under control before turning in Andrew’s arms to face Kevin. “I told you not to say that,” he said, his shoulders still shaking.
“It’s Valentine’s Day,” Kevin said, like that explained anything.
“That’s not how this works,” Neil told him.
“The Google said that you are supposed to have sex, that is what couples do on Valentine’s Day.”
“I-” Neil started, but Andrew interrupted him.
“You heard the owl, let’s go,” Andrew announced, towing Neil towards the stairs.
“But-” Neil tried and failed to protest, interrupting himself with his own laughter.
They did not, in fact, go upstairs and have sex - even though Kevin had thoughtfully spread rose petals all over their bed. The flower petals sent Neil into another fit of laughter, and Andrew cracked a smile. Neil pulled himself together eventually and crawled into Andrew’s lap, but after a few minutes he yawned in the middle of a kiss.
“Really?” Andrew said.
“Not my fault,” Neil said through his yawn. “Stupid owl woke me up at noon babbling about Valentine’s Day. M’sleepy.”
Andrew plucked a bright pink petal off Neil’s shoulder when he yawned again. “Are there any more mandatory Valentine's Day activities I should know about before Kevin summons us?”
“Movie, I think.”
“Harry Potter?”
“Probably.” Neil propped his chin on Andrew’s chest. “I may have gotten us presents.”
“Oh?” He carded his fingers through Neil’s hair.
Neil closed his eyes with a little sigh. “Yeah, you’ll see.”
“I may have gotten us presents too,” Andrew said after a moment. “I found chocolate covered crickets. I couldn’t not get them.”
Neil blinked one blue eye open at him. “I thought we didn’t do Valentine’s Day.”
“We have a family now.”
“We were always a family,” Neil said, opening his other eye to frown at Andrew.
“I know,” Andrew said. “You and I know that, but.”
“But you don’t want Kevin to feel left out.”
“That,” Andrew agreed.
Neil hummed. “So we do holidays now.”
“Even the dumb ones,” Andrew said.
“Andrew?”
“Neil.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, squirrel.”
“Not a fucking squirrel,” Neil mumbled from just the other side of sleep.
Andrew poked Neil awake an hour later and they shuffled downstairs to find a bizarre array of dishes lined up neatly in the middle of the blankets. Kevin stood awkwardly next to the display with his hands shoved into his pajama pants’ pockets.
Andrew surveyed the offerings. There was something that looked like spaghetti with strawberries in it, guacamole and hummus surrounding a heaping bowl of blue corn chips, and a platter of peeled and sliced fruit with mangoes, kiwis, pineapple, and oranges. There was a small pile of multicolored marshmallows, a mountain of crusty brown bread cut into cubes, a tray with bits of broccoli and cauliflower and bell pepper, and two large, lidded pots holding court in the middle of it all. Kevin had also scattered several generous handfuls of Neil’s parmesan goldfish in between the dishes. The resulting jumble was rather colorful and festive.
“It’s fondue,” Kevin said with a little shrug, and he pulled the lids off the two pots. One was full to the brim with chocolate, and the other with thick cheese. “The Google said it was romantic.”
“It’s a pot of cheese,” Neil gasped, before turning to Andrew. “Is this a thing? You have been holding out on me. This was an excellent idea,” he announced. “Here.” Neil shoved one of the shiny gift bags he’d dug out of the closet before they came downstairs at Kevin, and then another at Andrew, keeping the third for himself. “Put them on before cheese.”
Neil’s presents for them were, in fact, flying squirrel onesies, which he insisted they put on immediately.
“Where did you even find these?” Andrew asked incredulously, holding his arms wide and side-eying the giant flaps of fleecy squirrel wings strung from his wrists to his ankles.
“Amazon,” Neil said proudly.
“I love it,” Kevin said, wrapping both arms around himself like a cocoon.
“I wanted you to experience perfection once in your life,” Neil said before plopping down on the blanket and promptly dipping a goldfish into the cheese. “They didn’t have sugar gliders, so flying squirrel is as close as you are going to get.”
“Thank you,” Kevin said reverently, and then he started to walk away.
“Where are you going?” Andrew asked, as he sat next to Neil and poked at the strawberry spaghetti.
Kevin turned around and frowned slightly at Andrew before making a flapping motion with his hand. “You can have your picnic now,” he said. “Valentine’s Day.”
Andrew exchanged a look with Neil. “And you aren’t joining us?” Andrew asked carefully.
Kevin flapped a hand again. “Valentine’s Day,” he repeated, and started to turn around again.
“Kevin,” Neil said. “I gave you a onesie. There is a giant pot of cheese. The trees are back. Andrew has chocolate crickets somewhere. Sit your ass down, because I am not having a fucking Valentine’s Day picnic without you.”
Kevin blinked at him. He slowly walked back and sat down very carefully on the edge of the blanket. “I wanted to do something nice,” he said stiffly, picking at the edge of the blanket. “For you both. For everything.”
“Oh god, he’s got the look on his face again Andrew.”
“He does,” Andrew agreed.
Neil threw a goldfish at him. “Pay attention,” Neil said, and the serious tone of his voice snapped Kevin’s green eyes up. “Remember when I told you my people were bad people, so I got a new person?” Kevin nodded, eyes wide, and Neil made a grand sweeping gesture. “Well now I have people. Plural. Get it?”
“We’re family Kevin,” Andrew said.
“Family,” Neil said firmly. “And families share giant pots of cheese.”
Kevin’s smile was a precious and shy thing. It tugged at the corner of his mouth, stretched across his face, and squeezed Andrew’s heart.
“Does that mean I can have a hoodie now?”
Neil frowned and threw another goldfish at him. “Don’t press your luck, pigeon.”