Work Text:
Christmas Parties
Pedro waved goodbye to Balthazar and unlocked the door to his house. The moment he did, though, he froze at the sound of laughter wafting down from the floor above him. One laughter, Pedro knew almost right away because his laugh was actually almost always funnier than his joke. Pedro’s main question was: what was Benedick Hobbes doing in his house? There was also still the question of who the other mysterious laughter came from.
As quietly as he could, Pedro shut the front door and headed upstairs. He had been out on a date with Balthy, which Ben knew, so why he would’ve shown up at the Donaldson household was confusing to say the least. Following the sound of Ben’s laughter, Pedro realized that it was coming from his little brother’s room – and the mysterious other laughter had to have been…
“John?” Pedro knocked on his brother’s door before opening it. He saw his little brother lounging across his bed and Ben holding a laptop in one hand, a basket over his eyes, and one leg brought up… like a flamingo stance, “Ben?” Pedro added, seeing his friend.
John sobered up the moment he saw his brother, but Ben wasn’t so caring. He nearly dropped the laptop as he jumped at the sound of Pedro’s voice. Somehow, he managed to set the laptop down on John’s bed and pull the basket off without injuring anyone around him, “PEDRO!” Ben exclaimed when he actually got a good look at his best friend, “I thought you were out on a date with Balthy! I just stopped by to talk to John here. I had some news for both the Donaldson boys, but decided to break the news to John first since he would be harder to convince!”
Ben somehow didn’t seem to notice that John threw Ben a look of annoyance, or Ben did notice but just chose to ignore it, “News?” Pedro asked.
“The Duke’s are having a Christmas party and all of our attendance is of the essence – Bea’s words, not mine. I’m just the messenger.” Ben grinned, “I actually hoped Balth would be with you so I could tell him at the same time, but I’ll just text him later.” Ben then cheerfully turned back to John, “I’ll be by tomorrow to bring you out shopping for gifts. You aren’t backing out of this.”
With only a grimace, John didn’t respond anymore, Pedro figured that Ben had already somehow talked John into it while he was still out with Balthazar. John did turn his eyes to Pedro, “I have some planning to do,” It looked like it might have physically pained John to say that, “So if you could leave my dear brother.”
Pedro didn’t move for a moment until Ben walked over to him, “See you tomorrow, John!” Ben said over his shoulder as he nudged Pedro out from John’s room.
It wasn’t until Pedro and Ben were in the formers room that Pedro spoke again, “Was my brother laughing?”
Ben nodded, “Chuckles has a good sense of humor, occasionally.” He then switched topics, “Are you going to go out shopping with Balth, then? Or should I make room for both brothers tomorrow?”
“I’ll have Balth bring me somewhere if Dad isn’t back yet.” Pedro said. He had no vechile since his dad and mum were almost always at work these past few weeks, and the car that Pedro had been using in his last year Messina had finally decided to die on him a few days ago. Balthazar had taken to driving Pedro around, which he hadn’t complained about thus far.
“Have it your way.” Ben shrugged, “How’s Balth doing, anyway? Haven’t seen him since his last gig a week ago! I’m sure you’ve been seeing a lot of him though.”
Pedro rolled his eyes, “What happened to my friend who said that being single was muchos good and relationships were fucking terrible?”
Ben waved Pedro down, “I’m a changed man, my dear Pedro! And I’m allowed to know about Balthy because, without the wonderful doing of my Team Love Gods Part II, you two wouldn’t have even gotten together!”
All Pedro could do was nod, he never told his friends that they had already been together for a few days before Ben had apparently gotten them together. He allowed Ben to think of that as his victory, “Yeah, sure Ben.” Pedro said, then decided it was best to change the subject, “When’s this party anyway?”
“The twenty-second.” Ben said proudly, “So I’m taking this as a yes from you?”
“Did I even have a choice in the matter?” Pedro asked, running a hand through his hair.
Ben laughed, “Glad we’re on the same page, mate.”
You’re the one for me. I know that it sounds cheesy!
Pedro snorted back laughter, neither of his friends had changed their ringtones in the months since those songs went live. Ben reached for his phone and grinned stupidly when he read the text. He looked back up at his friend after writing back a quick reply, “Bea wanted to make sure that everything was a success with you and John. She also just gave me a list of things that I need to pick up before I head back over so I should probably go now.” Ben stood up, “Tell Balthy I said hello and I’ll be in touch once I get to Bea’s to officially invite him to the party.”
Ben showed himself out after calling a quick, “Bye John!”
“See you later, Benedick!” John responded, before turning up music. Ben headed out and sorted out the list that Bea sent him, most of which was for the Christmas party.
<_< >_< >_>
On the morning of the party, Ben stood outside of the Donaldson’s house knocking on the door, “DONALDSONS! I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE!” Ben called, having already checked if either Mr. or Mrs. Donaldson were here – but neither were.
Eventually, after sending eight texts to each Donaldson brother and knocking on the door for ten minutes, John begrudgingly decided he would have to be the one to get it. He had been making tea and was trying to ignore Ben as long as he could. Once Ben started to threaten to scale the house to find an open window, however, John decided it was time to let him in.
“Benedick, what a surprise.” John said drolly once he opened the door, already turning back around to go back to his tea that was almost done.
“Good, you’re dressed.” Ben cheered, following John inside and closing the door shut behind him, “We have to go to the Duke’s early. I haven’t wrapped anything yet and I’m sure you haven’t either.”
John sighed, taking two mugs down from a cupboard, “No, I haven’t. I didn’t think it was necessary.”
“JOHN! OF COURSE IT’S NECESSARY! That’s one of the greatest parts of Christmas!” Ben waved his arms around crazily, “Anyway, I’m your ride unless you wanted to tag along with Pedro and Balthy whenever your brother gets up.”
“I think Pedro left a few hours ago.” John said, putting his usual’s into his tea then handing a mug to Ben.
“Cheers.” Ben said and John managed to grunt back a response. For a few minutes, Ben happily chatted away while John silently marveled at the fact that Ben could talk about literally nothing and still keep going for extended periods of time.
Finally, John had finished his tea and stood up in the middle of Ben going on about how he hoped for nothing more than for Beatrice not to almost break Floyd’s neck again, “I’ll be back in a moment, Benedick.” John said, then headed upstairs after setting his mug in the sink.
Ben cleaned off his mug and, before he knew it, John was downstairs with a bag in one hand and his house keys in the other, “Ready.” He said, but his tone suggested otherwise. Ben decided to ignore his tone and nodded.
“Well off we go John! Let’s get there early to wrap up these goodies before anyone else arrives!” Ben grinned as he opened up the door and let John walk out first. John watched as Ben walked off to his car and started it up as John locked up, “C’MON CHUCKLES! INTO THE BEN-MOBILE!” Ben called out of the window just as John turned around to face him.
Rolling his eyes, John walked into his friend’s car, “Try not to kill any bird while I’m here, Benedick.”
Ben solemnly said, “I never try to kill birds, Johnny old pal, it just happens. Now… back to what I was saying about Floyd.”
John sighed, even though the Duke’s didn’t live that far away from him, it still seemed like the longest car ride he had ever been in.
>_> >_< <_<
“There you are, Dickface!” Beatrice greeted as Ben pulled into the Duke’s driveway, “I thought you might have gotten lost.”
The moment Ben responded something about it not being that hard to find hell, John tuned those two out. He saw Ben grab Floyd from the backseat – which he had actually seat belted in for some odd reason. John grabbed his bag of goods and walked over to Hero, who was holding open the door.
“Happy Christmas, John.” Hero smiled sweetly, John nodded back to her – still not quiet the best with talking to her, “Were you needing to wrap up your gifts still?”
“Yeah. Ann’s been out and I we didn’t have anything spare.” John responded back. Hero nodded and started to bring him away just as Ben and Bea came in, bickering about the presence of Ben’s plastic Flamingo.
“-which doesn’t need to be here-” Someone knocked on the door just as Beatrice started to head back into the sitting room. Ben was closest to the door, so he turned around and got it.
“PEDRO! BALTHY!” He announced their presence to the whole house, “Good to see you two!”
It was immediately evident that they were following along the same lines that Ben and John were – to wrap their presents up at the Duke’s household the day of. Hero popped her head around the corner and saw the bags that the three boys were holding, “Does everyone need wrappings still?” Hero asked, a smile still on her beautiful face.
Everyone nodded, Balthazar probably being the most embarrassed, “Well, I should probably separate everyone so no one sees their gifts.” Hero nodded for everyone to follow her, “Mumma has some wrappings for everyone. Just give me a moment.” Everyone waited outside of the door and Hero emerged a moment later with two arms full of wrapping papers, scissors, and tape. She handed everyone one pair of scissors and tape and held out the papers, “Everyone can pick two!” She cheerfully said, which the boys all did. John was slightly disappointed there was nothing with dark colors on it, so he ended up with just plain red wrappings.
Hero ended up putting all the boys across the house. Ben went into Bea’s bedroom. John into Hero’s. Balthazar went into the guest room. Pedro ended up in Leo’s room – which was currently empty since he was out and about. The two cousins then set off on finishing up their baking and adding the odd decoration here and there. Most of the decorations had already been completed by Hero’s Mum and Mumma, but there were still the odd things that needed to be done.
John was done first, then Balthy, Ben and Pedro finished at almost the exactly same time. All the boys came out with empty wrapping paper tubes and their wrapped up presents. Beatrice and Hero helped them carry the presents under the tree, which considerably filled up the tree.
Ben looked down at the long tubes that they were all still holding, except John, who had handed his to Beatrice and went off to sit down and just watch, “Am I the only one who is thinking Star Wars?” Ben asked aloud.
It seemed like he wasn’t, Hero moved out the way almost immediately and took a seat next to John, the four of them – Bea and Ben and Pedro and Balthy – all went into a type of battle stance that was so very Star Wars-esque. Ben was the first one to attack Bea, adding the sound effects and everything. Before anyone realized, the four of them were acting as though the wrapping paper tubes were light sabers and were all adding in the sound effects. John, who was thoroughly enjoying watching everyone makes fools of themselves, ended up joining in by humming Star Wars music – Hero joining in only after a moment’s hesitation.
The Star Wars themed Christmas party continued on until the rest of the guest started to arrive – starting with Ursula, who was so perfectly on-time as always, with presents in hand. No long after she arrived, the rest of the gang arrived for one of the most amazing Christmas parties that they had ever had.