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It was a week until Christmas, which normally Colin wouldn’t think anything about, but Isaac was acting grumpier than usual and Colin wondered how much of it had to do with the impending holiday. Colin was never one to care about Christmas, his family didn’t really keep up with holiday traditions once he stopped believing in Santa. But Colin knew that Christmas was one of Isaac’s favorite holidays of the year, even more than Isaac’s mum’s birthday.
Unlike Colin, Isaac spent the month leading up to Christmas decorating his parent’s place and buying copious amounts of presents for his sisters. This year, his sister Abigail had started her first year of university, studying abroad in the United States, and his parents and his other 3 sisters had decided to travel to the United States for the holiday season this year. Isaac insisted he was fine with it, and that they were more likely to have snow for Christmas in Massachusetts than in London anyway, but Colin wasn’t entirely convinced.
Colin drove to Isaac’s, their last day off before Christmas, with a box of the most random holiday decorations he had found in the back of his closet. He debated on stopping at one of the various garden centres while on his way to Isaac’s to buy a tree but honestly, he wasn’t sure whether or not Isaac had bought one for himself already. Colin parked in the alley behind Issac’s house, double-checking for people walking outside before grabbing his box of decorations and sprinting up to Isaac’s back door, letting himself in with the key he got as a present last Christmas.
As he fumbled his way into Isaac’s apartment, Colin dropped his box of decorations and keys on Isaac’s kitchen table. He called out for Isaac a few times, his voice echoing through the quiet house. He crept through the house, checking room to room, making his way to the second floor. Colin peered through the small crack in the mostly closed door leading to Isaac’s bedroom, noticing a large lump on Isaac’s bed.
Colin nudged his way through Isaac’s door, quietly inching towards Isaac’s bed. Isaac lie there on his side, wrapped in the blanket he usually kept flung on the chair in the corner of the room, staring at the wall opposite him. Colin popped his trainers off and crawled onto the bed behind Isaac. He wrapped his arm around Isaac’s torso and buried his nose into Isaac’s shoulder blade.
They lay quietly for several minutes, Colin rubbing his hand up and down Isaac’s stomach, before Isaac turned and wrapped Colin in the blanket with him, burying his face in the top of Colin’s head. An hour passed before a word was said between them, even then, Isaac barely grunted to get Colin’s attention. Colin shifted his gaze up to Isaac’s face, looking at the scruffy man through the whisps of his eyelashes.
Colin kissed the scruff of Isaac’s chin as he waited for Isaac to speak. Isaac cleared his throat, burying his nose in the crown of Colin’s head. “I wish I could have gone with them.” was all Colin heard as Isaac’s voice vibrated through his hair. Colin nodded into Isaac’s chin, pressing his fingers into the small of Isaac’s back, moving to curl them under the edge of Isaac’s sweater.
Colin hummed into Isaac’s chest as they lay there longer, savoring each other’s company in Isaac’s bedroom. After another hour, Colin propped himself up on his elbow, looking down at Isaac. He trailed his pointer finger along Isaac’s beard, pausing at the little patch of hair right under Isaac’s bottom lip. “I think I have the most bizarre collection of decorations in the world on your kitchen table. Want to help me sort through them?”
Isaac pushed his hand through Colin’s hair before pushing himself up on his elbow to meet Colin for a kiss. He nodded as he pulled back, pushing the blanket off his shoulder, and flashing a weak smile. Colin booped Isaac’s nose with a finger before swinging himself off Isaac’s bed, bounding down the stairs, not bothering to check if Isaac was behind him.
Colin smiled to himself as he heard Isaac thunder down the steps behind him. He started to pull miscellaneous items out of the box he had brought over, completely unsure where he had gotten most of the items. He felt Isaac cozy up behind him, hugging him from behind, placing a soft kiss on the top of Colin’s head. Colin couldn’t help but blush as he pulled a nutcracker with a football under its foot from the box. No matter how long he and Isaac were together, Colin couldn’t help but feel oh-so-giddy when he was with Isaac.
Isaac moved to help him empty the rest of the box, a mismatch of decorations that Colin had collected over the years; the vast majority were football related. With all the decorations pulled out, Isaac grabbed as many of the ornaments as he could manage to hold and made his way to the scrawny tree in the corner of his living room. With the news of his family spending the holidays a continent away, Isaac bought what he considered a very Charlie Brown-esque tree (and if Colin was being honest, it was still a very full and lovely looking 4-foot tree, not that he’d say that out loud to Isaac during this current holiday season).
As Isaac hung the multiple football ornaments, including three different snowmen made of footballs, on the tree, Colin strung up a string of lights with football bulbs over Isaac’s living room window. Isaac felt Colin hug him from behind as he hung up a Welsh flag ornament near the top of the tree. Isaac placed the last ornament in his hands on the tree, a rainbow dragon, and the two of them stood there silently admiring Isaac’s handiwork.
Colin kissed Isaac’s neck, squeezing at the side of Isaac’s torso, pulling back to pad to the kitchen. He grabbed the mulled spice packet he had shoved in the box of decorations and pulled an expensive bottle of red wine from Isaac’s measly wine rack, moving into Isaac’s kitchen. Colin seamlessly moved around Isaac’s kitchen, grabbing a large pot and starting up Isaac’s stove to make a batch of mulled wine.
Isaac leaned against the column that served as the entrance to his kitchen, watching Colin work his way around Isaac’s kitchen without a second thought. Isaac smiled to himself, his heart bursting with joy as he watched his love in front of him. For the past few weeks, Isaac had been beating himself up for not being able to spend the holidays with his family, as he usually did in years prior. But what Isaac had missed, or mostly forgotten, was that he still had a very full heart that was left here in London with him.
Isaac felt a blush creep on his cheeks, and tears well up in his eyes, as he moved to grip Colin from behind as Colin stirred at the wine heating on the stove. As Isaac hugged Colin, pressing his cheek against the side of Colin’s head, Isaac felt more grounded and relieved than he had all month. As his emotions crept up on him, Isaac refused to feel ashamed for how as ease he felt in the moment.
But right now, he felt his whole world in his arms, and nothing else mattered to him. In all his heartache of missing his family, Isaac had almost let an opportunity to start creating new holiday traditions with Colin slip through the cracks. Isaac swayed with Colin as Colin finished simmering the mulled wine, pouring them both large glasses. They settled on the couch by Isaac’s fireplace, enjoying their warm wines by the warm fire, their evening quickly evolving into an exploration of each other’s warm bodies.