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Mark invites Eduardo home with him for winter break on a whim. It’s a spectacularly bad idea, because they’ve only been together for a month and his family will no doubt love Eduardo, with the disastrous consequence that when it comes to a break up, they’ll choose his side and disown Mark. He’s fairly certain that’s not completely out of the realm of possibility.
Still, it’s his only choice after seeing Eduardo make sad faces about having to go home to Florida, spending time with a father he’d rather escape from.
Predictably, his family takes to Eduardo immediately, his sisters all but cooing over him and how charming he is and telling Mark how lucky he is. (in front of Eduardo, of course. By that point, they’re both blushing.) Mark allows half an hour of questions before escaping up to his room, pointedly ignoring a comment from his oldest sister about keeping things pg-13 because my room is next to yours. The tips of Eduardo’s ears go red at that and Mark would tease him if his face hadn’t been the same shade of red since they stepped foot inside the house.
Mark lets out a breath of relief when the door closes behind them, glad for the barricade between him and his family.
“Your family is really nice,” Eduardo comments, while taking in his room with more interest than is necessary. There’s nothing special about his room. The sheets on his single bed are purple, there’s a shelf with an assortment of books, a desk, a chair and a rickety closet that Mark refused to replace even when one of the doors stopped closing completely. It gives his room character. Mark’s mom accused him of being too lazy to pick out a new one.
“They’re like vultures.”
Eduardo gives him a disapproving look, before sitting down on his bed.
“They’re nice,” he says, with an air of finality. Mark shrugs and sits down next to him on the bed. “Hey, Mark, thanks.”
“Stop thanking me, Eduardo. You’re my boyfriend. Apparently, that means introducing you to my family.”
Eduardo smiles warmly, cups his cheek and leans in for a kiss. Well, at least having Eduardo here has the benefit they can make out. Eduardo’s a pretty damn good kisser and Mark doesn’t mind surrendering to the kiss, scooting a little closer on the bed. Eduardo slips his arm around his waist, before breaking the kiss and resting his forehead against Mark’s.
“No sex in your parents’ house though.”
“Oh, and here I thought our first time could be in my old, creaking bed while my relatives are too close for comfort,” Mark says, dryly. The thought may have crossed his mind though.
Eduardo laughs quietly and presses a quick kiss to his lips. “Just so we’re clear.”
Mark hums.
Eduardo gets up again to explore him room further. Mark rolls his eyes, scoots back on the bed, folding his hands on his chest and watches Eduardo pick stuff up, answering a question here and there. He wants to code but there are too many people who would frown at him for that. Maybe he can get away with it tomorrow when his presence isn’t earth-shattering anymore.
It’s nice, he thinks, having Eduardo here. He’s never brought anyone home before, never felt the need to. He probably still would have brought him here even if Eduardo hadn’t been giving him kicked puppy looks. This already feels different from Erica, it feels better.
There’s a knock on the door half an hour later. “Everyone descent in there?” Randi asks through the door.
“No! You should probably stay out and never come back,” Mark replies.
Of course that doesn’t have the desired effect and Randi sticks her head in. “We’re going to build snowmen. Are you two coming?”
It’s phrased like a question but Mark knows it’s really not. He thinks about fighting but one look at the excited look on Eduardo’s face stops him. He recognizes a futile fight. There’s no way he can fight off three sisters and a boyfriend who is not above giving him puppy eyes.
“The first person who stuffs snow down the back of my shirt will suffer a horrible faith,” Mark threatens darkly. “We’ll be right down.”
Eduardo has already dug a spare change of clothes –jeans and a t-shirt– out of his suitcase by the time the door closes. Of course he came in an all-black suit.
Eduardo gives him a pointed look. Mark rolls his eyes but closes his eyes anyway. It’s not as if he hasn’t seen Eduardo half naked before. They may not have gone all the way yet but they have gotten somewhere. Mark cracks one eye open a little, because Eduardo does have a nice body, tanned and lean, a little muscled, with strong thighs.
Mark squeezes his eye shut when Eduardo glances over. “Okay, you can look.”
Mark takes Eduardo’s offered hand and they walk down the stairs, fingers entwined. Mark can already hear the ruckus coming from the backyard.
“Gloves,” Eduardo reminds him, pulling him back a little.
“You’re seriously worse than my mom,” Mark says, but grabs his gloves from the hallway table anyway. Eduardo grabs his beanie too and pulls it over his ears. Mark glares but he forgets his annoyance when Eduardo kisses him lightly. Eduardo pulls his own beanie over his ridiculous hair and they head outside, Mark already steeling himself for the inevitable snowball fight that usually ends with snow in places it should not be.
Mark’s sisters have perfected building snowmen over the year, having had enough practice so it doesn’t take them long to have a snowman ready, perfectly rolled balls representing their bodies and head.
Mark and Eduardo are slightly less successful, mainly because Eduardo hasn’t had a lot of practice and Mark is dreadfully horrible at rolling the snow just right. Nonetheless, Eduardo looks ridiculously pleased with their snowman. To top off the picture, they use buttons for eyes and a carrot for a nose.
Eduardo steps back, beaming, cheeks rosy. If his family weren’t around to mock him endlessly, he’d probably lean in and kiss him. He settles for reaching for Eduardo’s hand and squeezing briefly.
Mark’s not entirely surprised when a snowball hits him in the back of the head and he sighs when Randi calls out snowball fight!
Eduardo has scarily good reflexes because in the instant, he pulls him behind their snowman just as another snowball flies by, ruining their snowman more instead. Mark grumbles but starts squeezing snow to a ball and pelting it back towards his sisters. His parents, the traitors, retreat inside which makes it three against two. Eduardo has fairly decent aim and manages to hit Randi who squeaks and swears revenge on them.
The fight goes from there, with both sides getting in some decent hits and Mark saving Eduardo from getting snow stuffed down the back of his shirt. They continue until Mark’s fingers are tingling from cold even with the gloves. By that point Eduardo is snuffling so Mark calls the fight off. He refuses to be stuck with a sick Eduardo for the duration of their vacation.
Mark wants to call it a tie, but the girls insist they got more hits in and Eduardo graciously agrees, ignoring Mark’s muttering of but there were three of them.
When they get inside, Mark’s mom has towels and five steaming cups of hot chocolate ready. Mark’s fingers start tingling even more from the difference in temperature and he rubs his hands together in hopes of it stopping. Beside him, Eduardo is doing the same thing. Their beanies join their gloves on the ground, where a little puddle of melted snow has formed. Mark tosses his towel over it to mop it up. Their coats go over the back of chairs to dry.
They finish their hot chocolate sitting around the kitchen table, the girls engaging Eduardo in more pointless conversation, mostly about Mark, with Mark butting in whenever a story is starting to become too embarrassing. By the time their cups are empty, the girls decide to head back outside, because they clearly feel the need to freeze a finger off.
Mark can hear his parents talk in what is the office/library, so he deems it safe to take Eduardo back into the living room, where the fireplace is alive with flames. Mark unceremoniously flops down in front of it with Eduardo settling down more gracefully next to him.
“I can’t believe you have a fireplace.”
Mark shrugs. “I feel like it’s waste of space, but it’s nice every once in a while.”
“It is,” Eduardo agrees, throwing his arm around his shoulder and scooting closer. Mark leans into his body, slowly feeling the cold seep out of his bones. He leans his head against Eduardo’s shoulder and closes his eyes, stress draining out of him.
In this moment, he doesn’t need anything more than Eduardo’s arm around his shoulder and the sounds of his soft breathing while they sit in silence, content to just
be.
~Fin