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Leone was at the local grocery store buying three gingerbread house kits.
“That’s a waste of money,” said Diavolo coming from the shadows.
“How do you do that?”
“Quit asking, you know you’re not getting an answer.”
Leone rolled his eyes, “So, what brings you to the public’s sphere?”
“Mondays are the least busy and I need to get groceries for Papa. Why are you buying three gingerbread houses?”
“Every year me and Narancia make a gingerbread mansion.” Narancia was his little brother by four years.
Leone grabbed two cans of vanilla frosting. They liked to ‘paint’ the walls, plus there was never enough icing in the kits. Leone grabbed a third can.
“That’s not a good enough reason to risk your safety.”
“I’m not going to get stabbed anytime soon, and you must have traditions.”
“Too many traditions, there’s the second Sunday of December is Santa day, so I get to photograph little kids.”
“Don’t say it like that.”
“It’s true, then there’s decorating the church tree which must not look flashy. The Saturday before Christmas I bake cookies so I can hand them out to kids Sunday,” Diavolo sounded exhausted just saying it. Leone had no doubt his friend dreaded the holiday.
“Those are chores.”
“I do it yearly.”
“Do you like any of them?”
“No.”
“Then they’re chores you so happen to do once a year,” Leone grabbed the food coloring and tossed it into his basket.
“Tell me you’re not buying that.”
“I am.”
“That’s a waste of money.”
“I’m guessing you hate the holidays.”
“Too busy.”
“Fair.”
***
There were many times that their parents argued that they were too old for gingerbread houses. Leone’s counterargument was that your kids are getting along be happy. Besides Leone always cleaned the mess.
“Dude, I don’t think it’s worth it,” Narancia said squeezing the last of the red food dye into the frosting, which was pink. They were originally aiming to do a brick design for the ginger mansion.
“Barbie mansion?”
“I guess,” said Narancia.
The brothers started to build their mansion. It was two stories with a balcony. Narancia was gluing (using icing) peppermints to a cannon-shaped cookie. After all every mansion needed a defense system. Abbacchio was decorating the roof, he used MMs for a rainbow pattern and icing for icicles.
“You seem distracted,” said Narancia.
“Gingerbread mansions are a serious matter.”
“Are you thinking about somebody?”
“Maybe.”
“Is it Diavolo?”
Leone froze.
“It is! Are you thinking about how much you-”
“I’m thinking about how he hates the holidays,” Leone interrupted his brother’s teasing. It was never a good idea to deny his feelings around Narancia. The kid was relentless and would find out more if he didn’t talk.
“You hate the holidays.”
“I’m a dramatic person, and I like some aspects about it, he hates the entire thing.” That wasn’t entirely true, it just saddened Leone that Diavolo didn’t have any family traditions he was looking forward to. And for some damn reason, Leone wanted to fix that. Not that he needed to fix anything. It wasn’t even his business.
“Okay, what’s the real reason you’re thinking about him?”
“My mind is a useless bitch can we please change the conversation.”
“Alright, the cookies should be cool enough to decorate.”
Narancia brought over dinosaur cookies because somebody needed to live in the house and men were too weak.
***
It was the second Sunday of December, meaning Diavolo was taking pictures of kids with Santa. He knew there weren’t that many options for parents, and it was free but did the line have to be this long. Diavolo didn’t believe in Christmas miracles but Leone handing him coffee was one.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Why are you still here?” Sunday service ended an hour ago. He would have been gone a long time ago if he didn’t promise to do this.
“Got nothing better to do.”
Diavolo raised an eyebrow. It was actually because Narancia stole his car keys and wasn’t going to give them back till he talked to Diavolo. Not that he was going to tell him that.
“You know how you have no holiday traditions.”
“I’m currently in the middle of a tradition,” Diavolo clicked the church camera. He was able to get a picture of a happy five-year-old before the screaming started.
“This is a chore; you’re invited to watch the Nutcracker with me and Narancia.”
“Are you trying to make me do holiday traditions?”
“Sure, why not,” Leone walked away before Diavolo could answer.
***
Out of the blue Diavolo called him.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“When are you watching the Nutcracker?”
“We haven’t selected a date.”
“Can you do today?”
“I guess, why today?”
“Papa has guests over.”
“So, you’re using me to get out of a social interaction?”
“Yes.”
So Diavolo arrived at his house half an hour later. Leone didn’t even question how Diavolo knew his address despite never giving it to him. He led him to the living room which was connected to their kitchen. Narancia was already sitting on a brown couch who had seen better days. He had a huge bowl of popcorn in his lap.
“Did you guys make that?” Diavolo pointed to their gingerbread house.
“Yup,” said Narancia.
“Impressive,” Diavolo muttered. And he meant it, he wasn’t aware you could have a two-story gingerbread house. Or that it could be as detailed as it was.
Diavolo sat down on the couch and scooted as far away as possible from Narancia.
“I don’t bite.”
“That’s a lie,” said Leone sitting on the other side of the couch. He wrapped an arm around Narancia pulling him closer. He wanted to give as much space as possible to Diavolo.
He put on the Nutcracker and allowed the music to transport him to another world. Out of the two of them Leone was the ballet lover. Also, the opera lover, and the musical lover if they’re being honest. Narancia only watched because he loved his bigger brother. Plus, it was fun to say wildly inappropriate things during ‘highbrow’ art.
“Do think Uncle Drosselmeyer was trying to hook up his niece with a nutcracker?”
“Narancia!” It wasn’t the comment so much as it was Diavolo being right there that got Abbacchio flustered.
“Why are the rats fighting this war?” asked Diavolo.
“They’re mice actually and it’s to be assholes,” said Narancia.
“Colonization,” said Leone.
The two turn to face him. “Think about how many lands thank them, clearly the mice have been conquering.”
“You put thought into that,” said Diavolo.
“Leone always puts thought into things,” said Narancia trying to wingman.
Leone was pretending Narancia didn’t say shit. They continued watching the ballet with a few comments here and there. As soon as it was over Diavolo stood up.
“This was nice, but I should get going.”
“Do you want to throw candy canes?” asked Narancia.
Diavolo raised his eyebrow.
“We toss candy canes at the Christmas tree, if it stays on you get a point and whoever gets the most points wins,” Leone explained.
It was another tradition that their parents complained about the mess. Leone’s response was he always cleaned it.
“So, your holiday traditions are gingerbread house, nutcracker, and throwing candy canes.”
“They beat your traditions,” said Leone.
“Don’t knock it till you try it,” said Narancia, “I’ll get the candy canes.”
He hopped off the couch and walked to the kitchen.
“I’m not doing this,” said Diavolo.
“But you might get into a life-or-death situation involving throwing candy canes.”
Diavolo shot his friend a glare. Narancia came back with candy canes in an orange bowl with bats on it.
“I’ll go first,” said Narancia grabbing a candy cane and tossing it into the air. It landed in the middle of the tree. “Your turn.”
Diavolo picked up a candy cane. He glanced at Leone grinning, “Throwing is a life skill, not candy canes.”
Diavolo tossed it and the candy cane crashed on the ground, breaking into pieces. Leone grabbed a candy cane and tossed it. He watched as it landed at the top of the tree.
“How?”
“We’re crazy talented,” said Narancia.
“We do this till our parents force us to decorate the tree,” said Leone giving the actual explanation.
“So, this is in fact something you guys do as a tradition,” Diavolo asked failing to see the fun of it.
“Sometimes we get different color candy canes and try to knock each other’s out of the tree,” said Narancia tossing a candy cane. It slammed into Leone’s knocking it to the ground. “Somebody shouldn’t have thrown so high.”
“I still fail to see the point of this,” said Diavolo.
“Advance throwing skills,” said Leone.
“I understand now.”
***
Leone was writing an angsty poem when Diavolo called. Leone dropped his pencil. It had to be an emergency if Diavolo was calling.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, can we go on a walk?”
“It’s ten and it’s a school night,” Leone didn’t really care about that he just wanted to see Diavolo fight for it.
“Please.”
“Alright.”
He grabbed a coat and walked outside to see Diavolo waiting outside his house.
“You could knock.”
“I don’t want to interact with your parents.”
“Lucky for you, they’re at the lab. Did you walk here?”
“My truck is down a couple blocks,” Diavolo grabbed Leone’s hand and started walking.
“Are we actually going on a walk?”
“Through downtown.”
So Diavolo drove them downtown. Leone had to admit downtown looked beautiful at night, especially with all the Christmas lights.
“Are you using me?” Leone asked.
“No.”
“Diavolo.”
“Are your parents usually around for the holidays?”
“Quit trying to change the topic.”
“It’s a genuine question.”
“No, why?”
“All of your traditions are just you and your bother.”
“Well, we’re kind of all each other has. Not that our parents are never around. They’re just busy.”
Diavolo grabbed his hand, “You’re too good for them to just be busy.”
They kept walking together before Diavolo stopped at a fishing store.
“I need you-”
“So you are using me,” said Leone.
“Okay, maybe.”
“Knew it.”
“You sound happy.”
“I like being right.”
“Congratulations not only are you right, but I need you to buy a Jesus fish keychain.”
“I’m not buying a Jesus fish keychain.”
“I’m giving you cash.”
“Are you making me do your Christmas shopping,”
“You’re right, so be happy.”
“Why am I doing it?”
“There are only five stores that use security cameras in this town and that store is one of them.”
“You like using me,” said Leone. It wasn’t the first time this situation occurred.
“Yes,” Diavolo handed him cash.
Leone rolled his eyes but walked into the store anyway. He came back and handed the keychain to Diavolo.
“Thanks.”
“Is it for your father?”
“Yeah, he collects religious keychains.” Leone raised his eyebrow, “Believe it or not he has five Virgin Mary keychains.”
“How?”
“Beats me,” Diavolo started walking away when Leone grabbed his hand.
“This way,” He pointed north.
“Car is the other direction, idiot.”
“You owe me a walk.”
Diavolo signed and started walking north, “You know we have school tomorrow.”
“You don’t show up half the time,” and it was annoying because it forced Leone to talk to other people.
“One-fifth,” corrected Diavolo, “It would draw too much attention if I was gone half the time.”
“Aren’t you calculative.”
“It’s called surviving.”
“What’s the point of surviving if you don’t live a little.”
“I’m living right now with you.”
Leone turned his head to hide his blush. At this point, he wouldn’t be surprised if Diavolo knew his crush.
“You know Mama Luna’s Chocolate Shop has a gingerbread house context every year,” said Diavolo.
“When is it?” Leone was positive that Narancia would want to do it. Him too, if he was being honest.
“There should be a sign or something,” said Diavolo as they passed the shop.
Leone walked over to the sign on the door. He quickly read it, “Unfortunately, my family is leaving on the twenty-first to see our relatives.”
“That’s a shame, I’m sure you guys would have won.”
Leone turned to see mistletoe hanging in front of the door. More importantly, in between him and Diavolo.
“You know this one,” Leone said pointing to the mistletoe. For whatever reason he couldn’t move.
Diavolo also seemed incapable of moving, “Yeah, I don’t live under a rock.”
“But you wish you did.”
“How much of a holiday traditionalist are you?”
“I follow all the important ones,” said Leone.
Both of them stared at the mistletoe, looked into each other’s eyes, and back to the mistletoe.
“We should go back,” said Diavolo.
“It is getting late,” Leone agreed.
It was as if time unpause and they were able to walk away from the shop. For the rest of the walk neither one of them was able to make direct eye contact with the other.
***
Leone hadn’t seen Diavolo for a week and five days. Sure he could text the guy except Diavolo hated texting or any form of communication that could leave a trace. So out of respect Leone did not text him.
Instead, He spent twelve days with his family. All his cousins, aunts, and uncles. As expected, it was loud, chaotic, and familial. It was nice catching up and seeing everyone. It would be nice if Uncle Tony would stop rubbing his head. Still, it was fun, he, Narancia, and their cousins had a cookie-baking context. However, there were also bad moments like the adults talking about politics. Leone walked out of the house when that happened. There was also the traditional family argument about who broke that dumb base ten years ago. Seriously, who cares. Balancing that was their cousin Melissa doing classical ballet dancing to metal music.
All in all twelve days with extended family made Leone appreciate his family. But God damn twelve days was twelve days. He could handle a week but afterwards, it led to a headache. So he was happy for the early flight, even if it meant they were leaving at two in the morning on January first. The fact that he was happy to return to Sardinian was a surprise. And as much as Narancia teased him a part of that was seeing Diavolo again. Granted school wasn’t for another five days so he had to wait.
“Do you think Grandma Fiorella will send us cookies?” asked Narancia as they walked out of the airport.
“You’re her favorite grandkid, just ask.”
“Her favorite is Angelo.”
“Okay you’re her second-”
Leone saw Diavolo. It was five in the morning, what on earth was he doing here. Without realizing it he walked up to him.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Making sure you’re still alive.”
“I don’t recall telling you the time I was getting back.”
“No, but you told me the day you were coming back.”
“Did you wait five hours for me?”
Diavolo shrugged his shoulders, “It’s good to see you breathing.”
“You too.”