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“It looks like Christmas threw up in here,” Crystal said, swatting at some of the garland that had come unwound from one of the posts by the door.
Immediately, Charles set about securing it back in place. Everything had to go perfect, or there would be no point in any of this. Now, where had he put that tape gun? Or nail gun? Or that spell Edwin used to stick their mirror to the floor so they stopped knocking it over? He’d really take anything at this point.
“No it doesn’t,” Charles said. “This is nothing compared to what Edwin will end up actually putting up.”
Crystal turned a critical eye towards the rest of the room, and Charles did have to admit that it was a bit… much. They’d fully wrapped the posts by the door with garland and lights, installed a huge Christmas tree in the corner that was still waiting for the final decorations, and plenty of little holiday trinkets that they had picked up over the years were scattered on every surface.
Some of them were old, far older than even Edwin, who had sought them out as time had gone on. He claimed that he did not actually care for them, but Charles knew that they reminded him of his parents, even if he didn’t want to admit it.
Others were newer. Silly little decorations that sang when they detected motion (a surprising problem for ghosts), cute little plush toys that Charles had adored when he was a kid, and a collection of the most random assortment of Christmas cards you could ever find.
Edwin had made it a habit of sending out Christmas cards from the agency years ago, and before Charles knew it, their mailing list had grown to over a hundred people. The Ghost Postman was not amused any time Edwin stacked up their cards to send out, but Charles considered that pay back after all the times he had startled them.
“I didn’t know Edwin liked Christmas,” Crystal said. She moved one of their throw pillows– a round, plump thing that was supposed to be a Christmas ornament Edwin had knitted years ago, and plopped onto the couch. “He doesn’t really seem the type.”
Charles goodnaturedly rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know. But he loves it. It’s his favorite time of the year, and he always acts like a little kid on Christmas. Like one year, I got him this one spell book and he practically jumped up and– what?”
Crystal’s eyes held a mischievous glint as she smiled at him. “Oh, nothing,” she said. “Go on, keep telling me how cute Edwin gets on Christmas.”
“Well, it is kinda cute when he starts telling me about some old tradition his family had,” Charles said, completely unwilling to be shamed by this. “Like, did you know his family went caroling? Like, proper door-to-door caroling? And that one year he was allowed to drink so much hot chocolate that he threw up?” He couldn’t help the fond smile that crept across his face, nor would he have ever wanted to.
Edwin was his best mate. They had been best friends for over thirty years now. That was thirty years of their own traditions, their own stories to tell about the holidays. Thirty years of growing and becoming their own people… together.
Which was part of the reason this Christmas was so important to him. Everything was… different now, even if he’d told Edwin it wouldn’t be. That nothing would change between them.
But how could it not? How could he have been expected to have stood on those steps of Hell, heard Edwin confess to him with his heart bared for a cruel world to see, and not feel changed by that?
Sure, he hadn’t known how much it would change in the moment, but now that he had time to reflect on it? Now that he had taken time to see all of that for what it really was? How could it not change everything.
“I guess it’s just hard to picture that Edwin with the version I know,” Crystal said. And Charles supposed that was fair.
He debated whether or not arguing with her was worth it. He knew that she didn’t mean any harm by her words, the same way Edwin never meant any when he snarked about her. It was how the two of them showed their love to each other, and Charles could see how imagining a young, excited Edwin on Christmas would be rather at odds with the way things usually worked.
“Just you wait,” Charles said. “You’ll see.” He stepped back to look at his handiwork, his eyes focusing on the game room closet. “Does that look crooked to you?”
She followed his gaze with a knowing smile. “Nah, I think it looks good,” she said. “Let’s just hope you have the guts to follow through.”
Charles really hoped he did.
XXX
Their office was full. Like, way more so than Charles had ever seen it before. He’d insisted that this year, with all of the living people working for them and Charlie as their minder they should host a holiday party, and he had thought Edwin was going to spontaneously combust at the idea.
He could tell part of Edwin hated having so many people in the office. It certainly wasn’t built to hold so many people at the same time, even if most of them were ghosts. But he could tell the other part of him, the part that loved Christmas and always talked about how his mother would host parties and decorate everything was thriving.
At some point in time he had convinced Crystal to let him use the kitchen in her parents huge home so he could make Christmas cookies for everyone. Obviously, Edwin and Charles couldn’t taste them, which left Crystal to be his guinea pig while he racked his brain to remember what all they had used back when he was a child.
If the look on Crystal's face was anything to go by, Charles deeply regretted not being able to taste them.
Jenny had contributed to the more savory side of the food selection, which she had said wasn’t because she was a woman, but because she didn’t trust two teenage ghosts to run amok in her kitchen. Either way, Crystal and the Night Nurse had both looked impressed with whatever she had brought, so Charles could only assume it was good.
Several of their clients stopped by. Emma, who was quite pleased to see Crystal back to her ‘old self’ had demanded the other girl catch her up with everything that had happened. Rosa, one of the nearby magic shop owners had stopped in, and definitely, definitely didn’t make eyes at Jenny, which Charles was quick to tease her about. The Night Nurse’s boss, the Principal, had shown up, although no one knew quite how to interact with her. Either way, she seemed quite happy with the turn out and seemed rather touched when Edwin offered her one of the cookies he had made.
Charles wasn’t sure she ate it, but the way she held it made it clear that it was something important.
A few more of their living supernatural associates were sure to drop in as well. The werewolf that had nearly killed Charles and almost ripped Edwin’s arm off was almost painfully bashful as he introduced himself to everyone. The siren who had almost drowned Charles flowed into the room with more grace than she should have been allowed to have considering she didn’t even have legs most of the time, and quickly attached herself to Crystal and Emma’s conversation. Occasionally, Charles would hear words like “get them next time” and “a shame they got away,” which would only make Emma laugh and Crystal shake her head.
He’d definitely need to keep an eye on that.
Currently, though, his thoughts were turned towards a more pressing matter. Something that he had been trying to focus on the whole party, but hadn’t been able to act on.
“Oi, Edwin,” he called out. “Would you help me get the gifts out of the closet?”
Edwin turned towards him, drawing himself away from a conversation with the Principal. She seemed like she had a knowing smile, one that didn’t go away even when she noticed Charles looking at her.
“They have already been moved to the table?” Edwin said and pointed to the table they had pressed up against the wall earlier in the day. And sure enough, stacked up along there were plenty of gifts for everyone who had come.
Some of them were personalized, while others were randomly selected for people to take, sort of like a gift exchange type of thing. It was customary, in Edwin’s family apparently, to make sure that everyone got a gift regardless of how many people you expected to arrive. This meant that a lot of them were a mix of magical and practical, and it would really be on everyone else to swap as they saw fit.
“Oh, yeah,” Charles said. “Well, I think there’s one more?”
Edwin furrowed his brow. “I am fairly certain I grabbed all of them-”
Before he could finish his sentence the door opened and in walked the Cat King.
“Oh, for the love of–” Charles rolled his eyes and cut himself off. “What are you doing here?”
That sly smirk he was so used to seeing on his face appeared. “Edwin invited me, silly. You don’t think I would come all the way across the ocean without an invitation, do you?”
Charles was fairly certain he would, but he didn’t say anything. Had Edwin actually invited him?
“Glad you could make it,” Edwin greeted him with a head nod. Immediately, the Cat King made his way over to him and seemed to insert himself into whatever conversation they had been having before Charles interrupted.
“Oops, unexpected obstacle,” Crystal said, seeming to appear from almost nowhere. She jabbed him in the ribs and while it didn’t hurt, Charles still felt it with his mind. “You should have been quicker than that.”
Charles rolled his eyes. “Why did he invite that wanker anyways?” he asked.
Crystal smiled. “Edwin sent an invitation to almost every supernatural being I’ve ever heard of. You think he’d forget the Cat King?”
Charles forced a smile. “I could hope, couldn’t I? Besides, I don’t see Tragic Mick here.”
“Tragic Mick sent Christmas candies. And something for Edwin, although he didn’t let me see what it was,” Crystal said.
And wasn’t that just peachy.
Thankfully, no one else seemed to notice the strange air around the two of them. Hell, even Edwin didn’t really seem to notice. Instead, he found himself getting drawn into another conversation with Jude, the werewolf. Charles was fairly certain he heard at one point that Mitchell, Jude’s boyfriend, would be here soon, which Charles was semi-thankful about. One less supernatural person to fight for Edwin’s attention, at least. Even if he had originally believed Edwin had a crush on him at one point.
Normally, Charles would be right next to him, chatting up whoever Edwin had been convinced to talk to. Not that they usually had Christmas parties, but that was just the way their lives worked. They were almost always side by side, doing the same thing day in and day out.
Instead, he was glaring a hole into the back of the Cat King’s head.
As if he could sense Charles, he turned around and smiled. He gave him a small, half-wave, his smile only growing as Charles glared harder. Finally, because Charles couldn’t help himself, he nodded his head to the side, trying to signal that he wanted to talk to him. Alone.
The Cat King slipped away from the conversation, Jude and Edwin hardly even seeming to notice he had left.
“Hello, Charles,” he said, mockingly polite. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this, rather private conversation?”
Charles glanced up, just to make sure that no one else had noticed them sneaking over to the corner to talk. He was fairly certain the Principal was keeping an eye on him, but she always seemed to be doing that whether he liked it or not, so he turned back to the Cat King.
“What’re you doing here?” he asked.
“Oh, you didn’t know?” the Cat King asked. “Edwin invited me.”
Which, no, before Crystal had pointed it out, he hadn’t. But that wasn’t the point of this conversation. “Don’t you have a, like, a kingdom to run or something? Why’re you in London?”
That wicked smile appeared again. “Because Edwin invited me ,” he said. “And I can’t exactly say no to my favorite ghost, can I?”
Charles was not going to fight at their Christmas party. Especially not after it had been him who insisted they host one. He wasn’t, he wasn’t, he wasn’t.
“Right, well, you showed up. Now you can go,” he said, crossing his arms.
Sarcastic surprise covered his face. “Are you kicking me out? Charles, I thought we had a better friendship than that.”
They barely had an acquaintanceship, and he knew that.
“Just keep your hands to yourself,” he said, jabbing at his chest. “Don’t need you trapping my best mate anywhere else, you hear me?”
“As long as he keeps his to himself,” the Cat King said with a wink before walking back over to whatever conversation Edwin was having.
Screw not fighting at their Christmas party. If Charles had to spend even five more minutes in the same room as him there was going to be chaos.
He tried several other times to get Edwin’s attention that night. He claimed that they needed to get a game out of the closet (“Charles, what on Earth do you need my help to do that for?”), he claimed that he had lost something in there (“That book is in your bag. You know that.”), Hell he even tried to just flat out ask him to go to the closet with him. Edwin hadn’t even dignified that request with an answer.
As the night dragged on, Charles could slowly feel his grip on sanity sliding. He’d had the perfect set up, why was Edwin making it so difficult!? Couldn’t he see what Charles was trying to do?
By the time their guests had started to leave he was convinced that he must have gone about this all wrong. That was the only answer.
“Oh,” the Cat King said, pausing at the door as Edwin walked him out. The last one to leave. “It’s a shame I didn’t see any mistletoe.”
Charles was going to kill him.
“I don’t think we purchased any this year,” Edwin said. “It might have been a bit awkward considering who all was invited.”
The Cat King flashed a rather mischievous smile. “That’s okay,” he said. “I brought my own.”
With a flash of purple he held the most perfect little bundle of mistletoe Charles had ever seen. As if he was conducting an orchestra, he held his hand up high over both he and Edwin’s head and leaned forward like he was waiting for Edwin to make a move.
His heart leapt into his throat as he could see Edwin considering.
“That’s it,” Charles said and stomped over. He’d hoped to do this with more care than he was now, with less dramatics and more tenderness.
Before Edwin could even ask Charles what he meant, he’d grabbed the side of his face and kissed him. It lasted longer than Charles thought that it would, but that mainly seemed to be because both of them had frozen solid against each other.
He’d closed his eyes when he’d gone in to kiss Edwin, just like he had all the other times he’d kissed someone. Still, he hadn’t missed the startled look Edwin had given him as he pressed his lips against his, his back still ramrod straight.
Finally, after it seemed his brain had come back to life, he stepped back. He kept one hand on Edwin’s face, the other on his shoulder, like he might need to keep some sort of connection between them, even if he wasn’t sure how Edwin would react.
“You’re welcome, by the way,” the Cat King said. “It’s rude to steal someone else’s kiss, though.” And with another flash of purple he and his mistletoe were gone.
Edwin stared at Charles, his eyes still impossibly wide as and his body motionless.
“I- uh,” Charles said. He could feel his face heat up as he thought about what this must have looked like from Edwin’s side of things, the way all of this had seemed to come out of nowhere. “I had a plan.”
Edwin blinked several times. “A plan?” he asked.
Charles nodded as he let his hands slide off Edwin. “Yeah, yeah. Like, I even asked Crystal to make sure it looked good, because you know how bad I am at hanging things.”
He bounced over to the closet door and made a big show of throwing open the door so Edwin could see inside.
The inside of the closet had been completely converted into full holiday cheer. Colorful lights ran the length of the shelves and their more personal trinkets lined the edges. He’d even managed to cast a rather temperamental spell that allowed it to look like snow was falling inside, all without damaging anything in the room.
And there, dangling from the warm bulb in the closet, was the mistletoe Charles had picked out before.
“Thought about putting it out in the open, but I didn’t wanna pressure you, did I?” Charles said. He’d like the idea of kissing Edwin in front of all of their friends, of letting the world know that he loved Edwin and that he wanted to kiss him. That he thought he deserved to be kissed on Christmas.
It was only after he’d worked up the courage to follow through with this idea that he worried Edwin might not be as into it as he would be.
Crystal had been the one to suggest the closet, which Charles thought was brilliant. It was where they argued, where they decided whether or not to take a client, where a lot of rather private conversations happened.
Crystal also hadn’t been able to resist the “in the closet” joke, but Charles hadn’t let any of that bother him.
“Pressure?” Edwin asked, his voice soft and confused.
Charles shrugged. “I didn’t want you to feel like you couldn’t say no, just because I asked in public.”
The look of awe finally washed off Edwin’s face. “Since when have I ever had trouble saying no?”
Charles couldn’t help but grin. “Alright, you got me there,” he said.
Edwin smiled and ducked his head down. It was a familiar sight, one that flipped Charles’s stomach upside down in the best way possible. The perfect mix of bashful and sweet that while familiar was still a rare enough sight that he wished he could take a picture to save it.
Yet another thing being dead took from them. If they ever found a way to appear in photos Charles was going to cover an entire wall in photos of Edwin.
Or maybe a photo album. He didn’t want Edwin to think he was like a serial killer or something.
“So,” Charles said. “What do you think?”
Edwin lifted his head, that sweet smile seeming to grow the longer he looked at Charles. Without another word he stepped into the closet, the enchanted snow gathering quickly on his hair and eyelashes as he motioned for Charles to follow him in.
He did. It wasn’t even a choice, he had followed Edwin into Hell before and he would do it again even if he wasn’t giving him that smile.
But for that smile? Charles would do anything.
Edwin lifted his arms and wrapped them around Charles’s neck. He’d expected him to try and keep his distance, to hesitate or be a little unsure, and yet he didn’t feel that way. If anything he felt more confident that Charles had earlier.
He closed the distance between them, his lips hovering over Charles’s for the barest of moments before pressing against him with the finest of pressures. It was so light Charles could have believed he had imagined it if he wasn’t looking straight at him.
Edwin leaned back. “I do believe you are supposed to close your eyes for this,” he said. “Or was I misinformed?”
They’d have to discuss who was teaching Edwin about kissing later. Right now, all Charles could think about was how he could get his next one.
“Wanna see my Christmas present, yeah?” he said. “And I gotta make sure you’re enjoying yours.”
“Ah,” Edwin said, tilting his head as he leaned back in. “So I shouldn’t give you the magic card set I found the other day.”
“If you kiss me again, you can consider yourself covered for every Christmas here on out,” he said.
Edwin stuck his lip out in a fake pout. “That hardly seems like a fair trade.”
“You’re not the one getting to kiss you though, are you?” he asked and leaned forward to kiss him again.
They kissed for a long enough time that the snow spell ended. Charles wasn’t sure how long the spell was supposed to last, but he was sure it was a while.
“I love you,” he said, as if that hadn’t already occurred to Edwin. “I love you, and I’m sorry it has taken me this long to tell you.”
Edwin frowned. “Charles, it hasn’t even been a year since I confessed to you.”
Charles shrugged and dug his hands into Edwin’s comfy Christmas jumper. “Yeah, but still. I should have told you the second I realized it. I just wanted it to be special, and I know how much you love Christmas and–”
Edwin silenced him with another peck. “I do love Christmas. But there was no reason to try and make it ‘special’ like you said. It is already special because it was you,” he said.
And while Charles wasn’t sure that was true, he was willing to let it slide. If Edwin thought it had been special enough, then it was good enough for him.
Besides, he had plenty of other things to worry about. Like how to plan for their first Christmas as a couple.