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Altaïr looked at the time, it was almost noon. I was Christmas Eve, Desmond was still sleeping and he was wondering what Malik was up to. He didn't know if Malik would even be home or if he decided to go with his parents to some resort for the holidays. He couldn't remember if he had said he was going or not. At the time he had been telling Desmond to put down something sharp and had only been half paying attention to the conversation. He flopped down on the couch and called him.
"Hello?"
"Hey babe, you home?"
"Of course I am, I told you I would be. Don't you remember anything Altaïr? Or has watching all those children's shows finally melted your brain?"
"Ha. Ha. Very funny Malik, I was distracted okay?! Des had something sharp and—"
"Altaïr, why are you calling?"
"I wanted to know if you wanted to come over for Christmas." He thought for sure he would say no, he didn't sound like he was in the best of moods.
"Sure, when can we come over?"
"Now?" He smiled.
"Mm okay, we'll be there shortly, I just need to get Kadar ready."
"I'll be waiting, see you soon." He hung up and went to wake Desmond. He was sleeping in Altaïr's bed, half hidden by the covers. "Des, you need to wake up, we're going to have company over." He sat on the edge of the bed waiting for him to move, but he didn't. "Des, c'mon."
"Five more minutes..." he mumbled turning his face into the pillow.
"Desmond. Now."
He rolled over to face his older brother. "Do I have to? Who's coming anyway?"
"Yes, you do have to, and Malik and Kadar are coming over. You've met Kadar before, haven't you?"
He nodded, but still didn't move.
"Desmond, you need to get up."
"No." He turned over to face away from Altaïr.
He gave a frustrated sigh and picked Desmond up out of bed.
"Hey! Put me down!"
"Only if you get dressed," he smirked hanging him upside down.
Desmond giggled. "Kay." Altaïr put him down and walked out of the room. He lay down on the couch, picking up the remote, and flipping through the channels while Desmond was getting dressed. After a few minutes Desmond came out and he was dressed, mostly. He was still wearing his red plaid pajama pants.
"Deeeeeeeees," he groaned. "Pants. Now."
"No." He crossed his arms and pouted.
Altaïr sighed and stood. "Des, you leave me no choice."
He froze for a second, eyes wide, and then bolted away from Altaïr. And thus the chase began. They must have been running around for at least 15 minutes when there was a knock on the door. "Coming!" Altaïr shouted almost tripping over his brother. He managed to keep his balance by ungracefully holding onto the door knob. "Hey Malik."
"Hey," he smiled, in seemingly better spirits than earlier. Kadar was behind his leg peeking out to just see Altaïr.
Altaïr wrapped his arms around his waist and kissed him slowly.
"Ewwww... cooties!"
Malik and Altaïr laughed at Desmond.
"Yes, yes, and they're all mine."
Desmond stuck his tongue out and went to go sit on the couch.
"Go and join him Kadar, we'll be there in a minute."
Kadar nodded and sat next to Desmond.
"Did you have trouble getting Desmond dressed again?"
"No... well, yeah... a little."
Malik just smirked and walked in to join the boys, he knew he was thinking of some snarky remark. Sometimes he had wondered why he had fallen in love with someone so sarcastic.
"You guys want to watch a movie?"
"Yeah!" the boys exclaimed.
"Okay, how about..." He looked through the shelf of DVDs by the TV. "Rudolph?"
Once again Desmond and Kadar agreed eagerly, so he popped it in and then sat next to Malik, putting his arm around his shoulder. Truth be told it was one of his favorite movies too which was why he and Desmond always watched it every year. It was nice to finally not spend Christmas just by themselves though after what had happened to their parents. Desmond asked about them sometimes, but he didn't have the heart to tell him the truth about what happened, so he just said that they weren't around very much. When they had died he had still been little so he couldn't remember them, but then that may not have been that bad.
After the movie had ended the boys became very fidgety so they decided to step out for a bit and head to the park. Altaïr had finally managed to get his brother into actual pants before leaving. The winter air was cold and crisp; the sky a grey-blue. Altaïr and Malik walked behind the boys, who were pretending to be dragons every time they let out a puff of air, as to keep an eye on them. He could swear Malik rarely ever took his eyes off his brother, he was very protective over him.
They headed toward the park, which unfortunately, had no snow. It hadn't snowed in their area since Altaïr was a boy. While the boys played hide and seek with each other, Altaïr and Malik sat on a park bench. Malik didn't really do well in the cold despite the winter coat. He was shivering. Altaïr pulled him close as they watched the kids play.
As the day went on the sun began to set in the sky and it was time for them to go back home. Once they were back in the apartment they all cocooned in blankets in an attempt to regain the warmth that they had lost while spending too much time outside. Altaïr also decided to order pizza, since he couldn't cook, and he certainly didn't want Malik to cook since he was a guest.
After they had eaten, they stayed up for a while longer watching more holiday movies and trying to get the boys to go to bed, which was almost impossible since tomorrow was Christmas. However, since they had spent much of their time running around, they fell asleep by 10. Malik put a blanket over them as they slept on the couch and headed off to bed with Altaïr. It was nice being able to cuddle up in bed after a cold day. They both fell asleep shortly.
"Altaïr! Altaïr! Wake up! It's Christmas! It's Christmas!" Desmond shouted jumping onto the bed.
Kadar jumped up on the other side of the bed trying to wake his brother.
"Deees... not so loud... What time is it?" Altaïr rubbed his bleary eyes.
"It's nine! C'mon, c'mon, wake uuuup!"
"Okay, okay, gimme a sec..." Altaïr stretched in bed and shoved at Malik to get up. He mumbled something that almost sounded like a curse. The kids ran out of the room with Altaïr taking his time to catch up. They had way too much energy in the morning. The morning in fact passed with much laughter as gifts were opened. Altaïr had brought the presents out while the boys had been sleeping, and had something for Malik and Kadar, which he had planned on giving them when he saw them next since at the time he had thought they were going to the resort.
Desmond sat with Kadar playing Pokemon, while Altaïr and Malik played Halo. Malik had made them breakfast despite Altaïr's protesting. Later in the day they had lunch A.K.A left over pizza, but no one minded. Once it was evening they headed to the diner that they always went to on Christmas. Malik had given a slightly confused look and asked why, to which Altaïr had replied "Tradition." So they all put on their coats and left.
When they got there, they sat down at a booth and ordered. This was one of the few times Altaïr would let Desmond order what ever he wanted, within reason of course. They all ended up ordering apple pie because, well, why not? As Altaïr was absorbed in pie, as well as Malik and Kadar because that pie was just about the best pie around, Desmond was staring out one of the diner's many long windows.
"Altaïr what's that?" Desmond asked pointing outside.
"What's what?" He turned around to see where Desmond was pointing. It was snowing. It was actually snowing in a city where it had only snowed once as far as Altaïr knew. "Hey, Malik, Malik, look." He tapped Malik's shoulder.
"What is..." he trailed off almost dropping his fork as he looked out the window at the steadily falling snow.
"Altaïr?"
"Huh? Oh, umm, that's snow Des," he answered shaking his head back into reality. It had been such a long time since he had actually seen it.
Desmond practically jumped out of his seat. "Can we go out?" He smiled widely.
"Hmm... What do you think Malik, should we go?"
"Might as well, it is their first snow and we don't know how long it's going to last." He tried to keep a straight face, but Altaïr could tell he was excited too. So they waited for the waitress to come back over to them and they paid and left. Desmond wanted to play right outside the diner, but Altaïr managed to convince him to wait until they got back to the apartment.
Once they were home the snow had completely covered the ground. Desmond and Kadar began to make snowballs while Malik and Altaïr stood at the entrance of the building. Mistletoe hung above the door and he smirked at Malik.
"What are y—" A small grunt of pleasure escaped his mouth as Altaïr kissed him passionately. As they parted slowly two snowballs came and hit them on the side of the face. Kadar pointed at Desmond, and Desmond at Kadar, but the guys grinned and began a slow approach. It was on.