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Their eyes glanced among the various decorations that clung to banisters, tucked away in corners or on mantles and tables. Symbols of Midwinter and Waterdhavian tradition were almost new to Caladin but there was one thing that made the tiefling tilt their head in curiosity.
A sprig of white berries wrapped in red ribbon hanging from almost every conceivable threshold in the tower.
Cal inspected on a bit closer when they noticed it halfway down the stairs on the way down to the kitchen when getting themselves a snack. They stood underneath it, head tilting and swaying, blazing orange eyes darting between the leaves and berries of the cluster. A light pressure in the middle of their back snapped Caladhin out of their investigation, the tiefling flinched and jumped around, surprised by Gale.
“Apologies, love. Didn’t mean to scare you,” Gale said with light guilt breezing over his face. “You looked rather intrigued by the mistletoe.”
“Is that what that is?” Caladhin asked, turning their attention back to it with curiosity, hardly paying attention to Gale’s passionate stare.
Gale came beside the towering tiefling. “I take it you never really partook in many festivities in the past,” he said.
“No. None that I can recall,” the tiefling murmured in an attempt to remember, then lamenting, “My childhood was a blur, and … well … you’ve heard the rest. You and I would’ve had … very different meanings to ‘merriment’ and ‘joy’. Nearly a year after the Netherbrain, and it’s been a struggle to find my own meaning in those words now. Or anything.”
Gale nodded, a solemn look in his face before he lightened up. “I think now’s a better time as any to start. There’s something magical about this time of year to make new memories for those who haven’t had gotten to experience it much.”
He stepped forward, his hand slowly interlinking with Caladhin’s. The tiefling gazed down at Gale’s hopeful, warm stare. How a man could love a once crazed Bhaalspawn like Caladhin, they’ll never know. Even if said man has shown Cal time and time again, a gentle hand can bring the most feral of creatures to feel love and crave it every minute of the day. It was a hard road to be free completely of Bhaal (one that Cal paid for with their own life), but the tiefling was free now, able to find what truly means to them in life. And Gale was by their side through it all.
Caladhin counted themselves incredibly lucky to have a patient, and endearing man like Gale.
The tiefling gradually smiled back, kissing the top of Gale’s forehead. “So. Mistletoe,” Cal said, bringing back the topic hanging above them. “What does it mean?”
“Well, you just did an example of it just a moment ago,” Gale pointed out. “Although it was a little off the mark, but you carried out the tradition around it.”
“What, kissing someone under it?”
Gale lightly tapped the end of Cal’s nose, a twinkle beaming in his eye. “Precisely. Tradition goes, the mistletoe represents love, fertility, and vitality. If two people find themselves underneath it, they must kiss to honor the meaning. Granted, the actual plant itself is parasitic to many evergreens, hence the vitality meaning. And … the name itself is a bit, eugh, not romantic. Basically translates to ‘dung-twig’. Most people gloss over those facts and focus on the romance, prosperity, and vitality meanings of it.”
Caladhin gave an intrigued noise, glancing back up at the plant as they took in Gale’s explanation of it. “Could I try again in honoring it?” they asked, looking down at Gale, a faint coy smirk growing in Cal’s burning orange eyes.
Gale’s eyes crinkled in the same manner. “I don’t see why not,” he murmured.
Cal leaned their head down closer to Gale until their lips met his in a tender kiss. It lingered for a moment, a soft moan humming from the tiefling before they pulled away. Caladhin’s lips were a hair’s breath away from Gale’s, smelling the wizard’s musk of cedar and lavender and the spices in his breath. Warm, inviting … craving.
“How was that, professor?” Caladhin purred in a low, soft growl.
“Top marks, my love,” Gale rumbled, reaching his hand up to gently take the tiefling’s chin in his thumb and forefinger and brought Caladhin in for another kiss. His tongue pressed against the seam of Cal’s lips for entrance, the tiefling answering by nearly devouring Gale’s mouth with a hunger of their own.
The ex-Bhaalspawn lightly growled, hands grasping at Gale’s waist with a whimper. Gale still had a light hold on their chin, his other hand gripping at the waistband of the tiefling’s trousers. The wizard moaned, deepening the kiss with a dive of his tongue in Cal’s mouth, almost possessively.
“Allow me to demonstrate the … fertility and prosperity meaning of mistletoe?” Gale panted after he broke off the kiss, a dark, hungry look flashing over his eyes.
“Can I hold it with my tail while you … demonstrate?” Caladhin asked, a cheeky grin coming into their stare.
“Excellent choice, love,” Gale rumbled, kissing Cal one last time before undoing the sprig from the threshold’s siding and guiding Caladhin up to the master bedroom.