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Sami is standing in front of a large wooden door, on it a beautiful Christmas wreath hanging right in the center: evergreen branches, with berries, ribbons, and cones woven intricately. With one hand he's knocking, caught in a balancing act with multiple wrapped gifts resting in the other. He nearly falls over when the door opens.
“Sami. Come on in.”
“Roman!” Sami fixes his grip on the presents stepping inside the house, Roman giving him space. “Am I late?”
The taller man shakes his head. “No. Everyone else just decided to show up whenever they felt like it. I don't know why I ever bother—giving them a time.”
Sami is carefully slipping his shoes off and following Roman to the living room, in his eagerness to see everyone he almost knocks the tower of gifts in his hands over. Scrambling in the last second to steady them.
Christmas music plays in the background behind recognizable voices, all happy and filled with cheerfulness. The room is buzzing. Decorated and filled, its eye-catching elegance displayed drawing Sami's attention, his eyes are captivated; striking ornaments and mesmeric lights hang around the room and across a toasty-roaring fireplace— wreaths and stockings, bows and ribbons artfully placed between. Bursts of Christmas color - reds and greens, hints of wood; whites, silver and gold filling the room.
The room also has one giant tree in the corner decorated with majority of what looked like homemade ornaments, and tastefully hung lights around it, below the tree it's filled with wrapped objects of different shapes and sizes.
“Sami is here!” Roman announces, making everyone’s heads snap towards the two. It makes Sami self-conscious but he ignores the feeling in favor of getting his presents out of his arms.
The family greet him as he passes by with smiles and waves and 'Hey Sami!'. Which he enthusiastically returns and it warms his heart to see everyone so happy and joyful, and that he is a part of it. They've welcomed him with open arms, into their family, into Roman's home, and on a sacred holiday of theirs.
Kneeling down, he finally starts carefully setting his own gifts down with the rest of them. And Solo appears next to him and begins helping. Sami turns looking at him with a warm smile. “Thanks, my dawg!" And then, "Oh, where’s Jey at? Is he late?”
Solo raises an eyebrow. “He’s in the kitchen. Why?”
“Oh nothing, just wanted to know.” Sami's turning his focus back to sorting out his presents, pretending he can't feel the blush he's fighting to control rising steadily on his cheeks under Solo's focused gaze, and if Solo or anyone else notices, he's blaming it on the lighting.
Rolling his eyes, Solo places the last gift down and is standing back up. “Mhmm, sure.”
And he's walking away before Sami can even defend himself. He just wants to know where his friend is. It's not really a crime..
Despite Solo's causal-esque judgment, Sami is getting up and walking towards the kitchen. Unfortunately, he gets stopped along the way. “Sami! Uce!”
Jimmy appears in front of him like some sort of freaking ninja—blocking the exit. “Merry Christmas!” He's wrapping his arms around Sami in a tight hug that Sami can't help but gladly reciprocate with as much enthusiasm if not more. They laugh giggling together still in each other's arms. And then Jimmy's pulling back. “C'mon, this way, Uce, Solo n' I made soup y'have to try, it's vegan!”
Sami allows himself to be dragged to another room, pretending to be begrudgingly annoyed. He can survive a little longer without Jey, and besides, he likes soup. And these guys made vegan soup!
And Sami's heart is full at the thought that they might have done this just for him.
“Sami, c’mere, you gonna like this soup.” Solo greets him with a spoonful of the liquid shoved in his face. He tastes it with no complaints and is making a small noise of approval at the taste. It really is delicious.
Swallowing, Sami grins. “This is good! You two really made this?”
Both brothers nod and Jimmy is holding out his closed hand for a fist bump. “Hell yeah we did!” exclaims Jimmy, as Solo rolls his eyes at his brother's over the top personality, yet lifting his own fist to bump back.
Sami's snorting at the two, head looking back and forth between them. “How long did it take to make this?” Sami asks, attempting to take the spoon for another sip, but gets whacked instead for his efforts by Solo, who's looking on at him disapprovingly.
“Longer than it should have. But we done it,” says Jimmy, proudly. He too slapping at Sami's hand when Sami tries again, sneakily trying to get past a second time to get to his soup.
“Hey!” Sami glares at him, though there’s no actual heat behind it.
Jimmy taps him on the head with the spoon. “No more until dinner time, Sami!” He puts a lid over the container, smiling pleased, he's successfully preventing anymore soup theft.
Sami rolls his eyes, smirking. “Fine. I’ve gotta go talk to Jey anyway.”
Jimmy gives Solo some kind of look with a hidden message that he seems to understand, because Solo then is leaving abruptly without any warning. Sami is about to ask what that was about when he’s interrupted. “How yo day been, Uce?”
He raises an eyebrow. “Uh.. fine?”
“Good, good. Tha’s good.” Jimmy's nodding slowly. Sami is very confused by the sudden change in demeanor but is interrupted yet again before he can ask.
“Sami!”
Turning around, he knows that voice before he even sees the speaker. A big man with shoulder length dreadlocks is standing in the doorway, holding what looks to be a small light bulb in his large hands; the kind that should be attached to Christmas lights.
“Hi Jacob,” Sami waves, “What’s up, dawg?”
The man shuffles closer. “We broke the tree and need you to fix it.”
Sami eyes him suspiciously. That is the most ridiculous thing he has heard in quite some time. And, he knows they don't need him for something like this, he knows for a fact that Jacob himself is good at fixing things, why can’t he do it himself?
“Why can’t you do it yourself?”
Jacob looks behind him where Jimmy is, who he can hear moving around behind him. “Uhh.. We stumped, man, me n' the others.”
“Okay?” He doesn’t understand why a bunch of perfectly capable men can’t fix a simple lightbulb, but who is he to judge? Maybe the stress of the holidays has been getting to them all. “Lead the way.”
He follows the man down a hallway back to another smaller living room, where Tama stands impatiently tapping his foot next to the tree. He looks only the tiniest bit relieved, frown still prominent on his face when he spots the two. “Finally! We don’t have all day, y’know!” He points at the tree, “Fix it, Sami!”
Sami stands there, a little dumbfounded as to why everyone seems to think that he is the only one capable of fixing their tree, stunned at the command, but not knowing what else to do, he's turning and examining the string of lights. “Where exactly is it broken?”
There doesn’t seem to be anywhere missing a functioning bulb, at least not to Sami's eye. Tama huffs and pushes down one of the branches, pointing to a spot right in the back where a bulb should be that instead only has a few small wires. “Right here!”
“How badly do you need this fixed? Nobody will notice. This isn’t even your house.”
“Very badly,” says Tama, Jacob nodding alongside him. Sami struggles to believe they’re being serious, but they don’t lighten up on it, pun intended, so he gets to work.
Jacob hands him the small bulb before turning and walking off to wherever else more important he apparently needs to be at this time—not here.
Tama's watching him work intensely, not taking his eyes off the redhead for a second. Like he's making sure Sami is doing it right. Which makes Sami think that Tama knows how this works, and it begs the question as to why couldn't Tama just do this himself.
It’s very easy to fix, Sami doing so rather quickly.
“You guys were really stumped on that?”
“Yes,” says Tama, gruffly, leaning in, inspecting Sami's work. “Alright..”
“Okay then,” says Sami, attempting a smile. “Have you seen Jey? I haven’t gotten a chance to say hi to him yet.”
Tama's face does something funny, and his eyes turn sketchy for a split second before his face is blank once again, back to its usual, and his permanent almost there frown now resting on it. “Uhh—no. Not at all. Who’s Jey?”
Sami squints at the man, has he lost his damn mind, did someone hit him over the head recently? Is that why he's forgotten how to change a simple light bulb as well?
Sami's trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Before he can do or say anything, Tama is waving an arm at someone behind him, Sami's turning around to see Loa. Loa looks just as confused as Sami feels.
“Loa! Don't you need help with something?” asks Tama.
“No?” says Loa, leaning against the wall next to him, arms crossing, raising an eyebrow.
“Y’know the..thing?” Tama's voice is almost strained, like he’s trying to telepathically tell Loa something. Everything just keeps getting weirder and weirder and more confusing for Sami.
Loa takes a moment to think before his face is lighting up in realization. “Ah, yes! How could I forget? Sami, follow me.”
Sami looks back at Tama who is lightly pushing him towards Loa with a sly smile; Sami taking that as his cue to leave. He follows Loa down a different hallway, leading into a room covered in discarded wrapping paper and just a general Christmas mess.
“I’m trying to wrap this gift for Talla, but I jus' can’t get it.” Loa's gesturing to a cardboard box sitting on a table. “You’re good at this stuff.”
Instead of questioning Loa, like any reasonable man would on just how closely he's been watching Sami to have to have known that specific piece of information, all he says is—
“I guess so?” Sami steps up to the box. It seems normal, so he’s unsure why it would be giving Loa so much trouble, considering the man is always the one that usually does anything creative around here. Everything about this evening has just been more and more confounding to Sami and he doesn’t like it. “What wrapping paper do you want me to use?”
Loa tosses him a roll of red wrapping paper with a multitude of cats as its pattern. Sami catching it, is raising an eyebrow when he notices what is on it, but quickly continues forward with his assigned mission. No judgment..
“How’s the party been so far? I thought I got here on time for once in my life, but everyone seems to have gotten here earlier.”
Sami attempts to make small talk as he's measuring out how much of the paper he’ll need. He’s about to ask Loa for scissors to cut it but he is already holding out a hand with the tool. Sami takes the scissors as Loa starts to speak. “It’s been very good. Lots of food, lots of drink. Good company.”
Beginning to fold the wrapping paper, Sami glances up at Loa. “That’s good. Oh yeah—Jey helped with the food, didn’t he?”
“Uh, yea.” Loa's voice suddenly comes out tight, “Yea, he did..”
Sami is being handed tape before he can even ask for it. “What’s up with Jey, anyway?” He asks, “I can’t seem to get a hold of him tonight.”
“Nothing. Nothing. You know Jey, always talkin' to everyone here and there.” says Loa, a forced chuckle—gesturing to somewhere random in Sami's peripheral vision.
What is up with everyone today?
“…Sure.” Sami's taping down the final piece, completing the job. He's handing Loa the now wrapped box and sets the scissors on the table along with the tape. “You’re all set, buddy.”
Loa takes the gift with one hand, examining it and turning to place it on the table.
Seeing that he's satisfied, Sami says, “Now, I’m going to go find Jey.”
The man’s face drops, eyes growing wider than usual. He's quickly moving over blocking the exit, nearly bumping into the furniture beside and knocking some things over.
“No! Uh, Jacob—Jacob needs you. So just wait here while I get him. Stay!” Loa walks off, leaving Sami standing there dumbfounded. He didn’t even get a chance to ask why before Loa is gone. Why would Jacob need him? Again. He'd seen him just a while ago. Did he want him to fix something else?
He’s starting to get a little annoyed by all of this strange behavior. All he wants to do is talk to Jey, is that too much to ask?
Speaking of Jey, Sami's noticing a pattern; everyone starts acting oddly whenever he mentions the man or if he says he's going to find him. Has this got something to do with him? Did something happen to Jey?
This is awful for Sami's anxiety.
Thoughts of everything that could be wrong speed through his mind. Is it all just a bunch of coincidences, or had Jey decided he hates Sami and doesn’t want to see him ever again, therefore recruiting the others to help keep them separated? If once is chance, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern, what does that make four times?
Sami's taking a deep breath. Worrying is not going to give him an answer.
Once Jacob gets here, he’ll ask him what’s been going on. He probably just needs help with some minuscule problem like before anyway.
As if on cue, the Samoan werewolf himself appears in the doorway.
“Sami!” Jacob's voice is loud and booming as he's throwing an arm around Sami for a hug like this is the very first time they are meeting each other all day. And Sami, despite himself is happily returning it. They remain standing that way for a few seconds, Sami speaking first.
“What do you need?”
“I have a surprise for you.” Jacob grins, the look in his eyes the same as when he's usually up to something.
Raising an eyebrow, Sami is eyeing him. “What have you been up to? What are you up to?”
Jacob's rolling his eyes and pulling a bandana out of his pocket. “Nothin'. Now, put this on.”
Jacob's reaching up to start wrapping it around his eyes before Sami has a chance to respond to that.
He's quickly taking a step back, dodging him.
“Um, why?”
Jacob narrows his eyes. “It’s a surprise, you gotta put it on.”
Sami sighs, relenting. He doesn't want to get on Jacob's bad side, besides he likes Jacob. This night has already been odd, what’s one more strange event? “Fine. If you..dunk eggnog on me or something, I’ll ground you!”
Jacob is smirking at him wrapping the blindfold around his eyes and Sami lets him, making his world dark. Then Jacob is putting a hand on Sami's arm and starts to lead him out of the room and down the hallway, making twists and turns that get Sami completely disoriented. “Sami. You can’t ground me, you ain't my dad.”
“I’ll find a way,” Sami mumbles under his breath, huffing.
Jacob is chuckling in reply. The two continue going to who knows where for a little longer before Jacob is abruptly stopping.
“A'ight, y'stay here n' don't take that blindfold off until I get back. Okay?!” They sever contact, Jacob ignoring all his protests and disappearing like a bat out of hell before Sami can try grabbing him again.
Sami is standing there, wondering what his life has come to.. how he came to this moment. It was just a harmless Christmas invitation, or so he'd thought, so how, did he get here, and why, is he even still here still going along with everything? And he's contemplating taking off the bandana and just running for the hills, but then deciding against it. Because, darn his weak heart.
A small draft flows through the room, making him shiver. Is the floor going to open up and drop him in some sort of torture basement? Are the walls going to close in and squish him into a pancake? Are they going to murder him, make him disappear for good?— He's been watching way too many horror movies lately. He's got to stop.
He hears footsteps arriving from somewhere near, cutting his spiraling thoughts off. Solo's voice echoing towards him. “Can'tchu walk like a normal person? I'm tryin' t'help you here!”
“Nah, that'd be borin'. Do I look borin', Solo?”
That voice.
The voice he’s been trying to get to all evening, the voice of an angel. His angel. Jey.
Now that he knows who it is, he can make sense of the footsteps. The steps he assumes to be Jey's are the shuffling thuds, a little uneven like he's in a hurry to get somewhere, like he's stumbling forward, which is likely. Especially if Solo is dragging him along like he assumes. He can hear Solo's heavier steps guiding the man over to right in front of himself. “Yes, very borin'.”
Jey huffs, offended. “You should know ’m the least borin' person here. Oi! Watch the grip!” Something bangs against the wall, which Sami assumes is Jey trying to wrestle away from Solo.
“I am. Jey, you stand here.”
Sami's turning his head to where he's guessing Solo is. “Why are we here, Solo?”
“Sami!” blurts out Jey, excitedly, and his smile evident in his voice despite Sami's inability to see it himself.
“Hi, buddy.”
“Where you at?” He hears Jey fumbling around, then a smack.
“Hands to yo'self!” says Solo, annoyance clear in his tone. “Now, I’m leavin' you here. In thirty seconds take off yo blindfolds n' look up, 'kay?”
Sami nods. He’s guessing that Jey is probably giving Solo a mock salute to rib him when he hears. “Sir, ye' sir!” And Solo's resounding huff.
“A'right. Startin' now.”
Solo's footsteps are quick to fade away, leaving only Sami and Jey. He’s tempted to take off the blindfold right now, but Jey is stopping him before he even gets the chance to. “Don’ you be takin' that blindfold off yet. I know you thinkin' 'bout it, Sami.”
“Whatever.” Sami's rolling his eyes behind the bandana letting out a huff, but silently smiling at how well Jey knows him. “Do you know why we’ve been dragged here like this?”
“Nah. Dunno why we been kidnapped.”
“Darn it. Has everyone been acting strange to you too?” Sami is pretty sure he’s facing Jey. He has no idea which way he was looking when Jacob originally placed him here, but now he has a better sense hearing Jey's voice.
Jey is shaking his head, then realizing Sami can't see him says, “Yes! Man, I thought I was goin' crazy! I keep askin' where you at but they jus' be dodgin' the damn question or changin' the subject.”
Sami chuckles in solidarity. “Yeah, they kept making me fix problems that were so obviously simple, simple enough for them to fix themselves. They weren't even trying. I know they're family and all, but man, these guys are weird, Jey.”
Jey is snorting. "Y'don gotta tell me, Uce! I gotta put up with 'em e'ry single day of my life." Jey grouses.
“But they're your family and you lov-e-e them!” Sami smirks, reaching out waving his arm around in an attempt to find Jey. When he finally finds him, he makes sure to give him one, big punch. “Speaking of them, do you think it’s been thirty seconds?”
He can practically hear Jey shrugging, accompanied by a hum. “I dunno, I haven’ been countin'.”
“How about we take them off on the count of three?”
“On three or after three?”
“Uh..after?”
“A'ight. One, two.. three!”
Sami carefully removes his own bandana, making sure to not damage it. Jey, on the other hand, he sees tearing it off, ripping it off himself with not a single care for its well being. He's wincing at the disregard but doesn’t bother trying stopping him. The bandana probably deserves it.
Blinking to adjust his eyes, Sami takes a look at their surroundings.
They’re in a softly lit up hallway, a substantial amount of sparkling striking white, gold and silver Christmas decor glistening around them, and tiny bright white and gold fairy lights running along the top and bottom of the walls on either side, the lights reflecting like speckled bright twinkling stars everywhere, surrounding, drowning them in the stars of a night sky. It's all a little..romantic.
The two of them are standing under a wooden door frame that juts out slightly from the rest of the wall.
When Sami looks at Jey, he's already smiling at him, filling Sami's chest with warmth that is starting to spread gradually, unwaveringly throughout his body. He notices Jey is wearing a fitting white and gold Christmas sweater, adding to the holiday feel. And there's something so pure and charming about the way he looks. “I's nice t'finally see you, Sami.”
'Beautiful', thinks Sami. And says, “You too, Jey," laughing quietly. "Solo said to look up, right?”
“Mhmm,” nods Jey. They both look up in sync.
A small cluster of green hangs just above them, right in the middle. A red ribbon is tied into a bow, holding the leaves together.
Sami's heart jolts immediately beating faster.
Mistletoe.
Of course it’s mistletoe.
Why did he trust any of these guys? He should've known. He really should've known something was up. And it had to do with him. Especially after the evening he's had. He should've listened to that voice that had said - run for the hills.
Too late now. Sami is so screwed.
Surely his small, tiny, minuscule crush wasn't that noticeable. Was it? Okay, maybe his not so small head over heels in love crush.. But still..
“Sami?”
He's slowly looking back down, meeting Jey's eyes. He is absolutely done for.
Jey has a curious look, filled with concern and—Ohh— Love and a mix of exactly-everything that apparently makes a ton of butterflies start a rebellion in Sami's stomach pushing their way up into his heart. Jey's hands twitch slightly, a nervous tick Sami has noticed he does. He can feel his own heart starting to beat gradually faster.
“Y-yeah?” He squeaks out, sounding much less confident than he had hoped.
Jey looks him up and down, studying him. “We don’—we don’ have to, if y'don’ wan' to.”
Sami takes a moment to contemplate. Of course he wants to, he's wanted to kiss Jey for quite some time, that's not the problem. It's Jey. Does Jey really want to as well? What if Jey is uncomfortable and he's just forcing himself for Sami's sake? What if he gets weirded out, or disgusted, or—
A warm hand rests on his shoulder, making Sami startle.
“Stop thinkin' so much.”
“Sorry,” Sami attempts to swallow his nerves, “Yes. I mean, only if you also want to, because you don’t have to! I just—“
His nervous rambling is cut off by warm lips firmly on his own.
He freezes for a second before relaxing. Jey's lips feel as plump as they'd looked, as warm as he'd imagined, as heavenly as he'd anticipated, and they are like nirvana against his. His eyes close as Sami allows himself to feel, to fall, to get lost. He fidgets for a moment, unsure what to do with his hands, but Jey already has that covered.
The hand that was on his shoulder sliding up to cup his cheek, making Sami inhale sharply. Jey's other hand places itself lightly on his waist and is drawing him a little closer.
Sami wraps his arms around Jey's neck, hands lightly brushing over his skin there, making the man underneath shiver. One good thing about kissing his best friend: he knows what Jey likes.
Jey has always been a fan of physical touch, though secretly and always resisting, while Sami has also always been a fan of physical touch, not so secretly and always embracing. And every touch from Sami has been greedily held onto by Jey; grasping at it; capturing it, seizing it, confining it; eventually even returning it.
Years of experience has Sami knowing just the right places. He's running his hands along the base of Jey's scalp fingers teasing against his skin and he's softly tugging the ends of his hair, making the younger man groan and shudder, and he's pressing into Sami even further. Sami smiles against Jey's lips, now chest to chest. There's no space between them.
He mindlessly curls one arm around Jey's waist, accommodating him, securing him well enough that he can’t get away. Although he doubts Jey wants to.
The two part for a moment to catch their breaths, staring at each other through dazed half-lidded eyes—enclosed in their own little world. Gold and silver mingle in the air, and white and gold lights dance illuminating Jey in a glow that's making him look even more ethereal than he already does. Sami is a prisoner to the sight.
He smiles sweetly at Sami, looking content, like all is finally right in the world, and Sami is melting right back.
Jey's thumb rubs softly back and forth against his cheek, Sami is well aware he must be blushing bright red at this point. He's leaning forward on the balls of his feet giving the Samoan angel in front of him another kiss, this one quicker but still filled with as much love and adoration.
Sighing happily, Jey is resting his forehead against Sami's, getting lost again absorbed in a world of their own once more.
They start to sway back and forth lightly, unthinkingly, to the music still playing in the next room, melting in each other's embrace not wanting to let go just yet. Sami whispers after a moment, not wanting to break the atmosphere. “We’re getting them back for this, right?”
“Hell, yea. They ain't gettin' away with their meddlin'!” Jey huffs out, leaning back a bit to look at Sami mischief dancing in his eyes.
Sami's kissing the side of Jey's mouth quickly. “Oh, they won't,” he assures Jey.
Jey narrows his eyes playfully before dragging Sami into yet another long kiss. Sami doesn’t fight it.
Peeking in from a window, the men responsible are gathered. They watch what goes down, Jimmy taking a few pictures of the two in blindfolds for the future. For memories. Nothing to do with blackmail.
“It’s cold out here,” Tama grumbles, shivering.
“Then leave!” Solo sighs, exasperated. “You’re a man, y'got 'nough muscle to keep you warm, you should be fine!”
Tama frowns. “I’m sensitive to the cold..”
Jacob tells them all to shut up. “Look! It’s happenin'.”
He's pointing at the window, all heads immediately whipping towards the scene. Jey and Sami are both looking up, finally spotting the mistletoe.
“Do you guys think they gonna be mad we did this to 'em? Schemed?” asks Loa, suddenly doubtful about how this is going to go down, after having played a part in all of this.
Rolling his eyes, Roman waves his hand dismissively in the air. “We didn’t scheme. We helped. They’ll thank us for this. As they should.”
“Their pining was getting to unbearable pathetic shivering lonely wet cat levels.”
Talla speaks up from behind them, making just about everyone in the group jump.
“When did y'get out here? Y'just gave me a heart attack,” screeches Jimmy, clutching his imaginary pearls. Talla only shrugs in reply.
The bickering continues, only stopping when Roman hushes them all. Everyone's letting out huge sighs of relief once the two idiots inside finally kiss.
Jimmy is gagging at the display of affection after just two seconds, literally, a couple of seconds too long for him. Roman gives him a smack.
“Look, our dads are in love!” someone in the chaos says.
This time it's Solo taking another picture, intending to send it to the group chat. After all, isn't that what brothers do. Capture memories? Then share them?
Good thing Solo pocketed their—Sami and Jey's phones earlier, they won't know, at least not for a while. Until it's too late. And after the picture has circulated to everyone around that has a functioning phone. Solo doesn't discriminate like that.
And he hits — Send.