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Abolish truly had no idea what to do with Sausage.
The man was… his coworker, although he wouldn't quite consider him a friend. Certainly not to the extent Sausage liked him. Or he at least would never admit that to Sausage out loud, considering that'd definitely make the man even more obnoxious.
Unfortunately, however, he did care on some level. On a lot of levels, actually, but none that were really important. This meant that Sausage's almost too casual comment about spending Christmas alone currently had Abolish pacing his room as he tried to figure out what to do.
Sausage didn't ever make comments like that, not in the way he did it. The quiet yeah, I'm not really sure what I'll do, I could buy gifts for myself I guess before immediately changing the subject was entirely unlike him. He was always loud, dramatic, full of energy. Abolish couldn't remember him ever seeming that outwardly sad.
The way he was acting made it feel bad, which was not something it was used to experiencing towards him. As much as it found Sausage annoying and loud and hellish to work with, even it recognized what was going wrong and didn't want him to spend the holidays mourning his long-dead friends.
Abolish wondered if he felt like this every year, or if something specific had happened that'd brought back memories. The events at Oakhurst had only happened fifty years ago now, and Abolish had to admit that he hadn't paid much attention in the past, so it was entirely possible Sausage did feel this bad more often than he'd picked up on.
It'd make sense for anyone other than Sausage. Sausage, who seemed to have almost no real feelings underneath his theatrics, at least as far as Abolish could tell. But he supposed he hadn't looked too far into it. After all, he'd assume the man was just like that and there was no use investigating.
Abolish walked over to his bedside table, brushing his fingers against the cover of a book the man had given him, before picking it up. It was one he hadn't read yet, since it'd only been gifted to him today. It was Christmas Eve and Sausage always gifted whatever book he'd written that year for Christmas, and although Abolish had never gifted anything back, he hardly gave gifts to anyone. He doubted Sausage realized that, though.
Perhaps it should get him something. It really had no idea what it could possibly give him, but it was sure he'd appreciate some gesture of kindness, even if it had a feeling that would only give him more of a reason to be obnoxious. It could tolerate him, though, and him being a little more annoying was worth him not feeling terrible about his dead friends.
Abolish slowly sat down on his bed, opening the book. Maybe whatever Sausage had written about could give him some sort of idea about what the man would want. He paused when he noticed the folded-up note that'd been stuck in the book.
Dearest Abolish,
I hope you read this before tomorrow, because I really wanted to wish you a merry Christmas. I can't believe it's been fifty years now since Oakhurst. I honestly never thought I'd live this long, and I'm not sure how happy I am about it, but I'm at least glad you've been here. Sorry that this is so much more serious that I usually am.
Happy holidays and enjoy the book. I think you'll like it.
Love,
M. Sausage
Rereading the note a few times, Abolish took a deep breath. He then folded it back up and stuck it in his pocket. He could think about that more later, after he'd finished the book.
He leaned back against the headboard as he flipped to the first page, resting against a pillow. If he was being honest, he'd always enjoyed Sausage's writing - even if it was overly descriptive and a little childish at times, it had a certain charm to it that he really loved. Perhaps Sausage would appreciate being told that.
It felt a little like his own brain was scolding him the entire time, beating himself up about not noticing earlier. That made it slightly difficult to focus for a while, up until he started noticing certain things in the book, which stole all his attention.
The main character was a self-insert, although that was only obvious to people who knew Sausage well, which probably wasn't very many besides Abolish. However, the main love interest was a young, short man with pale skin, brown eyes, black hair, freckles… Abolish didn't need to go on. The character was exactly like him, right down to the amount of times he said unfortunately and the way he almost always dressed formally.
It was certainly odd reading himself described from another person's perspective, especially as romanticized as this version of himself was. Seeing himself described over and over as gorgeous, beautiful, handsom - it felt nice, for some reason. Although if he had to read the words shimmering chocolate orbs ever again he was pretty sure he'd just die.
The book didn't take particularly long to finish. Abolish was a fast reader, after all, and Sausage's books were never very dense. After finishing, he did now have confirmation that the love interest - which the main character had gotten married to at the end - was definitely him. He did not want to think about some of the scenes he'd read. If he thought about them too hard, he'd never be able to look Sausage in the eyes again.
Slowly closing the book, Abolish set it to the side. Now he only needed to figure out what to do for Sausage. He didn't have any gifts planned, and it was far too late for any shops to be open at this point. It wasn't like he could make food, either, not with Sausage being a vampire and all.
That thought made him pause. He could bring food if he wanted, actually. He almost never gave his blood, and it'd be risky considering even drawing blood to give to him would give him access to memories, but maybe that'd cheer him up. He felt a bit embarrassed at just the thought of doing that. He wasn't sure exactly why, though.
Standing up, Abolish headed to its bathroom, carefully slipping off its shirt. For a moment, its gaze flicked up to the mirror. It eyed the bandages wrapped tightly around its chest, the way it still wasn't entirely flat when it didn't have clothes covering it up, despite how its reflection looked slightly blurry. Then it looked away and opened up a drawer to find a syringe and a glass bottle.
It drew its blood quickly, seamlessly, something it'd done countless times before. It closed its eyes and inhaled slowly as it drew the blood, before exhaling as it withdrew the syringe and poured the blood into the bottle. It only felt a little woozy, but it was sure it'd feel fine once it ate something. It wrapped a bandage around the wound and pulled its shirt back on.
Capping the bottle, Abolish hurried to one of the closets in the hallway, opening it up to search for a ribbon or a bow or anything he could decorate the bottle with. It didn't take long before he pulled open a drawer and found some red ribbon he must've had left over from years ago.
Carefully, he wrapped the ribbon around the neck of the bottle, tying it into a neat bow. He inspected it for a few seconds. Maybe he should've written a letter to go along with it, since God knew he was terrible with words, something Sausage would probably understand. He had a feeling it'd be more appreciated if he delivered it in person, though, so he slipped it into his pocket and shut the closet door behind himself.
Sausage's house wasn't far away. The organization they both worked for had put them near each other, since they were teammates after all. However, it was freezing cold and snowing and Abolish realized about halfway there that he hadn't eaten or drank anything in hours and it was making him feel nauseous.
He was, for the first time in as long as he could remember, incredibly relieved to see Sausage. The man opened the door just slightly, opening his mouth as if he was about to tell Abolish to leave, before his jaw dropped.
"Abolish!" He blinked a few times, crimson eyes wide. "What are you doing here?"
Abolish took a deep breath. He needed to stay calm and collected about this, not make a fool of himself. "I… wanted to bring a gift. Since it's Christmas and all…" He let himself slowly trail off as he watched the other man's face light up.
"Oh, you didn't have to," Sausage said as he opened the door fully, gesturing for Abolish to come in. "Come inside before you freeze. Unless you don't-"
"Thank you," Abolish said softly, stepping inside and taking a quick glance around. The house wasn't much. Messy, sparsely decorated, really not that much different from its own house. It supposed they'd both only been living here for a few months and hadn't had much time to get settled in yet.
"Do you want anything to eat?" Sausage asked as he settled a hand on its arm, leading it to the couch in the living room. It nodded as it sat down. He was absolutely acting different, but it couldn't exactly place what was so off. "I don't have a ton of food, the organization gives me blood and stuff anyways, although I might have some chicken I can cook for you…"
The man trailed off into a hum as he walked to the kitchen. Abolish leaned back to watch him, reaching up to gently massage the area he'd taken blood from earlier. He wouldn't be surprised if he had a bruise, but he was plenty used to those. Giving his friend a gift was important enough that he could push through a little injury.
It only took a few minutes for Abolish to figure out what was wrong. The way Sausage held himself, avoided looking at Abolish, hardly spoke at all - he was upset. Not at Abolish, it was pretty sure at least, but he was upset about something. It could only assume he'd been crying earlier, based on the slight puffiness of his eyes. It had a feeling it knew what he was so sad over.
Abolish knew the feeling. He understood all too well. It was the exact same upsetness he'd felt for most of his life after he'd lost his parents - the entire reason why he had to stay so emotionally distant in the first place.
Looking at Sausage, though, it was clear they both had very different ways of dealing with loss. He only wished he'd picked up on that earlier. Even if Sausage was annoying, he was annoying because he was scared and Abolish was the only person from Oakhurst who still talked to him. Maybe Abolish could give him a chance, at the very least.
The two of them were silent as Sausage cooked the food. Abolish wondered why he had meat in the first place, given that he had plenty of blood. It should probably ask. Part of its job was making sure Sausage wasn'tgoing to hurt anyone, but right now, just this once, it let itself not care.
Instead, it waited for Sausage to finish cooking and bring over two plates of food - one cooked and one raw. He kept the raw one and handed Abolish the other, sitting down and starting to eat.
"I was kind of hoping you'd come over," Sausage said after a few more moments of silence. His voice was much quieter than usual. "I… miss you a lot, when we're not at work, and I really appreciate you taking the time to visit." He flashed Abolish a quick smile before looking back down at his food.
Abolish swallowed the bite he'd taken before he responded. "I wasn't aware that you did. It's really my pleasure, thank you for the food."
"Of course I do." Sausage tilted his head slightly, the emotions in his red eyes entirely unreadable. "You're wonderful to be around, pretty sure you're the only one who tolerates me, and you already barely talk when we're at work so…"
"Sausage, you're my friend, of course I tolerate you." The words just fell from his mouth before he could even process what he was saying, and he felt his heartbeat quicken when Sausage looked up and he realized what he'd just said. He only felt even more embarrassed when he realized it was true - mostly, at least. It felt like an understatement to say he felt friendly towards the other man, once he got past how annoying he could be at least, but he was not thinking about that right now or ever.
"You are?" Sausage sounded as shocked as he looked. "I mean, I've always considered you a friend, but you…? Are you just saying that to make me feel better?"
"No, I'm not. I don't do that." He said it firmly, but did his best not to sound mean. With a deep breath, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the bottle of his blood. "In fact, here. I know it's not much, but I'm well aware that the blood the organization provides isn't the best, so…"
"No, yeah, it's shit," Sausage muttered, taking the bottle gently. He ran a thumb across the glass as he asked, "Is this yours?"
"It is."
Sausage fell quiet at that, staring down at the bottle of blood. He swirled it around for a moment. It was a deep, rich red, still fresh although it'd cooled off by now. He then looked up and leaned forward.
Abolish had all the time in the world to pull away, to say no, but it didn't. It didn't want to say no, but it didn't want to say yes either. Allowing Sausage to do what they both wanted without it having to say a word was much easier, and with a soft sigh it leaned forward once their lips finally connected.
It was only taken aback for a moment at how cold Sausage was before it was leaning further into the kiss, shifting to rest one of its hands on top of his. Surprisingly, Sausage was actually good at kissing, even though Abolish had honestly assumed he'd never actually kissed anyone before. It sure hadn't kissed anyone before right then.
The kiss only lasted a few seconds before Sausage was pulling back, but it felt wonderful. Abolish let him pull away, leaning back himself and turning back to his food.
"Merry Christmas," he murmured as he watched out of the corner of his eye, Sausage slowly uncapping the bottle.
The other man paused for a moment, glancing up at him with a grin. "You too."