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“How the fuck am I supposed to get up there?” Ethan said, emphasizing his words by swinging his arms up above his head dramatically. The floor of the horse-drawn carriage in front of him was insanely high, definitely higher than he could reach while wearing skinny jeans. At least, that is, if he didn’t want to risk potentially ripping a hole in a compromising area of the fabric. There was also apparently not any stairs on this particular carriage, so Ethan was stuck with a bit of a problem.
“With your legs, maybe your arms, too,” Tyler replied with a barely hidden smirk, snow gathering steadily on the beanie he was so fond of wearing.
“Yes, well, Tyler, some of us aren’t ten foot tall burly men. I am but a young boy—”
Tyler rolled his eyes, “You’re twenty,”
“I am but a young boy,” Ethan continued, raising his voice a little, “a small, tiny child.”
“Take a running start, I’m sure you can make it,” Tyler suggested jokingly.
Ethan seemed to ponder the idea for a moment, then shrugged. He took a few large steps backwards, then placed his hands on his knees, eyeing the carriage.
“You know, I was kidding, Ethan,” Tyler said.
“Ahuh, I know, but it’ll work,” Ethan replied, straightening up and leaning back on his heels, preparing to break into a full on sprint. On a snowy sidewalk. With shoes that were extremely worn down. At night.
Deciding that that was too dangerous, even for them, Tyler quickly formulated a plan. As Ethan began to run, Tyler stepped towards him, managing to wrap an arm around Ethan’s shoulders and the other beneath his knees. Before the younger boy even knew what was happening, his feet left the ground and he let out a yell of surprise.
“Tyler, put me down!” Ethan yelped.
“I will, on the carriage,” Tyler replied, walking to the carriage, Ethan clinging to his shoulders tightly. He angled Ethan so that he could place his feet on the raised floor, then gave him a small push so that he wouldn’t fall backwards as he stood up.
Ethan flailed his arms around for a moment as he balanced himself, then gave a huge sigh of relief, placing his hands on his hips. “Hooooo boy, I thought I was gonna die for sure!”
“Nope, fortunately I stopped you before you could do that to yourself,” Tyler said, pulling himself up onto the carriage with ease and sitting down on the bench, stretching his arms out and resting them on the headrest of the bench on either side of him.
Ethan tutted at Tyler as he sat down beside him, wearing a mock disappointed expression.
“What?” Tyler asked.
“You with your big muscles and awe-inspiring strength,” Ethan said, having trouble keeping the playful grin off of his face. He paused, a mischievous look in his eye that gave Tyler a sense of dread, then began loudly, “IIIIIIII’m Tyler, and I—”
Tyler pressed a hand against his mouth, effectively stopping him before he could continue. Ethan laughed through his nose, eyes crinkled with mirth, and tried to pull away, but Tyler only pressed his hand against him tighter, though he was careful not to hurt him.
“If I let you go, do you promise not to keep going with whatever it is you were gonna say?” Tyler questioned.
Ethan nodded solemnly, and Tyler removed his hand. Barely a second passed before, “IIIIII’m Ty—”
Tyler couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face as he tackled Ethan to the floor of the carriage, placing his hand over his mouth again. Ethan could be an idiot sometimes, but in the most annoyingly endearing way that Tyler had ever known. Ethan managed to wrestle Tyler’s hand from his face, laughing loudly.
“Tyler, stop, please!” he begged.
“Never,” Tyler replied with a smirk, changing tactics and digging his fingers into Ethan’s sides, causing the blue-haired boy to laugh even louder. The people passing the carriage were giving them strange looks, but honestly he couldn’t care less. Ethan drew up all his remaining strength, tears of laughter in his eyes, and pulled Tyler’s hat from his head, throwing it over the side of the carriage, into the road. Tyler immediately stopped tickling him and jumped down after it.
“You’re a terrible person, you know,” Tyler said, though there was no malice in his voice, dusting snow off of the beanie before tugging it back over his hair.
Ethan sighed, smiling, as he sat back down on the carriage bench, “Yup, just terrible. The most horrific.”
Tyler was about to pull himself back up into the carriage when he stopped and let out a dry laugh, “Oh my God,”
“What?” Ethan asked.
“There’s a set of stairs this side,” Tyler said with a groan, using said stairs to walk up and sit beside Ethan.
“Wowie, so you risked my life for no reason,” Ethan said with a shake of his head.
“I didn’t risk your life,” Tyler said, rolling his eyes. “It’s not like I force-fed you peanuts or something.”
“Whoa, calm down there Satan, no need for the threats,” Ethan said, wide-eyed.
Tyler was ready to counter his quip when he noticed that Ethan was visibly shivering. “Hey, are you cold?”
“Uh, yeah, you kinda pushed me into some melted snow when you tackled me to the floor,” Ethan replied, teeth chattering just the slightest.
“Oh, shit, sorry,” Tyler said sheepishly. “We should go back to your place so you can get warmed up.”
“No, it’s okay, you wanted to do this carriage ride thing, so we’ll do it,” Ethan said, “Besides, we’ve already paid and the driver is probably on his way already.”
Tyler examined him for a moment. He was definitely shivering, and his lips were a little blue. Tyler’s gaze lingered there for a little too long, and he had to mentally shake himself to get his thoughts back on track. If Ethan stayed out here he’d freeze to death, or catch pneumonia, at least. Mind made up, Tyler stood. “Come on, we’re getting you home.”
“Tyler—” Ethan started.
“Your health is more important than a carriage ride. Anyway, I can always come visit Maine again next Christmas,” Tyler pointed out, making his way down the carriage steps, placing his feet gingerly to ensure he wouldn’t slip on the snow that was there.
“You can’t do that, Mark and the rest of them would kill you. And your family would miss you,” Ethan argued, though he followed Tyler down to the road.
Tyler shrugged, “Then we’ll come here again another day. I’m sure the carriages won’t all just shut down after tonight,”
“I guess,” Ethan admitted.
They walked along the road, searching for a cab, and out of the corner of his eye Tyler saw that Ethan’s shivering had become worse. Almost without any thought he unzipped his coat and shrugged it off, placing it gently across Ethan’s shoulders. The younger boy looked a little taken aback, but smiled gratefully. Tyler wasn’t sure if the blush on his cheeks was from his actions or the cold. Probably the cold. It wouldn’t make sense, after all, for Ethan to return Tyler’s feelings. Tyler was much older, much quieter, than the boy he was currently walking beside. He didn’t even know if Ethan was interested in guys. Hell, Tyler hadn’t known that he was interested in guys until Ethan showed up one day, all messy-haired and hazel-eyed and with a big grin on his face.
Realizing that he had been staring at Ethan, Tyler quickly turned his head to scan the road for a cab so that they could get out of the cold and back to Ethan’s parents’ house. Luck was finally with them, as a cab stopped directly in front of them. They waited for the previous occupants to get out, then hurried into the backseat.
“Where to?” the driver asked.
Ethan gave the address, and they were off. The trip wasn’t too long, and they arrived at Ethan’s home without incident. Tyler paid the driver and thanked him before joining Ethan and walking to the front door. Ethan struggled with the key in his cold-numbed fingers for a second, finally succeeding in fitting it into the lock, and swung open the door. They were immediately hit with a warm rush of air and the lingering smell of the Christmas dinner they had enjoyed mere hours ago. The house was silent; everyone else seemed to already be asleep.
“I’m gonna go have a shower,” Ethan said as he closed the door behind them, hanging Tyler’s coat up on a hook beside it. “If you look in the cabinet beside the TV, that’s where the Christmas movies are. We can watch one or two before we go to bed, if you want.”
“Sounds great,” Tyler said enthusiastically, kicking off his shoes and making his way into the living room.
He opened up the cabinet that Ethan had been talking about and rummaged around inside until he found two Christmas movies that they hadn’t yet watched, setting one up in the DVD player before collapsing onto the sofa and pulling out his phone. He checked his social media accounts, replying to a few tweets asking him how Maine was. After about ten minutes he heard the sound of footsteps approaching, and soon Ethan was sitting beside him in loose, long-sleeved pyjamas.
“Which movie are we watching?” Ethan asked as he stretched languidly on the couch beside Tyler.
By means of an answer, Tyler picked up the TV remote and pressed the power button. The screen showed its brand logo for a few seconds before switching over to a red and green coloured menu filled with candy canes and holly berries, perky Christmas music playing loudly in the background.
Ethan nodded approvingly, “Good choice, good choice,”
Tyler hit play and they began watching, laughing at the antics of the main character. Ethan chastised Tyler a few times for voicing the impossibility of some of the events in the movie, claiming that at Christmas anything was possible. It felt far too soon when the credits rolled by, even though Tyler was beginning to feel the effects of staying up so late. He grudgingly got up from the couch and switched the DVD over to the next movie, then plopped back down on his spot beside Ethan, and if it was a little closer than before, well, that was definitely not on purpose.
They continued on with their light-hearted banter, though Tyler noticed that Ethan seemed to have something on his mind, as he was being uncharacteristically quiet. After a while, Ethan stopped speaking altogether. Tyler left it alone, figuring that if he wanted to talk about it, he would. After a few minutes, Ethan finally spoke.
“Hey, Tyler?” Ethan said, breaking the quiet.
“Mm?” Tyler acknowledged, eyes still on the screen.
“I want to tell you something,” Ethan continued.
Tyler moved his eyes from the TV to Ethan, who was avoiding his gaze and fiddling with the edge of his sleeve nervously. “Okay,” he said apprehensively.
“It’s just, I don’t think I’ll get the chance again, we’re always with other people, and—” Ethan began to ramble, and Tyler stopped him.
“Hey, you can tell me anything, it’s fine. I promise. You don’t have to be so nervous. Whatever it is, I won’t judge you, I swear.” Tyler assured, placing a hand on Ethan’s knee and squeezing reassuringly.
Ethan looked at the hand on his knee, then brought his gaze up to Tyler’s eyes with a gulp. He nodded, took a deep breath, opened his mouth—and then closed it again. “Hoooo boy, okay,” he took another deep breath. “Okay, uh. So. Tyler. I think. Ithinkihavefeelingsforyou,”
“What?” Tyler asked, confusion evident in his voice.
Ethan blushed, looking down at his hands as he said again, slower this time, “I think…I think I have feelings for you. Like, as in, more than just friends feelings.”
“Seriously?” Tyler asked in disbelief.
“Yeah. For a while now. I didn’t tell you because Mark was always around, and you know how much he’d make fun of me for it,” Ethan said, still not looking directly at Tyler.
Tyler was silent, shocked.
Ethan misread the silence and hurried, “I get if you don’t feel the same way, I didn’t expect you to, I just really needed to get it off my chest and—”
Tyler leaned forward quickly, pressing their lips together in a short, gentle kiss. Ethan froze, eyes wide, as Tyler pulled back.
“Of course I feel the same way. I have since practically the moment we first met,” Tyler confessed, and he could feel the heat across his cheeks, but he couldn’t care less. This was too good to be true.
Slowly, Ethan began to smile, then he let out a small laugh, and Tyler joined him.
“Do you think…” Ethan said shyly.
“Do I think what?” Tyler encouraged, still smiling happily.
“Do you think you could kiss me again?” Ethan asked, blushing deeply.
Tyler’s smile widened even further, and he closed the distance between them, connecting their lips together once more, this time more confidently, and Ethan responded eagerly. Tyler moved a hand up into Ethan’s hair, threading it through his fingers, using his other hand to wrap around Ethan’s waist and pull him closer, just as Ethan placed his hands against his chest. After a few minutes they parted reluctantly, catching their breath with their foreheads resting against each other, both of them smiling widely.
“Merry Christmas,” Tyler managed to say breathlessly, before Ethan moved in and closed the gap between them yet again.