It was 8 pm, right after dinner...

LXXII

"Look at this!", Eddy cried so loud Brett was pretty sure the whole aisle heard him.
"Hmm?"
Eddy held up a white and pink unicorn ornament in front of Brett's face. Brett had never before seen this much glitter on one single object. He huffed.
"Jesus! This is..."
"Awesome! Isn't it?"
"You want this?"
"Of course! Gonna put it on top of the tree!", Eddy declared and put the outrageous item into the yellow Ikea bag he was carrying, which was already half filled with other ornaments.
"Bro! We're gonna get blinded by this!", Brett laughed and chose another silver ball with a single gold band.

Brett and Eddy had been idling around the Christmas section at Ikea for at least an hour now, picked up every single ornament and laughing about their forms, colours and amount of sparkle they emitted. They even got some fake snow and golden tinsel to decorate their fake tree to perfection.
Brett hadn't thought this trip would put him in such a festive mood. But there was something about choosing Christmas decorations with a gleeful Eddy wearing that Santa hat he'd gotten yesterday. It brought a sense of homeyness, like a beloved tradition would.
Maybe, buying Christmas ornaments with Eddy for a Christmas tree in their flat in Singapore could become a tradition.
That was, if he wouldn't fuck up their relationship...

Brett felt a sting in his belly region, but no! This should be a fun outing! No need to go to that dark pit lurking inside him, threatening to pull him down. No need to drag a happy Eddy down with him either.
He looked at the gorgeous humming Asian Santa and smiled. A genuine smile, he hoped.
Eddy looked back at him. "Everything alright?", he asked.
"Yeah, just enjoying this", Brett said, trying to be as honest as possible.
The grin widening on Eddy's face was radiating. He took Brett's hand softly in his.
"I love it too."

Brett's breath hitched, but he tried to hide it in a weird cough. "Yeah, let's get on with it", he deadpanned, "otherwise we'll still be here on Christmas."

It took them another fifteen minutes to finalize their choice of glittery balls and figures. Brett even found a violin ornament in last years collection, which were all half price and thrown into a box for people to dig. He decided to keep it as a surprise for Eddy, but for this he had to stage a bathroom visit and had to send Eddy to the cashier first, so he could pay it seperately without the other noticing. Eddy was too excited to get suspicious in any way though and happily bounced away with the ornaments tinkling against each other.

Like after every fulfilled Ikea visit, they made a stop at the restaurant, Eddy sipping on the super cheap coffee and taking bites of a cinnabon and Brett having an Ikea tea for the first time in his life. It wasn't as bad as he'd imagined.

"I got you something", Eddy declared, when he'd half eaten his cinnabon and pulled out the same red Christmas hat like the one he was wearing out of the blue Ikea bag.
Brett laughed. "Are we going to be Santa's helpers now or what?"
"Come ooon! Get into the mood!"
"I am!"
"But you don't look Christmassy enough. Wait..." He leaned over the table and put the hat on Brett's head. "There you go." He looked at Brett with a toothy grin, his eyes shining brighter than the sum of all the glitter on their Christmas ornaments together.
"What?", Brett had to ask.
"You look so cute!", Eddy blurted out and had Brett choke on his last sip of tea.
"Duude!"
"What? It's nothing but the truth! You're the cutest elf I've ever seen."
They must have turned off the AC for how hot Brett suddenly felt. But having Eddy smile like this, Brett deemed it worth wearing every stupid hat ever produced. It was the most relaxed and carefree Brett had seen him in weeks, if not months.

Maybe that was why Brett decided to turn off his brain for the duration of their coffee break and started to trace his index finger on Eddy's forearm.
"You're pretty damn cute yourself", he commented and observed with joy, how Eddy's eyes widened and mouth opened so a piece of cinnabon nearly fell out.
Brett furrowed his brows, as if he was a parent disapproving of his kid's eating behaviour and picked up a tissue. "Bro, you got something there." And if he hadn't been so God damn in love, he'd cringed hard at his next sappy, stolen out of every cheap romcom manga-move. But instead, he relished the feel of Eddy's lips and cheeks under his nimble fingers, only seperated by a thin paper towel, brushing off the sweet crumbs sticking on the other's stunned face.

So sweet. So soft...

It was amazing, how this little not even skin on skin contact sent waves of shivers across Brett's spine. However, it didn't throw him off as much as it did Eddy apparently, because the other sprang back like he'd seen a cockroach and almost fell backwards with his chair, if it wouldn't have been for Brett grabbing both his hands, proving his impressive reflexes.
"Broo!", Brett laughed, as he pulled his best friend back up. Eddy's face was almost as red as his Santa hat.
"You... what the fuck are you doing???", Eddy shrieked and tried to sit up again.
"Just cleaning your face, because you're not capable of eating, obviously", Brett said as if it was the most normal thing in the world for a bro to clean the mess off the face of another bro.
"You...", Eddy struggled for words.
"Yeah?" Brett wiggled his eyebrows.
"You're just..."
"What am I?"

Yeah, what am I, Eddy?

"Arghh! You're too much!", Eddy finally huffed, emptied his cup in one go and stomped away.
Brett held his belly, laughing.

It was good to know, that he was capable of making Eddy flustered as well. And that beautiful dark red tinting his cheeks was something Brett wouldn't mind seeing more often in the future.