Good Company

Chapter 9

~Omg it's happening! It's happening! Everybody stay calm! It's DECEMBER 25TH 1973!!!!~ 

Brian awoke to the calming sound of someone else's breathing. He was confused for a moment: why would anyone be in his bedroom? Then he realised that he wasn't in his bedroom, and neither was the other person. He sat up and blinked a few times to get used to the dark. A small figure laid on the floor, barely covered with the blanket Brian was also using. 

Fuck! The presents! I need to- where are they? I left them here, didn't I? Brian looked around and let himself fall back onto the soft pillows when he saw the boxes underneath the tree. But who...? Roger. Of course. The poor sweetheart didn't want the boys to come downstairs on christmas morning and see a tree without gifts... 

Brian checked the time on his watch; 05:45. That's a perfectly normal time to get up. He gave Roger the blanket he'd been using himself, and which Roger had undoubtedly put over him, and went to the kitchen to see if there was any food. He saw Marianna, who was laying on the kitchen floor, enthousiastically get up as he entered the kitchen. 

'Sorry girl, I don't know where Roger put your emergency food. You can follow me around all you want, I am physically unable to feed you. Silly dog.' Brian opened the fridge and saw a container with lasagna and a note in Freddie's neat handwriting:

Dear dad,
We made vegetarian lasagne last night, but you fell asleep so we left you a bit. 
We put in loads of veggies so it's really healthy! 
The kiddo's wanted to make dinner for you, guess that didn't work out very well, did it now? Hope you slept well, for they'll talk your ears off tomorrow :). 
Love, Freddie, John and Roger

'Hey, whatcha reading?' 

Brian dropped the container. He froze, and turned around to see Roger smirking. 'You could at least have aten the food we left you, throwing it away like this is considered rude in some parts of the country.' 

One could hear a needle drop, and then they both burst out in laughter, but went quiet after they remembered that John and Freddie were most likely still sleeping. Roger walked towards Brian so they wouldn't have to talk loud, and said: 'Sorry to scare you, but you had been standing there with the note for about three minutes so I figured you'd fallen asleep again.' 

Brian smiled. 'I figure you're the one that wrapped the presents and put them underneath the tree? Because if you didn't, I fear that we might have had a burglar.' 

'That was me. By the way, where do you people hide the wrapping paper? I've basically trashed your entire house searching for it!' 

'Oh, but it's right here!' Brian reached into a cupboard, messed around in it for a while and held up a few scrolls of wrapping paper. 

'Are you joking? You put the wrapping paper with the tissues and the aluminium foil?' Roger threw up his hands as if he were in deep despair and rolled his eyes. 

Brian touched Roger's elbow and smiled. 'Come on, it makes sense! It's all for wrapping stuff... Alright I see where you're coming from. Oh, I think Marianna wants some food. She's been following me for a while and I can't stand to see a hungry animal and not being able to do anything about it.' 

'I believe I can fix that. I'll show you where I put the emergency dog food so you'll be able to feed her whenever necessary.' Roger looked up to Brian, which meant turning his head up a bit because of Brian's length. 

'Yeah, that's helpful, for when you're staying over again - ehm, you know...' Brian felt his cheeks heat up. Good god why did I say that. No, why did I keep talking, I only made it worse... Why is he looking at me like that? 

A shimmer of hope flashed Roger's eyes. 'You... want me to stay over more often?' 

Brian looked at his feet. 'Well, I mean, purely business, of course. The kids are very fond of you, you know. They talk about you a lot when you're not around. It may be nice if you could come more often to play with them, I'm sure they would like that.' Phew, nice save.

Oh. He doesn't mean it that way. Alright then... 'Is it... just the boys who would like that?' Roger took a step closer to Brian. 

Brian shuffled forward a bit, shyly. 'Perhaps not just the boys. I mean -' He swallowed the words he'd wanted to say: I would like it if you came over more often. 

Roger leaned closer, their faces being only ten centimeters apart. 'You mean...' 

Brian held his breath, not wanting to ruin the moment. 'I-' 

Roger couldn't contain himself any longer. He leaned in and pressed his lips on Brian's. Shocked by his own move, he pulled back as sudden as he'd leaned in. He blushed, and hid his face in his hands. 

'Roger,' Brian whispered. He softly lifted Roger's face by the chin with his thumb and looked him in the eyes. He leaned forward and kissed him, with a passion and loving he hadn't felt in a long, long time. 

A/N: Here you go, as I promised! Hope you like the chapter!