Thomas was furious at himself. He couldn't believe he'd let himself wait until the last minute to get everything done. Only yesterday had he rushed out of his apartment pulling on a fleece jacket to buy Christmas decorations, presents for everybody including family and friends, the turkey for Christmas dinner and, as an afterthought, a mini artificial Christmas tree he could fit into the corner of the living room.
Thomas carefully wrapped the presents, trying not to remind himself of many past years where he'd ended up covered in the wrapping paper instead of the gifts. He hung a pretty snowflake he'd found in the shops on a hook he'd never bothered to get removed next to counter, and decided to decorate the tiny tree with some of his smallest decorations - Thomas even found a little toy star to put on top. Thomas was quite proud of it.
Satisfied that he'd done everything he needed to do, Thomas went up the stairs to his room with a spring in his step. As he closed the curtains he could just make out little snowflakes falling from the heavens and dancing in the darkness.
The next morning Thomas made his way back downstairs wrapped in his dressing gown, grinning with enthusiasm with that same skip in his step when he noticed a box he'd left by the door yesterday when he'd come back from town after he'd gone shopping. He still hadn't put out the Christmas decorations, and it was already Christmas day.
Obviously Thomas leapt into action. His first move was to hurry outside into the snow with his favourite light-up deer he'd bought last Christmas, set it up, went back inside and came out again to put fairy lights all over his front door. He did this all in his pyjamas and dressing gown at seven in the morning with horribly untamed hair, his teeth chattering in the cold.
Thomas shut the front door behind him, then opened it again to quickly kick all of the snow which had sneaked in while he was decorating. He couldn't for the life of him understand why he hadn't kept the door closed while covering it with fairy lights. At the very least he'd gotten everything done just in time.
He was about to settle down on the couch to watch The Office bloopers and admire his little tree when he happened to catch sight of himself in the mirror he'd recently installed on the wall. His smile of relief froze in place for a brief moment, before Thomas made a sudden beeline for the bathroom. There was absolutely no way he was going to let his friends see him in this state.
Once he'd showered, dressed and mostly tamed his hair Thomas thundered back down the stairs and collapsed on the couch. His eyes wandered to the time displayed on the TV.
"They'll be here soon," Thomas murmured to himself. He grinned when he though about all the presents he'd be getting. He had to remind himself that Christmas wasn't just about the presents, but also about spending time with his friends.
Not that he wasn't looking forward to the presents, as he was sure his friends would also be thinking.
Minutes began to turn to hours. Thomas' excitement to see his friends slowly dwindled until it had become concern. What on earth was taking them so long? Perhaps they'd been held up by the snow - the weatherman had been adamant that there would be no snow this year. As Thomas looked out the window to the outside world beyond (or at least, what he could make of it through the weather) he privately thought to himself that they seriously needed to hire a new weatherman.
They were three hours late. Thomas was confused, and was beginning to think that he needed to find something else to watch. Maybe they'd turn up in the next hour or so.
Six hours. They were six whole hours late. The chances of them bothering to show up were looking pretty slim. With a heavy heart Thomas rose from the couch and went into the kitchen to help himself to one of the mince pies he'd bought yesterday. It didn't look like there would be anybody to share them with today.
Eight hours after they had been expected to arrive Thomas gave up any hope he had left and trudged upstairs, feeling defeated and rather hurt. His friends had abandoned him in Christmas day and not even bothered to let him know they wouldn't be coming. Thomas couldn't believe he would have neither friends nor presents this Christmas.
Fine then - he wouldn't want presents from his so-called 'friends' if they thought it was fine to treat him like this. Thomas had bought each of them presents, offered to cook Christmas dinner for everyone and been so excited to see them again over the holiday. And not one of them had even contacted him.
Thomas paused. He hadn't actually checked his phone today, as he had been preoccupied with decorating and watching The Office bloopers. Thomas felt in his pockets and sighed as he realised he'd left his phone upstairs. So he heaved himself up once again from the couch and trudged upstairs, the enthusiasm he'd felt yesterday having ebbed away as the day had progressed into disappointment.
He found the phone lying on the bed. Thomas remembered tossing it there right before he'd hurried into the bathroom to sort himself out. Thomas felt like tossing himself onto the bed but just sat down and reached for the phone. The screen lit up and he found he had two messages.
Perhaps they hadn't all decided to not tell me they weren't coming, Thomas thought hopefully as he checked the texts.
Hey kiddo, can't wait to see you tomorrow!
Thomas blinked at Patton's message. Could Patton have mixed up the dates? Looking back, there was absolutely no way Patton would intentionally leave Thomas with no warning that he wouldn't be coming over. Thomas decided he'd let Patton know as gently as possible that Christmas was already over. But first he checked the other message, this time from Roman:
Cannot wait to see you again my friend on such a marvellous occasion! See you tomorrow! P.S. I'm bringing Frozen, this is the perfect opportunity to force you all to watch it.
Two people? Two of his friends had mixed up the dates for such an important day. How on earth was that even possible?
Then Thomas had a though. No. It couldn't be. Thomas sucked in his breathe and checked the calendar on his phone... And immediately felt like punching himself in the gut.
It was Christmas Eve. Christmas day was tomorrow. He'd been freaking out for no reason at all.
**********************************************
Patton pressed the doorbell and waited patiently outside Thomas' apartment. He was dressed in a beige coat that covered a blue and white sweater that had little cats and dogs sewn into it which he'd received many compliments for - mostly from Roman as he'd helped Patton make it. A cotton bobble hat sat on his head and Patton struggled with the two enormous bags he'd packed with presents and food.
Only seconds after the bell had rung the front door was flung open and Patton was surprised to see a very delighted and messy Thomas standing there.
"Patton! It's so great to see you!" he said, and Patton thought he sounded very glad about it.
"It's great to see you too, kiddo, merry Christmas!" cried Patton. Then he gestured vaguely at Thomas' hair. "Err, you look a little..."
Patton trailed off but Thomas got the message and sighed. "Yeah, I know my hair's a mess. And the rest of me. Come in, come in, just give me a sec to sort myself out, won't you? You're a little early, y'know."
Thomas helped Patton with his bags and together they went into the living room where Patton spent a good few minutes gazing in awe at the little Christmas tree with the tiny star on top. When Thomas had his back turned trying to figure out where to put the presents (he could hardly put them under the tree) Patton took a sharpie lying on the coffee table and drew a little mouth and two dots for eyes on the star.
Eventually Thomas and Patton decided to build a tower of presents surrounded by more towers, and in the middle tower put the Christmas tree on top. It was fun to put together and Thomas began to guess the contents of the presents Patton had gotten. He was wrong every time.
"It looks like some kind of Christmas empire," Patton remarked and Thomas had to agree. Patterns of snowflakes and reindeers covered all the wrapping paper and it definitely gave off a kind of festive feeling.
Thomas was showing Patton the turkey he was planning on cooking and Patton was enthusiastically giving him a few helpful tips. Patton was currently working in a bakery that, thanks to his delicious food and positive attitude, had quite a lot of customers. Thomas asked for advice and Patton was more than happy to give it. While he was mainly experienced with cakes and treats he still knew how to cook a turkey. As they were discussing the best way to season the turkey the doorbell went. Twice. Then three times. And over and over again.
Thomas excused himself from the kitchen and rushed to the front door, already knowing who was outside. Sure enough, when he opened the door, Roman stood there in a red, white and gold sweater, a bag tugged under his arm with his finger poised over the button to ring again.
"Thomas!" cried Roman brightly. "Good to see you! I, ah, see you're trying something new with your hair!" Roman bustled into the apartment and Thomas offered to carry the bag. When Roman saw the 'Christmas present empire' he was determined to add his own presents to the growing kingdom of festiveness. While he was busy doing so, Thomas took the opportunity to not-so-subtly run a comb through his hair.
Patton came into to living room to greet Roman, and all three of them sat down on the couch to talk for a little. Patton excused himself to go the toilet quickly. When he was out of earshot Roman reached deep into the bag he'd brought with him and produced (to Thomas' exasperation) some mistletoe.
"Roman, why-?"
"Because Thomas, it's the perfect way to finally get Virgil to fall victim to my irresistible charm and fall head over heels for me! And then we'll get married, and-"
Thomas cleared his throat. "Isn't that what you said on Halloween when you told Virgil the only to not get jump scared by ghosts was to kiss somebody and he said he'd rather die of fright?"
Roman faltered. "Yes well, that was only one time-"
"And what about on your birthday when you asked him to give you a kiss and he wen out and got you a Hershey's Kiss?"
"I- Yes well..."
"AND there was that one time last Valentine's-"
"OKAY!" cried Roman, disgruntled. "Okay. Perhaps my past ideas haven't ended quite the way I wanted them too, despite getting a free chocolate bar out of it, but surely this time it HAS to work. Now, where should I put it?"
Thomas shrugged. "Maybe if you build the 'Christmas Present Empire' big enough then you can hang it in there and invite Virgil inside to check it out or something." Thomas snorted. "Yeah right, like that's-"
"Thomas you're a genius!" announced Roman. "Now, have you any spare wrapping paper? I'm going to go down the road to the store and buy a few more presents to add to the empire so that I can fit both me, Virgil and the mistletoe in there."
Before Thomas could object further or even attempt to pull Roman back down to earth they both heard the doorbell ring. Roman jumped up in alarm. "Virgil isn't here already is he?"
Thomas heaved himself up from the couch and went over to the door, Roman hovering behind him to greet Virgil if he happened to be the guest standing outside. To Roman's disappointment it was not Virgil standing there but Logan, wearing his usual navy polo shirt and blue tie. In his bag were a few presents Thomas though Roman could use for the empire.
"Who wears a tie on Christmas?" grumbled Roman, heading back to the living room.
Thomas laughed awkwardly. "Sorry about him, he's... uh..."
"No need to apologise for Roman's behaviour, Thomas, I understand that he was quite excited that Virgil would be here. I understand he had a plan to 'woo' Virgil."
"Oh uh, yeah. How'd you know?"
Logan sighed. "He messaged me via phone for two hours last night telling me about it."
"Ah, I see. Well com on in, Roman's here as you already know, Patton's here-"
Logan suddenly stood up straighter. "Patton you say? Well that's won- Uh, I mean... Good."
Thomas rolled his eyes and grinned. "Come on, Patton's been wondering when you'd show up."
Patton walked into the living room and saw a confused Logan handing his presents one by one to Roman, who used them to increase the size of the towers and fill the gaps. "Logan!" he gasped, and Logan jumped.
"Merry Christmas Patton, I see you're doing well," he said humbly.
"Well I was," said Patton, "until I saw you!"
Thomas and Roman looked up, astonished and Logan looked clearly taken aback. "I- Pardon?" he asked, sounding rather feeble.
"I was hoping you'd be wearing your Christmas Sweater! Come on Scrooge, I've got a spare- I knew you wouldn't wear yours," said Patton.
"Oh- Oh! My apologies Patton. Let me see that spare sweater," said Logan, as Thomas and Roman exchanged glances, barely holding in their laughter.
Patton grinned. "Sure I'll just go grab it- it's in my bag, I left it in the kitchen..."
When he was gone again Logan turned to Roman and Thomas, looking a little pale. Roman chuckled at him.
"My goodness, Logan, you looked positively heartbroken! Are you feeling alright?" he asked cheekily. Logan thought it best not to answer and simply collapsed onto the couch next to Thomas.
Patton returned a few moments later, holding a Tetris-themed Christmas sweater. Logan took the sweater and went into the bathroom to pull off his shirt and pull on the sweater, which didn't look half bad when he emerged to ask the other what they thought.
"It looks perfect!" announced Patton, and as Patton's opinion was practically law everybody else agreed without complaint. Roman looked as though he might be about to say something but Thomas nudged him in the ribs and gave him a look that said quite plainly 'shut up'.
Thomas and Patton went into the kitchen to get started on turkey while Logan watched interestedly as Roman carefully build up the towers as high as they would go.
"It's no good," said Roman eventually. "None of the towers are big enough."
Logan regarded the structure in front of him. "You know Roman, most of the presents appear to be square or rectangular shaped. If you pile them all up into a single wall and put the less ideally shaped presents on top, that may work."
Roman took this information to heart and immediately began tearing down the towers he had worked so hard on and put together to piles - one for all the presents that were square/rectangular, and one for all the others. Then he set to work, following Logan's instructions. In an odd way even he was getting invested in the festive empire - well, wall now.
For the next hour or so Thomas and Patton worked hard on the turkey whilst Roman and Logan worked on their present project. Then the doorbell rang again.
"I'll get it!" announced Roman, jumping up and narrowly avoiding knocking over his hard work. He raced to the door and flung it open, resulting in hitting himself hard in the face with the door in front of a bewildered Virgil. "OW! Hi Virgil- Thomas do you have any ice!?"
Patton hurried over and told Roman to sit down on the couch while Thomas frantically looked through the fridge looking for the ice. Once Roman's face was covered in an entire bag of ice as Patton was refusing to let Roman move from his spot Virgil put his bag of presents on the take behind the couch, eyeing the wall of presents warily.
Logan sighed as quietly as he could manage before turning to Virgil. "Merry Christmas, Virgil. I take it there is a reason you are so much later than all of us?"
Virgil frowned. "I'm here on time, Teach. You guys are all early. Look-" Virgil pulled out his phone and went on his Email. He leaned over the back of the couch and showed Logan the phone. "It says to turn up at one, and it's, like, ten past one right now."
Logan scanned the phone and nodded. "Odd. I'm used to arriving at events at exactly the right time, so I simply assumed you were late."
"You're only early because you knew Patton was gonna be here," Virgil muttered in Logan's ear, smirking. Logan tensed but thought best not to retaliate, but was tempted to when he felt his cheeks warm up slightly.
"Patton I'm fine, really," Roman pleaded, although his voice sounded a little muffled considering his face was smothered in the ice bag. Patton paused and waited a few more seconds just to make sure, then reluctantly withdrew the bag. Roman's hands flew to his cheeks. "My face is freezing," he complained.
"Roman," said Logan idly, "Virgil has brought presents for your wall."
Virgil looked up. "What?"
"Oh, excellent!" said Roman, getting up from the couch and reaching out to Virgil for his bag. "Would you be so kind as to bestow upon me your presents, good sir?"
Virgil rolled his eyes but picked up his bag and handed it over. "Don't break anything," he said sharply.
"Of course I won't," said Roman. "I'm not that irresponsible Virgil, you really ought to have more faith in me-"
The bag slipped out of Roman's hand and hit the ground. Virgil glowered as Roman sheepishly picked the bag back up.
"My bad," murmured Roman, and scrambled over to the present wall. Logan shook his head as Virgil swing himself up over the back of the couch and collapsed next to him.
"Nice sweater," Virgil said to Logan. Patton practically swelled with pride.
The corner of Logan's mouth twitched upwards. "Thank you Virgil, Patton was kind enough to make it for me." Patton grinned then turned back to Thomas. Virgil wiggled his eyebrows at Logan.
Thomas looked over at Roman, who was still busy with adding Virgil's presents to the wall. "Roman do you have that Frozen DVD with you?"
Roman turned around and whipped a DVD out of his jacket pocket. "I'm glad you asked, Thomas!"
_____________________________
Not much later Roman was singing along loudly to 'Let It Go' with Patton and Thomas. Logan was attempting to rap the lyrics while Virgil settled for quietly humming the tune to himself. When the song was over Roman and Patton gave a huge round of applause for their performance before settling down to watch the rest of the movie.
Thomas got up from the couch. "Just need to use the toilet," he said, and began to climb the stairs. "Don't pause it, I won't be long," he called down.
Logan tensed a little as Patton leaned against him comfortably, munching on a bag of popcorn. Patton, clearly misinterpreting the gesture, offered him the bag of popcorn, to which Logan politely reached out and took a handful. Once Patton had snuggled back up the Logan and had turned his focus back to the movie, Logan turned his head towards Virgil with an expression begging for help.
Virgil put out his hand and curved it awkwardly in reply. Logan frowned. Virgil gestured to the empty space next to him, and put his arm close to the cushions then curve his hand around to rest in mid air. The light bulb flickered on in Logan's head.
He looked at Patton before shuffling a little and surprisingly subtly slipped an arm behind Patton's back and his hand rested on his hip. Logan held his breath and Virgil watched in disbelief and anticipations.
Patton, being Patton, did not notice the emotion that Logan had intended to convey, and also shuffled into place and Logan's face went bright red as Patton's head lay on his chest while his legs were swung over his own. Virgil looked impressed and a little baffled. It was lucky for Logan that the lights were off - Virgil would have teased him for the rest of the day if he'd seen the cherry-like colour of his face.
Thomas returned to the room and pretended not to notice the position Patton and Logan were in, although his smug grin completely gave him away. By the end of the movie Patton was fast asleep, popcorn spilled all over the couch from his popcorn bag and Logan seemingly unable to move.
Virgil leaned over the couch and switched on the lights. Logan said nothing for a moment before reluctantly taking proper hold on Patton and lifting them both of the couch, turning around and laying Patton back onto the cushions. "You wouldn't have a blanket lying around, by any chance?" Logan asked Thomas.
A minute later Patton was curled up on the couch under a blanket with a pillow supporting his head, snoring softly. Logan turned down the volume of the television and sat with Thomas and Virgil flicking through Christmas movies to watch.
Roman finished building the wall, with a purposeful gap near the middle so that any of them could slip through to the other side. "Virgil," he said, holding his hands together pleadingly, "won't you be so kind as to look at my masterpiece?"
"I can see it from here, Princey," said Virgil smugly. "Not bad I guess."
"But it looks so much better from the other side," said Roman angelically. Virgil gave an exaggerated sigh before dragging himself up from the couch and making his way over. Logan smiled to himself, knowing full well Virgil wasn't going to like what came next.
Roman had already gone through the wall and, grinning like a madman, was beckoning Virgil over. Virgil's eyes narrowed but he shrugged and was about to step through the gap when a loud noise began to sound through the apartment - an alarm.
Virgil's hands flew to his ears and Roman jumped so hard he knocked over part of his wall. He flinched as he heard one or two crashes. Patton was jerked awake and sat up so suddenly his head collided with Thomas'. Logan stoop up and evaluated the situation. Then he pointed in the direction of the kitchen. "Smoke!" he cried.
Thomas could feel his stomach plunge; he'd forgotten about the turkey. He mentally smacked himself over and over as he and everybody else rushed out of the apartment.
Luckily Thomas lived very close-by to the fire station, and they were over pretty quickly. Roman repeated words of encouragement to Virgil, who was breathing into a paper bag that he had conveniently grabbed as they left the apartment. Logan had his arms around an almost crying Patton whilst Thomas was explaining what he believed had happened with the turkey.
"I am so, so, so sorry about all this," he said frantically, but the fireman assured him there was nothing to worry about. Nobody was harmed and the apartment was mostly undamaged, aside from the stove and the turkey.
Once everything was cleared up, which didn't take too long, the firemen went on their way, wishing everybody merry Christmas.
"So," said Patton, once he had calmed down, "no turkey?"
"No turkey, Patton," Logan clarified.
Roman rubbed Virgil's shoulder moodily before his face brightened. "Pizza for lunch anyone?"
___________________________
Thirty minutes later all of them sat around a table at a pizza place down the road, which miraculously hadn't closed for Christmas, digging into a few plates of pizza.
"So," said Logan to Roman, "your plan didn't work out quite as you would have liked it to, I assume?"
"No," sighed Roman, "but there's always next time. If only I'd finished that wall earlier!"
Virgil raised at eyebrow at Roman. "What are you talking, Princey?"
"Oh nothing, just my hopes and dreams yet again being flushed down the drain."
"Feeling better, Pat?" Thomas asked Patton.
"Of course kiddo, don't you worry about your old man!" grinned Patton.
"You're not my dad," murmured Thomas. Logan reached over and patted Patton on the shoulder.
"You are quite sure you are... Feeling better?" he asked. Patton nodded and gave him a thumbs up.
"Oh what the heck," muttered Virgil, grabbing a slice of pizza and holding it up. "Merry Christmas, everyone!"
"Merry Christmas!"
____________________________
"Why do you think those guys are eating pizza for Christmas?" Remus asked his co-worker, watching a group of men having a toast with pizza - they were making speeches in everything with their mouths covered in tomato sauce.
Deceit, or that was his nickname at least, looked over at the table and shrugged. "Beats me." He hesitated and reached into a his pocket. Remus' eyes grew to saucers when he saw the stick of deodorant with a ribbon attached to the lid. "Err, merry Christmas."
"Aww Dee, you shouldn't have!" giggled Remus, taking the deodorant and ripping off the ribbon. He popped off the lid and bit into the stick. "Delicious!"