Closed to Adam Parrish | Christmas traditions

[fictor]

Ronan had very specific ideas of what Christmas should be like. His home and family life hadn't ever been like one of those old black and white movies (it'd been far too weird for that), but they'd had certain traditions; traditions that fell by the wayside when Niall died. If Matthew could get both Ronan and Declan into church for midnight mass, he counted himself lucky. Ronan had thought of that several hours earlier when he'd gone to midnight mass alone. It wasn't Adam's thing, and Ronan got that. Eventually, he'd ask Adam to go to church with him, but they weren't there yet and he wasn't sure how well he'd handle mass without Matthew (and Declan) but he knew he wasn't ready to invite someone new into this particular sacred ritual. He needed to be able to mourn Declan and Matthew in a way, to accept their absence from church, at least for the time being. He'd been here in Itinere a month and a half and hadn't stepped inside the Catholic church (though he wasn't surprised they had one; this place seemed to have everything they needed materially).

After coming home from mass, he'd spoken to Adam, mostly to let him know that he wasn't going to self destruct tonight then broken open the bottle of Irish whiskey he'd dreamed a few weeks ago. He'd spent the rest of the evening in the living room sprawled on the couch remembering every detail of a particular Christmas, the best Christmas he could recall. Matthew had been four; he'd been seven and Declan nine. Niall had swept in Christmas Eve like the piece of magic that he was with a small gift for them all and promises of a visit from Father Christmas. He'd been loving, attentive and in high spirits, plying their mother with kisses and emerald jewelry. He'd carried Ronan and Matthew on his shoulders to bed, read them bedtime stories and tucked them in with promises of Christmas morn'. He and Matthew had tried to catch Santa at work but despite all of their sneaking, they'd only found Niall asleep on the couch, a bottle of Irish whiskey at hand.

It wasn't simply nostalgia that drove Ronan to mirror Niall's actions so completely that Christmas. It was driven by the knowledge that Adam had never had a Christmas like that (never mind that no one outside of the Lynchs had ever had a christmas quite like that). It was the desire to let Adam experience not only a real Christmas, but a Lynch Christmas. It was Ronan opening a door to his life, to himself, that most people would never walk through. Piggybacked on that was the nostalgia for a life that had been so much simpler, a homesickness for home.

In any case, when Adam awoke Christmas morning (regardless of where he'd chosen to fall asleep given that Ronan had fallen asleep passed out on the couch downstairs) he would wake to a scene much like this where there had been no Christmas tree or presents. All of the presents have Adam's name on them. Among those presents were such things as sweaters, fingerless gloves for working, a space heater that ran on dream energy and glowed bright blue instead of orange, remote helicopters, a acoustic guitar and a tin of shortbread cookies (the cookies inexplicably warm). Chugging around the entire living area and all the presents is a model train. Chainsaw is busily picking at a pile of ribbons that might've once belonged to a present or perhaps they were simply dreamed to keep Chainsaw busy as she doesn't seem to be able to untangle them regardless of how long she works on them. In the kitchen he would find Ronan practically giddy (for Ronan) pouring a mug of hot chocolate from a carafe full of hot chocolate (and let's be honest, it's probably endless). There was also spread on the counter top (all piping hot) a full Irish breakfast. If he's got a hangover (he does), he's not showing it. He was mildly worried about Adam having dream hangover, but the ley lines are healthy right now, unbroken and strong. Besides, Ronan thought this was worth it. Without, comment he pushed a bottle of aspirin at Adam along with a small glass of juice.

Comments

[fictor]

It is still new in a wonderful sort of way and it's obvious in the way Ronan kisses him that Adam's kissing abilities are just fine. Ronan's fingers slide up into Adam's hair as he kisses him. It's a lazy, languid sort of kiss something that isn't as hurried or desperate as some of their other kisses, but it's something infinitely more settled in a good way. It's comfortable and thrilling at the same time.

Ronan smirks against Adam's lips and pulls back marginally. "Yeah? Don't know why it came out all messed up." In some ways he does know why: his own insecurities and concerns about this relationship and Adam's commitment to it. However, he's not willing to voice those suspicions. "Dream things can be all sorts of fucked up. Least this one's mostly okay."

Considering the content of the last few days, there's bound to be some weird frustration dream things wrapped up in some of the boxes.

[adamparrish]

"It's not messed up." Adam almost sounded defensive about that even as the words spilled into another kiss that he gave to Ronan. It was getting harder and harder not to kiss Ronan every single time he wanted to, much less when Ronan initiated a kiss. So Adam had to kiss him now like he had to breathe in and out.

He looks into Ronan's eyes just briefly before he shakes his head and looks down. "You just knew how much I like to fix things. Will you put it on me?"

[fictor]

Ronan is perfect happy to kiss rather than talk. Words aren't his thing anyway. he's always spoke louder in action and more so after Niall's death. Kissing was, generally, a whole hell of a lot more fun than talking in Ronan's opinion. He liked kissing Adam. This is Ronan's first experience with this sort of kissing and it's just as addictive to him as it seems to be to Adam.

"Yeah, well...you're a freak like that," Ronan says softly, a little breathlessly as he takes the bracelet and reaches for Adam's wrist. He buckles it on, holding his wrist a moment longer, looking at the bracelet there.