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Luke rolls out of his bed. It's Christmas Eve, which means he has twelve hours before anything exciting happens. He texts Calum, hoping that the other boy will be willing to do something other than sit in his house. Calum texts back telling him that in a few hours, he will be able to hang out with Luke, but right now he has family things to do. So Luke makes sure that everything is ready. Cookies are made, presents are wrapped and all the decorations set out. He's proud of his presents this year. He bought and wrapped everything by himself and for the fiftieth time, Luke counts the presents to make sure that everything's there and he didn't forget a gift for someone.
Soon, the hours have passed and he's at Calum's door. Before he has the chance to knock, Calum opens the door and pulls him into a hug. "Merry Christmas Lukey," Calum says grinning.
"Merry Christmas to you too. Ready to go?" Luke asks, hoping to get out of the suffocating hug Calum put him in.
The two boys walked through the town, admiring the falling snow and the bright lights. Once they had walked around the town too many times to count, they headed back to Luke's house.
"You know, it's almost midnight. If you wait around long enough, you’ll get to open your present first,” Luke said. The two boys sat outside in silence, until Luke looks up and shit, they’re sitting underneath the mistletoe his mom hung as a joke. ‘You can bring a girl home and she’ll HAVE to kiss you,” Ashton had said when Luke had told him. Luke is about to say that they should head inside and have some hot chocolate, but he has stared too long at the Mistletoe and now Calum’s looking at it too.
“We don’t have to y’know,” Luke says, in an attempt to remain calm and not turn bright red.
Both plans failed once Calum said, “Oh no, we have to uphold the tradition.”
So they both lean in for a kiss. It’s awkward and sloppy and the only thought that is going through Luke’s mind is ‘Holy shit. I’m kissing my best friend.’ And then, shortly after, ‘Ashton doesn’t need to know about this. Or Michael.’ But Luke’s thinking causes his brain to go on autopilot and distracts him from pulling away from kissing Calum. It takes until Calum moans that Luke realizes he has practically shoved his tongue down Calum’s throat. But he doesn’t want to pull away, not just yet.
After what feels like a lifetime, Calum pulls away, smiles and says, “Aren’t you supposed to kiss on Christmas at midnight?”
Luke smiles and plants a kiss on his cheek. “Somebody’s desperate.”
“Well it’s not my fault that somebody a long time ago started these stupid traditions. It’s also not my fault that somebody put mistletoe right here and then decided to sit under it. I mean, who thinks that it is better outside than inside when it’s Christmas?”
“First of all, I didn’t put up the mistletoe. My mom did that. Second of all, I like seeing all of the Christmas lights. This is the only time of year that everyone has some sort of festive thing out. Christmas is my favorite time of year.”
“Alrighty cheeseball. Is this where you dramatically tell me how deeply in love with me you are? Because I don’t think that I’m emotionally prepared for that.”
“Shut up. I’m not going to profess my love for you, I made the first move, it’s your turn to make one,” Luke said sarcastically and in retaliation, Calum kissed him.
“Maybe we should go inside. have some hot chocolate, kiss some more, and you can open your present,” Luke said, standing up and dragging Calum up with him. Their hands stayed connected until they absolutely had to separate. Luke liked this, he could kiss Calum whenever he wanted to and nothing had changed between them. He was still Luke and Calum was still Calum. They were still Luke and Calum, the only difference was that the space between their names was a little shorter.