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Christmas Eve had finally rolled around, and for once in his life, Duke was happy to have the time off. It was going to be his first holiday with Tippy since they’d gotten together. He’d been preparing for it all month, to Tippy’s distress. It hadn’t actually gone very well.
In Duke’s overenthusiasm, he’d brought home a tree that was much too large for the apartment, leaving him and Tippy having to squeeze against the wall to get past it into the bedroom if they didn’t want to go everywhere smelling like pine, and he’d managed to shock himself with the lights while he was decorating it. It scared Tippy to death of course, and earned him a particularly long scolding. He’d even managed to get a paper cut wrapping a gift. But Christmas Eve had finally come, setbacks or no, and Duke was ready. He had hot cocoa, and Christmas cookies, and his cozy Christmas sweater, and most importantly no other obligations
The only thing missing was Tippy, and Duke expected his arrival any second. He fidgeted on the couch, still not really accustomed to having a lot of downtime, and determined not to worry about the city while he wasn’t working. It was in good hands; he’d actually written Santa about it. That was his present, Santa himself was roaming around with Allen on patrol between gift deliveries. He stilled as he thought he heard steps in the hallway. There wasn’t any point in listening for the door, Tippy kept it so clean and well oiled that it never made a sound.
Duke smiled as Tippy came into view, gifts in hand, which he promptly shoved under their overly large Christmas tree, and came back to flop down on the couch next to Duke with a tired sigh.
“Long day, Tippy?”
“You have no idea. I love being a doorman, but the holidays are a trial of my patience,” he groaned, “I swear everyone and their dog has been through this building today.”
Duke wasn’t entirely sure how to handle Tippy being a bit of a grinch. He couldn’t judge though, he spent every Christmas working if Wheeler or Bennett didn’t run him off. Before this year anyway.
“You want some hot cocoa?”
Tippy gave him a look. “Maybe later,” he said, moving to lean against Duke’s shoulder and sighing in contentment as the day’s stress drained away.
“Christmas cookie?”
“No thank you, love.”
“Tippy, come on, it’s Christmas, you could play along a little.” Duke chided.
“It’s Christmas Eve,” Tippy corrected.
Duke pulled away and frowned at him. He’d gone to an awful lot of effort for Tippy to shoot him down quite that hard. “Well what do you want then?”
“I only want one thing right now.” He looked at Duke's disappointed expression and patted his cheek. “But I suppose I’ll be festive if it makes you happy. Stay right there.”
Slightly confused about what exactly Tippy was up to, Duke followed his instructions and waited patiently as he got up to rummage around in the other room.
When Tippy reappeared, he was holding a bit of greenery in his hands. He flopped back on the couch a second time, and finally smiled, showing Duke what he had. A sprig of mistletoe, probably stolen straight off of Duke’s Christmas tree. He held it up directly over his head.
“I do believe it’s customary to kiss underneath the mistletoe.”
“Oh, that is festive.” Duke slid forward and cupped Tippy’s face in his palm. “Merry Christmas Tippy,” he breathed. That was a much better idea than hot cocoa.
“Merry Christmas Eve you mean. Were you going to kiss me?”
Duke could only smile at the taunt, he was so full of it sometimes. “You know, I think I will.” He tried and failed not to smile as he pressed his lips to Tippy’s, parting them as Tippy deepened the kiss, licking into his mouth insistently.
The mistletoe dropped to the ground, forgotten as they celebrated the holiday in their own fashion. It might not have been the most conventional way to spend Christmas, but as long as Duke was with Tippy, he was happy.