Finding a place to do anything secretively at the Barns was pretty much impossible, especially with Opal running around again. Ronan wasn’t complaining, but he did need five fucking minutes of peace to wrap some presents without the whole world seeing what they were getting. Christmas was close and as terrible as Ronan was at lying, he liked an element of surprise to his gifts.
Which was how he ended up in the attic, a place he didn’t generally hang out. There were a million things up there that reminded him of his parents and even a handful of things that reminded him of Declan. But it was quiet and had enough space. Someone had even strung up some Christmas lights around the room. He didn’t think it was him, but fuck if he knew for sure. Christmas had rolled around and he’d realized he wanted to do a better job of it this year and he’d gone into a bit of a decorating haze.
The record player was his fault for sure though. It was up here and it worked; it felt like a waste not to use it. And so what if the record playing was Bing Crosby singing Christmas songs. The volume was low. Even as quiet as it was, he almost didn’t hear the sound of someone climbing up to the attic until it was too late.
“Shit,” he mumbled, haphazardly covering the items in front of him with his body. When he realized the head popping up from the ladder was Gansey, he breathed out a sigh of relief. “I guess I don’t have to push you back down the ladder. Took you long enough to come up.”
When Gansey’s head appeared, it was disheveled hair first and then the rest of him to his shoulders. There was no point in trying to put it right now, without a mirror and a comb, so he just left it sticking up a few different ways from his trying to one-handed carry a small box of the gifts he still had to wrap.
“You texted when Jane was with me, I had to wait until she was distracted by other things, per your orders.” Gansey shoved the box into the attic and then pulled himself up the rest of the way. When he was far enough in, he pulled the ladder up and latched it from the inside, just in case. No need to get anyone else threatened (even a baseless one, as Gansey knew) with being pushed down a ladder right before Christmas.
“Jesus,” he wasn’t winded, but Gansey still stooped slightly to avoid a beam before settling next to Ronan carefully. “The attic, really? The music is a nice touch, though.”
Ronan snorted at Gansey sounding put out about climbing one set of stairs and a single ladder. “What’s wrong with the attic? It’s fucking festive up here.”
That was only half a lie. The lights and music did cut down on the dusty attic vibe, but it was still a little dim and cramped. If they’d needed to wrap something big, it wouldn’t really have worked, but most of Ronan’s items were small and carefully thought out. Minus Matthew’s tree, which obviously wasn’t up here anyway.
“I can’t hide in my dream barn anymore. Opal finds ways in even when the door is barred.” He rolled out some wrapping paper and placed a shoe box inside. “I think she’s part liquid.”
Gansey’s laugh was quiet but genuine. There was very little he put past Opal or Ronan. Or really anyone in the house, but by large, everyone was slightly more predictable than Ronan’s psychopomp.
But that level of unsure insanity had been missing from this household, even with as chaotic as it was. It was sure to make Christmas interesting - and fun. “She likes to keep you on your toes, and I’m not complaining. It’s a nice dose of your own medicine.”
Gansey pulled a roll of tape out of his pocket and held it out to assist Ronan. “Christmas is going to be different for all of us this year, but I’m glad she got here in time.”
“Yeah, me too,” Ronan quietly admitted. He took the offered tape before a scowl slipped back into place. Christmas was always a soft spot for him and it stung to be so close to whole here and still be missing pieces. They’d always been missing somebody, though.
“Do you...” He folded the wrapping paper over the box with an aggressive but particular yank, carefully folding it at the ends. “Do you wish we weren’t doing all this shit? We could tone down the Christmas vibe. This is just the most people we’ve ever had in this house this time of year.”
Gansey glanced up surprised, eyebrows lifting up over the frame of his glasses. The offer to tone down the Christmas vibe was a little surprising, but they’d always been clued into each other’s moods. And all of this was still fairly raw from Henry’s disappearance, and - Gansey suspected - Declan not being here.
But he shook his head, quick and firm. “No, I don’t. It’s--” He distracted himself from folding in by grabbing a roll of paper from where it rested by Ronan’s hip. “It’s helped me keep my mind off of things. Besides, you know what Christmas is like at my parent’s house. It’s all--” Gansey made a hiss that matched the sound of the scissors gliding across the wrapping paper. “Fake. This is us? I like it.”
Relief brightened Ronan’s face for a brief flash and then he turned his half-smile back down to the box he was wrapping. “Good,” he grunted. “I’m not gonna drag your ass to midnight mass or anything but I wanted to be sure it wasn’t too much. I think it helps Matthew and--”
He supposed it helped him too. The last Christmas he’d “celebrated” had been one of the hardest of his life. He couldn’t not think about his parents and missing brother this time of year, but he could get lost in the lights and gifts and food of the holidays with the family he had right here.
“I guess I like it too. I like giving it to Adam too.” Ronan sneered and flipped the box over to finish taping it. “God knows he didn’t get shit at home growing up.”
Gansey pulled a small box into the middle of his wrapping paper and got to work carefully and methodically wrapping, each edge creased with precision. He didn’t mention that if he were downstairs, he would have pulled out the bone folder from their office desk to help with the edges. That was just opening him up for good-natured teasing.
“I’m not against the idea of going to midnight mass, if you wanted me to. But I know that’s a Lynch tradition.” He glanced up at Ronan quickly with a smile. “I’m glad Adam has this too. He’s always deserved it, but--” Gansey plunged again, even at the risk of Ronan calling him out for being sappy. “I’m glad he has it with you. That you two have each other. I know I don’t always show it well.”
“Don’t be dumb,” Ronan murmured. He’d fallen into a quiet contemplation, watching Gansey carefully wrap. If he was the kind of dumbass to meditate, he’d probably picture Gansey doing things like this as part of his mental wind down. It spent a lot of nights at Monmouth accepting the fact that he wasn’t going to sleep and dealing with it by watching Gansey slowly piece together a dorky little model of Henrietta. It was soothing in the dumbest way.
“You show it fine,” he finally finished the thought, turning back to his own wrapping. “Besides he has it with all of us. I know it won’t be the same for you, the way it could’ve been, but I’m still selfishly glad the rest of us are still here.” He shrugged and set aside the first present. “Fuck. Probably should’ve brought some of those stupid little gift tags. You got a pen on you?”
It was on the tip of his tongue to remind Ronan he didn’t have to placate him, but it didn’t come out, as he was all too pleased with the warm feeling that settled in at ‘all of us’. He hummed quietly along with the music while finishing his delicate folds and taping the ends before producing a sharpie out of his pocket. “I have a pen too, but it’ll probably smear on this paper. Besides, this is bold. Like you.”
Gansey still had a dumb little smile on his face, though. Acceptance, comfort, they were all seeping in, had been all holiday season. “I know, at least, if we are still home, we’re making the best of it with Henry, or visiting home, or something- but with our lives? The chaos that follows us and everything--” he gestured to Ronan vaguely. “It’s hard to imagine it would have been this good, even with some missing pieces. I like not having to pretend.”
Claiming the sharpie, Ronan made a pleased sound and started drawing an elaborately designed name onto his box. It said: “Creep” but like, artistic and shit. “If we were home...fuck, Gansey. Noah would be gone again. I might still be on the run. I don’t even know what’s going on with Adam.”
His frown was sharp. Helpless. He shook it off and leaned his shoulder into Gansey’s, needing the touch to steady himself. Hopefully, Gansey wouldn’t call him out for it.
“Wish I could take credit for keeping you out of some boring Christmas party with like canapes and shit,” Ronan’s smirk turned devilish.“Do you want us to make you wear a suit and talk about your future anyway? I could call Sargent the wrong name…”
Instead of calling him out, Gansey leaned right back with a nudge. One of his great dislikes after ending up here was finding out just how much he had missed by being on a roadtrip - where it was like he had gotten a break from the reality of the world - and was away from all of the things his best friends were going through. Guilt seeped through, into his own frown.
“How about we just agree we’re lucky this year? We have a lot to feel lucky about.” He finished his box and pulled out yet another sharpie, a backup for if and when Ronan inevitably stole his first one. There was nothing really artistic about the all-caps “TO: ADAM, FROM: GANSEY” but it was very him, and he set it aside. “I want none of that, thank you very much. If I don’t have to go to another political party it will be too soon. Can we play board games instead? Or watch some version of A Christmas Carol?”
Lucky didn’t seem like a big enough word but Ronan gave a tiny nod anyway. He moved his box for Opal next to Gansey’s for Adam and reached for another present. This one was smaller and awkward shaped so he squinted at it quietly while he answered Gansey.
“Only if it’s the Muppet one. Or the one with Bill Murray being a screechy shithead for two hours.” So what if he listed the muppets first. Everyone knew that was the best one. He cut a square of wrapping paper and chaotically encircled the gift with it, like wrapping a baseball. There was some ribbon in his bag of supplies, even though he’d sworn he wouldn’t need it. He gave Gansey a sideways glance before sneaking it out to cut off a section. By way of distraction, he nudged Gansey with an elbow. “What did you get me for Christmas?”
It was easy enough to get Gansey to agree to that compromise, even with a grin. “Deal. Either or, though the Muppet one is superior, I think we can all agree.” He knew Matthew would, and strongly suspected Blue and Noah would, as well.
Even if Gansey hadn’t brought up Ronan’s gift for wrapping, he still turned a shoulder jokingly as if to block his best friend’s view of what he was doing. “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World,” Gansey replied succinctly, with a lofty huff into the air. He was full of shit, of course, and grinned to give that away. “You’ll find out on Christmas and not a moment before that, Lynch. No peeking.”
Ronan barked out a laugh, which felt too loud in the attic but it was what Gansey got for being funny. “I hope it’s a picture book,” he said, tying the wrapping paper shut with ribbon. He drew the line at doing that scissor trick to make the ribbon curl so it ended up just being a too-tight knot that someone would yell at him for later.
“I was gonna give you hints about yours and let you puzzle it out for a few days, but…” Shrugging a shoulder, he laid the present down in front of his criss crossed legs and started writing out czerny on the excess paper sticking out of the ribbon. “Are there any traditions you wanna do on Christmas? Maybe shit your parents would’ve gotten constipated about or just, whatever. Nerd stuff, I don’t know.”
Gansey snorted, even if he was too full of heart-eyes over Ronan laughing loudly to really make impact. It wasn’t often they really got to hear that laugh, one that wasn’t sinister or full of just a little sarcasm and pain. “I like a good puzzle, don’t threaten me with a good time.”
Maybe there was something to the joke that Gansey’s kink was other people’s happiness. Either way, he looked too pleased to even be bothered by the teasing, and finished off the roll of wrapping paper with a little hum. Just enough. Noah’s gift was wrapped neatly in the same fashion as Adam’s. “Traditions? I-” He didn’t really know the answer to that, Christmas had always been such a politically fake affair in his house.
“I’m willing to make a few new ones?” Gansey offered, before rolling away slightly and palming the empty roll in his hand firmly enough to get a good swing on Ronan, right at the shoulder.
“Hm. Maybe the new one can be a puzz--” Ronan was cut off by the thwap sound the wrapper made against his arm. Like a horror movie villain, he turned his head very slowly towards Gansey. His mouth was tightly pursed and his eyes were comically squinted. It likely would’ve been a more believable look if his amusement wasn’t so obvious and he hadn’t just been planning a Christmas puzzle in his head to please his best friend.
“Scratch that,” he deadpanned, unspooling the paper off his roll with a speed that bordered on supernatural. “Beating your ass has to be our tradition now.” He shifted up onto his knees to give himself a little more height and whacked Gansey on top of the head.
Gansey’s laugh grew at the same speed as Ronan’s eyes squinted, the chuckles going as far to make his shoulders shake. One hit on himself and he rolled slightly, but there wasn’t exactly a lot of room for either of them to maneuver.
But that didn’t mean jack shit to two young, competitive friends. So his next swing was on point, even with the laughter. He had to rise up on his own knees to make sure Ronan didn’t get the high ground, but the laughter and dodging and swinging made it even more difficult. “They’re going to think the house is haunted at this point, Ronan. The ghosts of thud thud thud up in the attic.”
Half of Ronan’s swings just hit the low-hanging roof. The rest were harmless smacks to Gansey’s head and shoulders in between getting hit himself, until finally he smacked Gansey one last time on the ass.
“Fine, I’ll stop. But only cause you have an unfair advantage…” He paused for dramatic effect. “...You swing both ways.” Because there were no witnesses - Gansey didn’t count as witness because he’d already seen the absolute worst of him and still stuck around - Ronan let the trollish grin build up on his face like a painting being dramatically unveiled to potential buyers. It turned into a snorting laugh as he sat back down but it lingered at the corner of his mouth as he turned back to his wrapping.
“Hurry up,” Ronan nodded towards Gansey’s gifts. “If anyone comes to investigate the sounds, I’m using you as a shield.”
Gansey’s mouth dropped open for a brief second, his brain registering Ronan’s joke at a snail’s speed, before it caught up with a screech. He barked out a laugh, and folded himself back down onto the floor with an amused shake of his head. Gansey let the wrapping paper roll rest on his lap, just in case it was a trick, but he was still a useless laughing lump.
“Okay okay,” He held up one hand in defeat before holding out his hand in defeat. “Hand me that wrapping paper, you tyrant. I’m telling Adam about that joke later.”