Current location:	red couch
Current mood:	determined
Entry tags:	advent 07, writing: mirek

[advent 07] december twenty-four
Yeah, I'll go back and fill in December 20-23 sometime before I die, I swear.

Anyway, I've been working on this story for like, a week and a half if by "working" you mean "would occasionally write a few words while watching teevee without making any progress." The majority of it was written Christmas night and last night.

The thing that will not be entirely evident in this story is how much time I spent looking through websites of toddlers' toys to see what toys and games from my youth are still popular. I tragically only used two of these, but I'm pleasantly surprised at how many of my favourites are still being manufactured.

That being said, onto the ficlet, in which Mirek proposes travel plans and many gifts are wrapped.

***
advent - day twenty-four
original - in which mirek proposes travel plans and many gifts are wrapped. (i'm bad at titles.)
***

"Gideon, darling, hand me the green wrapping paper?"

Mirek looked up from his wrapping when silence met his request. Gideon was curled up on the bed, eyes closed, head tipped back, and very nearly snoring. If Mirek were a better man, he wouldn't have had the heart to wake him. As it was, he was exhausted from baking and wrapping and corralling a toddler into bed on Christmas Eve. If he was going to be awake, Gideon was going to be awake too.

He launched an empty wrapping paper roll at the bed. "Gideon!"

"'m awake!" Gideon mumbled, sitting up and squinting at Mirek. "I was just resting my eyes, I swear."

Mirek held up his hand, spreading his fingers out and shooting Gideon a mild glare. "Five more gifts and then we need to clean up. No sleeping." Gideon flopped forward and groaned.

"I think I liked Christmas better when it involved lots of eggnog and It's a Wonderful Life," he said.

"It can involve more eggnog as soon as we're done," Mirek said. He lobbed a hardbound copy of The Adventures of Frog and Toad and a roll of wrapping paper at Gideon. "But first, we must finish." Gideon grumbled, but crawled across the bed and then down to the floor to help finish wrapping.

"Thank god I already wrapped your gifts," he said. He reached from the tape and let his fingers tangle with Mirek's for a moment, sharing a tiny smile with him. "I don't think I can handle any more last minute wrapping."

A flush that crept up Mirek's throat to his ears and he saw Gideon grin brightly out of the corner of his eye. His hands fumbled over the Memory game he was wrapping and it took him two tries to get the tape secured down correctly.

"There's something I want to..." Mirek started to say, slowly placing the game on top of one of the piles of wrapped gifts. "Rather, I... well, once we're done, I would like to give you something tonight."

Gideon raised his eyebrows and grabbed a box of Lego Duplos. "Is this some sort of tradition that you didn't tell me about?" he asked. "Because Aaron already put your presents under the tree."

"No, no," Mirek said, making quick work of the second to last package. "I just, ah... I believe that it would be easier for me to... it involves some explanation, and I would rather get it out of the way now than have to work through it tomorrow and interrupt the gift-giving."

"Whatever it is, it must be good," Gideon said as he snipped off a length of paper, eyes trained on his scissors. "You only ever stutter and interrupt yourself when you're really nervous."

Mirek looked up, frowning as he thought about it. "I do not... my English, it is not always--"

Gideon cut him off with a laugh, and though Mirek thought he should probably be offended, he couldn't quite manage it. Gideon scooted across the floor and twisted an arm around his waist. "Don't give me that," he murmured, right into the skin behind Mirek's ear. "You're fluent. Your English is probably better than mine. You only stutter when you're nervous, like you're afraid of messing up the words."

"Things that are important should not be hampered by my mistakes with the language," Mirek said mildly, leaning back into Gideon's embrace.

"I know you think that," Gideon said, "thus, this must be good."

There was still one present left to wrap, and Gideon made no move to help with it. Instead, he leaned against Mirek's back, chin hooked over his shoulder, and watched, humming softly under his breath. The humming was distracting, but after spending all evening hunched over presents Mirek was so efficient at wrapping that he didn't need to concentrate on it at all. Instead, he matched his breathing to Gideon's and concentrated on the low buzz he could feel against his shoulder until the last piece of tape was in place.

"There we go," Gideon said. "Now I get my surprise, right?"

"You're insufferable," Mirek said, gently elbowing Gideon back so he could get to his feet. Gideon leaned back on his elbows, looking up at Mirek expectantly. Mirek could feel his eyes as he crossed to his desk. He stared at the top drawer for a moment, and in the split second before he pulled it open, his mind drifted to all the reasons why this was a potentially disastrous idea. He'd gone over all of those issues at least a dozen times each, both in his own head and with his aunt and Valentine and Crystal and Ted and Jane. The fact that all of those people agreed on the course of action he should take should have been proof enough, but he was still terrified that this would all end in disaster.

He pulled open the drawer, pulled out the long, thin, neatly wrapped box, and tossed it across the room to land neatly on Gideon's lap. Gideon made quite the show of picking it up and shaking it as Mirek lowered himself to the ground across from him, trying to hide his trepidation.

"It's a little small for a pony," Gideon joked, before pulling the ribbon loose and tearing open the wrapping paper. He quirked a lopsided smile at Mirek right before he pulled the top off of the box, as if to assuage his nerves. It didn't work. Mirek found himself biting his lip as the smile faded from Gideon's face the longer he stared at the contents of the box.

"Gideon, miláček, if you do not say something soon..." he said, wringing his hands together. Gideon slipped his thumb into his mouth before glancing up, eyes wide and round and impossibly blue.

"Let me just..." Gideon said slowly. He looked back down at the box, and then at Mirek again. "Okay, let me just make sure I'm... plane tickets. To Prague. This is... I'm reading these right?"

It wasn't outright rejection, and Mirek took that as a good sign. "You were the one who said we should travel," he pointed out.

"Yeah, and I meant we should like, go down to the shorehouse again or something. Take a weekend to go to Canada," Gideon said. "I didn't mean... Jesus christ, how much did this cost?"

Mirek rolled his eyes. "Za každou cenu, we have one poor quarter and you cannot stop acting like we are destitute," he muttered, shaking his head. "Yes, darling," he said, just a little bit patronizing, "we can afford to travel without worrying about how we are going to eat this month."

Gideon chose to ignore the remark; either that or he was too distracted by the tickets in his hands to register it. "This is just... um... unexpected. Prague? Really?"

"Well, for part of the stay," Mirek said. "There are some people I would like us to see in Kutná Hora, and in some smaller, outlying towns, but... yes." GIdeon was back to chewing his thumb, so Mirek continued, stumbling over the words he wished he had taken more time to prepare. "I... there are several friends of my parents' whom I have not seen in many years that I would like to... to visit. To talk to. And it is important to me that you... I would like very much, rather, for you to... be with me." He wasn't sure how to put it into words--not in English, not even in Czech. Losing his parents had been terrible, but he was far enough removed that he didn't think about it, not often. He pushed everything about them out of his mind, he had for years, and then Gideon had stumbled into his life. Suddenly he was opening up, telling Gideon about the little fragments of his memory, the parts of his parents he hadn't thought about since childhood. He'd been meaning to go back for years, but it wasn't until he met Gideon that the need became urgent.

"I...I want to be there with you too," Gideon said. He reached across the small space between them and took Mirek's hand. "I just... I can't believe this."

"I scheduled it for your spring break from school," Mirek said. "And I... I spoke with my aunt and Crystal about keeping Aaron. I wanted him to come with us but it is nearly impossible to obtain a passport for a child not related to you and until the situation with Rachel and Aaron's guardianship sorts itself out, it is not feasible. Tetička and Crystal will keep him, though, and we spoke about it at length."

"So this was a conspiracy?" GIdeon asked, some of his usual good humor finally sneaking back into his voice.

"Very much so," Mirek said. "I asked him if it was okay if you and I went on a trip. I told him it would be different from his mother leaving, that we would most definitely be coming back, that we would call him every day as often as he wanted and that he could stay home or at tetička's or with Crystal, whatever he wanted. And that if he didn't want us to go, we would stay. He is a very mature little boy, sometimes."

"Too mature," Gideon said, and something flashed behind his eyes, a lingering hatred for his ex-wife, maybe, or despair at what their little boy had put up with in his short life. Whatever it was, Mirek was not going to allow it to ruin the moment he had spent weeks preparing for. He squeezed Gideon's hand and pulled him closer, until Mirek was nearly sitting in his lap.

"But he agreed and now we will have an entire week to ourselves," he said. After a moment he added, nervously, "That is, if you agree to accompany me."

"Of course I will, dummy," Gideon said, pulling Mirek closer by the collar of his shirt until they were kissing, slow and soft and sweet. They broke apart and smiled at each other, and Mirek closed his eyes to lean in again. He rubbed his thumb across the rasp of stubble on Gideon's jaw, letting his other hand rest on his knee. He felt Gideon's fingers gliding down the back of his neck as their mouths moved together, perfectly in sync as always. It was a shame to pull apart, but the depth of emotion that Mirek saw in Gideon's eyes was completely worth it.

"You shouldn't have worried about it so much," Gideon said, pressing his nose to Mirek's with a grin. "You should know by now that I'd follow you just about anywhere."

Mirek snorted. "My little golden retriever," he said.

"Something like that," Gideon said. "Although, the place I'd really like to follow you now is a little bit closer." He moved his gaze over to the bed pointedly. Mirek sighed and pushed him away.

"In good time, milovaný," he said. He pushed himself up and offered a hand to Gideon, who was pouting. "First, we need to put these gifts out and clean up our mess."

Gideon allowed himself to be pulled up, but didn't lose the pout. "And then we can have Christmas sex?"

Mirek thwapped his arm. "What is the rule? No inappropriate behavior when my aunt is in the house!"

"But it's a special occasion!" Gideon wheedled, reaching out to lift a stack of gifts up.

Mirek took the other stack and followed him out into the living room, bickering good naturedly the entire way but feeling happier than he had in a long time.