(no subject)
Some of you might have read this before. i posted it on a group somewhere a few years ago, and I thought it would be nice to share it here. I've just tweaked it a bit. I hope you enjoy it. I'm toying with the idea of writing a little more fluff with these two as they get to know one another.
Cody once asked Santa to give him just one person who understood what he was going through. Problem was, he didn't actually believe in the old gift giving elf any more. Imagine his surprise when, years later, that request is filled, completely out of the blue.
this is nothing if not sacrin and fluffy :)
Cody aimed a savage kick at the glittering drift of white across his path. Clammy wind picked up the disturbed flakes and smattered them into his face. The rest settled into the stillness of the deserted Boxing Day evening.
"Not even a real good snow," he muttered as he rounded the corner and walked smack into a mouthful of down-filled nylon.
"Sorry!" Strong fingers gripped Cody's arm. Their owner craned to look past him down the empty street. A small frown marred his face and he slumped. He apologized a few more times, brushed non-existent dirt from Cody's coat. "Sorry." His hand settled on Cody's chest and his eyes widened.
Cody's heart thumped louder in his ears at the way the man's soft blue eyes fixed on his. The delicate face brightened inside the frame of blonde hair that flowed from under a scarlet toque and blew in a gentle drift across high cheek bones. Cody fought to resist the urge to brush it aside.
The puffy jacket the man had on didn't disguise his height or willow-slender frame. Just Cody's type, and he couldn't look away from those eyes.
"You-" Cody swallowed. "You're from away."
The man smiled, dropped his hand from Cody's heart, sliding lightly down his front, and Cody's breath caught. "A little further north." His grin stretched wide, revealing small, straight teeth and perfect dimples.
"Oh." Cody pulled in a deep breath. Or tried to. "N-North? There's something north of here?" He couldn't imagine why it was getting so hard to breathe, or why the man's eyes were so fascinating. They seemed to hold all the sparkle of the northern lights and sun drenched snow in one glance.
The grin disappeared. "Um, well." The man shrank in on himself. "There's--. Right. I'm from away."
Cody's heart just about stopped at the sight of the pink infusing his cheeks, and smouldering intensity replacing the glow in his gaze. His heart thudded loud enough to distract him from what the man was saying.
"Sorry. I'm a little lost. I-" he flushed deeper and Cody gulped. "I heard bells," he pointed past Cody, "and I thought..." Cody saw a question under the sparkling blue of his eyes and suddenly wanted, very much, to be the answer.
"Thought?" Cody prompted, searching for his equilibrium, thinking he might only find it if he reached and held onto this stranger, which was a frightening but fascinating thought.
"Never mind." The concession drifted like falling flakes on the air between them and the man stuffed his hands into his pockets, turned, and started walking back the way he'd come.
"Wait!" Cody hurried after him. "Wait. I didn't get your name?" A little bit of him-a very little bit-knew he didn't need the guy's name, that he was just a lost stranger who'd run into him on the street. Then there were those eyes…
The man shivered and lifted the shoulders of his jacket, inadequate for keeping the freezing wind off his delectable long neck. Cody shook himself and focused on the hair that hid the man's face.
"Kriss."
"As in Kriss Kringle?"
"Kriss Danforth, actually." He rolled his eyes, and it was Cody's turn to blush at the silly remark.
Kriss set off again. His long legs carried him quickly, forcing Cody to jog to catch up. They reached the next corner, Kriss stopped, glanced around, then set off toward the lonely high school and hockey arena.
"Where are you going?"
Kriss slowed, stopped. "I-."
"Where are you staying?"
Wind blasted against their backs, blew Kriss off balance. He shivered, and tried to dig deeper into his coat. His cheeks reddened as he offered Cody a worn scrap of paper.
"Doesn't say where I should go." Cody looked at the yellowed note in Kriss' hand. Green sharpie words scrawled across it. The bottom dropped out of Cody's stomach.
"Where did you get that?"
"I've had it forever. Been trying for years to find the boy who wrote it."
Cody took the paper. "He isn't a boy anymore." He didn't have to read the words. He'd written them, years ago, one Christmas Eve long after he'd stopped believing in Santa.
"I know that. I'm not an idiot." Kriss moved closer, surrounded Cody with comforting heat. Damp wind cut around them, picked up a few dry leaves and scurried them away down the sidewalk where they caught and held in the low banks of damp snow. "You know him."
"I did once." Cody gazed at the paper, trained his focus over Kriss's shoulder. He couldn't begin to know how this stranger had come to be in possession of his childish note to a fictional elf. It was like, for that moment, he was back in the skin of the kid who'd written it.
"You still do," Kriss' voice touched him, soft, gentle. "You still want what he wanted."
Cody nodded. "Someone who understands."
"Well?" A smile infused Kriss's voice, speeding Cody's already pounding heart.
"I kinda meant, you know, for my father to understand. Or my brother."
"And do they?"
"I suppose."
"So that isn't really what you asked for."
"Maybe not." Cody found more than just understanding shining from Kriss's eyes, and the 'more' heated him from the inside out.
"North, you say."
Kriss nodded.
Cody lifted a hand and pressed it to Kriss's chest. He felt the man's heart beating beneath the puffy down and nylon. "You're real, right? I'm not hallucinating? Dreaming?"
Gentle fingers caressed Cody's cheek and Kriss grinned. "No. You're not dreaming." His grin softened. "Neither am I. I finally found you."
Cody could only nod. "This isn't quite the kind of thing a person expects Santa to bring him for Christmas."
Kriss stepped a little closer. "Let's just say he's branched out a bit. Walmart is pretty stiff competition, you know." Warm fingers cupped Cody's cheek. "No refund policy, though."
Cody stepped into the tenderness Kriss offered. "I don't need one."
Around them, big flakes of snow drifted down. Cody was too busy being kissed to notice.