Ted/Cody Christmas fic!
Title: Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time
Authors: eric_idle_rules
Pairing: Ted DiBiase Jr./Cody Rhodes
Rating: R
Summary: It's Christmas time and the guys exchange gifts
Word Count: 4270
A/N: This was written as a Secret Santa gift for legacychickno1 over on wwegirls. Hope you enjoy! It is nice and fluffy, perfect for Christmas :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the WWE.
The pair had been an item for a solid two and a half years, but with their hectic schedules, with one now on Smackdown while the other remained on Raw, the talk of taking that big step towards buying a house together had only just begun. Currently the two were sitting in Ted’s Florida apartment, the consensual living space of the couple since they began living together.
Over in the far corner of the main living room space, there was a little Christmas tree, very few ornaments on it and Ted’s dog, Riggs, napping underneath it. Throughout the room there were scattered decorations for the upcoming holiday placed wherever he could find a spot. Really, though, the place looked pathetic. They didn’t have much room for storage of the items, and they still had a lot of things at their parents’ homes simply because they had yet to move in together into a real house.
Now, though, they had time off for the week of Christmas, and as they sat on Ted’s green couch (no way that was getting stored at Ted’s parents’ house, no way in hell, that baby went with him no matter what), they tried to discuss what they wanted in the house and exactly where they were willing to move.
“I’d love if our room was a light blue,” Cody suggested, picturing it clearly in his mind.
“I don’t know,” Ted said, “I was thinking something more like navy.”
“Really?” Cody asked, furrowing his brow whilst scrunching up his nose, seemingly appalled at the thought. “That’d be so dark. Don’t you know anything about interior decoration?”
Ted paused, now raising his own eyebrow as he glanced down at Cody, whose head was resting upon his lap. “Umm, no? And you do? You really are a homo.”
“Fuck you. I’ve just picked up a few bits of knowledge over my twenty-five years. And one of those things is that you shouldn’t have a room painted in a dark colour since it makes the space look a lot smaller. Jeez, doesn’t everyone know that?” Cody asked, rolling his eyes. “I think I learned that in my art class in fifth grade, or some shit.”
“Well, obviously not everyone knows that. So, what you’re saying is that a light blue will make our room look more spacious?” Ted asked.
“Exactly. Plus, if we find the right shade, we can get it to match my eyes.”
“Hmm, now I suppose I can live with that reasoning,” Ted said, a smile forming on his face as he then leaned down and placed a kiss right on Cody’s lips.
“Excellent. I was thinking that we could do white walls in our kitchen. And, if you’d like, we can do navy trim in there. Does that work for you?”
“Do you have our entire nonexistent house already painted and fully furnished in your head?”
“Yes.”
“Will I have a say in anything?” Ted asked.
“No,” he replied with no hesitation at all.
“Ok then… How about the where? Do I at least get a say in that?” He sure hoped he did, considering he found what he thought to be the perfect location. It would be a big change for them both, that was for sure, and he hoped that Cody would be willing. But he was 99% sure that with his reason for moving to this particular place, Cody would be more than happy to up and leave Florida.
“Yes, you can have a say in that,” Cody told him with a nod.
“Thank you for being so gracious,” Ted replied, obvious sarcasm dripping off every word.
“You’re welcome. Where did you want to move to, anyway? Because I… Well, not to sound rude or anything, but I really don’t want to go to Mississippi.”
“I don’t want to live there, either. Growing up there was enough for me, honestly. But I can’t say I really want to go to Georgia.”
“Georgia’s a great place to live,” Cody said defiantly.
“A place that you want to spend the rest of your life in?” Ted asked, hoping that Cody would actually be willing to move a bit further away than that.
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t mind living there. But maybe we could find somewhere better that we both can mutually agree on,” Cody said, shrugging his shoulders. Honestly, he himself didn’t really know where he wanted to be. It was great living down south, since both of them were so close to their families, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad living elsewhere. “Now you didn’t answer me. Tell me where you’re thinking about moving to.”
“I… I don’t know,” he said, looking up then so he wouldn’t be meeting Cody’s eyes. He did know where he wanted to go, but he was determined to keep his thoughts a secret until Christmas. It was only four days away, how hard would it be to not say a word of it to Cody?
“I think you do know.”
“Just thinkin’ about where I might like to move to. The Carolinas are nice. Right on the coast, could go out fishing all the time,” he told Cody, pulling that idea straight out of his ass.
“Let’s just move into one of those Newport mansions. Buy out the Vanderbilt family. Come on, you’re the son of the Million Dollar Man, what’s stopping you?”
“You’re funny. Ok, ok, we’ll just get back to that. I want to hear more about what you’re looking for inside our future house. We’ve got the kitchen and our bedroom down. How about the master bathroom?”
“I was thinking hot pink.” He couldn’t help laughing at Ted’s wide eyed look of surprise. He reached his hand up, closing Ted’s jaw. “That look doesn’t suit you, baby. Unless my dick’s in your mouth, keep it closed. Like I’d ever put hot pink in the bathroom. Please. I was thinking a sea foam green.”
“Is our house going to look like a box of Crayola crayons?”
“Absolutely. A little bit of colour never hurt anything. It’ll help to cheer the place up. Imagine going home after a long tour in Asia or Europe and you walk into the front door and all you see on every single wall in the house is… white. That’d be so boring.”
“All the rooms in my house as a kid were white,” Ted told him.
“I know this. I’ve been there, remember?”
“Are you calling my parents’ house boring?”
“Yes. I’m not saying the people inside the house are boring, but the house itself? Total snooze fest. I’m not about to live in a house with no colour on the walls,” Cody insisted. And he already knew that he’d get his way. Ted could never say no to his big puppy dog eyes… or his big cock sucking mouth.
Their conversation went on and on, Cody telling Ted everything he wanted in the house. At one point, Ted asked about his couch, because he refused to let that go. Cody nodded, telling him that they’d be able to make it work in their living room somehow, because as used and abused as that couch was, he loved it almost as much as Ted himself did.
When they finally moved to grab themselves some lunch, Cody had a crick in his neck from lying on Ted’s lap for so long, and Ted found that his legs had fallen asleep, pins and needles creeping along his appendages as he stood. After a quick meal of grilled chicken (made on the George Forman grill Cody got Ted for his birthday last year), Ted said that he had to run out.
“Where are you going?”
“Last minute Christmas shopping,” he replied.
Snorting, Cody grabbed a random season of Family Guy off the shelf and popped that into the DVD player. “Have fun with that. I don’t envy you.” He was just about to sit down as Ted opened the door, but he changed his path and grabbed Ted’s arm before he left. “Wait.” He placed a kiss on Ted’s lips and said, “Just incase you don’t survive the mobs at all the shops, I want you to know that I love you and I’ll miss you.”
“Love you too, Codes,” he replied with a roll of his eyes. And then he was out the door and on the highway on his way towards this one particular destination. He had gone there before to pick out just what he wanted, and was informed a few weeks ago that his item was ready. This had just been the first opportunity he had to go out alone again to pick it up. When he had it in his hands, he couldn’t help but to smile. Yup, it was going to be perfect.
Soon he was back on the road, getting caught in some holiday traffic, but it was nowhere near as bad as it was going towards the stores. He made one more quick stop at his favourite bakery in town, picking up a few muffins and pastries for them to eat the following morning. Once he was back inside the apartment, he was expecting to see Cody still lounging on the couch, still glued to Family Guy. And while he saw that the TV was still on, he didn’t actually see Cody around. “Codes?”
“Yeah?” he called, but Ted wasn’t sure if it was coming from the bedroom or the bathroom. The flushing toilet and running sink clued him in, though.
“Just wondering where you were.”
The door opened and Cody stepped out, flicking off the light as he left. “Man not allowed to take a piss in his own place now?”
“Never said that.”
“Wasn’t expecting you to be back so soon. You manage to escape the mobs, then?” Cody looked around, thinking he’d see at least a couple bags of stuff. “Where’s all your shit?”
“Hmm? Oh, sent it off already,” he told Cody, quickly recovering, wondering where Cody got the idea he bought a lot of things while he was out. “Had something in mind for the ‘rents and realized I never got around to actually getting it for ‘em,” he lied smoothly, now going to put the box of pastries in their fridge.
“Oh, ok. I was thinking I might go to the gym soon. Getting bored sitting around here, ya know?”
“Sounds good. Let me know when you’re heading out, I’ll come with you.” He then headed into the bedroom, pulling his purchase out of his jacket pocket and placing it in his sock drawer for safe keeping. Soon he had changed out of his jeans and into some workout clothes, ready to go. When he stepped out of the bedroom, he found that Cody was still sitting watching Family Guy. “Dude, what the hell? It was your idea to go workout and you’re not ready yet?”
“I’m finishing the episode, dumbass” he stated. Wasn’t that obvious?
“It’s on DVD. You can stop it and start watching it from the exact same spot, dumbass,” Ted countered.
“There are five minutes left, so that’d be pointless. Dumbass.” Cody then turned his attention back to the screen in order to finish the last few minutes of the episode.
Rolling his eyes, Ted sat down next to him, waiting for Family Guy to be over. He had never been too big on the show, but he’d always watch it with Cody, simply because he enjoyed it so much.
Soon enough it was over, and Cody switched the TV off, saying, “I need to go put on some better workout clothes.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ted asked, and Cody just laughed. “You little shit,” he muttered, now waiting even longer for Cody to go change.
Their next few days at home were much of the same. Eating, sleeping, working out, the occasional quickie around the house. The usual routine, really.
And then, before they knew it, Christmas Eve was upon them. They each talked to their families for a while during the day, but then after dinner, they had nothing else to do. Wanting to at least get into the holiday spirit, Cody put A Christmas Story into the DVD player and pat soft cushion beside him, beckoning Ted to come watch it as well. “I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of this movie,” Cody said when Ralphie’s pal inevitably got his tongue stuck to the frozen metal flag pole.
“One of my friends back home didn’t think that actually happened,” Ted said then, chuckling to himself. “We had been over his house during our Christmas break and when that scene came up he said, ‘I call bullshit,’ and everyone tried to tell him that you really could freeze your tongue to metal. Well, another of my friends’ dad had a grocery store, so he had this massive walk in freezer. His dad let us use the freezer, and we told him to lick one of the shelves to see if his tongue really could get stuck to the metal.”
Cody raised his eyebrow, an amused look on his face. “Really? What happened?”
“What do you think happened?” Ted asked, a smirk gracing his own face.
Turning back to the screen, Cody saw Flick crying, trying to unstick his tongue. “That,” he said, pointing to the TV.
“Yup. He never lived that down. He was freakin’ out, and when we told him that one of us would have to piss on his tongue to unstick him, maaaaan, that was funny as hell!”
“You didn’t actually pee on him, did you?!” Cody asked, now turning his entire torso towards Ted.
“No, my buddy’s dad had some hot water ready to dump on him. But we had to see his reaction, and, I gotta say, it was priceless.”
“You were a horrible person,” Cody said, but he was fighting his own laughter, wishing he had been there to witness that.
“Hey, he deserved what happened to him,” Ted said, and Cody nodded in agreement before both of them fell silent to continue watching.
When the movie ended, Ted shut off the TV and stood, holding his hand out to Cody. When Cody took his hand, he pulled the younger man into his arms, whispering something about continuing their Christmas celebration in the bedroom. Nodding his head at every word Ted was whispering, Cody was more than eager to follow along behind him.
The sound of an alarm blaring right next to his ear on Christmas morning was the last thing that Cody wanted to hear. But he knew that it was coming, he just wished it didn’t seem like he fell asleep five minutes ago. Cracking open one eye, he saw Ted was already rolling out of bed, and knew that soon he’d hear the sound of the shower spray as Ted readied himself for church.
He also knew that he, too, should be going to church, but he hadn’t been in a long time, not since high school, anyway, and it wasn’t something that interested him as much as it did Ted. At least Ted was ok with that and didn’t drag his unwilling body into the church with him.
It was for the best, though, since Ted would go out and by the time he came back, Cody would actually look dashing as opposed to the hot mess look he was currently sporting. By the time the shower had been shut off, Cody was bordering on the edge of dreamland, and once Ted was dressed, Cody was out. After a quick kiss to his lover’s temple, Ted left for the 7 AM mass.
About an hour and a half after Ted left, Cody began to stir once more, this time of his own accord. Glancing to the clock, he saw it was 8 and decided he should probably start getting ready since Ted would be home within the next hour. He hoped.
It all worked out, though. Ted arrived back home a little after 9, and found that Cody was still in the bathroom, going through his morning routine, whatever the hell that entailed. He was able to grab his couple things for Cody and bring them out into their living room space, placing them under the tree. “Hurry the fuck up, man! I’m hungry as hell and you’re holdin’ us up! It’s not like anyone’s gonna even see you today aside from me, anyway!”
“I’ll be right there!” Cody shouted back, finishing up the tweezing of his brows. Exiting the bathroom, he headed into their room and grabbed the presents he wrapped for Ted before bringing them out to the tree. After setting them down, he joined Ted in the kitchen as the pastries were taken out. They ate quickly, and the longer they waited to open gifts, the more anxious Ted was getting.
“How we doing it this year?” Cody asked, shoving the last of the muffin into his mouth, muffling his voice.
“There are lots of ways we could do it this year. Doggy style, rider position-”
“Fucker, you know what I’m talking about. Did you wanna just open all my gifts at once, then I’ll do yours?”
“Sure. That sounds good,” Ted agreed.
“Well, actually,” Cody began, picking up one of the longer gifts, “I think this one should be opened first.”
“Ok. Whose is it?”
Cody smiled, “It’s from Dozer to Riggs.”
Ted smiled back at Cody. He knew the true way to his heart was through his dog. “Where is he, anyway? Riggs!” he called, and saw the big yellow lab make his way out of their room. “When did he get in there?” he asked Cody, who shrugged. “Come here, boy, look, you got a present from Dozer!” Ted put the gift on the ground in front of Riggs and began to tear the paper off, revealing a large meat bone. Lapping at the bone eagerly, Riggs barked in approval. “Tell Dozer that I say thank you.”
“I will. He really did pick it out, you know. I brought him into PetCo and told him to find something for Riggs, and that’s what he picked.”
Rubbing behind Riggs’ ears, who was panting happily, Ted then said, “Give this to Dozer,” and handed Cody a smaller, squishier gift.
“Sure thing,” he said, accepting the gift, then setting it aside so that he could give it to his bull dog when he next saw him. “Ok, go on, you can start now.”
Looking over the gifts Cody had for him, he didn’t know which one to pick. “Is there one I should start with?”
“No, any of them are fine,” Cody said.
Grabbing the smallest one first, he found it to be quite heavy. It felt like it could be a book of some sort, a really thick book, at that. Pulling back the paper, Ted soon revealed an old looking book. Flipping it over to the front, he saw the words Die Bibel embossed in gold leaf across the worn, but still sturdy cover. The pages were also trimmed with gold leaf, and when he opened it up, he saw page after page of the Old Testament in German. “It’s beautiful, Cody. Where did you find this?”
“During our last tour in Germany. I walked past this book store and I had to go inside. I saw that and knew I had to get it for you. You like it?”
“I’ll never be able to read a word of it, but I love it.” He gently set the book aside and reached for the next gift. This one was much lighter, and he wondered what could be inside. When he took off the paper, he saw a plain white box that had been embossed with a seal. Opening the box up (and after moving aside some tissue paper) he found inside a pair of brand new black Italian leather shoes. Taking one out of the box he held it up before his face, examining all the details. They were his favourite brand of dress shoe, and the pairs that he owned were admittedly looking worn considering how often he did wear them. “Thank you so much, Codes,” he said, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to the younger man’s lips.
“Ok, last one,” Cody said anxiously.
Picking up the final gift, Ted hurriedly unwrapped the wrapping paper to reveal a new tackle box. “Cody, this is perfect!” he said, excitement evident in his voice. He had been needing a new tackle box since his was getting rusty, causing the box to not even open properly, there were cracks forming along the sides and top, and he was sure the handle on it was on its last leg. He kept meaning to get a new one, but his schedule never really allowed for him to go, and he’d forget by the time he was able to go fishing again. It was a vicious cycle.
“Open it up,” Cody told him, a smirk on his face, wanting to see how Ted reacted to the surprise he had thrown in there.
Flipping up the two metal clasps, expecting to see some new lures or hooks inside, what he actually saw surprised him, and he couldn’t help but to chuckle. “A dictionary and a thesaurus? Really, Codes?”
“Really, Teddy. Now you don’t have to pretend you know how to spell a word, you can look it up in the dictionary. And then you can go find synonyms for it in the thesaurus so you can stop making shit up all the time.”
“You’re an ass.”
“You love my ass.”
“That I do, and the rest of you isn’t half bad either. Now, come on, it’s your turn. I want you to open this one last, though,” he said, putting his hand on top of on rather large box.
“All right.” To that, Cody grabbed the present closest to him and began unwrapping. Ted got Cody a few small things, like a new athletic watch, since he was constantly breaking them (“I am not letting you use my watch, you’ll probably drop a weight on it, for all I know” “I swear I won’t break this one” “Like hell you won’t, because you’re not using it”), a picture frame with dog bones and paw prints with a picture of their dogs side by side that was taken the last time Ted and Cody brought Riggs along on their visit Cody’s parents, and a brand new Harry Potter box set, since every copy of the books that Cody owned were banged up from him reading them so often, and getting scratched up and dented during plane rides. Not to mention all the food stains and drink spills on the pages.
And then came the final gift of the evening. The one that had Ted all worked up ever since before he physically had it in his hands. Tearing open the paper, Cody saw the big brown box and was dying to know what was inside. He quickly ripped through the tape, but before he could look into the box, Ted’s hand reached inside and snatched it up.
Turning his head to look at Ted, confused, he saw his lover sitting crossed legged on the floor, a little black velvet box in his hands. Ted raised up the cover, revealing two matching silver bands, one for him, and one for Cody.
Cody’s eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. This wasn’t… he couldn’t possibly be about to…
“Cody, will you marry me?” he asked, locking eyes with the younger man.
“Yes!” Cody answered, lunging forward and wrapping his arms around Ted’s neck as their lips met in a passionate kiss. The need for air consumed their bodies, and finally their lungs screaming at them caused them to break apart. Their smiles were going nowhere, though.
“Give me your hand,” Ted said, to which Cody did. Taking out the proper ring, Ted slipped the perfectly sized band down Cody’s left ring finger, then gestured for Cody to do the same to him.
“I can’t believe it, Teddy,” Cody said quietly. “We’re getting married. But we definitely can’t stay down here if that’s the case.”
Teasing his lower lip between his teeth nervously, Ted told him, “I talked to John and Randy, told them we were thinking about getting a house. John told me that he’s seen a few good sized houses going up for sale, and that if we were interested, he knows a guy…”
“Of course John knows a guy. Swear to God, that man knows a guy for everything under the sun. Anyway, what did you say to him?”
“I told him we were very interested, and he gave me this dude’s number. All we gotta do is call him, Codes, and we could be on our way to Massachusetts.”
“It’s so cold up there, though,” Cody said. He hated snow, and he remembered John and Randy telling him about the time that they were snowed in with no power for days up there one year. That’d suck. Really bad.
Holding up his left hand, Ted pointed to the ring. “We can get married up there. Legally, by the books, law bindingly married. So, what do you say? You willing to go there, or what?”
“Absolutely,” Cody replied, his smile making it to his blindingly blue eyes as they pierced through Ted’s. “I love you, Teddy.”
“I love you, too, Cody.”
With an even bigger grin as he adjusted his legs to straddle Ted’s he said, “Merry Christmas.”
Authors: eric_idle_rules
Pairing: Ted DiBiase Jr./Cody Rhodes
Rating: R
Summary: It's Christmas time and the guys exchange gifts
Word Count: 4270
A/N: This was written as a Secret Santa gift for legacychickno1 over on wwegirls. Hope you enjoy! It is nice and fluffy, perfect for Christmas :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the WWE.
The pair had been an item for a solid two and a half years, but with their hectic schedules, with one now on Smackdown while the other remained on Raw, the talk of taking that big step towards buying a house together had only just begun. Currently the two were sitting in Ted’s Florida apartment, the consensual living space of the couple since they began living together.
Over in the far corner of the main living room space, there was a little Christmas tree, very few ornaments on it and Ted’s dog, Riggs, napping underneath it. Throughout the room there were scattered decorations for the upcoming holiday placed wherever he could find a spot. Really, though, the place looked pathetic. They didn’t have much room for storage of the items, and they still had a lot of things at their parents’ homes simply because they had yet to move in together into a real house.
Now, though, they had time off for the week of Christmas, and as they sat on Ted’s green couch (no way that was getting stored at Ted’s parents’ house, no way in hell, that baby went with him no matter what), they tried to discuss what they wanted in the house and exactly where they were willing to move.
“I’d love if our room was a light blue,” Cody suggested, picturing it clearly in his mind.
“I don’t know,” Ted said, “I was thinking something more like navy.”
“Really?” Cody asked, furrowing his brow whilst scrunching up his nose, seemingly appalled at the thought. “That’d be so dark. Don’t you know anything about interior decoration?”
Ted paused, now raising his own eyebrow as he glanced down at Cody, whose head was resting upon his lap. “Umm, no? And you do? You really are a homo.”
“Fuck you. I’ve just picked up a few bits of knowledge over my twenty-five years. And one of those things is that you shouldn’t have a room painted in a dark colour since it makes the space look a lot smaller. Jeez, doesn’t everyone know that?” Cody asked, rolling his eyes. “I think I learned that in my art class in fifth grade, or some shit.”
“Well, obviously not everyone knows that. So, what you’re saying is that a light blue will make our room look more spacious?” Ted asked.
“Exactly. Plus, if we find the right shade, we can get it to match my eyes.”
“Hmm, now I suppose I can live with that reasoning,” Ted said, a smile forming on his face as he then leaned down and placed a kiss right on Cody’s lips.
“Excellent. I was thinking that we could do white walls in our kitchen. And, if you’d like, we can do navy trim in there. Does that work for you?”
“Do you have our entire nonexistent house already painted and fully furnished in your head?”
“Yes.”
“Will I have a say in anything?” Ted asked.
“No,” he replied with no hesitation at all.
“Ok then… How about the where? Do I at least get a say in that?” He sure hoped he did, considering he found what he thought to be the perfect location. It would be a big change for them both, that was for sure, and he hoped that Cody would be willing. But he was 99% sure that with his reason for moving to this particular place, Cody would be more than happy to up and leave Florida.
“Yes, you can have a say in that,” Cody told him with a nod.
“Thank you for being so gracious,” Ted replied, obvious sarcasm dripping off every word.
“You’re welcome. Where did you want to move to, anyway? Because I… Well, not to sound rude or anything, but I really don’t want to go to Mississippi.”
“I don’t want to live there, either. Growing up there was enough for me, honestly. But I can’t say I really want to go to Georgia.”
“Georgia’s a great place to live,” Cody said defiantly.
“A place that you want to spend the rest of your life in?” Ted asked, hoping that Cody would actually be willing to move a bit further away than that.
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t mind living there. But maybe we could find somewhere better that we both can mutually agree on,” Cody said, shrugging his shoulders. Honestly, he himself didn’t really know where he wanted to be. It was great living down south, since both of them were so close to their families, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad living elsewhere. “Now you didn’t answer me. Tell me where you’re thinking about moving to.”
“I… I don’t know,” he said, looking up then so he wouldn’t be meeting Cody’s eyes. He did know where he wanted to go, but he was determined to keep his thoughts a secret until Christmas. It was only four days away, how hard would it be to not say a word of it to Cody?
“I think you do know.”
“Just thinkin’ about where I might like to move to. The Carolinas are nice. Right on the coast, could go out fishing all the time,” he told Cody, pulling that idea straight out of his ass.
“Let’s just move into one of those Newport mansions. Buy out the Vanderbilt family. Come on, you’re the son of the Million Dollar Man, what’s stopping you?”
“You’re funny. Ok, ok, we’ll just get back to that. I want to hear more about what you’re looking for inside our future house. We’ve got the kitchen and our bedroom down. How about the master bathroom?”
“I was thinking hot pink.” He couldn’t help laughing at Ted’s wide eyed look of surprise. He reached his hand up, closing Ted’s jaw. “That look doesn’t suit you, baby. Unless my dick’s in your mouth, keep it closed. Like I’d ever put hot pink in the bathroom. Please. I was thinking a sea foam green.”
“Is our house going to look like a box of Crayola crayons?”
“Absolutely. A little bit of colour never hurt anything. It’ll help to cheer the place up. Imagine going home after a long tour in Asia or Europe and you walk into the front door and all you see on every single wall in the house is… white. That’d be so boring.”
“All the rooms in my house as a kid were white,” Ted told him.
“I know this. I’ve been there, remember?”
“Are you calling my parents’ house boring?”
“Yes. I’m not saying the people inside the house are boring, but the house itself? Total snooze fest. I’m not about to live in a house with no colour on the walls,” Cody insisted. And he already knew that he’d get his way. Ted could never say no to his big puppy dog eyes… or his big cock sucking mouth.
Their conversation went on and on, Cody telling Ted everything he wanted in the house. At one point, Ted asked about his couch, because he refused to let that go. Cody nodded, telling him that they’d be able to make it work in their living room somehow, because as used and abused as that couch was, he loved it almost as much as Ted himself did.
When they finally moved to grab themselves some lunch, Cody had a crick in his neck from lying on Ted’s lap for so long, and Ted found that his legs had fallen asleep, pins and needles creeping along his appendages as he stood. After a quick meal of grilled chicken (made on the George Forman grill Cody got Ted for his birthday last year), Ted said that he had to run out.
“Where are you going?”
“Last minute Christmas shopping,” he replied.
Snorting, Cody grabbed a random season of Family Guy off the shelf and popped that into the DVD player. “Have fun with that. I don’t envy you.” He was just about to sit down as Ted opened the door, but he changed his path and grabbed Ted’s arm before he left. “Wait.” He placed a kiss on Ted’s lips and said, “Just incase you don’t survive the mobs at all the shops, I want you to know that I love you and I’ll miss you.”
“Love you too, Codes,” he replied with a roll of his eyes. And then he was out the door and on the highway on his way towards this one particular destination. He had gone there before to pick out just what he wanted, and was informed a few weeks ago that his item was ready. This had just been the first opportunity he had to go out alone again to pick it up. When he had it in his hands, he couldn’t help but to smile. Yup, it was going to be perfect.
Soon he was back on the road, getting caught in some holiday traffic, but it was nowhere near as bad as it was going towards the stores. He made one more quick stop at his favourite bakery in town, picking up a few muffins and pastries for them to eat the following morning. Once he was back inside the apartment, he was expecting to see Cody still lounging on the couch, still glued to Family Guy. And while he saw that the TV was still on, he didn’t actually see Cody around. “Codes?”
“Yeah?” he called, but Ted wasn’t sure if it was coming from the bedroom or the bathroom. The flushing toilet and running sink clued him in, though.
“Just wondering where you were.”
The door opened and Cody stepped out, flicking off the light as he left. “Man not allowed to take a piss in his own place now?”
“Never said that.”
“Wasn’t expecting you to be back so soon. You manage to escape the mobs, then?” Cody looked around, thinking he’d see at least a couple bags of stuff. “Where’s all your shit?”
“Hmm? Oh, sent it off already,” he told Cody, quickly recovering, wondering where Cody got the idea he bought a lot of things while he was out. “Had something in mind for the ‘rents and realized I never got around to actually getting it for ‘em,” he lied smoothly, now going to put the box of pastries in their fridge.
“Oh, ok. I was thinking I might go to the gym soon. Getting bored sitting around here, ya know?”
“Sounds good. Let me know when you’re heading out, I’ll come with you.” He then headed into the bedroom, pulling his purchase out of his jacket pocket and placing it in his sock drawer for safe keeping. Soon he had changed out of his jeans and into some workout clothes, ready to go. When he stepped out of the bedroom, he found that Cody was still sitting watching Family Guy. “Dude, what the hell? It was your idea to go workout and you’re not ready yet?”
“I’m finishing the episode, dumbass” he stated. Wasn’t that obvious?
“It’s on DVD. You can stop it and start watching it from the exact same spot, dumbass,” Ted countered.
“There are five minutes left, so that’d be pointless. Dumbass.” Cody then turned his attention back to the screen in order to finish the last few minutes of the episode.
Rolling his eyes, Ted sat down next to him, waiting for Family Guy to be over. He had never been too big on the show, but he’d always watch it with Cody, simply because he enjoyed it so much.
Soon enough it was over, and Cody switched the TV off, saying, “I need to go put on some better workout clothes.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ted asked, and Cody just laughed. “You little shit,” he muttered, now waiting even longer for Cody to go change.
Their next few days at home were much of the same. Eating, sleeping, working out, the occasional quickie around the house. The usual routine, really.
And then, before they knew it, Christmas Eve was upon them. They each talked to their families for a while during the day, but then after dinner, they had nothing else to do. Wanting to at least get into the holiday spirit, Cody put A Christmas Story into the DVD player and pat soft cushion beside him, beckoning Ted to come watch it as well. “I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of this movie,” Cody said when Ralphie’s pal inevitably got his tongue stuck to the frozen metal flag pole.
“One of my friends back home didn’t think that actually happened,” Ted said then, chuckling to himself. “We had been over his house during our Christmas break and when that scene came up he said, ‘I call bullshit,’ and everyone tried to tell him that you really could freeze your tongue to metal. Well, another of my friends’ dad had a grocery store, so he had this massive walk in freezer. His dad let us use the freezer, and we told him to lick one of the shelves to see if his tongue really could get stuck to the metal.”
Cody raised his eyebrow, an amused look on his face. “Really? What happened?”
“What do you think happened?” Ted asked, a smirk gracing his own face.
Turning back to the screen, Cody saw Flick crying, trying to unstick his tongue. “That,” he said, pointing to the TV.
“Yup. He never lived that down. He was freakin’ out, and when we told him that one of us would have to piss on his tongue to unstick him, maaaaan, that was funny as hell!”
“You didn’t actually pee on him, did you?!” Cody asked, now turning his entire torso towards Ted.
“No, my buddy’s dad had some hot water ready to dump on him. But we had to see his reaction, and, I gotta say, it was priceless.”
“You were a horrible person,” Cody said, but he was fighting his own laughter, wishing he had been there to witness that.
“Hey, he deserved what happened to him,” Ted said, and Cody nodded in agreement before both of them fell silent to continue watching.
When the movie ended, Ted shut off the TV and stood, holding his hand out to Cody. When Cody took his hand, he pulled the younger man into his arms, whispering something about continuing their Christmas celebration in the bedroom. Nodding his head at every word Ted was whispering, Cody was more than eager to follow along behind him.
The sound of an alarm blaring right next to his ear on Christmas morning was the last thing that Cody wanted to hear. But he knew that it was coming, he just wished it didn’t seem like he fell asleep five minutes ago. Cracking open one eye, he saw Ted was already rolling out of bed, and knew that soon he’d hear the sound of the shower spray as Ted readied himself for church.
He also knew that he, too, should be going to church, but he hadn’t been in a long time, not since high school, anyway, and it wasn’t something that interested him as much as it did Ted. At least Ted was ok with that and didn’t drag his unwilling body into the church with him.
It was for the best, though, since Ted would go out and by the time he came back, Cody would actually look dashing as opposed to the hot mess look he was currently sporting. By the time the shower had been shut off, Cody was bordering on the edge of dreamland, and once Ted was dressed, Cody was out. After a quick kiss to his lover’s temple, Ted left for the 7 AM mass.
About an hour and a half after Ted left, Cody began to stir once more, this time of his own accord. Glancing to the clock, he saw it was 8 and decided he should probably start getting ready since Ted would be home within the next hour. He hoped.
It all worked out, though. Ted arrived back home a little after 9, and found that Cody was still in the bathroom, going through his morning routine, whatever the hell that entailed. He was able to grab his couple things for Cody and bring them out into their living room space, placing them under the tree. “Hurry the fuck up, man! I’m hungry as hell and you’re holdin’ us up! It’s not like anyone’s gonna even see you today aside from me, anyway!”
“I’ll be right there!” Cody shouted back, finishing up the tweezing of his brows. Exiting the bathroom, he headed into their room and grabbed the presents he wrapped for Ted before bringing them out to the tree. After setting them down, he joined Ted in the kitchen as the pastries were taken out. They ate quickly, and the longer they waited to open gifts, the more anxious Ted was getting.
“How we doing it this year?” Cody asked, shoving the last of the muffin into his mouth, muffling his voice.
“There are lots of ways we could do it this year. Doggy style, rider position-”
“Fucker, you know what I’m talking about. Did you wanna just open all my gifts at once, then I’ll do yours?”
“Sure. That sounds good,” Ted agreed.
“Well, actually,” Cody began, picking up one of the longer gifts, “I think this one should be opened first.”
“Ok. Whose is it?”
Cody smiled, “It’s from Dozer to Riggs.”
Ted smiled back at Cody. He knew the true way to his heart was through his dog. “Where is he, anyway? Riggs!” he called, and saw the big yellow lab make his way out of their room. “When did he get in there?” he asked Cody, who shrugged. “Come here, boy, look, you got a present from Dozer!” Ted put the gift on the ground in front of Riggs and began to tear the paper off, revealing a large meat bone. Lapping at the bone eagerly, Riggs barked in approval. “Tell Dozer that I say thank you.”
“I will. He really did pick it out, you know. I brought him into PetCo and told him to find something for Riggs, and that’s what he picked.”
Rubbing behind Riggs’ ears, who was panting happily, Ted then said, “Give this to Dozer,” and handed Cody a smaller, squishier gift.
“Sure thing,” he said, accepting the gift, then setting it aside so that he could give it to his bull dog when he next saw him. “Ok, go on, you can start now.”
Looking over the gifts Cody had for him, he didn’t know which one to pick. “Is there one I should start with?”
“No, any of them are fine,” Cody said.
Grabbing the smallest one first, he found it to be quite heavy. It felt like it could be a book of some sort, a really thick book, at that. Pulling back the paper, Ted soon revealed an old looking book. Flipping it over to the front, he saw the words Die Bibel embossed in gold leaf across the worn, but still sturdy cover. The pages were also trimmed with gold leaf, and when he opened it up, he saw page after page of the Old Testament in German. “It’s beautiful, Cody. Where did you find this?”
“During our last tour in Germany. I walked past this book store and I had to go inside. I saw that and knew I had to get it for you. You like it?”
“I’ll never be able to read a word of it, but I love it.” He gently set the book aside and reached for the next gift. This one was much lighter, and he wondered what could be inside. When he took off the paper, he saw a plain white box that had been embossed with a seal. Opening the box up (and after moving aside some tissue paper) he found inside a pair of brand new black Italian leather shoes. Taking one out of the box he held it up before his face, examining all the details. They were his favourite brand of dress shoe, and the pairs that he owned were admittedly looking worn considering how often he did wear them. “Thank you so much, Codes,” he said, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to the younger man’s lips.
“Ok, last one,” Cody said anxiously.
Picking up the final gift, Ted hurriedly unwrapped the wrapping paper to reveal a new tackle box. “Cody, this is perfect!” he said, excitement evident in his voice. He had been needing a new tackle box since his was getting rusty, causing the box to not even open properly, there were cracks forming along the sides and top, and he was sure the handle on it was on its last leg. He kept meaning to get a new one, but his schedule never really allowed for him to go, and he’d forget by the time he was able to go fishing again. It was a vicious cycle.
“Open it up,” Cody told him, a smirk on his face, wanting to see how Ted reacted to the surprise he had thrown in there.
Flipping up the two metal clasps, expecting to see some new lures or hooks inside, what he actually saw surprised him, and he couldn’t help but to chuckle. “A dictionary and a thesaurus? Really, Codes?”
“Really, Teddy. Now you don’t have to pretend you know how to spell a word, you can look it up in the dictionary. And then you can go find synonyms for it in the thesaurus so you can stop making shit up all the time.”
“You’re an ass.”
“You love my ass.”
“That I do, and the rest of you isn’t half bad either. Now, come on, it’s your turn. I want you to open this one last, though,” he said, putting his hand on top of on rather large box.
“All right.” To that, Cody grabbed the present closest to him and began unwrapping. Ted got Cody a few small things, like a new athletic watch, since he was constantly breaking them (“I am not letting you use my watch, you’ll probably drop a weight on it, for all I know” “I swear I won’t break this one” “Like hell you won’t, because you’re not using it”), a picture frame with dog bones and paw prints with a picture of their dogs side by side that was taken the last time Ted and Cody brought Riggs along on their visit Cody’s parents, and a brand new Harry Potter box set, since every copy of the books that Cody owned were banged up from him reading them so often, and getting scratched up and dented during plane rides. Not to mention all the food stains and drink spills on the pages.
And then came the final gift of the evening. The one that had Ted all worked up ever since before he physically had it in his hands. Tearing open the paper, Cody saw the big brown box and was dying to know what was inside. He quickly ripped through the tape, but before he could look into the box, Ted’s hand reached inside and snatched it up.
Turning his head to look at Ted, confused, he saw his lover sitting crossed legged on the floor, a little black velvet box in his hands. Ted raised up the cover, revealing two matching silver bands, one for him, and one for Cody.
Cody’s eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. This wasn’t… he couldn’t possibly be about to…
“Cody, will you marry me?” he asked, locking eyes with the younger man.
“Yes!” Cody answered, lunging forward and wrapping his arms around Ted’s neck as their lips met in a passionate kiss. The need for air consumed their bodies, and finally their lungs screaming at them caused them to break apart. Their smiles were going nowhere, though.
“Give me your hand,” Ted said, to which Cody did. Taking out the proper ring, Ted slipped the perfectly sized band down Cody’s left ring finger, then gestured for Cody to do the same to him.
“I can’t believe it, Teddy,” Cody said quietly. “We’re getting married. But we definitely can’t stay down here if that’s the case.”
Teasing his lower lip between his teeth nervously, Ted told him, “I talked to John and Randy, told them we were thinking about getting a house. John told me that he’s seen a few good sized houses going up for sale, and that if we were interested, he knows a guy…”
“Of course John knows a guy. Swear to God, that man knows a guy for everything under the sun. Anyway, what did you say to him?”
“I told him we were very interested, and he gave me this dude’s number. All we gotta do is call him, Codes, and we could be on our way to Massachusetts.”
“It’s so cold up there, though,” Cody said. He hated snow, and he remembered John and Randy telling him about the time that they were snowed in with no power for days up there one year. That’d suck. Really bad.
Holding up his left hand, Ted pointed to the ring. “We can get married up there. Legally, by the books, law bindingly married. So, what do you say? You willing to go there, or what?”
“Absolutely,” Cody replied, his smile making it to his blindingly blue eyes as they pierced through Ted’s. “I love you, Teddy.”
“I love you, too, Cody.”
With an even bigger grin as he adjusted his legs to straddle Ted’s he said, “Merry Christmas.”