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You're about to get a deluge of fics! Merry Christmas, Albionites!
Title: It feels so very much like Christmas
Pairing: Pete/Drew, Carl/?
Genre: General, I guess… maybe a bit of a future fic
Rating: E
Beta’d: Yep. Thanks to the elves for that :)
Dedicated to: Julia, whom I haven’t
seen in a way too long time - hope you’ll have a nice Christmas
Teaser: “It’s such a miracle, isn’t
it?” Pete asked all of a sudden, lowering his voice ever so slightly.
Word Count: 1530
The snow crunched softly under his shoes as Carl Barât walked down the pavement. He smiled a little. It wasn’t snowing as heavily as it had the previous day, but the snowflakes kept coming down, hiding the streets of London under a thin layer of white.
Only too soon it would turn into slush. Darkened from dust and dirt it would cover the roads and stick to the kerbs. But Carl didn’t care about that, ‘cause right now it was still pure white snow that covered the ground. Right now it made the world look perfect.
Finally reaching his destination, his steps became slower until he stopped in front of a small café. He pulled the door open, causing the attached bell to announce his arrival. As soon as Carl had entered, he noticed the sweet scent of cinnamon that filled the whole café. ‘Christmas is undeniably getting closer,’ he thought as he scanned the generously decorated room for a certain face. It was pretty crowded, but he immediately spotted the person he was supposed to meet.
“Well if it isn’t Mr. Doherty,” he grinned as he had arrived at his table.
He was greeted with a broad smile. “Hey.”
“You’ve been waiting long for me?” Carl asked with a look at Pete’s mug of coffee.
“Nah, just got here a bit early that’s all.”
Carl had barely sat down before a young waitress came over to their table to take his order. As she left, he finally took off his coat, and sank deeper into the booth, before he looked up at Pete:
“So tell me, how have you been?”
Carl’s cup of coffee had long been served and was already half emptied, before they finally finished catching up on the latest news. Not having seen each other for several weeks now, they needed some time to warm up to one another. The situation, however, felt surprisingly comfortable.
Only a few years ago the thought of a conversation like that would have seemed impossible for both of them.
“It’s such a miracle, isn’t it?” Pete asked all of a sudden, lowering his voice ever so slightly.
“What?”
“This,” he made a vague gesture. “That the both of us are sitting here, drinking coffee, talking… just like-”
“-It’s supposed to be,” Carl interrupted him.
“…Exactly.”
Pete dropped his gaze, looking down on the table again. He peered into his cup and registered that it was almost empty. “I’m gonna get another coffee. Want one, too?”
“Sure,” Carl shrugged. He watched as Pete got up and walked over to the counter to order their drinks. It didn’t take long until he slid into the booth across from Carl again. “She’s gonna bring them in a sec.”
When the waitress approached their table shortly afterwards, the coffee turned out to be not the only thing Pete had ordered.
“Christmas Cake?” Carl raised an eyebrow at the piece of cake that had been placed in front of him.
“Yeah. You’ve gotta try it. They’ve got the best Whisky Dundee in the whole of London.”
Carl picked up a piece of the crumbling cake and observed it for a moment before he shrugged and shoved it into his mouth. Suddenly a thought struck him.
“Remember when we still shared the flat in Teesdale Street? There was this one Christmas where you tried to bake one of these,” he mumbled, his mouth still filled with cake.
“’Course I remember. It was a disaster,” Pete declared light-heartedly, pouring sugar liberally into his coffee cup.
“Yeah, it was. Even weeks later the whole furniture still smelt of burnt cake”, Carl smirked and continued to pick at his cake. The memories seemed like so long ago. But thinking about it now, he remembered another detail: “Didn’t that bloody thing catch fire?”
“Well, well, Mr. Barât, let’s not exaggerate,” Pete replied in mock disapproval.
“It did!” Carl couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing as he recalled the full extent of Pete’s Christmas cake disaster. It took only seconds until Pete couldn’t hold his façade anymore and joined in the laughter.
The sobering-up, however, came along with the silence. When their laughter finally ceased they found themselves at an awkward loss for words. Pete carefully avoided Carl’s eyes. His glance passed over the table instead and he inevitably noticed the ring on Carl’s right hand. He knew that ring. He saw Carl wearing it quite often these days. But he also knew the person the ring initially belonged to. The one who used to wear it in the past. “You’re happy?”
Carl didn’t need to figure out what Pete meant - he had been fully aware of his look. Almost without hesitation his lips formed a smile and he nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, we are.”
“I would have never thought that you two of all people would end up together”, Pete shook his head, seemingly amused.
“Neither would I”, Carl grinned. “What about you and Drew?”
Pete’s gaze wandered to the window. Observing the snowflakes’ descent he considered the question for a moment, before he turned his attention back to Carl. “He cares a great deal for me, I guess.”
Carl was slightly surprised by the candour this apparently simple answer seemed to contain. But he had to agree with Pete on this point. He had seen them together quite often now, and having noticed the way Drew talked to him, the way he behaved around Pete, Carl could tell that he cared.
“You seem to understand each other. That’s good.” Maybe he should have been jealous. Jealous, because Drew had obviously succeeded in steadying Pete’s life, while he himself had failed miserably years ago. But he wasn’t. He honestly valued what Drew had done for Pete. After all the obstacles it was good to see Peter with someone like him.
“Yeah, some days it is,” Pete sighed.
“Everything alright with you?”
“Not really,” Pete admitted, but his eyes lit up a little when he added: “But he’s worth the effort.”
Neither of them spoke again. For a while they just sat there, silently sipping their coffee. But there was no need to talk anyway. It felt oddly comfortable just like that. Carl finally broke the silence though:
“Anything planned for today?“
“What makes you think that?”
“You’ve glanced at your watch about the twentieth time now.”
“Oh,” a smile creeps on Pete’s face once more. “Well, yeah, I do have plans for today.” He was now grinning.
“Plans involving a certain bass-player?”, Carl raised an eyebrow, and his smile turned smug.
“No, not exactly. It’s more like plans involving a certain son of mine called Astile”, Pete informed him.
Carl, who had just lifted his cup again, shot him a quizzical look, which caused Pete to explain his plans a bit further: “I’m taking him to Hamley’s to get his Christmas presents.”
“You what?” Carl almost choked on the sip of coffee he had just intended to swallow. “But you can’t just take him with you when you get his presents! It’s gonna spoil everything! He’ll see that it’s you who gets his presents - Not Santa!”
“Calm down Biggles,” Pete laughed, “He’s nine. He knows.”
“Oh. Right…” Carl mumbled with a goofy grin, as his cheeks flushed slightly. “I forgot about his age…”
“’S okay... They’re growing up so fucking fast.”
Carl nodded a bit, before he decided to continue his line of questioning: “So you and Lisa are getting along?”
“Yeah,” Pete replied with a wry smile, “She doesn’t mind that I’m seeing Astile more regularly now. Well, she’s actually been encouraging me pretty much. She really wants us to stay in contact.”
“That’s great.”
“I know. She’s wonderful. The other day she suggested I should come around the 25th. She’s planning a traditional Christmas meal and wants me and Drew to join.”
“Sounds nice... Maybe you should bake her a Whisky Dundee as a thank-you,” Carl chuckled.
“Idiot.”
“Nah, seriously, I’m happy for you. Sounds like you’re gonna have a pleasant Christmas.” Carl’s tone wasn’t teasing anymore when he said it.
“Yeah, guess you’re right,” Pete mumbled. “It’s strange, though. Things suddenly seem to go.,. right. And, of course I’m happy ‘bout it, but…” He paused for a moment, looking for the right words. “I just don’t understand how times could change so fucking fast.”
For a few moments Carl couldn’t think of anything to say. Pete was right after all. Times had changed. They had changed completely.
“It’s a miracle,” he finally responded, repeating Pete’s words on purpose, and a sincere smile found its way on his face. Past experience had taught him not to believe in miracles and he knew that life wasn’t likely to stay like this forever. But then again Pete might have been right. After all they were sitting here, were drinking coffee and were talking to each other almost as if nothing had ever gone wrong in their past while the snowflakes kept falling outside.
On a day like this, when everything was hidden under a thin layer of fresh snow, it was so much easier to believe that the world was perfect.