Set the first Christmas after 'Remembrance'.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas...
Audrey Lynne
James Ellison chuckled, listening to the song on the radio. The local station was playing their annual "100 Hours of Christmas" -- for three days before Christmas and Christmas Day, they played nothing but Christmas music. "Merry little Christmas? Merry -- now that's do-able... but 'little'? Not if you two clowns have your way."
"Clowns?" his younger brother protested, mock indignant. "We are NOT clowns. HE'S an ELF."
"Only because you put that silly hat on me!" Blair Sandburg insisted, removing said hat. "And there is NOTHING wrong with a big Christmas, Jim. It's the American way."
"Anthropologists," Jim muttered, teasingly.
Steven Ellison crumpled the tissue paper in his hand into a ball and aimed it at Jim's head. Jim ducked just in time, and Steven shook his head. "Rats."
"You're certainly in a mood," Jim replied dryly.
"Of course I am." Steven grinned. "It's two days before Christmas, my wife and my kids are coming home tonight from the duty visit with her mother... and, besides, now that I've got you back in my life I've also found that delayed gratification can be a very good thing."
"Hmm?" Jim raised an eyebrow curiously, while hanging a strand of lights on the Christmas tree they'd bought just that morning. They'd decided to make an occasion of decorating it -- Blair's idea, really, as part of his plan to get Jim and Steven to allow themselves to become close again. Blair was going to beat a retreat and let the brothers have some time alone, but Jim had insisted that Blair stay -- this was, after all, his idea.
Steven shrugged. "Oh, nothing. Just that I remember how I always used to tell Santa at Christmas that I wanted a little brother... so that I could have someone to team up with to harass you..." He slung an arm around Blair. "He may not be blood, but he's close enough."
Jim nearly laughed out loud at the look of shock on Blair's face. "Oh, don't look so surprised, Chief. You know that means he's going to give YOU hell, too."
Blair grinned widely. "Hey, bring it on, man. I can play that game."
"Good, because I don't think you have much of a choice in the matter." Jim tousled Blair's curls affectionately. "Now, come on. Let's get this tree decorated already -- and then we'll negotiate on what goes up in the rest of the loft."
"This isn't exactly the first year we've decorated, you know," Blair pointed out, grabbing a handful of tinsel.
"But it's the first that I've let you AND Stevie loose on this place," Jim argued. "He always loved to go overboard with decorating, too."
Blair laughed, and shrugged. "When it comes to Christmas decorations, there's no 'overboard', man." Carefully, he began to put tinsel on the tree, one strand at a time. Jim was about to protest that such a painstaking approach would take all year, when he had a better idea. With the same exaggerated care Blair was taking with the tree, Jim began to take the tinsel, and put one strand at a time... in Blair's hair.
After the first minute or so of this, Steven began to snicker. Just before Jim attempted to loop one of the smaller ornaments through Blair's earring, the grad student seemed to catch on to the idea that something was screwy. "Jim! What are you doing?!"
"Sorry..." Jim held up his hands. "You're just such an easy target sometimes!"
Steven tried to keep a straight face as Blair looked up, but was unable to. "He... he's all sparkly! It looks like a disco exploded!"
Blair jumped up and ran for the nearest mirror... then spun around to face his partner. "JIM! You... my hair! It'll take forever to get rid of all this stuff!" He grabbed another handful of tinsel and flung it at Jim playfully, causing it to go everywhere. Some of it actually stuck to the Sentinel.
"Sandburg!" Jim exclaimed. "Try to keep it contained, will ya?! I'm going to be finding tinsel around here come MARCH!"
Blair flashed him a saccharine grin. "Serves you right." He glared at Steven with mock severity. "And quit laughing!" When Steven failed to do just that, Blair grabbed a strand of garland that was lying nearby and doubled it over, forming a large loop.
Steven jumped to his feet, likely not trusting what Blair might intend to do with it. "Sorry... but you just looked so... so..." A mischievous look crossing his face, he grabbed another handful of the tinsel (despite Jim's sputtering protests) and flung it at Blair.
"Oh, so you wanna play dirty, huh?" Blair challenged.
"Of course!" Steven declared gleefully. "Why ELSE do you think I wanted a little brother?"
"I tried to warn you," Jim interjected.
"Oh, stay out of this, Jimmy," Steven replied, laughing to himself. "So, what're you gonna do now, Blair?"
Blair shrugged. "I don't know... maybe this?" He grabbed more tinsel and threw it back at Steven, then dashed off (but not before grabbing even more of the silver foil).
"That little sneak," Steven mused -- right before he snatched up some more tinsel and took up the pursuit.
Jim was about to object again to the mess this would undoubtedly create, but he decided that the fun of watching his two 'brothers' chasing each other through the loft was probably going to be worth it. He climbed up onto the couch to get out of the way. It was fortunate, because Blair and Steven came tearing through the living room, in almost the same spot Jim had been sitting, a moment later.
Only Jim's sensitive hearing could have caught the knock on the door above the noise of footsteps and Steven and Blair's laughter -- and yelling at each other.
"Ha! You've gotta be faster than THAT!"
"I'll get you next time; you better believe it!"
Jim shook his head, amused, and got up to answer the door. He tried to hide his surprise when he saw who the visitor was. "Dad!"
William Ellison inclined his head in greeting. "Hello, Jimmy."
Timing is everything, and this case was no different; Blair and Steven raced through the living room again a moment later, each trying to stop when they noticed who was at the door.
"Dad!"
"Mr. Ellison!"
At the speed they'd been running, however, a graceful stop proved to be impossible. Blair, who'd been in the lead, managed to skid to a stop -- but Steven crashed into him from behind, knocking both men to the floor.
Jim shook his head, shrugging at his father. "Really, I can't take them anywhere." He had no idea how William might react to this scenario -- and he wasn't sure that this was a good thing.
William stared for a moment, then seemed to recover -- which took about as long as it did for Steven and Blair to pull themselves off of the floor. "Well... that was quite a greeting."
"It's a long story," Steven offered, seeming to be unaware that he had tinsel hanging from his sweater... and his ear... and his hair...
Blair was even more covered in the sparkly stuff. "Yeah, kind of a domino effect sort of thing."
A small smile crossed the elder Ellison's face. "So I gathered. I'd like to hear it sometime... actually, that's why I came by. I'd have called, but... I..."
"I understand," Jim assured him. This renewal of their relationship was often awkward, but at least it was heading in the right direction. "Why DID you come?"
"I was hoping you boys would join us... Sally and I... for dinner on Christmas Eve..." William seemed almost unsure of himself, but seemed to press forward. It was very unlike the father Jim had known growing up... and THAT was certainly a change for the better. "Mr. Sandburg, too -- if he's available." He looked over at Blair. "I don't know if you celebrate Christmas or not, since you're Jewish, but--"
Blair's eyes had widened more than Jim had thought possible. "Oh... wow. Hey, just call me Blair, all right? Yeah, I do Christmas... I always kinda liked trying everything, you know... Naomi always wanted me to experience a lot, and then when I got into anthropology, well... oh, geez, I'd better quit rambling..."
William nodded. "Good. I... hope to see the three of you there? Of course, I'd like if you brought your family, Stevie..."
"Sure." Steven seemed surprised, but still willing. He had started to reforge the connection with their father shortly before Jim had... it had been slow going with him, too, but all parties involved could see the progress being made. "What time?"
"Around seven?"
"We'll be there," Jim said. He smiled at his Guide, who was nodding in enthusiastic agreement.
"I'll be looking forward to it." William's voice and expression were sincere -- and for a moment, Jim could see that his father really had been lonely, and truly hoping for the company of his family on Christmas. Guess that's not too much for anyone to ask for. I should have thought of asking in the first place. Steven seemed to be having similar thoughts.
William stepped out into the hall again, and Jim followed. Blair and Steven returned to decorating -- fortunately, the tree rather than each other this time. Jim caught the beginning of Blair's rant on why anyone would put anything so temptingly edible as candy canes on a Christmas tree, and Steven's reply that Jim probably wouldn't notice if they ate just one...
"Dad." With a few quick steps, Jim caught up to his father. "I just wanted to... well... that really meant a lot to Blair. Thanks." Maybe he was a step closer yet to helping ease Blair's insecurity issues.
William reached out to set a hand on his son's arm. "I've seen how much he means to you, Jimmy... and that was the sort of relationship I always hoped you and Steven would have. I know I messed up pretty badly back then... and maybe now, it's too little too late, but I do know that my first impressions about Sandburg were wrong. I thought... I thought he might be some flaky hippie child just out to exploit you for your... senses."
"Well, his mother WAS a hippie," Jim answered wryly, but then grew serious. "But exploiting... that's not it at all, Dad. He helps me with them. I don't know where I'd BE without Blair."
"I understand that, now." William sighed. "And I'm glad he's helping you. That's something else I was wrong about. You were right... it is a gift; it makes you special."
"Thanks, Dad." Jim never realized how much he'd wanted to hear those words until he actually heard them. "That... it means a lot."
William sort of shrugged; Jim knew his father had never been comfortable with emotions like this. "I hope he knows he's always welcome. Besides..." the corners of William's lips quirked upward, "your brother's certainly seemed to take a liking to him."
Jim laughed out loud. "Yeah, he finally got that little brother he was wishing for, I guess." He squeezed William's shoulder. "Take care of yourself... we'll see you at dinner."
"You too, Jimmy."
As William headed toward the elevator, Jim walked back into his apartment, wondering what chaos Blair and Steven might have managed to wreak while he'd been out. Blessedly, they'd stuck to decorating the tree, and were merely adding ornaments to it... though he was missing a couple of candy canes; he'd let that slide. It was Christmas, after all.
Feeling more Christmas spirit than he had in a very long time, Jim settled back onto the couch, content for the moment to 'supervise' the work. He liked Christmas decorations; he didn't much care for the actual process of decorating.
A few minutes later, as Alvin and the rest of the Chipmunks were singing their Christmas song on the radio, there was another knock on the door. Jim answered it again, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was their downstairs neighbor, Kelly. Their very attractive -- and single -- downstairs neighbor.
Kelly smiled. "Hi, Jim. I'm leaving town tomorrow, and I just wanted to tell you and Blair Merry Christmas."
"Well, we certainly appreciate it." Jim offered what he hoped was a charming grin, and was amused but not surprised to find that Blair had almost instantly materialized at his side when Kelly spoke. "Merry Christmas to you, too."
"Yeah... we'll miss ya." Blair nodded.
Behind them, Jim heard Steven mutter under his breath, "Boy, if I weren't happily married..."
Jim glanced upwards, silently praying that the mistletoe was still over the doorway. And it was. He looked to the ceiling. Thanks.
Blair apparently had the same ideas, because he stepped forward at the same time Jim did, effectively keeping Kelly right where she was. "Um... Kelly..."
Kelly looked up. "Oh, wow -- mistletoe." She smiled. "I suppose you both are devout about that particular holiday tradition, huh?"
"Absolutely." Jim raised an inviting eyebrow. "Did you mind?"
"No, go ahead. Both of you... hell, it's Christmas." She leaned her head forward so that each of them could kiss a cheek. However, as they both leaned in, she ducked suddenly, so that Jim and Blair ended up kissing... each other.
"Kelly!" they both protested at the same time.
"Sorry, boys -- I couldn't resist." Laughing, Kelly gave each of them a quick peck on the cheek. "Forgiven?"
"Of course." Blair looked like a little kid who'd just discovered that Santa had come. "Have fun on your trip..."
Eventually -- and quite reluctantly on Blair and Jim's parts, Kelly left and went back to her own apartment. Jim shook his head, and hung a candy cane on the Christmas tree... only to see it snatched a moment later by Blair, who'd had an addiction to those things since they'd appeared in the stores that season. And Jim remembered how much Steven had loved them as a child. Truth be told... they WERE pretty good...
As he stole a candy cane for himself, Jim began to reflect on how far they'd come in such a short time. The trials were almost worth it, if this was the end result.
A crash from Blair's room and the following, "Not the tiki coasters!" drew Jim out of his reverie. He shrugged at his brother. "Welcome to my world."
Steven smiled back at Jim from where he was hanging ornaments on the tree. "I like it."
The End
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Audrey, 12/24/02