The wind outside rattled the house, and Harrison turned his attention to the window to check on the snow situation. It was falling at an alarming rate, but that was tomorrow’s problem.
When Jett stopped crying, he made Harrison sit while he cleaned the mess. They ended up needing a new blanket to replace the sauce-covered one, but once the replacement food was heated, and Jett was back under the blanket, they started the movie.
“You’re so annoyingly handsome and perfect,” Jett muttered so quietly that Harrison almost missed it. “Perfect body, perfect smile and even perfect gifts.”
“You literally bought me a car.”
Jett fidgeted with the pendant, rolling it between his fingers. “What’s a car compared to this? I’m never taking this damn thing off.”
Harrison chuckled at the images those words conjured and focused his attention on the movie.
Jett hadn’t been lying when he said it was a long film. By the time the credits started rolling, the snow had fallen enough to cover the porch in a couple of inches.
Harrison picked his favourite James Bond movie and relaxed on the couch with Jett on top of him. Jett’s attention span, which usually wandered during movies, was locked onto the screen for the entire movie. Harrison kept giving him smug smiles whenever Jett met his gaze, because they weregoodmovies.
It was dark outside, and they were halfway through their second Bond movie when a crack as loud as thunder shook the house.
Jett hollered and flung himself off Harrison’s chest and onto the floor.
The house went dark a second later. Their only source of light came from the flickering fire that was burning down to embers.
“Sonofabitch!” Jett said from the floor, his hand searching until Harrison took it. “What the hell was that?”
Harrison felt like his soul had left his body from fright. He had to take a moment to breathe and shake off the old familiar feeling that rose inside whenever it was storming.
“Lightning?” Harrison said, ignoring how shaky he sounded. “Maybe it…blew the transformer at the end of the road?”
Jett pushed himself onto his knees and touched their brows together. “Shit, are you okay? I’m right here, Grumbles. Take all the time you need.”
Harrison gave a shuddering breath, but he was slowly getting a grip on his anxiety. Being with Jett made it ten times easier to deal with.
“So handsome,” said Jett, kissing his forehead. “So grumpy and gentle.” Another kiss. “So perfect for me.” Kiss. “All mine.” Kiss. Kiss.
Harrison chuckled, soaking up the affection like a sponge. “Let’s get dressed and take a look. I need to get more firewood too, so we’ll do that while we’re out.”
Jett nodded and rose to his feet, holding his hand out for Harrison to take. They untangled themselves from blankets and heating pad wires, and Jett went to fetch shirts while Harrison lit a few candles.
“I would like to point out that if we were in the city—”
Harrison slapped a hand over his mouth to shut him up.
They put their boots and winter coats on, and Harrison led the way through the door and into the snow outside. The wind drift had piled snow against the door, but it was light enough that he could get it open with no issue.
Jett groaned when he stepped into snow that went past his knee. “This is crazy. I can’t believe we’re having a white Christmas this year of all years.”
Harrison walked down the porch steps, and he immediately spotted the problem. “Fuck.”
“What?” Jett asked, peeking over his shoulder. “Bigfoot?”
Harrison pointed to the black line in the snow that ran from the garage and alongside the driveway. “See that? That’s our powerline.”
“Well, shit.”
Harrison’s thoughts exactly. He pushed his way through the snow, keeping far away from the line as they shuffled down the driveway. It was too hard to see anything in the darkness, but if he had to take a guess, he would say a tree took the line out. The snow wasn’t heavy enough to do it on its own, and there were a lot of old trees beside the road.
“We can’t fix this tonight, so let’s get back inside,” said Harrison. “We’ll investigate when it’s light out tomorrow.”
“Yay,” Jett said sarcastically. “Can’t wait to hike back to civilization.”
