It didn’t feel like much time had passed at all when he opened his eyes again. Vic wasn’t in the bed and he could hear distant clinking coming from downstairs. And music. The smell of something sweet hit his nose. It was enough to drag him out of bed. He slipped on a pair of briefs just because. The weather outside was still cloudy. They most likely wouldn’t hike back to the waterfall. It looked like they were spending their last day indoors.
“Good morning sleepyhead,” Vic said when Tawson walked downstairs. “I was wondering when you were going to wake up.”
“I’m surprised to see you awake before nine in the morning.” Tawson stood beside them and kissed their cheek. “Did you sleep well?”
“Amazing,” Vic said. “I just wanted to make the most of our last day together so I got up and wanted to surprise you.”
“I’m very surprised,” Tawson said. Vic was wearing the same sweat pants from yesterday. “Thank you, baby.”
“You’ve been spoiling me all week so it’s about time I give back.”
“You know I don’t buy you that stuff because I want something in return. I buy it because it makes me think of you which makes me smile.”
“Laying it on thick this morning,” Vic commented sarcastically.
“What can I say? I’m a romantic.”
Vic flipped a pancake onto a plate by the stove and glanced over their shoulder. “You can be when you want to be.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Tawson tried to sound offended but Vic didn’t take the bait. They finished plating the food before joining Tawson at the table. “What do you want to do today?”
“Would I be lame to say that I want to play some board games and just hang out?” Vic asked. “I mean, it’s kind of blah outside anyway and I think it’s supposed to rain a bit. And I need to redeem myself against the English professor in Scrabble.”
“You can’t win by making up words,” Tawson argued back. “The way you play stresses me out.”
“Yeah, well the way you play makes me have to have a dictionary on hand.” Vic ended their reply by shoving a substantial amount of pancake in their mouth. Their cheeks puffed out as they chewed. Tawson was sure at some point or with anyone else he’d find that almost gross, but Vic doing it was cute. “We’ll cap the words at six letters.”
And that’s what they did. After putting the dishes in thedishwasher, Vic grabbed the board from upstairs and brought it down to the living room. They sat opposite each other around the coffee table. There was a rom-com playing in the background. They spent hours playing round after round. There was laughter and small arguments about the validity of a word. Tawson, at one point, even pulled out the rules and read it out loud. Vic tried to distract him by sitting directly in his lap to “read the small print”.
It was playful and domestic. And Tawson fucking loved every second of it.
When dinner came around, Vic ran upstairs to their room while Tawson made some sandwiches. He decided on some BLTs on toasted bread. Food was the last thing on his mind when Vic came back down the stairs. They replaced the sweats with a pajama set. The set was also silk, like the nightgown, but this one was a deep blue. It had four white buttons down the front, a collar that was neatly folded down and revealed a small expanse of skin. The sleeves stretched around their muscles and the shorts were barely showing underneath the length of the shirt.
“Someone looks comfortable,” Tawson said. “I know I kicked your ass in scrabble. Again. But you can’t be throwing in the towel now. We still have hours left before bed.”
“You are a sore winner,” Vic commented. They sat at the table and Tawson slid over one of the plates. He grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge before sitting down too.
They didn’t talk much while eating. Vic got up and grabbed the mayonnaise from the fridge, adding more. Tawson had yet to get the amount of mayo right on Vic’s food. He’d keep trying. After dinner, they decided to sit out on the balcony.
There were a couple of the Adirondack chairs and Tawsonsat down, Vic unapologetically sitting on his lap. They rested their head against Tawson’s shoulder, face buried in his neck. Tawson brushed his fingers up and down Vic’s outer thigh, his other hand on Vic’s back. The clouds gave way to a decent rain about ten minutes into them sitting outside. Vic snuggled deeper into Tawson’s chest. He was certain they would both fall asleep sooner than later.
Tawson loved a good rainy day. The sound was a perfect background noise, the smell fresh and gentle. It was a perfect moment and Tawson planned to stay sitting there, in their own little bubble, for as long as Vic wanted to. Which seemed to be quite a while. They never fell asleep like Tawson guessed they would. Both of them spoke softly, recapping their last couple days, talking about the holidays, nothing really in particular. Tawson responded in kind, telling stories of Christmas with his family and how his older sister would always ruin what his gifts were up until she was at least ten.
“Pax did the same to me,” Vic said with a small smile. Tawson was essentially cradling Vic in his lap while they talked. “She wouldn’t do it in front of our parents though. But they knew. And when they caught on to it, they started telling her the wrong things that they got me. I think the best one I can remember was a pack of oranges.”
“My mom always put fruit in our stockings,” Tawson said. He missed his parents. He’d spoken to his mom a few times since moving to the ranch, but he hadn’t been back to see them. His hometown was only another two hours from where they were. “I would get one apple and one orange with some gift cards each year.”
“That’s so lame,” Vic said with a small chuckle.
“Hey, that was a family tradition,” Tawson defended. “Idon’t remember when it started, but we looked forward to it every year.”
“Do you think you’ll want to go see them over the holidays?” Vic played with Tawson’s fingers, not looking him in the eye.
“Well, I’ve already been invited to Thanksgiving with your bunch. But I might reach out and go see them for a day or two over the Christmas break. Maybe you could come with me?”
Vic’s back straightened and they looked up at Tawson through impossibly long lashes. “You want me to meet your mom?”
“Well, I’d like you to meet the entire family,” Tawson said. “But only if you want to and whenever you’re ready. We can just say we met on the ranch.”
