5 - All I want for Christmas

Asterius let go of Ashanti's hand, promptly folding his arms back on his chest in a more relaxed posture. "I understand Theseus has been talking a lot about me in his free time, during the last months", he observed with a little smile. "I hope not too much."

Horknath felt himself melt a little bit when he was introduced as Carleen's boyfriend, but he composed himself, and smiled as he shook Sakrish's offered hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Mishra." He was very nervous, when was he eve not, but he didn't want to leave a bad impression of himself so he just straightened up and tried to look more confident. "Two metres ten for the both of us - without counting Asterius' horns", he added, in a practiced answer. Well, he got that observation a lot!

Ashanti let out a smile at Asterius. "Oh, if you knew. I knew he was bound to bring you there one day to introduce you to us before you two were even dating." Theseus had talked about Asterius more than he had talked about all of his ex girlfriends combined. And she had met a few.

"Two meters ten!" Sakrish repeated excitedly. "How about your shoulder width?"
"Dad!" Carleen protested with a chuckle, before she shook her head and looked at Horknath. "I'm sorry, you might get that a lot. Dad struggles to find non-walker models that suit his standards."

Well. That did sound like a lot of talking. Asterius was unable to avoid looking a bit embarrassed, and threw a glance at Theseus. He still couldn't believe that he had immediately found him that interesting as to talk his family's ears off about him! "I see. I hope that didn't create just too many expectations", he answered in the end. "I am a simple person."

Horknath chuckled, looking sheepish. "It's alright", he reassured Carleen with a gentle smile. "But I am afraid I really don't know about my shoulder width, sir. The last time I had it taken was for my highschool graduation, and I think it changed from then..."

"There's no need to be too humble with me, Asterius. You know my son. And he certainly hasn't diminished your exploits." Ashanti smiled to herself when she saw how much Theseus was grinning "And I've yet to best him in wrestling, or arm wrestling! But worry not, Asterius and I might be rivals, but we're also friends - and lovers. We are more than capable of spending time without competiting-"
Ashanti was patiently listening to her son' ramble with a fond smile. Indeed, he sounded quite fond of his boyfriend.

Sakrish grinned. "Worry not! I have just what we need," he said proudly, before he pulled a measuring tape out of nowhere.
"Dad, no," Carleen said with an embarrassed chuckle.
"Wouldn't you want him to work for me? That way he could model for you too!" Sakrish winked at Horknath. "I pay well."

Asterius let Theseus ramble for a little while - on one hand because he was still feeling a little shy, and on the other because he genuinely enjoyed listening to him enthusiastically prattle on about anything. He held back a smile, though. "I look forward to our next wrestling match", he admitted, remembering how they had to cancel it because of Theseus' broken nose. "It's what we deserve after weeks of study."

Horknath felt himself flush a little. Model? Him? He stole a little glance towards Carleen. For her, too? Maybe that wouldn't have been so bad... "I'll- think about it", he said in the end, sheepishly. "I tend to look awkward in front of cameras, though."

Ashanti held back a smile. "Oh, I've heard you helped Theseus to study indeed. I am looking forward to his results by the end of January." Theseus looked a little uneasy since his studies were mentioned, but thankfully she kind of dropped the subject. "He told us you're in the same faculty?"

Sakrish made a brief victorious gesture, before he collected himself. "Oh, don't worry, we can train you a bit. And Theseus is an expert in the field- he could help you, should you struggle! But then again, it'll all depend on your schedule. Carleen said you're part of a sports team too!"

"I tried my best to encourage him", Asterius nodded simply, before mercifully helping with dropping that subject - he had felt Theseus shift with a little bit of unease at his side. "Yes, the same faculty - but I'm a couple of years in already. I guess that makes me his senior."

Horknath smiled, a little unsure - but perking up when Sakrish mentioned sports. "Oh, yes. I'm in our University's rugby team, together with Asterius. And - I don't want to sound pretentious, but we're quite good at it", he stated, feeling a little proud.

"Isn't that so!" Ashanti smiled to herself. "That's good. So he can look up to you and ask you for help. But do tell me more about you- something I might not know yet. I know all about your prowesses in sports, but not much about your family, and you aspirations for the future. You know, the things my son doesn't talk too much about."

Sakrish held back a chuckle. "So I've heard. I've never heard my children talk so enthusiastically together about someone else's rugby match at our dinner table." He winked at Carleen, who was a little flustered.

Asterius smiled to himself. Of course Theseus would mainly talk about how strong he was, and about his feats in any sportive activity. "Of course", he answered, throwing a teasing glance at his boyfriend, then back to Ashanti. "Our father Ga'roh is an engineer, and he's just recently stopped to be involved in first person directly on building sites. Our mother Ariadne is an elementary school teacher, and we call her Ariadne the Great to distinguish her from our sister, who is also called Ariadne." He smiled fondly. He always enjoyed to talk about Ga'roh and Ariadne, because they were his mother and his father, and neither he nor Aria had never felt not even once like they were the 'adopted children'. 

Horknath chuckled and threw a fond glance at Carleen, even though his smile looked a little teasing. "Oh, really now", he just observed, chuckling again when he noticed Sakrish winking at her. He overheard the conversation going on between Asterius and Ashanti and something came to his mind. "Oh - speaking about mom. She wanted to ask if you've enjoyed their basket, since both of them really loved your pastries", he said with an embarrassed smile.

Ashanti listened to Asterius and nodded, clearly interested to learn more about his family. She smiled to herself when she heard of the two women in his family sharing a same name - it was quite peculiar, but she found it cute. She turned towards Horknath when he asked them a question about their parents' basket, and smiled. "Indeed, we both loved everything that was inside. Well. Sakrish more than I. I was out in town for work when it arrived, and there was just enough left for me to try it all." She held back a teasing smile, while her husband laughed.
"It'd have all gone to waste if I had waited for you, love." He gave her an apologetic smile while walking towards her, but she playfully pushed him away.

"You must all be hungry, and I fear that our chef is waiting for us to deliver the plates. Let's go to the living-room."

They had an amazing chef working for them, but they weren't Italian nor French, so they were merely served a starter, a main dish and a dessert. Theseus talked merrily through most of dinner, but left enough room for his parents to question the Laurkinsons.

By the time they were done eating, Sakrish crossed his arms and looked at all of them with a pleased smile. "Well. This has been a really pleasant evening, and I hope we didn't bother you too much with our questions-"

"We certainly didn't need to know their shoe size," Ashanti interjected with a slight smile, to which her husband answered with a chuckle.

"We'll leave you be for tonight. I'm sure there's a lot you'd like to talk about regarding tomorrow," Sakrish added. "Have a good night."

"You didn't", Horknath chuckled embarrassedly. Indeed, Sakrish's question had at some point started to be oriented towards knowing their measurements - he was probably imagining them modeling something for him already, and if he was even the littlest bit like Carleen, he had probably gotten a lot of dofferent ideas already. "We were glad to dine with you. Everything tasted very good", he commented. "Thank you again for your hospitality", Asterius added with a smile. "We wish you a good night too."

Indeed, Sakrish was definitely hoping on finding them in his studio anytime soon. But thankfully, his family had managed to keep him in check, so he hadn't started sketching anything with his two potential sons-in-law in mind.
Yet.

Theseus and Carleen got up from the table, bid their parents goodnight and got out of the dining room.

"Oh, Asterius, would you perhaps like to see the gym and the pool before we head back to my room!" Theseus was beaming excitedly, convinced that his boyfriend would be as thrilled as he was by the prospect! Of course they couldn't do any sports nor take a dive right now - they had just eaten and, well, Theseus still had his cast.

Carleen scoffed and rolled her eyes. "We'll just go back to my room," she told Horknath. "I'll show you around the house or the garden tomorrow, if you wish. I'll keep you away from my sewing workshop for now - I'm afraid my dad's sixth sense might drive him to follow us there and to take all of your measurements himself."

Asterius hummed distractedly, gently taking a hold of Theseus' hand. "It's the same for me. We could also see them tomorrow, and maybe even exercise together a little", he answered lowly. "I just want to stay a bit alone with you. I don't mind where." He didn't mind being pulled around for the whole house by his boyfriend, to be honest. He just wanted to enjoy his time with him.

Horknath chuckled. "It's fine. We'll explore tomorrow - I think everything would look better in the sunlight", he nodded to her, smiling brightly. "That way you can show me what books you keep in your room! I'm very curious to see what you were reading before getting to University!"

Theseus hesitated, but Asterius' words made him feel warm inside, so in the end, he just shrugged. "Well, then! We can always go back to my room, and just spend some time together." He grinned. "I'll be happy to train with you tomorrow!" He squeezed Asterius' hand in his and guided him towards the stairs, quickly bidding his sister and Horknath a good night on their way up, since he was walking much faster than them.

Carleen waved at her brother and smiled at Horknath, before she scoffed. "Oh, no. That'll be so embarrassing." She took his hand in hers. "Swear that you'll still love me after you learn what I used to read before you introduced me to real romance."

Asterius bid a quick - not by his choice, let's be clear, but Theseus was indeed very fast as he walked and was pulling him along as if he weighed nothing for him - good night to both his brother and Carleen before patiently letting his boyfriend take him back to his room once again.
Once there, he didn't wait for Theseus to settle down. He wrapped his arms around him, happy that he could hold him in private and without having to be shy about it.

Horknath let out a laugh - and then tried his best to adopt a fakely serious expression. "I cannot swear, but I promise I will try my absolute best", he sentenced solemnly, resting his free hand over hers.

Theseus was surprised to be trapped in Asterius' arms as soon as his bedroom door closed behind them, but he let out a soft chuckle and hugged his boyfriend back, as well as he could. "Oh, Asterius. I've missed you too, my love." He rested his head against his torso, and was happy to just stay there for a bit.

Carleen laughed and then sighed dramatically. "Oh no. That's it! That's the thing that'll destroy our love. Selena was right, I should have hidden my Twilight books before you came!"
She was only half joking. She had loved the Twilight trilogy as a teen, and still had them on display on her shelf, their cover damaged by how many times she had read them.
Well.
Not her fault if the books Selena advised her to read were a little less vanilla, and couldn't be put at the front of the library-
Come to think of it, had she properly hidden the last ones she had bought on Selena's advice?

Asterius snorted softly in agreement, and held Theseus in his arms for a little while, happily resting his snout against his soft hair. "I really like the way you talk to me", he murmured then, almost shyly. His heart was still drinking down the words my love, and the way he said his name as if indeed he missed him every time they weren't touching somehow. He ended up letting go of him in the end though, hesitantly. "Is there anything you'd like to do, before we get ready for the night?", he asked then, not feeling like imposing on his boyfriend's inexhaustible energy.

Horknath gasped, feigning horror as he dramatically touched his own chest. "Oh no, not Twilight", he whispered, then letting out an embarrassed chuckle. "Well- if that's all the embarrassing books you're hiding, it's fine. Aria had her big Twilight phase too, and I've never judged her." He paused. "I was very happy when she hit her Pride and Prejudice one, though."

Theseus had been grinning when Asterius said he liked the way he talked to him. It was a welcome change - most of his exes had complained about his speech. "Well- we could always watch a movie, though you do seem a little tired." He gently cupped his boyfriend's face to look carefully at him, and hummed to himself. "You know what, love? Let's get ready for bed, and if we wish to canoodle our way to sleep, well, who's there to stop us?"
Truth be said: he used the word 'canoodle' for anything that involved at least a bit of cuddling.

Carleen chuckled kindly, and her face lit up. "Oh, I've hit that phase too! Aria is actually the one who got me into it! And then, well. Then I found your blog. And now I have you as my boyfriend." She smiled fondly at Horknath and closed the door of her bedroom behind her, showing him her bookshelf.
Thankfully, the non-vanilla books were all hidden in the back. Pfew.
Except one, that she had not seen. But I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not Horknath was curious enough to grab that book and discover it was some spicy erotica novel.

Asterius chuckled, throwing an amused glance to his boyfriend. Truth be told, the word canoodle Theseus seemed so fond of never failed to sound funny to his ears. "Sorry for ruining your evening plans", he apologized still, feeling that the idea of going to bed had been put on the table just for his own good. "But at least that way we will be able to stay up late tomorrow." He leaned in to leave a kiss on Theseus' lips. "You can use the bathroom first, if you wish." He turned around to walk to his bag, that he had abandoned next to his boyfriend's bed, and started rummaging in it to find his pajama pants.
Like Horknath, he tended to overheat a little at night - and had quickly found out that it was best for him not to wear a shirt.

Horknath shot an enamoured glance at Carleen, his heart expanding in his chest with joy every time she called him her boyfriend while looking so proud of it. Once in her room, he explored curiously the bookshelf, commenting over this or that and letting out exclamations or little laughs when he recognized some books he had seen a thousand times in his sister's hands.
His eyes fell on a cover and a title he didn't recognize, though, and being an avid reader he couldn't resist grabbing it to look closely at it.
Well, he had done so with other books already, so. Nothing bad, right? He turned it around to read the synopsis, but there was none - so he just opened it on a random part and let his eyes take in some sentences.
He abruptly closed it two seconds after he had started (and after reading something that sounded very suspiciously as the start of a detailed but tasteful description of rather passionate lovemaking), red as a beet, feeling warm under his collar, and quickly pushed it back on the library.
Too quickly, making some books fall ruinously on the ground, making a whole lot of noise. "I'm- sorry, I-", he stuttered, immediately kneeling down to fetch the books with his face still flushed.

"Alright! Theseus went to the bathroom, fully clothed still. He was only wearing his underwear on his way out, and discarded the rest of his clothes on his desk chair as he pulled his pajama pants out of his own bed - he too tended to overheat slightly at night. "For tomorrow morning I could take you for a quick jog around the gardens if you wish - and then we could go to the gym to finish our exercises. I usually have breakfast after, but I guess it'll depend of the time on which we'll get up."
Meanwhile, he had discarded his underwear and unfolded his pajamas, dressing up in front of Asterius without an ounce of shyness since they had done that numerous times before in the locker rooms.

Carleen had initially been a little distracted when Horknath had found that book, busy taking a clear pair of pajamas out of her closet. When she heard the books fall, however, she quickly rushed to help Horknath. "It's alright, it's alright! Are you okay-?"
She paused when she noticed that erotica novel and flushed instantly so hard she might have combusted.
She quickly grabbed it and tried to hide it under another book. But she probably met Horknath's gaze then, and paused awkwardly. Before noticing just how awkward he looked.
She cleared her throat.
"Do... you want to address the fact that you stumbled upon one of my erotica novels and laugh it off or should we forget about it and never mention it again," she blurted out, before she let out an embarrassed smile.

"That sounds nice. I do have my training clothes with me, so we could do that." Asterius was in the process of undressing as well when Theseus arrived in the room, and didn't stop nor tried to hide himself like some demure virgin as he took his own underwear off. He wasn't shy either - if there was something he had learned throughout years of rugby and team-oriented sports it was not to feel ashamed of either his body or other people's.
After all, lewdness is in the eyes of the beholder.
But his eyes did indulge on his boyfriend's sculpted, well-trained and tanned body, and for more time than it would have been considered polite, had they been simple friends or teammates bantering in the locker room.
He gazed at him intensely for a little while before he finally grabbed his soft pajama pants to pull them on, and walked to the bathroom without another word.

Horknath bit his lower lip as he forced himself to concentrate on the books he was collecting from the ground - willing (or at least trying to) the redness away from his face, and discuss this like a mature adult. He finally turned to look at Carleen, and smiled a just as embarrassed smile. "Well, there's- nothing wrong with reading erotica", he finally managed to blurt out. "It was just an. Uhm. Unexpected find." He threw a furtive glance to the book Carleen had uselessly tried to hide. "I was caught by surprise. And, well, then I had a thought of you, reading something like this, and I just..." He vaguely gestured with his hand, not finding his voice anymore and stubbornly looking away once again because ho boy.
That thought had made him feel all warm and a little uncomfortable (but not in the wrong way. Not at all).

Theseus had paused too, alright. He had babbled on a bit about the things they could have the time to do on the very next day, but his voice progressively died down as he laid his eyes on his boyfriend's muscular body. He had always appreciated Asterius' physique, even when it was just platonical.
But since he didn't particularly rush to put his pajamas on, his gaze drifted lower for the first time. He was no teenager anymore and as said, he had seen many other men bare before. But that didn't prevent a familiar, warm feeling to settle briefly in his guts and on his face.
His boyfriend was gorgeous. And he was painfully aware of the fact that he knew nothing on how they might become intimate in the future. And googling it that night was out of the question! What if it left him hot and bothered, and not confident at all about how to spend his first time with Asterius!
Thankfully he got distracted by his Instagram account, and was typing comments on it, lying down in bed as he waited for his boyfriend to join him.

Carleen let out another embarrassed chuckle. "Oh, well. Uh. I'm sorry to break it to you, but I'm just red as a beet everytime I read one of those and have to take a break every five minutes or so to hide my face in a pillow," she explained with a smile. "And I occasionally scream in same pillow. Truth be told, Selena is kinda recommending those books to me, and I admit they're well written." She bit on her lower lip as she stood up. "But, uhm. I definitely forgot to store this one away from plain sight." She let out a shyer smile when she finally dared to look back at Horknath, thinking back of that one day when they almost made love - only to be interrupted by Spike.
Oh, if only their brothers weren't in the very next room.

Asterius came out of the bathroom looking refreshed - he had done his best to just forget entirely about the longing he felt towards Theseus, and that was probably going to blossom back in him as soon as he'd be in the same bed as him.
Honestly, almost all of this longing was about holding him in his arms and cuddle with him throughout the night.
He was still running his fingers through his mane when he sat down on the bed, patiently undoing the little knots he hadn't managed to brush away, and threw a glance to his boyfriend. "Anything interesting?", he asked, nodding towards the phone as he leaned down to rest his back against the pillows.

"Oh, I wasn't imagining anything different from that", Horknath chuckled, just as embarrassed. "I have the exact same reactions as I read more. Uhm. Graphic books than I'm used to", he confessed. "Once, I was so flustered I threw the book I was reading against the wall. And tipped down everything that was on my shelf." His brother had found it incredibly funny. "But I've only read one good one. The only other erotic novels I've had in my hands were pretty bad ones that I wanted to review for my blog."
He finally raised to his feet, putting the books he had in his hand back in their rightful place. He stole a glance at Carleen's darkened cheeks, and found himself flushing again as well - hit by the same memory, unknowingly.
Indeed. If their brothers weren't in the very next room.

Theseus scoffed and shook his read. "Nothing too important. I'm just blocking a few jealous folks and replying to my fans. They've requested a picture of us together, once my cast will be off," he told Asterius with a grin. "Some of them are being very supportive. But the last time I've posted a picture of both of us we were just friends - it was before Dionysus' party." He smiled to himself. Oh, what a night it had been! He couldn't wait to kiss Asterius again, like he had done on that night. He did his best to bite down a remark about how soon that'd be, by the way - but after the long pep talk he had had with Carleen, he was more than ready to endure and keep silent.

Carleen let out a kind laugh when Horknath told her about his experience with erotica. "Well. I've got a few good ones if you ever wish to try some."
Her smile grew more shy when she noticed he was looking at her again. "Perhaps we should... get ready for bed," she suggested eventually.

Asterius snorted. "You've written on your profiles that we are dating now?", he asked curiously. He did follow Theseus on Instagram and never missed to like his pictures and write small, nice comments under them - but he rarely remembered having a profile himself, so he wasn't around social networks all that much in the end. He held back a little smile, remembering about that night. "That's right, you had taken a picture."

Carleen's words managed to have Horknath finally look away from her, fearing that she could feel self-conscious with his eyes on her for too long. "Ah- yeah, that sounds like a good idea", he replied with a bashful smile, scratching his neck. "Do you want to go for the bathroom first?" He needed to look for his pajama pants.