A Gay's Howl

Flavio could already feel the cold creeping in from outside before he had even gotten out of bed. Any attempts of trying to wrap himself tighter into his blanket were useless. It was freezing in here and probably even more so outside. He suspected that the heating of his trailer was broken. Or something like that. The only warmth seemed to radiate from Celio’s heated body and their skins were close enough to occasionally brush, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy Flavio’s needs of not dying from hypothermia this winter. He was already dreading to get out of bed at all, but he had to check on the heating to make sure it wasn’t actually broken. Not that he knew anything about heatings or how to fix them. He made sure to wrap himself into a spare blanket from his bed’s end before he dared to even leave the safe and relatively warm space his bed had provided during this harsh winter night and morning. Just as he had suspected, the heating was turned on to the highest degree, but there was no actual heat coming from it. Flavio was no expert, but he could still tell that this wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. He put on some clothes as fast as possible, relying on the method of layers in order to survive the snowstorm that was apparently going on outside – by now Flavio had checked the windows only to see nothing but snow. He could even hear the wind blow across the circus grounds. There should have been no reason for him to even leave his trailer at all today. But now there were two. The dumb heating and a bunch of hungry tigers that probably shouldn’t be left alone for too long. At least they were made to survive harsh Siberian winters. Celio was still turning in bed, but seemed to be about to wake up soon, Flavio noticed as he was already at the door. He had cast one more glance back while turning the door knob. He frowned and turned it again. It wouldn’t move. He tried to turn it the other way and put more pressure onto the door by leaning against it. He rattled the door, mumbling a few Italian curse words under his breath, but there was no way around the fact that they were somehow locked in. Maybe the door was frozen and therefor stuck. It was certainly cold enough outside and inside for this to happen. And with the storm raging outside…it shouldn’t have come as that much of a surprise. But that didn’t mean that Flavio had to like it. He was still cursing quietly as he resumed back to the side of the bed. Celio was only now opening his eyes and lifting his head. “Did you just come in?” He asked, his voice still sleepy. “Couldn’t even get outside” Flavio complained while getting rid of his boots and gloves. “It’s a nightmare outside. And in here too. The heating is broken and – oh yeah – we’re snowed in” There was some very obvious sarcasm going on in his voice. Suddenly, Celio sat up straight, reaching out to grab Flavio’s arm. He barely caught his sleeve, but once he did, he held on to it tightly. “Are you trying to tell me that we are snowed in?” There was no way of telling whether those were the best or the worst news that Celio had gotten this week, but knowing what Flavio knew about his best friend, there was really only one way this could go. He just nodded. “Do you know what that means?” Now he shook his head. There were a lot of possible answer to this question and he didn’t like a single one of them. “We have to repopulate the Earth” “What? No, it’s just the trailer, everyone else is still alive…I think” Celio was clenching the fabric of Flavio’s sleeve tighter. “The whole Earth. I am serious. This is serious” “It’s also biologically impossible, I hate to break that to you” Flavio weakly and unsuccessfully tried to pull himself away from Celio’s grip. “We won’t know unless we’ve tried” Celio nodded with a very serious expression on his face. “Can’t leave any stone unturned in hard times like these” Flavio decided that it was best to let him ramble on and was already half turning away as the pull at his sleeve got a little harder and he nearly fell back into bed, right on top of his best friend. “The very least we can do is keep each other warm” Celio mumbled. Seeing that both their lips were already turning an alarming shade of blue, Flavio knew that he was actually right about this one thing. Next thing he knew, Celio had pulled him underneath the covers where it was indeed much warmer and cosier than anywhere else in the trailer, possibly than anywhere else in this world right about now.

The headaches were almost unbearable. For about a minute, Matt tried to ignore the piercing pain by closing his eyes and trying to remember how this could’ve even happened in the first place, but memories were blurry and existed only partially in his mind. He rolled over to lie on his side and a sickly feeling from the depth of his stomach joined the general pain and exhaustion. Then the sheets next to him were moving. He heard someone groan and a rush of incoherent pictures from last night came crashing down on him, causing a great deal of confusion. There had been a Christmas party. He hadn’t really wanted to go. There was a fight. He might or might not have been involved. He’d been thrown out. Then everything had turned black. He hadn’t been knocked out by a punch, but rather by eggnog and hot wine. And he was currently having the worst hangover of his life to prove that. At least he had somehow gotten back to his apartment alright. He noticed that with a very slight feeling of victory and security upon sitting up. The bad news was that he clearly wasn’t alone. He was naked too. That was rarely a good sign. There were clothes lying around on the floor. Some of them, Matt recognized as his own, but others clearly didn’t belong to him…chances were that the mysterious person next to him was naked too. Another usually bad sign. It didn’t smell like human and Matt couldn’t really make out the smell of another pack, but the person didn’t smell exactly like a Dakabi either. Some weird mixture, it seemed. As much as he was dreading the idea, he wouldn’t find out for sure until he would take an actual look. And he would find out eventually anyway. His eyes still half closed – the exposure to the bright sunlight from outside was really no good for his headache – he slowly pulled away the blanket. The tired and painful grimace turned more and more into an expression of quiet defeat and sick disgust. His initial reaction would have been to get out of bed immediately, but he went for the easier and faster solution by pushing the other man out of bed. He didn’t even wake up until he landed on the floor with a loud thump. Then Matt could hear him cry out. Less than a minute later Henry was standing in the middle of the room, arms crossed, looking at Matt reproachfully. “You weren’t this rough last night” He playfully huffed, absentmindedly looking for his clothes all around the room, but ended up just grabbing a random pair of underpants to slip into first. “Get the fuck out of my apartment” Matt barked, not even looking at Henry. His mind was busy at work, trying to reconstruct last night’s events and make sense out of this morning’s rather unpleasant surprise and how it would fit into the series of events. “Well, you seemed upset about something last night. I think I did good making you forget about whatever that was” Henry explained while throwing on more random clothes he could find. “And now you owe me 100 bucks” “What” Matt frowned. He was ready to grab Henry by the collar and throw him right out of the window any minute now. “100 bucks. I take tips, though” He gave a wink. “And I should inform you about my special Christmas offer: 200 bucks If you want me to accompany you to your family’s Christmas party and pose as your partner. Any additional service for 50 bucks. How does that sound?” “Like I’d rather take a blow to my knee than pay you money” Henry was pretty much done dressing now, still standing beside the bed. He ran a hand through his hair. “That’s not how the deal goes. I’m not leaving without my money” There was no way of telling how close Matt was actually to knock Henry out right here on the spot. But that would have required getting out of bed and somehow dealing with the consequences of last night’s heavy alcohol consume. And he just wasn’t quite ready for that. “My wallet is in my brown jacket. Just get the hell out”

“Okay” Madeleine said gently after she had closed the front door behind them. Alec had been quiet for the whole drive home and she had known better than to try and talk to him about it while his gaze had been fixed on the street and he had shut down any attempts of turning on the radio. But now that they were finally home, she refused to play along any longer. “What is going on?” She inquired, helplessly watching Alec walk straight into the kitchen with his coat and scarf still on. She followed, rolling her eyes. In the kitchen, Alec had already found a half empty bottle of red wine and was currently pouring a glass for himself, barely even sparing a glance at Madeleine. “My grandmother really liked you” Alec huffed, taking a stressed out sip from his glass. “And she was about the only one who did” Madeleine stopped. It had only been a quick guess. She hadn’t expected for it to be this important to Alec. “Wait. Is that what it’s about?” She stepped a little closer, hiding her smile in order to not anger him any further. “You think my family didn’t like you?” “Your father didn’t seem all that impressed” Alec took another, long sip. “He never does. But I am sure everyone liked you” Less concerned about Alec’s stress and anger, now that she knew the reason for it, she began taking off her scarf. “And they’d all be delighted if you’d invite them over to the headquarters someday” Alec still wasn’t quite convinced. He was emptying the glass, watching Madeleine take off her coat too, then placed the glass back on the counter. “And what’s your brother’s deal?” “I really don’t know what you’re talking about” Madeleine replied, absentmindedly fixing her hair and dress. It was a red cocktail dress that was a perfect match to the red lipstick she had chosen for the occasion. It was getting hard to be mad at her while she was still wearing that dress. But it would have been even harder if she were to take it off. Madeleine didn’t even seem to be aware of the way Alec’s gaze had shifted. She was busy trying to prove to him that her family had liked him while putting away leftovers from Christmas dinner that her grandmother had insisted on giving them. As she was passing Alec to get to the fridge, she felt his arm around her waist, pulling her closer. “Did I convince you?” She asked, wrapping her arms around his chest. He stole a quick kiss and shook his head. He hadn’t even been listening for the past minute. “Not even a little bit” His hands wandered down a little, stopping and holding her at her waist. “I may need a little more convincing” He mumbled, pulling her even closer. 

The moment that he had drawn Elena’s name from the hat, he had known that this was going to be great. Among all the names thrown into the Secret Santa raffle, he’d been the one lucky enough to pick one of his best friends and at the time he had been rather excited about finding the perfect present for her. That excitement had lasted for about a few weeks and had declined gradually since then. Suddenly, nothing had seemed good enough for Elena. He had never hand picked a present for her before and it turned to be much harder than he would have ever thought. Now he was standing here empty-handed while everyone else was already revealing their Secret Santa. Finn’s own Secret Santa had been some random werewolf he had spoken to maybe once or twice. The present was alright, but Finn’s thoughts were preoccupied by Elena whom he finally found standing not too far away from him. He thanked the other wolf briefly for his present and rushed towards his friend. She was smiling at him and that somehow took some of his feelings of guilt away. But of course she was smiling. She didn’t know how much he had failed her yet. But she was about to find out. “I’m gonna make this quick” He started out. “I am your Secret Santa and I have been through all of New York at least twice, but I really had no clue what to get you and it’s probably too late now, but maybe if you tell me what you want, I can buy it for you and give it to you a little later” That was a bad excuse, he knew that, but was hoping to win her over with one of his famous charming smiles while Elena was listening with curious interest, patiently waiting for him to finish. She seemed amused, though, crossing her arms. “Well…” She spoke that word with care. “…to answer your question at least…” A wide grin was spreading across her lips. There was clearly an idea forming behind her forehead. Then her gaze suddenly went up, right to the mistletoe that was hanging above them. She pulled him into a kiss and the moment that their lips met, Finn knew that there was no better present he’d ever get for Christmas and holding her closer, leaning into the kiss completely, he also knew that this was the perfect present to get for Elena and how on Earth could he not have thought about this sooner?

‘If lost, return to Elena’. That’s the kind of shirt he would’ve needed for today. Or maybe not. Maybe she was the one who had gotten lost. He couldn’t be sure. All he knew was that this mall was gigantic, the smell of perfume was very dominant and overwhelming and the people around them were ridiculously busy and self-centred and now Elena was gone and coldness remained where her fingers had been intertwined with his not long ago. Like a lost puppy his eyes had been searching for her until he had gotten distracted about five minutes later. That mannequin wearing some Christmas themed lingerie on that pedestal sure looked interesting. He dove into the crowd like a fish in the water and emerged again right at the shelves and counters selling those special erotic Christmas experiences. He just couldn’t help, but feel the silky, red material. Suddenly all the mannequins were wearing Elena’s face and he just knew that she could wear it so much better than all those lifeless figures. Better than any other real woman on this planet too. It seemed to be made for her. Although there was no certain way of knowing whether she would actually put it on for him. Maybe she’d just playfully punch him if he wear to give it to her for Christmas. Or force him to wear it. Just to make sure he checked if his size was available too, laughing out loud as he actually found it. He held it up right in front of his body, trying to estimate whether it would actually fit him. That took a lot of his concentration for a few seconds or so, at least, and as he lifted his gaze he found himself accidentally locking eyes with another man, about the same age, maybe a few years older with piercing ice blue eyes and a very handsome smile that were both clearly revealing that he had seen Finn’s experiments with the women’s lingerie. Luckily, Finn wasn’t shy in the least and returned the stare with a cheeky smile. Neither was the stranger, though. In fact, he was grinning broadly. “I think they’d look fantastic on you” He said with a wink and disappeared back into the crowd. Finn looked after him with a slight frown, then turned his gaze back to the negligee between his hands. He shrugged. Damn right, it would look fantastic on him.