#midnightluck

Ace nods shifting those to the side, “Sabo, do you have one that you really want on the tree?”

“Pops, the,” Sabo buries his face into his pillow as he yawns. “One he gave us.”

“That’s a good one. And the one that my mom gave me when I was born,” Ace holds it like it’s something extremely fragile as Marco sets the star to the side, wrapping the string of lights around the top instead. “Marco?”

“That’s as good as we’re going to get for the star,” He nods. “This one.”

Sabo hums, watching them carefully decorate the tree through slitted eyes. He had meant to get more sleep last night, but his brain had been caught up in something and by the time that he realized the time, it had been too late to take one of his sleeping pills. Not that he liked to take them in the first place, but they had made him promise. And Sabo wouldn’t break a promise to them.

“Still tired,” Marco asks suddenly, his hand carding through Sabo’s hair.

“Hm.”

Marco nods, “I’m sorry for that. Do you want to take a nap? I think Ace said he wanted to sleep for a little bit and he loves to cuddle when he can get the chance.”

“Nap?”

“Yeah,” Ace yawns, a shiver making it’s way down his spine and echoing down his limbs. “I’m too tired to stay up unless I take a nap. Do you want to join me? Marco put the heater on the trunk at the end of the bed to keep us warm.”

Sabo nods, “Nap.”

Marco ushers him up, “Come on. Sleep, Sabo. I’ll wake you both up when it’s time for dinner, how does that sound?”

“Like heaven,” Ace answers kissing Marco’s cheek and wrapping an arm around Sabo’s shoulders. “Thank you. For dinner and helping me with the tree.”

“I’m sure you could have done it without me,” Marco teases gesturing at the small tree. “Get some rest. I’m thinking of steak for dinner.”

“Steak is good,” Sabo mutters, pushing his face against Ace’s neck, the light brighter without the throw pillow to hide from it. “And coffee.”

“No coffee,” Marco corrects kissing Sabo’s temple. “Early night tonight, we can make up for it later. Now go lay down, both of you. Before you fall down.”

“I’m as graceful as a butterfly.”

Ace laughs, leading Sabo back to their bedroom, “A drunken butterfly. You couldn’t make it more than a few steps without me to balance you, Sabo. Come on. We’ll nap and then Marco will have dinner ready for us.”

“Food,” Sabo agrees.

“That’s right food.”

Marco shakes his head as they stumble through the door to their bedroom, Ace kicking the door shut behind them. He waits for the grumbling to stop and for the soft sounds of them sleeping to echo out the room. One day, he was going to remember to film them asleep to prove to them how they did in fact snore, thank you very much.

“Alright,” Marco says sighing as he looked over the living room and took in the mess of cups, with differing levels of cold coffee from Sabo’s most recent late night study binge. “I’m going to have to clean this before I do anything else.”

Sabo always put a cup down and never remembered which one he had been drinking from when he was that deep in his work. It always drove Ace and Marco mad because they could never keep enough of their coffee mugs clean and Sabo would even steal the ones that Marco and Ace had written their names

“Sabo,” Marco sighs, smiling softly as he finds his mug half buried underneath the couch, almost filled to the rim. “I should have gotten him one of those heaters.”

Sabo stumbles out of bed, his eyes burning as he tried to open them, blinking at the sudden darkness outside their room, the light still on from where he had dragged Ace into the bed with him instead of allowing him to turn it off, the only light coming from the Christmas tree. A small pile of gifts had been added to the scene since he had last seen it.

“Waking up now,” Marco asks, smiling when Sabo jerks to look at him, leaning on the island, a mug in his hands. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. Dinner is still in the oven, do you want to eat?”

“Food sounds nice,” Sabo yawns stumbling over to him and shoving one of the stools away from the island to sit down, leaning his head on his arms. “I’m sleepy still.”

Marco brushes Sabo’s hair from his face and rests his palm on his forehead, “Mhm, you don’t feel sick. That’s good, I was worried that you were going to get sick with all the late nights that you’ve been pulling.”

“Feels like ice.”

“That’s because it started snowing about an hour ago and I haven’t upped the heat,” Marco admits setting a plate in front of him. “It’s pretty.”

“Pretty?” Ace grumbles, steadier on his feet than Sabo had been. “W’as pretty?”

“The snow,” Marco answers setting a second plate down for Ace. “It started up not too long after you both went to sleep. News says that it might delay traffic which would get us out of work for a bit tomorrow.”

Sabo pouts, “Not me.”

“That’s what you get for working from home,” Ace yawns, leaning heavily into Sabo’s side, feeling hot enough to almost scald.

Ace always felt too hot to be human when it started to get cold outside. It was like his own personal furnace. Marco too, to a lesser extent. Always warmer than Sabo but never as burning as Ace.

“Don’t have to get dressed.”

Marco smiles, “He does have a point.”

“Clothes are the worst.”

“Only when you have to dress like Marco does,” Ace counters shoving his spoon into his mouth. “It’s d’lcious!”

“Mouth closed when there’s food, light of my life.”

“Sorry Marco.”

Sabo snorts, knocking his knee against Ace’s as he ate. It was nice having this, just the three of them. Christmas was going to be a mess of hurrying from their house early in the morning to get to the Newgate house for the family event and then staying there for most of the day, except for the brief time that they would have to escape to trade gifts with Luffy, who was spending the holiday with his friends instead of them.

“If you two want to stay up a little longer, I can make some hot chocolate. We’ve got some marshmallows and we can watch the snow fall for a little bit.”

Ace nods, eyes glowing, “Do ya think we could have a snowball fight tomorrow after work?”

“I’m sure that we could as long as you both aren’t too tired.”

“Okay!”

“Blankets,” Sabo asks finishing his plate. “We need them if we’re gonna be watching the snowfall.”

Marco gestures over his shoulder, putting the plate in the sink and grabbing one of the newly cleaned mugs, to where a small pile of blankets and pillows were spread around their sliding glass door, the outside light turned off and the only light the distant glow of their neighbor’s Christmas lights glittering on the fallen snow.

“You’re magical,” Sabo says leaning forward to steal a kiss when Marco returned with his hot chocolate. “A being made of Christmas magic.”

“Santa Marco,” Ace adds stealing his own kiss. “Come on, Sabo! We need to get the best spots!” Ace only stops long enough to steal a kiss from Sabo as well before dragging him to the blankets, spreading them out to make it more comfortable.

“I’ve got your mug,” Marco promises Sabo, the drink left behind in Ace’s rush. “Get comfy and I’ll bring all there in just a moment. And Ace, I couldn’t be Santa.”

“You’re right,” Ace says smiling at him. “But Pops would make a good one.”

Marco laughs, balancing the mugs carefully so they wouldn’t spill, “He use to dress up like Santa when we were little, so I would have to agree.”

“Aw, we missed it,” Sabo leans into Ace’s side, humming happily as Marco settled against his other side, sandwiching him between them. “Thank you.”

“Welcome,” Marco mutters softly, glancing out the door to where the snow was swirling to the ground. “It’s suppose to turn into a real storm later.”

“Good, they aren’t as nice to watch.”

Sabo takes a sip of his drink, laying his head against Marco’s shoulder. This was nice, the quiet of the night, watching the snowfall from the warmth that both of his lovers seemed to radiate. It was everything that Sabo wanted out of a quiet evening. There was even hot chocolate.

“Don’t fall asleep,” Marco whispers, kissing Sabo’s temple again. “I’m not going to carry you to bed if you fall asleep.”