#rowens

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“Hey you made it,” Seth greets and smiles as he opens the front door. It was a few days before Christmas and Kevin promised to stop by. They aren’t going to spend Christmas day together, but Seth just really wants to spend some time with Kevin.

“Traffic was terrible,” Kevin grunts. “How’s the knee?”

“Still sucks.” Seth awkwardly hobbles backwards to let Kevin inside.

“You should sit down and rest your leg,” Kevin notes, as Seth locks the door.

Seth starts limping over to the couch. “Well, I was resting it until you decided to show up unannounced.”

“You begged me to come over!”

“I did not beg. I just kindly urged you to visit your ailing boyfriend on the most important day of the year.”

“I thought you said that was your birthday,” Kevin scoffed.

“I’m crippled and you’re mocking me?”

Kevin half-shrugs and flops down on the couch next to Seth. “I don’t discriminate.”

“Wait, what’s that?” Seth points to a gift-wrapped box lying next to Kevin.

“Oh, you mean this?” Kevin tries to hide it behind him with little success. “It’s noth-”

“Is that a present?” Seth asks, eyes lighting up instantly. “You gave me a Christmas present?”

Kevin shakes his head at Seth’s sudden excitement.

“It’s not a Christmas present. It’s not for Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or anything in the holiday spirit,” Kevin denies. “And it’s not a present. I just picked it up on the way here. That’s it.”

“Right,” Seth grins. “Gimme,” he swipes the box out of Kevin’s fidgety hands.

“What is it?” Seth asks, shaking the contents and hearing a small, soft thud.

“You’re not supposed to open it until Christmas.”

“I thought you said it wasn’t a Christmas present,” Seth teased.

Kevin frowns. “What I meant was-”

“Screw that,” Seth talks over Kevin and eagerly rips up the tape and paper.

“Hey! I spent a lot of time on wrapping that!” Seth just throws some crumpled tissue paper in Kevin’s direction.

“Is this..” Seth bursts out laughing. From the box, Seth takes out a small doll dressed in jean bottoms and a mini leather jacket, with pushpins sticking out of his head and extremities. “Is this supposed to be Ambrose?”

“It’s a voodoo doll of Dean.”

Seth can’t contain his laughter. “Oh my god.”

“I saw it when WWE was in New York. I figured you could use it.”

Seth starts poking Dean’s head with a pushpin.

“And you know if you don’t,” Kevin goes on, “You can give it back to me. I kind of already used it. Quite frankly, I couldn’t resist sticking a needle in Ambrose’s eye.”

“So much for ‘picked it up on the way here’” Seth smirked. “If you’re gonna lie, at least get your story straight.”

Kevin mumbles something under his breath.

“Wait…you- ” Seth stops suddenly,  confused.” You bought this in New York? But that was months ago.”

“Well, we kinda started sleeping together by then and…It just…I thought about you when I saw it,” Kevin says, rubbing the back of his neck.

Seth softens and looks at him. “And you kept it all this time?”

“Don’t read anything into it. I just didn’t know the right time to give you a voodoo doll of your ex.”

Seth just nods his head, but doesn’t push Kevin any more. “It’s not too serious for our first Christmas, but it’s just enough.”

“This is not our first Christmas. Because I’m not celebrating Christmas with you and this isn’t a Christmas present.”

Seth just ignores the comment and smiles at him knowingly. “Thank you.”

“For what? I told you it’s not a gift. I already used it for Chrissakes.”

Seth crawls onto Kevin’s lap, carefully maneuvering his bum knee to the side as Kevin helps him sit up. “For thinking of me. For not being afraid to trust me – this – to bring up Dean again.”

“It’s just a freaking doll.”

Seth kisses him quickly on the lips. “I love it. It’s perfect.”

There’s a brief silence, as Seth settles into Kevin’s chest.

“So hypothetically…if this were a Christmas present, do I get something in return?” Kevin asks, stroking Seth’s hair.

“That isn’t a come-on, is it?” Seth laughs, lifting his eyes up to meet Kevin’s.

“What? No. I’m legitimately wondering what you gave me. I can’t go spending money around on people who don’t spend their money back on me!”

“You’ll just have to wait until Christmas like a good boy, I guess.”

Kevin scoffs. “You already opened yours though!”

“Well, I guess I’m a bad boy then,” Seth says in a low voice, wriggling his eyebrows and tugging on Kevin’s shirt collar down.

“Oh my god,” Kevin groans.

Seth just chuckles softly again and playfully slaps Kevin on the cheek before snuggling back into his chest. “I’ll give you a hint though,” Seth starts again as he stares up at the ceiling.

“If it’s not a koala, I will be very disappointed.” Kevin tries to play it cool, but Seth can tell that he’s actually really curious.

“It’s not a koala.”

“I hate you. I’m leaving.”

“Kevin, wait…” Seth smiles, grabbing his hand before Kevin can get up and pretend to storm off.

“What good is befriending the Authority if you can’t get a baby koala out of it?” Kevin complains.

“It is fuzzy and cute though, so I promise you you’ll like it.”

“I better.”

“But you have to stay a few more days so I can give it to you.”

“Is it a dog? Fuck Seth, did you give me a dog?”

“Maybe…”

“This is really just for yourself, isn’t it?”

“It’s for us,” Seth says simply.

Kevin, surprisingly, doesn’t argue with that, and Seth hums softly in the comfort of Kevin’s arms.

“So are you gonna stay a few more days?” Seth yawns.

“This dog better be the cutest goddamn dog in the world,” Kevin mumbles in response.

“So yes?” Seth grins.

“Cuter than that koala that held my finger at the zoo in Australia,” Kevin warns pointedly.

Seth just nods, reaching up to give Kevin a lazy kiss. “Will you just admit that you wanna stay because you’ll miss me?” Seth breathes, as he pulls away.

“Will you just admit that you begged me to come over because you actually like my company?” Kevin retorts.

Seth just smiles coyly as he drifts off to sleep.