#svsecretsanta

As far as days go, this one had been alright. No weird phone calls, no eldritch abominations interfering, nothing out of the ordinary. Things could almost be considered... normal. Tim wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. He was almost too busy with possible 'what if?' scenarios to register that Jay had just spoken from the passenger seat beside him.

"It's almost Christmas."

“Wait, what?” Tim asked, slightly startled by the interruption in his thoughts.

“I said, it’s almost Christmas,” Jay repeated, turning slightly in his seat to look at Tim.

“And? No offense, but I think we have more important things to worry about than a stupid holiday, Jay. Like, you know,  how we’re going to pay for a hotel with the last of our money,” Tim said with a slight shake of his head.

Jay glanced off to the side for a moment. He knew Tim was right, but things had gone fine recently, hadn’t they? No Alex, no... whatever that thing was, no masked alternate personas popping up to mess with them, things were almost back to some semblance of normal. Would celebrating one little holiday make that much of a difference?

“We don’t have to do anything big, Tim. I just thought that since things had calmed down a bit, we could do what normal people do and celebrate a bit. Don’t you want to at least pretend to be normal?” Jay asked.

“It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that we literally don’t have any money to do anything vaguely in the spirit of the holiday, Jay.”

“You don’t need money to spend with people, Tim.” Jay responded.

“I know that, Jay.”

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Are we gonna at least fake some holiday cheer?”

“...Fine. I won't be much help with planning though, it's been so long since I've celebrated Christmas,” Tim said, attention once again fully on the road.

“Right now, I’m okay with that,” Jay replied.

----------------------

As it turned out, Christmas came a lot faster than either Jay or Tim had anticipated, and now Jay was part of the last-minute holiday shopping scramble. Between the two of them, there was enough money left over after their latest hotel stay for Jay to get a present or two for both of them. He doubted Tim would get him anything, but that didn’t really matter.

Purchases in hand, Jay returned to the hotel where he and Tim were staying. He doubted that he’d get the chance to wrap anything, so he’d opted for decorative gift bags instead.

Opening the door to the shared room was a bit harder when his hands were already occupied, but all it took in the end was a bit of awkward fumbling with the keycard in the end. Entering the room, Jay noticed that Tim was gone, which worried him a bit. He placed the bags on his bed, then pulled out his phone to see if he’d somehow missed a message from Tim. Nothing. When several messages went unanswered, Jay grew even more worried.

“He chose a bad day to disappear… Wait, what day is it?” Jay muttered to himself, checking the calendar on his phone. “December 24th, Christmas Eve. Really not a good day to vanish, Tim…”

After a short moment, Jay decided to start calling Tim to see if he was okay. As he raised the phone to his ear, the door opened, revealing Tim and the bag he was holding.

“Where were you? I tried texting you, like, ten times, why didn’t you respond?” Jay asked, ending the call and rushing over to where Tim stood.

“It’s Christmas Eve, isn’t it? I found some money in one of my jacket pockets and figured I’d go and get some stuff for us,” Tim said, shifting the bag behind his back a bit while shutting the door.

“Some stuff? Like what?”

“Normal people usually get other people presents for Christmas, don’t they?”

Jay mentally facepalmed. Of course that’s what Tim was doing. Jay’s worry wasn’t quite gone yet, though.

“That still doesn’t explain why you didn’t message me or call me to say you’d be gone.”

“My phone’s been on the fritz ever since our last encounter with Mr. Tall, Dark, and Faceless, remember? I haven’t had time to get it fixed lately,” Tim replied, moving past Jay towards the other bed in the room.

Another mental facepalm. He’d been there with Tim that last time, how could he have forgotten?

“You mentioned the whole gift-giving thing earlier, and I have to ask, what’d you get me?” he asked, curiosity rising.

“You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out,” Tim replied, smirking slightly.

“You’ll have to wait too, then,” Jay said, picking up the bags off his bed. He leaned over, opened a drawer on the nearby nightstand, and placed the bags inside before shutting it.

“I should have seen that coming, shouldn’t I?” Tim said with a soft chuckle.

“Yep. But hey, we don’t have too long to wait since it’s pretty late,” Jay replied, a quick glance at the nearby clock showing that it was currently 11:02 PM.

Quiet settled over the two as they got ready for bed. After they were both comfortably situated under the thin hotel sheets, Jay spoke up.

“Hey Tim?”

“Yeah?”

“Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, Jay.”

So, as part of the @slenderversesecretsanta exchange, I wrote this little Jam fic for @alfredherofjones.  I hope you like it!!!

Title:  Off the Beaten Path Fandom:  Marble Hornets Pairing:  Tim/Jay Prompt:   tim/jay, anything fluffy/angsty between the two Summary:   Tim isn’t sure exactly when he started to like Jay.

Tim isn’t sure exactly when he started to like Jay.  The other man had lied to him, all so they could go somewhere Jay knew to be dangerous and chase down that man in the hood who kept messing with them.  And it wasn’t that Tim couldn’t hold a grudge, either.  His hatred for Alex clawed at him from the inside every day, begging to be released into the world again.  But somewhere between the surprise in Jay’s voice when Tim said they needed to work together and how earnestly he tried to convince Tim that all of this wasn’t his fault, Jay managed to slip through Tim’s emotional defenses.

Before Tim knows it, the two of them are running from Alex together.  Their days are spent driving – hours and hours on the road, talking to each other on their cells the whole way.  It starts mostly as a way to make sure they didn’t lose each other as they take the back roads.  But Jay was never good with silences, and Tim finds that he hadn’t realized quite how much he had missed having someone to talk to.  Their nights are spent at cheap motels in small towns off the beaten path, Jay going through each day’s footage on fast-forward on his laptop, just in case.

One night, the only motel they can find doesn’t have any double rooms left, so they end up with a single queen bed instead.  Tim, used to nights in hospital beds, offers to sleep on the chair in the corner of the room.  Jay isn’t having any of it, though.  He’s been on edge ever since he saw the tape of Tim taking all those pills, and he insists that Tim needs his rest.  Jay doesn’t look much better, though, dark circles under his eyes and clothes fitting a bit too loosely.  Tim replies that Jay paid, the bed should be his.  After some arguing, Jay declares that this is stupid and they should both just sleep in the bed before they waste any more precious time.  Tim wants to continue to argue, but his back is stiff from all the driving, so he concedes.  They start the night lying as far apart from each other as possible – neither of them has shared a bed with anyone before, and the tension between them is palpable.  There is only so long either of them can fight exhaustion, though, and before Tim knows it he’s waking up in the middle of the night with Jay’s arm around him. He’s surprised to find that it’s kind of comforting.  He doesn’t remember the last time something felt that way.  Tim can’t bring himself to pull away, and he when he falls back asleep that night, it’s the best sleep he remembers having in years.

Jay tries to apologize when they wake up in the morning, stumbling over his words to tell Tim that he didn’t mean to and it won’t happen again, but Tim stops him.  Quietly, Tim admits that he didn’t mind, not sure exactly what to expect from Jay in response.  Tim knows he missed crucial years of socialization, but he’s under the impression this isn’t exactly normal.  But their lives aren’t normal, and he’ll be damned if he’s going to deny himself the only feelings of safety he’s known since college.  Much to Tim’s shock, Jay replies that he didn’t really mind either.  They never talk much more about it – too much else to worry about – but it somehow becomes the norm for them.  Late at night, when the anxiety and the rage and the paranoia get to be too much after hours of rewatching their days in fast-forward, Jay closes his laptop and crawls into a motel bed to wrap his arms around Tim.  They hold each other close, trying to keep each other grounded as the world around them fades to darkness and horror.

Tim knows it’s all too good to last, though.  He’s never managed to keep people around him, and he doesn’t expect this to be any different. Just as always, his compulsive lying comes back to get him.  This time, it takes the form of he and Jay wrestling for possession of the last tape he had hidden in his house.  Jay leaves and watches the tape without any context.  Tim really can’t blame Jay for the conclusions that he jumps to – that Jessica is gone, that Tim knew this whole time, that it may be Tim’s fault entirely.  But he doesn’t expect it to culminate in Jay coming to his house with a knife and zip ties. Tim ties him up, hoping that maybe if Jay is stuck here he won’t get hurt.

It backfires, of course. The next time Tim sees signs of Jay, it’s just blood and a camera on the ground.  Tim looks for Jay all across the college campus, but there are no other traces of him.  Tim goes home and uses the camera to watch Jay’s last tape.  When he sees that thing show up, and then watches Jay disappear, Tim punches his fist through his bedroom wall.

hi so im not rly happy w this so i made up for it w a really short drabble on top?? idk. merry crim ciphy :^O

“Guys!” Brian calls out, jogging up to Jay and Tim sitting on an expanse of concrete, waiting for the rest of the Marble Hornets crew to arrive. Tim absentmindedly fans himself with his script as Jay laughs at his fluttering bangs. At Brian’s call, they both turn and grin.

“Where’s Alex? Late again?”

“Do you really need to ask anymore?” Tim retorts with a smile. Brian snorts,  slinging his arms over their shoulders. Jay giggles and covers his mouth. He always did that when he laughed.

“He can be on time! Sometimes…” Jay trails off as Tim raises his eyebrows.

“Name one time.”

“Hhuuhhhhhh….” Jay flushes a soft shade of red. “Point taken.”

Brian laughs and shuffles between them and lies down, across both their laps. He squints at the glaring sun and wriggles out of his tan hoodie, dropping it on his face to block out the light. And all of his vision. Jay and Tim exchange a devious look. Gesturing for Tim to be quiet, Jay readies his hand, and jabs it into Brian’s side.

“FFFFUCK….. JAY!” Brian flings the hoodie off and looks accusingly at Jay.

Feigning innocence, Jay raises his hands. “Hey, how do you know it wasn’t Tim?”

“I recognized your tiny hands, Jay. They’re so delicate and… womanly.”

“Wh- I- I do have small hands. Touché, Bri.”

Brian laughs and lies back down, positioning his hoodie back on his face.

“G’night guys… Wake me up when Alex arrives.”

“Wake you up inside?” Jay supplies with a grin.

“I- Sure.”

hey happy holidays!!! i participated in the slenderverse secret santa and i was @setitalks secret santa!! i literally have no idea how to draw scriniarii but i hope this is okay!!! ^^ also here’s a bonus festive firebrand bc you seem to like him a lot!!! 

i finished my slenderverse secret santa for @its-your-local-dead-boi :> It’s a small transformation of evan who turns into habit and back. I’ll give you it as a video because tumblr might fuck up the quality of my gifs :P 

Anyway, have a merry christmas!