Jingle Bells

Let's not dwell

On why I never post!

I have a lot of things to do

And I've not finished most!

Scattered wrapping paper in a multitude of colors. The smell of gingerbread and marshmallows. Trash littering the floor. And two teenage boys lying side by side on the floor.

"I told you having a party would be fun," Sam groaned.

"What time is it?" Peter hissed, pathetically flapping his hand towards his phone. He couldn't quite reach it and promptly gave up.

"Um...almost two? I think."

"We have to clean this up."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

Neither moved.

They had invited nearly all of Midtown to a large hotel room that Harry had rented for them, and now the final partygoers had stumbled out. Harry was supposed to stay and help clean up, but he had snuck out hours ago.

Lucky jerk.

"Call the team or something! They'll help!" Sam whined.

"They're probably asleep Sam."

Sam moaned dramatically, rolling around on the floor. Peter closed his eyes in annoyance. He had the worst headache. But there was still so much to do. As slowly as humanely possible, he picked himself up into a sitting position.

"Get up. We have to at least do half of it," He ordered. Sam didn't answer.

"Sam come on! I'm not doing this alone!"

Peter balled his fists and kicked Sam in the ribs. The smaller boy coughed and shot up.

"Fine! But I'm getting something to eat first," He mumbled. Sam walked to the kitchenette and sighed at the mess of food. He selected a cupcake and shoved it into his mouth.

Peter laughed at him as he grabbed a broom.

"You have frosting all over your face."

"Shut up. I'm too tired to be neat."

"But it's bright red. You're like that reindeer...uh...what's it called?"

Sam glared at him. Peter snapped his fingers together as it came to him. "Rudolf!"

"Whatever. You do the floors and I'll handle the kitchen, okay?" Sam growled. But he did wipe his face in embarrassment. Peter nodded and began sweeping the carpets.

But it wasn't long before his mind started to wander. His eye lids drooped. As if on cue, his brain started playing a song over and over. Peter grunted, trying to ignore it.

It only seemed to get clearer.

"Hey do you hear that?" Sam asked suddenly. Peter blinked.

"What?"

"The song. The room next door is playing that song about ra-"

"The room next door?" Peter said, now feeling like an idiot. "I thought that was just me."

"Well it isn't. Listen," Sam abandoned his cleaning and went to press his face against the wall. Peter joined him. Now the lyrics were loud in his ears. A smile came over his lips.

It might have been exhaustion. Or maybe boredom. But he suddenly felt an overpowering need to sing along.

"This evening has been..." He started off quietly, but Sam still heard him.

"What are you doing?"

"So very nice!" Peter laughed through the lyric.

"Are you serious?"

"My mother will start to worry!" Peter grabbed his broom again and started dancing with it.

Sam shook his head, but he couldn't keep his grin from peeking out.

"Father will be pacing the floor!" Peter kept going, "So really I'd better scurry!"

His foot caught on an overturned coffee table and he started to trip. Sam caught him easily and offered him a raised eyebrow as he sang the counter part.

"Beautiful please don't hurry..."

Peter's eyes widened. Then he laughed.

"I didn't know you could sing!" He giggled. Sam smirked and dropped him. Peter fell and Sam hopped over him to stand on the couch.

"Baby it's bad out there!" He shouted.

"Say, what's in this drink?" Peter stood alongside him, swinging his hips as femininely as possible. Apparently he swung them too vigorously because he knocked into Sam, causing the smaller hero to fall on top of him.

Their bodies bounced softly on the couch. Under any regular circumstances, there might have been some blushing. Maybe some awkward scrambling, even.

But it was nearly two-thirty in the morning and Sam didn't particularly see any reason why he should get up, and Peter didn't feel it necessary to tell him to.

"I'm so tired," Peter commented.

"Let's finish cleaning tomorrow."

"It is tomorrow, Bucket Head."

"Then let's finish when we wake up."

Peter nodded. That seemed like a good idea. He lay his head back on a pillow and closed his eyes.

Wait...

He slowly reopened his eyes to stare at Sam.

"What the heck is wrong with your heart?" Peter moaned.

"Huh?"

"I don't like the way your chest is wriggling. It's going too fast."

"What the hell Parker that's how I breathe."

"Well breathe slower, or get off," Peter huffed.

"You can't just...It's not my...I can't do that!" Sam's voice grew high pitched. He narrowed his eyes as he slid off of Peter and crammed himself next to him.

"I didn't like your stupid, bony ribs anyway," He pouted.

"No you love my bony ribs."

"I'm surprised they haven't cut through your freaking shirt yet..."

"You would like that wouldn't you?" Peter drawled. His eyes were closing now, and everything was becoming pleasantly heavy.

"Not as much as you'd like it...if I took mine off," Sam mumbled back.

"Go get a blanket idiot."

"You get it. Stupid."

Peter exhaled loudly through his mouth. He opened one eye and aimed his web shooter at the light switch. A ball of webbing hit the wall and the lights turned off. Then he quickly wrapped Sam and himself in a web blanket.

A few more incoherent words exchanged their lips. Then they both descended into oblivion.

The harshness of the morning light penetrated the hotel room. The white beams searched every dark corner, finally landing upon two teenagers, curled up against each other.

The stale air reeked of milk and dough.

A beeping disturbed the scene.

"Ugh..." Peter moaned. He blearily opened his eyes. His head was fuzzy and he was confused as to why he was so warm. And, why was his face so sticky?

He tried to look to his left without moving. Peter blinked.

Sam was still there, facing him. Only his mouth was stuffed with two candy canes and pink dribble was dried to his chin.

The candy hung out quite a bit, and was partially stuck to Peter's cheek.

"S-sam?" Peter shook the other boy. He got no answer. Sighing, he pawed at the candy cane, but it wouldn't come off.

"Sam!"

"SAM GET UP!"

"What is it?!" Sam shot upwards, ripping the candy from Peter's skin with an audible tearing noise.

Peter screamed and cupped his face. Tears sprang to his eyes.

"Why...why are there candy canes in your mouth?" He whimpered.

"I got hungry, and then I guess I fell back to sleep," Sam answered, spitting out the candy. He wiped his mouth off.

"You could have choked to death! Who just falls asleep with two sticks down their throat?!"

"Shut up I've seen you sleep upside down before," Sam sneered. He untangled himself from the blanket of webbing and stretched.

"So um...do you remember what we said last night?" Peter asked suddenly.

The peaceful silence turned awkward. Sam froze with his arms over his head. Then it all rushed back to him with agonizing clarity.

"Yeah."

"Oh. Me too," Peter said. He looked down with a faint blush creeping over his cheeks.

"Hey it's fine, ok? We were tired and just messing around," Sam sat down next to him. "Besides, we're not going to tell anyone right?"

"Right," Peter nodded. He seemed more reassured now, and smiled a bit. "You're right. Let's just finish cleaning and get out of here."

He looked over to the floor, where his phone was beeping wildly.

Peter read the text messages and his eyes grew increasingly wider. He looked up at Sam.

"This is bad."

"What's up?" Sam leaned down to read the phone. His face fell.

"A fight against Taskmaster in Central Park? Two hours ago!?"

Peter blinked. "What? No that's not...Are you blind Bucket Head? Look at the time! We have five minutes before check-out and we still haven't cleaned anything!"

Now Sam's face really whitened.

"Oh god you're right!"

There was a beat of panicked glances. Then both of them leaped up and dived for the broom.

Yay! Finally finished! I know it's not very long but I just had nothing else to write. Happy Holidays to everyone! There might be an update to Kingdom before 2017, but if there isn't, then I'll see you next year!

(also, yes I drew the cover myself. I apologize for how bad it is.)

Wolf Out...