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Night was just creeping up on them when the Killjoys finally found themselves a place to hole up in.
It’d been a long day, up at dawn, when Party Poison had hustled them all out of bed (unceremoniously), telling them there were ‘Crows outside.
“So what? If they’re not coming in, leave them to it.” Fun Ghoul had grumbled, even as he sat up, shrugging his jacket on.
“Aww, c’mon Ghoul.” Poison had said with a grin, “It’s been a while since we got ourselves in a decent fight.”
Ghoul rolled his eyes as he pulled his boots on. “I think you’ve been out here too long, Poison. The life’s getting to you. Starting to enjoy killing.”
“Shut that lying mouth.” Party Poison snapped, before grinning and bending down, his hand on Fun Ghoul’s chin, tipping his head up, so he could kiss him.
“And get ready.” He added, before hurrying off to check on the progress of the others.
Turned out Party Poison had overestimated the situation.
There was a grand total of three Scarecrows outside, and, upon realising this, the leader quickly lost interest.
“Way too easy.” He said. “Not worth it. It’d be almost cruel.”
The other three complained about being woken up for nothing, but Poison pretended not to hear them, instead telling them it was about time they moved on anyway.
They packed up what little they had, and got in the car.
They hurtled past the Scarecrows, who tried to chase after them.
The Killjoys got their little taste of fight by shooting out of the window.
The rest of the day was mostly spent driving. Occasionally stopping when something caught their eye, in search of amusement, but nothing kept their interest long.
When they finally agreed it was time to find a place to settle (because none of them felt like spending a night outside tonight), it’d taken them longer than expected to find a safe house.
Now they were here, and checking out the place.
It was small, but there was a centre room which was plenty big enough for the four of them.
There were a few small rooms, filled to the doors with stuff, but no extra rooms, so they would all need to sleep there too.
“Looks like we’re all in together again tonight.” Kobra Kid said, after checking a few doors. “So you two will have to go to the car if you want ‘fun time’.” He added, with a small grin, which he aimed at Poison and Ghoul.
Fun Ghoul scowled. He always hated when Kobra Kid called it that, knowing it was a play on his name.
And anyway, he found it awkward when Kid talked about their relationship like that.
Poison came up behind him, one arm wrapped loosely around Ghoul’s shoulder, almost hanging off him.
Poison nuzzled his face against Ghoul’s neck, pushing away the slightly dirty hair, and his other arm curled around Ghoul’s waist.
“I can’t think what Kid might mean by that, can you Ghoul?” Poison teased, his hand then reaching down, fingers splayed as he brushed over the front of Ghoul’s jeans.
Ghoul closed his eyes, and bit his lip.
“Quit it.” He growled, quietly.
“They don’t care.” Poison said, kissing his neck, his hand applying a little more pressure now.
“I said, quit it.” Ghoul repeated, going to push his hand away, only to find Poison instead slipped his hand down into his jeans.
“Poison!” He yelped.
“You two!” Kobra Kid interrupted, making Ghoul look up, blushing heavily now. “To the car if you wanna do that stuff. I have no desire to watch my brother molest you, Ghoul.”
“Tell him that!” Ghoul protested, wiggling out of Poison’s grip.
Poison was laughing too much at this point to put up much of a fight, knowing he’d got Ghoul worked up, which had been his aim.
While all this was going on, Jet Star had taken it upon himself to have a look through the contents of the rooms. Sometimes they found something useful, though often it was just a lot of scrap stuff they found.
This time, something quite unexpected caught his eye.
“Guys.” Jet Star called. “Anyone got an idea what date it is?”
“Uh.” Ghoul said, looking at his watch.
It said April 21st, which he knew for a fact wasn’t right.
It also said it was three o’clock, which he also knew was wrong.
It also wasn’t ticking.
He tapped it a few times, and when that did nothing, he took it off and hit it, not too hard, against the wall.
That seemed to bring it back to life.
“Fucking sand.” He muttered.
Then, as he slipped it back on he looked again.
And his eyes went wide.
“Oh, wow. Okay. It’s Christmas Eve!”
“Seriously?” Poison asked, grabbing Ghoul’s wrist, wrenching it close to he could see.
Fun Ghoul rolled his eyes. “Could you not manhandle me for two fucking seconds?” He protested.
“But then how would people know you’re my bitch?” Poison asked, innocently, before grinning, and kissing him swiftly.
“Poison!” Kid said, impatiently, “The date? Is it right?”
Poison looked up, seemingly just remembering that’s what he was meant to be doing. He looked again, then nodded. “Yep. Looks it. December 24th. Christmas Eve.” He looked again, and added, “And it’s… Roughly three hours until Christmas.”
“Well.” Jet Star said, beaming. “I think I have a surprise for you guys.”
And then, from out of the room he was standing outside of, Jet Star pulled out a tall, fake Christmas tree.
The other three stared at it, then grinned.
It seemed they’d all had the exact same thought.
The tree itself was a little worse for wear, a little be scraggly, and it definitely had bits missing. But, it served it’s purpose.
All four of them spent the next hour gathering things to decorate the tree with. They managed to find some normal decorations in the same room, but other than that, they just looked for things that kinda worked.
Cleaned off tin lids worked well, as did battery packs (the small ones anyway).
After, the four of them stepped back, and admired their work.
“Looks pretty good to me.” Poison said, proudly. “We did good.”
“Yeah, amazing what some junk can do to brighten up the place.” Kobra Kid quipped.
“You know you had fun really.” Poison said, gently nudging his brother, who rolled his eyes and laughed.
“Almost feels like a proper Christmas!” Kid joked back.
“Why can’t it be?” Ghoul asked, frowning up at the tree.
“What?” Kid said.
“Why can’t it be a proper Christmas? I mean… I know we don’t exactly have gifts for each other… But maybe we could figure something out. And… As for food, we have plenty in the car, we could maybe make a bigger deal out of it… You know. And…”
Party Poison came up to Fun Ghoul, and once again wrapped his arm around the other mans shoulders.
For once, the contact was purely innocent, as was the small kiss placed on his cheek. “You know what, Ghoul? That sounds really, really good.”
Ghoul smiled, proudly.
A few, short hours later, and the four Killjoys saw in their first Christmas together.
It was never going to be like any normal Christmas, nothing was ever quite normal, out in the zones.
But, they would make what they could of it.
And, in the early hours, when the other two had fallen asleep, Fun Ghoul and Party Poison sat in front of the tree together, looking up at it.
Poison took Ghoul’s hand, and held it, tight.
He leant in close and whispered, “Merry Christmas, Frank.”
Ghoul jolted, not used to hearing his real name.
He turned to look at the Killjoy leader, and saw him smiling, softly.
“Merry Christmas, Gerard.” He replied.
The smile grew, and Poison leant forward, kissing Ghoul carefully.
Then Party Poison leant back, his arms out behind him, and he tipped his head back, closing his eyes.
“Merry Christmas, Killjoys.” He said, only a little louder.
He wondered how many Killjoys out there knew it was Christmas.
Mainly, he was just glad he knew, and that he was with his family.