sorry i gotta do it, i get the inkspiration by this post :DDDDD

Poor Baby, he's so confused. XDD

There’s No Place like Home for the Holidays [Open RP]

Christmas didn’t happen in the forest.

Some years, it didn’t even snow. The trees remained barren and brown, and the stillness and silence born from hibernating animals only made their imposing shadows feel all the more isolating.

Gawain had grown used to that, eventually.

He’d learned to forget the sounds of a crackling fireplace and glasses clinking in the next room; grown to ignore the longing for family and friends and feeling  h o m e. He’d lost all that the moment his brakes had failed….and after twenty years, Gawain had come to accept that he could never have those things back.

….but then he did.

He had a home again, and a family. He had his brother back, and his uncle, and two potential siblings-in-law and a weird talking-dog-uncle to boot. He never had to go back to the forest again; never had to spend years upon years floating about unseen and unheard just to feel at home again. It was…it was…

….quite alarming, actually. Wasn’t he supposed to feel happy about this? Why, then, was he feeling…afraid, of all things?

The lights on the tree cast a soft yellow glow throughout the living room. So late at night, they were the only light left on. No-one living was left awake to need anything more. Gawain sat silently on the couch with his arms stretched out across the back, staring at the tree as if lost in thought.

“…you can’t sleep either, aye?” The ghost spoke up. “Too excited to wait until morning?”

Arthur froze, nearly jumping out of his skin, then squinted through the dim light to see his older brother lounging on the couch.

Brightening up, he walked over to him.

“I didn’t think anyone else would be up…” he glanced around suspiciously, “Uncle Lance isn't up is he?”

Arthur would rather avoid any lectures about how he needed to get more sleep…

He turned back focusing on his brother.

“Merry Christmas by the way, it's past midnight now.” Arthur smiled, “As for excited… well I guess so… was never really big on Christmas. Didn't even really celebrate it till I moved in with uncle Lance…”

Christmas had always been a lonely affair for Arthur as a child. His parents would usually go out to some Christmas party, while he stayed home with a babysitter, later, when they're relationship worsened, they'd go to separate parties, and Arthur would sit home alone, and watch TV all night.

It was never a big deal until Lance took him in.

Lance Kingsmen changed Arthur’s whole outlook on life, not least of all on Christmas. Arthur could still remember the bewilderment he'd felt being drug out of bed early Christmas morning and taken out to see a small pine tree in the corner of the kitchen, all decked out in lights and garland with several brightly wrapped gifts below.

He'd just stood there blinking in honest confusion. Because what even was this? A Hallmark Movie? He'd been even more bewildered when Lance had pushed him down beside the tree and then flopped down beside him, urging him to unwrap his gifts from Santa.

‘Santa? But Santa's fake. Everyone knows that-’

‘Now just you hush that mouth! You want coal in your stocking next year? Now hurry up and start ripping that paper!’

And so he had, beaming excitedly as he'd unwrapped what had turned out to be the components of his first tool box. Most of which he had kept good to this day.

It had been a great if confusing day. The rest of the workers had come at one point, despite it being their day off, and Arthur had attended his first ever Christmas party right there in the shop of Kingsmen Mechanics.

Arthur smiled fondly at the memories, and sat down beside Gawain, pulling his legs up under him.

“What about you?” He asked, turning to look the ghost in the eyes, “You excited for today?”