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“Nonononono look out!” Adam cried as he rushed over to Caleb’s side. He made a diving leap for the counter top, just barely able to intercept Caleb’s toppling gingerbread house. He’d looked away from it for a minute to look at some birds outside the window and its structural integrity was not up to the task it had been given.
Naturally, Adam had to save the day.
Now normally, it would be Caleb pulling some heroic, athletic move to make sure that their day went well, but this time it was Adam’s turn to take the spotlight as he made a magnificent save to the gingerbread house that had come so close to falling off the counter top.
“Caleb, you gotta pay more attention to what’s going on in here. What, can you feel bird feelings now?” Adam joked softly, nudging his boyfriend with his shoulder. Caleb turned to Adam and rolled his eyes, grabbing the cookie from his hands.
“Maybe I just did, you never know. Also, you have
no
idea how weird it is to feel you panicking about something for like one second and then feeling really proud. It’s like… actually, no. You’d make fun of me if I told you.”
Adam gave him the best puppy-dog expression he could muster, turning his head sideways and furrowing his eyebrows as he drew his lips into a pout. Caleb took one look at him, then bit his lip and turned his head in the other direction.
“Ah-ah-ah, no way am I telling you. You’ll just call me a meathead and ruin this cool, cookie-decorating Christmas-y vibe we have going on.” Caleb rolled his eyes, grabbing the front of his gingerbread house from Adam’s hand and squeezing frosting onto it.
Adam took that into consideration for a moment before responding. “Well, I can actually call you a meathead at any time, you meathead. I don’t need an excuse or anything, because it’s always true. Tell me whatever it was you were gonna say. I dare you.”
Caleb sighed deeply, pushing the front and the sides of his house together. “Well, I was gonna say that it’s like football but faster. Like you were the wide receiver catching a really long pass but the anticipation part was a lot shorter and the celebration part was a lot longer. Like, normally, they’re scared the entire time the ball is in the air and they’re proud of themselves for like a second or two but they have to be paying attention to the game, but for you the victory was obviously longer, so… yeah. Like a wide receiver.”
When Adam didn’t respond, Caleb looked up from his gingerbread house, now with three walls. “What? Nothing about how I’m a meathead who never stops thinking about sports?”
Adam couldn’t help but smile, carefully applying frosting to the edge of one of his walls, afraid they might run out at the pace that Caleb was going. “Nah. I mean, sure, you are a meathead who never stops thinking about sports, but, I think it’s kinda cute.”
“What, you’re into jocks? Is that your type?”
“Pfft, are you kidding? No, I’m only into one. Everyone else is… eh, they’re okay.”
Caleb grinned at him, laughing to himself as he considered his three-walled house and the set of cookies for a second house. He took a bite out of one of the walls as he was thinking, to which Adam vehemently objected.
“Caleb! You’re not supposed to eat it, you’re just supposed to build a house with it!”
“So? It’s a cookie and I’m hungry.” Caleb explained, putting the cookie dangerously close to his open mouth.
“Absolutely not. We ate like half an hour ago.”
Caleb shook his head, imitating Adam in a strangely high-pitched voice. “Ooh, we just ate!” He switched back to his regular voice as he started adding frosting to his third wall. “Dude, I had a workout at like five in the morning, and I’m so hungry right now I could probably eat this entire gingerbread house, no problem.”
“Well…” Adam pursed his lips as he thought. “How about you hold off on eating your gingerbread house until we’ve taken pictures? And you can have all the leftover frosting when we’re done putting them together.”
Caleb offered his frosting-coated hand to Adam, who shook it with a laugh. The laugh turned into a gasp as Caleb swiftly moved to pick him up, holding him until they were the same height, and softly pecking him on the lips. Adam flushed brightly, laughing even more.
“What was that about?” He asked as he was placed back on solid ground.
Caleb shrugged, nonchalant. “Did it have to be for anything?”
“Maybe I want to know so I can do it again.”
Caleb sighed, rolling his eyes. “Well, I suppose if you absolutely
have
to know, you were being particularly adorable and I just couldn’t help myself.”
Adam chuckled at that, putting a hand next to his cheek to hide the blush that was steadily growing. “Now, hold on a second, but that doesn’t tell me anything.”
“Doesn’t have to. Surely you’re smart enough to figure it out on your own.” Caleb teased quietly.
Adam shook his head, crossing his arms. “That’s no fair.”
“What can I say? You’re usually pretty cute but what you did just happened to be cuter than normal. I don’t know how to describe it.”
“What was I doing?”
“I just love seeing you smile. I wish you did it more.”
Something groaned inside of his chest as his good mood deflated. He was sure that Caleb hadn’t meant to make him sad, but he certainly had done it. He made eye contact with Caleb and found that Caleb was wincing, just as sad as Adam was.
“Oh, god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—I didn’t think about what I was saying. I’m so sorry—”
Adam smiled sadly at Caleb, placing a hand on the side of his face. “Caleb, don’t worry about it. You didn’t mean to make me sad, I get it. I smile a lot more when I’m with you. I’ve smiled a lot more around other people since I got with you. And it’s not just because we’re dating, it’s because you’ve showed me that I’m likable and that other people enjoy talking to me, and you’ve helped me through so many of my problems. People make fun of me now more than they ever used to, but I’ve realized that if you can like me as I am, then I can too.”
Tears welled in Caleb’s eyes as he heard the impassioned explanation. “Caleb, I… You… I love you so much.” He practically whimpered, pulling Adam in for a hug.
“Me too, Caleb. Me too.”
“But seriously, can I eat the cookies?”
Adam laughed.