On the ninth day of Christmas (09)...
Ice Cubes (Shawn/Gus)
Lately, Shawn had taken to raiding their office fridge of all their ice cubes. Gus had finally caught him, following the trail of water droplets over to Shawn, who was bent over his desk.
"Shawn, is that? Are you building an igloo?" he asked incredulously. Shawn just nodded and went back to his work. Gus sighed and hoped it would be the end of it.
It wasn't, of course.
"Shawn, are you building the White House out of our ice cubes?"
"Is that the Taj Mahal?"
"Shawn, did you try to build a log cabin out of ice cubes? They aren't even the same shape!"
And it went on like, for several weeks. Once Shawn had finished his creation, he would set it outside to melt. Shawn would sit outside and watch the destruction too. Gus frowned. He wondered what any of it meant, but knowing Shawn, it could mean anything or nothing.
Maybe Shawn was finally getting restless. Gus was surprised he stuck around this long in the first place. It seemed light years away when Shawn first came back and roped him into this fake psychic business. He was so used to his best friend being gone and coming back. But Shawn had stayed still for more than two years.
Maybe Shawn was building places he had seen, places he still wanted to see. Gus had always knew in the back of his mind, Shawn would leave. So he always kept up that one guard, that one wall so he could be prepared. Finally, Gus knew he had to confront Shawn about these stupid ice cube structures.
When he went to find Shawn, Gus found him building another place. Only he didn't recognize it. It just kinda looked like a house, a nice little place. Gus rested a hand on Shawn's shoulder to get his attention. Shawn cocked his head to the side but kept working.
"Shawn, what is this?" Gus asked.
"Well, my good friend, it's a house," Shawn said. Gus shook his head.
"No, I mean what is all this? All this building?" Gus clarified.
"Look inside the house," Shawn said, pointing in through the open door. So Gus looked and it kinda looked like two little ice cube people, with faces, that looked like- oh. Oh. Gus backed up, shocked.
"Is this your weird way of asking if you want to move in together?" Gus asked, hands folded over his chest, defensive. This was, unexpected. Moving into a house, it was so, final. So permanent. So not Shawn. But Shawn was nodding.
"Yeah. I dunno. I've been looking for a new place but every time I look around, the only ones that seemed right are the ones for two people and I knew what that meant. But, it was just an idea, I didn't know how you'd take it," Shawn said, "How you'd feel about that."
Gus opened his mouth and closed it. Shawn came over and leaned his head on Gus's shoulder, waiting for an answer. Gus tried to see it, Shawn and him in a house, their house. Living together. Together. They never really put what they had into words, but this seemed like something official, making them really, together. Gus slid an arm around Shawn's shoulders and sighed.
"Why don't we go check out this house, in real life?" Gus said, letting the last of his walls drop. Shawn smiled and grabbed Gus's keys. They linked hands as they left and Gus couldn't even be bothered by the fact that when they came back, the little ice house would be all melted.