A Little Late
Fandom: Merlin [actors]
Pairing: B.James/C.Morgan
Chapter: 1/1
Rating: PG?
Story summary: Spending Christmas alone.
Warnings: Contains slash! Obviously.
Disclaimer: Obviously this never happened. A Christmas present for a friend.
“I just wanna see my baby standing right outside my door. I just-”
“Oh shut up!” Colin growled, slamming his hand down on the off switch of the radio which the nauseating Mariah Carey single had been blasting out of and dropping on to his comfy sofa.
He had been irritable ever since he found out he would be spending Christmas alone, due to the heavy snow fall preventing him from being able to get to Ireland to visit his parents. He had been so set on going, right up until he received a phone call from his extremely worried mother telling him that if he so much as sat in his car he wouldn’t be getting any Christmas presents. Of course Colin knew that this was merely a joke, but the reasoning behind it wasn’t and he respected his mother’s wishes; if she didn’t want him driving to visit her, he wouldn’t. Besides, now that it had been pointed out to him how dangerous it potentially could be, he didn’t feel all that keen on driving in such thick snow... He had tried to think of other ways to spend Christmas but had come up with none. Katy had made a wise decision and flown back over to Ireland weeks ago; she was staying in her parents’ spare room and spending Christmas with the whole of her family, the lucky girl. Angel’s parents were on holiday in LA, but Colin knew for a fact Angel was spending Christmas day with her boyfriend, Lance, they wouldn’t want him getting in the way. And Bradley... Well, Colin thought Bradley was spending Christmas with family, but he hadn’t really had the chance to ask him. They had both been so busy! Well, Bradley had. Colin didn’t really have all that much of a social life, he preferred to stay indoors and read his books. He had thought of ringing Bradley, and had even picked up the phone to do it a few times, but had chickened out before he’d managed to press the call button.
So here he was, at five to ten on Christmas day evening, alone. Colin picked up the remote and turned on the TV. Flicking through the channels, he found the usual Christmas films were on, along with other festive programs like the “Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special” and other such delights. In the end he settled for “Love Actually”; a film which had been shown on TV at Christmas for as long as Colin could really remember but, to his knowledge, he had never actually watched.
*
By the half-way point in the movie, when he went out to make himself a cup of coffee during the compulsory ‘news break’, Colin had realised why he had never watched it - it was exactly the sort of film he hated. Idealistic lives, romances which would never really happen in real life, no doubt it would also have a happy ending... It was shit. He had half a mind not to watch the next half of the film! But Colin hated not watching a film to the end (no matter how much he wasn’t enjoying it) and the coffee was keeping him awake (God knows why he decided to have a cup at such a late hour!). So he did watch to the end, and there was the (near) perfect ending; even the kid got the girl in the end.
As heart-warming as the film was obviously supposed to be, Colin found that it had just pissed him off an awful lot. It was almost as though he was actually angry at the characters in the film, angry that they were braver than him - that they had the guts to make a move and win the heart of their beloved. He would never find the courage to do that, he was too scared of rejection, he could never have Bradley.
~***~
“Come on, Bradley, it’s time for you to go home.” Claire smiled as she took his empty pint glass from him and began to wipe down the counter.
“Mmhm.” He murmured, looking at her with sad eyes and slumping down on the smooth surface in front of him.
“Get up! Some of us do want to get home tonight.” She smirked, heaving him up and wiping the space where his head had been a few seconds before. As soon as she’d finished cleaning it he lay his head back down again, earning a small whack to the back of it from Claire and an exclamation of “I mean it, Bradley, help me clear up or get out!” He sat up, blinking his eyes a few times, and looked up at her. “Jesus, Bradley,” she sighed, “this is the last time I’m going to ask before I chuck you out; what is up with you today? It’s Christmas! You should be happy, you should be spending time with the ones you love and all that bullshit, not spending your evening moping round my bar and scaring away the customers!”
“Couldn’t get home ‘cause of all the snow.” He mumbled, looking down at the counter as he spoke, as if he was nervous. He was never normally nervous around Claire, it was strange for her. What did he have to be nervous about? She thought she knew.
May as well cut to the chase. “So is there no one in town you wanted to spend Christmas with? Katy or-”
“Yes,” he interrupted softly, “but I was too scared to ask him.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t surprised; she had known Bradley was gay from the moment she met him. No one else saw it, but she could tell. He had been coming to the bar for years and he often brought friends, she had gotten to know a few of them, mainly his three co-stars from the TV series ‘Merlin’: Katy, Angel and Colin. She saw immediately how he felt about one of them in particular; how much he cared, despite the facade he put on to hide it from the world. She could read him like a book. “Colin?” She asked quietly, gently placing her hand on Bradley’s arm.
For a moment he looked shocked, but then he nodded. “Colin.” He repeated miserably.
After a long pause in which Bradley continued staring at the counter and Claire stood awkwardly in front of him, wondering what to do with herself, Bradley spoke. “He couldn’t get back to Ireland to visit family, ‘cause of the snow: just like me. Angel told me, he didn’t want anyone knowing, but Angel phoned him when he was meant to be in Ireland and realised he clearly wasn’t and... He didn’t want me knowing, Claire. I would have asked to spend Christmas with him so he wasn’t by himself, but he wanted to spend it alone. It’s probably just like any other day for him, he probably just sits around all day reading books. He didn’t want to see me. He never even asked me what I was doing for Christmas, I haven’t seen him for months.” A single tear fell from Bradley’s eye; it rolled down his cheek and splashed onto the counter Claire had just finished cleaning.
Claire liked her work and she loved her bar, but it wasn’t a place many young people came to drink. The people who came to her bar tended to be men in their mid forties to fifties, so it was nice to have someone around who was in her own age group and Bradley was a sweet guy. Over the years Bradley had become more than just a customer, he had become a friend, and it broke her heart to see him like this.
“Oh, Bradley.” Claire sighed, moving round the counter and pulling him into a hug, “I’m sure that’s not how it is. I know I don’t know Colin as well as you do, but I don’t think he’d deliberately avoid you. I’m sure he just didn’t want to be a bother to anyone on Christmas!”
“But- but I- I-” Bradley sobbed
“You..?” Claire encouraged.
"I love him." Bradley whispered, wiping his eyes on his sleeve and sniffling a bit.
"You love him." Claire grinned, "You love him! I knew it! I bloody knew it!" Bradley was mildly pissed off that Claire looked so happy when he was quite clearly in the middle of a minor breakdown, but before he could say anything Claire was helping him out of his seat and into his jacket. He tried to protest, but she just told him to shut up before pulling him out of the pub, locking the door behind her and dragging him towards her car. Bradley had no idea what was going on and decided it would probably be best for him if he just went along with it. As they sat down in Claire's car she asked "Pass me your diary, will you?" before holding her hand out for it expectantly.
"My- What? Why?" Bradley questioned, fumbling through his pockets in search of the tiny book.
"Just give me it." Claire demanded, snatching it from Bradley's hand as he pulled it from his inside pocket. "Thank you." She smirked, flipping through the pages before stopping on one, reading it quickly and handing the diary back to Bradley with a small, knowing smile.
Bradley was getting more and more wound up by the second, he considered Claire one of his best friends, but at this moment in time she was really pissing him off. "Where are we going?" He asked angrily as Claire began to drive.
"You'll see."
*
Standing outside Colin's flat at half one in the morning Bradley decided that Claire definitely wasn't one ofhis best friends.
"Just go in there and say "Colin! All I want for Christmas is you!", he'll melt into a little puddle of- er- Colin and you can scoop him up and-"
"Seriously, what the fuck, Claire?" Bradley interrupted, a look of utter confusion on his face. "Really, what the hell are you on about?"
"Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best description of what'd happen..." She paused for a second before continuing "Okay then, I've got an idea, let's practice; pretend I'm Colin. This'll work! Look, I can do an Irish accent! Brradleey, do ewe 'ave somethin'- oh no, wait, that's Welsh. Err, just hold on- Just-"
"I can't believe you decided this was a good idea! I shouldn't trust you anywhere near as much as I do y'know." Bradley sighed, shaking his head. "This is not going to work."
"You don't know that." Claire smiled, sitting back down in her car "You may as well give it a go, eh? Come on, how are you gonna get home tonight without a lift anyway?" She smirked, quickly shutting the door and revving the engine loudly. Bradley cried out in protest and make a dive for the back door but it was no use. Bradley watched Claire drive away, leaving him standing in the cold outside Colin's flat.
"That girl will be the death of me, I swear. I hope she gets a bloody speeding ticket." He growled, before getting out his keys and unlocking the door to the lobby of the flat.
~***~
After the movie had finished, and Colin had cleared up all the empty sweet wrappers and mince pie tins, he decided he might as well go to bed; he had nothing better to do. He made up a hot water bottle before dragging himself to his bedroom and diving under the duvet with out even getting undressed; it was far too cold to get changed. Colin lay in bed feeling restless and trying to get comfortable and stay warm. He listened to the tick tick tick of his bedside alarm clock until he got too annoyed with the noise and took out the clock's batteries. He checked his phone to see if he had any messages - none - and glanced at the time: 1:07 a.m., he sighed; Christmas was over (and had been for over an hour without him even realising). He almost felt disappointed, it was as if he had been expecting a Christmas miracle or something, but it was far too late for that now. Slipping his phone under his pillow he shut his eyes, willing himself to sleep, if he couldn't have a Christmas miracle he at least wanted to get a decent amount of sleep.
*
Colin awoke to a loud buzzing sound. At first he was confused and didn't know what was happening, but then he realized: it was the door bell.
"What the hell?" He muttered, feeling around in the dark for his phone to check the time: 1:49. He had been asleep just over half an hour. So much for a good night's sleep. Colin was considering just ignoring the person at the door and going back to sleep, but it didn't sound like they were going to give up buzzing any time soon. Colin rolled out of bed, pulling on another hoodie to protect him from the cold outside, and shuffled out of his room towards the front door. He fumbled with the lock in the dark before yanking the door open and stepping into the corridor. "Yes?" He questioned, rubbing his eyes slightly as the bright light from the hallway temporarily blinded him.
"Er, hi..." Came a nervous voice; a voice which Colin would know anywhere, a voice which never normally sounded nervous.
Colin's head shot up as soon as he heard that beautiful, unmistakable voice and in front of him was the most beautiful man in the world. For a second Colin thought he might be dreaming - he had given up on Christmas miracles after all! - but no, he was most definitely awake and that was most definitely- “Bradley?!” Colin gasped, trying to regain a calm expression on his face, “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Colin,” Bradley smiled, taking a deep breath and trying his hardest not to appear nervous.
“Colin,” he repeated, the nerves showing through slightly. “I just came over to tell you that-” he paused, running his hand through his hair, silently telling himself there was no turning back now.
Colin looked up at him, confused. Bradley cleared his throat, determined to say it. He took a tiny step towards Colin and reached out, gently touching Colin’s arm. They were less than a foot away from each other now and Bradley was going to cry, if he didn’t say it now he was going to cry! He felt tears stinging his eyes as he looked at Colin, transfixed by his beauty. He smiled again and a tear rolled down his cheek; Colin looked more confused than ever and opened his mouth to speak, but Bradley held up a hand. Another tear fell and Bradley told himself that it was now or never, he had to say it.
“Colin.” Bradley whispered, looking into Colin’s gorgeous blue eyes.
“Yes, Bradley?” Colin replied, urging him- pleading him to continue.
Bradley took one last deep breath before hesitantly placing his hand on the back of Colin’s neck, and slowly leaning forward to whisper into his ear.
“All I want for Christmas is you.”
Colin’s eyes widened, his mouth dropped open slightly and he blushed bright crimson. Out of all the things Bradley could have said to him that was the one Colin had least expected. It was so corny and stupid and Bradley. And Colin loved him so much.
“Well!” Colin spluttered, when he finally found his voice again, “You’re a bit bloody late, aren’t you?!”
“W-What?” Bradley stuttered, stepping away from Colin slightly, his face full of disappointment. A few more tears fell from his eyes.
Colin looked at his watch, “It’s half past bloody one! It ain’t Christmas anymore, Bradders! Boxing day now.” he grinned.
“Oh...” Bradley murmured, rubbing the back of his neck nervously and wiping his eyes on his hoodie sleeve. “Erm, haha, sorry about that. Maybe I should just-”
He was cut off by Colin’s lips on his. It took a moment for him to register that Colin-fucking-Morgan was kissing him, and by the time he realised what was happening, it was over. He opened his eyes and looked at Colin; he was smiling his adorable lopsided grin, his blue eyes sparkling with tears of happiness. Bradley smiled too; pulling Colin into his arms, he kissed the top of his head, murmuring “I love you.”
“How long?” Colin whispered back.
How long? “Three fucking years.” Bradley replied, trying not to think of how agonising they had been.
“Shit. That’s three years wasted then.” Colin cursed as he pulled away from Bradley.
“What, you mean...?”
“Yup” Colin nodded, taking Bradley’s hand and pulling him inside, shutting the door as he lead him towards the couch. As they sat down Colin said, “You know that was really corny, right Bradley?”
“Yeah, but it worked, didn’t it?” He smiled, winking as he pulled Colin into his arms.
“Wasn’t the first time I’d heard it tonight, either.”
“Oh?” Bradley was confused, had Colin been asked out by someone else tonight? Or was he referring to the fact that the song had been played on several different radio stations throughout the whole of Christmas day?
“When did you start basing your life on a bad romcom?” Colin questioned, trying not to laugh at the look on Bradley’s face.
“You what?”
“’Love Actually’, Bradley.” Bradley looked blank, “Joanna Page? ‘All I want for Christmas, is you!’” Colin said in a mock-sweet Welsh accent, grinning like a maniac.
Bradley laughed, “Nah, you got me there, Col, mate.” he said, ruffling the younger man’s hair “But I tell you what, that’ll be the last time I ask Claire for advice, on anything!”
“You asked Claire for advice? No wonder you got a line from a cheesy pop song that’d already been used in a crappy Christmas romcom!” He smiled, kissing Bradley’s cheek.
“Seemed like a good idea at the time.” Bradley grumbled, rethreading his fingers with Colin’s.
Colin just giggled and snuggled closer to Bradley, shutting his eyes.
And as they lay on the sofa together, drifting in and out of sleep, both boys were thinking the same thing: it was definitely the best Christmas they had ever had.
Pairing: B.James/C.Morgan
Chapter: 1/1
Rating: PG?
Story summary: Spending Christmas alone.
Warnings: Contains slash! Obviously.
Disclaimer: Obviously this never happened. A Christmas present for a friend.
“I just wanna see my baby standing right outside my door. I just-”
“Oh shut up!” Colin growled, slamming his hand down on the off switch of the radio which the nauseating Mariah Carey single had been blasting out of and dropping on to his comfy sofa.
He had been irritable ever since he found out he would be spending Christmas alone, due to the heavy snow fall preventing him from being able to get to Ireland to visit his parents. He had been so set on going, right up until he received a phone call from his extremely worried mother telling him that if he so much as sat in his car he wouldn’t be getting any Christmas presents. Of course Colin knew that this was merely a joke, but the reasoning behind it wasn’t and he respected his mother’s wishes; if she didn’t want him driving to visit her, he wouldn’t. Besides, now that it had been pointed out to him how dangerous it potentially could be, he didn’t feel all that keen on driving in such thick snow... He had tried to think of other ways to spend Christmas but had come up with none. Katy had made a wise decision and flown back over to Ireland weeks ago; she was staying in her parents’ spare room and spending Christmas with the whole of her family, the lucky girl. Angel’s parents were on holiday in LA, but Colin knew for a fact Angel was spending Christmas day with her boyfriend, Lance, they wouldn’t want him getting in the way. And Bradley... Well, Colin thought Bradley was spending Christmas with family, but he hadn’t really had the chance to ask him. They had both been so busy! Well, Bradley had. Colin didn’t really have all that much of a social life, he preferred to stay indoors and read his books. He had thought of ringing Bradley, and had even picked up the phone to do it a few times, but had chickened out before he’d managed to press the call button.
So here he was, at five to ten on Christmas day evening, alone. Colin picked up the remote and turned on the TV. Flicking through the channels, he found the usual Christmas films were on, along with other festive programs like the “Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special” and other such delights. In the end he settled for “Love Actually”; a film which had been shown on TV at Christmas for as long as Colin could really remember but, to his knowledge, he had never actually watched.
*
By the half-way point in the movie, when he went out to make himself a cup of coffee during the compulsory ‘news break’, Colin had realised why he had never watched it - it was exactly the sort of film he hated. Idealistic lives, romances which would never really happen in real life, no doubt it would also have a happy ending... It was shit. He had half a mind not to watch the next half of the film! But Colin hated not watching a film to the end (no matter how much he wasn’t enjoying it) and the coffee was keeping him awake (God knows why he decided to have a cup at such a late hour!). So he did watch to the end, and there was the (near) perfect ending; even the kid got the girl in the end.
As heart-warming as the film was obviously supposed to be, Colin found that it had just pissed him off an awful lot. It was almost as though he was actually angry at the characters in the film, angry that they were braver than him - that they had the guts to make a move and win the heart of their beloved. He would never find the courage to do that, he was too scared of rejection, he could never have Bradley.
~***~
“Come on, Bradley, it’s time for you to go home.” Claire smiled as she took his empty pint glass from him and began to wipe down the counter.
“Mmhm.” He murmured, looking at her with sad eyes and slumping down on the smooth surface in front of him.
“Get up! Some of us do want to get home tonight.” She smirked, heaving him up and wiping the space where his head had been a few seconds before. As soon as she’d finished cleaning it he lay his head back down again, earning a small whack to the back of it from Claire and an exclamation of “I mean it, Bradley, help me clear up or get out!” He sat up, blinking his eyes a few times, and looked up at her. “Jesus, Bradley,” she sighed, “this is the last time I’m going to ask before I chuck you out; what is up with you today? It’s Christmas! You should be happy, you should be spending time with the ones you love and all that bullshit, not spending your evening moping round my bar and scaring away the customers!”
“Couldn’t get home ‘cause of all the snow.” He mumbled, looking down at the counter as he spoke, as if he was nervous. He was never normally nervous around Claire, it was strange for her. What did he have to be nervous about? She thought she knew.
May as well cut to the chase. “So is there no one in town you wanted to spend Christmas with? Katy or-”
“Yes,” he interrupted softly, “but I was too scared to ask him.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t surprised; she had known Bradley was gay from the moment she met him. No one else saw it, but she could tell. He had been coming to the bar for years and he often brought friends, she had gotten to know a few of them, mainly his three co-stars from the TV series ‘Merlin’: Katy, Angel and Colin. She saw immediately how he felt about one of them in particular; how much he cared, despite the facade he put on to hide it from the world. She could read him like a book. “Colin?” She asked quietly, gently placing her hand on Bradley’s arm.
For a moment he looked shocked, but then he nodded. “Colin.” He repeated miserably.
After a long pause in which Bradley continued staring at the counter and Claire stood awkwardly in front of him, wondering what to do with herself, Bradley spoke. “He couldn’t get back to Ireland to visit family, ‘cause of the snow: just like me. Angel told me, he didn’t want anyone knowing, but Angel phoned him when he was meant to be in Ireland and realised he clearly wasn’t and... He didn’t want me knowing, Claire. I would have asked to spend Christmas with him so he wasn’t by himself, but he wanted to spend it alone. It’s probably just like any other day for him, he probably just sits around all day reading books. He didn’t want to see me. He never even asked me what I was doing for Christmas, I haven’t seen him for months.” A single tear fell from Bradley’s eye; it rolled down his cheek and splashed onto the counter Claire had just finished cleaning.
Claire liked her work and she loved her bar, but it wasn’t a place many young people came to drink. The people who came to her bar tended to be men in their mid forties to fifties, so it was nice to have someone around who was in her own age group and Bradley was a sweet guy. Over the years Bradley had become more than just a customer, he had become a friend, and it broke her heart to see him like this.
“Oh, Bradley.” Claire sighed, moving round the counter and pulling him into a hug, “I’m sure that’s not how it is. I know I don’t know Colin as well as you do, but I don’t think he’d deliberately avoid you. I’m sure he just didn’t want to be a bother to anyone on Christmas!”
“But- but I- I-” Bradley sobbed
“You..?” Claire encouraged.
"I love him." Bradley whispered, wiping his eyes on his sleeve and sniffling a bit.
"You love him." Claire grinned, "You love him! I knew it! I bloody knew it!" Bradley was mildly pissed off that Claire looked so happy when he was quite clearly in the middle of a minor breakdown, but before he could say anything Claire was helping him out of his seat and into his jacket. He tried to protest, but she just told him to shut up before pulling him out of the pub, locking the door behind her and dragging him towards her car. Bradley had no idea what was going on and decided it would probably be best for him if he just went along with it. As they sat down in Claire's car she asked "Pass me your diary, will you?" before holding her hand out for it expectantly.
"My- What? Why?" Bradley questioned, fumbling through his pockets in search of the tiny book.
"Just give me it." Claire demanded, snatching it from Bradley's hand as he pulled it from his inside pocket. "Thank you." She smirked, flipping through the pages before stopping on one, reading it quickly and handing the diary back to Bradley with a small, knowing smile.
Bradley was getting more and more wound up by the second, he considered Claire one of his best friends, but at this moment in time she was really pissing him off. "Where are we going?" He asked angrily as Claire began to drive.
"You'll see."
*
Standing outside Colin's flat at half one in the morning Bradley decided that Claire definitely wasn't one ofhis best friends.
"Just go in there and say "Colin! All I want for Christmas is you!", he'll melt into a little puddle of- er- Colin and you can scoop him up and-"
"Seriously, what the fuck, Claire?" Bradley interrupted, a look of utter confusion on his face. "Really, what the hell are you on about?"
"Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best description of what'd happen..." She paused for a second before continuing "Okay then, I've got an idea, let's practice; pretend I'm Colin. This'll work! Look, I can do an Irish accent! Brradleey, do ewe 'ave somethin'- oh no, wait, that's Welsh. Err, just hold on- Just-"
"I can't believe you decided this was a good idea! I shouldn't trust you anywhere near as much as I do y'know." Bradley sighed, shaking his head. "This is not going to work."
"You don't know that." Claire smiled, sitting back down in her car "You may as well give it a go, eh? Come on, how are you gonna get home tonight without a lift anyway?" She smirked, quickly shutting the door and revving the engine loudly. Bradley cried out in protest and make a dive for the back door but it was no use. Bradley watched Claire drive away, leaving him standing in the cold outside Colin's flat.
"That girl will be the death of me, I swear. I hope she gets a bloody speeding ticket." He growled, before getting out his keys and unlocking the door to the lobby of the flat.
~***~
After the movie had finished, and Colin had cleared up all the empty sweet wrappers and mince pie tins, he decided he might as well go to bed; he had nothing better to do. He made up a hot water bottle before dragging himself to his bedroom and diving under the duvet with out even getting undressed; it was far too cold to get changed. Colin lay in bed feeling restless and trying to get comfortable and stay warm. He listened to the tick tick tick of his bedside alarm clock until he got too annoyed with the noise and took out the clock's batteries. He checked his phone to see if he had any messages - none - and glanced at the time: 1:07 a.m., he sighed; Christmas was over (and had been for over an hour without him even realising). He almost felt disappointed, it was as if he had been expecting a Christmas miracle or something, but it was far too late for that now. Slipping his phone under his pillow he shut his eyes, willing himself to sleep, if he couldn't have a Christmas miracle he at least wanted to get a decent amount of sleep.
*
Colin awoke to a loud buzzing sound. At first he was confused and didn't know what was happening, but then he realized: it was the door bell.
"What the hell?" He muttered, feeling around in the dark for his phone to check the time: 1:49. He had been asleep just over half an hour. So much for a good night's sleep. Colin was considering just ignoring the person at the door and going back to sleep, but it didn't sound like they were going to give up buzzing any time soon. Colin rolled out of bed, pulling on another hoodie to protect him from the cold outside, and shuffled out of his room towards the front door. He fumbled with the lock in the dark before yanking the door open and stepping into the corridor. "Yes?" He questioned, rubbing his eyes slightly as the bright light from the hallway temporarily blinded him.
"Er, hi..." Came a nervous voice; a voice which Colin would know anywhere, a voice which never normally sounded nervous.
Colin's head shot up as soon as he heard that beautiful, unmistakable voice and in front of him was the most beautiful man in the world. For a second Colin thought he might be dreaming - he had given up on Christmas miracles after all! - but no, he was most definitely awake and that was most definitely- “Bradley?!” Colin gasped, trying to regain a calm expression on his face, “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Colin,” Bradley smiled, taking a deep breath and trying his hardest not to appear nervous.
“Colin,” he repeated, the nerves showing through slightly. “I just came over to tell you that-” he paused, running his hand through his hair, silently telling himself there was no turning back now.
Colin looked up at him, confused. Bradley cleared his throat, determined to say it. He took a tiny step towards Colin and reached out, gently touching Colin’s arm. They were less than a foot away from each other now and Bradley was going to cry, if he didn’t say it now he was going to cry! He felt tears stinging his eyes as he looked at Colin, transfixed by his beauty. He smiled again and a tear rolled down his cheek; Colin looked more confused than ever and opened his mouth to speak, but Bradley held up a hand. Another tear fell and Bradley told himself that it was now or never, he had to say it.
“Colin.” Bradley whispered, looking into Colin’s gorgeous blue eyes.
“Yes, Bradley?” Colin replied, urging him- pleading him to continue.
Bradley took one last deep breath before hesitantly placing his hand on the back of Colin’s neck, and slowly leaning forward to whisper into his ear.
“All I want for Christmas is you.”
Colin’s eyes widened, his mouth dropped open slightly and he blushed bright crimson. Out of all the things Bradley could have said to him that was the one Colin had least expected. It was so corny and stupid and Bradley. And Colin loved him so much.
“Well!” Colin spluttered, when he finally found his voice again, “You’re a bit bloody late, aren’t you?!”
“W-What?” Bradley stuttered, stepping away from Colin slightly, his face full of disappointment. A few more tears fell from his eyes.
Colin looked at his watch, “It’s half past bloody one! It ain’t Christmas anymore, Bradders! Boxing day now.” he grinned.
“Oh...” Bradley murmured, rubbing the back of his neck nervously and wiping his eyes on his hoodie sleeve. “Erm, haha, sorry about that. Maybe I should just-”
He was cut off by Colin’s lips on his. It took a moment for him to register that Colin-fucking-Morgan was kissing him, and by the time he realised what was happening, it was over. He opened his eyes and looked at Colin; he was smiling his adorable lopsided grin, his blue eyes sparkling with tears of happiness. Bradley smiled too; pulling Colin into his arms, he kissed the top of his head, murmuring “I love you.”
“How long?” Colin whispered back.
How long? “Three fucking years.” Bradley replied, trying not to think of how agonising they had been.
“Shit. That’s three years wasted then.” Colin cursed as he pulled away from Bradley.
“What, you mean...?”
“Yup” Colin nodded, taking Bradley’s hand and pulling him inside, shutting the door as he lead him towards the couch. As they sat down Colin said, “You know that was really corny, right Bradley?”
“Yeah, but it worked, didn’t it?” He smiled, winking as he pulled Colin into his arms.
“Wasn’t the first time I’d heard it tonight, either.”
“Oh?” Bradley was confused, had Colin been asked out by someone else tonight? Or was he referring to the fact that the song had been played on several different radio stations throughout the whole of Christmas day?
“When did you start basing your life on a bad romcom?” Colin questioned, trying not to laugh at the look on Bradley’s face.
“You what?”
“’Love Actually’, Bradley.” Bradley looked blank, “Joanna Page? ‘All I want for Christmas, is you!’” Colin said in a mock-sweet Welsh accent, grinning like a maniac.
Bradley laughed, “Nah, you got me there, Col, mate.” he said, ruffling the younger man’s hair “But I tell you what, that’ll be the last time I ask Claire for advice, on anything!”
“You asked Claire for advice? No wonder you got a line from a cheesy pop song that’d already been used in a crappy Christmas romcom!” He smiled, kissing Bradley’s cheek.
“Seemed like a good idea at the time.” Bradley grumbled, rethreading his fingers with Colin’s.
Colin just giggled and snuggled closer to Bradley, shutting his eyes.
And as they lay on the sofa together, drifting in and out of sleep, both boys were thinking the same thing: it was definitely the best Christmas they had ever had.