girl i keep thinking about your enchanted au and I find myself craving more 🥹 I can’t wait for the kiss 😭💗 how is daniel doing with christmas approaching? are they going to spend it together? will he do the mandatory christmas cleaning with all of his animal friends? so many questions 🤓
Oh my dear! I know we've already gushed about the actual factual fireman's hose of ideas this ask inspired, but I am SOOOO excited to write it all🫨🫨!!! Here is the first bit, that includes our hive mind 😍
Part 1 | Part 13
Part 14
Max opened his front door, wearily depositing his suitcase in the entryway and letting the door click close behind him. Jimmy came to greet him with a small chirp and Sassy wasn't behind him so that meant Daniel was either holding her or doing something silly so she was watching over him.
Now that he focused on the absence of Sassy or Daniel, he heard Daniel's voice coming from the open patio door.
“But Chellie I don't have Jessie or Rii to help. I can't clean by myself! There's so much” Max could hear Daniel's pout a mile away. He had no clue who Jesse or Rii were or what he was cleaning however.
“Well if you want to prepare for Christmas properly you have to clean, Bub.” Michelle's voice was at least suitably sympathetic. “Why don't you ask Max to help you?”
“Well I dunno if he even celebrates Christmas. That's a whole thing first.” Daniel sounded hesitant, his lips forming his words over the thumb that was in his mouth. No doubt he was biting the nail in worry.
Christmas was coming up, Max had forgotten with all of the recent changes. He normally went home for the holiday so he wouldn't have to think about decorating his place here. He doubted that would be happy news for Daniel to hear. Max didn't want him to think that once again he was changing his plans because Daniel’s presence was ruining them.
Max took out his phone to send out a text to his mother and sister suggesting they have Christmas celebrations here in Monaco instead of back in Maaseik. They both responded quickly in the affirmative and Max felt a small relief in his chest. That was one problem down, now to try to figure out what Michelle and Daniel were talking about in regards to preparations.
Max never really paid much attention to the whirlwind that usually happened around Christmas time. He was always too busy with work. He only knew it was coming closer when businesses and cities would start wrapping their trees with lights and ornaments. Then he would get a text containing a wishlist from his family and then he’d have his manager buy all the gifts. Then, he would fly home to spend the holidays with his family, his mother’s house would already be fully decorated by the time he got here and his contribution to dinner was more often than not a salad that he made off to the side of the kitchen so as to not get in the way of his mother and sister and their big cooking.
Were there special traditions that they had in Australia? Did Daniel’s family do anything specific that he would be missing? He walked into the kitchen while typing ‘christmas traditions in australia’ into his phone. Quite a few things popped up, some blogs and a few news sites. A lot of them made absolutely no sense to Max, including Christmas meals of prawns and seafood barbeque. He hoped that wasn’t something Daniel was particularly married to. He wasn’t sure he could provide any surfing– there was no telling with the waves in Monaco, but there could absolutely be a beach day and a Christmas lunch. Max had no clue what a pavlova was, but it was on every blog as one of the top three things about Aussie Christmas so he needed to see if there was a bakery nearby that would be able to bake it for him.
He was so deep in his research that he didn’t hear when Daniel walked into the living room and shut the patio door behind him.
“Maxy! You’re home!” Daniel’s grin was bright and he skipped through the common areas to throw himself into Max in a big hug. Max made a small ‘oof’ sound but his arms wrapped around Daniel’s smaller form quite easily.
“I am back.” He confirmed unnecessarily. He’d only been gone for a few days (with strict instructions to Lando that Daniel wasn’t to get drunk again), but it felt way longer in ways he wasn’t sure he was ready to confront. An american holiday was coming up and the team had wanted him to film some content. Christian and Adrian had also used that time to lock him in the sim to go over data for the new car.
He had been fine when at the factory, being distracted by work. But when he got back to his flat in Milton Keynes, he had felt the absence of everyone acutely. He’d gotten used to having a full house. Jimmy and Sassy used to prowl around silently and give him their attention, nowadays they were chirping and meowing when not with Daniel. Max always knew where they were as if they were keeping him updated on their whereabouts. He hadn’t realized how much he’d come to appreciate or listen out for it.
And Daniel, of course Daniel was louder than the cats. And his presence filled the flat. When he wasn’t singing or humming, or shimmying, or frolicking, or anything that was the complete opposite of staying still and quiet, he was in the proclaimed cat nest whispering sweet nothings to the cats. Or chatting on the phone to his family (or Max’s, he’d overheard many short conversations between Daniel and Vic or Luka). Daniel was a very bright spot in his home life. And his flat in Keynes felt very dull and grey while he had been by himself.
Daniel disentangled his octopus limbs from Max and filled a glass with water from the tap and handed it to the slightly confused man. A blush bloomed on Daniel’s cheeks.
“Jimmy said you normally drink water when you come back and you haven’t yet.” Daniel whispered, a tad embarrassed. Jimmy chirped from the countertop as if cosigning.
“Thank you Daniel, and Jimmy.” Max accepted the glass and drank it down in a few gulps. He watched as Daniel started picking at his cuticles, biting the small bit of skin by his thumb. He was nervous. “Is everything alright, Daniel?”
“I… uhm. Do you have plans for Christmas?” Daniel rushed out almost in a whisper, as if he was afraid of the answer. Max knew he was.
“Mom, Vic and the boys are coming here. Is that ok?”
Daniel sagged with relief and Max felt his own shoulders lose their tension.
“Oh good! Thats– thats good.” Daniel muttered to himself. He looked at his phone as if checking the time before looking back up at Max again with hesitant brown eyes. “Uhm, do you guys have any traditions that you do?”
Max made a show of thinking to himself, looking to the ceiling as if he was pulling from distant memory and not that he had spent the last maybe twenty minutes freaking out about the same subject.
“It would be better to ask Mom or Vic, I think. But, of course, we are having a tree and Christmas lunch and dinner. The boys normally wake up really early to open their presents and they help Mom make breakfast. I think there is a Christmas market as well.” He looked over at Daniel who was paying close attention with his active listening face. He looked like he didn’t want to miss a detail.
“Oh! Ok, I can call Vic. where do you keep– no that's ok I can ask Sassy–”
“Where do I keep what?” Max asked quickly, a bit of dread creeping down his spine. He looked over at the cat in question quickly, she tilted her head questioningly before he looked away. He needed to have a quick talk with Sassy so she wouldn't give him up. Never before now would he have ever considered his cat a secret keeper….but look at him now.
“Oh, well I just wondered where you kept your decorations, is all. When do you normally put them up by? Mama likes to get everything started on the first.”
Max felt a cold sweat on his neck and he swallowed the lump in his throat at the thought of lying to Daniel. He didn’t lie– didn’t see the point of saying something that wasn’t true, not even to spare someone’s feelings. But he couldn’t make himself come clean about this, he didn’t want to see the sadness on Daniel’s face.
“I need to buy new ones.” he blurted, not a lie. Not the whole truth either, but Max was considering it a PR win, a media spin. Like when a journalist asks him a question Vicky already told him he wasn’t allowed to answer.
“You do?” Daniel’s eyes lit up at the thought of christmas shopping and Max knew he said the right thing. He nodded, so he wouldn’t have to think of more incorrect statements. “Oh that's perfect! I’ll make a list!”
And then Daniel was off, and Max felt his shoulder’s sag in his own relief. Jimmy jumped off the countertop to follow after the Aussie whirlwind and Sassy stayed on her perch atop the fridge. She gave Max that look again, the one he was starting to recognize as being way too smart for any cat to be.
“He doesn’t need to know, ok. We keep this secret to ourselves.” Max muttered to his cat, complete with putting his finger on his lips in the shushing gesture. Sassy tilted her head again in the opposite direction before chirping again and jumping to the countertop. He offered up scritches and she purred in response, it seems they came to an agreement.
“Good girl, you’re the best Sass.” Max murmured lovingly.
Part 15
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