Children rushed past Tiza, decked out in heavy coats that made them seem larger than they truly are; candy canes protruding from their red stained lips. It causes him to grip his walker tighter, worried that he'll lose his balance. Aosh walks beside him, so even if he did falter, Tiza doubts he would make it to the ground before Aosh got to him first.
It was Aosh's day off yet he insisted on bringing Tiza to his job. The Omega had been to the farmers market before and therefore didn't understand why the Alpha had insisted they go. The reason hit him as they pulled into the parking lot. The usual rustic sign was replaced with one that twinkled, the words 'Christmas Marketplace' curled across the sign in a scrawling and festive font.
Somehow in the midst of everything that had happened recently, Tiza had forgotten that it was almost Christmas; it was a week away in fact. Christmas wasn't an important holiday for the Omega, it wasn't celebrated in his household growing up for...obvious reasons. It wasn't until Sean married Momo did the two wayward Jeannot's actually celebrated it.
Absently, as Aosh and himself walk through the crowds of people running about with armfuls of festive gifts, Tiza wonders what Aosh does here, since it was no longer warm enough to sell plants and produce. The Omega doesn't notice a patch of snow underneath him and he almost slips if it wasn't for Aosh grabbing him by the arm.
"Sorry, it's probably hard for you to walk out here. We're almost there though I promise."
"Where exactly are we going?" Tiza asks as he tries to regain his balance.
"Since we are living together now I need your help with something important."
Something important? At the Christmas market?
They come to a stop at a lot that is filled with Christmas trees.
"Every year my boss let's me take home a tree, since I help trim and wrap them. I've never lived with someone else around Christmas so I figured you could help me pick one out." Aosh grins and gestures towards the trees.
Of course Aosh would get a live tree rather than a plastic one, Tiza doesn't even have it in him to be surprised. They make their way over to the trees and Tiza immediately gravitates towards the smaller ones. Without rhyme or reason he points to a small three footer hiding amongst the others. Aosh grins.
"Ok, I'll go get them to tie it up for us! Wait here ok?"
Tiza nods his head and Aosh runs off to go get one of his co-workers. Tiza pulls Aosh's oversized jacket closer around him as he looks around. Besides the lot that has Christmas trees there's a couple of vendors selling goods and a booth that has many children gathered around it. Scooting closer a small sign that sits on the booth comes into view. It reads:
'Make your own ornaments!'
Tiza stands just barely tall enough to look over the small children's heads. From there he can see glue bottles and glitter sprawled across the work table. Small clumsy hands piece together snowmen and snowflakes. Others draw pictures with markers of family members. Parents idly stand close by and 'ooh' and 'ahh' when their child excitedly shows them their finished masterpiece.
The Omega wonders absently what it would be like, to be so young and excited by the idea of making something as trivial as a Christmas ornament. Does the feeling of painting your hand with cold paint and pressing it on colorful paper actually make you giggle with glee? Or blowing glitter off lines of wet glue, watching the iridescent particles scatter in the air, bring a sense of wonder? He finds he desperately wants to know.
There's a tugging on the bottom of Aosh's jacket, and he expects it to be the Alpha saying they are ready to go. But when Tiza turns he sees a small boy gazing up at him. Their gazes meet and the boy flushes, his already red cheeks becoming even deeper in color, then offers up something to Tiza.
Fingers covered in dried paint hold a Christmas ornament. It's a simple bauble, clear with fake snow in it, and a handprint on the outside painted to look like snowmen.
"I made this for you."
"Oh, uhh, I don't…" Tiza trails off.
Who he assumes is the child's parent walks up and sends an apologetic look at Tiza's way.
"I'm so sorry, but he insisted that he give this ornament to you."
"You're really pretty," the boy starts again, bashful, and he pushes the ornament into Tiza's hands, "Can you put it on your tree?"
The Omega turns the ornament over in his hands and takes note of the boy's name hastily written on the bottom of it, Peyton. The boy's face holds such sincerity and hope that his gift to this stranger will be received. How could he say no?
"I will, thank you Peyton."
The boy's face explodes with joy and his guardian bids Tiza farewell as they lead their child away.
Tiza knew there were things he had missed in his childhood. On some level he knew that certain things were taken from him. But actually seeing it manifest made a deep sense of loss seep through his being. The wistfulness of the holiday season eluded him, the small joys of being a young innocent child were lost on him. And he wonders for a moment, if he had been allowed those things, if he had been allowed to just be a child instead of bearing the weight of the world ,what kind of person he would be today.
...................................................
Aosh comes bounding back to the spot he left Tiza with their Christmas tree in tow only to find his roommate missing. He scans the area and catches Tiza's walker, sans the Omega, amongst a group of children. Coming closer the blonde comes into view, sitting at a worktable. Two children who sit on either side of Tiza lean over into his work space.
"You have to sprinkle it on the glue!" one exclaims.
"Oh," Tiza says surprised, "Like this?"
"Yes! What color does he like?" the other child chimes in.
"Um, I think he likes red."
"Here! This red is super pretty!"
Aosh now stands behind the Omega, curiously looming over him to see what he was doing. Aosh's inky strands fall over his shoulders and gently brush the side of Tiza's face. The Omega looks up to catch his fated mate looking down at him with a curious expression.
Looks like he was caught red handed...literally.
"Um," he brushes off some of the excess red glitter on his fingers, before holding up what he was working on, "I made this for you."
A felt poinsettia, covered in red glitter, hangs and twirls from where it is held. If Aosh hadn't seen Tiza working on it he would've thought one of the children had made it.
"Can we put it on the tree?"
...........................................................
The two little homemade ornaments sit in just a way that the glitter on them catches the light of a nearby lightbulb, one of many laced throughout their tree. It distracts Tiza only a little bit as he sits at the kitchen table in front of Aosh's laptop.
The word document he has open taunts him and Tiza wonders why the hell he even opened it up. The books that lay in a stack next to the computer remind him of the constant thought that has been running through his mind lately.
Tiza was jobless and couldn't teach dance anymore. He didn't want to be a mooch off of Aosh, even though the Alpha expressed he was more than fine providing for them both until Tiza found a job that could accommodate him.. Weirdo. At least let Tiza keep some of his independence!
So on the days that Aosh worked Tiza was left to his own devices. His energy was still low, even with his physical therapy sessions every other day. Because of this he had taken to reading. And because of that he had taken to getting on Aosh's laptop and staring at an empty word document in a feeble attempt at writing. With the pervasive thought of, 'I can write better than this hot garbage' Tiza actually wanted to test out that theory.
With no luck so far.
He sighs and leans back in his chair. Maybe he wasn't good for anything but dancing.
Instantly he can hear what Aosh's response to that train of thought would be. As much as he feels depressed by his lack of talent he is comforted by the fact that those are indeed negative thoughts and not true. Rome wasn't built in a day, and he didn't learn how to dance en pointe his first day of ballet either.
On some level Tiza knew he was attracted to the horror genre because no matter how horrible or morbid it was, the characters in it suffered more than he had. In a way it comforted him knowing that things could be worse. He could be getting brutally murdered by a psycho in a ski mask. It made all the years of abuse, both physical and emotional, feel less heavy. It was an odd coping mechanism but it worked for him.
That being said, maybe he was coming at this from the wrong angle. Instead of hate reading these books and trying to improve upon them, why not take what he knows will be good and write it? He could kill two birds with one stone: cope with his trauma and write a good horror story; and if he was lucky, get it published.
The Omega began typing, not really going in any certain direction, the words that popped into his head being thrown haphazardly into the document. As time went on the pages doubled, then tripled until he had over a dozen pages filled with macabre non-sense. Just seeing that much left the Omega with a sense of accomplishment. A different feeling than whenever he mastered a new dance move.
Because it was something he had set out himself to accomplish without the need for anyone's approval but his own.
Engrossed in his work Tiza worked until Aosh arrived home, around eleven at night. Aosh walked through the door halfway until he saw Tiza sitting at the table. He swings his arms behind his back, obviously hiding something.
"I thought I said for you to head to bed without me since I was going to be late!"
Tiza looks over the edge of the laptop, then to the clock on the wall.
"Oh. I guess I lost track of time," he cocks an eyebrow at the other's odd behaviour, and Aosh hides behind the open door.
"Well go get ready for bed, we have to wake up early tomorrow, remember?" Aosh says, shooing him away with his head.
Oh right, tomorrow was Christmas Day. Tiza really needed to look at his phone's calendar every once and a while. His sense of time left much to be desired lately.
"We're having breakfast with your parents right?"
"Yes! So go get ready for bed I'll be there in a bit!"
"Alright, pushy." Tiza says with a pout, closing the laptop and getting up.
When Tiza was out of sight Aosh came into the apartment, and got to work setting everything under the tree.