have yourself a merry little half-christmas.. [danny]

July 2003

Basking in the sun in a pair of neon swimming trunks and a Santa beard Jeremy sucked down his third... or was it fourth? spiked egg nog. It was half Christmas and like they did every year the boys were going all out. They'd spent their rent money on plastic kiddie pools for lounging, they had enough Christmas lights strung up around the apartment to burn the whole building to the ground, and there were pot brownies baking in the oven.

"Good thing Reg believed we were sick, eh?" Jere slurred as he leaned his head back and turned to look at Danny. A bit of water splashed out of his little pool and the eggnog nearly fell out of his hand but he was smiling wildly. They'd carved out a whole day and a half with their extravagant, over-enthusiastic, fake sickness. They'd charmed their skin a bit purple, showed up to work, Jere threw up in a trash can (thank you Weasley's Witches), and they were quickly sent home.

The two had been celebrating all week in preparation for today and they had a ridiculous amount of things planned. They had cookies, and presents, and ugly sweaters. They had fake beards and their trusty snowmaking charms. It was going to be a holly jolly hell of a time.

@Danny Willbond

"Good ole Reg," Danny sighed as he leaned back in his personal pool of four inch water while holding a glass of spiked eggnog in each hand, his fair skin already turning a fair pink, nice and toasty warm. "Bet Santa's gonna give him a good gift this half-Christmas," he added with a waggle of his brows. He couldn't remember at this exact moment what he and Jere had planned to give their boss for this auspicious event but he had remembered it had been a wicked good idea. The two brain cells that weren't devoted to enjoying half-Christmas weren't really diligent in their task at remembering such things.

Their fake sickness had been epic really. One for the books. Something to tell the kids and all that when he was old and gray and trying to convince people he used to be fun. He couldn't even imagine it. He glanced down at his bright red swim trucks that had dancing drunken reindeer on them making silly faces with their tongues flopping out, his fake Santa beard scratching his chest as he looked down. Yep, he was the epitome of fun. What had Tricky said the other day. Quintafully fun. Was that it? Oh well.

"Whose flat we hitting up first?" Danny asked his best friend as he glanced over, his tongue stuck out as he tried to get the straw in his eggnog between his lips, failing a few times before he finally got it. What was half-Christmas without some caroling?

Ever since they had started this tradition Jeremy looked forward to it all year. All of the best Holidays happened during the winter and it was always so cold they barely got to enjoy them. Christmas was too much fun to only celebrate once a year. He loved decorating with ridiculous amounts of lights, the absolute mess of a tinseled tree full of random ornaments they'd been collecting for years, and especially the light-up reindeer that were hanging hazardously off of their balcony. And because it was usually so much nicer in July than in December, he actually kind of liked half-Christmas better.

He held up his glass of Nog to air-cheer with Danny as he struggled to drink out of both of his glasses. Jeremy wished he had been thoughtful enough to make two glasses before he got into the pool. The jar and the alcohol were just barely out of arms-reach in between them, so it wasn't like he'd have to go far, but to the half-drunk young wizard it felt like quite the epic journey.

"Probably Tricky," he answered confidently and gave Danny a little nod. "So we can show off our new beards, you know... since what happened last half Christmas..." Jeremy turned from looking over at Danny to staring off into the distance, remembering the horrors of what had happened when they had tried to smoke while still wearing the very flammable fake Santa beards on their faces.

Danny shuddered as his eyes went wide with the horror of the memory. "Beards off then smoke," he repeated mechanically. They had said it enough that night and in the nights following it. It was like a mantra. Danny was pretty sure he talked in his sleep about it too. Still, another great story for the history books.

He lifted of his glasses, cheersing his best friend, before sipping again. He didn't often have good ideas like bringing two glasses of nog to his pool, but when he did he was happy for it. At least he wouldn't have to get up again. He had also forgotten his wand somewhere... hmmmm... more nog!

"Oh yeah! Tricky's first! I wonder if Finn will be there. Then who? Should we surprise Corner?" Danny asked before he started laughing at the idea of their Very Polite co-worker seeing them in their holiday regalia singing drunken carols for him in the middle of July. Yes, they would definitely be stopping by. "Guess Old Reg is off the list, right?" he asked with a look. Probably was a bad idea to tip the boss off that they weren't really sick. The idea still amused him though.

Jeremy repeated the mantra after Danny, beards off and then smoke, it was words to live by, literally. His chin tingled a little at the memory but he laughed it off as quickly as it came. That was the joy of Half Christmas, and copious amounts of weed, they could find happiness everywhere, they could rewrite anything they didn't like from the first half of the year. It was the month of do-overs and Jeremy for one had always loved the traditions, even if they made them all up, forgot half of them, and then "discovered" brand new ones every year.

He cheered Danny back before downing what was left in his glass. The redhead hand;t thought far enough ahead to grab two but eventually, he'd have to get up to get the baked goodies from the oven in their flat. He had swiped Danny's Harry Potter alarm clock before they left for the day, using it as a remote timer as it sat on its side between their little plastic pools.

"Corner certainly, Cordy might be there too so it's a twofer." He burst out in laughter when Reg was brought up and shook his head. The ends of his wild red curls floated in the tiny pool water as he lounged, the wet ends pointed and sticking to his face and neck as he sat up a little. "I'd say Ana, but Prosper will probably be there...." He shrugged and then shot out of the water a little. "Wait, what about the witch you went on a date with?"

Danny drank some more eggnog, it was so good he couldn't really take it slow even though he should and then burped loudly with a satisfied smile at Jere. "That was a good one," he mumbled before taking another drink. "Hungry though. Where are the Christmas cookies?" he asked with a glance at the Boy Who Times clock. He tried to reach over and press his shoe so he could hear how much time was left, but the little bobble of the great wizard himself tumbled over and shouted his usual greeting of 'It's Tuesday, you git!' "Isn't it Wednesday?" Danny asked with a look at his roommate, not having the foggiest of an idea.

"Oooh Cordy, the 'best' customer?" he asked with a waggle of his brows. She was cute. Not sure how Corner hadn't locked that one down. He was definitely outkicking his coverage there. "Frenchie probably doesn't even zelebrate ze half-Christmas," he added with a pout and his best-worst French accent. Prosper was probably too cool, too slick for something as ridiculous and fun as half-Christmas. Danny was still a little irked his French accent ploy to win over girls had been decidedly unsuccessful. He was so sure it was going to work. How did Prosper even do it??

But then Jere's mention of Ellie had him grinning. "Ellie? Sure, we can stop by her place too. Her neighbors probably won't appreciate it at all," he said, laughing, remembering the nosy little neighbor whose name he forgot that he had briefly met when he had walked Ellie home. He got a little lost in thought as he wondered what she might think of their little tradition. Would it make her laugh? The thought was intriguing. He hoped it would. He liked when he made her laugh, even if it was at his expense. "And Montse too?" Danny asked with a waggle of his brows.

Who knew, the two of them getting dates around the same time. They had pretty much been the most eligible bachelors in the wizarding world for a while now and it seemed the ladies were just starting to wise up.

Jeremy raised both hands up beside him, shrugging his shoulders enthusiastically, and pulling a face. Was it Wednesday? As soon as they had left work he had promptly forgotten what day of the week it was because only one thing mattered: It was Half Christmas! But if the Boy Who Lived said it was Tuesday then he chose to trust the plastic alarm clock over Danny, it was a safer bet with all of the eggnogs they had consumed already. Jeremy smiled when Danny went down the list, nodding to Cordy (the very best customer!), pulling a dramatic frown about Prosper (had to!), and laughing about Ellie's neighbors (sorry Ellie~), but when he got to Montse Jeremy's face grew a bit brighter. He still had no idea how he'd gotten so lucky, and how she hadn't thought he was an idiot on their date, but he wasn't asking too many questions. A little bit of a blush rose on his cheeks but he blamed the warmth on the eggnog and the sun, of course, before nodding a bunch at Danny.

"Good list, good plan, but Freya first, in case she wants to join." he said with his usual amount of enthusiasm and a smile. He could have gushed about Montse but instead, he just laid his head back and thought things silently for a moment. A grin on his face, the sun warming his skin, it was going to be the best Half Christmas ever. He sat for a moment and then was rudely (and abruptly, because he'd forgotten all about it) awoken from his mini nap by the blaring alarm of the Harry Potter clock.

"The cookies!" He shouted, jumping up in the pool and creating a mini tidal wave in his wake. Water sloshed out over the edges, drowning the grass on the side of the pool and rushing into the patch between them, right toward Harry. Electrical or not Jeremy figured the clock wouldn't do well wading in two inches of pool water so he hurried out of his pool for it. Tripping on the one foot ledge he stumbled, fell into the grass, and slid like he was on a slip and slide before looking up and laughing. That was fun!

"I know that looookkk," Danny said in sing-song as he waggled his brows at Jere again. That was the thinking-about-Montse look and Danny couldn't wait to meet her in person. Even if he was half-drunk and wearing his holiday beset in the middle of summer. That was a great first impression if you asked him.

"Yeah, Tricky first," he agreed easily. He was surprised she wasn't already over here. Then again he knew she cared more about her job than either of them did combined. Ah well. He got lost in thought for a few minutes, the cold water of his kiddie pool cooling him down while the sun above made him toasty and the eggnog in his hand made him feel sloshy. What a great combo.

"Whu- what?" Danny said, surprised at Jere's sudden movements, turning his face away as his friend shook water all over the place as he got out of his pool. In a true act of Jeremy's clumsiness,  Danny laughed as his roommate slipped and then their eyes met. "Let me try!" Danny said after a beat and tried to recreate the slide that Jere had done, less gracefully, sliding not as far but still fun as he shouted out an excited "woooooo!"

He picked himself up and brushed some grass off his bum. "Ready to go then?"

It was decided that they would go to Freya first, which was only fitting, and then from there they could bring Holiday Cheer all across Europe if they wanted to. So long as one of them was at least decently sober enough to apparate them all. (Which meant Danny and Jeremy were presumably out of the running for that). The redhead finished the last of his nearly too warm to drink (but he was drunk and barely noticed) alcohol laced eggnog and took off for the apartment. He slipped and slid across the lawns and howled with laughter that only increased when Danny followed suit. "Stuck the landing, mate," He slurred as they turned toward the back door of the apartment building.

Their flat was a few flights up and on a normal day Jeremy barely noticed. He could take two or three steps at a time, long strides, and make the climb in moments but he was far less coordinated today. He bumped against the wall, and then the railing, and then basically pingponged his way up the first flight before taking a short break at the landing. Sucking in a deep breath, summoning the drunk determination that had gotten him through most of his twenties, Jeremy continued.

When they finally reached their landing he patted his still dripping trunks for the keys and realized he didn't have them. He gave Danny a shrug and tried the handle anyway to find it still unlocked and effectively unsecured. He giggled, because he was too far gone to worry about trivial things like personal safety and home invasion. "Whoops," he said as they bounded into the apartment. "I'll grab the cookies, you grab more Nog!" He said with a commanding hand in the air, like a rallying call to action, and then repeated himself.

"More Nog!"

"Do I get a 10 then?" he asked, saluting Jeremy as if he were the judge of one of those muggle gymnast competitions they had watched one time. They had started watching for the tight leotards and continued watching for the completely wicked skills those gymnasts had. And the guys? Danny was pretty sure he almost fell in love with a man or maybe several that day and knew without a doubt he could never be that talented or skilled. That didn't stop him from trying to at least do the judge salute justice though with a little flick of his wrist and pushing out his chest and all.

"Don't tell Greg we left it unlocked again," Danny stage-whispered with a drunken giggle as they pushed into their apartment. "Gob, not it!" he said smartly, saluting again, this time with fingers pressed to his forehead but then he squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to corral his brain to mouth connection to work better. "I mean... nog.. got it!" There we go, slower seemed to work. He hoped that didn't make him sound like a dunce. More than he already was usually.

He hiked up his dripping wet drunks and padded into the kitchen and grabbed a carton of eggnog under his arm and two swirly straws that were mostly clean and met up with Jere in the living room. "We calling a duber?" he asked, blinking rapidly, trying to do his best scolding mum look. If there was anything they had actually learned in the past few years, it was that neither of them should try apparating when under the influence. They had both gotten splinched more times than was healthy. After standing with wand poised as he tried to recall the spell, he turned to Jere. "What's the charm again?" he asked dumbly.

Jeremy collected the cookies and a few other things they probably wouldn't need and shoved them into a tie-dye backpack before returning to Danny in the living room. Yes, a duber, good idea, neither one of them was in a state to apparate right now. Honestly, Jeremy wasn't even sure if he could do the charm.

"It's like," He waved his wand back and forth in an S pattern, "Zip zap!" He said with a drunken grin and blinked a few times when nothing happened. Yep, too drunk, he'd done the Z in the opposite direction. Thankfully, nothing in the living room exploded. Trying again, he cleared his throat, and this time it worked. Some random dude showed up about thirty seconds later, and he did not look impressed with their Christmas swimsuits.

"We need to go to... Danny, where are we going?" Jeremy asked with his hand halfway into the backpack, he was already getting into the cookies, and at this rate, it was a toss-up whether or not they would last until they reached the first destination. If they could remember the first destination, that is...

"Oh right, right right," Danny nodded with an impressed look as Jeremy did the Z shape. Backwards or not, Danny trusted the redhead with the charm. Mostly because he couldn't remember where his wand was at the moment. Oh wait! He pulled it out of the pocket of his trunks and held it up with a dumb smile as the random Zip Zap guy showed up, giving Danny a not so pleasant look. "Hey mate, thanks for popping by," Danny greeted him warmly before holding up his nog and swirly straws. "Want some nog?" The guy gave him a narrowed gaze and shook his head, muttering something like "can't believe I got this guy again" under his breath.

"What's that?" Danny asked good-naturedly, being the friendly drunk as usual, before Jere distracted him. "What? Oh.. errr.. let's go to Tricky's first. She'll get a kick out of the beards," he announced with a nod, snickering at the idea already. "Ready mate?" he asked the ZZ guy before placing a hand on his shoulder and screwing his eyes shut in preparation for the side along apparation squeezy feeling he always got.

They were whisked away and soon standing in front of Freya's apartment building. Danny stumbled a few steps to the side as they arrived, but managed to save the nog from dropping. "All good, thanks mate, you're the best, I'll owl your boss and tell him you gave us a great time," he said as the Zip Zap guy scowled in disgust, gave them the patented company goodbye line and then disappeared. Danny glanced at his best friend with a grin. "I'm gonna win that guy over. He'll have to forgive me eventually for barfing on his shoes that one time," he said with a laugh as he strutted wobblily up the steps to Freya's flat.

Knocking on the door with a rat-a-tat-tat rhythm, he tried his best Santa voice impression as he pulled his beard up into place. "Miss Trickett, Santa wants to know if you've been a good girlllll" then he looked at Jere and started cracking up.

Freya opened the door with a mouthful of pizza, wearing old tights and a stained, formerly-white tank top. She hadn’t been planning on seeing anyone today, and Finn was out, so she was in her lounging clothes. She’d ordered in and was planning on having a bubble bath later. The sight she was met with, though… Ridiculous. They looked absolutely ridiculous. Freya finished her mouthful, nodding as she looked them over, brushing crumbs off of her lips and then off of her hands before she swallowed.

“Oh,” she said, blinking. After a moment, though, her confused frown shifted, and she raised her eyebrows. “Is there a dress code I missed out on?” The blonde stepped back from the door, holding it open, assuming the boys wanted to come inside. She laughed, shaking her head as she noted the various elements; the santa beards, the hats, the dripping… The dripping? “Hang on!” she said, skipping back to the kitchen to grab her wand. “I’m just gonna dry you off,” she said. Sometimes she felt like a parent or older sibling or teacher, or some other kind of authority when it came to these two.

“You just dropping by, or you wanna hang out or…?” she trailed off, “Have you been drinking? Guess this is my invite.” Freya performed a drying charm on them before heading back to the big L-shaped couch that took up a decent chunk of the living room. “There’s like one piece left if you wanna fight over it,” she said, pointing at the pizza box on the coffee table. Freya grabbed the second or third piece of garlic bread, leaving the others for the boys to scrap over.

Jeremy was incredibly impressed with himself for performing the zip zap summoning charm. It was written all over his goofy face, and when Danny remarked the apparater, Jeremy covered his mouth to stifle a laugh. The boys usually tipped, but they also usually made more mess than other customers, so it probably didn't really balance out in the end. Jeremy smiled brightly as he braced himself for the adventure ahead, the world swirling around them, and he nearly lost his nog, but his stomach settled as his feet did. "Thanks, man," He hollered over his shoulder as they headed toward Freya and Finn's building. "You mean those three times, though, right?" Jeremy teased as they climbed the steps and knocked on the door.

Dripping wet, drunk off his ass, and dressed like St. Nick in the middle of July, Jeremy barely noticed the neighbor that gave them a strange look as Tricky opened the door. Freya looked at the pair of them, and Jeremy bobbed delightfully on the balls of his feet until she invited them in. He hadn't noticed they were still wet from the kiddie pools, but he didn't stop her when she worked some magic to dry them off. The spell frizzed up his hair, the same way that magical drying always did, but he was too drunk to care. "Maybe a little?" He responded to her inquiry about whether they had been drinking before he could dive into the story, Freya threw them a bone.

Jeremy looked once at Danny, meeting his eyes before he lept over the couch to duke it out for the last slice of pizza.

"Ohh.." Danny said as Freya mentioned drying them off. He glanced down dumbly, he should have done that before they left. No wonder the Zip Zap guy was grumbling. Nevertheless, he stood still with his arms out to the side and waited patiently as the drying charm warmed him right up before patting her shoulder in thanks as he followed into the living room and flopped on the couch, his hazel eyes lighting as he spied the pizza.

Shuffling the beard out of his way, the piece of garlic bread was half-eaten in seconds as he shrugged. "We had to stop by for half-Christmas o' course," he said. "Didn't you get the invite?" he looked to Jere, positive that it was his friend who had been in charge of the half-Christmas holiday cards. They had even worn matching ugly holiday sweaters and posed in a cheesy couple pose before signing them with Xs and Os and owling them. Or.. had that been last year? Danny shrugged.

At her words, Danny slid his gaze to Jere, hesitating for a nanosecond before he flung himself towards the pizza, trying to shove it in his mouth and successfully getting one bite before Jere took the rest. He ended up on the floor between the couch and the coffee table, his head spinning from moving so fast.

The boys stayed and joked around for a while, Danny trying to convince Freya to wear his Santa beard, joining Jere in a serenade of a Christmas song with lyrics mashed together from three different songs, and then Jere dropped enough hints about stopping by Montse's that even Danny finally picked up on it. He booped Tricky on the nose and said "Merry Half-Christmas Tricky!" and then called the Zip Zap guy again, who looked even more disgruntled than the first time.

/out