A Home For The Holiday
By: Cheshyre
Title: A Home for the Holiday (1/1)
Author: Cheshyre
Email: cheshyre_chick@yahoo.com
Category: Gen
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: I don’t own it. I don’t make money off of
it. I just use it to make other people happy. Suing me
will only get you action figures.
Pairing: None
Author’s Notes: For the LAS Fic Holiday Fic Exchange
Archive:
Summary: Lenny gets Squiggy the perfect gift on
Christmas Eve.
Warnings: Bah humbug.
It was Christmas Eve and Lenny was shopping, doing his
best to fight the tide of last minute shoppers. It was
like treading water. The overwhelming press of people
was threatening to suffocate him. People were frantic,
snatching things off of shelves and hurrying around,
muttering to themselves about what on earth they were
going to get so and so.
Lenny fought his way through the crowd with a lot of
side-stepping and excusing himself. He was largely
ignored or regarded rudely. So much for the holiday
spirit. At least, unlike so many of the other
shoppers, he knew exactly what he was buying and who
it was for.
Lenny probably shouldn’t have waited until the last
minute to get a gift for Squiggy, but the past week
had been so busy.
First, they had bought a tree. It wasn’t the greatest
tree on the lot: it was short and the branches were a
bit sparse and thin. It was definitely the runt of the
litter, so to speak. Lenny nearly likened it to
Squiggy, but thought better of vocalizing that thought
at the last second. He wanted a good present for
Christmas after all. They’d paid for it (a mere ten
bucks since the tree lot guy was so happy to be rid of
it) and brought it back to their apartment, losing a
few more branches and breaking the top of it in the
struggle up the stairs. But once they’d gotten it
through the door and set it up, Lenny could see it
really was the perfect tree for their place. It was
shabby, but loved.
Then came the decorations. They found the box of
Christmas ornaments and decorations buried in a closet
under a pile of clothes and Squiggy’s jar of moths.
The popcorn they had strung and hung on the tree last
year had rotted, the candy canes were incredibly
sticky, and the lights didn’t work. All that survived
from the previous year was the delicate glass bulbs
that Squiggy had the sense to put back in the
packaging and the construction paper star that Lenny
had made the first year he and Squiggy had spent
Christmas in their apartment.
Shopping is always easy when someone knows exactly
what they want. Lenny grabbed a box of lights and some
garland. Down the aisle, Squiggy had picked up some
tinsel and new, non-sticky candy canes.
“C’mon, Squig,” Lenny said, holding up his finds. “I
got the garland and lights. Let’s go.”
“Garland?” Squiggy scoffed. “Garland’s for girls.
We’re men. We use tinsel.”
“C’mon, Squig, that stuff gets everywhere,” Lenny
said.
“So? I’m not putting garland on my tree.”
“Your tree? It’s our tree! And I’m not putting tinsel
on it.”
They stared seriously at each other for a moment.
“Garland.”
“Tinsel.”
“Garland.”
“Tinsel.”
“Garland!”
“Tinsel!”
“GARLAND!”
“TINSEL!”
Squiggy suddenly turned and ran for the checkouts.
Lenny hesitated only a second before running after
him. They both plunked their desired decorations on
the counter at the same time. Lenny was about to play
dirty to get his way when Squiggy held up his hands in
a gesture of peace.
“Okay, I got an idea,” he said.
“Yeah?” Lenny asked, narrowing his eyes, still
considering the below the belt move of throwing the
package of tinsel across the store.
“We’re men, we’ll settle it like men,” Squiggy said.
“You wanna fight for it?” Lenny asked.
“No! We’re MATURE men, right? I offer a compromise,”
Squiggy said, trying to sound gentlemanly. “You
decorate your half of the tree with garland and I’ll
decorate my half with tinsel. Agreed?”
Squiggy stuck out his hand. Lenny considered his
previous plan for a second before shaking Squiggy’s
hand.
“Deal,” he said.
They had gone home and decorated the tree (and Lenny
was sure his half looked much better than Squiggy’s).
Soon, presents began to accumulate underneath of it.
There was something from Laverne and Shirley,
something from Carmine, something from Mrs. Babbish
and Frank. Lenny had even spotted a present from
Squiggy.
But Squiggy’s present was still on a shelf in a store
and Lenny was doing his best to get to it.
When he finally laid his hands on it, it was like
touching the Holy Grail. It was the most perfect
present ever for his best friend.
The fight against shoppers resumed as Lenny headed for
the checkout, his find cradled against his body like a
baby.
He’d go to the girls’ apartment to wrap it so Squiggy
couldn’t peek and then he’d put it under the tree with
the rest of the gifts.
Nearly bouncing with anticipation at the thought of
Squiggy opening his gift and seeing the look on his
face, Lenny carefully set the large, wide-mouthed jar
on the counter and dug his wallet out of his back
pocket. A new, never been used home for Squiggy’s
moths. Only Lenny would have thought to get Squiggy
that.
And the next morning, when Squiggy opened his present
and smiled, Lenny beamed.