Of all yearly holidays, Christmas seemed to be River’s favourite- in contrast, Ari quite simply held some kind of bitter vendetta against anything Christmassy, and banned all discussion of it until at least halfway through December. Of course, River graciously ignored this ban, singing Christmas songs to himself and making sure that whenever he went round to Ari’s house from November onwards that he was wearing the ugliest Christmas jumper he could possibly find. This was not a difficult feat- every year, without fail, River’s mother bought him about five ugly sweaters every time it rolled around winter. He had more than enough to choose from, and Ari’s face was priceless every time; the immeasurable disgust etched onto Ari’s expression when he opened the door and saw River stood on the doorstep in an embarrassing knitted jumper was always expected, and always enjoyed. It never got old, and River had no regrets, even if sometimes it meant that ari wouldn’t even go near him until he took off whatever atrocity he was wearing. Honestly, though, River could pull anything off, and had the suspicion that ari always forced him to take off the sweater was that he knew for a fact that river didn’t wear any t-shirt underneath.

Christmas had come around again- after Halloween, which had consisted mostly of River trying to get his head around ari’s goth-punk miniphase (the week that spanned across just before and a few days after Halloween where the only thing ari ever wore was black leather, head to toe, all studded and buckled and sometimes with a great deal of skin exposed. Now, River wasn’t exactly complaining, but it was strange- and stranger still when, almost abruptly, Ari’s fashion sense seemed to mellow again before River even had time to enjoy whatever Ari was doing with himself for that short week. Feeling that he had to counter this, River went online and scrolled relentlessly until he found the ugliest, cringiest Christmas sweater imaginable, and was wearing that very same jumper when he turned up on Ari’s doorstep, 8th December. In one pocket of his jeans, his phone was nestled, and he had one earphone in, humming along to ‘last Christmas’ even as Ari opened the door.

Not ten minutes later they were both nestled together on one of Ari’s ridiculous couches, River having successfully convinced his boyfriend to watch a Christmas movie with him. It was rather surprising how easily Ari succumbed- something told him that he was expecting something back in return, and the evidence was apparent in the way he was playing with the bottom of River’s thick sweater and how his other hand had moved up and was stroking through River’s fluffy, downy hair. It wasn’t currently very long, but it had been a decent while since it’s last cut; therefore, it was medium length, soft and long enough so that Ari could rather easily comb his entire hand through it. They managed to get about twenty minutes into the movie (elf, obviously) and through an entire large pack of caramel popcorn when Ari leaned in as if to steal a kiss from him. River, deciding that this could be entertaining to exploit, pretended not to notice him, even dropping the hand that he had curled around Ari’s hip and letting his grip go slack.

Ari was predictably persistent- he reached under the hem of River’s sweater and traced faux-innocent lines across his waist, only prompting raised eyebrows from River as he forced himself not to smile. He glanced back at the screen after reaching into a newly opened bag of popcorn and pushing one against Ari’s mouth to distract him for a few seconds. When Ari opened his mouth to speak, River just barely turned his head, as if not really paying attention. As if finally noticing his boyfriend’s impatience, his expression seemed to soften, and he took on an air of false sympathy. ”Did you want something?” A pause, and an annoyed pout from Ari. ”If it’s important, i’ll pause the movie for you...”

it probably had mostly to do with the fact that ari was fundamentally against any sort of group fun or celebration, but basically, his feelings towards christmas directly paralleled chandler bing's feelings towards thanksgiving. he didn't necessarily have any negative associations with the holiday, though; however it could be argued that a lot of kids from divorced parents detested having to do the whole switch-up every year. ari quite liked both his parents, no annoying step parents yet, so he didn't fit in that category, luckily. he really hated the 'pretending to be grateful for the shitty pen your friend got you because they felt like they needed to get you something' and the 'finding gifts for people you really could not give less of a shit about' aspects. still, you got holidays off school, you got a little christmas money if your family was well-off enough... more recently, ari had finally made a friend, and said friend was a huge christmas fan. so, that made things better, even if it all still felt very phony.

seeing river getting all amped up about any given holiday always led to ari getting excited, too, like it was contagious (and his parents actually noticed the difference, despite never noticing anything else about him - so it must've been a big deal. they thought he'd taken uppers, seriously). he occasionally got annoyed at even the prospect of it and river seemed to pick up on that fact, which unfortunately meant he still had to deal with a constant stream of christmas propaganda. river always managed to sneak in little festivities. usually it was an ugly as all hell christmas sweater, which, y'know, no big deal, except river managed to make even the ugliest items of clothing pretty cute. ari wasn't sure whether to be jealous or endeared to it. otherwise river had a candy cane hooked in his mouth, or tinsel somehow stuck in his hair, or a huge mug of peppermint cocoa. ari revolted by wearing as much black or greyscale as possible and generally being an eeyore.

when ari chanced a visit he was greeted with river blaring 'last christmas,' to which he frowned at nastily but still made his way inside with a quick nudge to river. he barely argued with the idea of watching some christmas movie, because river was offering up 'elf' and it was probably the least obnoxious of all of them while still remaining festive enough for river's standards. plus, ari could relate to whoever the hell will ferrell's dad was: cranky and stressed out all the time. moreover, if river's eyes were on the movie, ari could probably get away with showering him with attention. not that he was typically averse to it, of course. this just helped to avoid river's inevitable smartass commentary.

he easily fell into a habit of simultaneously toying with river's sweater and soothing through his hair (though not very helpfully - he was probably adding to the bedhead they had both already fallen victim to in their position). he hardly touched their popcorn or watched the movie itself, instead turning in towards river and almost tucking his face in the bend of his shoulder. after some time he tried to meet river in a kiss, and ended up hovering in the air inches away because river paid him no mind. ari opened his mouth to comment before thinking better of it, figuring river was messing with him anyway, and instead began drawing invisible pictures along river's hip. river again appeared too invested in what he was watching to care at all, and then ari was, quite frankly, attacked by a piece of popcorn. ari blew it back impatiently, watching it fly off somewhere to the side of the bed. "you're being really rude. i'm a guest."

he was, of course, exaggerating, but he was mildly annoyed when river faked pity. did you want something? ari continued looking miserable. to be fair, it was kind of amusing. if it’s important, i’ll pause the movie for you... ari promptly used the hand previously sifting through river's hair to push his head away lightly and withdrew into himself, shifting aside until he wasn't completely invading river's bubble. "yeah, i wanted some space, loser," he replied, but he was grinning, still mostly turned towards river even when he was acting subdued. "no need to pause, you're totally occupied."