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It was easy to blame Ariadne for what happened.
For multiple reasons. After all, the New Years Eve party has been her idea. Her first house party as a highschooler. Personally Arthur didn’t see the appeal. After all, he’d never felt the urge to invite anyone over. (“We’ve still got two and a half years to fix that for you!” Ari had said. He had rolled his eyes.) And, not only was it her party, but it had been her responsibility this year to take down the Christmas decorations. Which she did, dutifully enough. But nobody’s perfect.
Their parents were out with other friends for that evening, leaving Arthur in charge. A task he wouldn’t take lightly, but he knew he had a reputation for being a stick in the mud. A real killjoy. He resented this. Quite a lot, if he was honest. And he was determined to challenge that reputation tonight. A little bit, anyway. He hadn’t minded the sheer amount of people his sister invited - half of them probably wouldn’t show up anyway - but completely balked at the mere suggestion of alcohol. Ari tried to play it off as a joke, but still. Knowing her, he had his doubts.
The first people to arrive ended up being Dom, an athletic senior who Arthur had tutored in advanced math for a few months, and Dom’s junior girlfriend Mal. Both were delightful, a bit bubbly, and this was very much not their first stop that night. And whatever their earlier stops had been, the two of them clearly had less qualms about underage drinking than Arthur. Dom greeted Arthur warmly, slapping him on the back like they were old friends. Which, Arthur supposed, they were.
Yusuf showed up sometime later, apologetic, though Ari assured him that he was alright. “Not even close to fashionably late.”
He laughed. “I’m glad you said that, because my friend is gonna be even later than me.”
She blinked, brows furrowing. “How late?”
“No idea. But I can guarantee you that the first words out of his mouth, other than ‘hello’ will probably be ‘I’m only fashionably late, love!’”
Now it was Ariadne turn to laugh. “Was that an impression of him?”
Yusuf nodded.
“He sounds delightful.”
“Sounds like a headache waiting to happen,” Arthur deadpanned, passing them by on his way to the den, empty punch bowl in hand.
“Only for you, dear brother,” Ari said without looking at him. “Only for you.”
Said friend finally showed up an hour later. Arthur recognized him immediately. Daniel Eames, though absolutely no one called him Daniel. Not even the teachers. A senior, like Dom. He grinned at Arthur when he opened the door.
“Hello there. Are they letting the cute guests answer the door now?”
Arthur rolled his eyes. “Hardly. It’s my house.”
Eames’ face lit up. “Ah, you’re the brother! Yusuf did mention that Ariadne had a sibling. Though I have to say,” he leaned closer, “that any description he would have given me would not have done you justice.”
Is he… flirting? With me? Arthur considered this. After a moment, Eames coughed.
“You gonna let me in, darling?”
There was a potential double meaning in his words, but Arthur decided to ignore it. And he would try his best to ignore the flirtation. Operative word there being try. The older boy was, to Arthur’s dismay, incredibly handsome. With the fullest, most kissable lips he’d ever seen. The two of them had never interacted prior to this. And Eames was a popular person, always with some girl or guy on his arm. So he wasn’t serious, Arthur reasoned. And, at worst, was just messing with him. He must think I’m a fool.
“Hey, Eames! Cutting it close, doncha think?” Yusuf called out. Arthur stepped aside.
“Only fashionably late, love,” Eames quipped.
Yusuf and Ariadne looked at each other. Then burst out laughing. Eames was slightly confused, wondering what great joke he missed, before he just shrugged and went with it. He looked back at the door, hoping to catch another glimpse of Ariadne’s brother. But the door was closed, and the gorgeous boy was nowhere to be found.
“By the way, mate,” he spoke to Yusuf, “why did you never tell me?”
“Tell you?”
“More about Ari’s brother. I’ve only just met him and I’m fairly smitten!” He patted Ariadne on the back when she choked on her sip of punch. “Where the hell have you been hiding him?”
“Me? Hide him? Hah! Like he’d ever stand for that.”
More knocks at the door. Ariadne sighed. “A host’s work is never done. Get in there and mingle, Eames. Maybe I can orchestrate another meeting between you and Arthur.”
Eames winked at her. “From your mouth to God’s ears!” And he passed her by, mouth moving silently forming Arthur’s name, over and over. He was so distracted that he almost walked into the refreshment table. Yusuf shook his head.
“Boy, he really is gone, huh? Now I almost feel bad.”
“How come?”
“If I had known sooner, I could have set them up or something.” A thought occurred to him. “He’s not straight is he?”
“Arthur? No way! But don’t tell him I told you.”
“My lips are sealed. Now how are we getting them together?”
———
Turns out, arranging a chance encounter between the two boys was a lot harder than expected.
In fact, Arthur seemed to be doing his damndest to deliberately avoid Eames at all costs. No amount of cajoling or persuasion could get them into the same room. Every time she failed, Ariadne gave Eames an apologetic smile. He shrugged, trying and failing for nonchalance, but his disappointment was obvious. Clearly they needed a plan. More specifically a better plan.
And yet when it happened, completely by accident, it still ended up being Ariadne’s fault. One she always delighted in reminding Arthur of, later.
Despite all of her and Yusuf’s scheming, the two boys in question literally bumped into each other as Eames was looking for the restroom.
“Oh!”
“‘Scuse me, sorry I-“
They noticed who the other was. Eames smirked, licking his lips. Arthur scowled.
“Well well well, we meet again,” the older boy drawled.
“Unfortunately,” Arthur muttered under his breath, trying his best not to sound as if the sight of Eames’ tongue swiping across those plush lips made his heart stutter in his chest.
“Hmm? What was that?”
“Nothing. Could you excuse me - I’m trying to find-“
“I’d love to, darling but unfortunately we seem to be at an impasse.”
Arthur’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What are you talking about?”
Eames looked up, motioning for Arthur to do the same. There, hanging just above their heads, was a sprig of mistletoe. One last Christmas decoration that Ari had forgotten.
“What do you say?” Eames was all smiles, crooked teeth proudly on display. It was… charming. Arthur felt charmed. And he wasn’t sure if he should be angry, or…
“I say you let me take that down so we can go on ignoring each other.”
“But where’s the fun in that?” Eames made a show of pouting, turning his downright sinful mouth into an exaggerated frown. It was so overdone that Arthur couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Ah! He laughs!”
“Of course I laugh, I’m human aren’t I?”
“Jury’s still out on that one. But I can think of another way you could convince me.” Eames wiggled his eyebrows.
Arthur rolled his eyes. It would be but the work of a moment, to reach up and grab the offending plant - it was on a low section of the banister, and Arthur had a long reach - but for some reason…
“Okay.”
Eames blinked. He almost seemed surprised. “Okay?”
“Yeah, okay. But you better make it worth my while.”
“Oh pet, you have my word.”
They leaned into each other. Arthur put his hand on Eames’ shoulder. The other boy put his own at Arthur’s hips, mentally marveling for a moment how slender he was, before their lips met. Finally, finally. The initial press was chaste. Just a touch of lip against lip. But there was something to it. An undercurrent. A feeling of Yes. A feeling of Oh, its you. Of I’ve been waiting for you.
One kiss turned into another. And then another. Lip to lip became tongue to tongue, breath to breath. They gasped into each other’s mouths, each trying to draw the other closer. As if they somehow couldn’t bear the thought of existing as two separate beings anymore. In Arthur’s mind, things were progressing a tad too quickly. But he’d stopped listening to himself think about twenty seconds ago.
Walking forward, Eames pressed Arthur against the nearest wall. Their lips separated only for Eames to start kissing down the other’s neck.
“Eames...” Arthur groaned, trying to be quiet.
“Mmm, Arthur,” Eames managed to reply between kisses. He sucked hard at the junction of Arthur’s neck and shoulder, causing the younger boy to clap a hand over his mouth lest his sharp cry of pleasure escape.
“You have a lovely voice, darling,” Eames whispered before taking the hand away and capturing those sweet lips again.
Yusuf rounded the corner, just out of sight of the two other teens. When he realized what was happening, he tried backing away slowly, not wanting to interrupt. Not after the night he and Ariadne had trying to get something like this to happen. As if he’d summoned her with his thoughts, Ariadne came up right behind him.
“Hey Arthur, any luck finding-“
Yusuf grabbed her and clapped a hand over her mouth, but it was too late. The kissing boys jumped apart, looking around wildly. They spotted Yusuf off to the side, hand still covering Ari’s mouth. Ari, for her part, seemed to realize belatedly what she’d just interrupted. Her eyes were wide as they darted between her brother and the other boy.
Arthur cleared his throat. “Well then,” he started. There was an awkward pause as he tried in vain to straighten up his collar, where Eames had been so aggressively nipping at his skin. There was already a bright red spot there that would surely darken, Ari observed. She squeaked, muffled by Yusuf’s hand.
Arthur walked back under the mistletoe, reached up and snatched it down. “I’ll just… put this away with the rest of our decorations, then.” And he left, making his way out to the garage.
Eames watched him go, then turned to fix Yusuf and Ariadne with an unreadable look.
“Sorry!” They both managed to squawk out.
“I tried to be quiet!” Yusuf said first.
“I didn’t know!” Ariadne blurted.
Eames sighed. “Yeah, I know. It’s okay. This isn’t exactly the best spot for a make-out session, you know?”
Ariadne nodded, sympathetic. “But until I blundered around that corner, were you having fun?”
Eames sighed again, but it was far dreamier than the one before. Remembering it later, Yusuf would swear he saw stars in his friend’s eyes.
“Fun? That’s an understatement. Dearest Ariadne, I think I’m in love.”
She squeaked again. “Really? With Arthur?”
Eames kept talking, “I can’t believe we’ve been going to that school together for over a year already, and I never-“
He saw Arthur come back in through the sliding glass door, making his way to the refreshments. No doubt to see what needed restocking.
“Never mind that. Duty calls,” he said, starting to weave his way through the crowds of other teens towards the object of his affections, previous objective forgotten. As he did, though, an excited cry rose up.
“Ten!”
The crowd began chanting.
“Nine!”
Arthur looked over at the television.
“Eight!”
The ball was mere seconds away from dropping.
“Seven!”
He saw Eames coming towards him.
“Six!”
There was a determined look in his eye.
“Five!”
They met in the back, behind the largest throng of people.
“Four!”
Eames pulled him close, already having missed holding him in his arms.
“Three!”
“Arthur,” he said, putting more feeling into a mere name than the other boy had ever heard.
“Two!”
“Shut up and kiss me,” Arthur tried to growl, but only partially succeeded.
“One!”
“As my darling demands,” Eames murmured, and drew their mouths together again.
Everyone cheered around them as the ball dropped. Fireworks lit up the sky, both on the television and in real life. People clapped. Noisemakers went off in a cacophony. There were cries of “Happy New Year!” At least one person started singing Auld Lang Syne. Badly.
Arthur and Eames paid it all no mind, however. They were too completely wrapped up in each other. Across the room, Yusuf and Ariadne watched the action for a moment. Then they turned away to give the other two their privacy. Well, as much privacy as one could have in a room full of sweaty teenagers. And if, later that night, when they were alone in the house again, Ari saw her straight-laced, stick-in-the-mud brother fall backwards onto the couch with a faraway look and a dreamy sigh on his lips, well then… Maybe, she thinks, he won’t mind the next party so much.