Wonderful silence was coming from the living room. Jack didn't want to get his hopes up, just in case Thomas was only taking a bathroom break. He'd managed to slink away and hide halfway through the second movie. About ten minutes after hiding, he'd gotten a text from Kieran checking in on him.

He was grateful that Kieran believed him when he'd said he was fine. No one was offended, he was allowed to hide, and Thomas got to get a nice distraction from needing a fix.

He probably could have held on longer than he had if Thomas and Lindsey were able to shut up for five minutes. It was a mix of entertaining and annoying to listen to Thomas reminiscing about old 50s B-movies as Lindsey chimed in with her own opinions. But he couldn't understand their need to do it while a movie was playing.

He looked up from his laptop at the soft knock.

Kieran opened the door and gave Jack a tired smile. "Thomas has left for the evening."

"Just the evening?"

"Lindsey has gone with him, and he'll be bringing her back tomorrow."

How a ghost could have a vibrant social life was beyond Jack. Envy poked at him, but the reminder that it took a lot more effort than he could manage quelled the feeling. He was happy for Lindsey.

It was just him and Kieran for the rest of the night. He swallowed as another little tick was made in the column of why he should do something stupid. It was amazing how much braver he felt with the complete lack of audience.

"I guess they'll have fun together?" His face scrunched up at the thought that there would potentially be two ghosts haunting his apartment.

"Would you like your Christmas present,"Kieran asked, "or would you prefer more time to yourself?"

"Oh, yeah. Um, no. I mean, sure. I'm good," Jack said, pushing the chair away from the desk and getting up. He followed Kieran back to the living room. "All decompressed over here. It was just a lot. Nice? But a lot. Kinda nice to overhear in here, but I still feel kinda guilty for ditching."

"Neither were bothered by your absence." Kieran bent down and picked up a small black box from under the tree. He picked a pine needle off the red ribbon wrapped around it.

"Did they notice?" Jack asked, fighting a smile as he dropped onto the couch.

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Kieran shook his head as he handed Jack the slim box. "Here, my sweet siren."

"This better not be expensive," Jack muttered as he took the box and turned it in his hands. No sound came from the inside.

"Not outrageously so. Just a little something for you to fidget with." Kieran took the seat beside Jack, leaning back against the corner.

"Really?" Jack re-examined the box. It was a flat square, tied up with a pretty red ribbon. Both looked high end. "If it's a fidget spinner or one of those popping things, I'm gonna have to reconsider your gift."

Kieran's smile gave nothing away.

Jack tugged on the ribbon and opened the box, not sure what he should be expecting. He pulled out a piece of cottony cushion and blinked at the piece of jewelry sitting inside. It was a pretty charm bracelet with eight charms already attached. A silver heart with a red gemstone embedded in its center. A golden star. A horseshoe, a clover… A jingle played at the back of Jack's mind. Sure enough, a blue moon was the next charm, followed by a pot of gold, a rainbow, and a damned red balloon.

He sent a half-hearted glare Kieran's way. "You're hilarious."

Kieran's smile widened into a toothy grin. "You don't like it?"

"I… Yeah, it's nice," Jack grudgingly admitted. He kept running his thumb over the different textures, falling back onto the raised enamel of the clover.

"Lindsey insisted on these specific charms. She said you'd recognize the jingle."

"She was right." It was strange to think that she was both older and younger than him. He balanced the bracelet over his left wrist and fastened the clasp. It rested over the scar circling his wrist, and a flash of doubt crept over him.

He stamped the feeling down, insisting that the bracelet wasn't a collar of some sort. It was a stupid in-joke that came with a higher price tag than cereal. He would see how long he could resist calling Benoit just to be sure.

He reached under the couch and pulled out his own gift for Kieran. As he eyed the wrapping paper, it gave him the reassurance he needed. He'd been enough of a little shit with what he had loaded onto the e-reader.

"My lovely, sweet Jack. You needn't have bothered," Kieran said. His smile was bright and soft as he took the gift from Jack.

"I dunno. You might hate it."

"I highly doubt that," Kieran said as he unwrapped his gift. "A tablet?"

"An e-reader. I already got it set up for you and uploaded a shit ton of public domain stuff. Y'know, like Dracula. A bunch of Weird Tales stuff. Just a bunch of stuff I found. To get you started. I kinda searched up 'vampire' and 'Irish' and went from there." Jack was especially proud of himself for not pirating any books on Kieran's behalf.

"Oh, my sweet, sweet siren." Kieran set the e-reader on the coffee table and pulled Jack into a hug, trailing kisses from the corner of his jaw to his lips.

Jack squirmed away, blushing brightly. "There's a part two."

image [https://i.imgur.com/eZY0YUq.png]