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“But I still don’t get why we can’t just share your room like we used to Vladdy.” Jack said for the… seventh? Vlad thought it might be seventh. The seventh time then.
“Because Jack,” Maddie answered for him, “Vlad’s parents are… old school. Even if they knew we were all dating they wouldn’t let us sleep in the same bed. It’s how they are. Besides, you and Vlad get to sleep in the same room, so there’s that.”
“But it’s not fair to either of you. I can sleep on the ground and be happy about it, but I know you both sleep better when we all sleep together.”
Vlad couldn’t help but snort. Yeah, that was Jack, being mainly annoyed because they would sleep worse. “Jack, it’s only for the Christmas break…” Vlad paused, wondering if he should pull this card this early, but they were already 30 minutes into a 2 hour flight. “And… you didn’t hear me say this but… my parents do go to bed pretty early, and there may or may not be a balcony connecting the guest room and my room so… if Maddie were to lock her door I’m not sure they’d ever really know if she was in there.”
“But what if they catch us?” Jack had the distinct disadvantage of having parents that he never had to sneak around for any reason, unlike Maddie and himself. Jack’s parents actually knew about their relationship and just let them have a slumber party on the pullout couch in the den when they visited. Going behind parents backs made him nervous.
“If they do, we lie and say we fell asleep watching movies. Whoops, won’t happen again.” Vlad shrugged. But Jack continued to look uncomfortable. “I’m sorry Jack… I’ll tell them soon, I’m just trying to find the right time.”
“Well I’m never telling my parents. They can get bent. As far as I’m concerned we can spend all the fun holidays at your house Jack.” Maddie said decisively. They didn’t visit her family at all because as far as she was concerned, her sister, Alicia was the only family she had. As an adult, she could totally do that.
They were all silent for a bit… until Jack started back up again. “I just don’t get-”
“Okay, so, let’s talk about how the terminal was hell because someone wanted to travel on Christmas eve.” Maddie interrupted, changing the subject rather forcefully.
“Look, I had a paper and you know I’m not going to be able to focus at home.” Vlad defended himself.
“There’s something to be said for procrastination but… seeing as it is almost Christmas, I’m gonna take a nap before we land and I think you two should watch a movie.”
“We aren’t children Maddie, you don’t need to keep us entertained.” Vlad scoffed.
“ Vlad, in-flight movie, don’t say no to that.” Jack said, shushing him.
“Okay, fine.” Vlad backtracked. “We’ll take the movie.”
Maddie helped them get their movie and then put on her sleep mask. The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful.
They found all of their luggage and they made their way to pickup where there was a chauffeur holding a card that said Masters.
“Wow, thanks mom and dad, they didn’t even come to pick us up.”
“Do they ever?” Maddie snorted. “Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever seen them drive.”
“Oh come on, the driver thing is cool.” Jack said with a grin.
“Yeah, maybe when I was five and you thought it was cool.” Vlad walked up to the man. “We’re here, you don’t need to keep waving that thing around.”
The chauffeur gave him a critical look, which made sense, Vlad had to admit. Here they were, three college age adults carrying beaten up luggage and generally not looking like the kind of people the Masters family associated with. “Vlad Masters, and friends? Isn’t that who you were told to pick up? Do you need ID?”
“No, my apologies Mr. Masters. I’ll show you to the limo.” Vlad internally groaned as Maddie and Jack snickered behind him. They weren’t going to let that one go.
“ Mr. Masters. ” Maddie said once they were seated in the back of a very fancy limo and Vlad had raised the partition. “Dear god, I want to see him call you that when you haven’t slept in two days and your shirt is covered in cheeto dust.”
“It’s not like I ask him to call me that, fuck, I specifically bribe them not to call me that. This one must be new.” Vlad sank further into his seat. “Can we just barricade ourselves in my room for the rest of December, please? If I have to deal with any more high society crud I’ll…”
“Smile politely and say something that makes us all sound smarter than we are?” Jack asked and they all laughed. Because it was true, Vlad acted the part of a model child pretty well. His parents asked him to be on good behavior in college because of the family reputation but honestly that was pretty easy when he didn’t party. Who wanted to party anyways when he could be out hunting for ghosts with Jack and Maddie?
Either way he hadn’t uttered anything worse than heck around his parents his entire life and he sure wasn’t going to start now. “Okay, yeah, I will. But seriously consider the barricade plan. I think it’s a winner.
Vlad’s parents received them with open arms. They weren’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, just a little more concerned with their status than they should be, and a lot less… familiar than Jack’s parents. All the same, they had a nice dinner and when they showed Maddie the guest room right next to Vlad’s room, he gave Maddie a look saying, sneak over whenever.
She took her time unpacking and she got in some comfortable PJ’s before locking her door and using the aforementioned balcony to sneak into the “boys” room. Even so, Vlad and Jack weren’t even finished building a giant pillow fort.
“I took like a half hour.” Maddie giggled. “Have you two been making that this whole time?”
“No.” Vlad said defensively.
“Merry Christmas Eve, we made some hot cocoa and grabbed some cookies from the kitchen!” Jack said brightly.
“Just hot cocoa?” Maddie asked, sitting down in the middle of the almost finished pillow fort.
“And just a splash of Baileys, you know, as a treat.” Vlad added.
“Nice.” She accepted a mug and a cookie. “What are we doing?”
“We’re watching Ghostbusters!” Jack said with a huge grin. “It’s a Christmas eve tradition you know!”
“I’m pretty sure we’re the only people that have that tradition, but, I’ll go for it.” Maddie agreed. They had started it the first year they visited Jack’s family for Christmas, something about being snuggled up with the people you liked most watching one of your favorite movies felt Christmas, even if the content of the movie didn’t scream holidays.
They finished their fort and Jack sat down next to Maddie, and Vlad next to him as the movie started.
Jack was just the best person to lean on.
They drank, ate sweets, and watched ghostbusters twice before they all started to get sleepy.
“Good night.” Vlad said as they cuddled up in a pile in the middle of their fort.
It wasn’t exactly a traditional celebration but they weren’t very traditional either.
So really, it was perfect.