Chapter Text
“About time you showed up!” Ethan called out from the villa’s entrance as Vik exited his Uber. He was already dressed in comfortable clothes—an older Sidemen hoodie with shorts and slides even though it was way too cold for that. “You’re not usually late to these.”
“Give me a break, Ethan. The airport was packed today.” Vik and his Uber driver unloaded his luggage from the trunk, and he thanked the driver with a £40 tip before he drove off.
Ever since the Sidemen moved into individual flats, a new tradition has sprouted: they rent a house for the holidays and spend the week together. This year, Josh suggested they all book a quaint villa in Edinburgh, just a few kilometres from the nearest town and shopping centre.
“Who else got here before me?” Vik asked. Ethan went up to help Vik roll his suitcase into the villa, Vik was already preoccupied with his weighty backpack. They said their greetings and hugged before Ethan spoke.
“Well, Josh got here first—because of course he did. Then Tobi, me, JJ, Simon, and now you.”
Vik had to bite his lip to stop himself from saying something stupid. Simon was already here? If the airport wasn’t so full today, he could’ve mentally prepared himself to see Simon again.
“So Harry’s the late one this year, huh?” Vik says instead.
“Yup,” Ethan popped the ‘p’ as they entered the villa, the front door having a wreath with a red bow hung outside. Despite looking deceptively small from the outside, its interior was expansive. The heat hit Vik immediately, a huge contrast from the biting cold. Vik takes off his boots and sheds off his coat, placing them next to where the others have as well.
Underneath it revealed Vik’s ugly Christmas sweater, it said “Santa’s Favorite Ho” in big white text and it was red with small green trees wrapping around the waist and the arms. Yes, pulling up on the first day with ugly Christmas sweaters was also part of their tradition.
“Santa’s Favorite Ho—” Ethan read out Vik’s sweater and groaned. “Mate, that’s so dreadful that it’s perfect.”
“Why thank you, Behz. But where’s your sweater? Think you’re too cool for ugly Christmas sweaters?”
“Mine was too itchy and wasn’t even warm so I changed out of it,” Ethan explained. “Wait, I’ll go show you!”
Ethan ascended the stairs and Vik followed suit and saw where all of their temporary rooms would be. Ethan’s room was the second door on the right from the stairs.
“Before I show you, let’s actually put these in your room.” Ethan rolled Vik’s luggage down the hall and into the room right next to his. Vik twisted open the door knob and pushed it open. Inside was very barebones; a queen-sized bed with a red top sheet with ornate patterns of vines and leaves embroidered in gold.
Inside Ethan’s room, his bags sat on the floor next to the bed and were unzipped and partially unpacked. The bed—also a queen size (did all of the rooms have the same bed?)—looked as though Ethan had already made himself comfortable in it, the futon already pulled back and the pillows sunken in. Ethan opened his closet and there were already a couple of his clothing items hung up, one of them particularly stood out to Vik with its extra… accessories.
“I purchased this yesterday before I flew over here.” Ethan pulled it off of the hanger and slipped it on top of his hoodie. “Probably should’ve washed it.”
Vik’s jaw dropped as he clocked what Ethan’s sweater was. “What even…”
Ethan laughed again and Vik ended up joining in. The design on his red sweater was a snowman doing a handstand so that its carrot nose was… yeah , and on the nose hung off two cheap small ornaments and a bush of fake leaves.
“C’mon Vikkstar, tug my carrot!” Ethan twisted his hips around to make the plush carrot swing around.
“Absolutely not !” Vik covered his eyes and backed up. “That’s actually horrific. But I gotta say, it’s better than what you had last year,” Vik said in between giggles.
“Hey!” Ethan scratched the back of his neck and crossed his arms. “Are you dissing my cuddly cactus sweater?”
“It was cute, not ugly, therefore it wasn’t as good. Also what do cacti have to do with Christmas?”
Ethan sighed, realizing that Vik won their non-argument, and reached into the back of his hoodie to pull out his hoodie and pulled it on. “Well, as much as I wanna keep dickin’ around, everyone else is downstairs in the lounge.”
Ethan and Vik went back to the ground floor and walked through the dining room to get into the lounge. Vik took this time to look at how the place was decorated. The festive decorations were very sparse but the stairs had pine garlands with ornaments wrapped around the bannisters, there were even snowflake decorations hanging off of the chandelier in the dining room.
Now, the lounge. It was the most cozy in the aesthetic department; the fireplace was roaring with crackling flames and there was a wall-mounted flat-screen TV hanging above it, tuned into the local news channel. A fully decorated Christmas tree that sat in the corner with ornaments and tinsel—a star was perched on top of the tree. There were two couches—one longer than the other that were placed perpendicularly—and they both had throw pillows with Christmas designs on them. In the center was a long coffee table with a sheet with lace detailing laid on top. The whole room was the definition of cozy.
“Guys, Vik’s here!” Ethan yelled when they entered. JJ and Tobi whipped their heads around and smiles overtook their faces seeing their friend again. Even though they all saw each other regularly for Sidemen shoots, it was always a refresher to gather like this without the obligation to record anything.
“Aye, Vik!” JJ shot up from his place on the couch. His sweater resembled a Christmas tree with tinsel wrapping around it. He brings Vik into a tight embrace—if he squeezed any harder he probably would’ve suffocated him—and clapped him on the back when he pulled away. “You’re finally here, huh.”
Tobi had also gotten up to give Vik a hug. His sweater was actually a cardigan, a Grinch-themed one at that. His left side had an illustration of the Grinch in his Santa outfit layered on top of a plaid background and the right read the word “NAUGHTY”.
“You know the owner actually left us hot chocolate in the kitchen,” Tobi says, and Vik notices that both JJ and Tobi have mugs in their hands. JJ takes a sip and there’s some chocolate milk that sticks around his lips. “There’s also eggnog but I think Josh is the only one that actually likes that…”
“Better get myself my own then—the chocolate I mean.”
Tobi left his mug behind on the wide coffee table and opted to follow Vik into the kitchen to show him. But inside, there was someone that made Vik’s heart almost beat out of his chest.
“Oh… Simon!”
The taller man, who was standing in front of the stove heating up the kettle, turned around and his eyes widened seeing Vik. Tobi swears that he could see Simon’s face turn rosy.
‘ Oh god, here we go ,’ Tobi thought, bracing himself for an absolute car crash of an interaction.
“Vik, you’re here!”
The two of them leaned in for the most awkward hug that Tobi had bore witness to. Simon decided to pat Vik on the back twice—and Vik did the same. Jesus, Tobi had to do something— anything —to get himself out of earshot of this conversation. But he found himself too willing to watch his friends interact like complete donkeys.
“So, when did you get here?” Simon leaned on the kitchen island with that expression that Tobi recognized that Simon had exclusively reserved for Vik; a smile too wide to be friendly along with body language too open to be platonic.
“Pretty recently, Ethan helped bring my luggage up,” Vik laughed nervously and Simon did too. There was no joke, what were they laughing at? “Is that your same sweater from last year?”
“Yeah, but it’s fucking peak, nothing else can top this.”
Tobi looked down and yes, it was Simon’s sweater from last year; it was a cheesy sweater consisting of black and red that said “Jingle Bell Go To Hell” in a gothic font.
“ I know what else can top you …” Vik murmured, but Simon didn’t seem to hear. Holy shit, Tobi couldn’t take this anymore.
So he cleared his throat. “Soooo, Simon, do you want to show Vik where the hot chocolate was?” He didn’t even wait for any of them to respond before he said, “Great, I need to go get something from my room real quick.”
But he didn’t need to get something, instead, he went back to the lounge and wearily folded over on top of the nearest couch, where Ethan was sitting. Finally, he was out of the blast zone.
“Damn, what happened to you?” JJ asked. “Looks like you saw someone die.”
“I felt myself die.” Tobi slowly got up and properly sat down in the spot next to Ethan.
Ethan squinted his eyes at him and nodded, as if connecting the dots. “Oh, I know what happened.”
Tobi groaned. “And I don’t want to talk about it.”
After killing their unspecific topic, the three of them got into a conversation—though it could barely be called a conversation when very quickly, it devolved into Ethan and Tobi clowning JJ about the Lunchly situation; and when Vik and Simon came back from the kitchen (from whatever they were doing) they joined in as well.
Ethan checked his phone and his face lit up. “Harry’s almost here lads!”
“How far away is he?” Vik asked. Him and Simon were now sitting on the same couch as JJ, with the latter being the one dividing them.
“His Uber’s pulling up right now.”
Ethan and Vik were the two who agreed to be the ones to greet Harry inside.
“Harry, you’re the late one this year,” was the first thing Ethan told Harry before bringing him into a tight hug.
Harry sighed dramatically, “Damn it, again?”
“Yes, the sun’s already setting,” Vik chimed in, even pointing toward the darkening sky. It was his turn to give Harry a hug. “If it makes you feel better, I was late as well.”
“Well… I guess it does.”
The three of them made their way inside and got Harry’s things sorted into his room, which was across from VIk’s. For some reason he had two duffle bags to go with his rolling suitcase—Harry said it was because he “packed for the whole week and if I had to change at the airport, which I did have to do by the way.”
Harry’s sweater was an ugly ass sweater.
No seriously, it was red and it had that text on the front with a molded out ass plastered on the chest.
(“I can’t believe you and Ethan have matching sweaters,” Vik commented when he took off his coat at the door.)
Harry got his own mug of hot chocolate, which he combined with the eggnog, and sat with all of the boys in the lounge. Currently, they were having an argument about if hotdogs were sandwiches—and of course it got heated pretty fast. JJ, Ethan, and Harry were for hotdogs being sandwiches and Simon and Vik were for hotdogs not being sandwiches. Tobi didn’t participate but he would butt in every now and then to guide the debate back to the main topic if they ever did stray.
Simon rolled his eyes. “I’m not gonna stay here to hear half of you say that hotdogs are sandwiches. And I’m tired anyway, good night!”
“No c’mon Si!” JJ grabbed onto Simon’s arm to stop him from leaving. “Nothing wrong with admitting that you’re wrong. ”
“Nah, let go of me!” Simon laughed as he yanked his arm out of JJ’s grip and left the room flipping everyone off. “Idiots, all of you! Except Vik, he gets it!” He shouted and his voice echoed. A few of the Sidemen struggled to keep in their laughter—meanwhile, Vik yawned.
“You know what, I’m gonna turn in for the night too. What is it like,” Vik pulled up his phone to check, “Yeah, it’s 10 PM, see you all tomorrow.”
“You sleep at 10? And I thought Josh was the grandpa out of all of us,” Harry said, the others murmured in agreement to Harry. “Where is he anyway…?”
“Okay, I think us doing YouTube fucked up our perception of an appropiate time to go to bed. Good night .”
The four of them waited until Vik left the lounge before they set their mugs down and all huddled together.
“Anyone else think they're a bit gay for each other?” Harry sparked off their conversation with a whisper. “How they were defending their stupid opinion like their lives depended on it and practically leaving at the same time? I mean, c’mon.”
“‘A bit’? More like very gay ,” Ethan replied. Tobi and JJ voiced out exasperated forms of “yes, thank you” and “someone finally said it” respectively.
“I’ve been wanting to say this for like ten fucking years,” JJ groans.
“Wait, all of you thought this but didn’t think to let me know for over a decade?” Harry’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked at everyone in their circle. “I just put it together now .”
Ethan turned to face Harry. “To be honest, I thought you already knew, Bog. Vik and Simon weren’t exactly subtle with what they were doing.”
“I just thought that they were good friends 'til now.” The four laughed at Harry’s statement and Tobi picked up the conversation.
“This has been happening ever since we started making videos together,” he said, “and frankly I’m sick of how long this pining has lasted.”
“Yeah, those idiots are pushing 30—or already 30—and are acting like teenagers with no social skills,” JJ snickered. “I swear we should lock those two in a closet and force them to make out.” JJ makes his two hands ‘smooch’ each other all while making cartoonish kissing noises.
Tobi pushed JJ’s hands so that he would stop. “Yeah no I don’t think we should do that…”
“What are you four talking about?” Everyone jolted from the sudden deep voice behind them and turned to see who it was.
“Oh, it’s just Josh,” Harry sighed in relief, as did everyone else.
“It’s ‘just me’? Ouch, Harold.” Josh put his hand on his chest to feign being hurt. He was wearing an ugly sweater knitted with gingerbread men and snowy pine trees, plaid pajama pants, with a steamy mug (of eggnog, ew) in his hand. He eventually sat next to Tobi and placed his mug on the table with everyone else’s. “Sorry I’m late, I napped for too long. But I wanna be in the know too, come on!”
“Wait, you were sleeping this whole time?” Harry asked.
“No, napping .”
“Lower your voices, do you want them to hear us?” Tobi practically hissed. When the room quieted down, Tobi spoke, “Well, before you got here, we were talking about Vik and Simon.” He shot Josh a knowing look, like he and Josh have had prior conversations about the pair before.
Josh hummed and brought one of the throw pillows—a gingerbread cookie one—onto his lap. “Did you tell them about the plan yet?” He asks much quieter this time.
Everyone’s ears perk up at the word “plan”.
“You’ve already devised a plot for our friends to realize their gay love for each other?” Ethan asks delightedly.
“Yup, there’s a reason I chose this specific villa,” Josh says. “The nearby town always throws a special Christmas event with a boat ride geared toward couples. So the goal is for everyone to go out to the town “as a group outing” so that nature will finally take its course with those love birds.”
“Which sounds good, in theory ,” Tobi sighs. “But Christmas is in less than a week—5 days away, who’s to say that they would even get together by then, or even go on that ride? It took forever for them just to start flirting properly.” When Josh ran this plan by him before their trip, that was the question that plagued Tobi. So many factors to consider to make Ministar happen. How was Josh so sure of himself?
“But the thing is, Tobs,” Josh scoots closer with the group. “You lot will help me out.”
Oh, so that’s why Josh was so sure.
“Oooh, Josher is roping us into a group project over Christmas break?” Harry quips.
“A group project where you will all be ‘graded’ individually.”
“So, what, do we just influence them—set the stage so they get together on that boat ride or something?” JJ asks offhandedly, scratching the back of his head.
Josh points at JJ. “Exactly.”
“We get to play matchmaker for our friends!” Ethan chuckles and claps Harry on the back and it doesn’t take long for the two to start thinking of ways to potentially set Vik and Simon up. The boys join in as well with some colorful plans and they’ve even managed to come up with a more coherent strategy.
The boys would take turns subliminally setting up Vik and Simon in the days leading up to Christmas. How they would do it would be entirely up to them. The only rule is: don’t get caught.
“What are you lot yapping up a storm about in here?” A familiar voice sends a chill up Tobi’s spine. He whips his head around to see that it’s Simon, and so do the others. “If what I heard was right, you’re going to matchmake someone?” Simon rubs his eyes and bites back a yawn.
He leans on top of the couch where Harry and Ethan are sitting, waiting for one of them to answer. Tobi clears his throat, “Well, Simon, we were just uhh talking about how we were going to matchmake…” He fluffs up his sentence so that one of the other boys can hopefully lie better than him.
“Matchmake Chris and Arthur!” Harry thankfully fills in and looks up at Simon. “You know how those two fruit cups can get with enough alcohol in their systems.”
“Turns out what elf boy needs is a man,” says Ethan to keep up the lie.
Harry forces out a chuckle and Ethan, JJ, and Josh follow suit—Tobi only nods and grabs his hot chocolate so he can be seen as too busy to laugh due to sipping. He was still too shaken up from Simon just walking in on them.
Simon just stares at them, noticing that something didn’t ring quite true from what they were saying. But he shrugs and says, “Alright, have fun in there with your conspiring,” and walks out of the room.
After what seemed like an eternity, the five of them exhaled a collective sigh of relief.
“Maybe making a group chat would’ve been more ideal,” Tobi mumbled.