Four Alternative Christmas Presents (3 page)

“Sorry,” he whispered.

Matt tried to think of something to say. Something that wasn’t
How come the me in this reality gets to be married to you? How come the mes in all these other presents are so much better at everything than I am?

“So,” Fiona mused as she tore open pouches of tea. “How do we get you back to your correct present?”

Matt squirmed in his seat. It occurred to him that he wasn’t sure he wanted to go back there. To the present, where he was the newest member of the team, madly in love with his mentor, and looking at spending a Christmas alone, trying to sneak glances at Jake and not be too creepy about it.
Why is every other reality something I want?

He looked at Jake, and something occurred to him. About how far away they were from the machine, about Dr. Destructo’s skill set. He opened his mouth to say something and then decided it was probably better if he kept his mouth shut. But Fiona was looking thoughtfully at him. She nodded.

“Go ahead, Matt.”

“It’s….” He glanced at Jake. He liked this so much. This casual closeness, as if he and Jake had been together for years, and the rings, a promise of a deep, fulfilling connection. It was the sort of thing that had been a fantasy of his. A part of him wondered if it would be such a bad thing to stay here for a little while. “Nah. It’s kind of stupid.”

Jake’s brows came together. “Go ahead,” he said softly.

Fiona nodded. “You’re the one who made this team. If you have something to say, you should go ahead and say it.”

He blinked.
Wow
, he thought. The Matt in this reality was considerably cooler than the Matt who had just been accepted into the League and was still finding himself getting lost on the way to the bathrooms. Plus, Jake. Jake had put his hand on Matt’s knee like that, just as if it didn’t matter at all, casual. Like it was something they did. Had done. For years. Like the Matt in this reality knew what he wanted and did what he needed to do to make it happen. Maybe that was what was attractive to Jake. Maybe that’s what those other Matts had that he didn’t. And a part of him really wished he was that kind of Matt, only to then realize that, in this reality anyway, he was.

He cleared his throat. “Well, we all know Dr. Destructo likes to play with his machines,” he said softly. “But he’s also a mesmerist, right? He does mind control. And… and….” He hesitated, then plunged on. “And in every alternative reality we’ve been in, I’ve been the kind of guy I always wished I was. And I… a part of me really wants to stay in these alternative presents.” He shrugged and looked at Jake. “I don’t think it’s the machine that’s doing it. I think it’s him. I don’t think we’ve gone anywhere. I think we’re still in that present. We just don’t know it. I think all of this—” He gestured around, taking in the tidy room with its lack of singing Christmas lights, and then at Jake and himself and the rings they wore. “—I think it’s all a fantasy we’re making up.”

Jake’s eyes widened a little. He sat back, chin coming up. “Holy crap,” he whispered. “You’re right.”

And the world shifted again.

“M
ATT
? M
ATT
?”

Matt was sitting on the cold, sharp-edged metal steps leading up to the machine, with his head tipped back and Adam looking down into his eyes.

“Hey, Matt, you coming back?”

He blinked, and it felt like somebody had replaced his eyelids with sandpaper. “Yeah,” he whispered, eyes stinging. “When was the last time I blinked?”

“You and Jake have been staring into space for a bit,” Adam said, grinning now. He dropped down on the step beside Matt. “Dr. Destructo did that mind-control thing on you, didn’t he?”

Matt nodded.

“Crappy. I hate that stuff. One day I’m going to get a pair of glasses that reflects whatever those hypnosis beams are. Then he’ll be sorry.”

Matt laughed softly and rubbed hard at his eyes. “How’s Jake?” he asked.

“Fiona’s got him,” Adam said. “Looks like he’s coming around too.”

“Did Destructo get away?”

“Yeah,” Adam said and shrugged. “But whatever. Job security, am I right?”

“You’re a terrible superhero,” Matt accused.

Adam grinned. Then he sighed and looked serious again.

“You okay?” he asked. “Dr. Destructo gets into your head and pulls out your true self. That can be a hard thing to face.”

Matt nodded. He thought about how agitated Adam had been when they’d been deployed on this mission. About how anxious he’d seemed to be standing close to Dr. Destructo.

“That’s happened to you?” he asked.

Adam nodded. “You superhero long enough, it happens to everybody.”

He looked at his fingers, twined together between his knees. “Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Yeah, actually, it is okay. My true self.” He laughed softly. “Turns out he’s kind of a cool guy.”

He shrugged. Adam smiled.

F
IONA
HAD
gone to teleconference with other members of the League, Adam had vanished into his own quarters, and Matt found himself alone in the common room with Jake. It would have been cozy in there. Exactly what Matt had been thinking about. He’d stripped out of the restrictive armored supersuit and was wearing old sweats and a T-shirt. The Christmas lights winked on and off, their tiny songs muffled by judicious application of electrical tape, and the Christmas tree stood glimmering in the corner. The whole couch was his, while Jake clattered around in the kitchen.

It should have been cozy. But Matt felt absurdly embarrassed instead. The him of the other realities had been confident, certain. A go-getter type. And he’d always wanted to be that way but never quite worked out how. And so the him in those other realities had been in a relationship with Jake X-Ray, the single most respected superhero in the modern world, while Matt just sat on the couch in his sweats and felt jealous of his other selves and embarrassed about wanting so badly to stay in the trance Dr. Destructo had put them in.

He flicked on the TV and settled on a Christmas movie, but wound up just sort of staring at the screen. A moment later, the scent of cinnamon tea wafted over to him. He looked up to find Jake with a pair of mugs in one hand and a plate of Adam’s shortbread cookies in the other, one cookie sticking out of his mouth. He set the plate down on the coffee table and slid one of the mugs down to Matt.

“Thanks,” Matt said.

Jake nodded and finished his cookie. He licked his lips. “Hey, Matt,” he said.

Matt’s mouth dried up.

“Hey.” Jake looked down at his tea, then at the cookies. “Um.” He took a cookie off the plate and ate it.

Matt reached for the confidence of all those other Matts. The sort of confidence he might have had if his superpowers weren’t an accident, if he was the kind of guy he wanted to be. He faced Jake. “You, uh, you called me ‘sweetheart.’ When we were, um, vampires.”

Jake looked at Matt, turning his head in a slow, almost seamless movement. His eyes were a little bit wide.

Matt gave him an encouraging smile. “And you… totally saved my life too. And, uh, the one that was like this one, but the place was too clean? I think we were a couple. Maybe married.”

Jake started chewing again, slow but getting faster. He swallowed audibly.

“And, uh, in the other one, the one where Fiona was going to fire us? I guess we were dating.”

Jake’s mouth moved, but no sound came out at first. He cleared his throat and started to talk. “We’ve just been through four other presents,” he said softly, “and I was in love with you in each one of them.”

For a moment they both sat still and silent.
Now, Matt
, he told himself.
Do it now.
He heard himself swallow. “Okay, but what about this one?”

Jake smiled, faint and soft. “Yeah,” he whispered. “This one too.”

“Oh good,” Matt said.

Jake exhaled. He lurched toward Matt, caught Matt’s face gently between his hands, and the next instant pressed his mouth against Matt’s. Matt made a little, startled noise before he could stop himself.

“Please,” Jake whispered. “Please, I’ve been… I know you’re the new guy, and I don’t want to take advantage of you. I’ll get you reassigned. I’ll get Fiona to mentor you—she’s amazing, you’ll love her—I just want, I just…. Oh God, I
want
—”

Matt cut him off, mouth against Jake’s mouth, and Jake groaned softly against him, arms sliding up and around his shoulders to haul him in close.

“It’s okay,” he promised. “Seriously, I want this too. I thought… I thought you didn’t like me.”

“Been trying not to,” Jake admitted, catching his lip, then pressing his mouth to Matt’s again. “Been trying not to want this so bad.”

“Oh good,” Matt whispered again, then realized what he’d said. “I mean, not good, but….” He forgot what he’d been trying to say. Jake was kissing him, tongue sweet from cinnamon tea, mouth eager and hot, and that was all his brain needed to know right now. Except that someone was coughing loudly in the doorway. A one-at-a-time sort of cough. The kind that’s not so much for clearing a throat as getting attention.

Matt looked. Not with his head, because that would mean not kissing Jake. He just turned his eyes. Jake did the same. Then he sat back, breaking off the kiss. Matt tried not to whine.

“Hiya, Adam,” Jake said a little weakly.

Adam, standing in the doorway and holding what looked like a laundry sack, scowled at the both of them. “C’mon, guys, I got a job to do here.”

Jake frowned. “A job?”

Adam gestured to the bag, then the Christmas tree, and then fixed them both with a look that said without words exactly how dumb they both were.

Jake’s frown got deeper. “Really?” he asked.

Adam scowled again. “You think Santa’s going to come down the chimney we don’t have into the high-security HQ of the League and just leave uncleared boxes of God knows what? Heck no. He submitted all his gifts for inspection two weeks ago. I’m on delivery duty, since I’ve got security clearance.”

“You’re… Santa,” Jake said.

Something clicked into place. Matt sat up a little straighter. “Wait a second. That’s your big secret? That’s what’s been going on with you? You’re not still reeling from Dr. Destructo’s mind control, you’re
Santa
?”

“Who told you I was reeling from…. Look, for all intents and purposes, yeah, I’m Santa. And because of the stupid Dr. Destructo mission, I’m running out of time to do my job while it’s still Christmas eve and not Christmas morning.” Adam ducked like a bird of prey getting ready to tear apart a meal. “Time. Kinda important in this job.” He hefted the bag again, as if in evidence. “Christmas presents.”

“Riiiight,” Jake said, nodding.

“So, if you guys could, I dunno, maybe go to bed or something? That’d be great.”

Beside him, Jake suddenly went a brilliant, seasonally correct shade of red. Matt grinned and ducked to hide the grin. Adam made a disgusted noise.

“Seriously, you two. You’ve been making cow eyes at each other since Matt joined the team. You could probably skip the whole flirting process and go right to the heavy petting. Just, not here. I have stuff to do. Christmas presents.”

Jake opened his mouth, but Adam cut him off. “And, yes, after what happened today, I’m sure there’s a pun in there, but don’t you dare.”

Jake closed his mouth. Matt grinned a little bigger; he couldn’t help himself.

“Let’s get lost,” he whispered, taking Jake’s hand.

“See if we can get Dr. Destructo to fling us into some other crazy alternative present?” Jake asked, closing his fingers around Matt’s.

“Nah,” Matt answered. “This one’s just fine.”

31 stories of holiday love!

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T
AM
M
AC
N
EIL
grew up in the Rocky Mountains and moved out west to go to university, and there she stayed. She has now lived and worked on Vancouver Island for fifteen years and, by some definitions, is even considered a local now.

She still misses the sparkling, snowy winters of the mountains, but living in a temperate rainforest has its perks. In the summer you can find her either camping or hiking. If she’s not out there, try looking at the beach. She might be out there listening to audiobooks, scouring the shore for beach glass, and trying to fill her year’s quota of vitamin D by acting like a lizard whenever the sun comes out.

In the rainy season (substantially longer than the sunny season), she writes, reads, drinks far too much coffee, bakes, and cooks, and works hard to maintain an addiction to pop culture, social media, and cartoons. Tam MacNeil also writes contemporary romance under the name T. Neilson.

Social Media info:

Tumblr: tamthewriter.tumblr.com

Twitter: @TamMacNeil