Work Text:
Julian blinked a few times and slowly stretched his neck, enjoying the feeling of the sturdy Cardassian body leaning against his back. Said Cardassian stirred and grasped his hand with a contented moan.
"Good morning, beloved" Elim said sleepily.
"Good morning, darling. I thought you were still asleep" Julian murmured, turning around.
He couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight in front of him. Elim was completely hidden under the blankets, not even the top of his head was visible.
"What do you find so funny, Doctor?"
"Ah, we are already going from beloved to Doctor" Julian observed with a smile, putting an arm around Elim and squeezing gently.
Then he happened to look out of the window.
"Look! It’s snowing!" he exclaimed excitedly, sitting up and uncovering Elim in the process.
"Snowing?!" Elim repeated, horrified. With a huff, he took hold of the blanket and once again disappeared underneath it.
"Yes!" Julian jumped out of bed and padded to the window. The small garden and the street behind the house were covered in thick snow.
"Wow! We’ll have a real, white Christmas!" he said cheerfully.
"How fortunate" Elim’s voice muttered from under the covers.
With a chuckle, Julian went back to the bed and lay next to Elim, on top of the covers.
"Don’t complain. It was your idea to accompany me to the conference, remember? You even said that you wouldn’t mind the cold"
"I said it after sex"
Julian laughed and lifted the blanket to kiss Elim on the nose.
"Whatever the reason, you said it. Now keep your end of the bargain"
After some more cuddles and coaxing, Elim could be persuaded to leave the bed. Tightly wrapped in the thick blanket, he stood in front of the window, looking aghast.
"It’s raining ice. I will not, under any circumstance, go outside. Brrr!" he stated, wrapping himself even tighter in the blanket.
OOO
After taking a hot shower and wearing thermal undergarments and several layers of thick clothes, Elim joined the rest of the family for breakfast. As he walked into the kitchen, the sight in front of him horrified him even more than the snow.
Julian was wearing a bright green jumper portraying a sleigh pulled by some sort of animal with antlers. In the sleigh sat a large man with a white beard and garish red dress. The inexplicable words Ho! Ho! Ho!, written in different colors and placed all over the jumper, added a further tacky touch to the whole garment.
Most worryingly, neither their children nor his in-laws, already sitting around the table, seemed as shocked as he was.
Meeting his gaze, Julian gave him an impish smile, as if daring him to say something.
"Ah, there you are, darling!"
Elim absentmindedly exchanged morning greetings with everybody and sat in front of his husband, plotting revenge.
"My dear, where did you acquire that... I don’t even know how to call it?" Elim questioned placidly.
Julian grinned.
"This is a Christmas jumper, Elim. I’ve had it since the days of Starfleet Academy. Do you like it?"
Amsha almost choked on her coffee and the children giggled.
"Like is not exactly the word I had in mind, no"
"Why not? You like both green and red"
"Not this shade of green and red. Besides, they do absolutely nothing for your complexion"
"I thought you would love it! More’s the pity" Julian said, but his smile told him otherwise.
Elim didn’t even grace him with an answer and kept glaring at the jumper every now and then.
OOO
Not only did the children not share his horror for the jumper, they didn’t even share his horror for the snow.
"Can we go outside, daddy?" Mitte asked, bouncing on her feet.
"Yes, but you’ll both have to cover your chufas and ridges really well, and I’ll come and keep an eye on you" Julian said.
Elim politely refused an invitation to join them and instead sat by the large window in the living room to keep watch on them. Fortunately, he was not alone in his distaste for the cold: both Amsha and the house cat shared it wholeheartedly. Richard, on the other hand, joined Julian and the children outside.
He looked on while both their daughters and their son jumped excitedly, leaving deep marks in the thick snow. At some point, they all kneeled down and collected a large amount of snow, trying to give it a rounded shape.
"What are they doing?" he asked, flabberghasted.
Amsha looked up from her book and out of the window.
"Ah, I think they are building a snowman" she explained.
Elim could hardly understand why someone would want to touch snow for such a purpose but he said nothing. At some point, Julian smiled at him through the window and raised a finger, as if calling his attention. Still smiling, he decorated the snowman’s head with a very large chufa.
Elim snorted, shaking his head. Sometimes he thought he had married a child!
Unsurprisingly, the children seemed to find it hilarious and even added neck ridges to the snowman.
They came back inside shortly after, and Richard made hot cocoa for everybody.
"This isn’t fair" Julian said while Elim sipped his hot cocoa. "You weren’t even outside in the snow, you don’t need to warm yourself up"
"I always need to warm myself up" Elim replied primly, gripping the steaming mug tightly.
"Did you like our snowman, yadik?" Nivar asked with a giggle.
"Of course. Although he would be a very unhappy Cardassian, outside in the snow"
"I wish you had come with us, yadik. It was horribly cold but also fun" Akim added, rubbing his hands together.
"The night is young" Julian said. "Maybe we could convince yadik to take a stroll with us in the afternoon"
There were very few things that Julian could do to convince him, and they were not fit to be mentioned in front of their children or Julian’s parents.
"I might be persuaded to come outside if you promise to replace that horrid jumper with something of my choice" he offered.
"No way!" Julian replied. "I never get to wear these things on Cardassia..."
"...I should definitely hope so"
"... I never get to wear them on Cardassia and I barely ever have a chance to wear them here, and now I should change clothes to persuade you to go for a walk?" Julian went on, sounding annoyed.
"You certainly don’t have to change, but then you’ll have to do without my company on your stroll"
"Too bad. I was hoping I could bring you to the village’s tea room, where they have delicious sweets..."
The temptation was strong, but Elim heroically resisted it.
"Certainly not. In the tea room, you’ll remove your coat and everybody will see that jumper. I refuse to be associated with it"
Julian rolled his eyes.
"Fine. Since you always need to be so dramatic, I’ll change! Happy?"
OOO
In the afternoon, Julian finally changed into a much more appropriate cream white turtleneck and they set off. The children jumped up and down in the snow all the way to the tea room, while Elim wondered how on Cardassia someone would choose to live in such a climate.
Granted, the landscape was lovely, with every surface covered in white. The trees were particularly spectacular. Many of them had lost all of their leaves and their branches
were so loaded with snow that Elim wondered how they could bear the weight. Other ones – the evergreen trees, as Julian had explained – never lost their green leaves, and the snow covered them like powdered sugar.
Under many layers of fabric, the cold was almost bearable. Yet, he was overjoyed when they finally reached the tea room.
It was a cozy and aptly decorated space, with wooden surfaces and warm-looking cushions and carpets. There was a large variety of teas, sweets and tiny sandwiches. Julian ordered for the five of them, and Elim drank the hot beverage with relief.
"Happy now?" Julian asked, munching on a cucumber sandwich.
"Well, the people in this land couldn’t make a decent cup of tea if their lives depended on it..." Elim began.
"I’m sorry?" Julian asked in disbelief.
"They do it much better in your mother’s country. But apart from that, yes. The food is fine. The snow is definitely more attractive when you look at it from indoors"
"I have a confession to make" Julian began. The children chuckled, certainly already aware of what Julian was going to say.
"You mean to tell me that you don’t actually like snow?" Elim inquired.
"No"
Julian gave him an impish smile.
"I don’t actually like the jumper I was wearing earlier"
Elim put down his cup of tea and looked at his husband, who was grinning more and more. The children burst into laughter.
"You wanted to make me go outside. You wore that horrendous jumper on purpose so that I would offer to go outside if you changed! And you even pretended to look annoyed when I suggested that you change!" he hissed.
Julian laughed.
"And you knew" Elim hissed at the children. They seemed to find it immensely funny, because they laughed even harder.
"Don’t be mad, darling" Julian said, taking his hand. "You cannot always be the one with secrets!"
Elim Garak, former Obsidian Order operative, master of deceit and obfuscation, tricked by an innocent human and three children.
"I suppose there’s hope for you yet" he muttered.
OOO
Elim slid under the covers and immediately glued himself to Julian with a contented sigh.
"You’re cute when you are cold" Julian murmured, kissing the top of his head.
"Hmph"
"A tiny bit dramatic, but cute" Julian went on, kissing his chufa this time.
"Hmph"
"Are you mad because I tricked you?" Julian asked, more seriously.
"On the contrary, my dear. It is nice to see that these years on Cardassia have been useful"
"Thank you for accompanying me" Julian said, gently rubbing a neck ridge. "I know it’s not easy for you to be in such a cold place"
"I’d sooner wear an additional thermal shirt or two than not see you for almost three weeks"
"You’re a big romantic, you know that?" Julian said fondly, shifting to kiss him on the lips.
"I try"
Julian leans against Elim’s chufa with a sigh.
"Merry Christmas, my dear Mr Garak"
"Merry Christmas, my dear Doctor"
THE END