Clark settled back against the chest behind him, as the arms around him tightened. His head rested against Lex's shoulder, and he pulled the blanket more closely around them. Shifting the mug of hot chocolate he was holding to his left hand, he linked the fingers of his right hand through Lex's left. The fingers around his tightened briefly, and a soft kiss was pressed against his temple. He sighed and closed his eyes.

*~*~*~*~*

Lex slapped the hand reaching into the bowl again, and Clark looked up at him and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."

"That's what you said the last time. And the time before that."

"Well. I was. And still am."

"Hmmm. Sorry for what?"

Clark grinned. "You being a cookie dough dictator?"

Lex smacked him again on principle, trying not to smile at Clark's exaggerated outraged expression, and went back to spooning cookie dough onto the baking sheet.

*~*~*~*~*

Clark strung another piece of popcorn onto the garland. It broke off as he was pushing it towards the few pieces that had managed to hang on long enough to make it to the end, and shrugged and popped it into his mouth.

"Clark, less eating more stringing," Lex scolded lightly from the couch, where he was trying to untangle the millions of strings of lights he'd claimed they needed.

"They keep breaking off! It isn't my fault," Clark argued, eating another two pieces of popcorn.

Lex frowned at him. "Didn't you say you used to do this with your parents? Shouldn't you be better at it?"

"Hey!" Clark argued, "it's harder than it looks." He ate another handful of popcorn. "And...well, my parents did it, at home. They wouldn't let me help because I always ate all the popcorn." Lex stared at him blankly, and Clark burst into giggles. "What?"

"How much of that popcorn have you eaten? Let's see what you've got strung so far," Lex demanded. Clark grinned and held up his pathetic little popcorn string. "Two feet? You've been at that an hour!"

Clark tried not to laugh. "It's really hard, Lex."

Lex huffed, his stern expression marred by the tiny dimples that showed at the corners of his mouth when he was trying not to laugh. "You did this just so you didn't have to help with the lights, didn't you?"

Clark tried to look innocent, but suspected he'd failed when Lex's expression moved from trying-not-to-laugh to why-do-I-put-up-with-you. Clark crawled over to the couch, rested his hands on Lex's knees and leaned over the tangled strings of lights to kiss him. "I think you should come down and help me," Clark purred.

He moved the strings of lights off Lex's lap, wrapped his arms around Lex's waist and rolled him off the couch. He rolled Lex over to the popcorn bowl, and raised himself on his arms over Lex. He smiled at him, and then ground his hips against Lex's, grinning at his moan. "Clark. I've warned you about manhandling me around the apartment."

"Mmmmm. Consequences." Clark leaned down and licked a trail up Lex's neck, across his jaw, to his lips. He opened them Lex's mouth with his tongue, before raising his head, smiling at Lex's pout, and bringing a piece of popcorn to Lex's still-open lips.

Lex ate it and then laughed. "You salted the popcorn?!"

Clark gave an evil mastermind laugh and leapt away from the popcorn Lex was throwing at him, giggling and running away when Lex picked up the bowl to give chase.

*~*~*~*~*

Lex's feet slipped out from under him again, and his arms windmilled as he fell backwards towards the ice. Clark's arms wrapped around him from behind, and Lex relaxed as Clark lifted him back to his feet. He wrapped an arm behind him, around Clark's shoulders. He turned to face Clark, arms wrapping tightly around his neck, body pressed as close as possible with two winter jackets between them.

"You're doing well," Clark said against his cheek.

Lex huffed and buried his face against Clark's throat. "Careful, Clark. Santa can hear you lying, you know." Lex felt the laugh before he heard it, and bit Clark's throat lightly before lifting his head to look Clark in the eyes.

"Thank you for agreeing to do this with me, Lex. I know you didn't want to."

Lex kissed Clark lightly and took his arms from Clark's shoulders, grabbed his hand, and pushed off again, smiling.

*~*~*~*~*

"Clark. Why are we watching this, again?" Clark laughed and shoved him over on the couch, sitting beside him and settling his head into Lex's lap. Lex's fingers threaded through Clark's hair automatically, kneading lightly, as he huffed and leaned slightly into Clark.

"Because it's Christmas, and you have to watch it at Christmas." He could feel Clark grinning against his thigh.

"Firstly, it isn't Christmas for another week--"

"Lex, you know what I meant."

"–and *secondly*," Lex continued, glaring, "this is a movie about puppets. How are puppets connected to Christmas?"

Clark sighed. "They're Muppets, Lex. Muppets. And they're Christmassy because they're in a show about Christmas. See? They're singing carols."

Lex looked up dutifully to watch the puppets sing. And sing. "Are they going to keep singing?"

"Yes." Clark turned and looked up at him, pulling him down for a quick kiss before turning his attention back to the screen. And the singing puppets.

Lex sighed and settled back into the couch, and spent the next hour watching Clark as he sang along softly.

*~*~*~*~*

Clark stood just beside the doorway, waiting for the moment to strike. When Lex walked through the doorway, Clark grabbed him around the waist and spun him back under it, turning him around. Both hands reached for Lex's face, and then he bent down and touched his mouth to Lex's, kissing both corners lightly before licking the scar that ran along Lex's top lip. Lex breathed out, opening his mouth to Clark's tongue, and kissed softly in the doorway until a throat cleared behind them. They broke apart, blushing, and stepped to either side of the doorway as Jonathan passed through carrying two mugs of hot apple cider, shaking his head as Martha laughed and applauded from her spot on the couch.

*~*~*~*~*

Lex opened the door to their apartment, arms full of boxes wrapped in brightly coloured paper, and sighed. He hadn't been able to hear it from the hallway, so he'd hoped that Clark had finally turned it off, but obviously that was too much to hope for. He walked into the bedroom and hid the boxes in his closet, and then walked over to kiss Clark hello.

Clark looked up as Lex came into the room, smiling and leaning over to be kissed. Lex complied, and then sat down beside him on the couch. "How are you not sick of this yet, Clark?"

Clark huffed and sat back against the couch, leaning against Lex. "Because, it's Christmas. You listen to Christmas carols at Christmas. You didn't listen to Christmas carols before I moved in?"

Lex wrapped an arm around Clark's shoulders, pulling him closer. "I listened to them sometimes. They're unavoidable. But Clark, you've been listening to this CD for a week straight. You don't think you might be overdoing the Christmas cheer, a little?" Clark lay his head on Lex's shoulder, and Lex rested his cheek on the top of Clark's head.

"I like this CD," Clark pouted.

"Yes, I'm perfectly aware. I'm fairly sure you were singing this song in your sleep last night."

Clark turned into him, wrapping an arm around his waist. "You want me to turn it off?" Clark asked, breath drifting against Lex's throat.

Lex sighed quietly and brought a hand to Clark's hair, pulling gently. "No, it's ok. You like it."

Clark raised his head to kiss Lex, smiling against his mouth. "We'll listen to something boring and orchestral next."

Lex kissed him softly, and rested his head on the back of the couch, closing his eyes and trying to ignore the sounds of those puppets singing.

*~*~*~*~*

He felt Lex watching him before he opened his eyes. He smiled as lips brushed the corner of his mouth, and turned his head to kiss Lex softly, reaching up to stroke Lex's neck before blinking his eyes open. "Mmmmm."

Lex grinned down at him. "Yeah." Lex leaned down to kiss him again, and he arched into the touch and then rolled Lex onto his back, following him over and relaxing onto him, head resting on Lex's shoulder.

"‘S too early to get up," he whined, pressing closer to Lex.

Lex laughed and wrapped his arms more tightly around Clark, kissing the top of his head. "It's never too early to get up on Christmas morning." Clark threw a leg over both of Lex's and buried his face against Lex's neck. "Claaaaaaaark," Lex whined playfully, shoving at Clark's shoulders.

"No. I want to spend Christmas morning in bed with you," Clark pouted, smiling as Lex gave up on pushing his unyielding shoulders and moved his hands to thread through Clark's hair.

"There are presents out there, Clark. Some of them with your name on them. Don't you want to open them? Maybe you got one of those Superman dolls that are so popular this year."

"Action figures," was muffled against Lex's neck, and he grabbed Lex's wrists and pinned them over his head, leaning up to look him in the eyes. "They're called action figures." Lex giggled, actually giggled, and Clark grinned at him. "You're giddy! I think that last time I was that happy to get up Christmas morning I was 9."

Lex's smile slipped a little, and his eyes went shadowed. "Yeah. Me, too."

Clark's breath caught, and bent down to kiss Lex softly, releasing his wrists to hold Lex tightly against him. "You mentioned presents?" Clark asked after a minute, raising his head to look Lex in the eyes. "I think you're going to like the one from my parents."

"You x-rayed it?" Lex slapped his shoulder playfully, grinning again, and only a trace of the sadness left in his eyes.

Clark rolled over, pulling Lex on top of him, before floating off of the bed. Lex squawked at the move, holding tightly to Clark's shoulders as he brought them vertical, legs wrapping around his waist. Clark kept hold of Lex as his feet touched the ground, and laughed as Lex bent to kiss his neck. He smiled and sat down in front of the tree, arms still wrapped tightly around Lex.