Everybody Knows. No Ones Saying Anything. Wholl Make The First Move?

Everybody knows. No one’s saying anything. Who’ll make the first move?

yeah there’s a lot of things i’m willing to let go from the rather cursed era that was 2014 tumblr but robbers by the 1975 is not one of those things

It's 23:20 and I can only think of Jens shamelessly flirting with Lucas because he thinks Lucas is too hot

Will I Be Here Next Year?

a vds one shot. you can find more on my ao3.

( @ apolloswords )

feel free to comment/message me any suggestions for one shot ideas!

A magical Christmas night featuring Van Der Stoffels.

The snow fell softly on him and Jens as they made their way towards the Stoffels family home. Jens had a little bounce in his step, excited to see his family after a year of living in Utrecht. But Lucas was quite the opposite, his walk was more slow, at a distant pace as though he was taking his sweet time to get there.

It had been six months of their blossoming relationship, after an additional six months of what Lucas thought was an unrequited crush. But eventually, after much procrastination, they had started to accept falling in love together and were clearly happier than ever.

So happy, that Jens had excitedly brought up the idea of being Lucas home for Christmas. Lucas of course said yes, feeling so lucky that his boyfriend thought he was of great importance enough to bring him home to meet the family. And not just Jens’ parents and sisters, but also his aunts, uncles, relatives and grandparents.

The days leading up to Christmas was just as busy as ever, especially since Lucas had much more gifts to buy this year than in the previous. While he did do his usual rounds of buying gifts for Kes, Jayden, Isa and his mom, he was starting to enjoy buying stuff for Jens’ family as well. Especially for his sisters, Lies, a similar budding artist and Lotte, some of his more memorable childhood toys.

But now he was worried. Lucas had never spent Christmas with a large amount of people, let alone a family. Growing up as an only child with cousins who lived much further away didn’t exactly capture the large goldfish gatherings. He did have some experience in his later years, when his dad ditched and his mom had been admitted and Christmas then meant spending time with Kes’ family or the found family of his friends.

It never once meant spending time with his boyfriend’s family.

“Something wrong?” Jens asked, looking at Lucas worriedly.

He quickly shook his head, not wanting his boyfriend to worry. “I’m okay, it’s fine.”

“We don’t have to do this you know. If you want, we can just celebrate by ourselves.”

Frowning, he shook his head again. “Jens we can’t do that, they’re your family! You haven’t seen them in forever. Yes, I’m a little nervous, but I’ll get over it.” Lucas held up the bags of gifts in his hands and gestured to the bags Jens was holding as well. “Besides, we can’t have all these gifts.”

Smirking, Jens inched a little closer to give the top of Lucas’ head a kiss. Even though it was covered by a knitted hat, he could feel the softness of his lips and a good vibration shook through him.

“Thank you.” Jens said softly. “I was a little worried that maybe you would think this was all a little too fast. Meeting my family only after a few months of dating. But they’re so excited to meet you, I promise.”

He beamed, a little of the nervous weight being lifted off his shoulders. “I’m excited to meet them. Hopefully I’ll still be around next Christmas.”

Jens scuffed a laugh. “I’ll personally make sure of it.”

Before they knew it, they were standing in front of a large house decorated with lights and wreaths on the windows. Even without looking inside, there was a soft glow that emitted through and the faint sound of laughter, cheer and holiday music could be heard from outside. Taking a quick glance at Jens, he noticed the way he looked admiringly at the house, like he didn’t think he would ever see it again. Lucas smiled as he felt his own heart melt. It must’ve been tough for Jens to have moved at the start of the year, and nothing could ever compare to the way a home made you feel.

This confirmed that they were definitely at the right house. Lucas gulped down the rest of his nerves as they walked up the steps, Jens reaching out to ring the doorbell.

Just as his finger was about to press it, the door whipped open to a young teenage girl with the same raven hair he knew so well. But her eyes were much brighter, like a light hazel.

“Jens!” She cheered out, before yelling over her shoulder. “Jens is here! He brought his boyfriend!”

“Hello to you too Lies.” Jens laughed as she lunged forward to hug him. It was a little tricky, since Jens’ hands were full but he managed to wrap his long arms around her anyway.

Another girl emerged, charging towards Jens. She was much smaller, just barely a teenager but her hair and eyes was another light contrast in comparison to her brother’s. The only reason Lucas figured they were related was through their similar smirk, the corners of their lips lifting upwards as their eyes narrowed down softly.

“Hello to you too Lotte.” Jens laughed again, looking down at the smaller girl who had managed to squeeze his side.

“Jens! Lucas! Come in!” A women with dark hair and eyes called out warmly. She ushered the girls off their brother quickly, so the cold air wouldn’t come into the house and they could greet each other in the more preferable warmth of the house.

“Jens, I’ve missed you so much.” His mother greeted, wrapping her arms him. A man with light hair and eyes arrived behind her.

“Jens! It’s good to have you back.” He said, and Lucas quickly figured that must be his father.

As they continued to greet each other, Jens’ mother turned and opened her arms up to him. “Lucas, how nice to meet you.” She said warmly before she hugged him. Taking a closer look at him, she grinned and tilted her head to Jens. “He’s a pretty one, you got lucky with this one.”

“That I did.” Jens winked and Lucas felt his cheeks go pink.

“It’s nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Stoffels.” Lucas said politely.

“Oh no need for formalities, just call us Leona and Jacob.” Leona said, leading Lucas towards the living room. The amount of people glancing at him caused his nerves to come back again, but Leona gently squeezed his shoulder. “You can place all your gifts under the tree. I didn’t expect so many!”

“It’s my first Christmas with a big family.” Lucas explained. “Usually it’s always just been me and my parents and in more recent years my friends.”

“Oh well I hope we show you a great time. Dinner will be out in a bit but there’s something yea and hot chocolate if you’d like to warm up with.”

-

The room was a bustle of joy after dinner, when dessert was being served. Lucas was sitting at the table with Lotte, Lies and Jens. The two girls were excitedly sitting beside Lucas as they showed him all the candy they had brought out for a gingerbread house.

“Have you ever decorated a gingerbread house?” Lotte asked Lucas, as he started assembling the gingerbread cookies together.

“Nope.” He said, trying to keep his voice cheery but there was an empty feeling sinking in him when he realized he’d never done this before.

“Really? Jens and Lies and me always compete who can make the best ones.” Lotte explained.

“Jens’ suck!” Lies teased before Jens began tickling her stomach.

“They won’t this year because I’ll have Lucas on my team.” Jens defended back, before leaning over the chair Lucas was sitting on to give him a flirty kiss on the cheek.

“How can that work? Lucas doesn’t know how to make a gingerbread house. He’s never made one before.” Lies asked.

“Well, aside from being a really good artist who’s very skilled with his hands, Lucas is an extremely good baker.” Jens said with a smirk. “He bakes for me all the time and even decorates all the cookies with icing and candy. I think I have a professional with me.”

Reaching over and pinching his cheek, Lucas smirked back. “Who says I’m even on your team?”

“I want Lucas!” Lotte cried. “It’s not fair I lose every year ‘cause I’m the youngest!”

“Traitor.” Jens pouted as Lotte rolled her eyes before making her way over beside him. Taking some icing on his hand, Jens swiped it on Lucas’ cheek, still pretending to be annoyed at him.

Lucas took the icing off his cheek and licked it, giving Jens a wink. Now Jens just rolled his eyes.

“I’ll have you know I crush the competition every year.” He mumbled.

“Except for this year!” Lotte exclaimed excitedly.

-

Lucas was curled up against Jens with a mug of hot chocolate in his hands as he watched people around him open up their gifts. Wrapping paper was everywhere and Lucas even had a stack of his own gifts laying on the couch’s armrest. He felt so warm and appreciated, the worries of feeling out of place completely out of his mind. Jens had his arm around him, gently picking and playing at the loose threads from his knitted sweater.

Leaning his head on Jens’ shoulder, he could feel the equal warmth coming from his boyfriend. Jens smiled at feeling Lucas against him and laid a kiss on his head.

“You know,” Leona smiled from across the room. “I don’t think Jens and Lucas have realized they’ve been under the mistletoe this entire night. Unless they do, and that’s why Jens keeps sneaking in small kisses.”

They looked up and realized she was right. There was some mistletoe hanging directly over their heads and they both scoffed at the irony. Lucas hadn’t noticed it when he first sat down, but the twinkle in Jens’ eyes told him that he knew otherwise. That was probably why Jens had motioned him to come sit down in the first place.

Catching one of his smirks, Jens leaned over and gave him a small kiss on the lips, which Lucas instantly found himself giggling at. The family around him cheered as Jens pressed in a little closer and Lucas could feel a smile spread on his lips.

When they pulled apart, there were still some cheering and Lucas noted the smile that still stayed on Jens’ face. He watched as Jens stuck his tongue out slightly, wiping it across his bottom lip.

“Tastes like hot chocolate.” He teased.

Rolling his eyes, Lucas downed the rest of his drink and placed his mug down on the side table. Lunging a little forward, he grabbed Jens’ face and peppered soft kisses all over it. Jens yelped a out at the sudden course of action and tried to pry Lucas off, but Lucas had leverage since half of his body was practically on top of his. As he continued to cover Jens’ face with the hot chocolate from his lips, the cheers turned into laughter.

And as much as Jens was protesting, he knew deep down how much Jens was secretly enjoying the attack of hot chocolate kisses.

-

By the time most people had left, it was already close to midnight. The two younger girls were yawning and eager to go to bed. Santa was still to come in the morning, adding more to the gifts that were saved until the morning. Jens and Lucas were helping Leona and Jacob clean up for the night. Lucas busying himself in the kitchen, drying up dishes as Jens was outside helping his dad bring in extra gifts that had been hidden in the car.

“Jens is lucky to have you.” Leona said as she passed Lucas a plate.

“I’m lucky to have him.” He responded with a shy smile. “I haven’t met anyone like him.”

“Well I’ve never seen him smile so much. He looks so in love and I’m happy it’s with somebody like you.” She grinned and leaned in closer to whisper in his ear. “Don’t tell him this, but he did tell me about you a few months ago. He was more than excited to finally be dating you. I cant imagine what he feels now that you guys are so clearly in love.”

He felt a warm blush hit his face and he tried to hide it by shaking his head. Leona only laughed, indicating that his attempt at hiding his reaction had failed.

Before either of them could say anything else, Jens popped his head into the kitchen. He was still dressed in his outdoor clothes and his cheeks were tinged red from the coldness outside.

“Lucas! It’s snowing outside!” He exclaimed excitedly. “Mom? Would it be okay if I borrow Lucas for a bit?”

“He‘s all yours.” She replied with a gleam. “We’re finished here anyway so when you boys come back inside we’ll probably be in bed. Jens, your room is pretty much exactly how you left it but I did wash your sheets.”

“Alright, thanks Mom.” He replied, walking over to them as he gently tugged on Lucas. “Good night.”

“Thank you, sleep well.” Lucas added, grinning at the way Jens was eagerly pulling him away.

After they had said goodnight to Jacob and Lucas put on his outer clothes, Jens lead them outside. Lucas hadn’t noticed it before, but Jens’ house wasn’t the only one decorated with Christmas lights. In fact, almost every house was. The lights were brightly lit up against the night sky, sending out their Christmas magic into the air.

And of course, a soft snowfall was gently falling down on them. Snowflakes fell down from the sky, landing on the ground and even their faces. Lucas giggled as he watched some of them fall into Jens’s face, in turn, making his face sparkle.

“The snowflakes are all over your freckles.” Jens pointed out, taking a finger and gently dotting at them. “They’re kinda like your new freckles.”

“You have snowflakes for eyelashes now.” Lucas giggled. “I’ve always loved the snow.”

“Really? I thought you didn’t like to be cold.”

“I don’t. But snow always looks so magical and during the holidays, they’re always a new feeling in the air.”

“I can see why you collect snow globes now.”

Lucas grinned, recalling his abundance collection at him. Some were gifts given to him during past Christmas’, others were once he had found on trips or in little vintage shops. During the holidays, he loved to set them out on display, almost as if it were a little village. Not all of them were super festive, but all of them did seem to hold a homage to his found memories. He had a globe from Isa with a swing set, a globe from his parents when he had started his love for art, and a globe of a rainbow flag he had bought for himself after coming out.

“Oh hey, speaking of snow globes, I have a little gift for you. It’s upstairs in my room.” Jens winked as he held out for Lucas’ hand. “Wanna go see it?”

Nodding excitedly, Lucas squeezed his hand. “I thought you already got me my gifts?” He asked as he followed Jens’ lead back inside.

“I did.” Jens shrugged. “But this was kind of planned way before the holidays and it arrived just before so I decided to give it to you now. I got my Mom to bring it up earlier.”

“You’re so sneaky.” Lucas teased as they took off their winter clothes.

They headed up the stairs and into the hallway, turning towards the left bedroom. As they entered, Lucas took a look around while Jens shut the door behind him. Their overnight bags were in a corner, brought in earlier by Jens and Jacob. It looks like an average teenage boy’s room, comic books sprawled on the floor, posters of Star Wars on the wall, a keyboard in the corner and a small bed pushed up against the wall. Lucas grinned, thinking how it would be a tight cuddle with Jens tonight so they would both fit in his bed.

Not that he was complaining.

“You really do like Star Wars huh?” Lucas teased.

“Yeah, and you liked me enough to binge all the movies with me.” Jens teased back as he headed over to the small night table and opened up the drawer.

“To be honest, it did have a good trade off of being able to cuddle with you.”

“And sleep on me. I’m pretty sure you didn’t even get through one force of the movie. Get it? One force? One fourth?” Jens joked after pulling out an item wrapped up in tissue paper and headed back towards Lucas.

“Open your palms out but hold it very gently.” He instructed. “I’m sure you know why but just be very careful.”

Excitedly, Lucas shut his eyes and put out his palms. After a few seconds, he felt a heavy weight be placed on them. Thinking that it was okay to open his eyes again, he looked at the tissue paper. They had little snowflakes on them, decorated as if they were falling down from the snow.

Ever so gently, Lucas pulled apart the tissue paper. When he had finally unravelled the gift, he gasped and felt his heart flutter.

It was a snow globe, similar in size to the ones he had at home. But inside the globe was a statue of a skatepark, with two boys sitting on the ramp. One with dark raven hair and a red hoodie and the other with light brown curls and a blue denim jacket. When Lucas took a closer look, he realized that the two figures were even holding hands.

“Do you like it?” Jens whispered shyly as Lucas still gazed at it in awe.

“I love it.” He breathed out. “Jens, this is so beautiful. Where did you get it?”

“I found a place where you could customize one and with the help of Sander, he drew the design i wanted and I sent it in to get made.” He explained. “I know you usually like the snow globes with memories of what happened this year, so I even put something underneath.”

Gently flipping it over, Lucas noticed the engraving underneath in swirly cursive letters.

“Dear Luc. I’ll love you for more years after this. Love, Jens.” He read out loud, his voice still in complete awe.

“I thought for me at least, one of my biggest things this year was meeting you. And getting to be with you. So in a way, it’s also like the start of my little snow globe collection.” Jens whispered.

Still grinning as hard as ever, Lucas gently placed the globe down on the nearby bookshelf and threw his arms around Jens. Jens lost his balance for a second but laughed as he hugged Lucas back. He dipped his face into the crook of Lucas’ neck, a perk for him since he was taller. Lucas had to tiptoe a bit to place his chin onto his shoulder, but the wide grin still spread on his face as he closed his eyes to take in the moment.

“I love you so much.” He whispered.

He didn’t have to see Jens’ face to know he was smiling. He knew by the way Jens rubbed a hand up and down his back and hugged him tighter that he was feeling just as happy.

“I love you so much too.” Jens replied back, as they pulled away to face each other. Lucas still kept his arms around his neck as Jens placed his hands on his waist. “Thanks for spending Christmas with my family. They really love and adore you and are ready to have you come by again next year.”

“Will I be here next year?” Lucas teased, smiling as he gently bit down the tip of his tongue.

Laughing, Jens put a hand to the back of his head and pushed him in. Lucas could feel his lips kiss him on his forehead, and a rush of warmth shot through him. He giggled as he realized how lucky he was this year.

“That’s something I’ll always make sure of.” Jens assured. “For this year, the next, and the many years that come after that.”

“Merry Christmas Jens.”

“Merry Christmas Luc.”

when i say i miss old tumblr i mean i miss the neighbourhood, i miss ripped black tights and blue denim, i mean i miss artic monkeys and tattoo chokers, fairy lights and record players, dyed grey hair and doc martins over fishnets. i do NOT miss the fatphobia, pro ana, the self harm glorification, the drug use and the grooming. 

we can bring back an aesthetic without bringing with it the horrific things