Page 104 of The Nightmare Before Kissmas
It wouldn’t be a huge upset for the Christmas Prince and the Halloween Prince to be together, would it? I’m not my father, and I’m actively trying to improve the very things that make the autumn Holidays dislike us. Hex wouldn’t allow any of the things we’ve done if he thought it would endanger his Holiday.
God, I really can’t shake this need to protect him.
I pull out my phone and twist it around in my hands for a few seconds.
HEX
so i gotta know. who’s your stylist?
Hex looks down at his pocket and digs for his phone. His eyes go from the screen to the courtyard, scouting around, until he sees me through the door’s glass.
He grins and bends away to text quickly with his fingerless gloves. He’s going to lose a few appendages if he keeps wearing those.
HEX
I am. Why?
ah, okay, then you’re the one i need to give a stern talking to because it is exceptionally unfair that your entire wardrobe is made up of my kryptonite
I watch him read it. Watch his grin rise again.
HEX
You’re going to give me a stern talking to? If I recall, you said I was daddy.
A staff member walks past and I don’t realize until he gives me a perplexed look that I made a rather pitiful chirping noise.
I try to cover it by nodding at him. “Hey, Maverick, right? From housekeeping? Excellent job with the… cleanliness. Really top-shelf stuff. You do the lord’s work, my friend.”
Maverick carries on, confusion bowing out to amusement as he leaves.
I wait until I’m sure he’s gone.
Then drop away from the outside window and press my face into the wall.
And type back and delete about seven different responses until if Hex is watching the screen it’ll be a constant ellipsis of my sanity-crumbling turned-on panic.
for someone who said he doesn’t have a lot of experience in this area that was a pretty big game thing to say, hallow
HEX
I don’t know what you are talking about, Claus. If there is any big game play happening, it is entirely your fault, as I merely repeated facts you stated previously.
you’re wholly innocent and i’m the big bad corrupting influence, huh?
HEX
Educational influence.
And I said I was inexperienced, not innocent.
class is in session sweetheart
HEX
I have learned quite a lot from you.
Or, rather, about you.
