FIC: The Third Roommate (17/?)
Title: The Third Roommate
Rating: PG-13
Genres: AU, Romance, Angst
Word Count: ~ 2,300
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Characters are property of ATWT, CBS, P&G etc. No profit is made from this fan creation. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: Luke finally breaks down and talks to Jason... Thanks to my beta ditzybea!
A few days went by and Luke tried to move on with his life but nothing changed for the better. If anything his longing for Reid got stronger with every passing day and he felt miserable. He tried to act normal whenever his roommates were around, but he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep going like this. He missed spending time with Reid, he missed being able to touch the older man whenever he felt like it, but the one thing that he almost missed more than being close to Reid was being able to hear his voice. Luke hadn't realized before how much he loved Reid's voice, especially the sound of his name coming from the older man's lips. Reid had been giving him the silent treatment for days.
It crossed Luke's mind that he may have hurt Reid's feelings when he ended things between them and that was why the other man was acting this way. But it wasn't like they had made any promises to each other, so he quickly erased those thoughts from his mind. Reid was probably back to being his grumpy self because he felt as bad about hurting Jason's feelings as Luke did. Yeah, that had to be it.
Luke was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't even notice Reid until the older man suddenly walked past him to the fridge. He wished he could think of something to say to him, but nothing came to mind in that moment. It was probably because there was nothing he could say to make the situation between them any different or any easier. He was more than a little surprised when Reid didn't leave the kitchen right away and suddenly addressed him after he had downed half of his beer.
"So, are you planning to bring home your new lover anytime soon?" Reid asked, referring to the guy who Luke had obviously been spending his lunch breaks with at the coffee house in recent days. "It would be nice if you could let us know so that I can arrange a shift at the hospital or something and I really don't want to watch you being all lovey-dovey with him."
"Excuse me?" Luke got up from the bar stool, folding his arms across his chest as he felt the anger rise within him. "You haven't been talking to me in days and now you confront me with something that doesn't even make sense!? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I'm just curious you know" Reid said, pretty much ignoring the younger man. "Is this guy part of your plan so that Jason doesn't figure out what happened between us when he was in LA or do you really like him?"
Luke snorted. He was about to respond that he has no idea what Reid is talking about when it suddenly dawned on him. Reid must have seen him with George in one of his lunch breaks. George was his new co-worker, who just moved to Chicago a few weeks ago, and was a really nice guy, but was also engaged to his girlfriend, who he had been dating for seven years now but Reid really didn't need to know that. "I'm guessing you saw me and George at the coffee house?"
"George?" Reid mimicked and let out a snort before downing the rest of his beer.
Luke stepped closer to the older man who put his now empty beer bottle down on the kitchen counter. It was like he was drawn to him. "All you had to do is ask if you wanted to know about who I'm meeting in my lunch break you know?"
"No thanks. I'm really not that interested to hear about you and George." Reid replied.
"You know if I didn't know better, I'd say that you're jealous, Reid." Luke's voice was much softer now, standing so close to the other man that he could feel his breath on his face. He waited for Reid to deny it, but it didn't happen. Instead they looked each other in the eyes and it was almost like neither of them wanted to be the first to look away while they slowly moved closer and closer---
"What's going on guys?" The two man jumped apart at the sound of Jason's voice, trying to put as much space between them as possible. Reid rushed passed his roommates after a moment, leaving Luke alone with Jason.
"Luke?" Jason put a hand on his friends shoulder who was still kind of dazed. "What happened?"
Luke nervously cleared his throat, avoiding to look at his roommate."Um, nothing. I gotta go."
Jason was almost sure that he saw tears in Luke's eyes but before he got the chance to react, the blond was already out of the room leaving him wondering what just happened. It almost looked like they were about to kiss but it couldn't be or could it?
***
After a long day at work all Luke wanted to do was watch one of his favorite shows on TV and relax but when he entered the living area he found Reid sitting on one of the couches. Luke sighed. The older man was obviously watching ESPN and the blond knew he wouldn't let the remote out of his hands. He decided to stay anyway and sat down on the other couch as far away from Reid so that he wasn't tempted to touch the other man. Something like the almost kiss the day before really didn't need to happen again. Somehow he was grateful that Jason interrupted them even though he wasn't quite sure if his roommate had become suspicious when he saw them together. He almost wished Jason had caught them kissing because he was tired of lying to one of his best friends, just as he was tired of crying himself to sleep every night.
Luke hadn't seen Reid since the almost kiss and it seemed like the older man was back to ignoring him as he didn't even look up when he sat down, but he couldn't bring himself to care right now, as his day had already been shitty enough. If Reid didn't want to talk to him and act like an jerk, so be it.
They watched TV in silence for a while until Jason came home from work, cheerfully greeting both of his roommates before he plopped down on the couch next to Luke.
"What a day. I'm totally exhausted." Jason murmured, before he swung his legs up on the couch, resting his head on Luke's knee and pushing his feet across Reid's thighs.
The blond immediately felt uncomfortable and shifted around, suddenly feeling Reid's eyes on him. "How was your first day back at the hospital?" Luke asked, hoping that his voice sounded somewhat normal.
"It was really stressful. I didn't even have time to finish my lunch and now I'm starving." Jason replied. "Who is up for pizza? My treat."
Reid turned the TV off and got up. "I'm not hungry."
Jason snorted and sat up. "Since when?" He didn't get an answer because Reid was already out of the room. Sighing he turned to look at Luke. "What about you?"
"Um I already had dinner with a colleague before I came home." Luke replied, starting to get up. "I still need to finish that one article for work so I'm gonna---"
"Stop it!" Jason interrupted angrily, causing Luke to sink back down on the couch. "Every time I come into the room the two of you suddenly need to leave or you're acting all weird. I know you and Reid didn't get along before I left, but whenever we talked on the phone it seemed like you were getting along better and I don't see any of that now. I tried to talk to Reid about it this morning and he said everything's all right but I feel like both of you have been avoiding me since I came back. So can you please tell me what the hell is going on, 'cause I really hate this."
Luke felt tears form in his eyes, but fought to keep them back. "I can't tell you Jason. I wish I could, but I really can't." His voice was sick with emotion.
When Jason saw that the blond was about to cry, he pulled him into a embrace. "Come here. I thought you knew that you can always talk to me about anything Luke."
Luke pulled away from his friend after a moment. "I really don't deserve you being so nice to me. I want to tell you but I don't want to hurt your feelings."
"You're starting to freak me out. What's going on?" When the blond didn't answer he added. "You can really tell me everything Luke, I mean it."
"Reid and I had sex." Luke's voice was barely above a whisper when he said it and he wasn't sure if Jason even heard him until he lifted his head to look at his roommate, seeing the shock in his eyes. "I have no idea how we could let it come to that, but we had an affair while you were in LA. Now I feel like the worst friend ever because I knew about your feelings for him but I slept with him anyway. I can't tell you how sorry I am. You probably hate me now." He could see the shock written all over Jason's face. "Please say something?"
Jason snorted "Of course. Everything makes sense now."
"What?" Luke swallowed.
"I've been racking my brains about what's been going on with you two but I never thought that it's this. I mean when I walked in on you yesterday I thought that it looked liked you were about to kiss but then I thought 'never in a million years' but it seems like I was right about that after all?" The older man asked, only receiving a nod from the blond in return. "Do you have feelings for him?"
Luke wanted to deny it but decided to tell Jason the entire truth and nodded his head again. "Yeah, I really got to know him in the past few weeks but it doesn't really matter how I feel because he doesn't feel that way about me and we ended things so..." He looked at his roommate who still seemed to be shocked, but too his own surprise he didn't appear to be angry. "Are you not mad at me?"
"I'm mad that you didn't tell me the truth right away, but am I mad that you had sex with Reid? No." Jason replied.
"I don't understand. I thought you'd be furious and that you'd want to strangle both of us."
Jason chuckled. "Don't worry, it's not gonna happen. I mean we both know that I never had a chance with Reid and that it was about time that I let it go. I realized that when I was in LA." He explained. "But wait does that mean that was you having sex with Reid the night after I came back?"
Luke blushed, scratching himself behind the ear. "Yeah, that was the last time we had sex. I ended it the next morning." He sighed. "Are you sure you're not mad at me?"
"I'm not mad at you because you slept with him, I promise." Jason replied. "You know I probably would have kicked you out when you told me the same thing a few months ago but now is a completely different story."
"Ok-ay." Luke said, dragging the word out. "Why?"
"Remember when I told you about Marc? My 'one true love' is what Reid likes to call him?" Luke nodded. "I met up with him again in LA. We've spent a lot of time together and kind of got to know each other all over again."
"Wow." Luke said; completely taken by surprise. "Um didn't you tell me that he is married though?"
Jason nodded. "He was married; he got divorced almost a year ago. We've been emailing and talking over the phone a lot since I came back and we agreed that we want to see where this goes, but we know it won't be easy because he lives in LA and I live in Chicago. Maybe the time for us to be together has finally come." He said with a dreamy smile on his face. "One thing is for sure, he still is the best kisser in the world."
Luke was about to reply when Reid suddenly came back into the living room; he suddenly seemed to have decided to be hungry after all. He grabbed a take-out menu from the coffee table and pulled out his cell. Luke couldn't tear his eyes away from the older man while he spoke to restaurant, until he felt Jason taking his hand, giving it a soft squeeze. He smiled sadly at his friend and let himself be pulled into a hug. "Please don't tell him anything about this." He whispered.
"I won't. I promise." Jason replied, before he pulled back to look at Luke. "We'll finish this conversation another time okay? I want details." He said only loud enough for Luke to hear and winked at him.
When Luke went to bed that night he felt like a huge weight had been lifted of his shoulders and yet he still had trouble falling asleep. He still wasn't used to sleeping alone. He was going to have get over this if he wanted to get any work done tomorrow or the next day.
Rating: PG-13
Genres: AU, Romance, Angst
Word Count: ~ 2,300
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Characters are property of ATWT, CBS, P&G etc. No profit is made from this fan creation. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: Luke finally breaks down and talks to Jason... Thanks to my beta ditzybea!
A few days went by and Luke tried to move on with his life but nothing changed for the better. If anything his longing for Reid got stronger with every passing day and he felt miserable. He tried to act normal whenever his roommates were around, but he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep going like this. He missed spending time with Reid, he missed being able to touch the older man whenever he felt like it, but the one thing that he almost missed more than being close to Reid was being able to hear his voice. Luke hadn't realized before how much he loved Reid's voice, especially the sound of his name coming from the older man's lips. Reid had been giving him the silent treatment for days.
It crossed Luke's mind that he may have hurt Reid's feelings when he ended things between them and that was why the other man was acting this way. But it wasn't like they had made any promises to each other, so he quickly erased those thoughts from his mind. Reid was probably back to being his grumpy self because he felt as bad about hurting Jason's feelings as Luke did. Yeah, that had to be it.
Luke was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't even notice Reid until the older man suddenly walked past him to the fridge. He wished he could think of something to say to him, but nothing came to mind in that moment. It was probably because there was nothing he could say to make the situation between them any different or any easier. He was more than a little surprised when Reid didn't leave the kitchen right away and suddenly addressed him after he had downed half of his beer.
"So, are you planning to bring home your new lover anytime soon?" Reid asked, referring to the guy who Luke had obviously been spending his lunch breaks with at the coffee house in recent days. "It would be nice if you could let us know so that I can arrange a shift at the hospital or something and I really don't want to watch you being all lovey-dovey with him."
"Excuse me?" Luke got up from the bar stool, folding his arms across his chest as he felt the anger rise within him. "You haven't been talking to me in days and now you confront me with something that doesn't even make sense!? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I'm just curious you know" Reid said, pretty much ignoring the younger man. "Is this guy part of your plan so that Jason doesn't figure out what happened between us when he was in LA or do you really like him?"
Luke snorted. He was about to respond that he has no idea what Reid is talking about when it suddenly dawned on him. Reid must have seen him with George in one of his lunch breaks. George was his new co-worker, who just moved to Chicago a few weeks ago, and was a really nice guy, but was also engaged to his girlfriend, who he had been dating for seven years now but Reid really didn't need to know that. "I'm guessing you saw me and George at the coffee house?"
"George?" Reid mimicked and let out a snort before downing the rest of his beer.
Luke stepped closer to the older man who put his now empty beer bottle down on the kitchen counter. It was like he was drawn to him. "All you had to do is ask if you wanted to know about who I'm meeting in my lunch break you know?"
"No thanks. I'm really not that interested to hear about you and George." Reid replied.
"You know if I didn't know better, I'd say that you're jealous, Reid." Luke's voice was much softer now, standing so close to the other man that he could feel his breath on his face. He waited for Reid to deny it, but it didn't happen. Instead they looked each other in the eyes and it was almost like neither of them wanted to be the first to look away while they slowly moved closer and closer---
"What's going on guys?" The two man jumped apart at the sound of Jason's voice, trying to put as much space between them as possible. Reid rushed passed his roommates after a moment, leaving Luke alone with Jason.
"Luke?" Jason put a hand on his friends shoulder who was still kind of dazed. "What happened?"
Luke nervously cleared his throat, avoiding to look at his roommate."Um, nothing. I gotta go."
Jason was almost sure that he saw tears in Luke's eyes but before he got the chance to react, the blond was already out of the room leaving him wondering what just happened. It almost looked like they were about to kiss but it couldn't be or could it?
***
After a long day at work all Luke wanted to do was watch one of his favorite shows on TV and relax but when he entered the living area he found Reid sitting on one of the couches. Luke sighed. The older man was obviously watching ESPN and the blond knew he wouldn't let the remote out of his hands. He decided to stay anyway and sat down on the other couch as far away from Reid so that he wasn't tempted to touch the other man. Something like the almost kiss the day before really didn't need to happen again. Somehow he was grateful that Jason interrupted them even though he wasn't quite sure if his roommate had become suspicious when he saw them together. He almost wished Jason had caught them kissing because he was tired of lying to one of his best friends, just as he was tired of crying himself to sleep every night.
Luke hadn't seen Reid since the almost kiss and it seemed like the older man was back to ignoring him as he didn't even look up when he sat down, but he couldn't bring himself to care right now, as his day had already been shitty enough. If Reid didn't want to talk to him and act like an jerk, so be it.
They watched TV in silence for a while until Jason came home from work, cheerfully greeting both of his roommates before he plopped down on the couch next to Luke.
"What a day. I'm totally exhausted." Jason murmured, before he swung his legs up on the couch, resting his head on Luke's knee and pushing his feet across Reid's thighs.
The blond immediately felt uncomfortable and shifted around, suddenly feeling Reid's eyes on him. "How was your first day back at the hospital?" Luke asked, hoping that his voice sounded somewhat normal.
"It was really stressful. I didn't even have time to finish my lunch and now I'm starving." Jason replied. "Who is up for pizza? My treat."
Reid turned the TV off and got up. "I'm not hungry."
Jason snorted and sat up. "Since when?" He didn't get an answer because Reid was already out of the room. Sighing he turned to look at Luke. "What about you?"
"Um I already had dinner with a colleague before I came home." Luke replied, starting to get up. "I still need to finish that one article for work so I'm gonna---"
"Stop it!" Jason interrupted angrily, causing Luke to sink back down on the couch. "Every time I come into the room the two of you suddenly need to leave or you're acting all weird. I know you and Reid didn't get along before I left, but whenever we talked on the phone it seemed like you were getting along better and I don't see any of that now. I tried to talk to Reid about it this morning and he said everything's all right but I feel like both of you have been avoiding me since I came back. So can you please tell me what the hell is going on, 'cause I really hate this."
Luke felt tears form in his eyes, but fought to keep them back. "I can't tell you Jason. I wish I could, but I really can't." His voice was sick with emotion.
When Jason saw that the blond was about to cry, he pulled him into a embrace. "Come here. I thought you knew that you can always talk to me about anything Luke."
Luke pulled away from his friend after a moment. "I really don't deserve you being so nice to me. I want to tell you but I don't want to hurt your feelings."
"You're starting to freak me out. What's going on?" When the blond didn't answer he added. "You can really tell me everything Luke, I mean it."
"Reid and I had sex." Luke's voice was barely above a whisper when he said it and he wasn't sure if Jason even heard him until he lifted his head to look at his roommate, seeing the shock in his eyes. "I have no idea how we could let it come to that, but we had an affair while you were in LA. Now I feel like the worst friend ever because I knew about your feelings for him but I slept with him anyway. I can't tell you how sorry I am. You probably hate me now." He could see the shock written all over Jason's face. "Please say something?"
Jason snorted "Of course. Everything makes sense now."
"What?" Luke swallowed.
"I've been racking my brains about what's been going on with you two but I never thought that it's this. I mean when I walked in on you yesterday I thought that it looked liked you were about to kiss but then I thought 'never in a million years' but it seems like I was right about that after all?" The older man asked, only receiving a nod from the blond in return. "Do you have feelings for him?"
Luke wanted to deny it but decided to tell Jason the entire truth and nodded his head again. "Yeah, I really got to know him in the past few weeks but it doesn't really matter how I feel because he doesn't feel that way about me and we ended things so..." He looked at his roommate who still seemed to be shocked, but too his own surprise he didn't appear to be angry. "Are you not mad at me?"
"I'm mad that you didn't tell me the truth right away, but am I mad that you had sex with Reid? No." Jason replied.
"I don't understand. I thought you'd be furious and that you'd want to strangle both of us."
Jason chuckled. "Don't worry, it's not gonna happen. I mean we both know that I never had a chance with Reid and that it was about time that I let it go. I realized that when I was in LA." He explained. "But wait does that mean that was you having sex with Reid the night after I came back?"
Luke blushed, scratching himself behind the ear. "Yeah, that was the last time we had sex. I ended it the next morning." He sighed. "Are you sure you're not mad at me?"
"I'm not mad at you because you slept with him, I promise." Jason replied. "You know I probably would have kicked you out when you told me the same thing a few months ago but now is a completely different story."
"Ok-ay." Luke said, dragging the word out. "Why?"
"Remember when I told you about Marc? My 'one true love' is what Reid likes to call him?" Luke nodded. "I met up with him again in LA. We've spent a lot of time together and kind of got to know each other all over again."
"Wow." Luke said; completely taken by surprise. "Um didn't you tell me that he is married though?"
Jason nodded. "He was married; he got divorced almost a year ago. We've been emailing and talking over the phone a lot since I came back and we agreed that we want to see where this goes, but we know it won't be easy because he lives in LA and I live in Chicago. Maybe the time for us to be together has finally come." He said with a dreamy smile on his face. "One thing is for sure, he still is the best kisser in the world."
Luke was about to reply when Reid suddenly came back into the living room; he suddenly seemed to have decided to be hungry after all. He grabbed a take-out menu from the coffee table and pulled out his cell. Luke couldn't tear his eyes away from the older man while he spoke to restaurant, until he felt Jason taking his hand, giving it a soft squeeze. He smiled sadly at his friend and let himself be pulled into a hug. "Please don't tell him anything about this." He whispered.
"I won't. I promise." Jason replied, before he pulled back to look at Luke. "We'll finish this conversation another time okay? I want details." He said only loud enough for Luke to hear and winked at him.
When Luke went to bed that night he felt like a huge weight had been lifted of his shoulders and yet he still had trouble falling asleep. He still wasn't used to sleeping alone. He was going to have get over this if he wanted to get any work done tomorrow or the next day.