FIC: The Big Freeze
A Luke/Reid fic in which the guys are stuck with Chris and Katie during a storm. (As the World Turns, PG-13)
Title: The Big Freeze
Author: sleeper6
Characters: Luke/Reid, Chris/Katie, Jacob
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2858
Summary: The couples are stuck together during a snowstorm.
Disclaimer: All belongs to As the World Turns, not me.
Author's notes: For von_questenberg's prompt in lure_prompts.
“Reid! Luke!”
Chris Hughes rapped his knuckles on Reid Oliver’s bedroom door but received no response.
“Reid! Guys! Are you alive in there?”
The door flew open, and Reid’s messy, curly head poked out. “What in the hell!”
Chris smirked and looked over Reid’s shoulder to see Luke Snyder asleep under several blankets on Reid’s bed. “What are you two doing in there?” he asked slyly.
Reid rubbed his eyes and glared at him. “Sleeping, Doogie, what normal people do when they’re tired.”
“At night, but it’s only seven o’clock right now, man.”
Reid glanced at Katie Snyder sitting on the couch with two mugs of steaming hot chocolate. “I guess neurosurgeons have tougher days than pediatricians and their girlfriends.”
“Reid, be nice,” Katie called out before sipping her chocolate drink. “Chris is trying.”
Reid turned back to Chris and raised an eyebrow.
Chris sighed. “I just wanted to warn you about the snowstorm that’s supposed to hit this evening. If Luke is going home, then he should do so now before it gets bad out there.”
“Oh.” Reid glanced behind him at his sleeping boyfriend. “I’ll tell Luke. Uh, thanks.”
Chris smirked wider before Reid closed the door.
Three hours later, Luke and Reid emerged to an apartment filled with chaos. Chris was yelling loudly into his cell phone. Katie held a fussy Jacob with one hand and her phone with the other as she spoke almost as loudly as Chris.
“Margo, Margo, can you hear me?” the blonde asked as she paced from the front door to the kitchen and back, bouncing Jacob as she walked to calm him down. All the movement, though, just caused Jacob to wail louder.
“I need to talk to Dad. My father-is he . . .? It’s urgent. Well, find him!” Chris shouted, striding from his and Katie’s bedroom door to the living room and back.
“What is going on out here?” asked Reid, frustrated by all noise in his and Katie and now Chris’s apartment.
Katie hurriedly rushed to them and shoved Jacob into Luke’s hands. “Thank goodness you’re up. Reid, can you call Bob from your phone? Chris has been trying for the last half-hour but no one can tell him where he’s at.”
“Why am I calling Bob?” asked Reid as he pulled his phone from his pocket.
“Chris was-is-supposed to be at the hospital. One of his patients was taken into Emergency but Chris can’t make it over there. And I’m trying to get a hold of Margo to see if she’s anywhere near Memorial,” Katie blurted quickly as she frantically re-dialed her sister’s number.
“And why am I holding Jacob?” asked Luke, gently rubbing Jacob’s back as he slightly swayed the baby-who now sniffled against Luke’s chest-back and forth.
Katie smiled at her baby. “I haven’t fed him yet. Could you give him his bottle? It’s in the fridge; you just have to heat it up.”
Reid, holding his phone to his ear, followed Luke and Jacob to the kitchen and looked at Chris. “So why are you playing hooky this time?”
“Shit, my phone’s not picking up any reception,” muttered Chris before facing Reid. “I can’t go out in the storm, genius.”
Reid laughed. “What are you talking about? You’re seriously not responding to a page because of a little snow?”
Chris laughed. “It’s more than a little snow.” He turned up the volume on the TV, which showed footage of the blizzard currently burying Oakdale under mounds of snow.
Reid’s eyes widened in surprise as he sat on the couch and stared at the screen. “Um, Luke?”
Luke, still carrying Jacob, walked over. “Yeah?”
“You’re not going home tonight,” Reid replied, pointing to the TV.
“Oh my gosh, Mom!” Luke exclaimed, handing Jacob to Katie before taking out his cell phone. He walked off to make the call.
“Good luck getting a signal,” Chris said.
“Oh, he will. Luke’s got one of those fancy phones that can pick up a signal from space,” Reid joked. He looked at his phone. “And mine can’t,” he continued as he held it to his ear before tossing it onto the coffee table in front of the couch.
“Mine either,” Katie said, throwing her phone on the table as well. She sat on one of the chairs in the kitchen and held Jacob on her lap. “I wanted to see if Margo could tell us anything about the storm.”
Luke returned a few minutes later. “Mom, Dad, and the kids are safe; they’re all in the house. I was about to ask about Grandma but I lost reception.” He joined Reid on the couch. “Any more news?”
Chris sat next to Katie at the table. “Just what the TV says,” he announced. Suddenly, the TV screen went black.
Reid grabbed the remote and changed the channels but no images appeared. “Katie, your cable’s out.”
“I can see that, Reid, thanks.”
“The Internet’s not working, either,” Luke said, looking at Reid and nodding towards his bedroom. “I checked your computer while I was in there.”
“So what now?”
“Let’s play charades,” Katie said excitedly, bouncing Jacob up and down.
“Scrabble,” Chris said.
“Truth or Dare,” Luke chimed in.
“Russian roulette,” Reid said as he sat back and shut his eyes. “I’ll go first.”
Luke slapped his arm. “How about a movie?”
Chris stood and walked to the DVD shelf. “None of that gay-cowboys-in-love stuff, though.”
“What?” demanded Reid.
“Chris,” warned Katie.
“Isn’t that what you all like to watch?”
Luke kept a hand on Reid to keep him from going after Chris. “That’s a very ignorant generalization, Chris, even for you.”
“What do you expect, Luke? He’s an ignorant fool,” Reid said angrily. “And just so you know, I’ve never even seen that movie.”
“Really?” asked Katie. “It’s very good.”
“It is,” Luke agreed, smiling at Katie.
Chris chuckled. “Uh-oh, I’ve upset the genius. What do you suggest we watch, then?”
“Any movie with a moron in it,” replied Reid. “Isn’t that what you all like to watch?” He smiled at Chris.
Luke held up his palm, which Reid happily slapped.
Chris glared at him, and Katie, still holding Jacob, stood up. “Okay, guys, that’s enough.”
Reid sighed and stood up too, making his way to the kitchen. “You three can watch the film. I’m going to eat.” They heard him open and close the refrigerator door. “Shit, there’s nothing in here.” They heard cupboards being opened and slammed shut.
“You ate all the bread, didn’t you?” Reid asked Chris as he returned to the living room.
“I live here too!”
“Then buy groceries!”
“Why can’t you? Or get your rich boyfriend here to give you the money. He gave you a wing; what’s a few apples and oranges?”
“Chris!”
“Leave Luke out of this,” warned Reid.
Luke narrowed his eyes at Chris. “Why do you have to be such a jerk?”
“Why does your boyfriend have to treat me like an imbecile?” asked Chris.
Reid smirked. “I only call them like I see them.”
“Reid!” exclaimed Luke.
“Guys, no more fighting, please,” begged Katie.
Reid pointed at Chris. “You know, after everything I did for you, I hoped you’d be a little more appreciative.”
“To you?”
“Yes to me! I risked my career to keep your secret and then to fight for your heart and I almost lost my life getting smashed by a train and forced to leave this man,” Reid said, holding Luke’s hand, “forever. All for you, you idiot. All for you and them.” He nodded towards Katie and Jacob.
“Oh, Reid . . .” started Katie.
“I’ve lost my appetite,” Reid announced curtly. He pulled Luke by the hand. “Come on. Let’s go to bed.”
As the bedroom door closed behind them, Katie turned to Chris and slapped his arm. Jacob did the same.
“What?”
Reid took off his pants and climbed into bed.
“Don’t let him get to you,” whispered Luke as he joined Reid.
Reid turned so that his body faced Luke’s. “I won’t. It’s just that . . .”
“I know,” Luke said, tenderly touching Reid’s cheek with his knuckle.
“I’m sorry you can’t go home tonight.”
“There’s no one I’d rather be stuck in a blizzard with than you,” Luke said.
“Same here,” whispered Reid as he kissed Luke.
“And tomorrow when we can go out, I’ll buy you all the food you can eat,” promised Luke.
Reid smiled. “Can I have a snack in the meantime?”
“What?”
“You,” uttered Reid as he attacked Luke’s neck.
Early the next morning, Reid ran out of the bedroom to find Katie, Chris and Jacob sitting around the kitchen table in their heaviest winter coats.
“Hey, Goldilocks, did you turn off the heater? We’re freezing in there,” said Reid. “And what’s with the coats? Are you going somewhere?”
“The heater’s busted, genius,” Chris said, sipping from his mug. “We’re just trying to keep warm.”
“There’s no electricity, either,” Katie added.
Jacob, in his high chair, cooed at Reid.
Reid grabbed his phone from the coffee table and was about to dial when Katie said, “There’s no signal in here. We already tried every phone in the house.”
Reid stared at the party of three before running back into his bedroom.
“We have to get out of here, Luke. I’m not dying in an apartment with Chris Hughes in it,” Reid confessed a few minutes after explaining their dire situation that morning.
“We can’t go anywhere, Reid. The snow’s coming down even harder now,” Luke declared.
“But-”
Luke held his boyfriend’s face in his hands. “But nothing. I’m here with you. You’re here with me. Forget about them. We’ll get through this, okay?
Reid nodded, Luke’s soothing words always having a comforting effect on him.
“Now, do you have some jeans I can borrow? And a sweater-or two?” asked Luke, frantically rubbing his arms. “I’m freezing.”
“Oh, yeah, yeah,” Reid responded, opening a drawer. “Help yourself.”
“Do you have normal jeans, Reid, ones not meant for a skinny fifteen-year-old or you?”
“What? These jeans fit you,” Reid said, examining them.
Luke laughed. “No, they fit you and pretty damn well, but we’re definitely not the same size. It’s fine; I’ll wear what I was wearing yesterday.”
“Well, here, then,” Reid said, holding a black sweater in his hands. “Arms up!”
Luke raised his arms, and Reid put the sweater on Luke.
“Now let’s get out there and try not to freeze our asses off.”
Ten minutes later, all five were sitting around the table, which had been pushed to the stove as close as possible, finishing their breakfast-courtesy of Katie-of tuna fish on crackers, chips, and warm apple juice. They’d lit candles and built a small fire in one of the pans atop the stove.
“See, I wasn’t going to let you starve, Reid,” Katie, seated at one end of the table, teased as she hugged Jacob close to her before passing him off to Chris, who was sitting immediately to her right. Chris had earlier announced that babies lose body heat quicker than adults, so they’d agreed to take turns holding Jacob to keep him warm.
“I wasn’t worried. I was all for sending Chris out in the snow. Figured he owes me, you know?” Reid said nonchalantly.
“Ha ha, very funny,” Chris said, handing Jacob to Luke.
Katie cleared her throat. “Let’s play a game.”
“How about the quiet game?” asked Reid.
Luke snorted.
“We should do each other’s hair,” Katie said, her eyes sparkling. “I want to do Luke’s!”
Reid laughed. “It is fun to play with, I’ll admit it.”
“Come on, girls, surely we can think of something else,” Chris declared.
Katie straightened up in her chair. “I’ll start. What did you all think of me when you first met me? One-word answers only, please, and they have to be adjectives.”
Chris smiled at her. “Adorable.”
“Aww,” Katie said as she leaned against Chris.
“Peppy,” Luke answered.
“Loud,” Reid responded as he rubbed Jacob’s back.
“Okay, what about Luke? What did we all think of him?” asked Katie. “Pretty!”
“Sweet,” Chris said.
“Brat,” Reid retorted.
“That’s a noun, Reid,” Luke complained.
“Bratty,” Reid amended, smirking at Luke.
Katie held Jacob to her chest. “What about Chris?”
“Cute.”
All three pairs of eyes looked at Luke.
“What?” asked Luke, blushing slightly.
“Cute, Snyder? Seriously?” asked Reid.
“Hey, he calls them like he sees them,” Chris said, grinning at Reid.
“You all forget that I was, like, five years old when I remember meeting Chris, so it was a long, long time ago,” Luke clarified. “But yeah, that’s what I thought . . . back then.”
“It better be,” Reid muttered.
“Reid?” asked Katie. “What’s your answer?”
“Can I get two answers because I met Chris back in school but his insignificance made me forget him and so I “met” him again here in Oakhell last year?”
Luke stifled laughter. Chris glared at Reid. Katie sighed.
“Okay, okay, one answer. Um, let me see,” Reid said, as he scratched his chin thoughtfully.
“Reid.”
“Is “jerkish” a word? Nah, I’ll choose “jealous,” Reid said.
“Reid.”
“What about Reid?” asked Luke. “What did we think of him?”
“Rude,” Katie said quickly.
“Rude,” Luke repeated, smiling at Reid.
“Brilliant.”
Luke, Katie, and Reid stared at Chris.
Chris cleared his throat. “Well, you were. Everyone thought so, including me.”
“Aww, Chris,” Katie purred.
“Well, um, thanks,” Reid said, not looking at Chris.
“And then you cheated,” Chris added. “So when I “met” you again, I thought “phony.”
“Okay, next question!” shouted Katie.
“I’ll go,” Reid said, holding up his hand. “Who is the one person you most want to shut up?” He looked at both Katie and Chris. “Hmmm.”
“My mother,” Luke piped in, causing the others to laugh.
Reid looked at Jacob sleeping on his chest. “Okay, Katie, I know you’re trying to distract us from the cold-among other things-but your kid is freezing and so am I.”
“There is another way to stay warm,” Chris declared.
“What is it?” inquired Luke.
“Sex.”
“Chris.”
“I’d normally disagree with everything the pediatrician says, but he’s right,” said Reid quietly.
“So how do we do this?” Luke asked.
“Well, sex between the four of us would really keep us hot-“ Katie started.
“Katie!” Chris and Reid yelled.
“I’m kidding,” she said, winking at Luke, who grinned widely.
“Look, you and Katie should go into your bedroom, and Reid and I will watch Jacob,” Luke suggested.
“Are you sure you two don’t want to go first?” asked Katie.
Reid shook his head. “We know you two won’t take long, and Luke and I wouldn’t want to keep you waiting for hours.”
“Very funny,” Chris said, pulling Katie towards the bedroom.
Forty minutes later, all five were seated next to each other-the chairs side-by-side-with blankets around them beside the stove. The table had long been pushed aside.
“I have to hand it to you, Doogie, that was a good idea you had,” Reid said, rubbing Luke’s arm and smiling at Chris.
“Oh, yes, it was,” Katie said sighing dreamily.
“I’m still very hungry, though,” Reid stated.
“If we have to eat someone, who will we eat first?” asked Luke curiously.
They all looked at one another.
“Sorry to tell you this, but I’m the skinniest of the four of us, so I’m out,” Reid said.
The guys looked at Katie.
“Hey!” she said angrily.
Chris raised his hand. “I’ll volunteer myself.”
Everyone looked at him.
Chris looked down at his mitten-covered hands. “It’s the least I can do since all of you had some part in saving my life.” He looked at Reid. “Especially you, Reid. And you might not think I appreciated everything you did for me, but I did. I do. Thank you.”
Reid stared at him for a few seconds before swallowing audibly, nodding, and then looking away.
Everyone remained quiet.
Luke patted Chris’s shoulder, and Katie leaned in and kissed Chris’s cheek.
Katie sat back and hugged Jacob to her chest. “I guess this is the right time to tell you all that the electricity’s been working for the past hour.”
“Katie!” all three men yelled in unison.
Katie stood. “My plan worked,” she said triumphantly.
“What plan?” demanded Reid.
Katie shrugged and took Jacob into the bedroom, removing their jackets as they walked. “I’ll be back to heat up some soup.”
The guys stood and looked at each other awkwardly. Reid then extended his hand to Chris. “Um, about what you said earlier, you’re welcome.”
Chris smiled and shook Reid’s hand. “I meant it.” He walked to the bedroom to join Katie and Jacob.
Luke wrapped his arms around Reid’s neck and kissed him. “I’m glad none of us has to eat anyone.”
“Chris would’ve been tasty, though,” Reid said, pulling Luke closer to him by the waist. “But not as delicious as you.”
“Let’s go find out just how delectable I am,” Luke suggested, nodding towards the bedroom.
“But can we eat first? I really am hungry, Luke.”
Title: The Big Freeze
Author: sleeper6
Characters: Luke/Reid, Chris/Katie, Jacob
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2858
Summary: The couples are stuck together during a snowstorm.
Disclaimer: All belongs to As the World Turns, not me.
Author's notes: For von_questenberg's prompt in lure_prompts.
“Reid! Luke!”
Chris Hughes rapped his knuckles on Reid Oliver’s bedroom door but received no response.
“Reid! Guys! Are you alive in there?”
The door flew open, and Reid’s messy, curly head poked out. “What in the hell!”
Chris smirked and looked over Reid’s shoulder to see Luke Snyder asleep under several blankets on Reid’s bed. “What are you two doing in there?” he asked slyly.
Reid rubbed his eyes and glared at him. “Sleeping, Doogie, what normal people do when they’re tired.”
“At night, but it’s only seven o’clock right now, man.”
Reid glanced at Katie Snyder sitting on the couch with two mugs of steaming hot chocolate. “I guess neurosurgeons have tougher days than pediatricians and their girlfriends.”
“Reid, be nice,” Katie called out before sipping her chocolate drink. “Chris is trying.”
Reid turned back to Chris and raised an eyebrow.
Chris sighed. “I just wanted to warn you about the snowstorm that’s supposed to hit this evening. If Luke is going home, then he should do so now before it gets bad out there.”
“Oh.” Reid glanced behind him at his sleeping boyfriend. “I’ll tell Luke. Uh, thanks.”
Chris smirked wider before Reid closed the door.
Three hours later, Luke and Reid emerged to an apartment filled with chaos. Chris was yelling loudly into his cell phone. Katie held a fussy Jacob with one hand and her phone with the other as she spoke almost as loudly as Chris.
“Margo, Margo, can you hear me?” the blonde asked as she paced from the front door to the kitchen and back, bouncing Jacob as she walked to calm him down. All the movement, though, just caused Jacob to wail louder.
“I need to talk to Dad. My father-is he . . .? It’s urgent. Well, find him!” Chris shouted, striding from his and Katie’s bedroom door to the living room and back.
“What is going on out here?” asked Reid, frustrated by all noise in his and Katie and now Chris’s apartment.
Katie hurriedly rushed to them and shoved Jacob into Luke’s hands. “Thank goodness you’re up. Reid, can you call Bob from your phone? Chris has been trying for the last half-hour but no one can tell him where he’s at.”
“Why am I calling Bob?” asked Reid as he pulled his phone from his pocket.
“Chris was-is-supposed to be at the hospital. One of his patients was taken into Emergency but Chris can’t make it over there. And I’m trying to get a hold of Margo to see if she’s anywhere near Memorial,” Katie blurted quickly as she frantically re-dialed her sister’s number.
“And why am I holding Jacob?” asked Luke, gently rubbing Jacob’s back as he slightly swayed the baby-who now sniffled against Luke’s chest-back and forth.
Katie smiled at her baby. “I haven’t fed him yet. Could you give him his bottle? It’s in the fridge; you just have to heat it up.”
Reid, holding his phone to his ear, followed Luke and Jacob to the kitchen and looked at Chris. “So why are you playing hooky this time?”
“Shit, my phone’s not picking up any reception,” muttered Chris before facing Reid. “I can’t go out in the storm, genius.”
Reid laughed. “What are you talking about? You’re seriously not responding to a page because of a little snow?”
Chris laughed. “It’s more than a little snow.” He turned up the volume on the TV, which showed footage of the blizzard currently burying Oakdale under mounds of snow.
Reid’s eyes widened in surprise as he sat on the couch and stared at the screen. “Um, Luke?”
Luke, still carrying Jacob, walked over. “Yeah?”
“You’re not going home tonight,” Reid replied, pointing to the TV.
“Oh my gosh, Mom!” Luke exclaimed, handing Jacob to Katie before taking out his cell phone. He walked off to make the call.
“Good luck getting a signal,” Chris said.
“Oh, he will. Luke’s got one of those fancy phones that can pick up a signal from space,” Reid joked. He looked at his phone. “And mine can’t,” he continued as he held it to his ear before tossing it onto the coffee table in front of the couch.
“Mine either,” Katie said, throwing her phone on the table as well. She sat on one of the chairs in the kitchen and held Jacob on her lap. “I wanted to see if Margo could tell us anything about the storm.”
Luke returned a few minutes later. “Mom, Dad, and the kids are safe; they’re all in the house. I was about to ask about Grandma but I lost reception.” He joined Reid on the couch. “Any more news?”
Chris sat next to Katie at the table. “Just what the TV says,” he announced. Suddenly, the TV screen went black.
Reid grabbed the remote and changed the channels but no images appeared. “Katie, your cable’s out.”
“I can see that, Reid, thanks.”
“The Internet’s not working, either,” Luke said, looking at Reid and nodding towards his bedroom. “I checked your computer while I was in there.”
“So what now?”
“Let’s play charades,” Katie said excitedly, bouncing Jacob up and down.
“Scrabble,” Chris said.
“Truth or Dare,” Luke chimed in.
“Russian roulette,” Reid said as he sat back and shut his eyes. “I’ll go first.”
Luke slapped his arm. “How about a movie?”
Chris stood and walked to the DVD shelf. “None of that gay-cowboys-in-love stuff, though.”
“What?” demanded Reid.
“Chris,” warned Katie.
“Isn’t that what you all like to watch?”
Luke kept a hand on Reid to keep him from going after Chris. “That’s a very ignorant generalization, Chris, even for you.”
“What do you expect, Luke? He’s an ignorant fool,” Reid said angrily. “And just so you know, I’ve never even seen that movie.”
“Really?” asked Katie. “It’s very good.”
“It is,” Luke agreed, smiling at Katie.
Chris chuckled. “Uh-oh, I’ve upset the genius. What do you suggest we watch, then?”
“Any movie with a moron in it,” replied Reid. “Isn’t that what you all like to watch?” He smiled at Chris.
Luke held up his palm, which Reid happily slapped.
Chris glared at him, and Katie, still holding Jacob, stood up. “Okay, guys, that’s enough.”
Reid sighed and stood up too, making his way to the kitchen. “You three can watch the film. I’m going to eat.” They heard him open and close the refrigerator door. “Shit, there’s nothing in here.” They heard cupboards being opened and slammed shut.
“You ate all the bread, didn’t you?” Reid asked Chris as he returned to the living room.
“I live here too!”
“Then buy groceries!”
“Why can’t you? Or get your rich boyfriend here to give you the money. He gave you a wing; what’s a few apples and oranges?”
“Chris!”
“Leave Luke out of this,” warned Reid.
Luke narrowed his eyes at Chris. “Why do you have to be such a jerk?”
“Why does your boyfriend have to treat me like an imbecile?” asked Chris.
Reid smirked. “I only call them like I see them.”
“Reid!” exclaimed Luke.
“Guys, no more fighting, please,” begged Katie.
Reid pointed at Chris. “You know, after everything I did for you, I hoped you’d be a little more appreciative.”
“To you?”
“Yes to me! I risked my career to keep your secret and then to fight for your heart and I almost lost my life getting smashed by a train and forced to leave this man,” Reid said, holding Luke’s hand, “forever. All for you, you idiot. All for you and them.” He nodded towards Katie and Jacob.
“Oh, Reid . . .” started Katie.
“I’ve lost my appetite,” Reid announced curtly. He pulled Luke by the hand. “Come on. Let’s go to bed.”
As the bedroom door closed behind them, Katie turned to Chris and slapped his arm. Jacob did the same.
“What?”
Reid took off his pants and climbed into bed.
“Don’t let him get to you,” whispered Luke as he joined Reid.
Reid turned so that his body faced Luke’s. “I won’t. It’s just that . . .”
“I know,” Luke said, tenderly touching Reid’s cheek with his knuckle.
“I’m sorry you can’t go home tonight.”
“There’s no one I’d rather be stuck in a blizzard with than you,” Luke said.
“Same here,” whispered Reid as he kissed Luke.
“And tomorrow when we can go out, I’ll buy you all the food you can eat,” promised Luke.
Reid smiled. “Can I have a snack in the meantime?”
“What?”
“You,” uttered Reid as he attacked Luke’s neck.
Early the next morning, Reid ran out of the bedroom to find Katie, Chris and Jacob sitting around the kitchen table in their heaviest winter coats.
“Hey, Goldilocks, did you turn off the heater? We’re freezing in there,” said Reid. “And what’s with the coats? Are you going somewhere?”
“The heater’s busted, genius,” Chris said, sipping from his mug. “We’re just trying to keep warm.”
“There’s no electricity, either,” Katie added.
Jacob, in his high chair, cooed at Reid.
Reid grabbed his phone from the coffee table and was about to dial when Katie said, “There’s no signal in here. We already tried every phone in the house.”
Reid stared at the party of three before running back into his bedroom.
“We have to get out of here, Luke. I’m not dying in an apartment with Chris Hughes in it,” Reid confessed a few minutes after explaining their dire situation that morning.
“We can’t go anywhere, Reid. The snow’s coming down even harder now,” Luke declared.
“But-”
Luke held his boyfriend’s face in his hands. “But nothing. I’m here with you. You’re here with me. Forget about them. We’ll get through this, okay?
Reid nodded, Luke’s soothing words always having a comforting effect on him.
“Now, do you have some jeans I can borrow? And a sweater-or two?” asked Luke, frantically rubbing his arms. “I’m freezing.”
“Oh, yeah, yeah,” Reid responded, opening a drawer. “Help yourself.”
“Do you have normal jeans, Reid, ones not meant for a skinny fifteen-year-old or you?”
“What? These jeans fit you,” Reid said, examining them.
Luke laughed. “No, they fit you and pretty damn well, but we’re definitely not the same size. It’s fine; I’ll wear what I was wearing yesterday.”
“Well, here, then,” Reid said, holding a black sweater in his hands. “Arms up!”
Luke raised his arms, and Reid put the sweater on Luke.
“Now let’s get out there and try not to freeze our asses off.”
Ten minutes later, all five were sitting around the table, which had been pushed to the stove as close as possible, finishing their breakfast-courtesy of Katie-of tuna fish on crackers, chips, and warm apple juice. They’d lit candles and built a small fire in one of the pans atop the stove.
“See, I wasn’t going to let you starve, Reid,” Katie, seated at one end of the table, teased as she hugged Jacob close to her before passing him off to Chris, who was sitting immediately to her right. Chris had earlier announced that babies lose body heat quicker than adults, so they’d agreed to take turns holding Jacob to keep him warm.
“I wasn’t worried. I was all for sending Chris out in the snow. Figured he owes me, you know?” Reid said nonchalantly.
“Ha ha, very funny,” Chris said, handing Jacob to Luke.
Katie cleared her throat. “Let’s play a game.”
“How about the quiet game?” asked Reid.
Luke snorted.
“We should do each other’s hair,” Katie said, her eyes sparkling. “I want to do Luke’s!”
Reid laughed. “It is fun to play with, I’ll admit it.”
“Come on, girls, surely we can think of something else,” Chris declared.
Katie straightened up in her chair. “I’ll start. What did you all think of me when you first met me? One-word answers only, please, and they have to be adjectives.”
Chris smiled at her. “Adorable.”
“Aww,” Katie said as she leaned against Chris.
“Peppy,” Luke answered.
“Loud,” Reid responded as he rubbed Jacob’s back.
“Okay, what about Luke? What did we all think of him?” asked Katie. “Pretty!”
“Sweet,” Chris said.
“Brat,” Reid retorted.
“That’s a noun, Reid,” Luke complained.
“Bratty,” Reid amended, smirking at Luke.
Katie held Jacob to her chest. “What about Chris?”
“Cute.”
All three pairs of eyes looked at Luke.
“What?” asked Luke, blushing slightly.
“Cute, Snyder? Seriously?” asked Reid.
“Hey, he calls them like he sees them,” Chris said, grinning at Reid.
“You all forget that I was, like, five years old when I remember meeting Chris, so it was a long, long time ago,” Luke clarified. “But yeah, that’s what I thought . . . back then.”
“It better be,” Reid muttered.
“Reid?” asked Katie. “What’s your answer?”
“Can I get two answers because I met Chris back in school but his insignificance made me forget him and so I “met” him again here in Oakhell last year?”
Luke stifled laughter. Chris glared at Reid. Katie sighed.
“Okay, okay, one answer. Um, let me see,” Reid said, as he scratched his chin thoughtfully.
“Reid.”
“Is “jerkish” a word? Nah, I’ll choose “jealous,” Reid said.
“Reid.”
“What about Reid?” asked Luke. “What did we think of him?”
“Rude,” Katie said quickly.
“Rude,” Luke repeated, smiling at Reid.
“Brilliant.”
Luke, Katie, and Reid stared at Chris.
Chris cleared his throat. “Well, you were. Everyone thought so, including me.”
“Aww, Chris,” Katie purred.
“Well, um, thanks,” Reid said, not looking at Chris.
“And then you cheated,” Chris added. “So when I “met” you again, I thought “phony.”
“Okay, next question!” shouted Katie.
“I’ll go,” Reid said, holding up his hand. “Who is the one person you most want to shut up?” He looked at both Katie and Chris. “Hmmm.”
“My mother,” Luke piped in, causing the others to laugh.
Reid looked at Jacob sleeping on his chest. “Okay, Katie, I know you’re trying to distract us from the cold-among other things-but your kid is freezing and so am I.”
“There is another way to stay warm,” Chris declared.
“What is it?” inquired Luke.
“Sex.”
“Chris.”
“I’d normally disagree with everything the pediatrician says, but he’s right,” said Reid quietly.
“So how do we do this?” Luke asked.
“Well, sex between the four of us would really keep us hot-“ Katie started.
“Katie!” Chris and Reid yelled.
“I’m kidding,” she said, winking at Luke, who grinned widely.
“Look, you and Katie should go into your bedroom, and Reid and I will watch Jacob,” Luke suggested.
“Are you sure you two don’t want to go first?” asked Katie.
Reid shook his head. “We know you two won’t take long, and Luke and I wouldn’t want to keep you waiting for hours.”
“Very funny,” Chris said, pulling Katie towards the bedroom.
Forty minutes later, all five were seated next to each other-the chairs side-by-side-with blankets around them beside the stove. The table had long been pushed aside.
“I have to hand it to you, Doogie, that was a good idea you had,” Reid said, rubbing Luke’s arm and smiling at Chris.
“Oh, yes, it was,” Katie said sighing dreamily.
“I’m still very hungry, though,” Reid stated.
“If we have to eat someone, who will we eat first?” asked Luke curiously.
They all looked at one another.
“Sorry to tell you this, but I’m the skinniest of the four of us, so I’m out,” Reid said.
The guys looked at Katie.
“Hey!” she said angrily.
Chris raised his hand. “I’ll volunteer myself.”
Everyone looked at him.
Chris looked down at his mitten-covered hands. “It’s the least I can do since all of you had some part in saving my life.” He looked at Reid. “Especially you, Reid. And you might not think I appreciated everything you did for me, but I did. I do. Thank you.”
Reid stared at him for a few seconds before swallowing audibly, nodding, and then looking away.
Everyone remained quiet.
Luke patted Chris’s shoulder, and Katie leaned in and kissed Chris’s cheek.
Katie sat back and hugged Jacob to her chest. “I guess this is the right time to tell you all that the electricity’s been working for the past hour.”
“Katie!” all three men yelled in unison.
Katie stood. “My plan worked,” she said triumphantly.
“What plan?” demanded Reid.
Katie shrugged and took Jacob into the bedroom, removing their jackets as they walked. “I’ll be back to heat up some soup.”
The guys stood and looked at each other awkwardly. Reid then extended his hand to Chris. “Um, about what you said earlier, you’re welcome.”
Chris smiled and shook Reid’s hand. “I meant it.” He walked to the bedroom to join Katie and Jacob.
Luke wrapped his arms around Reid’s neck and kissed him. “I’m glad none of us has to eat anyone.”
“Chris would’ve been tasty, though,” Reid said, pulling Luke closer to him by the waist. “But not as delicious as you.”
“Let’s go find out just how delectable I am,” Luke suggested, nodding towards the bedroom.
“But can we eat first? I really am hungry, Luke.”