Part Ten:
The County Fair is a recently new development to town. It’s only been around for five years or so, but everyone in Oakdale seems to attend. It’s also where Luke and Noah shared their first date together which is why walking through the entrance, hand entwined with Reid’s feels slightly awkward. He can’t bring himself to think wrong because somehow it’s getting to the point where nothing with Reid feels wrong. He isn’t quite sure what to do with that feeling so for now he just brushes it off.
Luke squeezed Reid’s hand and smiled brightly at him; Reid returning his smile in his own shy way before it slowly fell off of his face and into a frown. “It smells like poop,” is the first thing he said.
Luke laughed. “It’s a fair Reid! There are animals…….”
“Animals are supposed to be at a zoo, why are they at a fair?”
“And there are port-a-potties,” he continued on ignoring Reid’s question.
“Shit tanks are more like it. I have no respect for anyone who actually willingly goes to the bathroom in one of those things. You don’t use them, do you? Because I have to say if you do, I refuse to date you anymore.”
Luke scoffed. “Please. Like you could give me up. I’ve seen you staring at my ass Dr. Oliver.” Luke grinned broadly waiting for Reid’s denial, but it never came. Instead the older man leaned in and gave Luke that look that seemed to make time stand still.
“You like it when I look at you…because there’s no question as to what I’m thinking or what I want.”
“Me,” Luke swallowed thickly.
Reid thumbed Luke’s chin. “You.”
Luke brushed prettily before shaking his head. “Such a charmer,” he murmured. Reid pulled Luke flush against him before whispering ‘Again, you like it’. He tilted his head and met Luke’s lips in a sweet kiss. Luke, feeling rather joyful, took the liberty to deepen it, exploring Reid’s tongue with his own. By the time the two broke apart, they were breathless and panting heavily.
“Come on,” Luke pulled Reid farther into the fairgrounds, swinging their hands happily between them.
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Things had been going extremely well since the dinner at Luke’s grandma’s house. After their talk they had walked back into the living room of the farm, hand in hand. Luke was practically glowing from the happiness he felt after having talked with Reid and his family immediately took notice of the change. His dad seemed less tense around Reid afterward, his grandma gushed over the two of them and his mom just smiled. After that night, the two of them continued to spend even more time together. This time though, they talked. Luke told Reid all about his drinking and his kidney transplant. Immediately Reid had demanded to see his scar and investigated it like it was the holy grail. He trailed his fingers across the raised skin, assessing it as a professional. There was nothing sexual about it, but it still sent shivers down Luke’s spine. That was the first time Reid had really touched a part of his skin that was normally hidden by clothes. He couldn’t do anything but pounce on him, the two of them winding up practically dry humping like teenagers on the couch of his living room.
“Watch and learn old man.” Luke lined up his shot at the Free throw game and fired the ball through the basket. He continuously picked up more of them as he tried to get as many through the hoop as he could under minute. By the time the buzzer sounded, he was smirking as Reid stood there looking somewhat shocked. “That is the hottest thing I have ever seen.”
Luke laughed and tilted his head, looking coyly back at him. “Let me guess Dr. Oliver. It was one of your fantasies as a teenager. Just a lowly science nerd……”
“Lowly? There was nothing lowly about me.”
“……….being taken by the captain of the Basketball team.”
“It was actually the hockey team, but basketball will do I guess.”
“Maybe we can play out that fantasy some time doctor.”
Reid groaned. “Don’t tease me Snyder.”
Luke grinned wickedly and leaned forward to kiss Reid when the older man pulled back and looked past him. “Reid? What…?” He turned around to see Reid staring at a booth that said ‘Funnel Cakes’ over it. “Oh for the love of……” He shook his head fondly. “Come on. Let’s go get you one.”
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Luke was standing off to the side of the Ferris Wheel waiting for Reid to get out of the bathroom. He smiled down at the tiny Goldfish he was holding. Reid had won him in a ring toss, exclaiming wildly afterward that Luke wasn’t the only one who could win at pointless, juvenile games. Luke had taken the liberty to fire back good naturedly before grinning stupidly as Reid handed him a plastic bag filled with water and one pint size fish.
“You’re giving me your fish?” Luke asked surprised.
Reid made a face. “What the hell would you expect me to do with it? At least with you, it’ll live and you can take it out for walks and stuff.”
“Reid!” Luke chuckled. “It’s a fish. They pretty much just swim around in their bowl and sometimes make faces like this.” Luke demonstrated by making his best fish face. Reid just raised his eyebrow.
“You know if you weren’t so hot, I’d seriously be questioning my sanity to be with you right now.”
Luke chose to ignore his last statement, instead looking inside the plastic bag. “He’s not really doing much. And he doesn’t look too happy. I think I’ll name him Moody after his daddy Reid!”
Luke laughed softly to himself remembering the look on Reid’s face. After some more walking around he had finally agreed to get Reid to go on the Ferris Wheel which was quite a feat. Reid had told Luke about his claustrophobia and those two person seats were definitely not very roomy. Luke knew the right things to say though and after mentioning how the two of them would be pressed up against each other practically from head to toe, he readily agreed. Now if he would just hurry up.
“Luke?”
Luke turned around to see someone he definitely wasn’t expecting this evening.
“Noah.”
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It took Reid awhile to make his way back to Luke. He had to practically walk to the other side of the fair grounds to use an in-house bathroom. There was no way he was going anywhere near one of the Johnny-on-the-Spots. Naturally though, the bathroom was out of paper towels, so he had to use his jeans as a substitute. In his mind, there’s nothing wrong about being elbow deep in brain matter, but not being able to thoroughly dry your hands after you wash them? There’s just something about that, that seems unsanitary. Working his way through the crowd, he could see the line for the Ferris wheel. As he approached, part of the line separated and he came face to face with a sight that had his gut seemingly churning. Noah and Luke kissing.
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That moment. The one that Reid had talked about where Noah would say all of the right things. Yeah, that moment was now. Luke wasn’t expecting to see Noah tonight. He sure as hell wasn’t expecting Noah to come up to him and actually act……nice. But he did. He apologized for betting Luke in that poker game. He talked about how he should’ve never have taken their relationship for granted. He told him he loved him and he realized that he needed to be a better person and start putting Luke first instead of himself. He told him that he had expected Luke to fight for them like always. He never expected that he would give up and actually start seriously getting involved with someone else. It made him realize how precious Luke was and how fragile relationships are and he didn’t want to lose him.
Luke was…..stunned and felt rather blindsided. It was the last thing in the world he was expecting. He choked on Noah’s name, unsure as to what to say, but it didn’t matter. Because then Noah had him in his arms and was kissing him. He had tried to place his hands up in a warning sign for him to stop before they first made contact, but it happened so fast and in a blink of an eye he could feel those same hands he had help up pressed firmly against Noah’s chest. He gasped in shock, which Noah took as an invitation to grab Luke by the back of the head and deepen the kiss. Finding his strength, Luke pushed Noah away as far as he could. When they separated, he sucked in air and breathed deeply; his chest heaving.
“What the hell was that?” he exclaimed.
“I kissed you,” Noah replied as if that was enough to explain. “I love you Luke. And I know despite everything you still have to love me.”
“That….right there.”
“That what?”
“You….telling me what I should feel. You don’t know. You never did because you never wanted to. You never cared because it was never about me. It was always about you. Everything on your terms. Even now. You’re ‘apologizing’ yet you’re still not putting me first. If you were, if you cared about me in the slightest you would know not to kiss me without my permission first. And you would bother to ask me what I’m feeling because if you did that, I would tell you that there’s not hope for us Noah.”
“Luke…..”
“No. I’m with Reid.”
“You can’t honestly think that the two of you are right for each other.”
“I think we are,” Luke replied sincerely. “And even if Reid weren’t in the picture. You and I Noah……we will never be right.”
“Just…..tell me you don’t love me.”
“Not in the way you want me to.”
“But you’re in love with Reid?” When Luke hesitated, Noah continued. “Do you even know?”
“Yes!” he blurted out. “I am. I’m in love with Reid.”
“He’s just going to wind up hurting you Luke, except this time I won’t be around to pick up the pieces.”
“Fine….because this time I won’t need you to,” he said firmly.
Noah stalked off as Luke ran his hand through his hair wildly. He lifted his other hand, looking at Moody the Fish thankful he wasn’t crushed between him and Noah. Feeling rather emotional at the moment, he looked around, only wanting and wishing to see one person, but sadly he was nowhere to be found. ‘Where are you Reid?’ he murmured.
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