As the World Turns Fic #3: The One Where Luke Has to Tell Reid Some of the Weird Stuff
Title: The One Where Luke Has to Tell Reid Some of the Weird Stuff
Author: Myrna1_2_3
Fandom: As the World Turns
Characters/Pairings: Luke/Reid
Rating: R
Summary: Luke has to tell Reid some of the weird stuff that happened before
Disclaimer: Not-not-mine
Author's Notes: This is just a short little ficlet because I’ve been obsessing about some of the stuff Luke’s going to have to tell Reid at some point.
Reid Oliver shook his head in disbelief as he let himself in Luke’s front door, wondering if the two of them had even been to the same film. “No, the Russian guy was the ex-commander who killed the teenage girl’s mother’s brother. How did you miss that?” Reid tossed his car keys on the counter and retrieved two water bottles from the fridge.
Luke shrugged and took one of the bottles. “In my defense, it was hard to hear over your chomping on popcorn, nachos, M&Ms and whatever else you managed to shove down your throat.”
Reid quirked an eyebrow, but thought, Nah, too easy, and let it go.
“I still don’t see why we couldn’t put the Rolos in the popcorn,” Luke said.
“Because,” Reid said with exaggerated patience. They’d already discussed this at the movie theater, in the parking lot on the way to the car, and in the car on the way home. “They melt, and then your fingers are covered with chocolate and caramel and then your pants and your car keys and the steering wheel are all covered with chocolate and caramel.”
Luke gave him a dubious look. “That’s more a commentary on your appalling table manners than the effects of a few Rolos in a bucket of popcorn. Why not just slip a couple of handiwipes in your pocket and there’s no problem.”
“On the list of Queerest Things Imaginable, carrying around handiwipes is right there at the top.”
“I’m not the one who freaks out if his hands get dirty,” Luke said.
Reid slapped his palm down on the counter, pretty much done with that conversation. “All right then. Dinner and the movie was my treat. That means I have to fuck you now.”
Luke barked a surprised laugh and blushed crimson. “I’ve been warned about this kind of thing,” he said.
Reid shrugged, as if he didn’t write the rules. “And if I’m going to fuck you,” he stalked closer to Luke and stopped just in front of him. “You’re going to have to take off your God damned shirt.”
Luke winced, eyes screwed closed in embarrassment. “I know,” he said. “I know!”
It wasn’t that Reid had any complaints about the sex-Luke gave the best blow jobs on the planet; and he was eager and willing to try anything Reid suggested; and God knows he had plenty of his own suggestions as well. But he was like one of those pasty white kids at the pool-he never took off his shirt.
Luke knew it was odd, and he apologized so profusely and abashedly for it every time it came up that Reid felt cruel for harping on it, but God damn it, he wanted to fuck his naked boyfriend.
Reid grinned teasingly at him. “I’ve already seen the goods, you know,” he reminded Luke, who looked confused. “In Dallas?” Reid said. “You tried to seduce me by opening the door in nothing but a towel?”
“I thought you were room service,” Luke said.
“Like you’d try to seduce the room service guy when I was right there,” Reid said.
Luke rolled his eyes, but wouldn’t quite meet Reid’s gaze. Reid just sat down next to him on the couch and gently bumped his shoulder. “Talk to me,” he said.
Luke made a rueful face, but nodded that he was going to. “Most people don’t have to tell you all the… all the weird stuff that happened when they were younger, but I sort of have the… the evidence of mine plastered all over my body.”
Okay, not exactly the opening Reid was expecting, but he nodded encouragingly, and Luke hesitantly revealed that several years earlier, he’d undergone a kidney transplant.
Reid was sure he wasn’t getting the whole story there simply because the poorly veiled revulsion on Luke’s face didn’t jibe with the clinical recitation of his journey from illness to failed dialysis to kidney transplant. Reid was okay with the sketchy information, additional details would come eventually, and Reid was finding, much to his surprise, that where Luke Snyder was concerned, he was a man possessed of far more patience than he ever imagined.
Still, Reid couldn’t quite grasp why Luke had been so hesitant to say he’d had a kidney transplant. Luke must have read the confusion on Reid’s face because he gave a huff of self-deprecation and said, “I’m kind of like one of those late-night TV ads. But wait! There’s more!”
“Okay,” Reid said, and for some reason, his heart started thudding when Luke took a deep breath and sat forward on the couch, elbows on his knees. Luke stared at his hands for a long while and then, with the caveat that he didn’t remember a lot of what had happened, that most of the details had been reconstructed for him by other people who had been there, Luke told an unbelievable story about what happened on a camping trip with Noah Mayer and his father.
Reid said little during Luke’s recitation beyond asking for medical clarification here and there, and all he offered when Luke finished was a breathless, “Jesus.”
“I had this whole speech prepared for when I told you…” Luke said and rolled his eyes as though he already knew it had been a stupid idea. “I was going to be all…like…if you don’t want to be with me, I get it, but...” Luke looked down at his hands, both of them gripping Reid’s arm. “But I don’t think I can let go.” He gave a sharp, high pitched laugh, and if Reid had been on some kind of precipice; if there had been the possibility of choosing before or after, Luke’s hysterical little laugh was the infinitesimal push that landed Reid firmly on the side of after.
Reid shrugged, and he too found himself looking at Luke’s hands on his arm. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said, making the words sound like the answer to a dare.
They sat there for a while, unmoving. Gradually, Luke’s hold on Reid loosened until Luke took a deep breath, and then he stood up, holding his hand out to Reid. Reid smiled and reached for it and let Luke pull him upright. It took a few tries for Reid to finally lock eyes with Luke, but when he did, Luke held his gaze and nodded slowly and deliberately.
As much as he was able, Reid felt… humbled; humbled not just by Luke’s resilience, but his willingness to trust Reid when his every instinct had to be screaming at him to pull in, pull away. Reid boasted far less drama in his past, and his inclination was always to close off rather than put himself out there in any substantial way. How amazing that after everything he’d been through, Luke was brave enough to try.
Reid squeezed Luke’s hand and silently led him to the bedroom. He stopped just inside the doorway; leaving the lights off. Luke started to remove his t-shirt, but Reid shook his head and just drew Luke into an embrace. Reid gently slid his hand up Luke’s t-shirt to find the scar on his back. Luke caught his breath and grew still, but didn’t pull away. Reid let the pads of his fingers trace the scar from top to bottom, side to side, mapping it by touch.
Reid kept his own breathing steady, knowing Luke was going to be oversensitive to any reaction at all, but he couldn’t stop the images that flashed in his mind’s eye as he outlined the surgical scar on Luke’s back. Jesus Christ. Reid could picture the chaos of the ER when Luke was brought it; the doctors scrambling to comprehend what had happened at the same time they were scrambling to diagnose their patient. Reid knew Luke would have come in wearing a cervical neck collar, but the ER docs would have assumed a head injury first. Reid imagined vital signs shouted out as instructions were barked to the nurses and techs; all those hands touching Luke’s battered body, cutting away his clothes, looking for a wound they weren’t going to be able to find with the naked eye, racing against the clock and the constraints of the human body. Stat stat stat! The words echoed in Reid’s skull. He could almost smell the antiseptic of the ER. He took another slow, careful breath, and carded his other hand through Luke’s hair, gently kissing his neck. He swallowed and tasted bile that burned at the back of this throat.
Reid covered Luke’s scar with his hand splayed wide open against it, barely touching Luke’s skin; shielding the scar from anyone else. “Luke,” he murmured, his lips brushing against Luke’s ear as he spoke. Luke shuddered, gripping handfuls of Reid’s shirt in his fists. “Luke!” Reid whispered again, urgently, willing Luke to understand everything he was feeling at that moment, even if Reid didn’t completely understand it himself.
The litany of clichés that ran through Reid’s brain were laughable, and he would never have said them out loud, even though he meant every word of them. I’ll protect you. I’ve got you. Never again. They’ll have to get through me first. No one will hurt you. I promise. I promise.
It was Luke who pulled back and reached hungrily for Reid’s mouth, and in the heat and wet of a mouth that promised deeper, greater pleasures, Reid let go of the momentary panic he’d felt.
Reid lifted Luke’s shirt over his head and tossed it to the side and then took a step back and flipped the light switch on. He would have instantly recognized the transplant scar for what it was, and he wondered what it would have been like to discover it without any forewarning back when he thought Luke was nothing more than a spoiled, trust fund baby who’d never known a moment of adversity.
Reid’s head was cocked to the side, his mouth drawn in concentration as he traced the scar with his fingertips. He was almost reeling at how easily all of this could have been denied him. The very thought of it was as galling to him as ignorance; to think this life he had now, this future that stretched out before him and promised everything he never knew he wanted had almost been lost to him… Reid could barely grasp the idea.
His touch was more professional than it had been with the scar on Luke’s back. Now Reid squinted, critically eyeing the scar from Luke’s left then his right. “Not bad,” he finally pronounced with a shrug, as though the verdict was slightly grudging. “I’ll show you some of my post-op pictures if you want to see an example of exceptional stitching. It’s not really fair to expect some mere mortal to have the same level of talent.”
Luke laughed. "I’ll leave my future post-surgical suturing in your capable hands,” he said.
“Most people, I’d say, oh, you don’t need to worry about that, but I think it’s a good idea that you have a workable plan in mind.”
“That’s reassuring,” Luke said snidely.
“I’m applauding your foresight,” Reid said.
Luke smirked at him. “Thank you”
Reid grinned. “You don’t have to say that until after,” he said, and playfully pushed Luke back onto the bed.
Luke was a little unsettled for awhile after he told Reid-not quite defensive, not exactly apologetic, but watchful and wary in a way that set Reid’s teeth on edge. He liked Luke fearless and brash, proudly wearing that cocky optimism that was uniquely his. Reid was trying to be understanding-which for him meant trying to be less caustic when dealing with Luke--but he couldn’t help the snark when Luke held up the book on top of Reid’s files--Diagnostic Atlas of Renal Pathology-and said, “What’s this?”
“That,” Reid said grandly. “Is a book.”
“What’s it for?” Luke asked pointedly.
Reid’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Wow, we’re going to have to go more remedial than I thought. See, individual words are printed on the pages in it and when you read one word after the other it tells a story; provides information, that kind of thing.” Luke looked unimpressed, so Reid helpfully continued. “If you’re that interested, I can get you one that’s all pictures; start you off slow and easy. You’ll see what I mean.”
Luke wasn’t playing, though. “I’m not broken,” he said, but the haunted look on his face told Reid the wrong word at the wrong moment could easily convince Luke otherwise.
“I know,” Reid said gently. He walked closer to Luke, but stopped just out of arms reach and leaned against the counter. “I just want to be up to speed on what it means to live with a kidney transplant,” he said, shrugging at the reasonableness of it.
“Why?” Luke asked.
“So I’ll know,” Reid said, and for once the simple explanation was all Luke needed. He thoughtfully nodded and set the book down, but for a few more weeks Reid kept catching sight of him looking anxious and troubled.
But he wasn’t broken, and Reid had to respect that and let Luke come around on his own time.
One Sunday, they staggered inside after dinner at Emma Snyder’s farm, loaded down with Tupperware containers of green beans, mashed potatoes, ham, sliced tomatoes, a casserole whose only ingredients Reid recognized were cheese and mayonnaise, (and really, did it matter what else?) and half a chocolate cake Reid had already called dibs on for breakfast.
With Luke standing at his shoulder, Reid paused in front of the open refrigerator door, envisioning meals for at least the next two days. He was already planning a sandwich that promised to be revolutionary in its make up. He wondered if maybe he should start a blog where he could post pictures and recipes of his most fame-worthy sandwiches. He slowly shook his head back and forth, marveling at his good fortune. “I love you,” he said softly, reverently.
Luke said nothing, and the silence grew between them until Reid slammed the refrigerator door and faced Luke, arms crossed over his chest. “Really?” Reid said. “I say I love you, and, just, no reaction at all from you?”
Luke lifted a brow in righteous indignation. “I thought you were talking to the ham!”
“Well, it is true that I love the ham,” Reid said. “However, in this particular instance, I was talking to you.”
“Oh,” Luke said, not sounding surprised so much as corrected. “Do you think there’s a chance you’re confusing your love of my grandma’s cooking with love for me?” he asked.
“Can I have one without the other?” Reid asked.
“No.” Luke’s tone brooked no room for negotiation.
“Then what does it matter?” Reid said.
“True enough,” Luke said, and then there it was. A giddy, shy, pleased smiled lighting up his face. He ducked his head, shoulders hunched and Reid half-expected Luke to hug himself and twirl around the room in delight. He grinned knowingly at Luke who laughed and shrugged. He pulled Reid into a hug and buried his heated face against his neck. “I love you too,” Luke said softly.
“No,” Reid said. “I want you to look me in the eye and say it.”
“You were looking at the ham when you said it!” Luke pointed out.
“But I said it first, so I get to make a rule.”
“In what universe?”
“In this one. Say it to my face.”
“Fine!” Luke smirked at him like it was hardly a challenge. “I love you,” he said, with a look of mocking adoration on his face.
Reid grinned and nodded approvingly. “Now say it to my cock.”
Luke burst out laughing, head back and eyes closed. Reid laughed along with him until Luke rested his forehead on Reid’s shoulder, slowly shaking his head. He took a deep, fortifying breath and relaxed against Reid, and Reid had a feeling those anxious, uncertain looks on Luke’s face were a thing of the past. “I’m guessing this is as good as it’s ever going to get in the romance department,” Luke said sounding resigned, but Reid could hear the curve of his smile in his tone.
Reid slapped him on the ass and grabbed the remote on his way to the couch. “I have just obliterated every standard I’ve ever held myself to when it comes to the big R,” he said proudly.
“I can only imagine what that was,” Luke said dryly. “Stepping over your boyfriend after he’d fallen down instead of walking on top of him?”
“I wouldn’t date someone who falls down,” Reid scoffed. “And if I did, you can bet I’m not walking all the way around him out of some misguided sense of…”
“Decency?” Luke suggested.
“Just don’t fall down, and we’ll be fine,” Reid said.
Luke nodded. “So, you love me and/or the copious amounts of food you get to eat being with me, and I… don’t fall down.” That was a fair assessment. Reid nodded and patted the spot on the couch next to him. Luke obliged and sat down. “Wow, we really hit this relationship thing out of the park!”
Reid nodded and stretched his arms over his head with a loud, exaggerated sigh of satisfaction, ending up with an arm around Luke’s shoulders. “Yep,” he said happily, “I’m thinking we crazy kids might just make it after all.”
#
Author: Myrna1_2_3
Fandom: As the World Turns
Characters/Pairings: Luke/Reid
Rating: R
Summary: Luke has to tell Reid some of the weird stuff that happened before
Disclaimer: Not-not-mine
Author's Notes: This is just a short little ficlet because I’ve been obsessing about some of the stuff Luke’s going to have to tell Reid at some point.
Reid Oliver shook his head in disbelief as he let himself in Luke’s front door, wondering if the two of them had even been to the same film. “No, the Russian guy was the ex-commander who killed the teenage girl’s mother’s brother. How did you miss that?” Reid tossed his car keys on the counter and retrieved two water bottles from the fridge.
Luke shrugged and took one of the bottles. “In my defense, it was hard to hear over your chomping on popcorn, nachos, M&Ms and whatever else you managed to shove down your throat.”
Reid quirked an eyebrow, but thought, Nah, too easy, and let it go.
“I still don’t see why we couldn’t put the Rolos in the popcorn,” Luke said.
“Because,” Reid said with exaggerated patience. They’d already discussed this at the movie theater, in the parking lot on the way to the car, and in the car on the way home. “They melt, and then your fingers are covered with chocolate and caramel and then your pants and your car keys and the steering wheel are all covered with chocolate and caramel.”
Luke gave him a dubious look. “That’s more a commentary on your appalling table manners than the effects of a few Rolos in a bucket of popcorn. Why not just slip a couple of handiwipes in your pocket and there’s no problem.”
“On the list of Queerest Things Imaginable, carrying around handiwipes is right there at the top.”
“I’m not the one who freaks out if his hands get dirty,” Luke said.
Reid slapped his palm down on the counter, pretty much done with that conversation. “All right then. Dinner and the movie was my treat. That means I have to fuck you now.”
Luke barked a surprised laugh and blushed crimson. “I’ve been warned about this kind of thing,” he said.
Reid shrugged, as if he didn’t write the rules. “And if I’m going to fuck you,” he stalked closer to Luke and stopped just in front of him. “You’re going to have to take off your God damned shirt.”
Luke winced, eyes screwed closed in embarrassment. “I know,” he said. “I know!”
It wasn’t that Reid had any complaints about the sex-Luke gave the best blow jobs on the planet; and he was eager and willing to try anything Reid suggested; and God knows he had plenty of his own suggestions as well. But he was like one of those pasty white kids at the pool-he never took off his shirt.
Luke knew it was odd, and he apologized so profusely and abashedly for it every time it came up that Reid felt cruel for harping on it, but God damn it, he wanted to fuck his naked boyfriend.
Reid grinned teasingly at him. “I’ve already seen the goods, you know,” he reminded Luke, who looked confused. “In Dallas?” Reid said. “You tried to seduce me by opening the door in nothing but a towel?”
“I thought you were room service,” Luke said.
“Like you’d try to seduce the room service guy when I was right there,” Reid said.
Luke rolled his eyes, but wouldn’t quite meet Reid’s gaze. Reid just sat down next to him on the couch and gently bumped his shoulder. “Talk to me,” he said.
Luke made a rueful face, but nodded that he was going to. “Most people don’t have to tell you all the… all the weird stuff that happened when they were younger, but I sort of have the… the evidence of mine plastered all over my body.”
Okay, not exactly the opening Reid was expecting, but he nodded encouragingly, and Luke hesitantly revealed that several years earlier, he’d undergone a kidney transplant.
Reid was sure he wasn’t getting the whole story there simply because the poorly veiled revulsion on Luke’s face didn’t jibe with the clinical recitation of his journey from illness to failed dialysis to kidney transplant. Reid was okay with the sketchy information, additional details would come eventually, and Reid was finding, much to his surprise, that where Luke Snyder was concerned, he was a man possessed of far more patience than he ever imagined.
Still, Reid couldn’t quite grasp why Luke had been so hesitant to say he’d had a kidney transplant. Luke must have read the confusion on Reid’s face because he gave a huff of self-deprecation and said, “I’m kind of like one of those late-night TV ads. But wait! There’s more!”
“Okay,” Reid said, and for some reason, his heart started thudding when Luke took a deep breath and sat forward on the couch, elbows on his knees. Luke stared at his hands for a long while and then, with the caveat that he didn’t remember a lot of what had happened, that most of the details had been reconstructed for him by other people who had been there, Luke told an unbelievable story about what happened on a camping trip with Noah Mayer and his father.
Reid said little during Luke’s recitation beyond asking for medical clarification here and there, and all he offered when Luke finished was a breathless, “Jesus.”
“I had this whole speech prepared for when I told you…” Luke said and rolled his eyes as though he already knew it had been a stupid idea. “I was going to be all…like…if you don’t want to be with me, I get it, but...” Luke looked down at his hands, both of them gripping Reid’s arm. “But I don’t think I can let go.” He gave a sharp, high pitched laugh, and if Reid had been on some kind of precipice; if there had been the possibility of choosing before or after, Luke’s hysterical little laugh was the infinitesimal push that landed Reid firmly on the side of after.
Reid shrugged, and he too found himself looking at Luke’s hands on his arm. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said, making the words sound like the answer to a dare.
They sat there for a while, unmoving. Gradually, Luke’s hold on Reid loosened until Luke took a deep breath, and then he stood up, holding his hand out to Reid. Reid smiled and reached for it and let Luke pull him upright. It took a few tries for Reid to finally lock eyes with Luke, but when he did, Luke held his gaze and nodded slowly and deliberately.
As much as he was able, Reid felt… humbled; humbled not just by Luke’s resilience, but his willingness to trust Reid when his every instinct had to be screaming at him to pull in, pull away. Reid boasted far less drama in his past, and his inclination was always to close off rather than put himself out there in any substantial way. How amazing that after everything he’d been through, Luke was brave enough to try.
Reid squeezed Luke’s hand and silently led him to the bedroom. He stopped just inside the doorway; leaving the lights off. Luke started to remove his t-shirt, but Reid shook his head and just drew Luke into an embrace. Reid gently slid his hand up Luke’s t-shirt to find the scar on his back. Luke caught his breath and grew still, but didn’t pull away. Reid let the pads of his fingers trace the scar from top to bottom, side to side, mapping it by touch.
Reid kept his own breathing steady, knowing Luke was going to be oversensitive to any reaction at all, but he couldn’t stop the images that flashed in his mind’s eye as he outlined the surgical scar on Luke’s back. Jesus Christ. Reid could picture the chaos of the ER when Luke was brought it; the doctors scrambling to comprehend what had happened at the same time they were scrambling to diagnose their patient. Reid knew Luke would have come in wearing a cervical neck collar, but the ER docs would have assumed a head injury first. Reid imagined vital signs shouted out as instructions were barked to the nurses and techs; all those hands touching Luke’s battered body, cutting away his clothes, looking for a wound they weren’t going to be able to find with the naked eye, racing against the clock and the constraints of the human body. Stat stat stat! The words echoed in Reid’s skull. He could almost smell the antiseptic of the ER. He took another slow, careful breath, and carded his other hand through Luke’s hair, gently kissing his neck. He swallowed and tasted bile that burned at the back of this throat.
Reid covered Luke’s scar with his hand splayed wide open against it, barely touching Luke’s skin; shielding the scar from anyone else. “Luke,” he murmured, his lips brushing against Luke’s ear as he spoke. Luke shuddered, gripping handfuls of Reid’s shirt in his fists. “Luke!” Reid whispered again, urgently, willing Luke to understand everything he was feeling at that moment, even if Reid didn’t completely understand it himself.
The litany of clichés that ran through Reid’s brain were laughable, and he would never have said them out loud, even though he meant every word of them. I’ll protect you. I’ve got you. Never again. They’ll have to get through me first. No one will hurt you. I promise. I promise.
It was Luke who pulled back and reached hungrily for Reid’s mouth, and in the heat and wet of a mouth that promised deeper, greater pleasures, Reid let go of the momentary panic he’d felt.
Reid lifted Luke’s shirt over his head and tossed it to the side and then took a step back and flipped the light switch on. He would have instantly recognized the transplant scar for what it was, and he wondered what it would have been like to discover it without any forewarning back when he thought Luke was nothing more than a spoiled, trust fund baby who’d never known a moment of adversity.
Reid’s head was cocked to the side, his mouth drawn in concentration as he traced the scar with his fingertips. He was almost reeling at how easily all of this could have been denied him. The very thought of it was as galling to him as ignorance; to think this life he had now, this future that stretched out before him and promised everything he never knew he wanted had almost been lost to him… Reid could barely grasp the idea.
His touch was more professional than it had been with the scar on Luke’s back. Now Reid squinted, critically eyeing the scar from Luke’s left then his right. “Not bad,” he finally pronounced with a shrug, as though the verdict was slightly grudging. “I’ll show you some of my post-op pictures if you want to see an example of exceptional stitching. It’s not really fair to expect some mere mortal to have the same level of talent.”
Luke laughed. "I’ll leave my future post-surgical suturing in your capable hands,” he said.
“Most people, I’d say, oh, you don’t need to worry about that, but I think it’s a good idea that you have a workable plan in mind.”
“That’s reassuring,” Luke said snidely.
“I’m applauding your foresight,” Reid said.
Luke smirked at him. “Thank you”
Reid grinned. “You don’t have to say that until after,” he said, and playfully pushed Luke back onto the bed.
Luke was a little unsettled for awhile after he told Reid-not quite defensive, not exactly apologetic, but watchful and wary in a way that set Reid’s teeth on edge. He liked Luke fearless and brash, proudly wearing that cocky optimism that was uniquely his. Reid was trying to be understanding-which for him meant trying to be less caustic when dealing with Luke--but he couldn’t help the snark when Luke held up the book on top of Reid’s files--Diagnostic Atlas of Renal Pathology-and said, “What’s this?”
“That,” Reid said grandly. “Is a book.”
“What’s it for?” Luke asked pointedly.
Reid’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Wow, we’re going to have to go more remedial than I thought. See, individual words are printed on the pages in it and when you read one word after the other it tells a story; provides information, that kind of thing.” Luke looked unimpressed, so Reid helpfully continued. “If you’re that interested, I can get you one that’s all pictures; start you off slow and easy. You’ll see what I mean.”
Luke wasn’t playing, though. “I’m not broken,” he said, but the haunted look on his face told Reid the wrong word at the wrong moment could easily convince Luke otherwise.
“I know,” Reid said gently. He walked closer to Luke, but stopped just out of arms reach and leaned against the counter. “I just want to be up to speed on what it means to live with a kidney transplant,” he said, shrugging at the reasonableness of it.
“Why?” Luke asked.
“So I’ll know,” Reid said, and for once the simple explanation was all Luke needed. He thoughtfully nodded and set the book down, but for a few more weeks Reid kept catching sight of him looking anxious and troubled.
But he wasn’t broken, and Reid had to respect that and let Luke come around on his own time.
One Sunday, they staggered inside after dinner at Emma Snyder’s farm, loaded down with Tupperware containers of green beans, mashed potatoes, ham, sliced tomatoes, a casserole whose only ingredients Reid recognized were cheese and mayonnaise, (and really, did it matter what else?) and half a chocolate cake Reid had already called dibs on for breakfast.
With Luke standing at his shoulder, Reid paused in front of the open refrigerator door, envisioning meals for at least the next two days. He was already planning a sandwich that promised to be revolutionary in its make up. He wondered if maybe he should start a blog where he could post pictures and recipes of his most fame-worthy sandwiches. He slowly shook his head back and forth, marveling at his good fortune. “I love you,” he said softly, reverently.
Luke said nothing, and the silence grew between them until Reid slammed the refrigerator door and faced Luke, arms crossed over his chest. “Really?” Reid said. “I say I love you, and, just, no reaction at all from you?”
Luke lifted a brow in righteous indignation. “I thought you were talking to the ham!”
“Well, it is true that I love the ham,” Reid said. “However, in this particular instance, I was talking to you.”
“Oh,” Luke said, not sounding surprised so much as corrected. “Do you think there’s a chance you’re confusing your love of my grandma’s cooking with love for me?” he asked.
“Can I have one without the other?” Reid asked.
“No.” Luke’s tone brooked no room for negotiation.
“Then what does it matter?” Reid said.
“True enough,” Luke said, and then there it was. A giddy, shy, pleased smiled lighting up his face. He ducked his head, shoulders hunched and Reid half-expected Luke to hug himself and twirl around the room in delight. He grinned knowingly at Luke who laughed and shrugged. He pulled Reid into a hug and buried his heated face against his neck. “I love you too,” Luke said softly.
“No,” Reid said. “I want you to look me in the eye and say it.”
“You were looking at the ham when you said it!” Luke pointed out.
“But I said it first, so I get to make a rule.”
“In what universe?”
“In this one. Say it to my face.”
“Fine!” Luke smirked at him like it was hardly a challenge. “I love you,” he said, with a look of mocking adoration on his face.
Reid grinned and nodded approvingly. “Now say it to my cock.”
Luke burst out laughing, head back and eyes closed. Reid laughed along with him until Luke rested his forehead on Reid’s shoulder, slowly shaking his head. He took a deep, fortifying breath and relaxed against Reid, and Reid had a feeling those anxious, uncertain looks on Luke’s face were a thing of the past. “I’m guessing this is as good as it’s ever going to get in the romance department,” Luke said sounding resigned, but Reid could hear the curve of his smile in his tone.
Reid slapped him on the ass and grabbed the remote on his way to the couch. “I have just obliterated every standard I’ve ever held myself to when it comes to the big R,” he said proudly.
“I can only imagine what that was,” Luke said dryly. “Stepping over your boyfriend after he’d fallen down instead of walking on top of him?”
“I wouldn’t date someone who falls down,” Reid scoffed. “And if I did, you can bet I’m not walking all the way around him out of some misguided sense of…”
“Decency?” Luke suggested.
“Just don’t fall down, and we’ll be fine,” Reid said.
Luke nodded. “So, you love me and/or the copious amounts of food you get to eat being with me, and I… don’t fall down.” That was a fair assessment. Reid nodded and patted the spot on the couch next to him. Luke obliged and sat down. “Wow, we really hit this relationship thing out of the park!”
Reid nodded and stretched his arms over his head with a loud, exaggerated sigh of satisfaction, ending up with an arm around Luke’s shoulders. “Yep,” he said happily, “I’m thinking we crazy kids might just make it after all.”
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