Fic
Title: Last Christmas
Written By: hugocabret
Category: General
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: Loosely inspired by the song Last Christmas.
Luke stood quietly in front of the island in the kitchen of the farm. He was trying his best to keep it together but it was deeming almost impossible. Almost nothing could take his mind off Noah and how they weren’t together anymore. He watched as his father hung the mistletoe above the backdoor leading outside to the pouch. He was reminded how many times that he stole a kiss from Noah as he would leave or enter the room.
Luke tried to engage himself in the activities of getting the house ready for the big Snyder Family Christmas Celebration but he couldn’t find the merry spirit inside him. It was like a part of him had died. He was trying his best to move on, the break up had been a couple months ago, but he couldn’t get over how the break-up had happened.
All he had wanted to do was help his blind boyfriend in his time of need, but that wasn’t enough.
Luke felt like he had lost everything in such a short amount of time. And although his wounds were slowly beginning to heal, the reminder of last Christmas and other past Christmas's with Noah was haunting him.
“Noah, I’m really excited that you decided to come and hang out I don’t know, I feel like I can talk to you. About Jade and Brian. And there’s not a lot of people I can talk to about that.”
“Well, I miss talking to you…I miss you.” Noah responded. His voice had an air of sincerity about it. Luke noticed, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up. He found out more often or not that Noah, who didn’t always have the best way with words, knew how to make him believe what he was saying.
“I’ve made such a mess out of so much lately. Do you remember last Christmas, how close we were?”
“Yeah.”
“I just, I wanna get back to that.” Luke said, he was trying a new tactic called honesty, even if that meant wearing his heart on his sleeve.
“I know you do and if it makes things and better, that is what I want too.”
“It is?” Luke smiled.
“Yeah come on, I’ve been wrapping presents all morning so I could have an excuse to come over.” Noah said, returning Luke’s smile.
“You don’t need an excuse. Look I wasn’t going to say anything but um, Christmas is in a couple of days…and I don’t know if you’re doing anything, but if you want to stop by the farm…”
“Christmas at the farm with your family?”
“Yeah, I, only if you want too. I don’t want to pressure you.”
“I think I can handle that. But I feel kind of bad showing up there empty handed, I mean all my presents are at your place.”
“Oh they don’t care about that.”
“Well actually, I did forget one…”
“…Just bring it with you…”
“Well, I…I think I’d rather give it to you now.”
Noah handed Luke a small, neatly wrapped box. Luke couldn’t help but notice how romantic Noah was being. It wasn’t often, especially not in public that Noah would act this way. He held the box gingerly in his hand. As he slowly took the top off he couldn’t help but smile.
“I know a watch isn’t the most inventive of gifts, but I just figured it was something we both needed a little of lately…time. It’s engraved. Turn it over.”
“ ‘worth the wait.’ How many times do you think we’ve said that to each other?” Luke said shaking his head. It was true, time never seemed to be on their side. Although, things did seem to be changing, for the better. Maybe for once, time would allow them to right together.
“Here let me help.” Noah said taking the watch into his hand and locking it securely on Luke’s wrist. “Hey look...mistletoe. Remember last Christmas, in Emma’s kitchen?” Noah let go of Luke’s wrist and smiled.
“Yeah, we were standing under the mistletoe. And it was the first time I told you I loved you.” Luke was smiling ear to ear. He couldn’t imagine being this happy with anybody except Noah.
“And I said ‘same here’.” Noah laughed
“It was very, very romantic…and now look where we are. A year later and it’s still true Noah. I’m still so in love with you.”
“Same here.”
Luke leaned into Noah and they shared their first kiss in what seemed like forever. Time felt as if it had stopped to allow them this moment on the bench in Olde Town.
Noah pulled away from the kiss, his eyes quickly diverted as he spotted an old friend.
“Oh my god. Maddie?”
Luke sat upright on the bench, unable to believe that during their most perfect moment, Noah’s ex-girlfriend just happened to find him. He was beginning to feel whatever little luck he had left, was slowly running out.
Luke had almost forgotten about Maddie showing up two years ago. Everything about that day, sitting on the bench, refiguring out, redeclaring what they meant to each other. That was what had been important. He had forgotten about the fight that came after seeing Maddie in Olde Town, but the fight had just led to another strong declaration of love on both of their ends. He had almost forgotten how in love he had been.
Now he just felt destroyed, emotionless.
“Luke.”
Luke, who had been sitting at the kitchen table, staring into space, popped his head up at hearing his father say his name.
“You o.k.?”
“Yeah.” Luke lied. He wasn’t going to bring down the rest of the family because he was feeling melancholy. It was Christmas Eve after all, he should be happy. He remembered the conversation that his father had with him last year at Christmas time, when everything started to crumble.
“You know, Christmas can be the happiest time of the year, but if your alone.” Holden lectured as he followed Luke to get the firewood.
“Yeah, it can suck.”
“But your not alone. And Noah will be back. You guys love each other very much.”
“Well I do, but…” Luke grabbed the firewood and started to walk back towards the house.
“Noah, he lost his sight. His way of relating to the world has completely changed. But he’s going to figure it all out. I know it’s hard to do, but you need to take that leap of faith.”
“Thanks dad.” Luke said, although he wished his father would take his own advice with his mother.
“You’re my son and I love you very much. And I want you to be happy.”
Holden saw his the look in his son’s eye and he recognized it from last year, right after Noah had lost his sight. But he knew that he couldn’t give Luke the same advice again. He could tell that his son’s relationship with Noah was done, even though Noah had his sight back. He wanted to give his son some sort of advice but instead just offered him a reassuring smile.
“Good. Well do you want to help your grandmother once she comes back from the market? She should be back soon.”
“Sure.” Luke agreed, he wanted to do something to get his mind off the past.
“She’ll be home any minute.” Holden said, offering his son an easy smile.
It was as if Holden had a sixth sense for Emma’s arrival, because she showed up no more than five minutes later. Luke was quickly put to work as her right hand man and the time flew by as they made as much food for all the impending guests.
At around 5:00pm the first guests, Carly, Jack, and the kids, were the first to arrive. And soon, shortly after, the house was full of Snyders, non-Synders, and honorary Snyders. There was laughter and talking and kids running around. The smell of their cooking from earlier permeated the house along with the smell of evergreen and cinnamon.
Luke was actually enjoying himself as he played with the younger kids. If he hung around the adults too long the would question him about Noah and he didn’t want to talk about Noah.
Not tonight. Not on Christmas Eve.
Luke was in the middle of a rousing game of checkers with Natalie when he felt a small tap on his shoulder. He knew he was being anti-social from everybody but he didn’t care. He reluctantly turned around and he was happy to see that it was somebody he didn’t mind talking to.
“Katie.” Luke said, he couldn’t help but smile. Katie had been on his side the whole time and never wavered in her allegiance to him. It felt nice to have somebody understand him and stick up for him. Somebody who didn’t think he was making a mistake.
“Hi Luke, Merry Christmas.” Katie said offering a smile.
“Merry Christmas.”
“Finish your game with Natalie, but then I want to talk to you.” Katie said, she gave Luke a reassuring rub on his back before walking back over to where Chris was, holding Jacob and talking to his doting grandmother.
Luke quickly and unobviously as he could let Natalie beat him. He gave his sister praise and a hug before getting up to go talk to Katie who was now holding a conversation with Margo.
Katie saw Luke coming and excused herself from her sister.
“Luke, Merry Christmas, again.” Katie said as he opened her arms and gave him a hug.
“Is he coming?” Luke asked as he pulled away.
“I don’t know.” Katie watched as Luke’s eyes dropped to the floor.
“So, how are Jacob and Chris? It’s been so long since I’ve stopped by.” Luke said, changing the subject after Katie’s lackluster answer.
“Both are doing well.” Katie looked over at her boyfriend holding her child. She knew she was luckier than most.
Luke was just about to speak when Emma interrupted the whole house.
“Dinner!” Emma shouted excitedly and everybody scurried to their respective seats.
The dinner went as smooth as possible, with minor spillage and only tears from one child. Luke couldn’t help but appreciate how lucky he was to have such an amazing family. And although the food was excellent, everybody was anxious to mingle with each other as they just loved enjoying each other’s company and the dinner table welded too much noise for an intimate conversation.
Once the table was clear the guest soon moved into the family room where everybody broke off into smaller groups to talk and celebrate the holidays. Luke was barely paying attention to a story that his Aunt Meg was telling when he saw the front door open out of the corner of his eye.
He almost fell to the ground but instead his mind was flooded with the memory of last Christmas, when his grandmother had somehow gotten Noah to show up.
“Noah, you look so…I can’t believe you are here.” Luke said, he was in his Santa suit and he was sure if Noah could see how ridiculous he looked he would have smiled and laughed and called him a sap. Luke reached his arms out to hold Noah in an embrace but Noah felt his presence and back away.
Luke couldn’t believe that Noah wouldn’t even want a hug from him.
Luke watched as Noah smiled at him before walking towards his direction. How so much had changed in a year as Luke wanted nothing more than to back away from oncoming Noah.
Noah had had his sight back for a couple a months now, but Luke wondered if Noah would even recognize him. He had changed so much in the past couple of months.
“Luke.” Noah said with a small smile. “Merry Christmas.”
Luke was flooded with almost every emotion he had every felt and somehow mustered up the courage to say it back.
“Merry Christmas.” Luke said forcing a smile as it was Christmas Eve, although by the time his smile left his face, he hadn’t felt as forced as when it began.
Noah began to open his arms to give Luke a hug, but Luke stood frozen unable to respond. He wasn’t quite sure what Noah was trying to do or why he was even here. He knew that his mother had probably invited him but for what reason. He allowed Noah to hug him but he wasn’t happy about it, he knew he couldn’t get too comfortable. He couldn’t fall for him again.
As Noah pulled away he began to lean in for a kiss. With is mind caught off guard Luke only had a split second to react and was able to defect the kiss as much as possible. The longer he stood next to Noah, the more confused he became. He wasn’t going to let Noah fool him again. Not after last Christmas.
“Noah, what’s going on?”
“What do you mean?” Noah asked as he tried his best to eat the food that Emma had brought out for him.
“What does it mean that you’re here right now?”
“I don’t know. I can’t see the hand in front of my own face, let alone my future. I’m just here.”
“Yeah, we’ve been through tough times before, we can get through this.”
“Yeah, but all those times we knew they were going to end. I may never see again.”
“Yeah but that doesn’t change how I feel about you Noah. It doesn’t change my love for you. And the fact that I’m going to love you forever. Always. I still want the life that we had planned.”
“But everything has changed”
“Well, not everything. Whatever your future holds, I want to share that with you. If you let me.”
“I can’t tell you what it is you want to hear right now. I’m not ready, there is too much I have to figure out.”
“But Noah, we can figure it out together.”
“You can’t do this for me Luke. I love your family, but I hate being dependent on them.”
“Noah! Then why did you come back? Why? And don’t blame my grandmother because you could have said no.”
“I was sitting at my room in the clinic and all I could think about was Christmas…here. I know it’s not my home but I was homesick. When Lucinda called…”
“…you missed Christmas.”
“And you. I miss Christmas with you. And don’t read too much into this because I’m not saying…”
“…I-I understand.”
“But it’s Christmas and I just want to spend it with you. Please?”
“O.K.” Luke says as reluctantly agrees. He was willing to give Noah this if it meant that it would allow Noah time to be ok with a relationship with him and be blind. He walked slowly over to Noah as if not to startle him and he gave Noah a hug.
Luke retreated into the kitchen as he relived the memory of last year. He couldn’t understand how he was so blinded by his love for Noah that he would beg for his boyfriend to love him back. He found himself on the verge of having a panic attack and he hoped to god that Noah hadn’t followed him in here.
Luke grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with cold water and took a deep gulp while trying to calm down. Why his mother thought it was fine to let Noah come over was beyond him. He hated that she was living vicariously through his love life instead of trying to fix her own.
Luke finished his water and as much as he wanted to he decided that instead of hiding in the kitchen he should go back out and join the party. It wasn’t often that his family was all together in one place and he wasn’t going to let Noah coming over ruin his good time.
The night quickly flew by and it was nearing almost 11:00pm. Nobody wanted to go home because a special surprise from Santa, also known as Holden dressed up like Santa Claus, who came at midnight. However, the children were tired and a couple of them were asleep on the couch while the others were fighting their tired eyes. Although it wasn’t just the children, plenty of the adults fought against yawns as Christmas Eve was soon becoming Christmas.
Luke had been able to avoid Noah as much as possible, and besides from their initial encounter, they had only bumped into each other while filling up mugs coffee from the kitchen.
For the most part, Luke was enjoying his night. After the shock of Noah showing up wore off, he was finding himself getting more involved in the conversations with his family and friends.
Luke was in the middle of a conversation with Molly when the room suddenly went quiet. Luke looked at his watched and realized that it was too early for his father to Santa. His back was too the door but he heard the door shut and none of the guest were speaking. Luke turned around to see who had caused such a silent commotion.
“Oh my god.” Luke said under his breath. He turned back around and handed his mug to Molly who gladly accepted it and gave Luke a smile.
Luke tore his way through the crowd of people, who had turned now turned back to their small groups and began talking again.
Luke knew that the smile on his face was probably embarrassingly large but he couldn’t help it. He also couldn’t help the butterflies that were fluttering around in his stomach.
“You made it.” Luke smiled.
“Yeah.” Reid said returning Luke’s smile with a small half smirk of his own. The smirk that Luke loved and made him feel like he was melting into the floor whenever he saw it.
“Merry Christmas, Reid.” Luke wrapped his arms around the doctor and gave him a hug. He knew that Reid was caught off guard but he felt him loosen up as Reid wrapped his arms around him.
“Merry Christmas, Luke.” Reid barely whispered into the blonde’s ear.
Luke pulled back and he couldn’t help but blush at the doctor standing in front of him, still in his coat with small flakes of snow still in his hair.
“Come to the kitchen, there is still some food leftover.”
Luke led Reid to the kitchen and it felt like they were the only two people in the house, that everybody had gone home and it was just them. Alone. On Christmas.
Reid looked around at all the guest as Luke led him to the kitchen. There were many people he didn’t recognize, although he did catch Katie’s eye and she gave him a smile. He also saw his ex-patient, Noah Mayer, standing in the corner talking to Luke’s mother.
However, the look on Noah’s face only confirmed that his surgery was a success and that Noah could see him being dragged into the kitchen by his gorgeous ex-boyfriend.
Finally, safely inside the confines of the kitchen, Luke turned around, his eyes were still just as wide as they were when he had walked in.
“I cannot believe that you are here.” Luke said.
“I told you I was coming.”
“No, you said, is there going to be free food and do I need to bring a gift.”
Reid just laughed at Luke retelling their conversation from a couple of days ago.
“Either way, I’m happy you came.” Luke said, he was trying his best to keep it together. Although Reid had been courting him for the past couple of months, everything was still so new and fresh and he had never felt this way about anybody before, not even when things were at their best with Noah.
Reid was special.
And he was falling in love with him.
“So do you want food?” Luke asked, he gave Reid a toothy grin as he turned his back to walk toward the fridge. It was at that moment when he heard the clock chime midnight and his father come through the front door dressed like Santa. Although, they weren’t in the room, they could hear the laughter and happiness from the kids.
“I have a better idea.” Reid said after he had taken inventory of his surroundings in the kitchen. He grabbed Luke’s hand and pulled him over towards the back door.
Reid barely looked up, which allowed Luke to do the same.
“Merry Christmas Mr. Snyder.” Reid said with a devilish grin.
“Merry Christmas, Dr. Oliver.”
Reid brought his hand out and pulled Luke closer to him, he held his hand behind Luke’s head as he guided their lips together.
When their lips finally touch, Luke could feel the electricity powering through them. He barely placed his hands on Reid’s hips, idly leaving them there and Reid wrapped his arms over his shoulders pulled them even closer together.
Luke didn’t know how long they stood under the mistletoe, kissing each other and he didn’t care when people came into the kitchen to get something. He didn’t know how he had gotten to be this lucky.
What he knew for sure was that he was giving his heart away tonight.
He was going to take that leap of faith.
Written By: hugocabret
Category: General
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: Loosely inspired by the song Last Christmas.
Luke stood quietly in front of the island in the kitchen of the farm. He was trying his best to keep it together but it was deeming almost impossible. Almost nothing could take his mind off Noah and how they weren’t together anymore. He watched as his father hung the mistletoe above the backdoor leading outside to the pouch. He was reminded how many times that he stole a kiss from Noah as he would leave or enter the room.
Luke tried to engage himself in the activities of getting the house ready for the big Snyder Family Christmas Celebration but he couldn’t find the merry spirit inside him. It was like a part of him had died. He was trying his best to move on, the break up had been a couple months ago, but he couldn’t get over how the break-up had happened.
All he had wanted to do was help his blind boyfriend in his time of need, but that wasn’t enough.
Luke felt like he had lost everything in such a short amount of time. And although his wounds were slowly beginning to heal, the reminder of last Christmas and other past Christmas's with Noah was haunting him.
“Noah, I’m really excited that you decided to come and hang out I don’t know, I feel like I can talk to you. About Jade and Brian. And there’s not a lot of people I can talk to about that.”
“Well, I miss talking to you…I miss you.” Noah responded. His voice had an air of sincerity about it. Luke noticed, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up. He found out more often or not that Noah, who didn’t always have the best way with words, knew how to make him believe what he was saying.
“I’ve made such a mess out of so much lately. Do you remember last Christmas, how close we were?”
“Yeah.”
“I just, I wanna get back to that.” Luke said, he was trying a new tactic called honesty, even if that meant wearing his heart on his sleeve.
“I know you do and if it makes things and better, that is what I want too.”
“It is?” Luke smiled.
“Yeah come on, I’ve been wrapping presents all morning so I could have an excuse to come over.” Noah said, returning Luke’s smile.
“You don’t need an excuse. Look I wasn’t going to say anything but um, Christmas is in a couple of days…and I don’t know if you’re doing anything, but if you want to stop by the farm…”
“Christmas at the farm with your family?”
“Yeah, I, only if you want too. I don’t want to pressure you.”
“I think I can handle that. But I feel kind of bad showing up there empty handed, I mean all my presents are at your place.”
“Oh they don’t care about that.”
“Well actually, I did forget one…”
“…Just bring it with you…”
“Well, I…I think I’d rather give it to you now.”
Noah handed Luke a small, neatly wrapped box. Luke couldn’t help but notice how romantic Noah was being. It wasn’t often, especially not in public that Noah would act this way. He held the box gingerly in his hand. As he slowly took the top off he couldn’t help but smile.
“I know a watch isn’t the most inventive of gifts, but I just figured it was something we both needed a little of lately…time. It’s engraved. Turn it over.”
“ ‘worth the wait.’ How many times do you think we’ve said that to each other?” Luke said shaking his head. It was true, time never seemed to be on their side. Although, things did seem to be changing, for the better. Maybe for once, time would allow them to right together.
“Here let me help.” Noah said taking the watch into his hand and locking it securely on Luke’s wrist. “Hey look...mistletoe. Remember last Christmas, in Emma’s kitchen?” Noah let go of Luke’s wrist and smiled.
“Yeah, we were standing under the mistletoe. And it was the first time I told you I loved you.” Luke was smiling ear to ear. He couldn’t imagine being this happy with anybody except Noah.
“And I said ‘same here’.” Noah laughed
“It was very, very romantic…and now look where we are. A year later and it’s still true Noah. I’m still so in love with you.”
“Same here.”
Luke leaned into Noah and they shared their first kiss in what seemed like forever. Time felt as if it had stopped to allow them this moment on the bench in Olde Town.
Noah pulled away from the kiss, his eyes quickly diverted as he spotted an old friend.
“Oh my god. Maddie?”
Luke sat upright on the bench, unable to believe that during their most perfect moment, Noah’s ex-girlfriend just happened to find him. He was beginning to feel whatever little luck he had left, was slowly running out.
Luke had almost forgotten about Maddie showing up two years ago. Everything about that day, sitting on the bench, refiguring out, redeclaring what they meant to each other. That was what had been important. He had forgotten about the fight that came after seeing Maddie in Olde Town, but the fight had just led to another strong declaration of love on both of their ends. He had almost forgotten how in love he had been.
Now he just felt destroyed, emotionless.
“Luke.”
Luke, who had been sitting at the kitchen table, staring into space, popped his head up at hearing his father say his name.
“You o.k.?”
“Yeah.” Luke lied. He wasn’t going to bring down the rest of the family because he was feeling melancholy. It was Christmas Eve after all, he should be happy. He remembered the conversation that his father had with him last year at Christmas time, when everything started to crumble.
“You know, Christmas can be the happiest time of the year, but if your alone.” Holden lectured as he followed Luke to get the firewood.
“Yeah, it can suck.”
“But your not alone. And Noah will be back. You guys love each other very much.”
“Well I do, but…” Luke grabbed the firewood and started to walk back towards the house.
“Noah, he lost his sight. His way of relating to the world has completely changed. But he’s going to figure it all out. I know it’s hard to do, but you need to take that leap of faith.”
“Thanks dad.” Luke said, although he wished his father would take his own advice with his mother.
“You’re my son and I love you very much. And I want you to be happy.”
Holden saw his the look in his son’s eye and he recognized it from last year, right after Noah had lost his sight. But he knew that he couldn’t give Luke the same advice again. He could tell that his son’s relationship with Noah was done, even though Noah had his sight back. He wanted to give his son some sort of advice but instead just offered him a reassuring smile.
“Good. Well do you want to help your grandmother once she comes back from the market? She should be back soon.”
“Sure.” Luke agreed, he wanted to do something to get his mind off the past.
“She’ll be home any minute.” Holden said, offering his son an easy smile.
It was as if Holden had a sixth sense for Emma’s arrival, because she showed up no more than five minutes later. Luke was quickly put to work as her right hand man and the time flew by as they made as much food for all the impending guests.
At around 5:00pm the first guests, Carly, Jack, and the kids, were the first to arrive. And soon, shortly after, the house was full of Snyders, non-Synders, and honorary Snyders. There was laughter and talking and kids running around. The smell of their cooking from earlier permeated the house along with the smell of evergreen and cinnamon.
Luke was actually enjoying himself as he played with the younger kids. If he hung around the adults too long the would question him about Noah and he didn’t want to talk about Noah.
Not tonight. Not on Christmas Eve.
Luke was in the middle of a rousing game of checkers with Natalie when he felt a small tap on his shoulder. He knew he was being anti-social from everybody but he didn’t care. He reluctantly turned around and he was happy to see that it was somebody he didn’t mind talking to.
“Katie.” Luke said, he couldn’t help but smile. Katie had been on his side the whole time and never wavered in her allegiance to him. It felt nice to have somebody understand him and stick up for him. Somebody who didn’t think he was making a mistake.
“Hi Luke, Merry Christmas.” Katie said offering a smile.
“Merry Christmas.”
“Finish your game with Natalie, but then I want to talk to you.” Katie said, she gave Luke a reassuring rub on his back before walking back over to where Chris was, holding Jacob and talking to his doting grandmother.
Luke quickly and unobviously as he could let Natalie beat him. He gave his sister praise and a hug before getting up to go talk to Katie who was now holding a conversation with Margo.
Katie saw Luke coming and excused herself from her sister.
“Luke, Merry Christmas, again.” Katie said as he opened her arms and gave him a hug.
“Is he coming?” Luke asked as he pulled away.
“I don’t know.” Katie watched as Luke’s eyes dropped to the floor.
“So, how are Jacob and Chris? It’s been so long since I’ve stopped by.” Luke said, changing the subject after Katie’s lackluster answer.
“Both are doing well.” Katie looked over at her boyfriend holding her child. She knew she was luckier than most.
Luke was just about to speak when Emma interrupted the whole house.
“Dinner!” Emma shouted excitedly and everybody scurried to their respective seats.
The dinner went as smooth as possible, with minor spillage and only tears from one child. Luke couldn’t help but appreciate how lucky he was to have such an amazing family. And although the food was excellent, everybody was anxious to mingle with each other as they just loved enjoying each other’s company and the dinner table welded too much noise for an intimate conversation.
Once the table was clear the guest soon moved into the family room where everybody broke off into smaller groups to talk and celebrate the holidays. Luke was barely paying attention to a story that his Aunt Meg was telling when he saw the front door open out of the corner of his eye.
He almost fell to the ground but instead his mind was flooded with the memory of last Christmas, when his grandmother had somehow gotten Noah to show up.
“Noah, you look so…I can’t believe you are here.” Luke said, he was in his Santa suit and he was sure if Noah could see how ridiculous he looked he would have smiled and laughed and called him a sap. Luke reached his arms out to hold Noah in an embrace but Noah felt his presence and back away.
Luke couldn’t believe that Noah wouldn’t even want a hug from him.
Luke watched as Noah smiled at him before walking towards his direction. How so much had changed in a year as Luke wanted nothing more than to back away from oncoming Noah.
Noah had had his sight back for a couple a months now, but Luke wondered if Noah would even recognize him. He had changed so much in the past couple of months.
“Luke.” Noah said with a small smile. “Merry Christmas.”
Luke was flooded with almost every emotion he had every felt and somehow mustered up the courage to say it back.
“Merry Christmas.” Luke said forcing a smile as it was Christmas Eve, although by the time his smile left his face, he hadn’t felt as forced as when it began.
Noah began to open his arms to give Luke a hug, but Luke stood frozen unable to respond. He wasn’t quite sure what Noah was trying to do or why he was even here. He knew that his mother had probably invited him but for what reason. He allowed Noah to hug him but he wasn’t happy about it, he knew he couldn’t get too comfortable. He couldn’t fall for him again.
As Noah pulled away he began to lean in for a kiss. With is mind caught off guard Luke only had a split second to react and was able to defect the kiss as much as possible. The longer he stood next to Noah, the more confused he became. He wasn’t going to let Noah fool him again. Not after last Christmas.
“Noah, what’s going on?”
“What do you mean?” Noah asked as he tried his best to eat the food that Emma had brought out for him.
“What does it mean that you’re here right now?”
“I don’t know. I can’t see the hand in front of my own face, let alone my future. I’m just here.”
“Yeah, we’ve been through tough times before, we can get through this.”
“Yeah, but all those times we knew they were going to end. I may never see again.”
“Yeah but that doesn’t change how I feel about you Noah. It doesn’t change my love for you. And the fact that I’m going to love you forever. Always. I still want the life that we had planned.”
“But everything has changed”
“Well, not everything. Whatever your future holds, I want to share that with you. If you let me.”
“I can’t tell you what it is you want to hear right now. I’m not ready, there is too much I have to figure out.”
“But Noah, we can figure it out together.”
“You can’t do this for me Luke. I love your family, but I hate being dependent on them.”
“Noah! Then why did you come back? Why? And don’t blame my grandmother because you could have said no.”
“I was sitting at my room in the clinic and all I could think about was Christmas…here. I know it’s not my home but I was homesick. When Lucinda called…”
“…you missed Christmas.”
“And you. I miss Christmas with you. And don’t read too much into this because I’m not saying…”
“…I-I understand.”
“But it’s Christmas and I just want to spend it with you. Please?”
“O.K.” Luke says as reluctantly agrees. He was willing to give Noah this if it meant that it would allow Noah time to be ok with a relationship with him and be blind. He walked slowly over to Noah as if not to startle him and he gave Noah a hug.
Luke retreated into the kitchen as he relived the memory of last year. He couldn’t understand how he was so blinded by his love for Noah that he would beg for his boyfriend to love him back. He found himself on the verge of having a panic attack and he hoped to god that Noah hadn’t followed him in here.
Luke grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with cold water and took a deep gulp while trying to calm down. Why his mother thought it was fine to let Noah come over was beyond him. He hated that she was living vicariously through his love life instead of trying to fix her own.
Luke finished his water and as much as he wanted to he decided that instead of hiding in the kitchen he should go back out and join the party. It wasn’t often that his family was all together in one place and he wasn’t going to let Noah coming over ruin his good time.
The night quickly flew by and it was nearing almost 11:00pm. Nobody wanted to go home because a special surprise from Santa, also known as Holden dressed up like Santa Claus, who came at midnight. However, the children were tired and a couple of them were asleep on the couch while the others were fighting their tired eyes. Although it wasn’t just the children, plenty of the adults fought against yawns as Christmas Eve was soon becoming Christmas.
Luke had been able to avoid Noah as much as possible, and besides from their initial encounter, they had only bumped into each other while filling up mugs coffee from the kitchen.
For the most part, Luke was enjoying his night. After the shock of Noah showing up wore off, he was finding himself getting more involved in the conversations with his family and friends.
Luke was in the middle of a conversation with Molly when the room suddenly went quiet. Luke looked at his watched and realized that it was too early for his father to Santa. His back was too the door but he heard the door shut and none of the guest were speaking. Luke turned around to see who had caused such a silent commotion.
“Oh my god.” Luke said under his breath. He turned back around and handed his mug to Molly who gladly accepted it and gave Luke a smile.
Luke tore his way through the crowd of people, who had turned now turned back to their small groups and began talking again.
Luke knew that the smile on his face was probably embarrassingly large but he couldn’t help it. He also couldn’t help the butterflies that were fluttering around in his stomach.
“You made it.” Luke smiled.
“Yeah.” Reid said returning Luke’s smile with a small half smirk of his own. The smirk that Luke loved and made him feel like he was melting into the floor whenever he saw it.
“Merry Christmas, Reid.” Luke wrapped his arms around the doctor and gave him a hug. He knew that Reid was caught off guard but he felt him loosen up as Reid wrapped his arms around him.
“Merry Christmas, Luke.” Reid barely whispered into the blonde’s ear.
Luke pulled back and he couldn’t help but blush at the doctor standing in front of him, still in his coat with small flakes of snow still in his hair.
“Come to the kitchen, there is still some food leftover.”
Luke led Reid to the kitchen and it felt like they were the only two people in the house, that everybody had gone home and it was just them. Alone. On Christmas.
Reid looked around at all the guest as Luke led him to the kitchen. There were many people he didn’t recognize, although he did catch Katie’s eye and she gave him a smile. He also saw his ex-patient, Noah Mayer, standing in the corner talking to Luke’s mother.
However, the look on Noah’s face only confirmed that his surgery was a success and that Noah could see him being dragged into the kitchen by his gorgeous ex-boyfriend.
Finally, safely inside the confines of the kitchen, Luke turned around, his eyes were still just as wide as they were when he had walked in.
“I cannot believe that you are here.” Luke said.
“I told you I was coming.”
“No, you said, is there going to be free food and do I need to bring a gift.”
Reid just laughed at Luke retelling their conversation from a couple of days ago.
“Either way, I’m happy you came.” Luke said, he was trying his best to keep it together. Although Reid had been courting him for the past couple of months, everything was still so new and fresh and he had never felt this way about anybody before, not even when things were at their best with Noah.
Reid was special.
And he was falling in love with him.
“So do you want food?” Luke asked, he gave Reid a toothy grin as he turned his back to walk toward the fridge. It was at that moment when he heard the clock chime midnight and his father come through the front door dressed like Santa. Although, they weren’t in the room, they could hear the laughter and happiness from the kids.
“I have a better idea.” Reid said after he had taken inventory of his surroundings in the kitchen. He grabbed Luke’s hand and pulled him over towards the back door.
Reid barely looked up, which allowed Luke to do the same.
“Merry Christmas Mr. Snyder.” Reid said with a devilish grin.
“Merry Christmas, Dr. Oliver.”
Reid brought his hand out and pulled Luke closer to him, he held his hand behind Luke’s head as he guided their lips together.
When their lips finally touch, Luke could feel the electricity powering through them. He barely placed his hands on Reid’s hips, idly leaving them there and Reid wrapped his arms over his shoulders pulled them even closer together.
Luke didn’t know how long they stood under the mistletoe, kissing each other and he didn’t care when people came into the kitchen to get something. He didn’t know how he had gotten to be this lucky.
What he knew for sure was that he was giving his heart away tonight.
He was going to take that leap of faith.