D (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
million_star) wrote2014-12-31 09:20 pm
million_star) wrote2014-12-31 09:20 pm
Entry tags:
Renewal
Title: Renewal
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
millionstar
Pairing: Matthew/Dominic AU
Summary: Christopher operates a homeless shelter in town and is very curious about his newest two occupants on New Year's Eve.
Here there be: Slight angst, mentions of homophobia, bits of fluff.
Beta/Support:dolce_piccante - thank you so much, boo. <3
Author's Note: If you decide to read, thank you, so much. I appreciate it.
Christopher is a keen observer.
Even now, arms crossed as he stands in the doorway to the large dining room of the homeless shelter he owns and operates, he's scanning the occupants and filing away information about them.
For example, there was Sully, the Vietnam war veteran who was wheelchair-bound. Then there was Alan and Wanda, who had lost everything they had in the stock market. Jack and his brother Jason found themselves penniless after they lost their parents in an accident and were struggling to find work and get on their feet. The Hampton family were victims of the current state of the economy. The list went on and on - the current residency of the shelter was at 43 individuals.
Then there were the two young men sitting alone at a table in the corner. A small smile formed on Christopher's lips as he watched them. They've been a part of the shelter for about a month now. Their clothes are ratty, their hair a mess, and one is nursing a bad head cold. All it takes, though, is for them to make eye contact and it's as if everything and everyone around them disappears as though they were never there to begin with. They are clearly in love, like fairytale-endings-in-the-movies in love.
One is blond, one is brunet.
Christopher is certain they share one soul.
Matthew and Dominic absolutely fascinate Christopher.
A small part of him is thankful his wife isn't there to see him watching the couple. It's not that Christopher doesn't love his wife - far from it, she is everything to him - but she has warned him in the past about getting too close to the people they encounter at the shelter. She has a heart as big as her husband's own, truth be told.
Or, she did, until Carrie.
Seven years old, she'd shown up one cold night two years ago alone, crying, clutching a note which she'd handed to Christopher after he'd brought her inside and wiped away her tears. His wife had broken down in angry tears after reading the note from the child's mother, indicating that she no longer wanted her daughter and hoped perhaps she could be cared for properly at the shelter. They got her cleaned up that night and fed, even finding an old teddy bear to put her to bed with in the sleeping quarters. It baffled the young couple how anyone could just throw away such a sweet and beautiful child.
For Christopher and his wife Kelly, who were unable to have children of their own, this little throwaway angel stole their hearts in record time. Both of them knew they should have contacted the authorities upon Carrie's arrival, but neither could bear to do so for fear of losing her.
After two weeks, Carrie's mother, clearly strung out on drugs, showed up to claim her daughter. The little one had screamed and cried, not wanting to leave. In the end, Christopher was forced to call the police when the mother struck Carrie with her closed fist and Kelly exploded with rage
The child was taken away into protective custody, never to be seen again. The couple considered themselves lucky no charges were filed against them. Life went back to normal for them, slowly, but Kelly decided in that moment she would never allow herself to get close to a resident again. She attended to the day-to-day operations of the shelter from an office upstairs, in their living quarters. Still, now and then Christopher would catch her watching some of the residents with a smile on her face, then steal away as if nobody had seen her.
Christopher, however, remained curious about his residents, wanting to get to know at least a little bit about them during their stay. He was making the rounds when he finally walked up to Matthew and Dominic's table.
"Hey, guys, how's things today?"
Dominic sneezes three times in succession. Matthew laughs as he pushes a box of tissues in his direction. "It's going okay," Matthew replies, "well, thanks to you, it's going okay. Your kindness means the world to us both."
"No, don't thank me, you both are welcome here as long as you need to be, yeah? I mean it." He places a box of decongestant in front of Dominic and nods at it. "Take this, we can't have you getting any worse. Nobody should spend New Year's Eve sick!"
"Fank ewe," Dominic says quietly, blowing his nose. "But, I can't pay-"
Christopher raises his hands. "And, I don't expect or want you to."
Matthew smiles at Dominic, reaching out to squeeze his hand. Matthew always has a smile on his face. Never once had Christopher heard him bemoan his situation, or complain - not once. He seemed full of life and love. Christopher even caught him reading to some of the Hampton children one night, which elicited the first smiles from those children's faces Christopher had ever seen. Dominic was the quiet one of the two; Christopher noticed that he walked with a slight limp. He was friendly, but somewhat reserved, with a sadness in his eyes now and then that troubled Christopher.
So much for not getting close, Christopher muses internally.
"I fink," Dominic struggles to breathe through his stuffed nose, "I beed to go rest some if that's okay?" He stands, Matthew following suit. He presses a kiss to Dominic's lips, Dominic nuzzling their noses together.
"Of course," Christopher nods, "Evelyn is on duty in the sleeping quarters, she'll give you what you need. Bernie is in the kitchen if you are hungry at all."
He and Matthew watch Dominic trudge away, his limp especially evident.
"It's none of my business, but I was-"
"Wondering how we ended up with nothing but each other?"
"I don't mean to pry, I'm sorry."
"No, no, it's fine - especially after all you're doing for us. It's not a long or complicated story, actually. Two guys from a small, conservative town meet and, to their surprise, end up falling in love. Neither of them were prepared for the amount of hate they would get for it."
"But... even now, in this day and age? I'm amazed that there are elements of society who still behave that way."
"We tried to keep it concealed from everyone. But soon, we began to realize that we just shouldn't have to keep it concealed from everyone. To be so in love with someone that you can't see straight is nothing short of a blessing - it's something to be celebrated, not hidden away like a dirty secret."
"Not gonna lie, I can't even imagine what that would be like."
"Dom's dad is his only family; his mother died in childbirth. That last night, when he confronted us... it was horrible. The names he called Dom, the things he said, I can't even bring myself to repeat them. He made it abundantly clear that he had absolutely no use for a gay son, then he proceeded to beat Dom to a pulp - that limp of Dom's, you've seen it?"
"Yes."
"His own father did that to him. I was of no help, I mean, look at me, I'm no threat to anyone. Eventually, he carried Dom out of the house and literally threw him into the front yard. He told him that he no longer had a home and that if he ever came home, he could expect a repeat performance. That he was cut off, financially. That Dom was dead in his eyes."
"But, surely you went to the police, yes?"
Matthew looked Christopher in the eye. "Like I said, small town. Dom's father is chief of police. He is the law. I'll never forget his deputy that night at the station. He looked right at Dom, bleeding and a total mess, then looked at me and calmly said 'Boy looks fine to me. You queers best be moving along, yeah?'. No, at that point all we could do was leave."
"And what of your family?"
"I was raised by my grandmother who passed a couple years back." Matthew smiles at the mere mention of her. "Dom was all I had. He still is. So we decided to leave, try to come and make our way in the city, half way across the country. Just Dom, me, my piece of shit car, and the small amount of savings I'd had put back. We burned through it in a matter of two months. I sold the car a month later and that money got us through for a while but now it's gone. We've both been looking for work, well, I have. Dom is," Matthew glances around the room then lowers his voice, "not so well. He's still struggling with it all, you know? I just want to be able to look after him until he's better able to cope. Actually," he stood, "I think I'd like to go look in on him, rest a bit myself, if you don't mind?"
"Of course not, you go ahead. And I mean it when I say you two can stay here as long as you need to, please," Christopher implores. "Get your lives back in order here - that's why we're here, that's what this place exists for."
Matthew turns to him, one hand on the back of his chair. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Why do you do," Matthew gestures around the room with his hands, "this? I see this place and all of these people without hope and then I see you, here to help guide them into a hopefully better life. It must take a selfless man to devote his life to such a cause."
"I grew up on the streets. I always told myself that if I ever got to the point, financially, where I could afford to keep even one young person from having to do the same, I would. I wouldn't call myself selfless-"
"No, but I would," a soft voice interrupts. A dark haired woman puts one hand on Christopher's shoulder and kissed his cheek. She extended her other hand to Matthew. "I'm Kelly, this big lug's wife. And yes, Chris has a kind soul and a gentle spirit. He's something special."
Matthew smiles warmly. "Look at you two. I'd say you're both something special." He walks away, bowing to them both.
Christopher pulls Kelly into his lap. "And just how long were you eavesdropping?"
"Long enough to know that I'm glad those two are here. Lord knows they could use a break."
"What about not getting close?"
Kelly shakes her head. "Closing yourself off from life is no way to live. Time for me to remember that, I think. Know what else I think?"
"What's that?"
"Just that I love you."
Christopher yawns. "Oh, is that all?" He ducks, laughing as he is punched squarely in the bicep.
"No, it's not all...actually, we have a bit of a problem, and I have an idea. Can we talk?"
One year later
"Wake up, sleepydick."
Dominic groans, swatting one hand at Matthew, who is now perched atop him, giggling much too loudly for whatever time of morning it currently was. He gives up, realizing any more attempts at sleep are now officially futile, and pulls Matthew down to him. "Happy New Year," he breathes into a kiss.
"Happy New Year, love," Matthew replies. They part, Matthew falling back onto the bed next to Dominic. Dominic turns onto his side and looks at Matthew thoughtfully.
Matthew taps Dominic's temple lightly, early morning sunlight seeping in through the window. "What's going on in there?" He stretches alongside Dominic's body, Dominic turning to him with a sleepy half-smile. Matthew leans in for another kiss, Dominic responding with fervor, his arms warm and soft around Matthew's body.
"Just thinking about where we were last New Years Day and where we are this New Year's Day." He glances around their admittedly small, but cozy bedroom, which is their favorite part of their new (albeit barely furnished) home. "I wonder where we'd be right now if we'd never met Chris and Kelly. Still hungry? Still cold? Still on the streets? Every bit of this is down to their generosity."
"You want to...what?" Dominic gaped, his jaw practically dragging the floor.
Christopher and Kelly glanced at each other, suddenly nervous.
On this, the forty-third day into their stay at the shelter, Matthew was stunned into silence. He kept pacing around the room, looking from Dominic to Kelly to Christopher then to Dominic then to Kelly then to Christopher again, as though he had no idea how to process the information he'd just been presented with.
"I don't even know what to say," Dominic went on.
"Why us?" Matthew finally blurted out. "I mean, you've already done so much-"
"It's very simple. Evelyn and Bernard are leaving us," Christopher laughed. "They're off to Vegas to get married and make a life for themselves. Evelyn has been here with us from the beginning, even living in the flat up on the third floor of the building. There's plenty of privacy up there."
"It just made all kinds of sense to us," Kelly interrupted. "We need new employees. You need a home and a steady paycheck. Mostly, you need something to go your way for a change. You can live rent-free as long as you stay and help us run things here. Meanwhile, you can both start earning money so you can get back on your feet properly."
"Guys, you spend most of your days here helping out as it is," Christopher commented. "Whether it's helping new residents learn their way around, or reading to the little ones, or helping out in the kitchen, it's clear that you have empathy for them. Who better to help us continue to ensure things can operate smoothly in the wake of Evelyn and Bernie leaving?"
"You wouldn't be chained to the shelter, of course," Kelly commented, "you'd certainly be able to have a life outside of it."
Dominic turned to Matthew. He shook his head. "Oh my god, Matt?"
Matthew looked to Christopher, tears in his eyes. "Why?" he repeated.
"Because you deserve a shot at a better life. All you are guilty of is being in love, and that should never be a crime, Matt."
Matthew rubs his eyes. "I think about that a lot myself. Sometimes, it's almost as if it happened to someone else, like I'm looking back on someone else's memories. Or, maybe it's someone else's nightmare, except it was one with a happy ending. I don't know. I'm probably not making any sense."
"No, I get you. And, more than that... I want to thank you," Dominic whispers. He rolls them, Matthew's head on the pillow as Dominic stares down at him as though he were the most precious thing in all of existence. He bites his lip, flushing faintly beneath such reverent scrutiny. Dominic smiles again, his thumb caressing Matthew's cheekbone. "I love that I can still make you blush."
"Only you can," Matthew leans up for a quick kiss. "What's this about thanking me, though?"
"I couldn't have made it without you."
"Of course you could have, Dom-"
"No," he presses one finger to Matthew's mouth to silence him, "let me finish. You never let it get you down, Matt. Not once. How many times did you have to guide me through another fit of tears because I just didn't know how we were going to make it without food and money. You refused to let me give up no matter how much I was determined to. You constantly reminded me that together we could do anything; that ours was only a temporary situation. You smiled and stayed positive and lifted me up and... I don't know; you were pure sunshine when all I could see were clouds."
Matthew clears his throat and blinks the tears away from his eyes.
"You... you saved me, Matthew, and I will always, always love you for it."
Dominic bends down, kissing away the evidence of Matthew's tears, Matthew's arms tightening around him.
"Maybe we saved each other," he finally breathes, his throat still tight. Dominic quirked one eyebrow at his partner. "Dom, all I had to do was steal a glance at you and it was all the motivation I needed to keep moving forward. Without you, I wouldn't have had much of a reason to fight. And I will always, always," he kissed Dominic gently, "always love you right back."
"If you're trying to get into my pants, it's working."
Matthew lifts up the blankets, seeing nothing but their naked bodies beneath them. "You're not wearing pants," he grins.
"You know me. I rarely do."
Downstairs, in their own private flat above the shelter, Christopher and Kelly were curled up on their couch with the newest member of their family. It had been a stressful few months, but the adoption had finally been properly finalized, just in time for the new year.
Little Andrew stretches and yawns in Christopher's arms. Christopher has a feeling he will remember every stretch and yawn in this three month old's life.
After all, Christopher is a keen observer.
Author:
millionstarPairing: Matthew/Dominic AU
Summary: Christopher operates a homeless shelter in town and is very curious about his newest two occupants on New Year's Eve.
Here there be: Slight angst, mentions of homophobia, bits of fluff.
Beta/Support:
dolce_piccante - thank you so much, boo. <3Author's Note: If you decide to read, thank you, so much. I appreciate it.
Christopher is a keen observer.
Even now, arms crossed as he stands in the doorway to the large dining room of the homeless shelter he owns and operates, he's scanning the occupants and filing away information about them.
For example, there was Sully, the Vietnam war veteran who was wheelchair-bound. Then there was Alan and Wanda, who had lost everything they had in the stock market. Jack and his brother Jason found themselves penniless after they lost their parents in an accident and were struggling to find work and get on their feet. The Hampton family were victims of the current state of the economy. The list went on and on - the current residency of the shelter was at 43 individuals.
Then there were the two young men sitting alone at a table in the corner. A small smile formed on Christopher's lips as he watched them. They've been a part of the shelter for about a month now. Their clothes are ratty, their hair a mess, and one is nursing a bad head cold. All it takes, though, is for them to make eye contact and it's as if everything and everyone around them disappears as though they were never there to begin with. They are clearly in love, like fairytale-endings-in-the-movies in love.
One is blond, one is brunet.
Christopher is certain they share one soul.
Matthew and Dominic absolutely fascinate Christopher.
A small part of him is thankful his wife isn't there to see him watching the couple. It's not that Christopher doesn't love his wife - far from it, she is everything to him - but she has warned him in the past about getting too close to the people they encounter at the shelter. She has a heart as big as her husband's own, truth be told.
Or, she did, until Carrie.
Seven years old, she'd shown up one cold night two years ago alone, crying, clutching a note which she'd handed to Christopher after he'd brought her inside and wiped away her tears. His wife had broken down in angry tears after reading the note from the child's mother, indicating that she no longer wanted her daughter and hoped perhaps she could be cared for properly at the shelter. They got her cleaned up that night and fed, even finding an old teddy bear to put her to bed with in the sleeping quarters. It baffled the young couple how anyone could just throw away such a sweet and beautiful child.
For Christopher and his wife Kelly, who were unable to have children of their own, this little throwaway angel stole their hearts in record time. Both of them knew they should have contacted the authorities upon Carrie's arrival, but neither could bear to do so for fear of losing her.
After two weeks, Carrie's mother, clearly strung out on drugs, showed up to claim her daughter. The little one had screamed and cried, not wanting to leave. In the end, Christopher was forced to call the police when the mother struck Carrie with her closed fist and Kelly exploded with rage
The child was taken away into protective custody, never to be seen again. The couple considered themselves lucky no charges were filed against them. Life went back to normal for them, slowly, but Kelly decided in that moment she would never allow herself to get close to a resident again. She attended to the day-to-day operations of the shelter from an office upstairs, in their living quarters. Still, now and then Christopher would catch her watching some of the residents with a smile on her face, then steal away as if nobody had seen her.
Christopher, however, remained curious about his residents, wanting to get to know at least a little bit about them during their stay. He was making the rounds when he finally walked up to Matthew and Dominic's table.
"Hey, guys, how's things today?"
Dominic sneezes three times in succession. Matthew laughs as he pushes a box of tissues in his direction. "It's going okay," Matthew replies, "well, thanks to you, it's going okay. Your kindness means the world to us both."
"No, don't thank me, you both are welcome here as long as you need to be, yeah? I mean it." He places a box of decongestant in front of Dominic and nods at it. "Take this, we can't have you getting any worse. Nobody should spend New Year's Eve sick!"
"Fank ewe," Dominic says quietly, blowing his nose. "But, I can't pay-"
Christopher raises his hands. "And, I don't expect or want you to."
Matthew smiles at Dominic, reaching out to squeeze his hand. Matthew always has a smile on his face. Never once had Christopher heard him bemoan his situation, or complain - not once. He seemed full of life and love. Christopher even caught him reading to some of the Hampton children one night, which elicited the first smiles from those children's faces Christopher had ever seen. Dominic was the quiet one of the two; Christopher noticed that he walked with a slight limp. He was friendly, but somewhat reserved, with a sadness in his eyes now and then that troubled Christopher.
So much for not getting close, Christopher muses internally.
"I fink," Dominic struggles to breathe through his stuffed nose, "I beed to go rest some if that's okay?" He stands, Matthew following suit. He presses a kiss to Dominic's lips, Dominic nuzzling their noses together.
"Of course," Christopher nods, "Evelyn is on duty in the sleeping quarters, she'll give you what you need. Bernie is in the kitchen if you are hungry at all."
He and Matthew watch Dominic trudge away, his limp especially evident.
"It's none of my business, but I was-"
"Wondering how we ended up with nothing but each other?"
"I don't mean to pry, I'm sorry."
"No, no, it's fine - especially after all you're doing for us. It's not a long or complicated story, actually. Two guys from a small, conservative town meet and, to their surprise, end up falling in love. Neither of them were prepared for the amount of hate they would get for it."
"But... even now, in this day and age? I'm amazed that there are elements of society who still behave that way."
"We tried to keep it concealed from everyone. But soon, we began to realize that we just shouldn't have to keep it concealed from everyone. To be so in love with someone that you can't see straight is nothing short of a blessing - it's something to be celebrated, not hidden away like a dirty secret."
"Not gonna lie, I can't even imagine what that would be like."
"Dom's dad is his only family; his mother died in childbirth. That last night, when he confronted us... it was horrible. The names he called Dom, the things he said, I can't even bring myself to repeat them. He made it abundantly clear that he had absolutely no use for a gay son, then he proceeded to beat Dom to a pulp - that limp of Dom's, you've seen it?"
"Yes."
"His own father did that to him. I was of no help, I mean, look at me, I'm no threat to anyone. Eventually, he carried Dom out of the house and literally threw him into the front yard. He told him that he no longer had a home and that if he ever came home, he could expect a repeat performance. That he was cut off, financially. That Dom was dead in his eyes."
"But, surely you went to the police, yes?"
Matthew looked Christopher in the eye. "Like I said, small town. Dom's father is chief of police. He is the law. I'll never forget his deputy that night at the station. He looked right at Dom, bleeding and a total mess, then looked at me and calmly said 'Boy looks fine to me. You queers best be moving along, yeah?'. No, at that point all we could do was leave."
"And what of your family?"
"I was raised by my grandmother who passed a couple years back." Matthew smiles at the mere mention of her. "Dom was all I had. He still is. So we decided to leave, try to come and make our way in the city, half way across the country. Just Dom, me, my piece of shit car, and the small amount of savings I'd had put back. We burned through it in a matter of two months. I sold the car a month later and that money got us through for a while but now it's gone. We've both been looking for work, well, I have. Dom is," Matthew glances around the room then lowers his voice, "not so well. He's still struggling with it all, you know? I just want to be able to look after him until he's better able to cope. Actually," he stood, "I think I'd like to go look in on him, rest a bit myself, if you don't mind?"
"Of course not, you go ahead. And I mean it when I say you two can stay here as long as you need to, please," Christopher implores. "Get your lives back in order here - that's why we're here, that's what this place exists for."
Matthew turns to him, one hand on the back of his chair. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Why do you do," Matthew gestures around the room with his hands, "this? I see this place and all of these people without hope and then I see you, here to help guide them into a hopefully better life. It must take a selfless man to devote his life to such a cause."
"I grew up on the streets. I always told myself that if I ever got to the point, financially, where I could afford to keep even one young person from having to do the same, I would. I wouldn't call myself selfless-"
"No, but I would," a soft voice interrupts. A dark haired woman puts one hand on Christopher's shoulder and kissed his cheek. She extended her other hand to Matthew. "I'm Kelly, this big lug's wife. And yes, Chris has a kind soul and a gentle spirit. He's something special."
Matthew smiles warmly. "Look at you two. I'd say you're both something special." He walks away, bowing to them both.
Christopher pulls Kelly into his lap. "And just how long were you eavesdropping?"
"Long enough to know that I'm glad those two are here. Lord knows they could use a break."
"What about not getting close?"
Kelly shakes her head. "Closing yourself off from life is no way to live. Time for me to remember that, I think. Know what else I think?"
"What's that?"
"Just that I love you."
Christopher yawns. "Oh, is that all?" He ducks, laughing as he is punched squarely in the bicep.
"No, it's not all...actually, we have a bit of a problem, and I have an idea. Can we talk?"
One year later
"Wake up, sleepydick."
Dominic groans, swatting one hand at Matthew, who is now perched atop him, giggling much too loudly for whatever time of morning it currently was. He gives up, realizing any more attempts at sleep are now officially futile, and pulls Matthew down to him. "Happy New Year," he breathes into a kiss.
"Happy New Year, love," Matthew replies. They part, Matthew falling back onto the bed next to Dominic. Dominic turns onto his side and looks at Matthew thoughtfully.
Matthew taps Dominic's temple lightly, early morning sunlight seeping in through the window. "What's going on in there?" He stretches alongside Dominic's body, Dominic turning to him with a sleepy half-smile. Matthew leans in for another kiss, Dominic responding with fervor, his arms warm and soft around Matthew's body.
"Just thinking about where we were last New Years Day and where we are this New Year's Day." He glances around their admittedly small, but cozy bedroom, which is their favorite part of their new (albeit barely furnished) home. "I wonder where we'd be right now if we'd never met Chris and Kelly. Still hungry? Still cold? Still on the streets? Every bit of this is down to their generosity."
"You want to...what?" Dominic gaped, his jaw practically dragging the floor.
Christopher and Kelly glanced at each other, suddenly nervous.
On this, the forty-third day into their stay at the shelter, Matthew was stunned into silence. He kept pacing around the room, looking from Dominic to Kelly to Christopher then to Dominic then to Kelly then to Christopher again, as though he had no idea how to process the information he'd just been presented with.
"I don't even know what to say," Dominic went on.
"Why us?" Matthew finally blurted out. "I mean, you've already done so much-"
"It's very simple. Evelyn and Bernard are leaving us," Christopher laughed. "They're off to Vegas to get married and make a life for themselves. Evelyn has been here with us from the beginning, even living in the flat up on the third floor of the building. There's plenty of privacy up there."
"It just made all kinds of sense to us," Kelly interrupted. "We need new employees. You need a home and a steady paycheck. Mostly, you need something to go your way for a change. You can live rent-free as long as you stay and help us run things here. Meanwhile, you can both start earning money so you can get back on your feet properly."
"Guys, you spend most of your days here helping out as it is," Christopher commented. "Whether it's helping new residents learn their way around, or reading to the little ones, or helping out in the kitchen, it's clear that you have empathy for them. Who better to help us continue to ensure things can operate smoothly in the wake of Evelyn and Bernie leaving?"
"You wouldn't be chained to the shelter, of course," Kelly commented, "you'd certainly be able to have a life outside of it."
Dominic turned to Matthew. He shook his head. "Oh my god, Matt?"
Matthew looked to Christopher, tears in his eyes. "Why?" he repeated.
"Because you deserve a shot at a better life. All you are guilty of is being in love, and that should never be a crime, Matt."
Matthew rubs his eyes. "I think about that a lot myself. Sometimes, it's almost as if it happened to someone else, like I'm looking back on someone else's memories. Or, maybe it's someone else's nightmare, except it was one with a happy ending. I don't know. I'm probably not making any sense."
"No, I get you. And, more than that... I want to thank you," Dominic whispers. He rolls them, Matthew's head on the pillow as Dominic stares down at him as though he were the most precious thing in all of existence. He bites his lip, flushing faintly beneath such reverent scrutiny. Dominic smiles again, his thumb caressing Matthew's cheekbone. "I love that I can still make you blush."
"Only you can," Matthew leans up for a quick kiss. "What's this about thanking me, though?"
"I couldn't have made it without you."
"Of course you could have, Dom-"
"No," he presses one finger to Matthew's mouth to silence him, "let me finish. You never let it get you down, Matt. Not once. How many times did you have to guide me through another fit of tears because I just didn't know how we were going to make it without food and money. You refused to let me give up no matter how much I was determined to. You constantly reminded me that together we could do anything; that ours was only a temporary situation. You smiled and stayed positive and lifted me up and... I don't know; you were pure sunshine when all I could see were clouds."
Matthew clears his throat and blinks the tears away from his eyes.
"You... you saved me, Matthew, and I will always, always love you for it."
Dominic bends down, kissing away the evidence of Matthew's tears, Matthew's arms tightening around him.
"Maybe we saved each other," he finally breathes, his throat still tight. Dominic quirked one eyebrow at his partner. "Dom, all I had to do was steal a glance at you and it was all the motivation I needed to keep moving forward. Without you, I wouldn't have had much of a reason to fight. And I will always, always," he kissed Dominic gently, "always love you right back."
"If you're trying to get into my pants, it's working."
Matthew lifts up the blankets, seeing nothing but their naked bodies beneath them. "You're not wearing pants," he grins.
"You know me. I rarely do."
Downstairs, in their own private flat above the shelter, Christopher and Kelly were curled up on their couch with the newest member of their family. It had been a stressful few months, but the adoption had finally been properly finalized, just in time for the new year.
Little Andrew stretches and yawns in Christopher's arms. Christopher has a feeling he will remember every stretch and yawn in this three month old's life.
After all, Christopher is a keen observer.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
"Because you deserve a shot at a better life. All you are guilty of is being in love, and that should never be a crime, Matt."
Weeps again. This is beautiful. Thank you and happy new year!
no subject
Happy new year! ♥♥♥
no subject
"Because you deserve a shot at a better life. All you are guilty of is being in love, and that should never be a crime, Matt."
Oh, Chris! Such a good, sweet man! I loved all the characters and their backstories. I dare say this is one of your best stories, dear. Thank you for sharing it! <333
no subject
So sweet ... such a sad thing, a shelter for the homeless, the need for those places, the hatred people still feel towards gay people, but you turned it into such a positive and sweet story.
no subject
It's brought a tear to my eye and a smile to my heart, thanks for sharing such warmth for the New Year!
Love you D! <33
no subject
no subject
God, D, how do you do this, you witch? I love your writing. Love your brain. I love you.
Thank you for sharing this. <3
no subject
no subject
You make me cry, I really love it<3