My latest DEH oneshot! It's not great, but the idea wouldn't leave my head, so I decided I'd post it anyway. I hope you like it!

The day Connor told his parents he was gay, he arrived at the Hansen house and stood on the doorstep in the rain until his fingers went numb and he couldn't feel his feet anymore. Couldn't feel his thoughts. Eventually he rang the doorbell, but only because the grumpy old man who lived next door kept staring at him suspiciously through his living room window.

"Connor?"

It was Heidi who answered the door. Connor wasn't sure why he was so surprised to see her. It was her house after all.

"Connor, honey? Are you okay?"

It was only when she spoke again that he realised he'd just been silently staring at her. It was also in that moment, after hearing her ask if he was okay, that he suddenly realised his face was wet. From the rain or tears, he couldn't tell anymore.

He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. Heidi, who's expression had been growing more and more concerned, reached out into the rain and pulled him by the hand.

Stumbling into the hall, Connor still couldn't make himself speak, even as Heidi wordlessly bent down to untie his shoelaces and pull the soaked trainers off his even wetter feet. Then she wrapped an arm around his waist and guided him up the stairs, coming to a stop outside Evan's bedroom.

"Go in and take some of his dry clothes, he won't mind. I'll get you a towel. Come back downstairs when you're ready, okay?"

Connor just nodded, grateful for Heidi's care-now-ask-questions-later approach, and finally starting to feel just how wet and cold he was. He realised now that walking here in the middle of a rain storm probably hadn't been his best idea.

Then she was gone, and Connor was left standing in his best friend's bedroom, clutching a towel that he didn't remember Heidi giving him and dripping water onto the faded blue carpet.

Slowly, as if in some sort of trance, Connor stripped out of his wet clothes and patted his body dry with the towel. Riffling through Evan's drawers – he still felt slightly uncomfortable doing this, even if Evan was his best friend – he picked a random pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a dark hoodie and threw them on. Then he made his way back downstairs, towelling his hair dry as he went.

Stepping into the kitchen, he saw Heidi leaning against the island, two steaming mugs in front of her. Connor stood across from her and wrapped his hands around the mug without drinking from it, mirroring Heidi almost exactly.

There was silence for a few seconds before Heidi spoke up.

"Evan's not here right now."

"I figured."

"He's staying at Jared's tonight." She further explained.

More silence.

"Are you warming up any?"

"Yes, thanks."

Heidi hid a smile behind her mug as she took a sip of her tea. She knew for a fact that she was the only person Connor ever said 'please' or 'thank you' to. Cynthia had long ago accepted that she would never get those kind of manners from him.

"I figured it would be bad of me to just leave you standing out in the rain."

"Your neighbour was staring at me."

"He doesn't really like us. He doesn't approve of the fact that I'm a single mother."

"He's a dick."

Another hidden smile. "I always thought so too."

"I'm gay."

Heidi glanced up sharply at the unexpected turn in conversation. Connor was staring steadfastly into his mug, clutching at it so tightly that his knuckles had gone white.

"Okay," she nodded. "Is that why you were standing on my doorstep at nine o'clock on a Friday night in the pouring rain?"

"I told my parents." Ah. That explained a lot.

"My dad wasn't too happy about having a gay son."

"Did he kick you out?" Heidi asked.

Connor shook his head. "I just left. I, uh, I didn't know where else to go. I just started walking and next thing I knew, I was here."

Heidi took another sip of her tea as she processed all she had just been told.

"I kind of had a feeling." Connor looked up. "That you were gay." She added.

"You did?" A nod. "How?"

She shrugged. "Mother's intuition, I guess?"

The both jumped a little when a loud ringing cut through the air. Connor dug his phone out of the pocket of his borrowed jeans and glanced at the flashing screen, on which the name 'Zoe' had appeared, paired with a picture of her asleep with a curly moustache dawn on her face. He pressed ignore and left the phone screen down on the counter.

"She's probably worried." Heidi never took her eyes off Connor's crouched form.

He shrugged. "She knows." He pulled at a loose thread on the sleeve of Evan's jumper. "I told her a few weeks ago."

More silence ensued, and then Heidi leaned forward slightly. "Do you want to stay here tonight? Or for however many nights until you feel ready to go home again?"

Connor just nodded, too tired – both mentally and physically – to speak again.

Heidi walked around the island to stand beside Connor. "You can stay in the guest room. C'mon, I'll show you where it is."

Connor took a step forward, but instead of going to walk alongside Heidi, he wrapped his arms around her in a hug. For a split second, Heidi just stood there, shocked by the action, but then she quickly returned it, holding him tightly to her and stroking his hair just like she used to do with Evan when he was a kid.

"Thank you," he whispered, his voice muffled against Heidi's chest. He tried conveying his feelings through that one hug, hoping she'd understand just how grateful he was, and Heidi just hugged him tighter.