I don't know where this came from. Written to Heirloom by Sleeping At Last, Be Good by Mad Brodie, and And If My Heart Should Somehow Stop by James Vincent McMorrow. Enjoy.
They first meet in Copenhagen.
Lukas in his class uniform, all navy and white. Lukas, lost.
It had been snowing. Very cold. December 18th, he would later recall. His class (whom with which he had been travelling with in the first place) had moved on without him as he distracted himself a small locally owned shop.
The whole situation left him feeling hollow inside, and he begins to get the vague feeling that they'd abandoned him on purpose, when he runs into someone. Or rather, they run into him. With their bike.
A flash of red, and he was watching the snowflakes drift down upon him, a heavy weight on his left side.
After repeated apologies from the second party, and gloved hands brushing snow off his clothes and briefly, his hair, he's invited in for coffee at this stranger's house.
Perhaps it's because he's waist-deep in self-loathing and loneliness, or perhaps it's because this man has just run him down and "the least I can do is warm you up a little bit!" But whatever possesses him to do it, he says yes.
Twenty minutes later and he's thrust under a heavy blanket, warming by a crackling fire.
The coffee in his hands and his companion in conversation warm his toes and his fingers and his heart.
This 'Mathias' is much more of a character than he thought from first impressions, and has him smiling, even chuckling as their playful banter carries them long into the night.
They drift slowly asleep, right there by the fire, and Lukas is distantly thankful for something that had, hours earlier, almost had him in tears. Lovely serendipity brought them together, and when sleep closed her gently arms around him, his dreams come easy for the first time in a long time.
Lukas spends Christmas in Denmark that year.