Okay, so I know it's August, but I had this idea, and I worked really hard on this story for about a month. I just finished the whole fic (parts 1-7) yesterday, so I'm posting them all here at once (still in parts, just all at the same time). I really hope you enjoy this, it's been my favorite fic to write so far. You can find me on Tumblr (benjji2795), so feel free to stop by and drop me a message :)

*10 Days Until Christmas*

"Don't bother coming home ever again!"

That was the last thing Connor's dad had said to him before hanging up the phone. It was a week and a half before Christmas and now he was on his own. Exams would be over in three days and he didn't have anywhere to go after. Coming out to his dad had been an unmitigated disaster. Not that Connor, in all honesty, had expected any different, but he had been holding on to a sliver of hope that maybe his dad wouldn't totally hate his guts.

"Hey Connor, is everything alright?" Jude asked, noticing Connor's blank, almost shocked expression as he walked into the room. Jude and Connor weren't particularly close, but that didn't mean Jude didn't care about Connor's well-being. If it looked like something was wrong with Connor, he was going to find out, so he could help him as best as he could.

"I uh—not really Jude." Connor said quietly, breaking his staring contest with the wall and lowering his head to stare at his feet instead.

"You mind telling me what happened then?" Jude said, pulling up a chair to sit down next to Connor. Connor just started shaking gently, tears falling from his eyelashes onto his shoes. Jude placed his hand on Connor's back, rubbing small circles, trying to comfort his roommate.

"My dad—" Connor choked out. "Told me not—not to come home—because I'm—I'm gay." he blubbered before beginning to bawl. Jude grabbed Connor's hand, gently squeezing it.

"Connor, I'm so sorry." Jude said, trying to comfort Connor, surprised to find out that his roommate was gay. Not that Jude cared (he had two moms for heaven's sake), it was just that Connor outwardly didn't strike him as gay, though he supposed that was because all he had to go off of were stereotypes that would've never fit Connor in a million years. They sat there for a few moments while Connor cried, Jude continuing to hold Connor's hand and rub his back.

"So who else in your family can, I guess, sort of take care of you now that your dad's kicked you out?" Jude asked when Connor had calmed down a little.

"My dad was the only family I had, Jude. I don't have any siblings, I don't know where my mom is, my grandparents are dead and my dad was an only child so I don't have any aunts or uncles." Connor answered, still sniffling heavily. Jude's heart sank. So Connor was all on his own now. Jude knew that even though Connor was eighteen, he was still going to need a lot of support from someone, Jude just didn't know from whom. Jude sat there, thinking for a moment, before the light bulb went off in his head.

"I—uh look, I've got to ask first, but um, maybe you could come home with me? You know, so you're not spending Christmas all by yourself." Jude suggested nervously.

"Really Jude?" Connor said, looking up, eyes shimmering with hope.

"Yeah, let me call my moms and see. I'll be right back." Jude replied, patting Connor on the back as he stood up and walked over to the bedroom to call.

"Hey love, what's up?" his mom, Stef, answered.

"Um, mom, so I was wondering something. My roommate's dad just uh, kicked him out I guess because he's gay and he doesn't have any other family, so I was um, wondering if it would be okay if he came home with me? So he's not alone." Jude said anxiously, wondering why he was suddenly so worried about Connor.

"Absolutely love. We would love to have him join us for Christmas." his mom said, voice tinged with a little sadness, obviously upset that someone would kick out their child for who they are.

"Alright thanks mom. See you in a couple days." Jude chirped happily, hanging up the phone. He was really glad his mom said yes. He and Connor may not have been close, but he did not want Connor to be all by himself on Christmas. That was a pretty awful thing for anyone to go through. And, hopefully his moms might take Connor under their wing as kind of another member of the family. Connor didn't need to go through this without a family, and Jude's family would be more willing than most to make him a part of theirs.

"Hey Connor, my moms said yes." Jude said as he walked back out to where Connor was sitting, still staring at the ground. Connor's head shot up and he immediately jumped up, nearly tackling Jude with a hug.

"Thank you so much Jude!" Connor exclaimed, before backing off suddenly, making Jude feel a little—empty? There was something about that hug that made Jude really happy. It was so warm and firm and it kind of made him feel all—Jude shook his head, trying to snap himself out of those thoughts. Connor wasn't even a friend, just an acquaintance, so why did that hug make him feel like that? He was puzzled over this, but then he noticed Connor standing there, just looking at him and biting his lip nervously.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have just hugged you like that I was just—"

"No Connor its fine. I uh…" Jude said, losing his train of thought for a moment as he met Connor's eyes. "I understand how emotional all of this must be." he said finally, hoping that Connor didn't notice the long pause he took while trying to remember was he was going to say.

"Really Jude, thank you. You're a really good um, I guess this probably makes us friends huh?" Connor said, giving Jude a sincere smile that Jude was sure made his heart melt a little.

"I um, need to go study. You know, for exams. See you later Connor." Jude spluttered, turning and walking out the door as fast as he could.

"Okay, see you Jude." Connor called out after him, before turning and sitting back down. He was going to be spending two weeks with Jude and his family. When Jude had offered, he had jumped at the chance, but now he wasn't so sure that was a great idea. He always felt so shy and awkward around Jude because well, Connor thought he was really cute. That's why they weren't friends; because Connor was always too nervous to really talk to Jude. Jude was going to be the only person he was going to see that he sort of knew for the next two and a half weeks, so he was going to have to get over that fast or else this break was going to be really uncomfortable.

Jude on the other hand didn't regret inviting Connor to come with him, but was rather just really confused about what he was feeling. They were all things he'd never felt before: the overwhelming feeling of concern towards Connor when he was sitting there crying, the way his hand tingled when he grabbed Connor's, the warmth he felt in his chest when Connor hugged him, the way his heart started beating faster when he saw Connor bite his lip, it was all new. Jude had no idea what it meant, but he didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it now, because it was exam time. So he pushed the thoughts to the side and turned his focus to exams, deciding to deal with these feelings later.

*7 Days Until Christmas*

"You ready to go Connor?" Jude shouted from the living room, his backpack on his back and a duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

"Yeah." Connor grunted, backpack also on his back and dragging a large rolling suitcase behind him.

"You do know that my moms can do laundry? You don't have to bring your entire wardrobe." Jude commented, chuckling.

"And limit my outfit choices? I don't think so Jude." Connor replied seriously, glaring at Jude who just laughed harder.

"Look at you, turning into the stereotypical homosexual already!" Jude declared.

"Oh whatever." Connor mumbled, shuffling over to the door.

"I mean that as a good thing Connor." Jude explained quickly, since Connor seemed pretty offended and upset by the comment. "It's a sign that you're getting comfortable with yourself." he continued, walking over and giving Connor a gentle pat on the back.

"I am comfortable with myself!" Connor protested. "Or at least I was." he added sadly.

"Connor, look at me!" Jude said sternly, knowing exactly where Connor's self-doubt was coming from. "Nothing your dad said about you was true. None of it! You hear me?" Connor looked up at Jude, his eyes glistening.

"You don't even know what he said to me," he argued feebly.

"Connor, I have two moms. I've heard a lot said about them behind their backs and even to their faces. I think I've got a pretty good idea of the kinds of things he said," Jude countered.

"Are—are you sure they're not true?"

"One hundred percent, Connor. Now let's go." Jude assured, putting his arm around Connor's shoulders and ushering him out of the room to his car. They quickly loaded their things into the back seat of Jude's sedan, before getting into the front to get on the road.

"Get comfortable Connor," Jude told Connor as he climbed into the passenger's seat. "The ride is six hours." Connor groaned.

"I hate long car rides," he complained.

"You want to stay here?" Jude questioned jokingly.

"No thanks!" Connor quickly replied.

"So, why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself, you know, since we're spending the next two and a half weeks together and right now, we don't really know each other?" Jude said, putting the car into gear and easing out of his parking spot.

"Oh I uh," Connor stuttered, suddenly feeling very nervous and struggling to come up with things about himself to tell Jude. "I play baseball. And I'm um, I'm a business major."

Jude glanced over at Connor, noticing his blank expression and his suddenly pale complexion. He's super nervous, Jude thought, that's so cute. Wait, did I just say he was cute?

"Well I suppose those are important things about you, despite the fact that they're not overwhelmingly interesting." Jude said chuckling, pushing his thoughts about Connor's "cuteness" to the side. "Tell me more about baseball, like what position do you play, or what kind of numbers do you have?" he asked, though he knew nothing about baseball and wouldn't understand anything Connor was going to say.

"I'm a catcher. I was a .330 career hitter in high school and I hit 23 home runs my senior year in 32 games." Connor answered confidently, sounding a less nervous. "What about you?"

"Are you asking me what kind of baseball numbers I have Connor?" Jude replied, still chuckling softly. "I don't play baseball."

"Oh shit, no I wasn't. I was um, asking for you to uh, tell me a bit about yourself." Connor spluttered, suddenly sounding very nervous again.

"Well I guess I probably should start with my family then." Jude said, momentarily forgetting why Connor was with him, taking a deep breath and launching into his by-now-memorized spiel. "My birth mom died when I was six because of a drunk-driving accident when my dad was behind the wheel and so he went to jail. My sister Callie and I didn't have any other family, so we went into foster care. We were in seven homes in six years before Stef and Lena took us in when I was twelve. They adopted me when I was thirteen, and well, Callie never got adopted but she lived with us until she aged out of the system, so she is, for all intents and purposes, part of the family. And I have three other siblings, Brandon, Mariana and Jesus, and one sort of sibling AJ. It's a long story but AJ stayed with us for a while before he was adopted by Mike, Stef's ex-husband who's basically part of the family too." Connor just stared at him, mouth hanging open.

"Wow you have a big family." he said quietly, contemplating about how he didn't have a family anymore.

"Oh, I'm sorry I shouldn't be going on about my family right now." Jude replied softly.

"No Jude, its fine." They sat in silence for a few minutes after that. "So, you told me about your family, but not really about you." Connor commented.

"It's not like there's much interesting about me. I'm a creative writing major who watches too much Netflix and is obsessed with Star Wars. I don't know what else to tell you. Besides, it's not like you told me too many interesting things about yourself, Connor," Jude answered.

"Can I like ask you questions? You know, to find out more about you, since we both suck at just talking about ourselves."

"Okay, but any questions you about me ask you have to answer too. And I get to ask some questions too." Jude said. Connor nodded to say that he accepted Jude's terms. Connor went silent again, twiddling his thumbs nervously for a few moments.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" was the first question Connor blurted out. Jude burst out laughing.

"That's kind of a forward question don't you think Connor?"

"Oh! Uh, that's not what I—not really I just," Connor stammered, his head pointed straight down, looking at his lap.

"Relax, Connor. I'm just teasing you. No I'm not dating anyone, but for the record, if I was dating I'd probably have a boyfriend, not a girlfriend." Jude explained, not sure why he felt the need to specify.

"Oh okay, um that's cool." Connor mumbled. Connor got flustered so easily, it was positively adorkable Jude thought.

"So what about you, Connor? You dating anyone?" Jude prodded, figuring that Connor had probably forgotten about their deal.

"No. I mean I had this thing with a guy for a couple of days a month or so ago but nothing since then." Connor answered. And Jude felt relieved, which surprised him. Why did it matter if Connor was dating anyone, and why would he feel relieved that he wasn't? But as with pretty everything that related to Connor so far, he ignored the feeling, shoving it to the back of his mind. But even so, he was curious because 'having a thing' could have a wide variety of meanings.

"What do you mean thing?" Jude pressed.

"We had sex a couple times, but we didn't really hang out or talk or anything like that." Connor shrugged.

"So then you've never actually dated a guy before?"

"No." Connor answered, sounding to Jude like Connor was ashamed that he hadn't.

"I mean that's not like a bad thing. I haven't dated before either." Jude admitted.

"That's surprising." Connor commented. "Someone like you should have hundreds of guys and girls tripping over themselves to ask you out."

"Are you saying that you think I'm hot, Connor Stevens?" Jude asked, not sure if Connor actually thought he was hot or just that other people thought he was. Connor nodded, staring straight ahead, his face turning a dark shade of purple. Jude also felt himself turning red, butterflies swirling around in his stomach.

"Well, um, I think you're uh," Jude added, swallowing hard, "really cute." Jude's breath caught in his throat; this was a big deal to him. Before now, he swore that he never found anyone cute in his life, guy or girl, and yet here he was, saying that Connor Stevens was really cute, and it was completely true. And on top of that, Connor thought that he, Jude Adams-Foster was hot. His mind was racing now, trying to process all these new feelings, and he couldn't focus on the road.

"Hey Connor, want to drive for a little bit?" Jude said, his throat feeling dry.

"Sure." Connor replied. So Jude pulled off, quickly getting out and switching spots with Connor. He needed some time to think. He muttered some directions to Connor before grabbing a pillow and burying his face into it.

"You okay Jude?" Jude gave Connor a thumbs up.

"Nudge me in two hours and I'll drive the rest of the way after that." Jude said, not removing the pillow from his face.

"Okay."

"Jude!" Connor shouted, rousing Jude from his deep slumber and interrupting a really good dream. A dream involving Connor where—where he was cuddling with him and kissing him? Jude groaned. This was not good. Somehow in a matter of hours he suddenly had a full blown crush on Connor, which was going to be especially awkward since he was spending the next two and a half weeks with Connor. "You said to wake you up in two hours, and well it's been two hours." Connor continued.

"Oh, thanks." Jude muttered, not looking over at Connor, and stepping out of the car to get behind the wheel again.

"So what was that dream all about?" Connor asked once they were on the road again. "You were mumbling all kinds of things into your pillow and I couldn't make out what you were saying but it seemed like a pretty good dream."

"Oh, um, I don't remember what it was about now." Jude lied.

"Do you always talk in your sleep?" Jude groaned again. He and Connor were likely going to be sharing his old room, he was a sleep talker and he was having dreams about Connor. This was likely going to be an utter disaster.

"Yeah." Jude murmured in reply.

"Oh, well my d—well I've heard that I do that too." Connor said as they pulled off the highway and onto a quiet side street. "So this is the neighborhood where you live?" Jude nodded.

"My house is right here in fact." he said, pulling into the driveway and putting the car in park. "You ready to be mobbed for the next two and a half weeks?" Jude asked chuckling. Connor shook his head. "Well ready or not, here they come." Jude said as the front door opened.

"Were you just staring out the window waiting for us to pull up?" Jude yelled jokingly, getting out of the car as his moms walked across the lawn to meet them.

"Maybe." Stef said with a smirk.

"We just missed you a lot bud." Lena added, as they grabbed Jude, smushing him into a hug. Connor awkwardly stood off to the side, grinning slightly at the scene in front of him. "And this must be Connor." she added as they released Jude. Connor extended his hand, expecting them to shake it, but instead was engulfed in a hug similar to the one Jude received.

"How are you doing love?" Stef asked softly.

"Better now." Connor answered, relaxing into the hug, not caring that they were basically strangers to him. Jude smiled; this was why he loved his moms so much, they had such big hearts. The only things they knew about Connor were his name and his situation, and yet they already treated him as if he'd been part of the family for years. But he was also smiling because Connor was smiling, bigger than any smile Jude had seen on his face since the day his dad kicked him out.

"Well, come on, get your stuff inside, you two are just in time for dinner!" Lena exclaimed, both of them stepping away and heading back inside the house.

"I hope that surprise hug wasn't too awkward." Jude said as they pulled their backpacks and suitcases (well Jude's duffel bag and Connor's suitcase) from the back seat.

"No, it was fine. Really nice actually." Connor said quietly as they walked up the front porch steps and into the house.

"Connor you'll be sleeping with Jude and Jesus in their room, so go ahead and follow Jude to drop your things off up there and then come back down." Stef called from the kitchen.

"They're putting three of us in one room?" Connor asked, surprised.

"It's a big family, remember?" Jude chuckled, opening the door and tossing his things on the floor. Connor did the same, momentarily stepping into the room and glancing around. The room was fairly small, separated into halves by an intricately designed bookshelf. The walls were painted blue and sparsely decorated in the half closest to the door, and the room had two beds and two desks.

"This is my half of the room." Jude said, noticing how Connor seemed to be studying it intently. "It's not really decorated because I took a lot my stuff with me to college."

"Yeah, I took most of my stuff with me too. It's a good thing I guess." Connor replied.

"I know I've probably said this about one hundred thousand times so far, but I'm really sorry about what happened with you dad." Jude said, pulling in Connor and hugging him.

"I'm okay Jude, really. Sure it sucks, but I'm here so I'm not alone." Connor insisted, smiling at Jude (though it wasn't a true smile; Jude could tell he was missing the glint in his eye that his smiles usually had). They stood there hugging for a long time, tightly pressed up to each other, but not feeling particularly awkward. It was just a hug of support, right?

"Awww, look at you two." Lena commented as she stood in the doorway. Jude and Connor flew apart, Jude nervously shoving his hands in his pockets and Connor beginning to play with his hands anxiously. Sensing that she may have made them feel weird, she quickly turned around, calling over her shoulder "Dinner's ready!" Connor shot out of the room and down the stairs, leaving Jude all by himself for a moment before he too walked out and down the stairs for dinner.

"Well Connor, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?" he heard Lena asking as he walked into the kitchen where they were already seated and beginning to eat. Jude had to stifle a giggle, remembering just how badly Connor reacted when he had asked him the same question. Connor noticed his reaction, glaring at him, before turning to his moms and answering.

"Well I'm at UCLA on a baseball scholarship, I'm the team's catcher and I'm studying business." Connor said calmly and confidently before turning to give Jude a look that said "Ha! Take that!"

"Oh that's interesting love." Stef replied coolly. "What about friends? Are you seeing anyone?" Jude spit out his drink, laughing at his mom because she was so obviously trying to see if they could set the two of them up. Connor's eyebrows quirked up as he looked over curiously at Jude.

"Mom, could you please be a little more obvious about what you're doing?" Jude asked sarcastically once he stopped choking on his milk.

"What am I doing?" she responded, faking innocence.

"Trying to find out if Connor is single you can spend the next two and a half weeks trying to set us up," Jude stated, still giggling slightly, while Connor was staring at his plate, turning a deep shade of purple.

"From what I've already heard we don't have to give you guys too much help." Stef shot back.

"Connor was literally ten seconds behind you how did you tell her already?!" Jude said turning to his mama.

"We don't need words to talk. I thought you figured that out by now." Lena said smirking.

"I literally cannot believe the two of you." Jude answered shaking his head.

"Well I suppose he doesn't have to answer if he doesn't want to." Lena said, turning to look at Connor.

"Yeah I'm single, but I'm not really looking to date anyone right now." he muttered, not looking up from his plate.

"We completely understand love." Stef replied, though she was still grinning mischievously at Lena.

"So you don't want to date?" Jude asked cautiously as the two of them went up to his room after dinner, not sure why he was feeling so disappointed.

"I mean yeah. So far you, your moms, and I guess my dad are the only people that know. And with all that's happened with my dad, I kinda just want to keep it that way for a while. I mean I'll tell the rest of your family, but that's because they won't be negative about it. Dealing with my dad kicking me out is hard enough without having to worry about what other people will say about me, you know?"

"I-I understand Connor. And um—I'll always have your back, okay?" Jude replied.

"Thanks Jude." Connor said smiling. "So what are we going to do the rest of the night?"

"If I had to guess, my moms are probably going to try to get us to watch some movie with them." Jude shrugged. "Probably one of the Star Wars movies because they know I wouldn't miss a chance to watch one of them."

"Hey Jude! You wanna watch The Empire Strikes Back tonight?" Stef called up from the base of the steps, almost as if on cue.

"Are you psychic?" Connor asked, chortling.

"No, you just get to know people when you live with them for a long time." Jude replied with a crooked grin, getting up and walking past Connor towards the door. "Want to join us?"

"Sure, why not? It's not like I have anything else to do." Connor answered, shuffling out behind Jude.

Jude rolled his eyes when they reached the living room. His moms had sprawled out, taking up the whole couch and leaving the so-called "loveseat" for them to sit on. Jude's moms just smiled at Jude while he gave them his patented "bitch face" and Connor just giggled.

They sat down, being careful to sit as far away from each other as possible. Jude could've sworn he saw his mom roll her eyes, but he decided not to call her out on it and settled in to watch the movie.

Part way through, Jude felt a hand brush up against his and someone start to lean against his side. He turned to see that he and Connor had both been migrating towards the middle of the loveseat, so that they were now sitting very close to each other. Connor in fact had started to drift off to sleep and was leaning up against Jude, his head coming to rest on Jude's shoulder. Jude smiled glancing down at the sleeping boy next to him, and without thinking, took his arm and wrapped it around him, hugging him tightly to his side. Connor, in his sleep, reacted by snaking his arms around Jude and curling up into him. Jude let him, not wanting to wake Connor up.

Jude sighed. He was getting in way too deep with Connor already. The hug, being disappointed that Connor didn't want to date, and now his reaction to Connor cuddling him in his sleep all made it very clear to Jude that, even though he didn't really know Connor and wasn't exactly his friend, he really liked him. But there was that catch; that Connor didn't want to date, which meant that Jude had to keep his actions towards Connor friendly. Jude couldn't let Connor onto his feelings for him, or else things between them would get really awkward over these next two and a half weeks.

"Jude, what are you doing?" Connor said groggily into his chest a little while later, tearing Jude from his thoughts. Right, he needed to explain to Connor how this happened (and be sure to tell Connor that he made the first move).

"The better question is what were you doing?" Jude replied.

"Huh?"

"You're the one that cuddled me."

"Oh, um sorry." Connor said, stifling a yawn as he let go of Jude and shuffled away.

"It's alright," Jude said. "I don't mind. But since you can't stay awake you probably should head up. No one in this house is gonna be able to carry you if you fall asleep down here." he continued with a chuckle.

"Yeah, okay," Connor said, letting another yawn escape his lips. They stood up, walking past Jude's moms who had fallen asleep curled up with each other and went upstairs into Jude's room, Connor taking Jesus' bed for the night.

"G'Night Connor." Jude said, climbing into bed, kind of wishing that Connor was cuddling him like he was downstairs. Connor didn't reply, already out like a light, snoring gently. Jude rolled over, bunching up his blanket and cuddling with it, trying not to think about how much he wished it was Connor instead.