*6 Days Until Christmas*
"Oi! Who's this kid in my bed?" Jesus exclaimed, jolting Jude awake. Jude reached over to his nightstand, grabbing his phone and checking the time. 11:45 AM! He groaned; why did his moms let them sleep in that late? He wanted to be awake to deal with his siblings' arrival.
"That's Connor," Jude explained, realizing Jesus was still waiting for an answer, his voice low and thick from sleep.
"Is he like your boyfriend or something?"
"If he was my boyfriend do you think I'd be in bed by myself?" Jude snapped sarcastically. "He's my roommate."
"Then why is he here?" Jesus asked curiously. Jude's roommate just came home with him? That didn't make any sense to Jesus.
"It's not my business to tell you."
"Whatever Jude, just tell him I don't care as long as it shuts him up." Connor mumbled into the pillow.
"He's here because he had nowhere else to go for Christmas. His dad kicked him out, alright Jesus? Now leave it, get out of here and let us get up!" Jude said, rolling out of bed and shoving Jesus out the door.
"Well, the rest of my family must be here." Jude commented, walking over to Connor who still had his face buried in his (well Jesus') pillow.
"Mmm," Connor said into the pillow.
"You're not going to get anymore sleep, I guarantee it, so you might as well get out of bed," Jude laughed.
"Hey Judicorn!" Mariana exclaimed, barging into the room (even though the door was closed and latched) and embracing Jude tightly.
"Heh, Judicorn?" Connor sniggered, lifting his head from his pillow to look at Jude.
"I swear to God, Connor if you ever call me that it will be your head," Jude shot back, glaring at him.
"Who is that?" Mariana asked nervously, taking a step back from Connor.
"That's Connor, my roommate." Jude explained.
"You mean like your boyfriend?" Mariana said, stepping back forward, smirking and waggling her eyebrows at Jude.
"He is not my boyfriend! He's just my roommate!" Jude protested.
"Then why is he here?"
"His dad kicked him out so he needed somewhere to be on Christmas." Jude explained, again.
"Hey Jude! Wait, who is that?" Callie asked, walking into the room over to where they were standing.
"Okay that's it, everyone needs to get out! I will tell you all about Connor later but right now you need to leave so we can get ready!" Jude shouted, shoving his sisters out the door and closing it behind them. He leaned up against the door breathing heavily. "See what I meant about being mobbed?"
"Yeah, I think so," Connor said, standing up, revealing that he had slept in just his boxers. Jude stared for a moment, taking in Connor's well defined abs and chest muscles, feeling a strange stirring in his stomach. Connor noticed him and he quickly spun around, averting his gaze. He was not supposed to be this attracted to Connor, especially since he was trying to keep that fact that he liked Connor a secret.
"Trust me, you're not the first person to stare." Connor said casually, causing Jude to blush furiously. "Even a lot of the guys on the baseball team do it. They're all really jealous cause I'm the most ripped guy on the team," he continued. "It's safe to turn around now."
Jude turned back around, his cheeks still very pink, and found that in all honesty, it really probably wasn't ever going to be safe to turn around. Connor was wearing a tight-fitting tank top and black skinny jeans, both items of clothing still showing off Connor's muscles as if he wasn't really wearing anything. That combined with Connor's messy hair and low, sleepy voice made Jude want to jump Connor and kiss him right there and then. But Connor's voice stopped him in his tracks (seriously, he was about to do it).
"Dude! You board?" he asked, picking up a skateboard that was lying on the floor.
"Kinda. I mean I can stay upright on a skateboard if that's what you mean," Jude shrugged, trying to shake off that he literally was about to kiss Connor.
"You want to go to a skate park today?" Connor asked excitedly. Jude looked at him, studying his expression. Funny, he thought, Connor reminds me a little bit of a puppy. No doubt if Connor had a tail, he'd be wagging it right now. Looking at his face and seeing how excited he was, Jude couldn't say no, even though it probably meant an afternoon of embarrassing himself in front of Connor.
"Yeah absolutely! Now come on, I need to introduce you to my family," Jude sighed, motioning for Connor to follow him.
"Okay since now that everyone is here, it's time for me to answer the one question that I'm sure you all have." Jude said, surveying the living room where Stef, Lena, Brandon, Jesus, Mariana, Callie, AJ and Mike were all sitting. "This here is Connor, my roommate. Let me be clear, he is not my boyfriend, he is here because—well I'll let him tell you." he continued, grabbing Connor's shoulder and squeezing it gently as a sign of support.
"I'm um here because I didn't have anywhere else to go. My dad kicked me out because—because I'm gay." Connor said quietly.
"Well obviously," Jesus said. The whole room turned to shush him. "Hey! I'm just saying, have none of y'all seen what he's wearing?" he protested.
"Y'all? Since when do you say y'all?" Mariana asked him curiously.
"Since I had a roommate from the Deep South okay, so leave me be," Jesus spat.
"Um, one thing you should know about Jesus, he always says what he's thinking. There's no filter." Jude whispered over his sibling's argument, leaning into Connor's ear. Connor laughed quietly.
"Thanks for the warning." he whispered back sarcastically.
"It's hard to warn you about everything so I figured I might as well just tell you as things happen," Jude explained.
"Okay, so let me give you their names from left to right. AJ, Mike, Jesus, Brandon, Mariana, Callie and of course, my moms." Jude continued, a little louder, pointing to each person as he said their name.
"So, Connor, are you single?" Mariana asked once he was finished, earning a groan from Jude.
"First moms, now you?" Jude grumbled, turning to Connor. "I'm starting to think that I would've been better off staying with you at school instead of bringing you here. I think all they're going to do is spend the whole break trying to get us together," Connor just laughed again, and Jude couldn't understand how all of this was so funny to him, because to Jude, it was downright embarrassing.
"You know you love us." Callie interjected.
"Yeah sure no the only person I love in this room right now is Connor cause he's the only one not embarrassing me!" Jude exclaimed, causing the whole room to go silent. "Oh I-I um d-didn't mean it like that!" he added quickly, turning to Connor who was doubled over, laughing so hard he wasn't making any sound.
"This is literally the best entertainment I've had in a while, oh my god I love your family Jude!" Connor exclaimed when he finally stopped laughing. While hearing that didn't stop Jude from being embarrassed, hearing Connor laugh and be happy was enough to convince Jude to let it go. He wanted Connor to be happy after all he'd been going through and he supposed that any way he was helping add to Connor's happiness wasn't so bad that he couldn't deal with it.
"Alright, so now that we have everyone here, I think now is as good a time as any to draw names for the Secret Santa," Lena said, standing up and moving to stand next to Jude and Connor who were still standing in the middle of the room. "There is going to be one exception, since Connor only really knows Jude out of the people here and since Jude is really the only one that knows Connor, you two have each other's names, okay?"
"Doesn't that defeat the point of 'Secret Santa'?" Callie commented.
"Would you know what to get Connor?" Lena asked her. Callie shook her head. "That's what I thought."
Jude sighed. Sure he knew Connor better than his family did, but by no means did he know what kind of gift to get Connor. Maybe he could delay buying the gift for as long as possible, so that way he would have a better idea of the things Connor liked and could get him the best possible gift.
"I'm pretty sure I already know what I'm getting you," Connor whispered. He sounded serious, which made Jude turn and look at him confused. But Connor had already turned back to face the front of the room, staring forward innocently. How did Connor already know what to get him?!
He didn't have much time to think on that any further, because the family meeting broke up and Connor had grabbed his hand and was pulling him out of the living room.
"L-let's g-go now," Connor suggested, dropping Jude's hand suddenly and trudging up the stairs.
"I uh," Jude stuttered, suddenly very confused. Connor grabbed his hand? That might not have been too bizarre, but then Connor had very suddenly let go and got all stutter-y and nervous.
"Please?" Connor pleaded, his voice returning to normal and giving Jude puppy dog eyes. Jude looked at Connor, seeing those eyes and knowing that he was going to say yes. He wasn't sure that it was even possible to say no to those eyes. Jude walked past Connor into his room, grabbing two boards before stepping back out, handing one to Connor and walking down the stairs, Connor bounding after him.
"Connor and I are going to the skate park," Jude called out over his shoulder as he walked out. As soon as they were on the driveway, Connor sprinted past him, putting the board down and pushing off, quickly rolling down the driveway.
"How come I've never seen a skateboard in our room? You seem like you're pretty good," Jude commented when he caught up with Connor.
"Oh, I don't have a board of my own at school. Mine is at my dad's, I forgot to bring it," Connor replied. "I just usually borrow somebody else's." Connor picked the skateboard back up and Jude grinned. Well now he knew exactly what he was getting Connor.
"Hey Jude! Check this out!" Connor called. They had been at the skate park for about an hour, and Jude had spent most of the time sitting on the edge of the bowl (thingy whatever they called it, Jude didn't know for sure) just watching Connor.
"I'm already watching you, you dork!" Jude yelled back, chuckling at Connor. Connor looked up, smiling at him broadly before pushing off to start up his trick. He rolled around, coming around from the opposite end back towards Jude and picking up speed. Connor seemed to have made some kind of mistake though, because now he was heading right for where Jude was sitting.
"Uh, Connor?" Jude said as Connor kept getting closer and closer. Connor didn't say anything but he had his head up, so Jude assumed that he knew what he was doing. He stayed sitting, not wanting to jump out of the way and look silly when Connor didn't even come close to where he was. Then it happened; Connor completely lost control, flying up over the side, landing flat on his feet next to Jude before toppling over onto him. "Ouch!" Jude exclaimed sharply. Connor didn't say anything, groaning and clutching his leg instead.
"Connor, are you alright?" Jude asked concernedly.
"N-no," Connor whimpered.
"O-okay well then can you roll off me and sit up?" Jude directed. Connor did as Jude told him, wincing and letting out a sharp cry in pain when he tried to put weight on his right leg.
"Shit," Jude muttered, helping Connor to sit down before pulling his phone out and dialing his mom.
"Something wrong love?" Stef answered.
"Yeah, we're at the skate park and um, Connor wiped out and now he can't put any weight on his right leg. I think he might have broke it." Jude explained, rubbing slow circles in Connor's back to try and make him feel better.
"Are you going to try and walk back or do you need one of us to pick you up?"
"Um, I don't know," Jude replied, turning to look at Connor. "Do you think you can walk?" Connor shook his head, and Jude put the phone back up to his ear. "Okay, yeah we need to be picked up."
"Okay love, we'll be there in five," Stef answered before hanging up the phone.
"Alright Connor," Jude said, grabbing Connor's arm and wrapping it around his shoulder. "Let's get out to the gate to wait for my mom."
Jude stood up, tightly grasping Connor's arm, and with great effort, managed to get Connor to his feet. Connor leaned on him heavily, keeping his leg completely off the ground and using Jude as his other leg. Jude grunted, breathing heavily, and they began making their way across the park.
"Shouldn't..have..tried..trick..sorry," Connor moaned out once they were leaning on the fence next to the gate, tears pricking his eyes from the pain.
"It's fine Connor, don't worry about it," Jude assured him. Just then Stef pulled up, jumping out and opening a door before walking over to help Jude get Connor to the car.
"What happened?" she asked once they were on the road, going into full mom mode while driving them to the emergency room.
"Well Connor was doing this trick and he must have messed up, because all of the sudden he went flying off the side a couple feet in the air before landing on his feet and falling over onto me," Jude told her, still rubbing Connor's back.
"And Connor, is it your upper leg or lower leg that hurts?" Stef inquired.
"Lower!" Connor squawked as they went over a bump, jostling his leg.
"Okay, okay we're here now!" Stef said trying to comfort Connor. Gingerly, Jude and Stef lifted Connor up, carrying him into the waiting room.
"What seems to be the problem ma'am?" the receptionist asked them as they walked in.
"He needs x-rays, he likely broke his right leg in a skating accident," Stef explained. Jude stayed quiet, more than happy to let his mom take charge, focusing his energy on keeping Connor calm.
"Okay, go ahead and sit him down on that wheelchair," she replied, pointing to a chair a few feet away from them. "A nurse will come out and be with you shortly."
"It's alright Connor, it'll stop hurting soon, okay?" Jude cooed, squeezing Connor's hand as they lowered him into the chair. A short while later (though far too long if you asked Jude, given that Connor's constant whimpering indicated he was in serious pain), a man came out and walked over to them.
"We're going to take him back for x-rays now. I need someone to come with me to help out," he stated.
"I'll go!" Jude exclaimed, springing up and moving to follow him. There was no protest from Stef, so Jude followed Connor in.
It was about an hour later when the two of them re-appeared, Connor sporting a cast and using crutches.
"He definitely broke it," Jude commented to his mom as the two of them hobbled (well Connor hobbled) over. "The doctor said almost clean in half. He'll need to be in the cast for six weeks, and the doctor gave us these in case he needs them," Jude finished, tossing a small bottle of painkillers to his mom.
"Alright then, well let's get home," she said, leading them out to the car.
"I guess this pretty much means I'm trapping you in the house all break," Connor said quietly. "I'm sorry."
"No worries Connor," Jude replied. "Besides, I'm finding that I have fun no matter what we're doing." Jude looked over at Connor who just smiled at him, much to Jude's relief. He was worried that he might have revealed too much with his last statement.
"Lots of video games and movies it'll be, I suppose," Connor suggested, to which Jude nodded. After that the ride back to the Adams-Foster house was pretty quiet. When they began walking in, Stef grabbed Jude, pulling him back for a second.
"So I take it you're going to be the one to take care of him?" she asked.
"Yeah, I guess so. It's not like he's really that comfortable with anyone else here," Jude shrugged.
"Okay, well just let us know if you need any help. Now you should probably go and do that, he seems to be having some trouble with the porch steps." Jude turned to see Connor wildly flailing his crutches around, trying to get up the steps without having to put weight on his foot. Chuckling to himself, Jude jogged over to where Connor was, just in time to reach Connor who had started falling backwards.
"Woah!" Jude exclaimed, quickly hooking his arms under Connor's armpits trying to catch him, which wasn't the smartest idea. Connor was far too heavy for Jude to handle, and trying to catch Connor left them both splayed out on the pavement. "You alright?" Jude asked, sitting up and rubbing his elbow which he had a minor scrape on.
"I'm fine, only a little embarrassed. Just thought I could still get around on my own," Connor muttered.
"Well it seems like besides the stairs, you were getting around just fine," Jude commented, standing up, brushing himself off and offering Connor his hand to help him up. Connor grabbed it, and Jude pulled, getting Connor to his feet, but not before Connor had to drape himself all over Jude, throwing his arms over his shoulders and leaning heavily into him to gain his balance. Jude could've sworn that Connor lingered for an extra few seconds once he steadied himself, but he brushed it off, attributing it to his imagination and the side of him that wanted Connor to be into him.
"Yeah, but your house has a lot of stairs," Connor countered.
"Yeah…" Jude mused as he handed Connor back his crutches and helped him up the porch steps. Connor was right, and it wasn't really going to be fair to ask him to sleep up in his room now, it was going to be too hard for him to get up the stairs. They were both going to need to sleep downstairs (okay well only really Connor, but Jude wasn't going to leave him alone; you know, just in case he needed help in the middle of the night), which meant Jude had to go figure out with his moms how to shuffle everyone around. "Hey, Connor go sit on the couch for a minute, I need to talk to my moms."
"Mom? Mama?" Jude called out as he wandered into the kitchen.
"Yeah bud?" Lena answered, coming around a corner into view. "Hey, how's Connor doing?"
"He's fine, but that's kind of what we need to talk about."
"Sure, what's going on?"
"We have to move people around because Connor can't get up the stairs very well, so he and I need to be the ones sleeping downstairs," Jude explained.
"Well I think that can be arranged, but why do you need to sleep downstairs with him?" Lena asked curiously.
"In case he needs help at night, you know? It might be awkward for him being down there with Mike or AJ since he doesn't know them. And I don't want to leave him alone," Jude admitted quietly, his cheeks showing a light dusting of pink.
"Okay," Lena said, placing her hand on Jude's shoulder and giving him a compassionate smile. "So then we'll move Mike and AJ into your room and your mom and I will take back our bedroom so you and Connor can sleep downstairs."
"Thanks mama," Jude said, giving Lena a quick hug before walking out to the living room and plopping down on the couch next to Connor, who was doing something on his phone. Jude sat quietly for a minute, looking for the right words to explain the situation to Connor without making his insistence on sleeping downstairs with him sound weird.
"S'going on Jude?" Connor asked. "You've been sitting here five minutes and you haven't said a word."
"O-oh not much, I was just thinking," Jude replied.
"About what?" Connor pried. Mostly about the fact that I really like you and I can't say anything to you without thinking about that and making things weird for myself, Jude thought.
"Just sleeping arrangements. I think you and I are going to be staying down here instead. You know so you don't have to worry about going up and down the stairs." he explained, obviously not going to tell Connor what he was thinking.
"Okay. But why are you sleeping down here, I mean you really don't have to. I'll be okay on my own."
"I-I mean you wouldn't be on your own because Mike or AJ would be down here if I wasn't. I just thought that you might be uncomfortable with that, y-you know cause you don't know them," Jude stumbled over his words. This was exactly what he had hoped Connor wouldn't ask him. Connor eyed him suspiciously for a moment before shrugging.
"Mmk, that makes sense I guess," he said, not sounding too sure, before looking back down at his phone. Jude stood up, striding up to his room to grab their stuff and bring it back down. He didn't make it all the way though, being dragged by Mariana into his sisters' room.
"You totally like him," she stated, closing the door behind her (but not completely; it was still cracked open slightly).
"I-I d-don't know what y-you're talking about!" Jude spluttered, trying to play dumb with the sister that could read his emotions like an open book (actually both of his sisters could read him like that).
"Alright, why don't we try this again?" she muttered, shaking her head. "You like Connor, don't you?" Jude sighed, walking over and sitting on Mariana's bed.
"Am I really that obvious?" Jude wondered.
"Not really. I just happen to be your sister and know things about you. But what is obvious is that Connor likes you back," Mariana explained.
"You don't know that! So before you ask me, no Mariana, I am not telling him," Jude hissed.
Having heard more than enough of the exchange between Jude and his sister, Connor scurried back down the stairs and took his place back on the couch, breathing heavily. So he wasn't imagining things. He thought he had heard Jude mumbling his name through his pillow on the drive to Jude's house. And he was pretty sure he had heard Jude talking about him in his sleep last night.
Now he knew that his feelings were mutual, Connor had no idea what to do. He wasn't just going to ask Jude if he liked him, because then Jude would ask him what made him think that, and Connor would have to tell him that he was eavesdropping, which definitely would not reflect good on him. Maybe he should—
"Hey Connor, are you alright? You don't look so good," Jude commented, dropping a pile of their things on the floor and walking over to him.
"Y-yeah fine, just in a b-bit of pain is all," Connor lied. The nervousness he felt around Jude that had started to fade over the last night and this morning was returning to Connor with a vengeance.
"You need a painkiller? I mean the doctor gave you some just in—"
"No Jude, I'm fine, I don't need those," Connor replied quickly. He was not taking prescription painkillers. There was no telling what he might say to Jude under their influence; it was a risk he simply didn't want to take. He would just have to deal with the pain.
"Okay, well if you change your mind, I have them," Jude told him before returning back upstairs to grab a few more of their things.
That night, Connor lay awake on the couch, trying to figure out what he was going to do. The rest of the evening had felt painfully awkward for him. He didn't know what to say, and that was a problem since Jude was constantly with him. Now that he knew that Jude liked him back, he couldn't just sit on his hands and do nothing, he had to tell him his feelings. Or at least he thought Jude liked him back. What if he had misheard? Yeah, Connor thought, he probably just misheard. He wanted Jude to have feelings for him so bad his brain was probably just playing tricks on him. He was just imagining things Connor decided.
"Connor don't go," Jude moaned on the floor next to him.
"Wait where am I going?" he replied. Jude was silent for the next few minutes, and Connor figured that since Jude had mentioned he was a sleep-talker, Jude was just dreaming. But that was another thing. How could he explain the fact that Jude was dreaming about him if he didn't have some kind of feelings for him?
"Connor!" Jude said again, this time more sharply, his breathing quickening. Connor heard Jude rustling in his sleeping bag as he flipped over. "Connor, no!"
"Jud-ouch!" Connor uttered, crawling off of the couch towards Jude, wincing when he smacked his cast against the coffee table that was in between the couch and Jude.
"Connor!" Jude screamed, bolting upright. His skin shined under the moonlight that was streaming through the window from the sweat that had formed, his breathing was heavy and his expression was one of utter panic. Connor scurried the rest of the way over to Jude's side, sitting next to him, reaching over and grabbing his hand.
"Jude, I'm right here, it's okay," Connor said calmly. "Nothing's happened to me, I'm alright." Jude whipped his head around once Connor started speaking, staring at him for a moment before pulling his hand from Connor's and throwing his arms around Connor, crying softly into his chest.
"Shhh Jude, it's okay. I'm here, I'm here," Connor whispered softly into his ear, hugging Jude back tightly. He was confused; what kind of dream could Jude have been having about him to make him so upset? Connor didn't know the answer and he wasn't going to make Jude talk about it right now, but still he wondered.
Connor wasn't sure how long he sat there, Jude draped all over him, sobbing into his chest. But it was long enough that Jude eventually stopped shaking, his breathing evening out as he fell asleep. His grip on Connor was still tight, and Connor had no intentions of making Jude wake up to let go, so instead he slowly wriggled his way into Jude's sleeping bag, laying down to fall asleep himself, keeping Jude snugly in his embrace.
