Jack was walking along the side of the road with a duffle bag slung over his shoulder when they found him and Aster practically jumped out of the car to rush to his side with a cry of, "Jack!"
Hearing his boyfriend's voice, Jack turned around and smiled as warm arms wrapped around him. He hugged back, just burying his face in Aster's chest and breathing out a sigh of relief.
By the time he pulled back so that he could see his boyfriend's face, Nick had parked the sleigh and the rest of the gang had come to join the duo on the side of the road.
Jack smiled at them, but looked a little embarrassed, too. "Hey guys, I didn't think all four of you would be together when I called Ana."
"Why did you call Ana first, anyway Frostbite?" Aster asked as it suddenly hit him that he hadn't been Jack's go to.
Now the albino looked even more embarrassed. "Mostly because I didn't want you to know yet?"
It was Aster's turn to pull away, letting go of Jack and looking at him with a searching and slightly hurt gaze. "What?"
"I just didn't want to worry you or, well, I didn't want you to feel guilty."
"Guilty?" Aster asked, looking at his boyfriend with pure confusion. "Jack, what happened? All you said on the phone was that something bad had happened and that you needed a lift somewhere."
It was true. Jack had been very sparing on the details once he realized Aster was there, but there was no way he could hide the truth now.
"Well, I only called because I thought I'd have more stuff than this. It turns out that everything I own fits in a duffle bag. Neat, huh?"
Aster just looked more puzzled, but Ana got it. She got it right away. "Everything you… Jack, did the Overlands kick you out?"
"What? Oh, no, they didn't kick me out, I left! Honestly, it was a little more dramatic than I'd hoped, but I've been thinking about doing that since I turned 18. The Overlands are nice, but, well, it was never home and, yeah, the whole gay thing didn't help much..."
Aster looked shell-shocked and it was Jack's turn to wrap his boyfriend in a warm hug as he said, "Hey, it's okay. I'm fine. I shouldn't have even called you guys."
That broke Aster out of his shocked state. "Shouldn't have… Jack, where are you planning to go?"
"A hotel for now," he replied with a shrug.
They all looked at him like he'd lost his mind and Nick said, "You can't be serious."
"Well, where else would I go?" Jack asked with a laugh, as if there were no other possibilities.
"Well, I can think of four other options off the top of my head," Aster replied, gently running his hand along Jack's back as he spoke.
The homeless teen looked around the group and his mouth formed into a tiny 'o.' It was painfully obvious that he hadn't even thought about asking the gang if he could stay with one of them.
"I wouldn't want to impose and your folks…"
"Would be more than fine with it," Ana said. "Now get in the car and come on, we're taking you to my place."
Jack look nervous again and he pulled out of Aster's embrace as he started to stammer, "No, I can't just show up and ask to move in."
"You're not asking, she's offering, Frostbite. Now give me that duffel and get in the car."
Aster grabbed the loosely hanging duffel from Jack as he spoke, ready to take the full weight of it, and the stared at it once it was in his hands. The duffle couldn't have weighed more than twenty or twenty-five pounds. This was everything Jack owned?
"Did you leave some stuff at the Overlands?"
Jack shook his head, looking confused again. "No, why?"
Aster didn't know what to say, he just stared at Jack and tried to process the thought of having so little. Then another thought occurred to him. "What about your laptop?"
"The laptop? Oh, that's the Overlands, they just let me use it for homework and stuff. I loaded everything from it onto a flash drive and then deleted my account."
Aster just nodded as the others looked between the duo, trying to figure out what they should say. Even though they couldn't feel how light the bag was, the fact that it contained everything Jack owned was enough information to make them feel awful.
Sandy finally broke the growing awkwardness by clapping his hands and pointing towards the sleigh with a pointed look. That seemed to lighten the mood enough for everyone to get into jeep with Nick and Ana in the front and the other three taking their now customary spots in the back.
As soon as they were buckled in, Aster wrapped an arm around Jack and held him close, a gesture that the smaller teen welcomed whole heartedly. They spent the entire ride to the Romoli's cuddling as Ana tried to keep the mood light with constant chatter.
The second Jack saw Ana's house the nervous feeling returned and he buried his face in Aster's shoulder before whispering, "I really think you should just take me to a hotel."
"Not on your nelly, mate. Mrs. Romoli would kill us if we did that. Heck, my mom would kill us if we did that!"
Jack just smiled nervously as Nick pulled the car to a stop in the driveway and Aster practically had to drag him out of the vehicle and up the walkway to Ana's home. Once the gang was inside, Ana called out "Mom! Dad!"
The answering cry of "We're in the kitchen, sweetie" had Jack clinging to Aster's hand for dear life.
Luckily, Ana decided that the best method of approach would be for her to talk to her parents first, without the others there, so the four boys stood in the entryway and waited.
They didn't have to wait long and, within minutes, Mrs. Romoli was rushing for the kitchen to pull Jack into a warm hug with a cry of, "Oh, Jack, of course you can stay here!"
Mr. Romoli followed shortly behind his wife and added, "It's not like we don't have the room. This old place has more space than we know what to do with!"
Jack was shocked. He'd honestly expect Ana's parents to polity decline their daughter's request, but he still managed to stammer, "Thank you. I don't wanna be a burden, though. I mean, I can pay rent and…"
"Jack, we would never ask that of you!" Mrs. Romoli exclaimed in what was clearly meant to be a scolding voice. "I don't want you to worry about that."
"No really," Jack said, stepping out of Mrs. Romoli's arms and looking between the two adults. "I can't just live here and mooch of off you. I can at least give you something for food and…"
It was Mr. Romoli's turn to sound exasperated. "Jack, we're not going to have you go out and get a job just so that you can pay us for food."
"A job?" Jack asked with an amused smile. "Why would I need a job?"
Ana raised an eyebrow and answered the question with a bemused statement of "Because money doesn't grow on trees?"
Jack rolled his eyes and was smiling now, his nervousness replaced amusement. "Guys, I'm an orphan, not a street urchin! My parents left me money and there was insurance on our house. I'm not rich, but I have more than enough to pay for my own food."
Everyone looked surprised at the announcement. None of them had considered that Jack actually had money of his own.
"Well, in that case, we'll talk about it later. For right now, let's just get you moved in, okay?"
Mr. Romoli's suggestion was met with approval by all but Jack, whose opinion on the matter was immediately dismissed as Ana sent Nick out to get Jack's duffel and then pulled her new housemate upstairs with a cry of, "Let's go pick out your room!"
A whirlwind tour and several arguments between Ana and Aster later, Jack found himself standing in the middle of a white walled room with a comfortable looking twin bed, a large closet, a spacious desk, and a pinewood chest of drawers.
"This used to be my Aunt Mary's room before she got married and moved out, what do you think?"
Jack looked around the room and smiled. "It's great, Ana, thanks. You really didn't need to do all this, I could have slept on the couch or something."
Sandy rolled his eyes as Ana and Aster gave Jack matching 'are you serious?' looks just as Nick came walking through the door with Jack's duffel.
"This thing weighs less than my school bag."
Jack just shrugged and wordlessly took the bag from the Christmas lover. It was true, he didn't have much, but he'd never really cared about it. A few shirts, some jeans, a jacket, a couple of books, what more did he need?
Then the duffel was snatched out of his hands and Ana was holding it at arm's length, looking at the blue bag as if it was some kind-of anomaly. "Yikes, it really is light!"
"Hey, give that back!"
"No, I wanna see what you have in here."
"Ana." Jack said in a warning tone that made the blonde grin.
"Okay, fine, we'll leave and you can get anything you don't want me to see out, but then I wanna see what's all in here so we know what we need to go and buy."
"…buy?"
"Yeah. Oh, I can pay for it if you don't want to."
"No," Jack said, once again looking stunned. "I don't mind paying, but what could I possibly need? I've got a week's worth of t-shirts and a couple pairs of jeans, that should… be… fine, okay why are you all looking at me like that?"
"A week's worth?" Aster asked as Ana groaned and said "You know, I thought you just had a bunch of the same color t-shirts, I didn't realize that you were wearing the same ones!"
"Is that a bad thing?"
"No, but it's not a good thing either," Ana replied, looking at her frosty-eyed friend with a worry-filled gaze. "What happened when your shirts ripped?"
Jack shrugged and threw the duffle on the bed. "I'd go to the thrift shop and buy a new one, of course. Before I turned 18, the Overlands got a pretty merger allowance from the government to take care of me with, so I always tried to keep my spending cheap."
The gang just stared at him. So that was why Jack's clothing always looked so worn.
"Hey, didn't you say that you were gonna give me some privacy so that I could unpack?" The snowy-haired teen asked with a grin, oblivious to his friend's new-found feelings of, well, not pity, but sorrow. Sorrow that Jack had gone without so much that they took for granted, but they didn't say anything about it. Instead, they just smiled and exited the room.
When they'd closed the door behind them, Aster whispered, "You know, his room at the Overlands looked more like a hotel room than a bedroom."
Ana grimaced at the mental picture and said, "Probably because he didn't feel like he could buy anything for himself."
"Well then, we're just going to have to make sure he doesn't feel that way here!" Nick exclaimed, only to have the others quickly make shushing noises.
Once Nick had whispered an apology, Ana said, "Well, let's go make sure my parents are okay with us redecorating the room and then I have an idea. How fast do you think you three can redo this room?"
The boys grinned and Aster said, "I think I know where this is going."
Ana just grinned right back.