'Twas the Night
A/N: A few things about this story. I hate that this even needs to be mentioned but, Otis is alive (yay!), Foster does not exist in this canon, Stella exists but she and Severide are not together. Hope you enjoy, please read and review!
Kelly Severide couldn't contain the minor shock and disbelief on his face when he'd heard Casey's sudden revelation.
"You're, you're moving out?" he asked.
"Kelly, I've been here almost a year," Casey said, "it's-"
"I told you it was fine," Severide cut him off, not understanding where this was coming from, "I told you you could stay here as long as you wanted."
"And I have, and you have no idea how much I appreciate it," Matt told him, "but it's time I get my own place again, Kelly. I miss having my own home."
Kelly sighed and slowly nodded, "You're right, I'm sorry...I get it..." he sighed again, "When?"
"I've been looking at some places for rent...there's one tomorrow I want to check out, and if it works out, I'd probably be moving in at the first of the month."
Kelly wasn't sure how to respond. He merely nodded and said quietly, "Okay."
Casey let out a small laugh and couldn't resist commenting, "You're so cute when you're upset."
"I'm not upset."
Casey looked at him knowingly.
"It's been great having you here," Kelly told him.
"It's been great having a place to stay after my apartment burnt down," Casey replied, "Seriously, I don't know what I'd have done if you hadn't let me stay."
"You would've been fine," Kelly responded.
"I don't know...I've really needed this, Kelly," Casey told him.
"If it doesn't work out...or anything happens," Kelly said, "you can always come back here."
Casey nodded. "Thank you." He closed the gap between them and hugged Kelly.
"Will you come with me tomorrow?" he asked as he pulled back.
"Sure, why?" Kelly asked.
"Well, I figure you'll probably be spending the night so it's only fair you have some say in where that's going to be," Casey answered.
Kelly chuckled.
2 weeks later-
Casey answered the door and saw Kelly standing in the hall carrying a pizza and wings and a pack of beer. "So you settled in yet?"
"Getting there," Casey said as he held the door open for Kelly to walk in.
Kelly looked around. Casey had finally put his insurance settlement to good use and gotten new furniture, it was nice, it was him, but...he couldn't help noticing the place was still a bit sparse.
"So what do you think?" Casey asked.
"I like it," he said as he headed for the kitchen.
"It still needs a few things, but it's coming along," Matt replied.
"Yeah well, at least tonight you don't have to cook." For that matter, Kelly stepped over to the fridge and looked in. Typical Casey, looked like he hadn't been doing much cooking anyway.
They got their plates dished up and sat on the new couch to watch TV.
"So..." Kelly cleared his throat halfway through the meal, "is anybody coming over for Christmas?"
Casey shook his head, "Christie's going out of town, Violet's at the age where she's hardly home as is and the holidays aren't an exception, and my mom decided to get involved so she's volunteering at a battered women's shelter."
"Points for originality," Kelly commented. He looked around the living room with its wide open gaps between the furniture and asked, "You getting one of those artificial trees?"
"Nah," Casey said, "I don't feel like going to all the trouble...maybe next year."
Kelly just nodded.
"It's already been a lot to adjust to," Matt told him.
"I get it," Kelly replied.
He'd had a lot to adapt to himself now that Casey had moved out, and he was still adapting. He still hadn't gotten used to the heavy silence of his apartment when he came home at night or when he got up in the morning and Casey wasn't there to talk to; there wasn't somebody else running the water in the shower or making the pans on the stove hiss and sizzle by cooking breakfast, or unlocking the front door to get the paper, or having the buzzing of his razor leaking through the bathroom wall and directly behind the headboard of Severide's bed. Kelly had known that things would be different without Casey there, but he hadn't known how lonely it was going to be. He had just gotten so used to having a roommate to talk to, to head to work with, to debate what to pickup for dinner, to watch TV with on the nights that neither of them had any plans, some nights when they were really bored they dug out a game and wound up ready to strangle each other over who had the high score. He'd even gotten used to the times Casey fell asleep on the couch and he was left to decide whether to leave him there or wake him up and send him off to his room. A couple of times he'd taken a third option and without waking Casey up, somehow, picked him up from the couch and carried him to his room and put him to bed.
Looking back now he wondered how he survived all those years he was on his own and nobody stayed past the night or maybe a couple days.
"Kelly."
"Huh?" the sound of his name drew him out of his thoughts and he blinked and turned to Casey, "Sorry, what?"
"I said is everything alright?" Matt asked.
Kelly nodded, "Yeah, everything's fine."
Casey crept out of his bedroom and tried to make his way to the kitchen without waking Kelly. Between them they'd drunk the whole pack of beer and he'd pointed out it would be a smart idea for Severide to stay the night and drive back in the morning. Kelly had agreed and had made himself comfortable on the couch, and he was still there sawing logs at that very moment.
Matt was still memorizing the layout of the apartment so he felt his way along to work in the dark instead of turning on the light. He got a glass from the shelf over the sink, got a drink of water, downed half of it in one swallow, refilled his glass to the top, and then headed back to his room.
He heard Kelly turning over on the couch, and suddenly his snoring stopped.
"Matt?"
"Sorry," Casey said as he stepped over to the couch, "I was trying not to wake you."
"You didn't."
"What's wrong?"
He heard Kelly scooting around on the couch and he answered, "It's chilly in here."
"Yeah, sorry about that, the thermostat's been acting up," Casey said, "I'll get you another blanket."
"You know that offer to come back is still good," Kelly said, even though Casey was already out of earshot.
A minute later he heard Casey's footsteps return and felt something heavy dropped on him.
"Try this one, it should help," Casey told him.
Kelly grabbed at the blanket and unfolded it, it felt vaguely familiar, but something didn't seem right. "Where's that fleece one you had last winter?"
After Casey lost everything in the apartment fire, he'd reluctantly accepted help from Herrmann and Cindy, who provided him with enough essentials to start getting back to something resembling normal. Cindy, God bless her, had had the presence of mind to know winter in Chicago was a brutal time and gotten him a heavy fleece blanket among the clothes and other daily necessities, which had seen heavy use while he was sleeping on Severide's couch.
"Fell apart in the washer," Matt answered matter-of-factly.
"Oh. Are you warm enough?"
"Yeah," Casey answered, Kelly wasn't sure whether he sounded convincing or not, and for the moment he was too cold and tired to really care.
"Goodnight, Kelly."
"Goodnight," he responded as he burrowed under the covers.
Kelly waited until he heard the bedroom door close, then he dug his arms out from under the blankets and folded them behind his head as he stared up at the pitch dark ceiling, and started to brainstorm.