Chapter 7: Thanks I Guess

November 27, 2014

"Thank you…" Lukas heard himself whisper as he pulled away from Mathias' shoulder. He then found himself a little bewildered.

It wasn't how close Mathias was, or the fact that his arms were around him, or even that dreaming look in his eyes; it was how young Mathias looked. He wouldn't have thought about it, but Mathias usually looked more aged. Lukas grew uncomfortable and looked down.

Wait, when did we get here?

"Lukas," Mathias whispered, leaning over to catch his gaze. Lukas looked up just to feel a couple of fingers press under his chin. "I love you, I always have."

Lukas felt tears start running down from his eyes. He couldn't speak, even if he tried yelling.

He felt his heart burning up.

Why couldn't he breathe?

Mathias leaned over, and their lips touched. Lukas felt air fill his chest.

"I…"

Lukas woke up, confused that Mathias had suddenly disappeared and he was in his own bedroom. It took him a few seconds to realize it was one of those vivid dreams he was prone to have a couple times a week of things that have never happened. And in some weird way, he feels as if they had, and they were almost always about Mathias.

"… Love you, too." He finished saying.

He'll have to bring them up to Tino or Matthew someday and get it off his chest. That could wait though; feelings are complicated, and he barely feels like figuring them out anyway. He'll just write this one down in his dream diary just like all the others.

Sitting up, he looked over at the time; 9:18 on Thanksgiving Day.

His family never really celebrated the holiday. They never grew too accustomed to some American 'traditions', and this included Thanksgiving. Mathias' family on the other hand, their attention was grabbed at 'feast'.

This year, like every year, Lukas will visit Mathias' family on Thanksgiving. He had become used to their rather eccentric behavior a long time ago, and he never disliked visiting the Køhlers. He was really happy about it this year because Emil was staying over at Leon's instead of home alone, and they were all meeting up with Berwald, Tino and Nathan for Black Friday shopping at the mall.

And man, he was going to get Mathias some better looking clothes finally.

Oh… Yeah… Maybe something for himself, too.

He sluggishly got out of bed and to the bathroom. To none of his surprise, there stood Mathias; attempting to do his hair and brush his teeth at the same time in nothing but socks and a pair of boxers that were way too tight. Lukas nudged him to his side of the counter and turned on the faucet to wash his face.

"Morning, Lukas," he greeted him with a mouth full of toothpaste.

"Morning Mathias," he splashed his face with the cold water. Mathias handed him the towel.

"Thanks." He muttered, wiping the dampness from his face.

"How'd you sleep?"

"Good, but enough with small talk," Lukas tossed the towel aside. "What time are we leaving to go to your parent's?"

"Hm, around 3, they like to eat early, we're staying until 6 before heading to the campsite at the mall." He spit out the toothpaste into the sink.

"Okay, are you dressing nicely this time?"

"Uhh… Sorta? Ya know you don't have to dress so formally. They're just my parents." Mathias absently brought his comb to his mouth and brushed a lock of his hair with his toothbrush. "Oh, oh shit."

"Here, hold on." Lukas grabbed the thrown away towel and ran it under the faucet. "And I like to dress nicely for occasions." He carefully cleaned the toothpaste from Mathias' hair, holding his head still by his chin.

"Your casual clothes are nice already. Wear that blue gradient sweater with dark jeans or that opaque white shirt with the long coat with the black jeans. Yeah, go with the blazer one, the black jeans go nicely with your boots, and you could wear a tie with it and not have to worry about it not matching. And it really brings out your hairpin that you always insist on wearing. I mean everything else you choose to wear always goes nicely but it really puts together a sophisticated look."

Lukas looked at him, half-glaring but impressed. When did he pay attention to Lukas' fashion choices anyway? Well, Lukas did pay more than too much attention to Mathias' atrocious closet, enough to even replace some of his raggedy clothing with new ones, in hopes he'll dress nicely sometime.

He laid the hand towel on Mathias' head. "Alright, only if I get to pick out what you wear."

"Nothing too tight." Mathias added.

"Like those boxers?" Lukas pointed down at him, Mathias pouted.

"All my other fitting pairs were dirty!"

"Someone needs to wash more."

"I washed my stuff three days ago," Mathias pointed out. "I don't have many fitting pairs."

"Thank goodness we're going shopping, then." Lukas quickly put some toothpaste on his toothbrush and shoved it in his mouth. "I need to go wake up Emil."

"Emil, Emil." With his toothbrush in his mouth. He patted his hands rapidly onto his brother's arm like it was a drum. "Your piece of shit boyfriend's going to be here after lunch, get ready before you're Ivan Braginsky."

Emil turned around, giving Lukas a confused glance with an eyebrow raised. "Braginsky?"

"Russian." Lukas pulled the covers off of him. "You would be rushin'."

"Are you sure it's my boyfriend that's a piece of shit? Because Leon doesn't come up with puns like that like Mathias." Lukas frowned.

"Get out of bed."

Lukas finished getting dressed, and was straightening up his sky blue, white and silver striped tie. Mathias was right; he didn't have to worry any about a matching tie. With a snap, he set his cross pin in its usual spot in his hair.

Mathias walked into the room while struggling to figure out how to zip up his jacket. "Is this even a jacket? How do you work it?" He asked, frustrated.

"Hold on," Lukas walked over and helped him zip and button it up correctly.

"Is this whole zipper and button mess necessary for one jacket?" He asked, adjusting it some.

"Fashion is art, sometimes it's simple, sometimes it's complex. Besides, that's the only large jacket I had that suited you best and went well with that vest and shirt. I just hope your parents can recognize you looking so…"

"Sharp? They'll think you've been dressing me."

"That wouldn't be far off, considering that's exactly what just happened."

"I'm sure they'll love it. Father might tear up some." Mathias peered into the full mirror and began doing his tie.

Lukas went back to making sure his apparel was together. He noticed his black jeans had some specs of dust on it. "Can you pass the lint roller?" Mathias quickly handed over the roller and he fixed up his jeans.

He loosened the dirty, used outer wrapper and tossed it away. He then realized Mathias had some, too. "Let me get you, too." He kneeled down and ran the rolled down one of his legs.

"Hey!" Mathias jumped back from him. "That felt really weird." Lukas reached further and did it again, just for Mathias to step further away from him. "Stop that, they're fine!"

"No, come back." Lukas crawled towards him, waving the lint roller around. Mathias started to run from him. He got up on his feet to chase after him.

"Don't touch me with that! No! No! No!" He yelled as Lukas chased him around the apartment and then back to his room. Lukas tackled him onto his bed; Mathias tried kicking him back and shoving a pillow into his face.

"Sit still, now I have to redo what I already did." With a long sigh, Mathias stopped fighting lifted up one of his legs. Lukas went to work, removing the fuzz from Mathias' slacks.

"Hey Lukas, Leon's here," Emil stepped into the room, stopping to give them both a dirty look. "Well, I'm just going to go now."

"Be safe, call me if you need me." Lukas replied, dropping Mathias' leg. "Have fun." Emil was already out of the door.

"You're really easygoing now, Luke." Mathias sat up, taking the lint roller from his hand. "You used to be so aggressive over where he was and who he's with when your parents left him with you."

"He's almost out of high school now, and trustworthy. He could handle himself." He unclipped his hairpin and fixed up his hair some. "As for you, you're much more of a handful."

"That's not all the way true." Mathias sat up and fixed up the pillows. "You know I'm mature,"

"Even though you sometimes act otherwise, yeah, I do."

"That's because I'm Mathias Køhler, Lukas. Someone has to be me, or else nothing would have ended up like how they are now."

Lukas titled his head to the side. "I feel like you're tossing some sort of deep metaphor at me, and I'm not really getting it. But at the same time I am." He took a deep sigh. "I guess you mean if you weren't so ridiculous, things would be different."

"And I'm happy with how things are now."

Lukas nodded. "So am I." He has some sort of hidden meaning under all this, I know it, Lukas scoffed. He's so weird.

Mathias looked over at the clock. "It's almost 3, I think we should finish getting ready now." Mathias' tone was different when he spoke.

Lukas wanted to ask, but he was right, they needed to finish getting ready.

And feelings are complicated, and he barely feels like figuring them out anyway.

Things were back to normal as Mathias drove them to his parent's house. They lived only 5 minutes away in a neighborhood. Once they pulled up, Lukas could hear the heavy metal that was being played inside.

Mathias took a deep, pleasurable sigh. "Here we go."

"You're acting like you're nervous." Lukas pointed out.

"How so? I'm fine." Lukas set his hand onto his arm.

"You're trembling."

"From excitement, let's go." Mathias held some eye contact before unlocking the door and getting out. Lukas knew he was nervous, but he had no clue why. Mathias was complicated; he wished he could figure him out.

Surely a round of beers and parents who he was close to would fix that.

Lukas rang the doorbell and stepped back. Unfortunately, Mathias' uncle Richard was the one to open the door. "Oh, it's you two."

"Hi Uncle Rick!" Mathias pulled the man into a tight hug. "It's been so long, we missed seeing you last Christmas. Hey, how's Aunt Marie? And Cousin Virginia?" He rambled, his uncle just staring back.

"Yes, now get inside, it's cold out here." Mathias stepped inside, still asking him questions about his side of the family. Lukas only glared at the guy.

He didn't like Uncle Richard. He firmly believed despite how many times he was hard on Mathias because 'his parents didn't get onto him enough' about his 'choices of friends, education, sexuality and the fact he didn't follow through with science like his parents', Mathias probably hated the guy's guts, too.

But Mathias didn't want him to think someone could get to him like that and be angry about it. And Lukas felt like he needed to follow that, too.

Lukas followed Mathias into the house and walked past Uncle Richard, who gave him the same disappointed glance. Lukas licked the corner of his lip and winked at him before taking Mathias' arm and wondering into the kitchen to find his parents.

"Mathias, Lukas! There you guys are." Adeline Køhler hugged them both and attacked their cheeks with kisses. Lukas ran a finger down his cheek to find no trace of lipstick Huh, guess she found a good brand that didn't rub off from all the kissing she does. "Oh, did your uncle open the door for you? Sorry, come sit, please." She was literally yelling over the music for them to hear her.

Mathias took a seat in between Mathias and his father at the large dinner table. They instantly went into conversation.

"How is living together?" Stephan Køhler asked, just loud enough for Lukas to hear, too. Oh right, Lukas thought, this is the first time we both have visited since Mathias moved in.

"It's so great, even better than staying with Gilbert. Lukas is so much cleaner."

"Ah, did he dress you, too?" Mr. Køhler's eyes went to Lukas, smiling. "You're both looking rather sharp."

"He did, and I picked out his outfit." His parents were lost with laughter. Lukas turned a little red.

"Lukas did a good job." Mr. Køhler reached behind Mathias and grabbed Lukas' shoulder. "You know what? I need to give you something." He extended his arm to the bottle of cologne that was sitting on the table in front of him. "I was getting myself some when I thought I should pick up a bottle for you, too. Just because."

Mathias took the bottle. "Wow, thanks dad!" He sprayed some on him, and then sprayed some more. Just before he sprayed again, Lukas grabbed his hand.

"Enough, you'll kill us."

"No I won't, one more spray." Lukas managed the stop Mathias from spraying it again and fought him until he finally got the bottle out of his hand.

"Mathias, it's one mist, then you're good. Or else it's overwhelming."

"But Lukas, I'm overwhelming. It'll only suit me." Mathias' parents laughed even more.

"Enough with your metaphors, you lost your cologne privileges." Lukas stuck the bottle into the coat pocket.

"But… But…" He sadly turned to his dad.

"You heard the man." Mr. Køhler told him, patting his shoulder before leaning over and whispering something into Mathias' ear.

Mathias whispered back to him, or talked. Either way, Lukas couldn't hear what was going on. Before he could lean over enough to hear, Mathias turned back around, barely hitting his cheek onto his. "Oh, sorry. Dad says the meal should be ready soon. Let's go see Bedstefar." Lukas nodded.

Bedstefar, Mathias's never-aging granddad that Lukas adored, was in the kitchen, cutting the ham.

"Bedstefar!" Mathias yelled. Lukas' mouth curved up into a smile. The man set down the knife and pulled them both into a hug.

"Mathias, Lukas! Velkommen!" He exclaimed in his heavy accent.

"It's great to see you again." Mathias told him.

"It's great to see ya and Lukas here. I'm sure ya both would love to get your food first, am I right?"

"Really?" Mathias jittered in excitement.

"Of course we would." Lukas responded.

"Go ahead; I'll go tell everyone the food is done."

During dinner, the music volume was finally turned down. Bedstefar Køhler told stories of his trip to Denmark over the summer, Mathias' little cousins begged their parents to bring them someday, Aunt Marie complained about the music still being too loud and didn't let it go until someone turned it off, and Mathias' 92-year-old grandmother attempted to start a food fight. There were loud, vulgar jokes thrown around, inside jokes and embarrassing moments brought up, and somehow everyone agreed that cranberry sauce may be traditional for the Thanksgiving holiday but it should never show up again next year or the year after. Except for Mathias' cousin, Alex, who ended up offering to take the rest of it home afterwards.

The early dinner was concluded when the music was turned back on, and most everyone sang along to numerous Metallica songs as the kitchen, dining table and dishes were cleaned up.

The whole family continued hanging out in the family room, drinking beer and shouting over the loud music. Lukas and Mathias sat around and took turns explaining their experience at work and living together. For at least an hour, they had the floor as they spoke about the Braginskys, losing and regaining business from Starbucks, Francis and Arthur (Lukas showed up his best impression of Arthur), Mathias brought up his awful puns, and they couldn't quite explain what exactly went down at Francis' Halloween party, but Lukas ended up telling most of it.

When Mrs. Køhler started to speak about her experience at a party a year back, Lukas checked the time. 5:34. He pulled Mathias' sleeve. "We're leaving in about 25 minutes."

Mathias nodded. "That's fine."

"I'm going to go ahead and wash up a little before we do, be right back." Lukas got up and left for the bathroom. He wasn't surprised to see a line, and was glad he didn't wait until 6 to go so they wouldn't be late.

When he got into the bathroom, he quickly washed his hands, face, and fixed his hair some. He managed to find some deodorant and reapply, and he might or might not had used the bottle of cologne that he took from Mathias. He left the bathroom and went back to the family room to not find Mathias where he left him. He looked at the time again; 5:55.

Where could he have run off to? Lukas peered awkwardly at everyone around. His parents and Bedstefar were also nowhere to be found. He walked through the kitchen and peered out the windows. No, not there… He walked down the hallway where their bedrooms were. He heard Mathias' voice from inside his parents' room. He couldn't quite catch what he had said before the door was opened.

"Oh, hey Lukas." He smiled. "Sorry, were you looking for me?"

"Only for a minute."

"Ah, alright." Lukas' eyes moved from him to the other three Køhlers standing behind him. They were looking intently at him. "I have something for you."

"Huh?" He was confused. Where did this come from?

"Close your eyes." Lukas did as he was told. He felt something cold touching his neck as well as Mathias' hands brushing across his neck. "There."

Lukas opened his eyes and looked down. An aged, golden ring hung from his neck on a thin chain. He picked it up and looked at it. Engraved into was Beter laat dan noit.

"It says better late than never. Isn't it cool? It really matches your cross so I thought you might really like it." All four of them were smiling at him.

"I do really like it. Thank you." He looked down and ran his finger across the words. Better late than never. Next thing he knew, Mathias was hugging him. Lukas avoided look directly at his family behind him and hugged him back. After he was released, Mathias turned around to his parents and grandfather.

"We have to go so we don't keep Nathan waiting."

"That's alright, come back and visit soon, okay?" his mother hugged him.

"New years, as usual."

"Bring Lukas, too." Bedstefar embraced them tightly.

"As always." Mathias promised them.

On the way to the mall, Lukas lay back in his seat and played with the ring, moving it around on his finger and running his pointer across the engraved words. He carefully slid it onto his ring finger. Hm, this looks like it fits.

It's around 11 at Berwald Oxenstierna's home. The turkey was in the oven, the corn was finished, the potato salad… It was a work in progress. It was hard for Berwald to cook and make sure the very eager two-year-old was tended to.

Peter was running around his dad's legs when the doorbell rang. He picked his son up when he left to answer the door.

"Happy Thanksgiving." His elderly mother greeted him. A smile appeared on his face.

"Happy Thanksgivin', mom." He helped her inside. Once he closed the door, he set down Peter, who ran right to her.

"Oh, he's growing so fast." She pinched one of his cheeks. "I wonder if he'll end up growing to be close to your height."

"I'm not sure." Ms. Oxenstierna ruffled the boy's hair as Berwald spoke. "He's starting to speak some."

"Really?" Berwald kneeled down by his son and pointed to her.

"Peter, who is this?"

"Grandmommy!" Peter said, excited.

"Good, who am I?"

"Papa!" The doorbell rang.

"Oh, did you invite someone else?" Berwald sat up, picking Peter up again.

"No, go ahead and set your things on the counter." He walked to the door and peeked out the glass window. It was Tino, staring directly at Berwald from behind the door and holding a small white dog.

Berwald sighed and opened the door.

"Hey… So I tried calling." Tino started.

"My phone's on silent, I've been busy." He stated.

"I thought so. I'm so sorry for coming over and basically inviting myself." Tino laughed nervously.

"What happened with your date?" Berwald asked. "And why did you bring Hana?"

"I cancelled, didn't want to go. And well, she's family to me. I can't just leave her out."

"Alright, well come in." He moved out of the way for Tino to come in.

"Who's here Berwald?" His mother called from the kitchen.

"Tino!" Peter answered.

Berwald smiled and kissed the boy's cheek. "Good job, Peter."

Tino spoke to Ms. Oxenstierna and played with Peter and Hanatamago while Berwald finished up on lunch. He set the table and took the turkey out of the oven.

"Everything's ready." He told the three, reaching down to pick Peter up to put him in his seat.

As Berwald filled Peter's plate, Tino gladly helped Ms. Oxenstierna get her food.

"Did you boys have a nice year?" She asked once everyone sat down.

"Mhm!" Tino responded with a mouth full of turkey. "Business has been going very well, despite some difficulty."

"What kinda difficulty?" She asked.

"Mathias being the one who runs it." Berwald answered.

"He's not that bad," Tino commented, Berwald giving him a look. "Okay, he can be pretty bad sometimes. He apparently followed Lukas around for a full day about some joke. Ridiculous!"

"Oh, Lukas. How is he coming along? I really like him."

"Lukas has been doing good. You know they're living together, right?" Tino told her, taking a bite of the potato salad.

"I called it!" She exclaimed, rather loudly.

"Called what?" Tino and Berwald questioned.

"Those two are fucking!" Tino spit out his food and laughed.

"Mom, please, there's a two year old present." Berwald gasped. Ms. Oxenstierna took a sip of her wine and set the cup aside.

"What? He won't remember me saying that. And come on, could someone really put up with Mathias without getting some sort of benefit?"

"She has a point there." Tino added. "And it's plain as day that there is something going on between those two."

"And I rather not think about what that thing is." Berwald frowned. "And their brother lives with him, too."

"True, true."

After lunch, they moved to the family room and watched cartoons, requested by Ms. Oxenstierna. Peter smiled, laughed, and repeated the words spoken on screen while petting the sleeping dog next to him. Tino and Ms. Oxenstierna talked more about numerous things while Berwald half listened in and watched the TV.

It wasn't much but Berwald was satisfied. He was with the three people he loved most, his mother was happy, Tino wasn't forced to be with his awful parents, and his son was surrounded by family he knew would love him the way all families should love their children.

Half an hour before six, Ms. Oxenstierna and Peter had fallen asleep on the couch. Berwald woke his mother up and helped her into Berwald's room to rest.

"Are you two going to leave soon?" She asked.

"Yes, we are."

"I'll look after Peter while you're gone."

"Thanks mom, we're not going to stay long. Peter knows to come in here if he needs something. If he does a dance, that means he needs to pee."

She laughed some. "I got it."

"Can you handle it?"

"Yes, go have fun with Tino." She winked. "His birthday's coming up, too; go buy him something that would put all those boys and girls that want him to shame."

"I'll try." Berwald smiled and scratched the back of his head.

"That's my son."

Berwald came into Peter's room, where Tino was pulling the covers over him.

"You're a good dad, Berwald." Tino spoke without turning around. "Peter can't say it yet but I'm sure you're the something he's most thankful for."

"You think so?" Berwald walked towards the bed and stood next to Tino.

"Yes. Peter's going to be a great kid, I just know it." Tino told him. "I think Miss Brooke made the best decision of her life, and I think out of the five of us, you were the best possible choice to raise Peter. I'm sure Lukas would have done a good job, having Mathias and Emil to help out but Berwald, I kinda wish you raised me."

Berwald felt himself start to get emotional. He wanted to take Tino in his arms and kiss him, maybe skip Black Friday shopping just to be with him.

He turned his head, noting that he was really close to him. I should kiss his cheek… Or maybe his head. He thought, confidently. He leaned down. Here goes nothing.

Tino turned his head some, Berwald instantly stepped back some. "Sorry, did I upset you?" Tino asked.

"No, not at all." He responded. "Thank you for that and um… You can leave Hana here, I'll lay out some newspapers for her."

On the way to Leon's house was quiet. Leon held tightly onto Emil's hand as he led the way. He let go of it when they were a few houses from his driveway.

"Hey Emil," Leon turned his head towards him. "Don't act nervous, my dad isn't going to kill you just… Act…"

"Casual?"

"Straight." Emil didn't reply.

"Sorry Emil, but I don't know how he'll react." Emil sighed and took his hands, stopping Leon from walking any further.

"It's okay, thanks for telling me." He gave Leon a quick kiss. Leon winked and licked his lips.

"We could still do some of that, just not in front of him."

"Got it."

Leon's dad was waiting for them at the door when they arrived. He looked a lot like Leon with brown hair, though it was longer and pulled back in a ponytail, and they had similar dark eyes.

"You're Emil?" He asked.

"Yes sir." Emil replied, nodding.

"Nice to meet you, come in." Emil nervously followed them into the house.

It was a small house, to put it in words. Well taken care of, and just big enough for several small rooms. He followed Leon down a small hallway and into his room.

"So, this is my room." Emil walked in and looked around. It was somewhat messy, with controllers on the floor and an unmade bed, but comfortable. He liked it.

Leon closed the door behind them and hugged him from behind, moving his face towards his to kiss him.

"We have to keep it down or else my brothers or sisters might hear." He whispered.

"Got it."

Leon and Emil spent hours laying on the bed and playing video games, stopping every once in a while to have a discussion or briefly cuddle without distraction.

Leon's siblings didn't know how to knock, and would just walk in suddenly. Surprisingly, none of them questioned why they would scramble away from each other when they walked in. Leon mentioned that Kiku and Mei wouldn't care but he wasn't so sure about Im Yong or Diana. Emil still wanted to be cautious.

Later in the night, they shared a bag of popcorn and ate chicken nuggets that Leon had heated up himself, but mildly burned some along the edges. Around 11, everyone else had gone to sleep, Emil and Leon decided it was time.

They left a note on Leon's pillow that said they had left early for Emil's house because Lukas wasn't feeling well. They carefully snuck out of the window and made their way towards Francis' house.

"Leon slow down," Emil called as he was basically being dragged behind.

"Oh sorry, am I going too fast?" he asked. Emil pulled him closely and planted a full, care-free kiss on his lips.

"No, I just wanted to do that." Emil stated, Leon smiled genuinely. "Thanks for having me over."

"No problem, though I prefer being over at your place."

"Even with my brother and Mathias?"

"Sure, at least we're able to do things more freely." He answered, sadly. Emil hugged him tightly.

"I'm really sorry."

"It's okay, I'm sure things would get better."

Nathan sat outside his tent in the middle of the day during Thanksgiving. Though that damn Alfred Jones had beat him to the first spot by the doors of the mall, causing him to lose his 4 year win streak of being the first one there for Black Friday, things weren't all that bad. He was cozy, wrapped in his sister's fleece blanket that was covered in bunnies, and he had a box of leftover turkey and ham that his sister had come by and left him.

There wasn't a meal to be missed, luckily. Belle simply buys it already prepared the day before and eats it with her husband and sends some over to Nathan. He was thankful for his sister, and that's all the thanksgiving he felt like he could tolerate.

And the turkey is pretty damn good this year, so that makes everything a little better.

Earlier

After Lukas sat up and made his way out of the room, Mathias instantly turned his attention towards his mother. She quickly ended her story and motioned him to come with her, along with his Bedstefar and father.

Next thing he knew, they all three had sat him down on the bed in his parents' room.

"Mathias," his father sighed. "Have you told him?"

"No." Mathias looked down, nervously.

"We're not angry with you, or even disappointed. Nothing like that, but this has been going on for over a year…"

"Two years," Mathias corrected. "Well, one year and 11 months. Two years December 29th."

"Mathias," Bedstefar grasped his attention. "You've never had an issue with going about your feelings before."

"I know, I know, but this is Lukas, who I'm living with currently and… Been friends with for countless years. I'm going to tell him, I swear."

"You keep saying you are." Mr. Køhler sighed. "I'm sorry, Mathias. We really should let you handle this and not intervene."

"It's fine, I need to talk to someone about these feelings. You three are the best at this. But I swear, this time, I'm going to tell Lukas I'm in love with him. I'm going to tell him right, and at the correct moment, and I'm going to make sure that moment happens."

"Don't expect everything to go perfectly, son. But I'm sure you'll do fine, maybe cry some, but if Lukas hasn't already felt the same back, he would probably fall harder than he has before."

Mathias took a deep breath and smiled. "I probably need to head back just in case Lukas is done in the bathroom."

"Wait." All attention was back on Bedstefar. "I have something." He held out his hand to Lukas. When Mathias opened up his, a ring was placed in his hand. He looked closely at it.

"Beter laat dan noit… Better late than never?"

"Yes, fitting isn't it? I just happened to find it in your grandmother's old jewelry stash. Keep it for yourself or put it on Lukas, doesn't matter to me. I just thought you might like it."

"I do." Mathias stared at it for a second. "I… Mom do you have a chain to put it on?"

"Oh sure, let me go get one." Mathias looked down at the ring again. I have big plans for this ring, he thought to himself.

Bedstefar = Grandfather in Danish

I thought about writing a Black Friday chapter, but I'm just not feeling it.

Anyway, here are some notes on the chapter:

Nathan takes extreme measures and literally sets up his spot in line during Thanksgiving to get into the mall first when it opens up on Friday.

And he's gotten away with it for over four years.

I changed Peter's age to 2 to correspond better with the flow for this chapter and for reasons that has to do with future chapters.

I can't say much about Lukas and Mathias. Everything will make sense eventually.

Happy Thanksgiving, though I hate this holiday. I can't believe I even wrote a chapter with the theme being 'thanks' 'giving'. Many apologies.

But I hope you all, those who celebrate it or are forced to and those who don't celebrate it or never even heard of it, had a lovely day anyway.

And for those who don't know, it's a day 'to give thanks for the stuff we have' or so they tell us. It really actually started with genocide but I don't want to stop a parade or anything.

Just kidding, I was totally watching it in hopes protesters would show up.

Seriously, I hate this holiday and I'm not happy with America, my home, at the moment.