A/N: Hello all! I hope summer is going well for everyone! Mine has been busier than I thought but I'm still enjoying it, so I guess I can't really complain! This chapter takes place during our favorite Avocados' third year. Happy super early or super late Christmas, whichever way you'd like to look at it. As always, let me know what you thought and if you have any ideas you'd really like to see, otherwise enjoy the latest installment!
"Iiiii'lll be hoooome for Christmaaas!"
Matt cringed before he'd barely set foot in the apartment complex, the singing only growing louder and more obnoxious as he got closer to his actual room. His roommate was the loudest person he'd ever met. "I have never wished to be deaf more than at this moment." Matt said as he walked through their door.
Foggy either didn't hear him or chose to blatantly ignore him. "Hey Matt! Guess what?"
"I assume you're going to tell me."
"I am officially done with classes, and fully packed and so ready to go home!"
"I'm not sure if we'll be able to," Matt couldn't resist, "what with all this snow we're getting."
"What!" Foggy demanded, whirling around to stare at the sunny sky and snow-less ground. "Dude, totally not cool!"
"I'm sorry." Matt said between laughs, choosing not to dodge the pillow that came soaring at his face, but not acting nearly as surprised as a blind man should have.
Foggy wasn't even phased. He'd seen Matt do a crazy number of things in the three years they'd been living together. "So aside from nearly giving me a heart attack, what are your plans for the afternoon?"
"Well, I've got to finish a paper and submit it before we leave, but other than that nothing, why?"
Foggy shrugged, "Just curious. I have no plans, I didn't know if you wanted to do anything."
Matt sighed, dismayed. "Ya know, I'd love to but I'm actually stupidly behind on this assignment. I haven't even finished writing it yet and I'll still have to edit it-"
"Do you want help?" Foggy questioned readily.
"No Foggy, you should go out, have some fun."
"What fun can I have without my wingman? Besides, I wouldn't feel right, going out and having a good time while my poor friend suffers alone."
Matt shook his head with a shrug, "If you're volunteering." He said as a word of warning before heading to his bedroom, dropping his bag next to the door unceremoniously. Foggy briefly wondered how Matt never tripped over any of the things he decided to just drop on the floor, but decided he really didn't need to know.
With a small nod and a smile Foggy followed Matt through the doorway. He knew how long it took Matt took finish papers, typing them up, printing them, editing them, then meticulously going through them line by line to correct his mistakes. Then because Matt was a masochist – 'thorough Foggy'- he'd repeat the whole process. It took literally forever and Foggy had offered up his services on more than one occasion but was usually turned down.
It spoke volumes to just how much Matt wanted to get out of there, or how very far behind he was, that he accepted Foggy's offer at all.
The night ended up being a long one, with Matt and Foggy both dozing off on multiple occasions. Matt hard-core fell asleep as Foggy was combing through the paper for errors, so Foggy just fixed the ones he found and printed the finally completed assignment off himself. When he went back into the living room, Matt had yet to stir.
"Matt." Foggy called, placing the paper on their small kitchen table. "Matt wake up."
Matt mumbled something unintelligible before attempting to readjust himself on the couch.
"Matt come on, you know you hate when I don't make you sleep in your own bed."
"I's'not as comf'table." Matt grumbled. He was referring to their couch, but it was only because they'd had the conversation before that Foggy understood what he meant
"You've told me as much. Come on, up and at 'em!" Foggy called a little louder, patting Matt's leg.
With a large sigh and what appeared to be all the effort in the world, Matt shoved his body upright.
Foggy would have laughed at the unkempt flop of Matt's hair had he not been immediately distracted by the large, dark circles under his eyes, normally hidden behind his glasses. "Dude, have you been sleeping at all this week?"
"Finals, no time to sleep." Matt replied, a little more intelligibly as he stretched his arms above his head and failed to hold back a mighty yawn.
"One of these days you're gonna regret pushing yourself this hard. Lack of sleep can mess with your immune system, or something like that."
Matt smiled gently, standing and shuffling his way towards his bedroom.
Foggy followed close behind, wanting to make sure Matt made it to his bed before face-planting. He did, more or less. Foggy simply shook his head in fond bemusement before heading to his own room to get some much needed sleep.
Foggy awoke late the next morning, having purposefully turned his alarm off the night before. He wasn't all that surprised to find his roommate up, dressed, and fully packed. Matt was such a morning person and it both pissed Foggy off and made him jealous all at the same time.
"Hey, I just have to turn in my paper and I'll be ready to go." Matt informed before Foggy could utter a word.
"Dude, I am not even dressed yet."
"I know." Matt chuckled. "I just wanted to let you know. You were so excited to leave yesterday, I figured it'd be good if we could get out of here as quickly as possible."
"Matt, you got up early to pack didn't you?" Foggy sighed, "Now I feel bad, you could've slept in, I don't care when we leave-"
"Foggy," Matt interrupted his friend's tirade with a fond smile, "I would also like to get out of here."
"Oh. Well in that case what are you still doing here? Go turn in that paper!"
It didn't take Matt terribly long to cross campus and turn in his paper, but when he returned to their apartment it was to find the dishes done and the trash taken out.
"Wow, Mr. Nelson I'm impressed."
Foggy beamed from his seat at the kitchen table but his smile soon fell. "Wait, I'm not sure if I should feel insulted or not."
"Definitely not."
"Okay good! Alright, the apartment's all taken care of. I'm ready if you are!"
"More than, let's his the road!"
With their bags tucked securely in the trunk, Matt and Foggy settled into the car; the drive wasn't very far which was nice, and soon enough they were pulling into the Nelson's driveway.
"Huh." Foggy voiced thoughtfully. "And here I figured we'd be one of the last."
"Who else is here?"
"Hardly anyone. I think that's Uncle Richie's car, and he always brings Uncle Lawrence, Aunt May and Josh, but that's it."
"Weird, I wonder what the hold-up is."
"Mom will know!" Foggy stated confidently, pulling his keys out of the ignition and popping the trunk.
Together the two friends dragged their luggage inside, plopping it next to the front door. It would have to go upstairs eventually but with the house so empty the bags weren't in the way yet.
"Mom!" Foggy shouted by way of greeting, already making a bee-line for the kitchen. Matt followed mostly out of habit, navigating the layout of the Nelson home with practiced ease. Ever since Matt had tripped over the corner of a table that usually rested in the far corner of the house, Rosalind had been careful to keep her furniture arranged in the same way so that Matt wouldn't have to worry when he visited.
"Hey honey!" Rosalind called in response to Foggy shout, sounding happily surprised. "I didn't know when to expect you."
"That's because I didn't know when to expect me. This one had to finish a paper before we could leave." Foggy responded, hugging his mom mid-sentence and grimacing when he placed a gentle kiss on his cheek.
"Matthew." Rosalind admonished in her 'disappointed mother' tone that never ceased to make Matt feel sheepish. "Too much partying and not enough studying?"
"Not enough time for either." Matt replied honestly, accepting the warm hug Rosalind gave as a standard greeting. "The end of the semester kind of snuck up on me."
Rosalind laughed deeply, her head tipping back and long hair swinging with a pleasant swish. "That's so unlike you, normally you're on top of this kind of thing."
"I had a lot of papers and those always take a long time to finish."
"You have an able-bodied roommate who just wastes air otherwise." Rosalind ignored her son's indignant squeak, "Put him to good use."
"Foggy was actually most helpful last night."
"See, not a complete waste of air!" Foggy huffed, crossing his arms over his chest in mock anger.
"I'm glad to see you're making something of yourself dear." Rosalind dead-panned, leaving Foggy sputtering. "Anyway, you boys make yourselves at home, help yourselves to snacks all that jazz."
"Sure thing!" Foggy called happily, already helping himself to a handful of candy from the jar on the table. "Oh hey mom, where is everybody?"
"Rich, Lawrence, May and Josh are in the basement getting some lights and dishware for tonight, your Aunt Stacey's car broke down so Rob and Tristen went to pick her up." Rosalind began, turning her attention back to the slowly boiling pot of pasta on her stove top. "Curtis, Chris, Jose and Mark are vacationing in Hawaii for the holiday, Marvin, Cassandra, Chelsey, and Mark just called and they're running late. Carter had to stay home because both Taylor and Melony have the flu. And Sabrina, Kyle and Sophie are spending the holiday with Sabrina's family this year."
"Wow. So it's gonna be a small crowd this year."
"Oh yes, much smaller than it's been for quite some time."
Foggy's face lit up with an excited smile. "Does that mean we can do it this year?"
Rosalind shrugged, striding back across the kitchen and picking up her bowl of partially mixed brownie batter before Foggy could get his hands on the spoon. "I don't see why not. The weather's even good today."
"Yes!"
Matt's eyebrows dove in confusion, he had definitely missed something. "Wait, do what this year?"
"Go caroling!" Foggy informed happily. "Last year the weather was obviously too bad and the year before we had way too many people, but before the family was enormous it was a Nelson tradition! We'd go every year."
"Oh." Matt nodded, feigning an excited smile. "Sounds fun!"
Foggy's smile fell and his heart puttered in the way it always did when he could tell Matt was feeling uncomfortable, mixed feelings of rage and the urge to protect waring within him. "Hey, what's up?" He questioned gently.
Matt shrugged, he could feel both Foggy's and Rosalind's eyes focused on him and knew there would be no escaping. "It's just, I don't really know that many carols."
"Is that all?" Foggy laughed at the same moment Rosalind put a comforting hand on Matt's shoulder, "That's not a problem sweetie."
"Honestly, most of us don't really know the words, we just do it to have fun. I mean, half of us are tone-deaf as is."
"What songs do you know? We probably know the same ones." Rosalind questioned, trying to make Matt feel better.
"A handful of the ones from Church, but not a lot apart from that."
"Let's hear one!" Foggy said happily, snagging another handful of candy.
"Oh, um." Matt paused, momentarily flustered under the sudden pressure. "O come O come Emmanuel," Matt began softly, cheeks reddening, but as he continued the song he'd sung so often as a child his voice grew steadily stronger. "And ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here, until the son of God appear. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee O Israel." Matt paused after completing the verse, biting his lip and shuffling his feet in apprehension at the silence that followed.
"Matt," Foggy finally broke the quiet with an amazed laugh, "You're freaking amazing!"
Matt's cheeks flushed even darker and he ducked his head in an attempt to avoid the attention. "I'm not that good."
"I may be tone-deaf," Richie's voice called from the doorway, "but I know enough to recognize talent when I hear it. You got a pretty decent voice there kid."
"Did you take lessons?" May questioned.
"No." Matt responded quietly.
"Seriously? Well I know who we'll have to have in front when we go out caroling." Larry joked, but the others readily agreed.
Matt smiled softly to himself, his cheeks still burning, but a warm sensation had settled in the pit of his stomach. He'd never been caroling before, but he had a sneaking suspicion he was going to enjoy it.