Chapter Summary: An unexpected blizzard results into an unexpected first Thanksgiving for Scott and Conrad; now if Scott could only figure out if they're actually dating...

New Haven, CT

Late 2047

Scott was in a sour mood. It was bad enough that he had a professor who decided to hold an exam that was worth one third the course's final grade on the last possible day before Thanksgiving break, but the weather was conspiring to keep him from joining his family in New York City. A blizzard was threatening and it simply just would not be safe to fly, not even the short hop from New Haven to New York City. They were even shutting down the railways as precaution. Drive there? His Dad threatened to disown him if he did something so foolhardy.

It wasn't like he'd be completely alone and forlorn in the dorms, but somehow a Thanksgiving dinner in the dining hall just didn't do it for him. For one thing, without marshmallow fluff (banned because of an 'incident') you couldn't sculpt Cap'n Crunchtm into a turkey.

"You could come over and stay at my place," Conrad had finally said quietly, sitting on Scott's bed and listening to him fuss and fume, "I was just planning on making turkey soup and a pie for dessert, but at least it wouldn't be the dining hall. Worse comes to worse we'd get snowed in until Sunday."

Now Scott felt a twinge of guilt. He still didn't know whole story, but he did know Conrad was an orphan and he had just spent, of gods, forty-five minutes complaining about not being able to see his family now, when he would be able to be with them for nearly an entire month in just a few weeks.

Conrad would be alone for winter break.

And Scott didn't know how to feel about that. Asking Conrad to come stay with the Tracys could be a dangerous thing to do if the tabloids got wind of it, and potentially awkward since Scott still hadn't figured out if they were dating or not. His mind drifted back to a call he had with his Mom only two days ago before the threat of the blizzard had blown up.

"Hello Scott," Lucy smiled as her eldest appeared on her phone, "how's life?"

"Hi Mom," Scott smiled back, and then frowned, "can you tell Dad and Kyrano to scale the 'stalking' back? I know you guys don't want a repeat of last semester, and I know it's for my own safety, but, uh, the agents they've hired are getting spotted, and it making Con…me paranoid."

"Hmm, darling?" Lucy raised an eyebrow, pretended she misheard, and innocently asked, "who's conning you?"

"Mommm," Scott pouted.

"Oh Scott, since you brought it up, yes, we don't want a repeat of last semester, but you haven't even told us who you're dating yet, and we know you're dating someone, sweetie. It's just you're usually running off at the mouth about them by now," Lucy chuckled, "and you know Kyrano worries something fierce."

"Yeah, but," Scott sighed, and looked embarrassed, "that's the thing, I don't know if I'm dating someone right now."

"What?!" it was a rare event that one of Lucy's sons surprised her, and Scott almost wished he had his phone on record.

"Yeah, Mom," Scott shrugged, "I don't know if I'm dating Conrad. And I know you know his name, date of birth and probably his favorite breakfast cereal, by now."

"Scott, you've been running all around New Haven with him, eating together, you've even slept over at his apartment, and no I don't want any more information than that, all but joined at the hip when you're not in class for three weeks now, and you don't know if you're dating him?" (Years later Scott would hear that disbelieving tone echoed in John's voice every now and again, and just miss their Mom so much.)

"Yep, that's pretty much what I've been asking myself, and Mom, we were studying for a mid-term, I slept on his couch."

Lucy stared at her son for a moment then face-palmed.

"And now you're afraid to ask right?"

"Not exactly an easy thing to bring up," Scott admitted, "I mean, I wanna be dating, but I also don't want to lose this friendship if I'm wrong. I know Conrad hasn't had a lot of friends. Conrad's…Conrad's a little like John, I don't think he quite catches all the social cues," then Scott looked sharp again, "But he's even better than I am at noticing people watching us a little too closely. He's slightly paranoid that the GDF are checking up on him to make sure he's going to live up to what they expect of him."

"The GDF?"

"Kyrano must be slipping; yeah, the GDF," Scott grinned, "he's an officer candidate. They sent him here to the Law School. He studied undergraduate over in the UK and got his degree waaay early, Mom. He's planning…"

Lucy listened to Scott babble on with a smile, this was how Scott normally acted about someone he was interested in.

"Scott? Earth to Scottie?"

Oh he liked when Conrad called him Scottie.

"Sorry, I, uh, I, uh, yeah, yeah, I'd like that," Scott smiled, dimples out in full force.

Conrad eyed him for a moment before laughing a bit.

"Okay, so pack your things and let's get over there before the snow really starts blowing."

Conrad's apartment was small. A small main room with a small kitchen area, a smaller bedroom (Scott's reasonable sure it was originally a walk-in closet), and a bathroom. But it would definitely be better than staying in his college, and besides Conrad's couch was large, probably too large for the space, and squashy and more comfortable that his bed in his dorm ever could dream of being.

Scott was slowly waking up on that squashy couch to a heavenly aroma. He didn't remember falling asleep; he was still wearing yesterday's clothes. He remembered being absolutely astounded by the near solid wall of white blowing outside the windows. And he remembered hunkering down on the couch and watching one of the kaiju movies that Conrad was so fond of – a flying, fire-breathing turtle. But now he had a pillow tucked under his head and two soft warm blankets covering him, and the heavenly scent of spicy cooked apples wafting through the small apartment. Oh, there was a hint of bacon and coffee too. He could get use to waking up this way far too easily.

"You awake yet?" Conrad asked softly, leaning over the back of the couch to gently jostle Scott's shoulder.

Scott pondered just replying, and just snuggling down further, but he yawned.

"Yeah. What smells so good?"

"Pie filling," Conrad replied automatically, "You want some coffee?"

"Yeah," Scott sat up and stretched, and found himself closer than he expected to Conrad.

And there was a moment when everything went perfectly still between them, and then Conrad was gone. Gone to get coffee, leaving Scott kicking himself. He should have done something. Maybe not kiss him, but push Conrad's hair out of his eyes and let his hand linger on Conrad's face, or even put a hand on his shoulder and hold him there just a fraction longer. Anything really. Anything that might give him a hint, or possibly give Conrad a clue.

When a mug of coffee and plate of French toast and bacon appeared in his eyeline, Scott turned so he properly sitting on the couch, and took both gratefully, setting the coffee on a small side-table. He forked up a bit of french toast, then another, and before he realized it he wolfed done the lot of it.

"Where did you learn how to cook?"

"One of the au pairs liked to cook and let me help her. I developed a love of cooking and baking from her; very useful when I was on my own," Conrad laughed, "Delfina was also so appalled at what the Legals were feeding me, that she made sure before she left that I had a lot of child friendly cook-books stashed away," he sighed, "she was one of the ones that didn't last long."

"The Legals?" Scott ask hesitantly.

"My legal guardians," and Scott could hear the disdain and pain in Conrad's voice, "allegedly they raised me. I saw them maybe once a week in passing, and actually spoke with them once in a blue moon. Usually telling me what a burden I was and a weird one at that. I don't know why they took me on, they never wanted children anyway."

The finality of that statement was a like the chop of an axe.

"How did you sleep?" Conrad switched subjects, leaving Scott to try and respond while processing what Conrad had just revealed as little as it had been.

"Uh, good, you know I want to steal this couch and take it back to my dorm."

"Couldn't get it up the stairs, Scottie," Conrad snorted.

"How did you get it up the stairs?" Scott challenged.

"Arcane rituals of dark engineering."

Scott laughed.

"So that heavenly aroma I'm smelling is pie filling?"

"Yep, I was originally was going to make a sweet potato pie, but then you got stuck here, and I remember you saying something about apple pie being your favorite," Conrad shrugged, "I thought you should have one thing that you'd usually have."

"Thank you," Scott was genuinely touched that Conrad remembered something he had just barely mentioned in passing, "Sweet potato pie? Don't like pumpkin I take it?"

"No, not at all," Conrad chuckled, "Well, not if the pumpkin pulp comes from a can, and sugar pumpkins are pain find sometimes."

"Sugar pumpkins?"

"Bred for pie-making, about yay-big," Conrad made a roughly eighteen-centimeter orb shape with his fingers, "sweeter than a typical pumpkin. Just a sec,' and Conrad rushed off, leaving Scott wondering if he was actually going to get an example.

Instead Scott heard some relieved muttering from the stove, and then Conrad came back.

"Didn't want that filling burning; you wouldn't get your pie."

Later That Day.

So, it wasn't the usual Thanksgiving feast Scott usually had with his family, but the Thai-inspired turkey noodle soup had been excellent, and the apple pie was one of the best Scott had ever tasted. He did miss some of the traditional sides, but he wasn't going to complain.

It was still snowing, and the weather service was warning that the blizzard was going to last longer than was originally thought, at least until through Saturday.

"I don't think I can get back to the college in this. I might be here a while," Scott gestured to the window as he relaxed back into the sofa, "if that's okay?"

"I did say the worst thing that could happen is you get stuck here until Sunday, and I don't want to face what your family would do to me if I let you try to go out there," Conrad snorted, and settled on the couch himself. Close enough to Scott that Scott could easily reach over and pull him to his side. But without the excuse of Conrad falling asleep, as he had done once, Scott didn't know if he could or even should.

So, they sat there, the only sound the muffled roaring on the wind outside, watching the snow dancing and blotting out the rest of the world. Scott took a deep breath and began to turn to Conrad, when his phone blared out:

IT'SFAMILYTIME!IT'SFAMILYTIME!IT'SFAMILYTIME! Over and over again in the most obnoxious and loud synthesized voice possible.

Conrad startled and looked at the phone like it was bomb about to go off. He hurriedly got off the couch and pointed to his bedroom.

"I'll just, uhm, go, uhm yeah," and he retreated into his bedroom, closing the door.

Scott was going to kill Gordon for programing that ringtone into his phone for Dad's number.

Still he answered with a joyful.

"Hi guys!"

Because all of his family was in the call's projection field, and after the first few chaotic moments he able to a few moments with each member, although Alan was cuddled against their Mom.

Most of the questions had been if he had eaten dinner (Yes, and it had been very good, although Gordon was disdainful of the notion of having just soup for Thanksgiving) and if he was warm and safe (yes, and with his best friend, well what else could he call Conrad at the moment? and he had had to endure a knowing eyebrow and wink from his Mother, and a bit of glare from Kyrano.) He did think his chat with Virgil was a little odd, Virgil being more truculent than he usually was, but Scott couldn't give it much thought before he was handed off to John, who dutifully gave him a truthful run down, and mentioned he had to handle a few bullies bothering Virgil.

Most people upon meeting John and Virgil, typically thought John would be the one who had to deal with bullies, but really all John had to do was tilt his head, smile puzzledly, and look at the attempted bully – even the densest of bullies' lizard brain started screaming that was exactly the bemused look the big thing with the teeth and the claws gave before swatting them with a massive paw.

Virgil, kind Virgil was an easier target. That he had no problem letting his gentle and artistic side show and unfortunately that was catnip to sneakier, cleverer bullies. Scott use to intercede, and now John stepped up, although John's methods were subtler.

"…also Gordon finally realized the lobsters in the restaurant's tank weren't just for display," John said with exasperation, "we had a bathtub full of lobsters last night after a midnight 'rescue' mission."

Scott snorted and smiled fondly.

"He still had one with dinner, didn't he?"

"Yes," John smiled himself, "ah, Dad wants the phone back now. See you at Christmas Scott!"

Jeff Tracy appeared in the projection field, affection and worry warring on his features.

"You gonna be able to get back to your room safely?" he asked, every inch the concerned Father, and not without due cause, "The snow still bad here and they say it's worse in New Haven."

"I'm going to stay put. Conrad's fine with me staying with him as long as I need to," Scott replied, realizing maybe he should have phrased that differently.

"Is he now?" Jeff gave a slight chuckle.

"Dad," Scott groaned, then softly continued, "like I told Mom I just don't know if Conrad's interested."

"Scott," Jeff sighed, "just ask him. If he's the guy you think he is, even if he isn't interested, I don't think he'll take offence."

"You've never met him," Scott reminded his Father, "you've just read reports."

Jeff winced.

"Just talk to him, Scott."

A few more moments wrapped up the call, everyone once again on the line saying their farewells.

With the quiet restored, Conrad cautiously stepped back into his living room.

"Good call?"

"Yeah, good call," Scott nodded, and thought for a moment about what his Dad had said. There really was no time like the present, and Jeff was right: he just needed to ask, "my Dad gave me some advice. I need to ask you something."

Conrad looking a bit worried, gestured with his hand for Scott to continue.

Scott took a deep breath and rose from the couch.

"Are we dating?"

Conrad blinked, then he started to laugh, but he was smiling and nodding.

"I'm glad you asked that," he admitted, "I never would have the courage. I mean you did flirt with me back when you first admired my bike, but some people are just like that and I wasn't certain and…" he continued to babble, until Scott actually covered his mouth with his hand.

"Yes, or No, Conrad," Scott stared into Conrad's eyes, "I know I want to be dating you, but I need to know if you feel the same."

Conrad stared back for a moment and then raised an eyebrow, tilting his head a little.

"Oh, right," Scott removed his hand.

"Yes, definitely Yes."

They both sighed in relief, looked at each other and laughed. What are pair of idiots they were.

Hopefully a matched pair though.

"Where do we go from here?"

"Keep doing what we've been doing?"

"Good plan."