Rain was pouring down outside the windows, trying its hardest to be snow but settling somewhere in the middle for slush. It was late at night and Luke and Christopher were sleeping under all of the blankets close together, both still just a little cold. Christopher was blissful but Luke was dreaming of screaming and coldness that broke the bounds of temperature.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Luke screamed, throwing clothes at Christopher who was trying to walk closer to him.

"It slipped my mind okay! I didn't spend time thinking about it!"

"How does something like that slip your mind? You lied to me! For years, you lied to me!" Luke was crying, tears of anger and betrayal.

"It's not a big deal!"

"It's a big fucking deal, Christopher!"

"I don't want to go out anywhere with you," Luke said coldly, staring at the television.

"Luke, these people want to invest in the shop," Christopher replied, "It's a business dinner."

"I don't care. I'm not going anywhere with you."

"You need to stop this! It's childish!" Christopher yelled, throwing his jacket down onto the ground.

"It's childish that I don't want to go out with you in public after finding out you've been lying to me? I can barely stand to look at you at home!"

"It's childish that you're relating our personal problems to business!"

"I don't care."

"How long are you going to be pissy?" Christopher demanded, sitting at the kitchen table with the laptop open.

"How long are you going to act like a dick?" Luke countered, grabbing a drink from the refrigerator and walking back into his bedroom.

"I still love you, you know," Christopher whispered as he climbed into the bed to go to sleep, "I always will."

Luke pretended to be asleep.

Luke woke up with a start that felt like a knife twisting in his chest. He was crying and not quietly. He was heaving and sobbing and couldn't figure out why.

"Luke? What's wrong?" Christopher asked, snapping up.

"I-I don't know. W-we were fighting and I was crying and we wouldn't make up," Luke got out through shallow breaths and tears, "I don't understand. I called you a l-liar and you were trying to make up and I wouldn't."

Christopher closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. "I'm sorry you're remembering that. We...we were fighting right before your car wreck. It was stupid. I see that now. Come on, let's go back to sleep. There's no sense in thinking about this right now."

"What were we fighting about?" Luke asked, letting Christopher wrap him up in blankets and a warm, crushing embrace.

"I'm sure you'll remember that soon enough."

"I don't think I want to if it's that bad," Luke thought out loud, already seeing the corners of his vision blur with sleep.

"Shhh. I love you. Go to sleep."

When Luke awoke in the morning, he felt dried up and numb the way he always did if he really cried. It was a lot like how he felt when he woke up in his hospital bed, doped up and confused. But this time, he hadn't been given any medication and he didn't have much more to be confused about than usual.

It was early, early enough that Christopher was still asleep beside him. His chest rose and fell serenely. It seemed Christopher was only serene when he was asleep.

In his dreams, his memories, Luke sometimes remembered a Christopher that laughed easily and often. He remembered a Christopher that carried little stress and a lot of love. He wished that he could have that Christopher, not the stressed one he had nor the angry, hurt one from his most recent memories. No, the thought made him shudder. He didn't want that one at all.

xXxXxXx

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Christopher exclaimed cheerily, handing a bouquet of daisies to his mother and a box of chocolates to his sister. It had been a long day of working for Charlotte and babysitting for Christopher, and he had barely had time to run out and buy gifts.

"Yay! Chocolate!" Sammie cheered, hugging her big brother around the knees.

"Oh, thank you, sugar. You shouldn't have," Charlotte kissed him on his cheek, "We're so lucky to have a thoughtful man on Valentine's."

"Yeah!" Sammie agreed, relinquishing her hold on her brother to begin delving into her new store of candy. "So what are you doing tonight? Do you have a date?"

Christopher used all of his willpower to keep his face free of heat as he craftily evaded the question. "I'm going with Luke to see a movie." It was a date, but he neither confirmed nor denied that.

"Oh, gracious, why don't you have a date?" Charlotte demanded. "It's been months since you broke up with that other girl and it's Valentine's Day! You shouldn't just shower your poor mother and sister with affection; I'm sure there are plenty of lonely girls at your school too. And prom is just around the corner!"

Christopher's heart skipped. He hadn't thought up a way to handle prom yet. "I'm not looking to date any girl right now, Mom," not a lie. "I just want to hang out with Luke today," also not a lie.

"All right, sweetheart. Have fun."

"Wait though!" Sammie yelled, turning away from her chocolate to dig through her tiny plastic handbag. She procured a piece of construction paper that vaguely resembled a folded heart. "I made this for Lulu. You have us but he doesn't have anyone. I'll be his valentine! That means you get Mom."

Christopher felt his face heat up despite his efforts. "That's sweet of you Sammie but-"

"Take the damn card!" Charlotte hissed pointedly, obviously not in the mood to handle a tantrum.

"B-But I'm sure Luke would like to accept it in person," Christopher quickly amended.

"No, I don't think so," Sammie flipped her hair over one shoulder, "I like to play hard to get."

"Do me a favor and don't say that again until you're eighteen...times ten," Christopher sighed, "and I'll take the card."

"Eighteen times ten is like what? Forty?" Sammie asked.

"Sure is, dollface," Christopher affirmed.

"You got yourself a deal!"

An hour later, in front of the movie theatre, Christopher presented Luke with his sister's card.

"She's so sweet," Luke gushed, "Why aren't you more like her?"

"I've got something for you too," Christopher promised, "But it'll have to wait until after the movie."

Luke cocked an eyebrow but asked no questions.

The movie was good, albeit childish in Luke's opinion, and Christopher loved it. He loved it so much, in fact, that Luke couldn't even tempt him to make out in the back of the theatre the way a horny teenage boy should. Luke thought it was openly blasphemous.

"Seriously, that is my favorite style of animation these days! Two-dimensional just looks lazy unless you color the crap out of it and claymation looks...British-y or something. That was kind of like claymation, but softer I guess..." Christopher rambled and Luke was reminded of when they first met, before there was any baggage to be handled. He liked it a lot.

Walking out of the theatre, Luke lost himself in his thoughts as Christopher's chatter played a gracious soundtrack. Absently, he reached for his boyfriend's hand and didn't even realize he had done so until Christopher gave him a firm squeeze. "O-oh. Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

Christopher cut him off with a quick kiss. "I don't care today. We're miles away from home and I just want to be with you."

"You're an angel."

"Yeah, I know," Christopher replied with a grin. They made their way to Luke's car and sat down thankfully in the heat. "I made you something, you know."

"Did you?"

"It's a little stupid so don't laugh," Christopher turned around to dig in the backseat where there was a conspicuous backpack on its side.

"What do you mean stupid?" Luke bit his lip and tried to guess, "Is it a bunch of cartoon DVDs? Chalky Valentine's hearts?"

"No, I can't make anything like that," Christopher emerged with his hands behind his back. "You really can't laugh."

"Promise."

Christopher produced two woven bracelets that looked very much like friendship bracelets a kid would make at summer camp. They were thin and every color of the rainbow. Luke was lost for words.

"I know neither of us is ready to...really tell people about us yet, but I thought maybe if we had something, you know, to remind us..." Christopher chuckled, "It seems kind of stupid now."

"Wearing your pride instead of voicing it." Luke smiled. "It isn't stupid. It's sweet. Did you make them yourself?"

"With the help of the internet," Christopher confessed.

"How many did you make before you came up with these?"

"Don't ask."

"Well...I got you something too. Open the glove box," Luke said, smiling as inspected his bracelet.

Christopher complied and was greeted by a falling stuffed dragon. It was almost too big to fit in the car's small storage compartment and was soft, black, and plushy.

"It's the one from the movie," Luke mumbled, intently studying his bracelet.

"I know. We just watched it," Christopher picked it up and held it in the light. "It's adorable. You're funny."

"What? Why?"

"You think so hard about this kind of stuff, huh?" Christopher pondered for a moment, "You think so hard that you criticize yourself no matter what you end up doing."

"Yeah, I guess you could look at it that way."

"Well don't. I love it. So stop stressing and kiss me," Christopher demanded, his smile joking but his eyes serious.

Luke complied, comforted by the darkness that had set in since the movie ended and was so kindly cloaking them. Christopher's lips tasted like salt and movie-night candy and he wasted no time moving his hand to hold Luke's face against his own.

Luke shimmied over the console that divided the driver's and passenger's seats to sit more comfortably in Christopher's lap, all without breaking their ever deepening kiss. Christopher's hand fumbled over the side of the seat, searching for the recline lever. When he found it, the seat jerked back, causing their heads to crash together.

"Ow..." Christopher muttered centimeters from Luke's face, "That really hurt."

"Mhm," Luke agreed, still too distracted to think about his pain or anything that wasn't his boyfriend's lips.

Christopher obliged him, bringing their mouths together, slower and more deliberately this time. Luke moved against Christopher, rolling his hips against him and breathing heavily against his mouth.

"Ahh...be careful, please," Christopher pleaded.

"What am I being careful of?"

"Careful not to...push too far," Christopher expanded, though he was having a lot of trouble organizing his thoughts because Luke had not stopped rolling his hips.

"Oh, I see. Past the point of no return? That would just be horrible, to be so far gone you can't remember your own name. Wonder who would do something like that to you?" Luke teased, relishing the glazed look in Christopher's eyes.

"Luke-"

Luke ignored his boyfriend's half-hearted pleas and slid his hand under the waistband of his jeans. He couldn't suppress a grin; he had guessed that Christopher was a flannel boxers kind of guy.

"Oh god, what are you doing?"

"Do you want me to stop?" Luke traced swirls and stars on the front of Christopher's underwear. "If you want me to stop then say so."

Consistent with Luke's prediction, Christopher said nothing. For a few moments, Luke teased him, continuing with his tracing routine until Christopher's teeth were ground so tight Luke feared he could break them. Then and only then did Luke dip his fingers, one by one, under the elastic of Christopher's underpants.

Luke's heart was racing, fueled by pure adrenaline and Christopher's labored breathing. As he curled his hand around his boyfriend's length he reminded himself that he wasn't with a stranger. He wasn't with Kenny. He was with someone he really cared about, someone who genuinely cared about him. Maybe someone he could have a future with. It made a difference, Luke told himself; it really did.

Christopher's arched back and half-closed eyes begged Luke, and he was happy to oblige. He leaned forward and kissed him. The first sharp pump Luke offered up made Christopher cry out, and each that followed elicited similar, breathless responses.

Luke was pleasantly surprised by his boyfriend's longevity; he hadn't expected him to last as long as he did. He brought him to his brink with a deft nip on his collarbone, chuckling slightly at the sticky feeling on his hand and the blush on Christopher's face.

"D'you-"

"There are napkins in the glovebox," Luke supplied, reaching to pull a few out and wipe off his hand.

"Not what I was going to ask..."

Luke smiled and moved back over to the driver's seat while Christopher tried to make quick work of cleaning himself up.

"So where did that come from?" Christopher asked, still a little out of breath.

"You being so sweet about my inability to pick out gifts," Luke replied, putting one of his hands over Christopher's. "So you'd better not get any jizz on that dumb dragon."

Christopher laughed and zipped up his jeans. "That should be his name! Jizzasaurus Rex! It's adorable!"

"That's a dinosaur name, dummy, not a dragon name," Luke chastised, allowing his voice to slip into a childish lisp.

"You're a dinosaur name, dummy," Christopher countered.

They both laughed and kissed again and Jizzasaurus Rex and the rainbow bracelets took a backseat to the real gift they shared that night, a wonderful first-official-date.