Alex pulled into his father's driveway already seeing Kyle's car in the driveway. He knew that he'd be coming to stay with them but he hoped that his friend would have fixed his family problems by now. But Kyle was practically family so who was he to complain?

"Alex!" The young man's father exclaimed enveloping the young man in a hug. "How have the last few weeks been?" He asked as he guided his son into the living room.

"They've been good. What about you? How have the classes been?"

"Pretty good. The English majors are nice this year, none have been as brilliant as you but there have been a few who came close."

"Oh stop, whenever you talk like that I feel bad that I signed up for your course."

"Well I was the only one teaching it when you enrolled so it wasn't your fault. And as your father I couldn't have been biased because I'm always pushing you to do better. I was genuinely happy with your work."

Alex shrugged and patted his father's shoulder."So where's Kyle?"

"Upstairs, he said he had to call his mom, he'll be down when he gets off the phone." Alex nodded and sat down on the couch, his father settling into the space next to him. "So how are you and your boyfriend?" His father asked, not beating around the bush.

"We're good. I think he could honestly be the one."

"Really now?"

"Yeah, I just hope that I don't get in the way of things, especially since Oli got in touch with me."

"Oli, it's been awhile since I've heard about him."

"Yeah, I know. He emailed me and asked if we could meet since he's coming back for work, he's interning for some company."

"Well are you going to meet with him?"

"Yeah. My boyfriend said he was okay with it, I just honestly don't trust myself with him...not like physically but emotionally y'know?" Alex sighed and hugged his knees to his chest.

"Well if you don't trust yourself don't meet with him. You love who you're with right?"

"Yeah I Iove him more than anything."

"Then don't do it. If you mess up you could hurt him and even worse you could end up hurting yourself."

"Dad I can't just not meet with him when I already agreed."

"Alright, but keep your guard up. You gave him up for more than just his moving, things weren't always perfect between you two."

"I know, I didn't just forget all that. But he was good to me even when I was horrible to him."

His father grunted in response and ran a hand through his thinning white hair. "Just know if things don't go well I'll be here when you need me."

Alex rolled his eyes but he knew his father was right. Knowing him he'd mess something up before he even knew what he was doing. So, yeah it would be smart to keep his distance from Oli and he would. He'd only meet with him once unless he happened to be uninterested. In that case he was probably no harm and could be a pretty good friend. Who knows, maybe things weren't worth worrying about and he was just being paranoid.
-
Jack sighed as he came downstairs, he'd just packed for the night at his dad's place.He went into the living room, his small duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He barely even noticed his mother standing next to the Christmas tree with her arms wrapped tightly around her torso.

"J-Jack." She called out, it was obvious she'd been crying just in the way her voice cracked out and her helpless tone. And even though Jack wanted to ignore her he couldn't do anything but respond.

"Yeah mom." He sighed once more.

"Are you leaving now?"

Jack nodded and walked over to where his mother was standing."Why, what's up?"

"Y-you can't go."

"God, Mom again with this crap? Whatever happened between you and Dad thats so horrible? You two drifted, fell out of love remember? I miss him okay and I'm going."

"Jack, please don't. I know I was wrong before, I kept you from him out of spite, j-just please stay tonight."

"No! I'm sorry Mom but I can't alright. I love you but the fact that you come to me with this when you know I'm leaving. And apart from two words this is the first time you've talked to me in a month. I'm going alright, I'll see you in a couple days." With that Jack turned on his heel and walked towards the door, stopping befor he opened it. "I'm sorry." He mumbled before opening the door and walking out of it.

Eventually Jack was on his father's floor of his apartment building and knocking on his door. Before going up he'd made sure that he'd left his lingerie in his car, honestly he didn't want to deal with it until he had to put it on which thankfully wasn't until tomorrow night.

"Jacky!" The teen's father said, wrapping him in a hug.

"Hey Dad." Jack said, fighting off the huge smile that formed on his lips. In truth he couldn't tell if he was happier to see his dad or be apart from his mother. But he decided that they were both good things so he had reason to smile. "Is David here yet?"

"No, he called to tell me he'd be here a little late about fifteen minutes ago. I'm just glad we all get to spend Christmas together."

"Me too." He said as he walked into the small living space of the apartment behind his father.

"How are things at home with your mom?"

"Not good. We just started talking again and she tried to get me to stay home before I came here."

"Did she say why?"

"No, she just was crying and asking me to stay home." Jack shrugged. "I dunno what her problem was but I bet she's fine." His father nodded and smiled sympathetically at his son but said nothing more about the teen's mother.

Almost half an hour later Jack's brother finally arrived and they were all sat at the small dining room table eating Chinese take out.

"How are you and your girlfriend?" Jack asked his brother as he attempted to pick up a piece if broccoli with his chop sticks.

"We're okay. She wants me back in New Zealand since I've been home for so long. I haven't told her that I want to move back yet."

Jack raised his brow at that. "You should tell her, like soon."

"Yeah but I don't want to. She'll just get mad at me. What about you? Find a boyfriend yet?"

The teen rolled his eyes at his older brother. "Sorta. It's nothing serious." He lied, biting down on his lower lip. Of course Jack could just say he was in a relationship but that meant more questions and he was bound to give something away.

"Nothing serious, hm?"

"David leave him alone. He obviously doesn't want to talk about it." Their father cut in, obviously suppressing a laugh.

"Its fine. It's just that there's nothing to tell. We go on dates every once in awhile, that's it." More lies, try every Friday and Saturday they have free and most week nights for a few hours too.

"Okay...did you get him a Christmas present?" David asked knowing he had Jack hooked.

The teen blushed and nodded. "But that doesn't mean anything, I got gifts for everyone."

"Sure you did."

"Shut up."

"You two are hilarious." Their father said laughing at the pair. "You remind me of me and your uncle Frank when we used to argue."

"I bet he wasn't as annoying." Jack muttered.

"No I think he was worse. But I got used to it, David's just been gone so long that you're not used to it anymore."

"I definitely don't want to get used to it." Jack said glaring at his brother.

"Oh come on Jacky! You know you love me."

"Whatever you say, Dip."

Before Jack knew it he was getting ready for bed and placing his gifts he'd bought for his brother and father underneath the small artificial tree in the living room. He made his way from the living room and into the spare room where he and his brother would be sleeping.

Just as Jack had gotten settled one if the small twin sized beds his cell phone rang from where it lay on tip if his duffel bag. The teen groaned and got up to pick uo the phone, athiugh he just wanted to fall asleep.

"H'llo?" He mumbled into the phone, not entirely sure who he was speaking to.

"Hey there sleepy head, do you miss me?" Alex said on the other line with a small chuckle.

"Yeah I do miss you actually." Jack said perking up at Alex's voice.

"Good, cause I miss you too. So how is it with your family?"

"Its good." Jack smiled as he crawled into his bed keeping the phone pressed to his ear. He looked to the doorway to see David walking into the room. "My brothers just an asshole though."

"Shut up Jack." David said as he got into his bed on the other side of the room.

"Ah sibling love." Said Alex. "Are you excited for tomorrow?"

"Course I am." He said, leaving out the fact that he was also extremely nervous. But considering he planned on losing his virginity tomorrow he had good reason to be nervous. "You still haven't given me the slightest hint on what you got for me."

"Yeah and I'm not telling. -- Is that Jack, tell him I said hi. -- Babe, Kyle says hi."

"Tell him I said hi back. How is he anyway?"

"He's good. Better that I thought."

"That's good." Jack said holding back a yawn."I can tell you're sleepy and I am too. I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

"Yeah goodnight babe."

"Goodnight, oh and I love you Jay."Jack smiled and blushed at that as if it were the first time Alex had said he loved him.

"I love you too." Jack hung up his phone and smiled as he placed it on the tiny bedside table.

"Not serious at all." David muttered from his bed.

"Shut up. I just don't wanna talk about it."

"Jack why not? You came out and we accepted it, why can you be normal about it?"

"Normal? Really? You've had relationships we didn't even know about before until you brought the girl home so because I'm gay and I don't want to talk about who I'm with I'm not normal?" Jack snapped, turning in his side so that his back was facing his brother.

"You know I didn't mean it like that...just why don't you want to talk about him? I want my little brother to be happy and I'd like to know something about who he's happy with is all."

"Well he's just a really nice guy and he treats me right, that's all you need to know."

"I guess...do I get to meet him?"

"Eventually."

"How long is eventually?"

"When I feel like it's right. Now when do we get to meet your girlfriend?"

"Sometime over the summer probably. She said she wants to visit here and I know when she does she's not going to just not meet you guys."

Jack nodded and turned onto his other side. "Thanks for not prying though...and uh keep this from mom?"

"Why would I tell her a thing? Besides I haven't seen her since I got back in town."

"Not at all?"

"Nope."

Jack sighed. "Why do we do this to each other? We used to be a family, what happened to that?"

David shrugged. "I don't know, but I'll tell you this, we can't let this happen when we have kids and people we love... I don't think I'd be able to handle it."

Jack nodded once more this time in agreement. He knew exactly what David was saying, not necessarily touching on divorce but tearing people apart. They couldn't tear their own famalies apart the way their parents had torn theirs apart. But at this point neither of them had to worry about it. It'd become completely impossible for either of them to think of doing anything remotely close to what their parents had done. They couldn't hurt anyone the way they'd been hurt, which in retrospect wasn't entirely a bad thing. "Maybe one day things will be okay though. Maybe when one of us gets married they can sit at the same table without killing each other and just be okay for a couple hours."

"That's a long shot, bud. But I hope you're right."

"Yeah I do too. Goodnight Davie."

David chuckled and got up to shut the light off. "Goodnight baby bro."
-

"Go on, open it!" Kyle coaxed Alex who was sitting in front of the Christmas tree Indian style with a box sitting on his lap.

"I'm kind of scared of what's in here." Alex laughed as he began tearing into the wrapping paper. Once he got through the layer there was a plain brown cardboard box. "Seriously what's in here?"

"Just open it!" Kyle said from the couch having already opened the new cds and stereo Alex had gotten for him.

So Alex followed his command opening the box to peer into it and find two stacks of paperback books from his amazon wishlist.

"I picked a few out on my own. They're just easy reads for you to take a break from assaulting your brain with all the complex stuff you pick out." Kyle said smiling at his best friend.

"Thanks Ky!" Alex said smiling wide, right about now he really appreciated how thoughtful Kyle was and just how well the other boy knew him.

"Okay now open mine." Alex's father said, just as eager to see Alex's reaction as Kyle had been.

"I'm even more scared to see yours." He said with a laugh as he reached for the long rectangular box that sat underneath the tree. It was pretty heavy, so Alex was quite unsure of what was in it. He ripped the blue snowflake patterned wrapping paper carelessly before balling it up and tossing it behind him. This present also revealed a plain cardboard box, so Alex opened it since the openings weren't taped together and behind the flaps was a hard case for an acoustic guitar. "Is this what I think it is?"

His father nodded and smiled. "I knew you wanted a new one. You've had your electric and acoustic since high school and haven't bought a new one yet. Besides that you deserve it."

"Thanks dad." Alex smiled back as he got up to give his father a hug. Maybe his mother would never spend Christmas with them again but Alex was just glad to have the family he did. Even if someone was missing he had to carry on and moments with his dad let him know that he could and one day he'd be fine.
-
Jack bounded out of bed, making sure that he was loud enough to wake his brother. He'd lay in bed for five minutes before it dawned on him that it was Christmas morning and still being five at heart it didn't matter how early it was to him, he just needed to get everyone awake and around the tree.

"Fuck, Jack go back to bed." David moaned from his bed covering his eyes with his arm when Jack turned the light on.

"No! It's Christmas, get up fat ass!" Jack said, throwing his pillow at his older brother."

"You're such a fucktard." David muttered as he slothily crawled out of his bed. Jack simply ignored his brother and opened the door to be hit with the scent of chocolate chip pancakes. Naturally he made his way towards the kidchen where he found his father cooking over the stove.

"Morning." His father greeted him as he looked up from the pancake he was flipping over. "Thought you two would like some breakfast before opening presents."

"Can we eat after?" Jack pleaded already making his way over to the Christmas tree.

"I don't know why I didn't remember that you're always so hyped up on Christmas morning." Mr. Barakat laughed, placing a pancake onto a plate. Maybe it's because mom kept you away for the past three years, Jack thought but just smiled instead of saying anything.

"Let's just go for the presents first. Jack'll just whine about it all through breakfast if we don't." David chimed in as he walked over to the couch.

Jack just smiled and picked up the presents he'd gotten for his family, handing one to David and the other to his father who had joined them in the living room. And really the presents he got didn't even matter because for the first time in years his Christmas was with who it was really about. The people who loved and accepted him no matter what. Which was really all he could ask for out of today.

Notes

Holy poo I so sucked with this chapter. I needed filler before the exciting stuff and got restless writing this...sooo...yeah. I'm sorry. And I'm also sorry for being late w/this. My friends birthday was yesterday and I planned on updating after I got back from her party but it was a color war party and uh, yeah I was worn out and covered in paint and color powder by the time I got home :P Anyways I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are excited for the next one :3