New Story: EQUALS 4/?
EQUALS…
Author: Scotianova
Beta-fairy: Carol38
Disclaimer: I don't own them and writing about them is just for fun.
Genre: A story about different shades of love
Pairing: Reid and Luke - as always
Characters: Reid Oliver, Luke Snyder, Ravi Oliver, Ruby Oliver II, Kathryn Peretti, Liath Orbanns, Damien Grimaldi, Henry Coleman ,Dustin Donovan, Paul Ryan, Holly McLean…
Warning: none so far
Rating: sexual contents
Summary: On the surface they couldn’t be more different from every point of view, but if someone just looks closely at them…
AN1 : This is an attempt to invert some facts and whereabouts but I hope the character drawing is plausible- somehow at least ;)
AN2: I used the name Ruby in a story once before but I like it so much, that I named even two characters after it this time.
4.
The following day Luke woke up at 7:30 am and looked around. Katie Peretti had led him to a large comfortable room with a walk-in closet and a bathroom attached. It was an exquisitely but unsophisticatedly furnished room, he instantly liked. It breathed good taste and wealth, the kind he knew so well. It wasn’t the kind of house and room his father lived in, yet it reminded Luke of Damian.
He was excited to meet the man who was behind his being here - more or less on his own accord.
And thinking of the other reason, him, the boy, almost took his breath away.
He didn’t remember anything but the evidence was completely convincing. Especially the blood-type thing. He’d told the three guys that he was gay and therefore he wasn’t allowed to give blood, much less donate an organ.
“Are you HIV positive?” Fox had asked him.
“No!”
“Are you an idiot, not using condoms?”
DD (he’d decided to abbreviate Dustin Donavan’s name) had only grunted.
“No, of course not!”
“Good! So you have no excuse to bail out!”
That would have been Papageno. What a trio!
If it only was as simple as that!
However, against all odds Luke had had a good night. The bed was comfortable and he slept through the night without remembering a dream. That was new. He mostly remembered his dreams that wore him out sometimes, because he often dreamt of things and events he’d eliminated from his life, but not tonight, tonight his subconscious had kept quiet and therefore he felt good! He yawned and stretched and wondered what would happen next. He’d practically been kidnapped but right now he wasn’t angry and surely he wasn’t scared, he was just incredibly curious - and excited!
Finally he entered the luxurious bathroom and eyed the floor to ceiling mirror. Kinky! If the guest-bathrooms were furnished this way he wondered how the owner’s looked! Unfortunately with the crazy trio bringing him here and all that was going on he hadn’t had the time to check the Oliver guy out on the internet.
Well, he’d racked his brain to find something connecting him with the woman called “Ruby Oliver”, but he couldn’t fill in the gaping blank. That wasn’t very strange since there was quite a lapse of time in his life where he hardly remembered anything but being drunk like a fish and feeling as if being out of his real self. He had asked Papageno if he had a photo of the mysterious girl, but unfortunately the guy hadn’t thought of taking one with him when he had set out to track Luke Snyder down.
“Ruby” it was a nice name and Luke liked it.
Today Luke would ask Katie for a photo of Ruby Oliver; maybe it would trigger his memory.
Musing about names in general - it had taken him incredibly long to accept his birth name and now it was convenient to have two names, a public and a more private one. Papageno had mentioned that Ruby Oliver had revealed the prename of her son’s biological father shortly before her early death and then they’d searched blood banks - worldwide until they got lucky and found someone called Luke, a man with fitting age. Who would lie knowing that they were close to death? So Luke basically believed the strange story although he really couldn’t remember. But he had the feeling that it was true.
Enjoying the hot massaging jets of water pelting down on his body he wondered what he was supposed to do afterwards - should he stay here and wait to be summoned or should he look for whoever he’d meet in the house?
In the end his curiosity won over so he dressed quickly and left his room.
The morning sun flooded the glazed patio he passed while looking for Katie or whoever he was about to find around. Somehow he felt like a high school kid on a stay abroad exploring the house of his guest family for the first time. It was a wonderful house that he’d already noticed last night. He followed voices he heard and found an elderly gentleman in a dining room talking to a girl who was sitting next to him ignoring her breakfast set in front of her, something that looked like yogurt with fruits. The girl was maybe six and the man maybe in his late fifties given his dark hair flecked with gray and the numerous fine lines framing his stunning blue eyes. Dark hair combined with blue eyes - Oh my! Although the guy looked a bit old it wasn’t forbidden to wonder, right?
“Where is Mummy?”
“Sweetie, I’ve already told you that your mummy is trying to get some sleep since she and your daddy were up all night long because Ravi had a really ugly nightmare and your dad is still with him. So, little lady you have to put up with me since Holly is running errands. And before you continue interrogating me I’ll tell you that Henry is still enjoying his beauty sleep and Dustin will show up in about an hour to take you to Pompoo.”
The man answered patiently and thinking of his siblings Luke was sure the gentleman already had answered a lot of questions this morning.
Suddenly Luke felt like an intruder and considered retreating silently yet he had to catch their attention, he had been “brought” here because they wanted him to get tested and listening to what the man had said about “Ravi” having a nightmare made his heart constrict although he hadn’t even met the boy yet. Was it his overemotional side that played him again, although it had caused him many troubles in the past, he hadn’t managed to get rid of them though, at least not totally, or was he actually feeling those invisibly thin threads weaving their tear proof tissue called ‘bonding’?
But he’d analyze that moment later, now he cleared his throat to get noticed and both of them turned their eyes to him.
“Mr. Synder! You’re awake!” The man stood up and approached him with his hand reaching out towards Luke and smiled - it was a professional smile, the kind Luke knew so well from his father.
Both, Damien and this man showed perfect smiles that almost travelled to their eyes but rarely ever reached them and Luke wasn’t sure if he wanted to have much to do with this guy.
“Or do you prefer me calling you ‘ Mr.Grimaldi? My name is Liath Orbanns - and this little lady is Ruby.”
Luke shook Mr. Orbanns’ hand and smiled at the girl named Ruby. Okay, obviously she was called after her aunt?
“Hi Ruby!”
The girl had a cute smile and Luke realized she had Katie’s eyes. With her long red-golden curls, the blue-green eyes and countless freckles adorning her small face she looked like a little Irish princess.
“I am the family’s attorney, Reid’s right hand and the spare babysitter.” Liath Orbanns explained before Luke started to wonder how the handsome gentleman fit into the picture.
“Obviously you already know who I am. So you had a leg-up on me” Luke answered reluctantly.
“Well saying I was sorry to drag you here would be a lie, so yes, of course I know who you are since it was me who sent the boys after you.”
“Okay, so it was you.”
Luke didn’t know what to do with the information. He’d assume it was the mysterious Reid Oliver who’d sent the weird trio after him. Liath looked like a very nice man but knowing he was the one behind the almost-kidnapping Luke wondered even more what there was behind the calm façade of Mr. Orbanns’ smile. And suddenly the friendly blue eyes looked cold.
As if the older man sensed what was going on in Luke’s mind he calmly asked him:
“Wouldn’t you do anything to help the ones you love?”
“Yes, I would!” Luke admitted without hesitation.
“So you do know why we had to look for you, find you and bring you here!”
Luke wasn’t sure how to answer but he knew that Liath had a point. What hadn’t he done himself to save Noah’s career back then? He’d blackmailed, threatened and bribed only to get dumped afterwards anyway.
And this was about a boy who was going to die if a miracle didn’t happen. So yes he would have done a lot more to get him here - not only sending three weird guys after him.
“Would you like to have a coffee, toast or something or …?”
“No, actually I want to see him, Ravi, I mean, if it’s possible. I mean if he’s stable enough.”
“Well, I see. If I were you I’d also want to see him first. I guess I don’t need to point out that you have to be careful.”
Luke nodded and there was something in Liath’s eyes that told him the older man understood.
“Ruby would you like to join Mr. Snyder and me and pay your brother a visit?”
Her brother? God, this family seemed almost as complicated as his own.
Liath Orbanns showed Luke the way to another wing with Ruby attached to him and gently knocked at the door with a wooden nameplate on it: “Here lives Ravi”.
Ten seconds later Luke Snyder was confronted with a scene that broke his heart and he met the most stunning, charismatic-blue eyes he’d ever seen. If he’d thought Liath Orbanns had beautiful eyes he took advice then what surreally blue eyes looked like.
In this very moment they looked unnaturally clear, clairvoyant and cloudy at the same time and dominated a pale face belonging to a lean man who’d just gently adjusted the infusion needle that was sticking in the back of the skinny boy’s hand. The man didn’t bother to greet him, or to show any kind of recognition; if anything Luke saw exhaustion and fear in Reid Oliver’s eyes and resignation. After a moment that extended endlessly in Luke’s feeling and yet was way too short Reid Oliver averted his eyes, Luke wanted to dive in but Reid Oliver riveted on the boy again instead. It seems as if there wasn’t anything else on that man’s radar than his boy and the boy only and that boy was very sick.
“Does it hurt Ravi?”
Reid Oliver’s voice was a bit husky, but soft and mellifluous. A voice fitting an actor or a doctor or a father.
“No, it’s only pinching”.
God, the boy was a picture of misery, his skin had the color of quinces and his huge brown eyes told the story of his pain. It seemed as if he only existed in those enormous shiny dark brown pools.
Luke instantly recognized those eyes since he met similar ones every time he looked into the mirror. Well his own eyes weren’t feverish and haunted - not anymore - but the boy surely had his eyes and his nose. Not his hair however, because the small face was framed by light auburn sweaty strands that contrasted the unhealthy yellow color of his skin.
Years later Luke still couldn’t describe exactly what happened to him in Ravi’s room that was converted to a hospital room. It had happened when he sharply inhaled - still pausing at the entrance - that the adult redhead lifted his head and looked Luke straight in the eye again.
He didn’t say anything, just looked the “visitor” over. And Luke stood there and forgot about the blue eyes of Liath Orbanns because time was suspended and he was only able to take in what was happening to himself - and to everyone else.
We all know those moments when we seem to think a thousand thoughts at the same time and afterwards we only remember what we were feeling because all the thoughts floated away but it’s the emotion that keeps lingering.
And Luke felt that his life was never going to be the same as before. He knew it that very moment; he knew he met fate although he didn’t know which card was left for him up the sleeve of that mysterious guy called life.
The piercing blue eyes that belonged to Reid Oliver stared him down for long seconds before the worn out man averted them once more, took a deep breath and smiled down at his son.
Luke felt like an intruder again, the interaction between father and son was preciously private, shutting out everyone else. In the split of a second Luke was allowed to catch Reid Oliver’s smile that was directed on the boy lying in bed and Luke realized that something changed, as if a door was opened to a foreign, hidden kingdom where only carefully selected and thoroughly examined people were allowed to have a look.
Reid Oliver had an amazing, heartbreaking smile. He surly wasn’t an easy smiler such as Katie or Liath - who seemed to generously give their smiles away. That Reid Oliver’s smile did something to Luke’s knees was a matter of fact yet he refused to recognize the impacts then. Given Reid Oliver’s impolite behavior in the beginning Luke was stunned to hear his sonorous voice addressing his son:
“This is Luke Snyder, Ravi - he knew your mum and now he wants to get to know you.”
Reid Oliver spoke softly while he gently cupped the boy’s cheek.
“Are you okay with Mr. Snyder saying hello to you?”
The boy just shrugged but Luke detected interest in his eyes and didn’t wait for Reid Oliver’s placet to approach the boy.
“Hello Ravi, I am Luke!” He was glad that his voice sounded velvet and smooth and didn’t reveal the inner hoarseness he felt. He moved closer to the bed and lightly touched the blanket - scared to reach out his hand to Ravi. He liked that. It was a special name, reminiscent a time in his life when he tried everything to get a grip again and therefore had explored ways of meditation he knew the meaning of ‘Ravi’; it’s ‘Sun’.
People chose such a name deliberately therefore Luke concluded that this boy had been his mother’s sun and unconsciously Luke lifted his head and searched Reid Oliver’s eyes again. Ironically it was the cloudiness he detected there again that lifted the curtain cloaking his memory:
Jean Paul and Aurora.
Aurora, the enigmatic girl with the red-golden cascade of hair reaching to her hips that were joined to Jean Paul’s, they were never seen alone…and somehow and somewhere Luke had been there too - at the beaches of Southern France a long time ago.
“Aurora…”
Author: Scotianova
Beta-fairy: Carol38
Disclaimer: I don't own them and writing about them is just for fun.
Genre: A story about different shades of love
Pairing: Reid and Luke - as always
Characters: Reid Oliver, Luke Snyder, Ravi Oliver, Ruby Oliver II, Kathryn Peretti, Liath Orbanns, Damien Grimaldi, Henry Coleman ,Dustin Donovan, Paul Ryan, Holly McLean…
Warning: none so far
Rating: sexual contents
Summary: On the surface they couldn’t be more different from every point of view, but if someone just looks closely at them…
AN1 : This is an attempt to invert some facts and whereabouts but I hope the character drawing is plausible- somehow at least ;)
AN2: I used the name Ruby in a story once before but I like it so much, that I named even two characters after it this time.
4.
The following day Luke woke up at 7:30 am and looked around. Katie Peretti had led him to a large comfortable room with a walk-in closet and a bathroom attached. It was an exquisitely but unsophisticatedly furnished room, he instantly liked. It breathed good taste and wealth, the kind he knew so well. It wasn’t the kind of house and room his father lived in, yet it reminded Luke of Damian.
He was excited to meet the man who was behind his being here - more or less on his own accord.
And thinking of the other reason, him, the boy, almost took his breath away.
He didn’t remember anything but the evidence was completely convincing. Especially the blood-type thing. He’d told the three guys that he was gay and therefore he wasn’t allowed to give blood, much less donate an organ.
“Are you HIV positive?” Fox had asked him.
“No!”
“Are you an idiot, not using condoms?”
DD (he’d decided to abbreviate Dustin Donavan’s name) had only grunted.
“No, of course not!”
“Good! So you have no excuse to bail out!”
That would have been Papageno. What a trio!
If it only was as simple as that!
However, against all odds Luke had had a good night. The bed was comfortable and he slept through the night without remembering a dream. That was new. He mostly remembered his dreams that wore him out sometimes, because he often dreamt of things and events he’d eliminated from his life, but not tonight, tonight his subconscious had kept quiet and therefore he felt good! He yawned and stretched and wondered what would happen next. He’d practically been kidnapped but right now he wasn’t angry and surely he wasn’t scared, he was just incredibly curious - and excited!
Finally he entered the luxurious bathroom and eyed the floor to ceiling mirror. Kinky! If the guest-bathrooms were furnished this way he wondered how the owner’s looked! Unfortunately with the crazy trio bringing him here and all that was going on he hadn’t had the time to check the Oliver guy out on the internet.
Well, he’d racked his brain to find something connecting him with the woman called “Ruby Oliver”, but he couldn’t fill in the gaping blank. That wasn’t very strange since there was quite a lapse of time in his life where he hardly remembered anything but being drunk like a fish and feeling as if being out of his real self. He had asked Papageno if he had a photo of the mysterious girl, but unfortunately the guy hadn’t thought of taking one with him when he had set out to track Luke Snyder down.
“Ruby” it was a nice name and Luke liked it.
Today Luke would ask Katie for a photo of Ruby Oliver; maybe it would trigger his memory.
Musing about names in general - it had taken him incredibly long to accept his birth name and now it was convenient to have two names, a public and a more private one. Papageno had mentioned that Ruby Oliver had revealed the prename of her son’s biological father shortly before her early death and then they’d searched blood banks - worldwide until they got lucky and found someone called Luke, a man with fitting age. Who would lie knowing that they were close to death? So Luke basically believed the strange story although he really couldn’t remember. But he had the feeling that it was true.
Enjoying the hot massaging jets of water pelting down on his body he wondered what he was supposed to do afterwards - should he stay here and wait to be summoned or should he look for whoever he’d meet in the house?
In the end his curiosity won over so he dressed quickly and left his room.
The morning sun flooded the glazed patio he passed while looking for Katie or whoever he was about to find around. Somehow he felt like a high school kid on a stay abroad exploring the house of his guest family for the first time. It was a wonderful house that he’d already noticed last night. He followed voices he heard and found an elderly gentleman in a dining room talking to a girl who was sitting next to him ignoring her breakfast set in front of her, something that looked like yogurt with fruits. The girl was maybe six and the man maybe in his late fifties given his dark hair flecked with gray and the numerous fine lines framing his stunning blue eyes. Dark hair combined with blue eyes - Oh my! Although the guy looked a bit old it wasn’t forbidden to wonder, right?
“Where is Mummy?”
“Sweetie, I’ve already told you that your mummy is trying to get some sleep since she and your daddy were up all night long because Ravi had a really ugly nightmare and your dad is still with him. So, little lady you have to put up with me since Holly is running errands. And before you continue interrogating me I’ll tell you that Henry is still enjoying his beauty sleep and Dustin will show up in about an hour to take you to Pompoo.”
The man answered patiently and thinking of his siblings Luke was sure the gentleman already had answered a lot of questions this morning.
Suddenly Luke felt like an intruder and considered retreating silently yet he had to catch their attention, he had been “brought” here because they wanted him to get tested and listening to what the man had said about “Ravi” having a nightmare made his heart constrict although he hadn’t even met the boy yet. Was it his overemotional side that played him again, although it had caused him many troubles in the past, he hadn’t managed to get rid of them though, at least not totally, or was he actually feeling those invisibly thin threads weaving their tear proof tissue called ‘bonding’?
But he’d analyze that moment later, now he cleared his throat to get noticed and both of them turned their eyes to him.
“Mr. Synder! You’re awake!” The man stood up and approached him with his hand reaching out towards Luke and smiled - it was a professional smile, the kind Luke knew so well from his father.
Both, Damien and this man showed perfect smiles that almost travelled to their eyes but rarely ever reached them and Luke wasn’t sure if he wanted to have much to do with this guy.
“Or do you prefer me calling you ‘ Mr.Grimaldi? My name is Liath Orbanns - and this little lady is Ruby.”
Luke shook Mr. Orbanns’ hand and smiled at the girl named Ruby. Okay, obviously she was called after her aunt?
“Hi Ruby!”
The girl had a cute smile and Luke realized she had Katie’s eyes. With her long red-golden curls, the blue-green eyes and countless freckles adorning her small face she looked like a little Irish princess.
“I am the family’s attorney, Reid’s right hand and the spare babysitter.” Liath Orbanns explained before Luke started to wonder how the handsome gentleman fit into the picture.
“Obviously you already know who I am. So you had a leg-up on me” Luke answered reluctantly.
“Well saying I was sorry to drag you here would be a lie, so yes, of course I know who you are since it was me who sent the boys after you.”
“Okay, so it was you.”
Luke didn’t know what to do with the information. He’d assume it was the mysterious Reid Oliver who’d sent the weird trio after him. Liath looked like a very nice man but knowing he was the one behind the almost-kidnapping Luke wondered even more what there was behind the calm façade of Mr. Orbanns’ smile. And suddenly the friendly blue eyes looked cold.
As if the older man sensed what was going on in Luke’s mind he calmly asked him:
“Wouldn’t you do anything to help the ones you love?”
“Yes, I would!” Luke admitted without hesitation.
“So you do know why we had to look for you, find you and bring you here!”
Luke wasn’t sure how to answer but he knew that Liath had a point. What hadn’t he done himself to save Noah’s career back then? He’d blackmailed, threatened and bribed only to get dumped afterwards anyway.
And this was about a boy who was going to die if a miracle didn’t happen. So yes he would have done a lot more to get him here - not only sending three weird guys after him.
“Would you like to have a coffee, toast or something or …?”
“No, actually I want to see him, Ravi, I mean, if it’s possible. I mean if he’s stable enough.”
“Well, I see. If I were you I’d also want to see him first. I guess I don’t need to point out that you have to be careful.”
Luke nodded and there was something in Liath’s eyes that told him the older man understood.
“Ruby would you like to join Mr. Snyder and me and pay your brother a visit?”
Her brother? God, this family seemed almost as complicated as his own.
Liath Orbanns showed Luke the way to another wing with Ruby attached to him and gently knocked at the door with a wooden nameplate on it: “Here lives Ravi”.
Ten seconds later Luke Snyder was confronted with a scene that broke his heart and he met the most stunning, charismatic-blue eyes he’d ever seen. If he’d thought Liath Orbanns had beautiful eyes he took advice then what surreally blue eyes looked like.
In this very moment they looked unnaturally clear, clairvoyant and cloudy at the same time and dominated a pale face belonging to a lean man who’d just gently adjusted the infusion needle that was sticking in the back of the skinny boy’s hand. The man didn’t bother to greet him, or to show any kind of recognition; if anything Luke saw exhaustion and fear in Reid Oliver’s eyes and resignation. After a moment that extended endlessly in Luke’s feeling and yet was way too short Reid Oliver averted his eyes, Luke wanted to dive in but Reid Oliver riveted on the boy again instead. It seems as if there wasn’t anything else on that man’s radar than his boy and the boy only and that boy was very sick.
“Does it hurt Ravi?”
Reid Oliver’s voice was a bit husky, but soft and mellifluous. A voice fitting an actor or a doctor or a father.
“No, it’s only pinching”.
God, the boy was a picture of misery, his skin had the color of quinces and his huge brown eyes told the story of his pain. It seemed as if he only existed in those enormous shiny dark brown pools.
Luke instantly recognized those eyes since he met similar ones every time he looked into the mirror. Well his own eyes weren’t feverish and haunted - not anymore - but the boy surely had his eyes and his nose. Not his hair however, because the small face was framed by light auburn sweaty strands that contrasted the unhealthy yellow color of his skin.
Years later Luke still couldn’t describe exactly what happened to him in Ravi’s room that was converted to a hospital room. It had happened when he sharply inhaled - still pausing at the entrance - that the adult redhead lifted his head and looked Luke straight in the eye again.
He didn’t say anything, just looked the “visitor” over. And Luke stood there and forgot about the blue eyes of Liath Orbanns because time was suspended and he was only able to take in what was happening to himself - and to everyone else.
We all know those moments when we seem to think a thousand thoughts at the same time and afterwards we only remember what we were feeling because all the thoughts floated away but it’s the emotion that keeps lingering.
And Luke felt that his life was never going to be the same as before. He knew it that very moment; he knew he met fate although he didn’t know which card was left for him up the sleeve of that mysterious guy called life.
The piercing blue eyes that belonged to Reid Oliver stared him down for long seconds before the worn out man averted them once more, took a deep breath and smiled down at his son.
Luke felt like an intruder again, the interaction between father and son was preciously private, shutting out everyone else. In the split of a second Luke was allowed to catch Reid Oliver’s smile that was directed on the boy lying in bed and Luke realized that something changed, as if a door was opened to a foreign, hidden kingdom where only carefully selected and thoroughly examined people were allowed to have a look.
Reid Oliver had an amazing, heartbreaking smile. He surly wasn’t an easy smiler such as Katie or Liath - who seemed to generously give their smiles away. That Reid Oliver’s smile did something to Luke’s knees was a matter of fact yet he refused to recognize the impacts then. Given Reid Oliver’s impolite behavior in the beginning Luke was stunned to hear his sonorous voice addressing his son:
“This is Luke Snyder, Ravi - he knew your mum and now he wants to get to know you.”
Reid Oliver spoke softly while he gently cupped the boy’s cheek.
“Are you okay with Mr. Snyder saying hello to you?”
The boy just shrugged but Luke detected interest in his eyes and didn’t wait for Reid Oliver’s placet to approach the boy.
“Hello Ravi, I am Luke!” He was glad that his voice sounded velvet and smooth and didn’t reveal the inner hoarseness he felt. He moved closer to the bed and lightly touched the blanket - scared to reach out his hand to Ravi. He liked that. It was a special name, reminiscent a time in his life when he tried everything to get a grip again and therefore had explored ways of meditation he knew the meaning of ‘Ravi’; it’s ‘Sun’.
People chose such a name deliberately therefore Luke concluded that this boy had been his mother’s sun and unconsciously Luke lifted his head and searched Reid Oliver’s eyes again. Ironically it was the cloudiness he detected there again that lifted the curtain cloaking his memory:
Jean Paul and Aurora.
Aurora, the enigmatic girl with the red-golden cascade of hair reaching to her hips that were joined to Jean Paul’s, they were never seen alone…and somehow and somewhere Luke had been there too - at the beaches of Southern France a long time ago.
“Aurora…”