FIC - It's still just love... (6/?)
Title: It's still just love… (6/?)
Author: wheelie47
Rating: NC17 for whole story but not every chapter.
Pairing: Luke and Noah.
Word count: 2,434
Disclaimer: Don’t own characters, am not associated in any way with ATWT, Van and Jake. No offence intended.
Summary: Noah Mayer is struggling to make ends meet; trying to keep his garden centre open and desperate to hold onto his research grant from the Institute of Agronomic Research. And he never seems to have time… no time for a life and definitely no time for a boyfriend.
Luciano Grimaldi hates everything about his life and he is so far in the closet where his parents concerned, that he even has a girlfriend, Maddie, to prove it…
AN: This is an AU story based on a French film called “Juste une question d’amour”.
Many thanks to hollyoaks1021 for the wonderful artwork. Thanks Sally <3
Luke woke suddenly to the strange and confusing feeling of the left side of his body being incredibly cold compared to the heat he could feel pressed up against, and partially covering, his right side. It took him several seconds to realise where he was and what was causing the unusual sensation.
Looking down, Luke saw that he was lying flat on his back on Noah's bed, with the handsome brunette curled into his side; a muscled leg hooked across his thigh and long fingers splayed out in the middle of his chest. They were both still naked and the covers lay in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the bed. No wonder his exposed parts were cold! Noah's ass must be freezing!
“Fuck!” Luke muttered, throwing his head back against the pillow. The blonde felt a panic rising in his chest. Lying here like this was a new experience for him; most of the time his sexual encounters were quick fucks, where he and the, generally nameless, other guy quickly rearranged disturbed clothing and headed their separate ways. But this was different and new and it scared him. A big part of him wanted to slip out from under the other man’s embrace, hastily pull on his clothes, head out into the night and never look back.
Noah chose that exact same moment to sigh contently in his sleep and move that bit closer to Luke; his leg hitching higher and brushing against the tip of the younger man’s cock as it lay soft in the crease between groin and thigh. The subconsciously intimate touch seemed to ground Luke and, instead of making him want to leave, made him want to sink deeper into Noah’s embrace and shut out the harsh reality of the world outside for just a little bit longer. He was sure it would all come crashing in soon enough.
But he also didn’t want them to freeze to death in the middle of the night either! Stretching out with his left foot, Luke managed to tag the covers and pull them closer. As his hand grasped the material, Luke couldn’t resist brushing his fingers along the perfect curve of Noah’s ass.
The rays of moonlight that filtered down from the small window set high in the wall cast an almost ethereal glow over the other man's body and Luke couldn't help but wonder why the handsome hunk didn't have a special someone to keep him warm every night.
Luke’s eyes followed the path of his hand as he pulled the covers up over their torsos, continuing on to the strong lines of Noah's neck and stubbled jaw. Luke startled when he saw those delicate eyelashes flutter as Noah blinked awake, the crystal blue sparkling in the moonlight.
“You OK? Are you cold?” Noah asked, his voice croaky and rough with sleep, when he felt the blonde shiver against him. He reached over to switch on the lamp, bathing the small room in a soft warm glow.
Luke shivered again, uncertain whether it was from the cold or from Noah's smile or his intense gaze. “Enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey!” he quipped, as he pulled the covers tighter around them both.
Noah reluctantly moved his hand off the blonde’s chest, stifling a groan at the loss of contact, and slipped it out from under the covers to shift the material further over Luke. “You want me to find you a blanket?” he asked in a low rumbling chuckle.
The other man shook his head.
“Get you a hot water bottle?” The smile turned into a smirk and Noah’s eyes danced with mischief.
“I’m OK.” Luke shook his head again, a grin spreading across his face in response.
The smile gradually disappeared as they fell into an awkward silence that left Luke wondering what was going to happen next. He was hardly the expert!
Noah lifted up onto one elbow, resting his head against his open palm, and wrapped his other arm around the blonde’s side. He paused; he knew they should talk about what had happened… knew they needed to figure out where they should go from here. But he really wasn’t sure where to begin. It had been such a long time since he’d been in this position.
“So… were you scared I was going to punch your lights out when you came on to me earlier?” he asked, figuring the beginning of the night’s events was the best place to start.
“It was hardly likely!” Luke couldn’t resist the flippant response. Somehow he didn’t want to admit he’d taken a chance on his intuition working right for once.
“Oh really?!” Noah’s eyebrow shot up in amusement. God, this guy was full of himself!
“Yeah! Come on, I can read you like a book! And besides you still live with your mom… that's always a sure sign,” Luke smirked as if he was daring the other man to respond.
Noah leaned in closer to Luke. “Technically, I don't live with my mom. I live here and she lives up in the house.”
“Small details!” Luke shrugged.
Noah almost stopped breathing when he saw the blonde flick his eyes down to Noah’s mouth then back up to meet his stare again.
“Small details, huh?” Noah murmured when he remembered how to talk again. He shifted a little closer. “So, you can read me like a book, can you? What does this face tell you now?” The handsome brunette's breath ghosted across the side of Luke’s face and he could feel the heat growing in his groin.
“That you want to kiss me now.” The tip of Luke's tongue slipped out and licked slowly across his full and supple lips.
“Really?!” Noah tried to sound flippant but kissing Luke right now was exactly what he wanted to do. He yanked back the covers and rolled himself fully on top of the other man.
“You're a real dick, you know that?” Noah was a mere centimetres away from Luke's inviting mouth as he rocked his hips down onto the man beneath him, pressing their cocks tantalisingly together.
“Uh-huh!” Luke nodded emphatically, a lustful smirk playing across his lips before he curled his fingers around the other man's neck and pulled him down to crash their mouths together. Luke really couldn't disagree; he was, indeed, a dick! In fact, it was that domineering part of his anatomy that was doing all of the thinking right now as it twitched to life and geared up for the next round…
…
“If it wasn't for me, that boy would never eat properly,” Charlene Mayer muttered to herself as she walked up the path from the main house toward the one story building.
Time was getting on; breakfast was ready, the garden centre needed to be open soon and there was no sign of Noah.
Her hand reached for the doorknob and to her surprise, it opened.
“Have you been working all night again?” she called out as she walked into the hall, figuring her son had been so engrossed in his work that he’d forgotten to lock the door.
Charlene turned to the right first before noticing that the lab door was closed and the room was in darkness. She did an about turn and stepped across the hall, reaching just inside Noah's open bedroom door to flick on the light.
The woman gasped, looking straight into the eyes of an equally shocked Luke Grimaldi as he shot up in bed, desperately pulling the covers up and around him and Noah.
“Oh… sorry. Er… excuse me,” Charlene muttered in embarrassment and swung out of the door, pressing herself up against the hall wall.
Luke groaned and shoved urgently against Noah's shoulder. “Shit! Wake up! Your mom's here,” he whispered hurriedly.
Noah murmured in his sleep, burying his head in the pillow and refusing to wake up.
“Noah!” Luke tried again, this time with a more forceful shove.
“You could’ve have locked the door, you know,” Noah’s mom called out from the hall.
The brunette finally cracked open an eyelid. “You would’ve just used your key, mom,” he grunted into the pillow, his voice muffled by the material.
Well, yes, that was true… if her son’s door had been locked she would have figured he'd overslept and would have unlocked the door to wake him. But still Noah could've told her about him and Luke, at least then she would have known not to just walk in on them.
“Breakfast’s ready,” she said, unable to keep the hint of annoyance out of her voice. “I'll see you up at the house. You too, Luke.” She turned and headed out of the front door.
“Fuck!” Luke groaned and slammed his head back into the pillow when he was sure that Noah's mom had left. The smell of sex lingered in the air and Charlene would have needed to be blind and have no sense of smell at all not to know exactly what Luke and her son had been doing late into the night. And now he was going to have breakfast with the woman!
Noah eased his arm over the other man's torso. “Luke… Luke… just relax. It's OK.”
“It's OK?!” Luke's voice was a high-pitched whine. “Your mom was right here, Noah. She knows… she saw us!” How could Noah be so calm?!
“So what?” the other man replied with a shrug.
“So what?! You act like it’s normal… like everything is going to be OK.” Luke couldn’t help but imagine what his own mom would’ve done if the situation had been reversed.
Noah shifted slightly to look at the other man's profile. “It is... it will be. My mom knows I'm gay, Luke. And now, I think, she knows you are too!” Noah smirked.
A frown formed across the brunette's handsome features when he didn't get the flippant response he was expecting… it was obvious something more was going on here.
“Really, Luke. It'll be OK. Trust me… you'll see.” He pulled the blonde closer and pressed a reassuring kiss to his stubbled jaw…
…
Charlene turned at the sound of someone entering the kitchen. “You could have warned me. I was so embarrassed,” she admonished as she looked up into her son’s crystal blue eyes.
Noah opened the refrigerator door to reach for the orange juice. “I'm sorry, Mom. It's not like I've been keeping anything from you. Last night was the first time we… um… was the first time Luke stayed over.”
“Oh really?” That made her feel slightly better, at least her son wasn’t keeping things from her. She wanted him to be able to tell her everything. “So… last night was the first time then?”
Noah could feel the blush spreading up across his neck and over his cheeks. “Mom!” Although he truly valued being able to be open with his mother, there were some things that he just didn’t want to talk about with her.
“Anyway.” He cleared his throat. “If anything Luke is the most embarrassed. More like horrified… actually.”
“Really? He's got nothing to be embarrassed…” Charlene stopped short as Luke sheepishly walked into the room.
She smiled up at him, trying to make him feel at ease. “Luke, do you want some coffee?”
“Please,” the blonde smiled, briefly making eye contact before dropping his gaze.
Noah placed the jug of orange juice on the table. “I'll be right back.” He traced his hand over Luke's T-shirt covered chest in a comforting gesture before he headed out of the kitchen to use the bathroom.
Luke somehow resisted the urge to grab Noah's arm to stop the other man from leaving him on his own with his mom. Instead he just smiled nervously and eased down onto a kitchen chair, wishing he could be anywhere else in the world but here right now.
“There you go,” Noah's mom said as she handed Luke his coffee before sitting down opposite him.
The young man wouldn't meet her gaze. “Look at me, Luke. It's OK. You have nothing to be ashamed of... or to be embarrassed about.”
When Luke finally looked at her over the rim of his coffee cup she continued. “I love my son, Luke. I want nothing more than for him to be happy and for him to have someone to share his life with. You have nothing to fear from me… nothing at all.”
He gave her a small half-smile as he nervously tucked a loose strand of hair back behind his ear.
Charlene sighed when she saw she hadn't convinced Luke. She tried again. “After Winston, Noah's father, died my son came to me one day and said he had something to tell me. He told me that he couldn't pretend anymore and that he needed to be honest with me … he told me he was gay.”
“What happened then?” Luke sat forward in his chair, nervousness suddenly giving way to interest.
She paused, taking a sip of her own coffee before continuing. “My husband was a good man, Luke. He had his faults, just like everybody else and he could be strict. Him and Noah didn't always see eye to eye but I think a part of Noah will always regret that he never had the courage to tell his father who he really was before Winston died. But when his father was gone…I guess…my son felt he could finally be honest.”
Charlene shook her head sadly and Luke could see she was reliving the painful memories. “I was shocked and I wasn't proud of my reaction that day. Noah said to me that I had a choice and that as much as he loved me…. he also needed me to accept who he was. I hadn't long lost my husband, Luke, and I didn't want to lose my son too. So I accepted. I won't pretend that it was easy for me and we've had our hard times but Noah is still, and always will be, my son. And I love him for who he is.”
They both looked up when they heard Noah's footsteps as he came back into the kitchen.
Noah smiled down at Luke before taking his place at the table. “I'm starving,” he said as he reached for a piece of toast, oblivious to the conversation Luke and his mother had just had.
Unable to speak, Luke looked between the mother and son for several long moments and for the first time in months a spark of hope flared in his chest…
Chapter 7
Back to fic master post
Author: wheelie47
Rating: NC17 for whole story but not every chapter.
Pairing: Luke and Noah.
Word count: 2,434
Disclaimer: Don’t own characters, am not associated in any way with ATWT, Van and Jake. No offence intended.
Summary: Noah Mayer is struggling to make ends meet; trying to keep his garden centre open and desperate to hold onto his research grant from the Institute of Agronomic Research. And he never seems to have time… no time for a life and definitely no time for a boyfriend.
Luciano Grimaldi hates everything about his life and he is so far in the closet where his parents concerned, that he even has a girlfriend, Maddie, to prove it…
AN: This is an AU story based on a French film called “Juste une question d’amour”.
Many thanks to hollyoaks1021 for the wonderful artwork. Thanks Sally <3
Luke woke suddenly to the strange and confusing feeling of the left side of his body being incredibly cold compared to the heat he could feel pressed up against, and partially covering, his right side. It took him several seconds to realise where he was and what was causing the unusual sensation.
Looking down, Luke saw that he was lying flat on his back on Noah's bed, with the handsome brunette curled into his side; a muscled leg hooked across his thigh and long fingers splayed out in the middle of his chest. They were both still naked and the covers lay in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the bed. No wonder his exposed parts were cold! Noah's ass must be freezing!
“Fuck!” Luke muttered, throwing his head back against the pillow. The blonde felt a panic rising in his chest. Lying here like this was a new experience for him; most of the time his sexual encounters were quick fucks, where he and the, generally nameless, other guy quickly rearranged disturbed clothing and headed their separate ways. But this was different and new and it scared him. A big part of him wanted to slip out from under the other man’s embrace, hastily pull on his clothes, head out into the night and never look back.
Noah chose that exact same moment to sigh contently in his sleep and move that bit closer to Luke; his leg hitching higher and brushing against the tip of the younger man’s cock as it lay soft in the crease between groin and thigh. The subconsciously intimate touch seemed to ground Luke and, instead of making him want to leave, made him want to sink deeper into Noah’s embrace and shut out the harsh reality of the world outside for just a little bit longer. He was sure it would all come crashing in soon enough.
But he also didn’t want them to freeze to death in the middle of the night either! Stretching out with his left foot, Luke managed to tag the covers and pull them closer. As his hand grasped the material, Luke couldn’t resist brushing his fingers along the perfect curve of Noah’s ass.
The rays of moonlight that filtered down from the small window set high in the wall cast an almost ethereal glow over the other man's body and Luke couldn't help but wonder why the handsome hunk didn't have a special someone to keep him warm every night.
Luke’s eyes followed the path of his hand as he pulled the covers up over their torsos, continuing on to the strong lines of Noah's neck and stubbled jaw. Luke startled when he saw those delicate eyelashes flutter as Noah blinked awake, the crystal blue sparkling in the moonlight.
“You OK? Are you cold?” Noah asked, his voice croaky and rough with sleep, when he felt the blonde shiver against him. He reached over to switch on the lamp, bathing the small room in a soft warm glow.
Luke shivered again, uncertain whether it was from the cold or from Noah's smile or his intense gaze. “Enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey!” he quipped, as he pulled the covers tighter around them both.
Noah reluctantly moved his hand off the blonde’s chest, stifling a groan at the loss of contact, and slipped it out from under the covers to shift the material further over Luke. “You want me to find you a blanket?” he asked in a low rumbling chuckle.
The other man shook his head.
“Get you a hot water bottle?” The smile turned into a smirk and Noah’s eyes danced with mischief.
“I’m OK.” Luke shook his head again, a grin spreading across his face in response.
The smile gradually disappeared as they fell into an awkward silence that left Luke wondering what was going to happen next. He was hardly the expert!
Noah lifted up onto one elbow, resting his head against his open palm, and wrapped his other arm around the blonde’s side. He paused; he knew they should talk about what had happened… knew they needed to figure out where they should go from here. But he really wasn’t sure where to begin. It had been such a long time since he’d been in this position.
“So… were you scared I was going to punch your lights out when you came on to me earlier?” he asked, figuring the beginning of the night’s events was the best place to start.
“It was hardly likely!” Luke couldn’t resist the flippant response. Somehow he didn’t want to admit he’d taken a chance on his intuition working right for once.
“Oh really?!” Noah’s eyebrow shot up in amusement. God, this guy was full of himself!
“Yeah! Come on, I can read you like a book! And besides you still live with your mom… that's always a sure sign,” Luke smirked as if he was daring the other man to respond.
Noah leaned in closer to Luke. “Technically, I don't live with my mom. I live here and she lives up in the house.”
“Small details!” Luke shrugged.
Noah almost stopped breathing when he saw the blonde flick his eyes down to Noah’s mouth then back up to meet his stare again.
“Small details, huh?” Noah murmured when he remembered how to talk again. He shifted a little closer. “So, you can read me like a book, can you? What does this face tell you now?” The handsome brunette's breath ghosted across the side of Luke’s face and he could feel the heat growing in his groin.
“That you want to kiss me now.” The tip of Luke's tongue slipped out and licked slowly across his full and supple lips.
“Really?!” Noah tried to sound flippant but kissing Luke right now was exactly what he wanted to do. He yanked back the covers and rolled himself fully on top of the other man.
“You're a real dick, you know that?” Noah was a mere centimetres away from Luke's inviting mouth as he rocked his hips down onto the man beneath him, pressing their cocks tantalisingly together.
“Uh-huh!” Luke nodded emphatically, a lustful smirk playing across his lips before he curled his fingers around the other man's neck and pulled him down to crash their mouths together. Luke really couldn't disagree; he was, indeed, a dick! In fact, it was that domineering part of his anatomy that was doing all of the thinking right now as it twitched to life and geared up for the next round…
…
“If it wasn't for me, that boy would never eat properly,” Charlene Mayer muttered to herself as she walked up the path from the main house toward the one story building.
Time was getting on; breakfast was ready, the garden centre needed to be open soon and there was no sign of Noah.
Her hand reached for the doorknob and to her surprise, it opened.
“Have you been working all night again?” she called out as she walked into the hall, figuring her son had been so engrossed in his work that he’d forgotten to lock the door.
Charlene turned to the right first before noticing that the lab door was closed and the room was in darkness. She did an about turn and stepped across the hall, reaching just inside Noah's open bedroom door to flick on the light.
The woman gasped, looking straight into the eyes of an equally shocked Luke Grimaldi as he shot up in bed, desperately pulling the covers up and around him and Noah.
“Oh… sorry. Er… excuse me,” Charlene muttered in embarrassment and swung out of the door, pressing herself up against the hall wall.
Luke groaned and shoved urgently against Noah's shoulder. “Shit! Wake up! Your mom's here,” he whispered hurriedly.
Noah murmured in his sleep, burying his head in the pillow and refusing to wake up.
“Noah!” Luke tried again, this time with a more forceful shove.
“You could’ve have locked the door, you know,” Noah’s mom called out from the hall.
The brunette finally cracked open an eyelid. “You would’ve just used your key, mom,” he grunted into the pillow, his voice muffled by the material.
Well, yes, that was true… if her son’s door had been locked she would have figured he'd overslept and would have unlocked the door to wake him. But still Noah could've told her about him and Luke, at least then she would have known not to just walk in on them.
“Breakfast’s ready,” she said, unable to keep the hint of annoyance out of her voice. “I'll see you up at the house. You too, Luke.” She turned and headed out of the front door.
“Fuck!” Luke groaned and slammed his head back into the pillow when he was sure that Noah's mom had left. The smell of sex lingered in the air and Charlene would have needed to be blind and have no sense of smell at all not to know exactly what Luke and her son had been doing late into the night. And now he was going to have breakfast with the woman!
Noah eased his arm over the other man's torso. “Luke… Luke… just relax. It's OK.”
“It's OK?!” Luke's voice was a high-pitched whine. “Your mom was right here, Noah. She knows… she saw us!” How could Noah be so calm?!
“So what?” the other man replied with a shrug.
“So what?! You act like it’s normal… like everything is going to be OK.” Luke couldn’t help but imagine what his own mom would’ve done if the situation had been reversed.
Noah shifted slightly to look at the other man's profile. “It is... it will be. My mom knows I'm gay, Luke. And now, I think, she knows you are too!” Noah smirked.
A frown formed across the brunette's handsome features when he didn't get the flippant response he was expecting… it was obvious something more was going on here.
“Really, Luke. It'll be OK. Trust me… you'll see.” He pulled the blonde closer and pressed a reassuring kiss to his stubbled jaw…
…
Charlene turned at the sound of someone entering the kitchen. “You could have warned me. I was so embarrassed,” she admonished as she looked up into her son’s crystal blue eyes.
Noah opened the refrigerator door to reach for the orange juice. “I'm sorry, Mom. It's not like I've been keeping anything from you. Last night was the first time we… um… was the first time Luke stayed over.”
“Oh really?” That made her feel slightly better, at least her son wasn’t keeping things from her. She wanted him to be able to tell her everything. “So… last night was the first time then?”
Noah could feel the blush spreading up across his neck and over his cheeks. “Mom!” Although he truly valued being able to be open with his mother, there were some things that he just didn’t want to talk about with her.
“Anyway.” He cleared his throat. “If anything Luke is the most embarrassed. More like horrified… actually.”
“Really? He's got nothing to be embarrassed…” Charlene stopped short as Luke sheepishly walked into the room.
She smiled up at him, trying to make him feel at ease. “Luke, do you want some coffee?”
“Please,” the blonde smiled, briefly making eye contact before dropping his gaze.
Noah placed the jug of orange juice on the table. “I'll be right back.” He traced his hand over Luke's T-shirt covered chest in a comforting gesture before he headed out of the kitchen to use the bathroom.
Luke somehow resisted the urge to grab Noah's arm to stop the other man from leaving him on his own with his mom. Instead he just smiled nervously and eased down onto a kitchen chair, wishing he could be anywhere else in the world but here right now.
“There you go,” Noah's mom said as she handed Luke his coffee before sitting down opposite him.
The young man wouldn't meet her gaze. “Look at me, Luke. It's OK. You have nothing to be ashamed of... or to be embarrassed about.”
When Luke finally looked at her over the rim of his coffee cup she continued. “I love my son, Luke. I want nothing more than for him to be happy and for him to have someone to share his life with. You have nothing to fear from me… nothing at all.”
He gave her a small half-smile as he nervously tucked a loose strand of hair back behind his ear.
Charlene sighed when she saw she hadn't convinced Luke. She tried again. “After Winston, Noah's father, died my son came to me one day and said he had something to tell me. He told me that he couldn't pretend anymore and that he needed to be honest with me … he told me he was gay.”
“What happened then?” Luke sat forward in his chair, nervousness suddenly giving way to interest.
She paused, taking a sip of her own coffee before continuing. “My husband was a good man, Luke. He had his faults, just like everybody else and he could be strict. Him and Noah didn't always see eye to eye but I think a part of Noah will always regret that he never had the courage to tell his father who he really was before Winston died. But when his father was gone…I guess…my son felt he could finally be honest.”
Charlene shook her head sadly and Luke could see she was reliving the painful memories. “I was shocked and I wasn't proud of my reaction that day. Noah said to me that I had a choice and that as much as he loved me…. he also needed me to accept who he was. I hadn't long lost my husband, Luke, and I didn't want to lose my son too. So I accepted. I won't pretend that it was easy for me and we've had our hard times but Noah is still, and always will be, my son. And I love him for who he is.”
They both looked up when they heard Noah's footsteps as he came back into the kitchen.
Noah smiled down at Luke before taking his place at the table. “I'm starving,” he said as he reached for a piece of toast, oblivious to the conversation Luke and his mother had just had.
Unable to speak, Luke looked between the mother and son for several long moments and for the first time in months a spark of hope flared in his chest…
Chapter 7
Back to fic master post