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A Raindrop Hallmark Christmas movie AU ❄️ Completed Masterpage!

Rain is newly jobless and single, and moving back into his small hometown barely a week before Christmas.

Dewdrop is stuck running an outdated hotel all by himself, hiding from the festive season and its reminders of all the fun he isn't having.

Rain didn't expect to have to spend his Christmas staying in the Hearthside Inn, and he certainly didn't expect it to be run by the man he'd had an unrequited crush on so many years ago. Least of all had he expected the hotel proprietor to be quite so rude. Will he be able to break through Dewdrop's walls and rekindle his love of the festive season before Christmas?

Yes, this is just as cheesy and trope-y as you would imagine.

Rating: T Content and warnings: Enemies-to-lovers, past cheating, human AU, Christmas fluff, mild alcohol use Word count: 23,295

Read the whole fic below, or on AO3!

Chapter 1

Rain didn’t know how his life had ended up quite so dull. He had left home almost ten years prior with a heart full of hope and aspirations for everything that lay ahead of him out in the big wide world, and yet somehow he had found himself feeling almost more trapped now than he had in his small hometown.

His job was nothing short of boring. Studying ecology had always been his dream, even when he was a child who didn’t yet know what that word even meant. All he had needed to know back then was that he loved nothing more than immersing himself in nature, trying to learn everything that every leaf on a tree or tiny bug could teach him. He had gotten into his dream university and passed almost every part of his course with good grades, so how was he now here, stuck in an office job barely related to his degree?

Rain stared out of the window near his desk towards a sea of other grey panes of glass, a forest not made of beautiful and unique twisting trunks but of near-identical concrete towers. Even the sky behind them was a similar colour, the sun not daring to make an appearance on this cold and wintry day. He twiddled his pen between his fingers absently, the novelty plastic item from an aquarium gift shop with fish suspended in its barrel the only burst of colour in his equally drab office.

All around him was the same white noise as ever, the low hum of his boss talking behind his own office door, the shuffling of his colleagues at their adjacent desks. All sounds that had become as familiar as they were irritating, like the hum of the fridge in his apartment or the rumble of the central heating. It all felt so artificial, a far cry from the veritable symphony of noises that had existed just outside of his back door back home.

He missed the snow and the wonder of winter he had once felt, the brown slush that had soaked through his shoes this morning a poor comparison to the pristine white blanket that he used to wake up to as a child. With barely more than a week until Christmas, nothing about his environment was encouraging him to get into the festive mood. Especially not the looming deadline at work, which had for some reason been set on the twenty-third of December.

No, nothing about Rain’s current life was what he had imagined for himself all those years previously. Even his dream of a happy relationship, settled down in a cottage somewhere with a husband and maybe a pet cat or dog seemed distant. He had a boyfriend, sure, the same guy he had been dating since his first year at university, but they had been growing apart recently as his job kept him out late even more frequently than Rain’s did. Often he would even spend the night at his office. Rain had been starting to suspect that they were only still with each other for convenience, both too afraid to move on and face the world without each other.

The brightest thing in his life were his best friends, Cumulus and Cirrus, neighbours from his first city apartment who had simply refused to let him wallow in the comedown of graduate life. They were the ones who always encouraged him to persevere and dream bigger, to look past his shitty job and lacklustre relationship and manifest the life he wanted. Unfortunately they weren’t even around right now though, already off on their Christmas vacation and travelling to stay with both of their families like the functioning couple with a good work-life balance that they were.

Rain looked at the clock: 11:13. Still not late enough to justify a lunch break, but perhaps time for another coffee. Just as he was debating if his company-branded coffee mug really needed washing or if he could get away with just topping it up, the closest – or rather only – friend he had at work pushed through the doors of the open-plan office.

For a long time, Aether had been little more than a colleague who Rain occasionally hung out with when the evenings got too lonely, barely ever having conversations deeper than their opinions on music and petty workplace drama, but he was a face Rain was always happy to see. Today though, his usual easy smile was gone, replaced with a concerned look and a frown line etched deep into his forehead.

“Rain!” He half-whispered, half-shouted across the room as he approached. “I’m so sorry, how are you doing?”

His voice held so much sympathy, a level of emotion Rain wasn’t used to hearing from him. He stared back at him blankly as a few of his other colleagues also turned to see what was happening, nonplussed.

“I’m fine?” He eventually said as Aether’s eyebrows knitted themselves even tighter together.

“You are?” His relief seemed a little sceptical, Rain thought. “That’s good then, but I just wanted to say, if you want someone to talk to I’m here.”

It was awkward, slightly forced, but Rain was too distracted by why Aether apparently felt the need to offer such a sentiment all of a sudden to consider why he was pushing himself into something that seemed to be making him uncomfortable.

“Sorry, Aether, I’m not entirely sure what you’re talking about?” Rain smiled and shrugged his shoulders in a way he hoped conveyed his confusion without seeming totally disinterested.

“You and Phil? You broke up right? I’m sorry if you don’t want to talk about it but I saw—”

“What?” Rain was genuinely confused now. “Sorry, what did you see?”

Aether shuffled his feet awkwardly as he spoke, as though suddenly unsure if he was doing the correct thing in telling him all of this.

“I was at a different bar to normal last night, and I saw him there making out with someone else so I assumed…”

Rain stopped listening. He couldn’t believe it.

Sure, their relationship had been a little less exciting as of late, but Rain had had work, and Phil had professed to as well…

“Excuse me a moment.”

He bolted for the bathroom.

Locking himself in, Rain sat on the closed seat, trying not to hyperventilate. Could it really be true? Before he really let himself succumb to getting upset though, he could already feel anger taking over and a sinking feeling growing in his stomach. He did believe it, deep down. Even with just Aether’s word, he already believed everything, deep down in his heart. How could Phil do such a thing though, after Rain had forgiven him for similar ‘lapses in judgement’ before?

Perhaps that was his answer.

There and then, Rain decided he had to leave. After all his dejection around his job, his life, his everything as of late, this was the final straw. He needed to go home. He would go back to his parents’ and his hometown for a reset, try and reclaim some of the passion for life he had had when he was younger. Screw the big deadline: he had accumulated weeks of annual leave he hadn’t ever felt he could take, and no one here would miss him aside from Aether.

Rain splashed some water on his face, even though he had no tears of sadness, anger or otherwise to wash away. Instead he was just burning red in embarrassment. Unlocking the door and emerging once again, he saw Aether hovering a respectable distance away down the hall, waiting for him without imposing.

“I’ve got to go.” Rain said, hurrying past him back to his desk.

“Rain?”

“No, I really am okay.” Rain insisted as he saved the document open on his laptop without even bothering to sit down to do so. “Thanks for telling me Aeth, I—”

“You didn’t know.” He gasped, horrified, freezing halfway across the office with his hands over his mouth. Their other colleagues weren’t even trying to hide their interest now, the whole room’s eyes on the pair. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry Rain, I had no idea!”

“No, you’re good. I don’t know why I’m surprised.” Rain laughed coldly. “I’m glad you told me though, so he can’t lie to my face…”

He threw the few collected possessions strewn across his desk that he cared about into his rucksack. A photo of him and Phil beamed happily at him from beside his monitor and in a fit of anger he slammed it face down on the desk, hearing the cheap glass in the frame shatter, before thinking better of leaving the mess for a colleague and carefully sweeping the pieces into the bin.

“What are you doing? Rain?”

“I’m leaving.” Rain announced, loud enough for all the gawking onlookers to hear it, before lowering his voice again. “I need some time away. From here, from the city, definitely from Phil. Permanently, maybe.”

Before Aether could raise any objection, Rain strode to his boss’ door with a confidence he had never once had before, knocking on it with similar command.

“Come in!” The voice from inside called, before its owner looked up in mild surprise. “Rain?”

“I quit.” He repeated, almost proudly. “I’ve got way more than my two weeks in notice in holiday to use, so I’m leaving. Right now.”

“But the project? It’s due before Christm—”

“It’s all uploaded to the share, and papers are on my desk. My portion’s finished.” Rain could hear from the sudden silence outside that every one of his colleagues was continuing to eavesdrop. “So, uh, I’ll be off now. Thank you.”

Before his boss could say anything or Rain could back down on his decision, he ducked back out of the office, leaving the seated man to stare in slight confusion at his closing door.

“I’ll call you,” he promised Aether, “I just… Need to get out of here for a bit. Out of the city. I’m going to my parents’ house for a while, at least until new year’s.”

He felt a little guilty seeing Aether’s face. Rain knew he didn’t enjoy the work any more than he did, but he was firm in his resolve. Instead of begging Rain to stay though, Aether stepped forward and wrapped him in a big hug.

“I’m sorry Rain.”

“Not your fault.” Rain tried to shrug from inside of the larger man’s arms. “I really am glad you told me.

“Still.” Aether released him, before his dejected expression turned to a small smirk. “God, I’m proud of you for quitting like that though. Might do the same if they keep cracking the whip around here.

“Do it.” Rain grinned despite everything. “A deadline on Christmas should be like, illegal or something.”

As he left the office, his rucksack containing the meagre slivers of his life he had brought into work slung over his shoulder, he waved to Aether and felt his heart clench as he left his only real friend in the building stood alone, looking lost in the middle of the heinous open-plan room.

As Rain rode the rattling bus back to his apartment, doubt began to slip in. He didn’t know if anyone he went to high school with was still around; he had lost contact with them without really meaning to. He thought Sunshine, his old biology lab partner, might still be living in town though: last Rain had heard from his Mother, she still worked in the flower shop that she had had a part time job in during school. He knew that most of the other families he had grown up with were still based in town too, so maybe he would bump into some other people he knew down at the pub, if it wasn’t too lame to head down there alone, ten years older than when he had first been there.

Maybe Dewdrop will be around still, his mind unhelpfully supplied, reminding him of a failed crush he had once had back then. Spurred on by fruity cider which was probably more sugar than alcohol, he had tried unsuccessfully to talk to the striking boy in the year above him, only to get quite spectacularly shot down. Was it any wonder then that Rain had latched onto the first guy to call him pretty in freshers’ week at university and never let go?

His younger sibling was due back for the holidays, so at least there would be someone for him to talk to in a few days. They were bringing their girlfriend to Christmas though, and Rain thought that third-wheeling them might be more mortifying than being alone.

Whatever the case though, it had to be better than spending another night in this stupid city with his stupid, cheating, soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend.

Chapter 2

Rain had piled all of his belongings into his small car and bade farewell to his apartment of many years, all still without shedding a single tear. It wasn’t like he had many possessions anyway, or at least none that he cared about enough to bring. Their flat had come furnished and everything else was either Phil’s or his own cheap stuff left from university that had definitely seen better days. He didn’t need to drag a bunch of chipped crockery or a disintegrating frying pan which was probably slowly poisoning him back with him. A few books and his clothes were all he really wanted.

He had debated making some kind of scene for Phil when he returned from work, or wherever else he was instead, but had decided against it. Rain was too old to be so petty, as much as he might want to be. No, for his fresh start he was better off just making a clean break. He had left only a short note to Phil, one that outlined everything Aether had told him and emphasised that he should not try to contact Rain.

Said fresh start was somewhat complicated from the moment he arrived home however. He had pulled into his parents drive, realising far too late that he should have warned them he was coming, only to be met with the news that they were currently renovating his old room into a home gym. He had given them his blessing to do so, sure, and they had not even known if they should expect him for a single night after all he had said to them about his work deadlines and Phil’s uncertain plans, but that didn’t make it any less inconvenient.

Additionally, Phantom had arrived earlier than any of them had expected. Rain was overjoyed to see his younger sibling again after too many months of them living in separate cities, and he thought his girlfriend Aurora was simply the loveliest partner he could imagine for them, however that meant he couldn’t even sleep on their floor on an air mattress. He might be thinking about leeching off of them for a social life for the ensuing week or so, accepting that he was possibly going to become their unfortunate shadow, but he wanted to leave them at least some privacy. There was no way he would impose on them like that.

Although he was fast running out of options, Rain was an adult: he wasn’t going to live on his parents’ too-small couch for more than a night. Besides, he was planning on being back for a while anyway so he might as well begin looking for a place of his own.

The next morning, his back complaining bitterly about the indignity of his tall frame having been squeezed onto the sagging sofa in the lounge, Rain had crunched his way through the snow – proper snow, not the city’s grey-brown slush – the short distance into town and to the lone lettings agent there. However, there had apparently been nowhere even remotely in his currently-unemployed budget on their books, and she had told him that it was unlikely there would be anything new appearing so close to Christmas and he was best off just waiting until January.

In desperation, Rain had driven all around the town looking for any cheap hotel with vacancies so close to the holidays. While most had also been too expensive for him to even consider, he had eventually come upon the Hearthside Inn, right on the outskirts of town. It appeared a little old fashioned at first, and unlike the fancier chain hotels he had driven past it didn’t have a single performative light strung up outside, but it was a name he vaguely knew. It had been in the town longer than he could remember, probably longer than his parents could even, and hadn’t seemed to change in all of those years.

It was equally as un-festive when he stepped inside as it has seemed from the road, with not a single decoration in sight. However it seemed clean and warm, no doubt helped by the open fire roaring away in the corner like its name had suggested. Not entirely convinced that the ‘vacancies’ sign also wasn’t just as unchanged as the rest of the old-fashioned decor was, he approached the reception desk.

Behind it and poking absently at their phone was a familiar face, fixed in the same scowl it always had been and framed by the same golden hair.

Dewdrop, his mind said, only sighing a little bit like a lovesick teenager.

Rain had to find it funny how one’s mind could hold onto a first crush for so long. It was that, or think it just plain embarrassing. Any wistful nostalgia was swiftly eradicated when the man opened his mouth however.

“Hello?” He drawled, sarcastic and bored in equal measure. “What? Cat got your tongue?”

The man huffed, as though even being made to speak to a customer was insulting.

“S-sorry.” Rain snapped back to himself. Clearly, Dewdrop was just as rude as he had been when he had turned Rain down all those years ago. “I was hoping you had a room? Until at least new year’s?”

“Sign says we’ve got vacancies, doesn’t it?” Dewdrop muttered, already flipping through the pages of a large cream-papered ledger. “You want a basic economy room or budget?”

“Uh, what’s the difference?” Rain asked, thinking of the meagre amount of savings he had in his bank account which wasn’t about to get any fuller with him having quit his job so suddenly.

“Basic, you get a view of the car park. Budget’s a view of the bins.” The man sighed, clearly bored of the interaction already and ready to be back on his phone again.

“Budget’s fine.” Rain said quickly, accepting the paper form Dewdrop was already slapping down on the desk. He scribbled his name down, wincing at the total cost of just one week in the place.

“Payment for the next week’s due at lunchtime the day before, reception’s open til 5.” Dewdrop rattled off robotically, already turning to the computer to stab at the yellowing keyboard with fingernails which Rain now saw were painted a deep red, so dark it was almost black.

He had always had that little flare to his appearance, Rain remembered. It was something that had drawn him to him back in school, the boy with nail polish and eyeliner embodying everything Rain wished he was confident enough to be. He had grown out his own hair since then and was no stranger to makeup himself anymore though, having finally pushed past his fears around rejecting social norms to become the person his teenage self had never imagined he could be.

“We went to school together, I think,” Rain braved saying, “About ten years ago?”

He thought he saw a flash of recognition pass across Dewdrop’s features, before it was replaced by the wrinkling of his nose and a deepening of his permanent scowl.

“The hell are you back here for then?” He asked, dodging the question entirely.

“Christmas.” Rain shrugged, not about to volunteer the depressing recent turn in his life story to someone who would undoubtedly mock it.

He was already beginning to forget just what had attracted him to Dewdrop in the first place. Had he really always been this bitter? Or had rain been too distracted by his looks to ever pay attention to that?

“And your parents couldn’t even stretch to giving you a bed? Sucks to be you, I guess.” Dew scoffed, turning to pluck a key from its hook on the wall behind him. “You’re in room twelve. Up the stairs and at the end of the corridor on the right.”

Rain had had a little more trouble finding his room than the receptionist had implied, with there being rather more doors and turns than he had listed, but eventually he was toeing his shoes off and flopping down onto a slightly too soft bed with a deep sigh. After the long day he had had it felt strange to rest now, with absolutely nothing pressing calling to him other than perhaps dragging himself back across town to his parents’ house for dinner if it didn’t start to snow again. It felt wrong to be alone, somehow.

He supposed he ought to start getting used to it; this would be his new normal for a while yet, probably. With no job now nor any idea of what he actually wanted to do, Rain figured he should perhaps at least consider some ideas for his future while he was here, even if he didn’t have to make any decisions for a while yet. Certainly nowhere around here would be hiring until after the festive season. It was always something he had loved growing up, the way time seemed to stand still around the holidays, and something he had missed in the bustling city that didn’t seem to even take the morning off. Now though it was more of an inconvenience.

Despite knowing he had nothing to attend to with any urgency, Rain could feel his phone burning a hole in his pocket. It hadn’t been buzzing at him, given how he had turned it straight off after texting his landlord that he would no longer be on the lease from next month, but he was sure it would be full of missed calls and texts if he turned it on. Phil should have found his note by now, even if he hadn’t made it home the night Rain had left like he had promised to be. Rain had somewhat doubted that, anyway.

He dreaded seeing what his response would be. Would he deny everything? Or would he be overflowing with remorse as he had been when Rain had addressed his other questionable behaviours in the past? Perhaps he would be angry, even. Whatever the case though, for as long as Rain’s phone stayed firmly off, he didn’t have to find out.

Even with the idea of an open and entirely free future ahead of him though, Rain couldn’t help but feel slightly like his life was falling apart around him. He had thought he had everything sorted, even if it wasn’t perfect or exciting, and to be back at square one felt like failure.

Finally he allowed the hot tears to flow. He was upset but more crucially angry. He thought he could have pottered on as they were for years to come. Sure, his job was boring and stupid, but he might have got a promotion, or had another opportunity come up. Phil had always been a little bit of a dick, but Rain had enjoyed his company and the stability their relationship had brought them nonetheless. Rain knew none of that was really a good reason to stay in a relationship – in fact Cirrus and Cumulus had been telling him to dump him for years – but he thought he was allowed to be pissed that he hadn’t had a say, in the end.

The slightly lumpy pillow that he felt beneath his face as he turned into it to muffle his sobs represented everything he thought had already gone wrong with this new start of his. He was meant to be somewhere familiar, safe in his childhood home where his parents could dote on him and reassure him that everything would be okay. Alone in this old-fashioned and slightly run-down hotel with an uncomfortable bed and no home comforts was distinctly not where he had envisioned ending up when he left his apartment the previous afternoon.

There wasn’t even a friendly face in sight, he lamented. While seeing Dewdrop had not been an altogether unpleasant surprise, the disdain with which he had instantly greeted Rain only made him feel more lonely and isolated here than he had already. His rudeness was unlike anything Rain had ever experienced outside of the occasional hungover teenager in the petrol station near his apartment. Could something have gone wrong before Rain’s arrival to put him in such a mood? It seemed unlikely that just his appearance could have caused such a reaction; after all, it was Rain who had left their first true interaction truly embarrassed with his tail between his legs, not Dewdrop.

Still, despite everything Rain knew he had to try to make the most of where he was now; in life, if not physically. He had a bed of his own, somewhere to be his base while he thought about his next steps, and was paying for it out of his own pocket. The only thing more embarrassing than moving back home at his age would be having to accept a handout from his parents. Rain was far too proud for that.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Confused, Rain opened it only to see Dewdrop stood on the other side of it. In a panic, he tried his best to scrub away the evidence that he had been crying with his sleeve, but he wasn’t sure he managed much other than making the rest of his face blotchy and red too. If there was a spark of sympathy in Dew’s eyes he didn’t address it, for which Rain was more than grateful.

“I forgot to say,” Dewdrop muttered awkwardly, looking at his shoes, “breakfast’s from seven til ten, and if you want your room cleaned you’ve gotta say before eleven. And I forgot to give you this.”

He handed over a small tray of coffee sachets, tea bags and long-life milk pots, along with a tiny travel kettle with a very conspicuous ‘4’ written on the side in permanent marker. Rain was pretty sure he wasn’t meant to have all this in his ‘ultra-broke-super-budget’ room or whatever it was called, but he certainly wasn’t going to complain. He wasn’t entirely sure what he had done to deserve any special treatment either, especially given how rude Dewdrop had been to him before. It wasn’t like he could have psychically known about Rain’s little pity-party, unless his face had said far more than he meant it to while he was checking in.

“Uh, thanks.” He croaked out eventually, hoping he wasn’t too slow in replying and didn’t sound completely insane.

Rain might not have an embarrassing teenage crush on the man anymore, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to at least attempt to pass as a functioning human. Besides, the town was small, and his potential for a social life would probably involve not accidentally scaring off one of the few other people of his generation in town. He absolutely didn’t need word about any of this making a first impression on others before he could make one himself.

“S’alright. Phone’s linked to reception if you need anything else.”

With that, Dewdrop turned and slouched off down the hallway at surprising speed. Rain debated calling after him for a moment; to say what, he didn’t know, but the sight of him disappearing suddenly made his isolation feel all the more real.

Instead of doing anything so mortifying though, he closed his door and fished his phone out of his pocket. It was time to bite the bullet and turn it back on. The screen glitched for a second as the backlog of missed calls, voicemails and messages on more social media apps than Rain remembered having all tried to load simultaneously, so he tossed it on the bed while he went about plugging in the kettle.

To his delight, amidst the bundle of sticks of granulated coffee was a sachet of hot chocolate. Definitely not meant for his wheelie-bin-vista room. A hot mug of artificially sweet, slightly-too-weak cocoa was exactly what he needed right now.

Stirring the last of the brown lumps into the water, he braved poking at his phone once more. It seemed to have calmed down at last, no longer buzzing incessantly, and the screen let him clear all the notifications without pausing to read them before opening his call log. There, beneath far too many red alerts for missed calls from Phil, was the name he wanted to see.

“Hi Lus,” he said unsurprised that she had answered almost immediately, “is Cirrus there too? I kinda need to talk to you both.”

He had to hold the phone away from his ear to fend off the loud barrage of questions that swiftly followed from the both of them, although chief amongst them seemed he be where he was, why he was there, and what exactly was he playing at?

Rain did his best to answer as simply as he could, filling them in on everything with Phil and how he was back in his hometown with no clear end to his stay in sight.

“Well it’s about time you chucked him,” Cumulus’ voice crackled down the line. The signal had always been poor here; Rain really needed to find out if this place had WiFi, “he’s been holding you back for years!”

“I know, I know,” Rain sighed, “you’ve been telling me that ages. It was just so easy to carry on as things were though, you know? So much simpler.”

“It sounds like he’s the easy one here,” Cirrus snarked, and Rain could exactly picture the face she was pulling, “sucking face in a club like that! And on a weeknight!”

“Cir…” As much anger as he was feeling right now, a part of him was still a little defensive over Phil.

“Nah, he’s a dick,” Cumulus joined in. The pair had made no secret of their dislike for him over the years, and it seemed these were sentiments they had been holding back for a while. “And he didn’t even have the balls to dump you properly if that’s what he wanted! What kind of low-life goes out and cheats on you like that?”

“Thanks for the reminder.” Rain muttered. He was starting to wonder if this phone call was really working at cheering him up at all, or if it was just making him feel worse. What did it say about him that his ex had thought he could get away with this behaviour?

“It’s a good thing Aether saw him before this went on any longer!” Sensing that Rain was unhappy, Cirrus tried to steer the conversation in a slightly different direction. “Should we send him a muffin basket, maybe?”

Finally, that got Rain to smile.

“He likes blueberry, I think.” He laughed.

“Anyway! How’s your time at home going so far?” Cumulus asked excitedly. “Met a fabulous hunk at the Christmas tree farm yet?”

“What do you think this is, some cheesy movie? My life’s not that glamorous.”

Wistfully, Rain imagined some stereotypical love interest wearing plaid and a hideous scarf. He looked rugged but also perfectly Hollywood-groomed as he swept him off his feet and stole him away from city life for good. The more Rain thought about this hypothetical man though, the more he just looked like Phil. He suppressed the urge to huff in frustration at himself; this fresh start might be harder than he imagined. Alone in his hotel room, he had very little to distract his mind from various what-ifs that he knew weren’t in his best interest.

“Besides, I’ve not even been back here twenty-four hours!” He said instead, hoping he sounded normal enough.

“And we miss you already.” Cooed Cirrus.

“You didn’t even say goodbye!” Cumulus added, the put-on pout clear in her voice no matter how poor the phone line was.

“We’ve gone far longer without seeing each other before.” Rain tried to pacify her, always a sucker when she looked at him with her wide puppy-dog eyes, even when he couldn’t see them.

“We know, but you’re so far away now!”

They continued to chat a little longer about other things like their own Christmas plans, before Rain directed the conversation to its conclusion. As much as he loved them, he was tired, and nothing sounded better than a pity-nap before braving the cold again to go for dinner.

Chapter 3

Rain’s first order of business the next morning had been to ask for the WiFi password. His short break from reliable internet had been welcome, but at some point he knew he did need to find somewhere more permanent to live and a job to afford it. Not to mention that with no real friends to return to in this town, and with his city mates not available to spend all day on the phone with him, he was now quite spectacularly bored.

He headed downstairs for breakfast, already starting to find the confusing layout of the hotel more familiar. Passing the reception desk there was no sign of Dewdrop, the frosty man clearly busy with something else. Just how short-staffed was this hotel, Rain had to wonder? Sure enough, there he was refilling the coffee machine in the small breakfast room, barely even glancing up at the sound of Rain’s approaching footsteps.

“Good morning!” Rain chirped, forcing Dewdrop to acknowledge him.

“Breakfast’s self-serve.” Was all he said in return, scurrying off before Rain could say anything else.

Rude. Clearly the kettle had been a rogue gesture of kindness and not a sign that his attitude when Rain checked in was in any way out of the ordinary.

The cereal he poured himself tasted like cardboard as he chewed it slowly, trying to fathom what on earth could have caused Dewdrop to be so offhand with him again today. Rain was hardly having a good week either, and yet he was managing to maintain his basic manners and a polite smile. Still, Rain wasn’t going to be put off by, as far as he could tell, the hotel’s only staff member. If anything, it only made him want to be more amenable, just to demonstrate how easy it was. Manners cost nothing, after all, as his mother had always said.

After he finished his coffee and then a second, sweeter, one for courage, Rain marched back out to the front desk. He approached Dewdrop behind the counter with a warm, yet not wide enough to be concerning, smile carefully plastered on his face.

“Hello,” he chirped. Too cheery. You sound deranged, given he saw you crying yesterday, “I was hoping you could tell me the WiFi password?”

It was a simple enough question, but apparently not simple enough to escape the man’s withering gaze. With a barely suppressed eye roll and a sticky note torn from its pad like it had personally wronged him, Dewdrop scribbled down the password and shoved it in Rain’s direction.

Rain wondered if possibly he had just flunked customer service school and thought that this was somehow the attitude expected of him by paying guests. Accepting that maybe today wasn’t the day he would get a halfway-civil interaction out of him though, Rain retreated once more to his room. While the time for good impressions had surely passed, he wasn’t going to give up on trying to get Dewdrop to be at least somewhat polite.

With little else of interest in his life right now, Rain found himself latching onto the silly, maybe impossible, challenge tighter than was perhaps normal for two almost-strangers.

He remained persistent, always tossing a hello at the man’s desk when he walked past despite barely ever even getting so much as a nod of acknowledgement back. Dewdrop always noticed him though, that was clear: his back would straighten almost imperceptibly, his eyes flick up to see Rain walk past. It was a little like gaining the trust of a feral animal, Rain thought. Clearly Dewdrop had up walls a mile high, possibly for a good reason, but with consistency and space, he hoped he would soon come around.

Still, Rain found himself wondering if taming the local foxes wouldn’t be easier.

After a few more rounds of Rain coming and going through the lobby, always making a point to try to engage with Dewdrop in some way or another, his efforts finally paid off with the man at last deigning to speak to him. It hadn’t been quite the icebreaker of a conversation Rain had hoped for, but he didn’t think he had the luxury of being picky.

“What’s making you so happy?” Dewdrop had asked, glancing up from the computer screen at Rain’s latest overly-enthusiastic greeting. “You’re living in a glorified motel.”

“It’s almost Christmas!” Rain laughed, indignant but also trying to pretend the reminder hadn’t struck a nerve. Even if he wasn’t especially happy right now he wasn’t about to admit it to Dewdrop of all people; he’d already had front row seats to Rain’s fragile mental state on his first night here; he didn’t need a reminder.

“Seriously? Christmas has you this excited?”

Oh great. Rain had swung so far to the other side from sad that he now sounded slightly crazy instead. Perfect.

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year, you know.” He nodded sagely, trying to play it off as slightly ironic. Perhaps if he said it enough, he would start to believe it too. “What’s not to like?”

“Why would I want to like such a commercialised season?” Dew scoffed bitterly. “We don’t live inside a Christmas card, and I don’t see the point in pretending we do.”

“Well maybe if you had even a few decorations up you’d start to feel in the spirit a bit!” His negativity was really beginning to exasperate Rain, and he couldn’t hide the annoyance in his tone.

“Why waste the money?” Dewdrop fired back. “A tree will die, and everything else is just sparkly plastic meant to distract us from how shitty and grey the world outside is.

“That’s the whole point!” Rain gasped. “Sometimes a short distraction makes everything else more tolerable.”

Dewdrop harrumphed, but didn’t argue further. Still, Rain wasn’t going to let his negativity affect his day despite his words sowing the seeds of doubt that a shiny distraction was all his stay back home really was. He didn’t want to contemplate that when the sparkle of a change of scenery and the Christmas season wore off he would be left in the same place as he was now: jobless and alone, with no clue what he wanted to do with his life.

“If you must know why, I’m going to Linda’s.”

Linda’s Pantry had been in the town as long as Rain could remember, and probably longer than that. The restaurant was a favourite with his family, and it had become a tradition of theirs to go there for lunch each Christmas. Like the hotel, it didn’t seem to have changed in the almost thirty years Rain had been going and it didn’t seem like it was going to any time soon. Somehow the consistency of the place made the years flashing past feel less scary, something Rain welcomed more than ever right now, although he didn’t say that part out loud.

“Oh yeah, I know the place.” A small, fond look flickered briefly over Dewdrop’s face. It was the most human Rain had ever seen him look, and he found himself warming to him somewhat at the sight. “Makes me feel like a kid again, going there. My usual table’s had the same wobbly leg since I ran into it when I was five.”

Rain laughed, partly at the story and partly in surprise that the man was volunteering any personal information about himself, as welcome as it was. They both seemed to view the objectively unfashionable and out of date restaurant in a similar light and he was delighted they thought the same; maybe they could be more alike than he had thought after all.

“Don’t tell anyone,” Rain leaned onto the desk with a conspiratorial smirk, enjoying himself now “but the wallpaper by table twelve? Those stick figures were not part of the original design.”

“I wouldn’t have pegged you as a vandal.” Dewdrop gasped, pretending to be scandalised. “Never guessed you’d be such a rebel.”

“Eight year old Rain, maybe,” he smiled ruefully, a little pleased at the man’s comments nonetheless, “less so now, though.”

Rain sensed that the reminder of his dull current life had made things awkward, but thankfully Dewdrop had the grace not to dwell on it, or to keep him engaged in conversation any longer.

“Well have a nice lunch then, try not to deface any more walls.”

“I can’t make any promises!” Rain laughed, giving him a little wave as he headed for the door.

The conversation had taken an unexpectedly pleasant turn and he almost didn’t want to hover any longer lest the illusion shatter. Many years ago his teenage self would have leapt for joy at them having even exchanged words, let alone at them joking together, and yet now he only felt a small frisson of pride.

The whole way through the meal with his family, Rain’s mind was elsewhere. He couldn’t focus on his surroundings, the food, or even the conversation. Instead, all he could think about was the blond man behind the desk back at the hotel, and how the unfamiliar expression of a smile on his face had seemed to suit him so naturally.

Rain knew better than to think a silly crush from his youth was reawakening within him – he had seen so much more of Dewdrop in the last days than he ever had before, very little of it positive – and yet he struggled to think of what else it could be. He decided it was just a familiarity that was calling to him, an assumption that they both seemed to be similarly disenfranchised with their lives as of late.

Still, that didn’t fully explain why Rain, no matter how hard he tried, couldn’t seem to force his attention up from his order of the usual and couldn’t make himself pay attention to the tales Phantom and Aurora were happily recounting of their exciting new life on the coast. Rain hoped his family would pass off his quietness and distraction as just a symptom of his recent upheaval and not mistake it for disinterest. Alas, his mind was almost fully engaged with thoughts of the great curiosity awaiting him back at the building he currently called home.

The offer of dessert, and the subsequent arrival of the ever-familiar children’s ice creams in animal-shaped tubs which they still routinely ordered, did however stir some interest within Rain. As the vanilla-filled plastic polar bear beamed vacantly up at him, as slightly misprinted and wonky as every other one had been throughout the decades before it, the spark of nostalgia gave him an idea. Perhaps Dewdrop’s apparent thaw had only caught his attention so strongly because it made him feel like he was making progress in an area of his imploding life, but maybe he would do well to feed into it and foster what could be a much-needed friendship.

When he finished his last spoonful, surreptitiously so as not to invite confusion or questions from his family, Rain slipped the empty tub into his coat pocket. Dewdrop had seemed to come to life when talking briefly about happy moments in the past, so possibly a tiny gesture of goodwill in the form of a cheesy figurine would help lead them towards Rain melting more of the high walls of ice the man seemed to have erected around himself.

Arriving back at the hotel though, Rain found himself less sure. There had been another couple stood at the desk when he shuffled through the door, kicking snow from his boots as he did so, their backs to him. Although Rain had shot a smile and a wave in Dewdrop’s direction, it had not been returned. Instead, the man had actively turned away from him, seemingly engrossed in the computer at the desk.

Disappointed, although not entirely surprised, Rain had slunk back to his room. Of course Dewdrop didn’t want to talk to him about his family lunch, he had probably only shown an interest earlier because he felt sorry for the train wreck of a man living in the cheapest room of his hotel. He certainly hadn’t wanted him to distract him while he was working; Rain knew only too well how few customers there seemed to be at the hotel, every single one was important to keep happy.

That didn’t give him a pass to be rude though, Rain thought, a smile or a even just a nod of recognition wouldn’t have gone amiss. He really thought they had turned a corner earlier, but apparently not. It seemed that they were back to just as they had been before.

Rain really couldn’t see a reason for Dewdrop’s coldness, why he still seemed to be holding onto some kind of a grudge against him. Could it really be due to their earliest encounter in school? Rain had only asked him out, he hadn’t insulted his entire bloodline. He didn’t know if that would be better or worse than him having no recollection of who Rain was before this week.

That didn’t stop him entirely however. Rain was too set in his plan to chicken out of it entirely, and so back in his room he had carefully washed and dried the plastic polar bear. Later in the evening, he had slunk back down to the lobby, peace offering in hand. Dewdrop was thankfully not around to see him as he snuck the toy onto his desk before fleeing back to his room with all the apparent guilt of someone who had been stealing from the receptionist rather than leaving him gifts.

The next morning it was gone.

With Dewdrop also not immediately apparent, probably busy in the breakfast room, Rain had been able to pause a second, just to make sure it hadn’t fallen onto to floor and rolled away or anything. Littering in the lobby certainly wouldn’t help his case. There was no sign of it though. Just as Rain was preparing to accept that it had been thrown away like the trash it realistically was, the small flash of red of the creature’s scarf caught his eye.

There it was: sitting beside the ancient computer monitor, its head separated from its base which had been filled with a small amount of candy. The relief and joy that the man hadn’t only accepted his tiny gift but appeared to have also appreciated it buoyed Rain into the breakfast room as though he was walking on air.

Chapter 4

Walking into the breakfast room, Rain hadn’t had any plan for what he would say to Dewdrop when he saw him. If anything, he had hoped that he would be the one to speak first, maybe a thank you or some other acknowledgement to follow their civil conversation the day before. Instead though, the man was nowhere to be seen.

Sitting at a table across the room however, Rain could see the couple who had checked in the day before. The taller man’s auburn hair was distinctive even from a distance, even though neither appeared to notice Rain as he entered, or at least didn’t look up from each other. Rain tried to get a better look at them, to see exactly who else could be checking into this hotel so near to Christmas, but he didn’t want to be caught staring. From his quick glance though, he thought that the other man could possibly have been one of Dewdrop’s friends from school despite not remembering his name or staring long enough to be sure.

Dewdrop soon added credence to his theory as he bustled into the room, a plate in each hand. He placed one in front of each of the guests, who Rain saw greeting him with friendly and familiar smiles. Surely they did know him if they were getting special treatment like their food cooked to order. Rain knew better than to assume he would ever be offered such a luxury, and so wandered over to the counter to fill a bowl with his usual cereal.

He turned back just as Dewdrop stepped back from the guests’ table, their eyes meeting for only a fraction of a second before the man spun on his heel and rushed back out of the room. So much for getting a thank you, Rain thought as he slid into his regular corner seat.

Before he could dwell on that for too long however, Dewdrop was striding back into the room with one more plate. Rain startled as the man dropped it off in front of him without a word and with barely a glance up, before he was again hurrying back over to the other couple.

He wanted to continue to watch him, but the way Dewdrop appeared to be deep in conversation with the man who Rain was now certain was an old friend made him feel a little self conscious. There was even a part of him that thought they were talking about him, as he could have sworn he saw eyes darting his way and back.

Rain didn’t have to force himself not to pay attention for too long though, as a sweet smell from his plate had finally started wafting towards him. Pancakes! Dew had brought him hot, freshly made pancakes doused in an impressive amount of syrup. Rain dug in to the pile with gusto; as thank-yous went, this was better than any words could have been.

That apparently didn’t mean he and Dewdrop were fully on good terms now though. Rain had expected him to be behind the desk when he eventually left to head back to his room, but he was nowhere to be found. Trying not to be disappointed, Rain had returned to get ready for his one activity of the day; helping his mother down at the town market. She was supposed to be looking after a friend’s stall for the day, one run by the same people as his old lab partner Sunshine’s flower shop. In a thinly veiled attempt to get him to socialise now that he was back for the foreseeable future, and she had begged him to come along for a few hours.

Less reluctant now than he had been when she first suggested it, Rain had pulled on a cheesy Christmas jumper to try and put himself in the festive mood and dragged a brush roughly through his hair. He knew she was right, and that he needed to get out a bit more, but a part of Rain would have been just as happy lurking around the hotel trying to get to know the only employee here.

“Good morning, Dewdrop,” he called breezily, or at least as casually as he could manage, across the lobby, “thanks for the pancakes!”

A blond head popped up from behind the desk, looking a little startled and like he hadn’t expected Rain’s reappearance before lunchtime. He didn’t look annoyed to see him for once though, which Rain took as a positive sign.

“Ugh, just call me Dew, you sound like my grandparents.” He rolled his eyes, before pointedly looking Rain up and down. “You know we had the police here earlier?”

“What?” Rain hadn’t heard or seen anything in the short time between breakfast and now, and he hadn’t been awoken by any commotion before that either. “What happened?”

“Yeah,” Dew leaned forward on the desk with a lazy grin, “they heard a crime against fashion and good taste was being committed. Should I call them back? Or…”

“Hey!” Rain understood the jibe only a little too late. “I’m just getting in the festive spirit a bit. Maybe you should try it some time.”

“Mate.”

Even despite his sarcastic tone, Rain wrinkled his nose. It was the first time he’d called him that, and possibly it was the first time he had addressed him at all. He supposed it was at least better than being his sworn enemy, or whatever Dew had acted like they were at first, though.

“That jumper’s so hideous my little cousin would agree it’d look better burned,” Dew continued, “or used by foxes for a nest or something.”

“Foxes make dens or earths, actually,” Rain sniffed, “and what do you mean? It’s not that bad!”

He looked down at the sweater, just in case it had spontaneously gained a huge stain or some other defect in the minutes between him putting it on and now. It looked just as he had remembered though, the slightly cross-eyed reindeer with it’s red pom-pom nose smiling just as manically as ever, and the rest of the holly-patterned fabric only being slightly pilled with age. Okay, perhaps it was not the classiest thing he owned, but he figured no Christmas jumper was. It was colourful and festive, and that was all that really mattered.

“After the season I’ve had I’m allowed to try and cheer myself up, thank you very much.” He said, a little snippily.

“Suit yourself!” Dewdrop seemed to be deriving a little too much entertainment from winding him up, and it was beginning to annoy Rain. “But I’m allowed to say you objectively look insane.”

“Look, I’ll take it off if you really hate it that much.” Rain snapped.

He could handle a little teasing, but Dew’s constantly changing mood and jabs at him, even when his fragile current state was abundantly obvious, was starting to get hard to ignore. Rain’s hands reached for the hem of the sweater, but before he could angrily rip it over his head Dew shouted in alarm for him to stop.

“No, no! Okay it’s not that bad, maybe I was exaggerating!” His cheeks were bright red, his eyes bugging wide out of his head.

Oh god, Rain just threatened to strip in the lobby, didn’t he. Dew wasn’t to know he had a t-shirt on underneath. How inappropriate could he possibly be?

“Shit, I’m sorry, I—”

“No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said all that even if I was just teasing, I didn’t—”

At that moment, Rain’s phone rang. He could have sobbed in relief as he pointed at it while hurrying outside, Dew making understanding shooing motions as he rushed out into the car park to answer it. They both seemed equally grateful for the interruption.

Rain was doubly glad to hear the voices echoing from the tinny speaker into his ear.

“Are you still alive Rainy?”

“Has weird-hotel-guy eaten you?”

“No, I’m fine, he’s fine.” Rain regretted mentioning him in a text to them now.

“Well we did wonder,” Cumulus’ disapproving tone was not masked by the shaky phone network, “we haven’t heard from you in days!”

“Yeah, sorry. I guess I’ve been…” Rain knew better than to suggest he was busy. “Distracted.”

“Good distracted?” No distance could temper Cirrus’ nose for gossip.

“Not in the way you’re hoping for.” He sighed.

“Come on, I know that noise.” Cumulus likewise was hard to fool. “Spill!”

“There’s not much to say.” Huffed Rain, walking to his car. It was too cold to stand around in the snowy car park. “Nothing’s changed, really. Still no job, still no friends, still living in a hotel run by a guy who probably hates me.”

“Yes, go on, tell us more about him! Who’s this mysterious man you supposedly dislike and yet who you’ve brought up in every conversation we’ve had since you left us?”

“It’s not been every conversation,” Rain sniffed, “and I have to see him all the time, is it any surprise?”

“It’s just not like you to have such strong immediate feelings about anyone, good or bad.” Cirrus had a point, Rain supposed.

“I dunno, I don’t want to talk about it.” He sighed again. “I just made a gigantic tit of myself in front of him anyway.”

“What did you do?”

“What’s his name?”

The two women talked over each other as Rain unlocked his car and settled into his seat, figuring he wasn’t going to make a getaway any time soon now.

“Dewdrop undoubtedly thinks I’m a prime idiot, seeing as he tried to tease me about my ugly Christmas sweater just now and instead of laughing along I almost stripped in front of him.”

“You didn’t!” Cumulus sounded appropriately horrified, Rain thought.

“Maybe he’s into that?” Cirrus did not.

“Definitely not.” Rain shook his head even though neither of them was there to see. “Guys, yes. But me, no. I ascertained that many years ago.”

“Wait, wait, you know him?”

“Sort of, back in school. Only really insofar as he was the only other gay in the village, or whatever. He made it quite clear that he wasn’t interested in me.” Rain sniffed, a little haughtily.

“Oh Rainbow, but that was almost ten years ago! Does he even remember you?”

“I dunno, but it’d explain why he’s been rude to me?” He shrugged, and turned on his car’s stuttering air conditioning before his windows could fog up.

“Would it? Rain, Honey, if he’s still holding a grudge about you asking him out, then he’s the strange one!” Cumulus said slowly, like explaining to a child.

“Lus is right, he’s probably just had a bad week or something! He’s probably been the same with everyone.” Cirrus agreed.

“Maybe…” Rain hummed. “The only other people I’ve seen him talk to so far I think are his friends, I suppose.”

“Well there you have it!” Cirrus crowed. “I’m sure you have nothing to worry about.”

“You might be right,” allowed Rain at last, “he seemed so anti-Christmas when I brought it up too, I thought that was odd.”

“Well now Rainy,” he could hear Cumulus’ smirk in her voice, “sounds like he needs the cute boy-who-got-away to show him the true meaning of Christmas!”

Rain had hoped that his day at the market would help take his mind off of Dew and his mysteriously changing mood. As he found himself daydreaming through wrapping bouquets in paper and typing numbers into the old cash register though, he realised quite how impossible that seemed to be. Cumulus’ words rang in his ears; maybe Dewdrop really did need a little reminder of what, despite his current tribulations, Rain still considered to be his favourite holiday of the year.

How to go about that though, he wasn’t sure. He couldn’t exactly take Dew out of the hotel – he still hadn’t seen any sight of anyone else working there after all – but he didn’t entirely know how he would react to Rain bringing Christmas inside either.

The only thing to pull him from his endless cycle of thoughts had been Sunshine’s arrival, when she returned to take over the shift at the stall from his mother. While he hadn’t seen her since school either, there was absolutely no mistaking her for anyone but the girl he had sat beside in his favourite class for many years. Her shock of strawberry-blonde hair only seemed more curly and vibrant than it had back then, her infectious smile even wider.

Rain had been a little uncertain about seeing her again, not knowing how she would react having not seen him in so long or if she would even care. He was sure that for her, he was just one more person who had moved on to bigger and busier places, whereas to him she was the last person left that he could think of who might still be around come new year’s.

He needn’t have worried though. With an ear-piercing squeal, she had wrapped his awkwardly lanky body in an inescapable embrace and informed him in no uncertain terms that he was giving her his phone number and joining her and some other old schoolmates down at the local pub for a drink in the coming days. Her effortless familiarity and enthusiasm had emboldened Rain all the way back to the hotel. He still didn’t know what he would do to try and bring Dewdrop out of his shell, but he was sure he would think of something.

Chapter 5

Returning to the hotel, Dew was once again nowhere to be seen. That hadn’t hampered his newfound enthusiasm however, and Rain had gone back to his room happy to be patient and wait until the next time he saw him.

He hadn’t had to wait long though.

In the distance, faint enough that he wondered if he was imagining it, Rain could hear Christmas music. It seemed to be coming from outside, and more importantly it seemed to be getting closer. Confused and more than a little curious, he stuffed his feet hurriedly into his shoes and rushed downstairs.

Already in the lobby was Dew, although he seemed to be having an entirely different reaction to the approaching noise. He was bustling around, closing curtains, pulling down shutters and even switching off lights.

“What’s going on?” Rain called, making the man jump slightly.

Dewdrop regained his composure soon enough though.

“Tractor carols.” He rolled his eyes, making his disdain clear. “Some stupid local thing they started in the last few years. They all drive past blaring their music and honking their horns.”

That sounded like great fun to Rain. They certainly had not had anything like that when he was growing up.

“Well come on then, let’s go watch!”

Dew snorted derisively at his suggestion.

“Not likely. I pretend we’re closed so they don’t slow down and they go away faster.”

“That’s silly!” Rain gasped. “You’re going to more effort to avoid them than it would take to just smile politely!”

“It’s just… not my thing.” Dew looked a little sheepish now as he kept making excuses, and Rain suddenly saw his opportunity to bring a little Christmas into his life.

“Well how’d you know if you never join in? Come on!”

Rain ran outside, throwing a look over his shoulder to check Dew was actually following him. He was, albeit reluctantly, so Rain continued to hurry up to the edge of the road where the parade was already passing through. Moving slowly along the main road into town was a procession of farm vehicles, tractors and trailers and others he couldn’t name all decked out in floods of fairy lights, with amplified carols playing over a sound system.

Watching in wonder, Rain gazed at the dozens of Santa Clauses sat in drivers seats and the adults and children alike dressed as elves and angels and reindeer sat in trailer beds. He waved back at those who waved at him, delighting in the larger than life display of festivities. Rain glanced over at Dew, and while the man was still stood there with his arms folded and his ever-present scowl firmly affixed on his face, his eyes seemed to twinkle in the reflection of the lights.

With the joyful sound of carols echoing through the night and the rainbow of lights reflecting all around them, Rain delighted to see that some of the lines on Dewdrop’s forehead seemed to have smoothed out, if just a little.

They stayed outside until all the tractors had passed and their toes and fingers were frozen solid. Neither of them had been prepared for the weather when Rain had dragged them from the warmth of the lobby, but he was at least glad that Dew wasn’t complaining bitterly about it like he had feared. Instead, when the gust of warm air hit them Dew had walked straight behind the desk towards the door leading to the office and beckoned for Rain to follow.

“C’mon, I’m freezing. I’ll make hot chocolate.”

Rubbing his red hands together to warm them up, Rain chased after Dew before he could change his mind.

He followed Dew through the messy office behind the desk into a short hallway beyond, trying to take in all that he could. The back rooms of the hotel were very similar to the rest of the building, the matching slightly scuffed wooden panelling and peeling ivory plaster lining the walls lit by the same yellow-tinged lighting.

Rain peered inside an open door to a small but shiny stainless steel kitchen, only Dew didn’t take him into there and instead led him through a door marked Private into what was clearly own his personal set of rooms. He stayed quiet, not wanting Dew to suddenly freak and demand he leave, all while trying to take in everything he could. The space Dew called home was not a large one by any means, just a small living room with a dining table and counter at one end marking a kitchenette. Rain could see an open door out of the corner of his eye that he was sure must be his bedroom, but couldn’t find a subtle way to turn and peer through it.

“We could use the main hotel kitchen but I don’t feel like clearing it up,” Dew explained while he bustled about pulling mugs from a cupboard, “so this will have to do.”

“Fine with me.” Rain smiled quietly.

It was nice to see Dew doing anything other than prodding at the computer or his phone, especially so to see him looking so natural and relaxed as he did. He seemed in his element as he fluidly manoeuvred around Rain to get to the fridge and the cupboards, light on his feet and in his actions until there were two steaming mugs on the counter.

“Thanks.” Rain accepted his with a smile. He chuckled slightly to himself looking at the mugs; his a clear freebie from a chocolate brand which he was sure he had also owned at some point, and Dew’s covered in colourful cartoon animals.

“That was fun, I’ll give you that,” Dew admitted sheepishly, leaning against the counter and taking a sip of his cocoa, “maybe I’m not as much of a grinch as we thought eh?”

Rain clapped his hands in a show of glee, before taking a sip of his own. It was delightfully warm and sweet, just what he needed.

“You know,” he mirrored Dew’s position leaning on the worktop, “you could have more of that kind of fun, if you got into the Christmas spirit a bit more.”

“Yeah yeah, don’t gloat.” Despite rolling his eyes once more, Dew was smiling indulgently at him. “It’s a bit late now though, innit? I should’ve put up a tree or lights or something weeks ago if I was gonna.”

As much as Rain wanted to object and say that it was never too late to start, he knew Dew had a point. There were so few days left now until the twenty-fifth that it hardly seemed worth it to spend any money now.

“Well then, you’ll have to promise me that next year you will. I’ll even come and haunt you like some Dickensian ghost if I have to!”

Dew giggled at that; actually giggled.

“What? Like some ghost of Christmas opportunities missed?”

“Yep!” Rain crowed happily. “You’ll regret the errors of your ways, Mr Scrooge.”

“Alright then, I promise.” Dew stuck his hand out, his pinkie finger extended. “You can hold me to it.”

God he was cute, Rain thought. This would do nothing to tamp down the remnants of his old crush, he was sure.

“Deal.” He reached his own hand out to shake pinkie fingers.

Dewdrop’s skin was warmer than Rain had imagined, heat passing between them like a spark. He pulled his hand away quickly after only a brief moment though, not daring to risk him accusing him of lingering in any way. Rain also didn’t want to address the thought that he wanted to, which seemed to have inserted itself into his own mind.

At that moment, the reception bell dinged making them both jump.

“I’d better get that.” Dew said sheepishly, looking longingly at his mug of hot chocolate before shrugging and walking back towards the door with it in hand.

“I thought reception closed at five?” Rain said as jokingly as he could, following on behind.

“Maybe it’s your Christmas spirit making me answer now.” Dew threw over his shoulder with a smirk. “But no, it’s open whenever I’m there. Which is almost always, I’m sure you’ve noticed. It’s a convenient excuse if I want to ignore an annoying guest though.”

“And I’m not one of them?” Rain wasn’t entirely playing along with the joke when he asked: there was a large part of him still fearful that he was imposing himself upon Dewdrop, and the man was simply too awkward to tell him to leave him alone.

“You’re not.” Dew turned to face him as he spoke with likely more sincerity than he had intended, his hand resting on the door to reception. He rectified his tone quite swiftly though. “Unless you go bringing sleigh bells in here, or a live reindeer or something. Then I’ll have to reconsider.”

Following his success with the tractor run and Dew’s unprecedented show of goodwill, Rain was only emboldened further in his mission to bring Christmas to the Hearthside Inn.

As much as he would have liked to stay at the hotel all evening, continuing this strange and exciting dance around the man who had seemed so sour only days previously, he had once again promised to go to his family home for dinner. So, dutifully, he had trotted round there, not expecting to make any further progress on what he had dubbed Mission: Christmas tonight.

Then he had remembered what was lurking in his parents’ attic. Tucked away, surely buried under years of dust and long-abandoned handmade children’s festive crafts from his and Phantom’s youth, was an old artificial Christmas tree. They hadn’t put it up since Rain was very young, not since their family budget had stretched to a real one from the Christmas tree farm across town, but he was certain it would still be usable. The box was only held together by a few rings of perished and flaking parcel tape, but it was intact.

With quite some sneezing, and thankfully no bumps or injuries, Rain managed to drag the crumbling box out from under the rafters and down the loft ladder into his car. By some miracle, he also managed to avoid the probing questions from his family about why exactly he needed the retired tree so close to Christmas.

Rain had hoisted it onto his shoulder before entering the Hearthside Inn later that night, proudly striding in with a wide grin on his face that only stretched further at Dew’s stunned expression.

“It’s not a reindeer?” Rain laughed, setting it down on the ground with a puff of dust.

For a moment, he thought he might have made a mistake, might have misjudged Dew’s reaction. Maybe he really didn’t want to decorate for Christmas and Rain was just forcing his hand. Just as he was beginning to spiral, Dew spoke.

“You brought me a tree?” He said, sounding dumbfounded.

“I’m sorry, I should have asked first but I can take it back if you don’t—”

“You brought a tree!” Dew repeated with a laugh of incredulity, interrupting Rain’s panic. “I can’t believe you actually got a tree!”

“You want to keep it?” In a small voice, Rain just wanted to clarify that he had indeed made a good decision.

“Yes, I want to keep it!” Dew darted around the side of the desk to take a closer look. “You convinced me enough earlier, but there was no way I was going to find one I could afford this close to Christmas!”

“Okay!” Rain could have cried in relief. “It’s not the right size for a hotel lobby really though I’m afraid, it’s only four foot tall and there’s not that many lights or baubles…”

“I don’t care,” Dew laughed again, “it’s a Christmas tree!”

His laugh was infectious and Rain soon found himself joining in as they dragged the tree out of its box, sending plastic pine needles and loose fake snow from its branches flying all over the floor. With no small amount of confusion, they eventually had the thing standing upright with all of its branches fluffed out. Although it was both smaller and more threadbare than he remembered, Rain thought that if he squinted it looked like the tree of his childhood.

“Right! Time to decorate.” He cheered quietly, upending the shopping bag of spare and unwanted baubles and lights from his parents’ house.

Most looked as cheap as they undoubtedly had been, or had otherwise been painted or coated in glitter by a young Rain or Phantom, but he hoped that just added to the charm. Dew certainly seemed to think so, judging from the way he pounced on them and began digging through the pile like a dragon through his hoard.

“Grey like the clouds outside or whatever you said?” Rain held up a scrawny length of silver tinsel for Dew’s perusal, not expecting to get the screech of laughter in return that he did.

Dew might have seemed quiet and aloof at first, but nothing about his laugh was. He shrieked rather than chuckled, the noise almost grating in its pitch and volume. The sound was so indelicate and clearly unintentional that Rain felt his heart swell. Something in Dew had changed so suddenly, as though the moment Rain began to chip away at his defences the whole wall had crumbled.

He both wished that the moment could last forever, and to fast-forward through life until he encountered another.

Chapter 6

The next day, Rain returned from another afternoon of wandering around pretending he had friends other than his sibling and parents to the smell of burning. His breakthrough with Dew and the Christmas tree had buoyed him through a day of shopping with money he didn’t have, and he had been looking forward to returning to continue his endeavours. The hotel being on fire hadn’t factored into his plans though.

“What’s going on?” He shouted into the empty lobby. “Dew? Are you alright?”

He got no answer, so called out again.

Dew suddenly burst out of the door to the office, bringing with him a fresh waft of the smell of charred something. He was wearing an apron, but despite that he still had managed to get flour down his jeans.

“Sorry!” He winced, flustered and still wearing an oven glove. “I tried to make gingerbread, but I took my eye off it for just a second and it burned!”

“I can tell.” Rain remarked wryly, wiping his snowy boots on the mat now it was clear there was no imminent emergency.

“Oh god, is it that bad?”

“I’ll leave the door open to air the place through.” Rain laughed, before swanning behind the desk. “C’mon, let’s go sort this out. I’m sure something’s salvageable.”

The misshapen and charred shapes on the baking tray said otherwise.

“Do you have any dough left?” Rain asked, surveying the sticky mess covering the stainless steel counters in the industrial kitchen.

Dew shook his head.

“I’ve never made cookies before. I always wanted to try, but it’s not like I could eat all of them before they go off, anyway. I just thought, since it’s Christmas it might be nice to put them out for the guests…”

“Well, let’s try again.” Rain said with confidence he didn’t really have. Dew seemed so downtrodden at the failure, that he really felt he had to help. Rain had only made cookies a few times himself though, and always under the supervision of someone who knew what they were doing. “How hard could it be?

It turned out it was harder than he had been expecting. By the time they had a tray of stars and gingerbread men and some shape Rain thought might have been a sleigh or possibly a stocking in the oven, he was also covered in flour and was pretty certain he had syrup in his hair. More importantly than any of the mess though was the fact that Dew was smiling at last.

“I always wanted to learn to bake,” Dew volunteered as they were both watching the oven door like hawks, not about to let this new batch of cookies burn too, “I never really had a chance, though. Running this place alone is like a full time job and a half.”

“Why are you here on your own?” Rain asked, curious.

“This was just meant to be my weekend job in high school,” Dew shrugged, “I needed a bit of extra cash when I graduated, so I started working here full time but then I just… never left. The owners used to work here then too, so did a few other people, but they all went off to college or got other jobs, then the owners retired, so I ended up alone kinda by accident. I barely even see the owners anymore, and they never hired any replacements for the other staff as the turnover here went down.”

“That’s tricky.” Rain hummed in sympathy.

“Yeah, and they’ve been very good to me really, letting me live here without taking any of my wages or anything. I worry that it I left, they’d never find anyone to replace me and the place would just close. It’d be a shame, there’s so much history here even if it’s a bit run down.”

“What would you want to do instead?” Asked Rain.

“I dunno.” Dew sighed. “I never really thought about it. You went to university right? What do you do?”

Rain snorted, undignified.

“You know I’m currently unemployed right? Besides, it’s not like my job was ever as related to my degree as I hoped it would be. I don’t think many kids dream of working in a soulless office after studying ecology.”

“I guess not,” Dew smiled a little sadly, “I don’t even know what I’d have studied if I’d gone though, or what I’d do if I had to start again now.”

“How about baking?” Rain asked, only semi-seriously as they continued to watch the cookies.

“Maybe… But I never learned how so its not like anywhere’d hire me, and I can’t afford to take a course or anything.”

“These look like they’re turning out pretty good though!” Rain happily ignored that he had done most of the work with this second batch as he pulled the first tray out of the oven.

They weren’t burnt, but nor did they look particularly fantastic. Dew didn’t seem to mind however, looking delighted that they were edible this time.

“Well, I was planning to ask want a gingerbread cookie? when you got back today,” he laughed, “but you’re already holding them!”

Rain felt another frisson of delight that not only had Dew set about making Christmas cookies, but he had done so with him in mind.

“I’d love one, thanks.” He smiled shyly.

Rain could hardly believe how much Dew had changed in the last few days. In fact, seeing the man come so completely out of his shell around him had been the final motivation for Rain to agree to Sunshine’s Christmas Eve Eve night down at the local pub. He hadn’t been particularly keen on the idea of seeing so many people for the first time in a decade, but he figured that if Dew could come around to him and his love of Christmas then he could at least try something out of his comfort zone too.

In fact, the night had gone surprisingly well. Perhaps it was the festive spirit in the air, but Rain had found himself enjoying chatting with his old school friends more than he had expected. He had thought that it might make him more miserable, seeing how many people were only back for Christmas and had partners and jobs or children elsewhere, however it had seemed that he wasn’t alone in not having his life entirely put together right now. In fact, many of them seemed similarly between life stages like he was, and yet they seemed content in that fact.

He had stayed out late, far later than he ever had in recent months, so when he crawled off the snowy streets and into the Hearthside Inn he was deeply focussed on trying to be as quiet as possible. Rain was so focussed in fact, that he didn’t notice Dew sat by the dying fire in the lobby with the remains of what had once been a whisky until he had almost totally passed him on his way to his room.

“You look tired.” Dew’s voice appeared from the dark, making Rain jump slightly.

“Yeah, I am a bit.” Despite that fact however, Rain still found his feet carrying him over to the chair next to him. “So do you.”

He thought it funny that only days ago he would have been the one pulling Dew into the conversation and yet now here he was, sitting around appearing to be waiting for a chance at talking to Rain.

“I thought I’d wait up.” Dew volunteered in answer to Rain’s unasked question.”S’not like there’s much else to do around here.”

“Aren’t your friends staying here too? Couldn’t you hang out with them?” Rain asked, sinking into the seat opposite.

“Yeah,” Dew shrugged, “but they’ve been out this evening too. Besides, I don’t want to interrupt them. It’s Swiss’ first year bringing his partner to meet his dad, so I don’t wanna take up too much of their time.”

“Sorry you were alone,” Rain could empathise with him well, “if I’d known I could’ve brought you along with me tonight.”

“Don’t worry about it. Most of them wouldn’t want me there anyway,” he laughed coldly, “it’s not like I’m the most fun person to have at a party.”

“Y’know, that’s not the Dewdrop I remember from when we were teenagers?” If anything, Rain remembered it being quite the opposite.

Dew snorted loudly.

“I think you understand as well as I do just how much can change in ten years.”

“And how much doesn’t.”

“Yeah. You got that part right.” Dew slurped at the dregs of his whisky. “I’m still here, for starters.”

Rain leaned back in his slightly too soft armchair, happy to be the listening ear Dew clearly needed.

“I don’t mean to be such a misery.” Dew continued. “Especially so close to Christmas. I know how much you like it, I don’t want to get you down.”

“Psshh.” Snorted Rain. “There’s more important things, I’m starting to realise. You want to talk about it?”

“What’s there to say?” Dew shrugged. “I’ve got myself stuck in a rut being here and I can’t really see a way out. This whole town feels so stuck in the past, and even the others who’ve stayed have moved on in their lives, it seems, but then I don’t feel like I have at all.”

Rain knew exactly what he meant and thought he understood it himself particularly strongly this year. Christmas really was such a concentrated reminder what with how everyone who came back having new things going on in their lives, and he could feel his peers slipping further away than ever.

Dew stopped talking then and Rain wondered if that was his cue to leave. Just as he was debating getting to his feet though, Dew broke the silence once more.

“I‘m sorry I was rude to you when you got here. And that night after we first talked properly, when the guys were checking in. I hope you didn’t take it personally. I didn’t mean to be. I’m rude to everyone.”

“Yeah, you were a bit.” As much as Rain wanted Dew to feel better, his offhandedness had stung so he wasn’t about to mince his words in this regard.

“I know. I’m sorry.” He really did seem to be, thought Rain. “It’s no excuse, but that night in particular I think it was the reminder of how great my old school mate’s life was now compared to mine that set me off.”

Rain nodded in understanding.

“That, and I was a little embarrassed at our earlier chat,” he added sheepishly, “I wasn’t sure if bringing up childhood stuff to a guy stuck living in a hotel was bad form.”

“I’m hardly one to judge in that regard.” Rain laughed drily. “What’s got you so down tonight though?”

“I got a call from the owners.” Dew said with a grimace. “They’ve still not found anyone else to help out at the hotel, so I cant reduce my hours. It’s nice to have the work of course but I’d like a break, sometimes.”

Rain winced at the thought. He had barely seen Dew have an hour off since he arrived at the hotel, besides the ones he had spent distracting him, let alone a whole day. He sympathised with Dew, even though the man only shrugged slightly at his misfortune.

“They’re good to me though, I can’t really complain. And besides, who’d want to work in a shabby old hotel in the middle of nowhere?” He laughed, although it lacked humour. “It’s hard enough finding people who want to stay here for a week, let alone run the place!”

Rain bit his tongue as the thought bubbled up that, maybe, he’d quite fancy the idea. With quite literally nothing else going on in his life right now, it didn’t sound too bad a time.

Especially if he got to spend any of it with Dewdrop.

That was a dangerous path of thinking to go down, Rain knew, yet he couldn’t help himself from wondering what things would be like if he never left the Hearthside Inn. Maybe by next year he would end up just as jaded as Dew had been when Rain first arrived? He couldn’t bear the thought of the magic he still found in this season and beyond slowly slipping away.

Or what if Dew left, instead? Tired, and possibly a little tipsy from the pub, the thought made Rain more emotional than he had realised, a lump forming in his throat before he had even entertained it fully.

“I’m sure they’ll find someone.” He said eventually, his voice only quavering slightly as he made himself calm down again. “Things’ll work out, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, I hope you’re right.”

Dew hauled himself to his feet then, and Rain breathed a sigh of relief as he leapt to his own. He needed to get back to the sanctuary of his room before he said something rash or made an offer he couldn’t take back.

“Thanks for the chat.” Dew said quietly as he moved to lock up the main door for the night. “I didn’t mean to put a downer on your evening.”

“You didn’t. Not at all.” Rain said truthfully.

Dew smiled, although it was clear he didn’t entirely believe him.

“Thanks.” He said regardless. “Goodnight, Rain. Sleep well.”

With that, Dew disappeared into what Rain knew were his rooms behind the hotel desk. Rain stood, motionless, for a while afterwards, fighting an urge in his feet to follow him.

Tomorrow night he wouldn’t be here, he knew. It would be Christmas Eve, when once again he would fold himself onto his parents’ couch in some attempt to relive the magic of childhood nights spent waiting for Santa, although who the whole performance was for anymore he wasn’t entirely sure. Certainly neither he nor Phantom would complain about Christmas day starting slightly later, after the siblings had both eaten breakfast and Rain had driven over. Perhaps it was for his parents’ sake, or maybe it was just a tradition they were all too scared to break, lest they admit they were a family full of adults now and all in varying stages of independence.

What a depressing view on Christmas that was, Rain thought, finally dragging his feet in the direction of his room. That wasn’t like him to think; he was normally such a huge fan of his family’s traditions and rituals, the act of repeating them year after year part of the fun itself. It was more something he would have expected of Dewdrop—

Oh.

Rain pushed open the door to his dark room in slightly rigid realisation before he could freeze where he still stood in the corridor. When he had set about changing Dew’s attitude surrounding Christmas, he had never for a moment imagined he would have the same effect on Rain in return. He supposed it was almost inevitable. The man had wormed his way into every facet of Rain’s new start back at home quite without him meaning to, and Rain had done nothing to stop him. If anything, he had only encouraged him further, enjoying the excitement this newly rekindled relationship had brought.

More than that though, Rain finally saw what his subconscious had been screaming at him for days now.

He liked Dewdrop.

He like liked him, as he had proclaimed all those years ago. The revelation hit him like a truck: he didn’t just want to show Dew how fun Christmas could be and make him enjoy the season, he wanted to have him and experience it with him, for real.

Rain’s high school infatuation might have gone away many years ago, but now it appeared to be back and stronger than he had ever felt before. There was one key difference this time though, beyond their change in age and circumstance. Rain no longer harboured a youthful crush on a boy he had thought he knew, who had lived half in his imagination. Instead, he realised he had fallen deeply and irreversibly in love with the man he saw in front of him, who against all odds was even more wonderful, more thoughtful and kind and funny, than he could ever have dreamed he would be.

He wondered if Dewdrop could tell.

He daren’t wonder if he felt the same. That had to be impossible.

Didn’t it?

Chapter 7

His first port of call had been to talk to Cirrus and Cumulus. Rain was sure they had better things to do with their own Christmases than talk to him about what was in all likelihood an overblown crush, but equally he couldn’t think of what else to do.

Before he could call them though, he noticed an unread text from earlier in the evening from Aether. He wondered for a second if it had been about the project that had been due that day, before realising that he no longer had to care. Besides, of all his old colleagues, he was sure Aether would be the last one to bother him about it.

Hey Rain, I just wanted to check you’re doing okay after everything? Hope you’re having a nice time back home. – A

Rain was touched that he had reached out, especially as the bearer of the news that had sparked off his entire dramatic exit. Maybe they really had been better friends than he had imagined – it was a shame he was only just realising that now, Rain thought. He replied before he could forget, full of sincere platitudes and well-wishes for Aether’s own Christmas even though he was impatient to call his friends.

As always Cumulus picked up on the second ring, with Rain knowing better than to even attempt to try Cirrus first as her phone would almost certainly be switched off, dead, or on the other side of their house.

“Hi Rainy!” She trilled over a loud echo of background noise. “This better be good, we’re at Riri’s family party and her aunt just dug out a karaoke machine!”

“Lulu? Who is it?” Rain heard echo in the background.

“Rain!” He winced as Cumulus bellowed back.

“Don’t let me interrupt, I can call another time,” Rain offered, although he didn’t think he hid the disappointment in his voice well enough, “enjoy karaoke!”

“No, no, stay there! We’re listening!” Cirrus shouted towards the phone, her voice growing less distorted as she clearly joined her partner in crowding around it. “What’s up Sweetie? All wifed-up by hotel guy yet?”

Rain pulled a face they couldn’t see, but the butterflies in his stomach told a different story.

“He’s kinda what I wanna talk to you about…” Expecting a volley of noisy questions, Rain was shocked when he was met with almost complete silence, save for the buzz of the party and their loud breathing. “I think you were right. I do like him.”

Now the expected squeals followed, but Rain was too giddy in his realisation to really care. He had expected to receive some gentle teasing from them when he called, after all.

“Babe, if we could tell from all the way over here, I don’t know how your feelings weren’t slapping you in the face!” Cirrus pointed out with a kind laugh.

“It was so obvious from the first time you mentioned him!” Added Cumulus. “Do you think he likes you too?”

“Well there’s the big question…” Rain murmured, unsure if they even heard him over the noise around them.

He thought about it. Sure, Dew had been cold to him on-and-off ever since he got to the hotel. But that had all been explainable, hadn’t it? Instead of letting himself dwell on that, Rain now ran through all the positive interactions he had had with Dew over the last few days, chiefly among them how he had waited up to talk to him tonight. That and all his other recent acts of sweetness, like him making cookies and letting Rain put up a tree, had to mean something, surely?

“Maybe? Rain offered. “I think he might do, but he’s also not the sort to just admit that, y’know?”

“Well then you’ve got to ask him!”

Rain wished the world was as simple as Cumulus believed it to be. He knew that she had waltzed straight up to Cirrus after seeing her from across a crowded room and asked her out, but he also knew that life was rarely that simple for anyone else.

“And how do you suggest I do that,” Rain sighed, already thinking the idea was hopeless, “I can’t exactly go up to him and be like “Oh hey, remember that time in school I asked you out and you said no? Changed your mind?” He’d think I was crazy!”

“Well, yeah!” Cirrus chimed in. “Maybe say it with a bit more sincerity, but still! Tell him you think there’s something between you, and ask if he feels it too.”

“That feels big though. Scary.”

“You did it before right?” She had a point, Rain hated to admit. “How hard can a repeat be, especially now you know him more than last time!”

“Yeah, but you may recall last time was a disaster.” Rain huffed. “I don’t want a repeat of that!”

“Well you’ll never get the answer you want if you don’t ask him.” Damn Cirrus and her logic. “You’re both adults now, if he does say he’s not feeling the same I’m sure you’ll both be more mature about it.”

“I’m sure he won’t though.” Cumulus assured him. “He’d be a fool to let you slip away again!”

Rain awoke the next morning with a warmth in his chest that he couldn’t completely attribute to it being Christmas Eve. Cirrus and Cumulus’ words of encouragement still rang in his ears, bolstering him as he dragged himself into the chilly morning air to start his day. Still though, he felt a shimmer of nervous butterflies reawaken in his stomach at the thought that, in just a few hours, he would have his answer from Dew. There was really nothing he could do to prepare for it, he knew, nothing that could sway the odds in his favour. If he spent a little longer than usual fiddling with his hair in the mirror until it looked perfect though, no one had to know.

Dew wasn’t at the desk when Rain went for breakfast. That in itself wasn’t too surprising to Rain though; there were plenty of other times he hadn’t been there before today. Adding to his suspicions that Dew had to be busy in the back offices or something, no pancakes or other special treatment materialised while Rain drank his coffee. He felt a tiny pang of guilt, or maybe just responsibility, that he had been pulling Dew away from his work. Sure, their time together had clearly been fun for Dew too, but Rain didn’t want to think that he had made his Christmas Eve more stressful than it needed to be by causing him a backlog of duties.

With no plans until later, Rain decided to head into town to take his mind off of Dew and to give the man time to hopefully get on top of whatever he was working on without distractions. He poked around a few small shops looking for last-minute Christmas presents and had a sandwich at his old favourite cafe, trying to enjoy and soak up the Christmas atmosphere. Rain’s mind remained elsewhere though, back on the edge of town at the Hearthside Inn, surely alongside a piece of his heart.

Rain could hear Dew clattering around this time when he got back, even if he wasn’t visible behind the desk. A steaming cup of coffee was though so clearly he planned to be back soon. Determined not to miss his opportunity to talk to him before he had to leave, Rain hurried up to his room to fill a bag with the things he wanted to take to his parents’ for Christmas. He couldn’t resist a final check in the mirror before rushing back downstairs.

Dew was at the computer when he returned, hammering away at the old keyboard with a concentrated focus. His eyes flickered up to Rain and back down to it at the sound of his footsteps, before Dew seemed to at last register that it was Rain and looked up properly.

“Hi.” His gaze finally landed on Rain’s bags. “Oh shit, you’re leaving already? I wanted to get this finished before you left!”

Dew glanced, conflicted, between Rain and the computer before rolling his chair back from the desk to give Rain his full attention.

“I wanted to talk to you too, actually.” Rain said shyly, his mouth feeling dry all of a sudden.

Dew’s face softened almost imperceptibly at his words, bolstering Rain to continue.

“I think I want to say thank you. I was a bit of a mess when I got here, you probably noticed. I’d just found out my partner, well, ex now, had been cheating on me for who knows how long. But you never made me feel worse or like I was too much of a problem. Thanks for letting here be an escape, I really needed that.”

“You’re welcome. It’s been nice, having you here.” Dew looked like he thought Rain was finished, but to his credit he didn’t make any move to go back to work. Instead he looked like he had unanswered questions which he was ignoring for now.

“What was it you wanted to say?” Rain asked Dew, suddenly remembering his earlier words and latching onto them while he tried to work up the courage to say what he needed to.

“I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas.” Dew said with a small smile. “Thanks for making mine fun this year too, for once. I’ve enjoyed all of… this.”

He gestured at the tree still twinkling steadily in the corner.

“I have too. That’s kinda what I wanted to talk to you about, actually.” Rain didn’t dare try to meet Dew’s eyes, knowing if he had to see every minutia of his reaction in real time he would probably chicken out of saying all that he wanted to. “I’ve liked this too, probably too much. But it’s not just the tree, and cookies and everything, it’s— I think—”

Rain took a deep, steadying breath.

“It’s you, too. I’ve loved hanging out with you, and I don’t want this to end after Christmas.”

“What are you trying to say?” Dew’s voice was too even, too flat for Rain to get a proper read on his reaction, so he continued.

“I like you, like, properly. Romantically.” The words sounded so juvenile in Rain’s ears as he said them. “So, uh, I wanted to ask if maybe you wanted to go on a date or something? After Christmas?”

Rain finally looked up then, but Dew’s face was totally unreadable. Just as he was about to start trying to take back all he had said, words started tumbling out of Dew’s mouth in a rush.

“Look, mate. I dunno if I’ve given you the wrong impression or something, but I’m really not looking for anything right now, okay?” There was a real look of panic in Dew’s eyes that Rain couldn’t read as anything other than horror that he was repeating the question of years before. “You’ve had a lot of stuff change in your life recently, I understand that, but you don’t need me to be some rebound.”

“Okay, that’s fine, I get it.” Rain heard his voice come out strangled, accompanied by a panicked laugh. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said— I didn’t mean to—”

Rain expected Dew to say something more, to dismiss him or be angry or maybe even be slightly sympathetic or something. Instead though Dew now stood frozen in front of him, the pair both staring into each other’s eyes like a pair of deer trapped in the headlights of the other’s gaze. Dew was the first to break it, turning and bolting into the back offices.

“Look, I’ve gotta go.”

He left Rain alone in the lobby, his heart pounding in his chest and hot tears pricking at the corners of his eyes.

Rain drove over to his parents’ house in a bit of a daze. His feelings for Dew had snuck up on him so suddenly that he only now felt the enormity of them as they crashed down around him all at once. How could he have been so stupid and allowed himself to make the same mistake with the same person twice?

Dew had a point: so much of his life had changed in the last few days that it would not be surprising if he had simply latched onto the first person since his breakup to show him some kindness. Rain hadn’t been single in so long that he had clearly forgotten how to be. Dew, and his shared history with Rain, however small, had simply been unfortunate enough to cross his path.

Despite that though Rain thought he knew his own mind, his own feelings. Even the newness of Dew in his otherwise unsettled life wouldn’t have been enough to garner this much of an infatuation, he didn’t think. He knew something about their last few days had been special, amplified by his situation and their quasi-isolation in the hotel maybe, but that definitely wasn’t all of it. Dew really had made him think and feel in a whole new spectrum of colours to anything he had experienced before.

Rain couldn’t stop himself from wondering just how much of his swift rejection by Dew had come from the circumstance he chose however. Dew had seemed twitchy already when he approached the desk; Rain should really have taken that as a sign not to follow through, but he hadn’t. Possibly if he had waited a little longer the outcome would have been different. At the very least, Dew might not have pushed him away so quickly and so thoroughly.

He had done what he had though. Rain couldn’t take back what he had said, couldn’t undo the awkwardness that would surely linger in every pore of his being for as long as he remained in the hotel, or even in the town. He couldn’t stay here now, not with such a glaring stain on his fresh start. Word would surely get out, and in a place as small as this it would travel like a wildfire.

Mortified, Rain came to the conclusion he had been trying to put off ever since announcing his return home so dramatically: he would have to go back to the bustling anonymity of the city.

Chapter 8

It was painfully apparent all evening just how down Rain was feeling, but to his family’s credit none of them mentioned it.

Phantom clearly wanted to, judging from the half-curious, half-sympathetic glances they kept sending him and the way they seemed to be trying to strategically catch him alone. Aurora seemed to sense that Rain wanted to be left alone to drift through the evening unbothered though, and did an admirable job at keeping Phantom distracted. Rain really needed to get to know her better, he thought; he could really see himself loving her as a future sister-in-law, and thought his own friends might get along well with her too.

Rain knew he would end up talking to Phantom about everything with Dew at some point. They had always had that kind of closeness as siblings, especially in their teenage years as they both started figuring out who they were, but he also knew how excited they were for their first Christmas with Aurora. He didn’t want to ruin the holiday for them or the rest of his family by making everything about all him, and he’d had enough sympathy from all of them about the Phil situation already. He didn’t particularly fancy any questions about how quickly he’d moved on from his first and only long term relationship either.

Rain drifted through their normal Christmas Eve traditions only half present, the rest of his mind firmly planted in front of the desk where he had last seen Dew back at the Hearthside Inn. Instead of the soundtrack to the oh-so-familiar children’s movie playing on the clunking old VCR player, he heard Dew’s disinterest and rejection echo in his ears.

A traitorous part of him tried to imagine how things would look if Dew were here with him too though, how he would fit into the shifting dynamic of Rain’s family. Would he leap at joining in with the siblings’ more childish traditions as Aurora was gleefully doing? Or would he be happier to hover on the outskirts and observe at first, waiting for Rain to carve out a space for him?

He had never had the experience of bringing anyone home for the holidays before, with Phil always turning down his invitations and never extending a reciprocal one of his own. Had he not foolishly spilled his feelings for Dew to him he even could have seen himself inviting him over, just as a friend, but it was to late for even that now.

Rain shook his head to dislodge the ideas. Just yesterday he would have dismissed them altogether as wishful thinking, but now he knew that they were truly an impossibility that he shouldn’t let himself dream of, they seemed keen to stick around. Dew had wormed his way into his head so thoroughly in such a short space of time, he had to try and cut those thoughts off before they dug themselves in any deeper.

Eventually there came an end to the family festivities, with everyone but him drifting happily off to bed while he was left to settle in on the couch for the scant hours of sleep he would be able to snatch.

“We’ll have your bed set back up for you by next year Rain,” his mother had promised before she left, “hopefully things’ll have settled down for you by then as well. I don’t like to think of you so blue on Christmas!”

“I’m sure they will, Mum.” Rain smiled weakly as she pulled him down to press a goodnight kiss to his forehead. “G’night.”

“Night night, Darling.”

Rain had to push himself to get through Christmas Day. As expected he had not slept well on the sofa and the sleep he had managed to get had been plagued with dreams of Dewdrop. On the day of the year when he was meant to be the happiest, he found himself totally miserable.

He had gotten ahead of himself, and in doing so had totally ruined his fresh start. Rain hadn’t found friends waiting for him here, his sibling was going to leave again soon, and the thought of truly moving back in with his parents after over a decade out from under their roof was mortifying. No, he had to get away from this small town again and the huge mistake he had already made here.

It wasn’t like there was nothing for him back in the city after all; his relationship might have fallen apart but Rain had had a life outside of Phil. Maybe he had been too hasty in throwing it all away. Rain missed Cirrus and Cumulus more than he thought he would do too, maybe even Aether as well.

Moving back there was probably for the best.

He was sure now that his dramatic exit had been an overreaction. Rain could move to a different district, closer to the people he knew and loved. Maybe he could even beg for his old job back, citing emotional distress or burnout or something. As much as he might have hated his job he had been good at it, Rain knew that much.

Things didn’t have to be picture perfect, he didn’t need to always look like he had his life together like he had thought before, Rain saw that now. Throwing in the towel on everything after one setback wasn’t a sensible choice. Rain thought – hoped – that what he had before, minus the cheating ex, would be enough. His stint back home had been ill-advised, his sudden and intense feelings for an old crush just further proof that what he needed was a vacation, not a full life reset.

Still, none of his realisations made him feel any better in the moment. Rain was only able to pick at his Christmas dinner, not finding he had much appetite for the meal he spent the rest of the year looking forward to. Similarly, he spent the rest of the day in a daze, forcing himself to act as naturally as he could although he doubted that he truly convinced anyone.

By late afternoon, with the sun already set once more and the clock hitting a full twenty-four hours since Rain had had his heart shattered for the second time in as many weeks, he was ready for the day to be over.

Then there was a knock at the door.

Rain barely heard it over the noisy chatter of his family, thinking at first that it was just the wind blowing a branch against a window. Then the noise came again, louder and more insistent this time. He wandered out into the hallway, not waiting for anyone else to pull themselves away from their revelry and conversation. He couldn’t immediately make out who it was silhouetted in the frosted glass so he pulled the door open with very little hesitation.

There, beneath the canopy of fairy lights adorning Rain’s porch, was Dewdrop.

The look on his face was one of slight shock; he had clearly not expected to see Rain there in front of him so suddenly. In front of his mouth was a slight puff of condensation, the frigid night air keeping a record of the small gasp he let out. As his expression wore off though he began to look more uncertain, full of the same nervous tension Rain now felt drench him. Beneath all of that though there was a determined set to his jaw.

“Hi.” He said quietly. “I hope it’s okay that I’m here.”

“Yeah…” Rain’s voice answered for him automatically but slightly uncertainly, the rest of him still getting over the surprise at seeing the man he had spent the last day expecting to never see again, under the impression that he must hate him now. “Sorry, I’m just a bit surprised to see you. Let me grab a coat.”

Taking the moment of stepping back into the house to pull himself together, Rain pinched himself just to make sure this wasn’t a complete creation of his imagination. When he turned back to the door though, Dew was still there. Rain closed it behind himself before anyone could complain about the cold draught he was letting in and looked down at the object of all his current desires and fears from his top step.

“I’m sorry for what I said earlier.” Rain started. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, you can just forget—”

“No, I’m sorry.” Dew interrupted. “I’m sorry for yesterday, for how I responded. You were being so sincere, but I panicked and pushed you away and I’m sorry for that. I meant it when I said I’ve loved this Christmas more than any other, please don’t let me have made things awkward between us.”

“It’s alright,” Rain said slowly, not liking the idea that Dew had been beating himself up when it was entirely his fault for bringing up his feelings so soon in the first place. “I’m leaving soon, anyway.”

“What? Leaving?” Dew looked panicked, but Rain couldn’t think why.

“Yeah don’t worry, I’m going back to the city, I’ll stay with friends for a while. You won’t have to put up with me for much longer.”

Cumulus and Cirrus would be happy to have him stay while he got settled again, Rain knew, even if he hadn’t actually informed them of any of the previous day’s events either last night or today when they had both texted him Merry Christmas. He didn’t want to go through the whole postmortem of everything with Dew just yet, not when they had been so excited for him.

“What if…” Dew looked down at his snow-encrusted boots for a moment before levelling Rain with as even a gaze as he had ever been on the receiving end of. “What if I want to put up with you, though?”

Rain was completely confused by what he meant. It must have shown on his face because Dew barked out a nervous laugh as he continued.

“C’mon, I thought you were the one to believe in Christmas miracles!” His face softened. “You’ve changed this Scrooge, and it didn’t even take any ghosts haunting me. You’ve shown me the true meaning of Christmas and all that.”

Rain took a step down towards him, no longer creating such a crazy height difference between them. He could hardly believe what he was hearing, and dared not hope it meant what every fibre of his being wished it did.

“So, what is your meaning of Christmas, then?”

“It’s you.” Dew answered with pure sincerity.

“What?”

“You’re Christmas, to me now. I’ve done nothing, for so many years, just waiting for the next day, next month, next year. but you live in the moment.” Dew laughed again, a carefree sound that carried like music on the frosty air. “You think it’s worth putting up a tree even if it’ll come down in a week, just because! I’ve never known anyone like you before, Rain.”

Aside from a small gasp of his own slipping out unbidden Rain stayed quiet, not daring to disturb Dew lest he stop saying words Rain could scarcely believe were real.

“I’ve been so stuck in my routine for years now that I’d stopped imagining good things could ever happen to me, and then you showed up. You looked so fragile that first day, like a stiff breeze would send you running. But you stayed, even though I was in a foul mood and was such a dick to you.”

“It’s not like I had much choice.” Rain couldn’t help himself from pointing out.

“But you were so nice, even after that!” Dew shook his head in wonderment. “As soon as I recognised you I knew I was fucked. It’s been so many years since I threw away my chance with you, but you clearly recognised me and you were still trying to be friendly even after I’d pushed you away then too. I thought it was too good to be true.”

“It has been ten years.” Rain smiled wryly, even though he had also found himself thrown back into his teenage shoes too many times since being back.

“When you don’t do much in all those years, they all kinda blend into one.” Dew spoke with some regret even though he smiled indulgently.

“Wait,” Rain didn’t want to interrupt him again, not when Dew was saying such nice things after all, but he couldn’t stop himself, “what do you mean you threw away your chance? You turned me down, remember?”

“And I was a total fool to. I was doing what I thought others wanted me to do. I was scared. Same as I was yesterday.” Dew set his shoulders back with determination again. “But this time I’m doing what I should have done ten years ago and I’m chasing after you before you can leave.

“I’m telling you I’m an idiot and I’m terrified and I don’t know how to recognise a good thing until it’s already out of reach. I’m asking you not to go back to the city just yet and to give me a chance, even if I couldn’t say it when you asked. I lo– I really really like you, Rain. I just hope you like me enough to let me try to show you just how much I do?”

The world seemed to slow down around Rain as Dew’s words really sank in. Against every odd, Dewdrop really did feel the same way about him. It was almost too good to be true and yet here he was, real and on his doorstep and staring at him with his round eyes full of pleading and openness. Part of Rain wanted to gush at Dew and tell him everything he had been suppressing, let him know that however much he may like Rain, Rain undoubtedly felt the same way ten times over. Yet equally he had said his piece yesterday, what else was there that Dew needed to hear?

“Okay.” He said, the single word so small and yet carrying so much weight. “And I really, really do.”

Dew’s eyes lit up bright enough to rival the Christmas lights above him and Rain thought his hopeful smile could cure him of all his lingering dejection and uncertainty. He was so beautiful like this, pink-cheeked from the cold and glittering under a rainbow of twinkling bulbs. It felt like a miracle that Rain was finally allowed to truly think such things. Certainly his own face was probably mirroring Dew’s expression right now, judging from the growing ache in his smiling cheeks.

“I’ve, um, just got one more question then.” Dew sounded slightly uncertain once more, even though his smile didn’t falter.

“Go on.”

“Can I kiss you?”

“Of course you can.” Rain could tell he was grinning like an idiot now, and yet he didn’t care.

Dew stepped forward, his frozen hand first lingering on Rain’s cheek until he nodded almost imperceptibly, and then his lips were on Rain’s and it was as though the New Year’s fireworks were going off around them. It was like every kiss Rain had seen in the movies and thought was just wishful thinking, no matter how short and chaste it actually was. Dew’s lips were absolutely freezing against his own, yet his breath when he pulled back was warm.

“I’ve been thinking about that for a decade.” He whispered into the milometers of air between them.

“So’ve I.” Rain breathed back, before leaning in to kiss him again.

This second kiss wasn’t perfect, not by any means. It was awkward and stumbling, both of them smiling too wide to really call it anything other than messy, and yet to Rain, it was everything he could have wanted. Here he was with the man who had danced in and out of his thoughts for so long until Rain really got to know him, after which he had taken up permanent residence in his mind. Rain had been mourning his loss already all day, dreading what his life would be like back in the big city without a Dewdrop to distract and try to make smile, but now he never had to think that again.

They only pulled apart when Dew, still chilled to the bone from how he had apparently walked through the snow to get here, began to shiver in Rain’s arms.

“Do you want to come in?” Rain asked, not even considering what his family might say at the presence of a sudden guest.

“You sure?” Dew asked uncertainly, glancing at the brightly lit window behind Rain where the silhouettes of several bodies were visible. “I don’t want to intrude on your famil—”

“Come on.” Rain reached out and grabbed his hand, Dew’s gloveless fingers as cold as ice.

As Dew followed him inside, Rain could hardly believe that the very scenario he had just been lamenting the impossibility of was coming true. Here Dew was, inside his family home, on Christmas. He knew he should maybe feel apprehension introducing him to his family, especially when he knew they had attributed his dour mood all day to his recent breakup, and yet he felt nothing but certainty.

That being said, he didn’t particularly want to share Dewdrop right now.

Rain could tell from the sudden drop in volume that this family were more than just intrigued about what had clearly been going on outside and who the person was in their house. He saw Phantom’s head pop out and then quickly disappear again from the lounge door, shortly followed by the high-pitched sound of Aurora chastising them for interrupting. Phantom had known about Dew back in the day, so he didn’t doubt that they had already put the pieces together from a single glance and worked out who this mystery man was.

Rain realised then that he was proud he had Dew home with him to gossip about with his sibling later, not just because he was a very beautiful man, but because he couldn’t wait to be able to share hushed conversations loaded with sweetness and affection about Dew, just as Phantom had with him shortly after he first met Aurora.

He giggled to himself as he led Dew up to the unplastered mess that was his old bedroom where he knew they would be undisturbed to chat in peace. Thankfully the room wasn’t totally empty as it was still storing a lot of his old things for now, so he pulled Dew down onto the novelty oversized beanbag in the corner.

“Chic.” Dew chuckled, poking at it as he wriggled to get comfortable on its lumpy contents. “I’m guessing if i hadn’t been an idiot back in high school I’d have memories of us making out on this?”

“Probably, yeah.” Rain winced slightly at the thought that this must seem to Dew like he was fully reenacting an old fantasy, but it thankfully didn’t seem to bother him. “I did used to have a bed in here too, obviously.”

“A bed, hmm?” Dew teased. “Very forward of you.”

“Oh, shut up.” Rain poked him in the ribs.

They briefly descended into play-fighting and giggling after that, which eventually became another kiss that they only pulled away from when they both became breathless. When they did manage to calm down it was Dew who started talking first, clearly having more to say than he had gotten around to saying on the snowy doorstep.

“I knew you were special, you know, even as teenagers.”

“Really?” Rain wrinkled his nose, clearly sceptical. “Why’d you say no when I asked you out then?”

“Can I blame being young and dumb?” Dew shook his head at himself. “I dunno, I didn’t really have a great opinion of myself back then, I was loud and crass to cover it up and you were so quiet and shy and nice… I didn’t think I deserved you.”

He laughed coldly, looking away.

“It didn’t help that I was trying to impress my friends that night. Swiss is the only one I still talk to, the rest of them kinda sucked, actually. Clearly that plan backfired though. I thought they’d laugh at me dating a younger student, especially since you weren’t in the ‘popular’ crowd or anything y’know? But then they still called me stupid though for turning down ‘a pretty face’ like you. Said I’d missed an easy in.”

Rain still remembered that night well. Dew had been sat on the table itself, chunky boots dangling off the edge. He and his cronies were clearly the kings of the establishment for the night, but he had never imagined that Dew could have been uncomfortable with the situation. He supposed it made sense now though; the man sat next to him was hardly someone who gave off centre of attention energy. High school was a cut-throat place no matter how popular one appeared, Rain supposed.

“I didn’t know people thought that about me.” Rain said quietly.

“I don’t think they even knew who you were, but I hate that I let them say or even think a word about you.” Dew looked back at Rain now, eyes burning with conviction. “I hate I didn’t stand up for you then, didn’t chase after you like I wanted to. Their comments really were kinda gross, but I only realised that too late to do anything about it.”

He reached out for Rain’s hand, clearly needing some reassurance to keep talking. Rain was more than ready to be that support, especially hearing how Dew had regretted not being the same for him for so long.

“I held onto that guilt for a long time, but then… You were still so nice to me when you first got here, even though you clearly recognised me! You hadn’t held onto a grudge or anything, and you were still polite even though I was spectacularly rude to you! Your kindness makes me feel even a little bit worthy of you, at last.”

Rain didn’t really know what to say to that, but luckily Dew kept talking so he didn’t have to think how to reply.

“I really was so awful to you when you checked in that night. It wasn’t just work stuff, especially once I realised it was you. I felt all those regrets from years ago come rushing back, all the ideas I’d had for ages afterwards about how things might have been different, better, if I’d told the guys I was with where to shove their opinions and just said yes.”

“Things would’ve been really different.” Rain hummed. He could hardly believe that he had featured in Dew’s thoughts just as heavily as he had in his, if not more so. “Why did you reject me again yesterday though if you’d felt that way about me before?”

“I’ll regret doing that, making you think I didn’t like you back for even a single extra day, for the rest of my life.” Dew vowed. “I don’t really know what I was thinking. I’d been feeling everything like you had over the last few days but I thought you were just being you, just being nice, and it was me misreading it. I hadn’t allowed myself to believe that you felt it to, that what was there between us could be real. I was just so confused, like my mind was playing tricks or that I had read everything wrong or misheard you, so I pushed you away.”

“I knew at the time that I shouldn’t have said anything then, I should have waited.” Rain mused aloud. “I could tell you were busy or stressed or something. I should have picked a better time.”

“I did sort of think that you were Swiss and Mountain at first,” Dew allowed with a small smile, “they were meant to check out for a few days over Christmas and I was expecting you to be them. I did panic a little when I saw you since I’d been trying not to think about you all day, but that doesn’t excuse that I let you think, for even a second, that I didn’t like you back just as much if not more.”

“At least we got here in the end.” Rain hummed, enjoying the warm feeling of Dew beside him more than he could say.

“We did.” Dew sounded so happy that if he were a cat, Rain would have expected him to start purring.

The silence that filled the time after Dew was done unloading everything he had been wanting to say was a pleasant one, interrupted only by the quiet sounds of festivities coming up through the floor.

“I don’t think this is too soon, by the way.” Clearly Dew wasn’t finished, Rain thought. As serious as the conversation had been, he hoped Dew would feel comfortable enough with him chatter away like this all the time. “After your last relationship, I mean. It definitely doesn’t bother me, at least. I feel like I’ve waited ten years for you.”

Rain wanted to kiss him again, so he did.

Minutes could have passed or hours while they hid away in his old bedroom on the lumpy beanbag, but Rain didn’t think he cared. It was only when the noise downstairs began to quiet once more that he realised they should probably make a move to leave now for the night, or be trapped in here for several more hours while his family buzzed around the staircase and landing heading to bed.

“I’d ask if you want to stay, but my room is the lounge right now and I’m already taking up all of the only decent sofa…”

“Wanna go back to the hotel?” Dew offered, catching onto what Rain was implying.

“Please.”

Rain had to fight to keep his eyes on the road as he drove them back as opposed to just staring in amazement at the sight of Dew in the passenger seat beside him. he could hardly believe that this was real. This had to be his best Christmas present ever, he thought to himself.

“We should probably…” Dew gestured in two directions at his rooms and up at Rain’s as they arrived back at the Hearthside Inn.

“Probably.” Rain allowed.

“I don’t want to.” Dew continued, clearly stalling for time. “But the sensible part of me that’s left says—”

“Don’t worry Dew, I understand.” Rain smiled, sensing a familiar spiralling thought process. “I agree. See you in the morning though, yeah? Pancakes?”

“You got it.” Dew grinned. “I can’t wait.”

Rain was so smitten with him already that it hurt his chest slightly.

“So, uh, goodnight.” He said quietly, his own feet suddenly reluctant to move.

“Night.” Dew matched his low volume. “Hang on, wait a moment!”

He darted to close the small distance between them once more, before pressing a final peck of a kiss to Rain’s surprised lips.

“Now it’s a good night.” He smiled. Oh, Rain was so fucked. “Sleep well, Rain!”

With that Dew disappeared behind the desk, leaving Rain stood in front of it just as he had done the day before. This time though, the circumstances were the complete opposite.

Rain sighed, certain he sounded like a lovesick fool. If he was being honest with himself that was exactly what he was. Feeling like he was walking on air, he finally allowed his feet to carry him upstairs to his room.

He was far too keyed up to sleep, but since it was Christmas he couldn’t revert to his instinctual response of calling his friends. Instead, he sent them a text full of cryptic talk about news, and went to try and calm his racing mind in the shower.

Many minutes later, he stepped out of the steam-filled room later to the sound of his phone loudly vibrating on the nightstand.

“Hello? Lus?”

“About time! What’s this big news you have to tell us then?!” The voice cried down the line, no greeting needed. “On a totally unrelated note I’m sure, how did yesterday go?”

Oh right. He hadn’t even told them about the disaster that had been the previous day yet. That didn’t matter anymore though, not after this evening.

“Yesterday went terribly!” He said cheerfully. “But I’ll tell you about that another time, what matters is that me and Dew are a thing now!”

The screaming from the phone did nothing to make him think that he would be sleeping any time soon.

Rain did his best to fill them in on everything important from the last few hours, but eventually Cumulus asked the inevitable question he was also wondering about.

“So is he gonna come back to the city with you? When can we meet him?”

“I… I don’t think I’m coming back.” Rain said tentatively. “We’ll stay here, I think.”

“What the fuck?”

That was not quite the reaction he had hoped for, Rain supposed. He knew deep down that they had always hoped he would return to the city, keen to support him in going home for as long as it seemed like a temporary reset but always expecting him to come back.

“What Lulu meant to say is that we’re happy for you and we can’t wait to come and visit!” Cirrus said sternly. “Seriously Rain, we’re delighted you’re happy! Not that we won’t still miss you terribly, of course.”

“I know. I’m really gonna miss you guys too…” Truly, the pair of them had always been the thing Rain was most sorry to leave behind. “But I think this is the right thing to do, even though it’s like, super crazy early days with Dew.”

“Well, we do know what it’s like to be completely head over heels in an instant, don’t we Love?”

“Yeah, I suppose we do.” Cumulus sighed. “But if you think you’re getting out of telling us every detail about Lover Boy, you’re sorely mistaken!”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Rain smiled. “You’ll have a hard time shutting me up, I’m sure.”

They spoke on lighter topics for a little while longer, Rain asking how their Christmas had been, how their families were, and all the things he had been too caught up in his own drama to wonder about before. When they did eventually hang up, Rain saw that alongside the fifteen missed calls from them, presumably coming through while he was in the shower, there was an unread message from Phantom. Oops, Rain thought. He had rather run off without explaining. Opening it though, he saw nothing but a string of emojis that made him think they maybe weren’t that upset about him leaving at all. If anything they seemed to be more of an encouragement. I’ll tell you everything tomorrow, Rain texted back.

While he was on his phone he also sent Aether another Merry Christmas, as well as extending an open invitation for him to come and visit any time he wanted to use his glut of saved vacation days.

Finally, Rain had the idea to text Dew one more goodnight, even though they had parted barely an hour previously. That was when he realised he didn’t even have his phone number. How could he know so many small details about Dew’s inner doubts, know how his lips tasted, and yet not know his number? He would have to ask tomorrow, Rain thought as he rolled into bed with a laugh. It wasn’t like it was urgent; they had forever now, after all.

Rain saw ahead of him a future he finally felt happy with. At last, he could let go of the apathy he had clung to and allowed to become a comfort blanket, instead finding a love for life he hadn’t known in many years. He saw in Dew not just a silly crush from years passed, and definitely not perfection, but he could see a willingness to grow together. He didn’t desire to have the same picket fence life as others may want or expect them to aspire to, but instead he could see the path along which they could forge their own way in life.

Here, in his small hometown in the countryside, he had everything he could ask for regardless of the man who had made him realise it was possible. No longer would he have to while away the years in the concrete forest of the city, instead he could reconnect with the very trees that had inspired his career path as a child. His burgeoning relationship with Dewdrop would be the fertilizer to keep him going through the changes that would surely follow, and he could only hope that Dew would also grow and flourish in the ways he wanted to now he had Rain to encourage him.

In the days following Christmas but before the turn of the new year Dew had written to the hotel owners, stating that he had finally found someone willing to pick up his extra hours. With two people working at the Hearthside Inn, Dew would finally have the time to dedicate to interests outside its old walls. While Rain found a new lease of life in the forestry and conservation network just outside of the town, he also took immense joy from seeing Dew finally have the time to think about what he wanted from the world.

He had enrolled in a baking course. Rain had been overjoyed for him, already anticipating the endless treats his new boyfriend would surely bring home to the hotel. He hadn’t expected Dew to pick up an entirely new and unprecedented love of the craft as much as he had though, to the point where after only a few short months Dew was seriously considering pursuing baking as his full time job. It made Rain happier than he could have imagined to see Dew so fulfilled by his new endeavour, and with his own new career it wasn’t long before they were both seriously discussing moving on from the Hearthside Inn.

They would be sad to let the place go with no idea if it would even keep running after they left, but it had grown in popularity with their stewardship so they had to hope it would thrive under new management. The place surely held some kind of magic, Rain had to think, and it was about time someone else benefited from it as he and Dew had.

However bleak the circumstances leading up to his decision to leave the city had been, Rain knew that the best choice he had made in recent years had been coming home for Christmas.

#hallmark au

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