23^rd December 2008:

Damien went shopping alone. Although he usually hated being at the shopping centre, this was a necessary evil.

While a white Christmas had not been forecast, it appeared as though the snow was picking up. Damien dreaded the notion of being stranded at the mall, and so he’d rushed there early that morning to get Lucas’ Christmas present – along with ingredients for a meal.

He held the box his hands. It was a golden pocket watch with a very ornate and intricate pattern on the back. He hoped that Lucas would like it, he’d wanted a new watch for a while – and that pocket watch had called to Damien as he’d browsed the shelves of the jewellery shop.

He made his way back to the car park; he jabbed his key into the side of his 1970’s Ottawa Pheonix, unlocked it and sat in the driver’s seat. As much as he really did love his car, he loathed that his mother had only gotten him it because, God forbid, a member of the Prisma family drove around in anything remotely average.

‘Hey! Can’t wait to meet later!’ He shot off a text to Lucas, deciding that he would sit for a while; the snow appeared to be calming down, at last.

Damien received a response barely three minutes later. ‘Same here! Dealing with the fam atm, wish you were here... :(’

Damien soured. Lucas did a good job at avoiding the topic of his family, unless he had to talk about them. He didn’t want to pry into something which was clearly a sore subject for Lucas, but it was one of the things which irritated him about his boyfriend – especially given how open Damien was about his struggles with his mother.

Putting that to the side, Damien did share a similar sentiment to Lucas. ‘☹ Don’t worry, we’ll have all the time in the world together soon... 😉’ He smiled softly, as he clicked send.

‘Love you. <3’ He received a reply very quickly. Lucas’ phone could send and read emojis, but he staunchly refused to use them.

‘I love you too! ❤️’ Damien put his phone down, and stuck his keys into the engine. He had to get his place as clean as he could, in preparation for their meal. Both of them would be spending Christmas with their blood relatives, and so they had vowed to do something special that day - before hell rained down on them.

Damien looked forward to seeing Julie and Margot again, but it was going to be tainted by his mother’s presence.

Perhaps his dad would show up this year too? Damien laughed, keeping his eyes firmly on the road before him. “As if...” He muttered.

Arriving home, he parked in his drive. He carried all of his shopping back in with him, and spent a while cleaning everything up. Cleaning his home took him around three hours, and he wiped the sweat off of his brow – he removed his now dust and sweat covered clothes, and hopped in the shower.

The warm water helped him to relax, and he was glad to have a singular moment of respite before preparing their meal.

He got out of the shower, and threw on a pair of pyjamas while he cooked – this would prevent his clothes from stinking of the various ingredients he’d be using in the recipe.

Damien messaged Lucas once again. ‘Getting everything prepared now.’ He thought it useful to let Lucas know where he was up to.

An hour went by, the meal prep was done and Damien put everything away in the fridge – intending to begin actually cooking everything when Lucas was on his way. He instinctively went to pull out a cigarette from his pockets, despite having quit months ago, and he let out a deep breath. Damien washed his hands before checking his phone again, and there was still no reply. “He must be busy...” Damien rationalised.

However, by three in the afternoon, when the world had begun to go dark, Damien grasped that something was wrong. He was incredibly worried, but whatever was going on, he didn’t want to cause Lucas any undue stress by pestering him about it. He paced around his home, biting his nails as he moved in a repetitive pattern.

When his phone did chime, Damien sprinted to the other side of the room.

He already knew that it was Lucas before he looked at the screen. And he already knew that it wasn’t going to be a cheerful conversation. He couldn’t explain how he knew, but as he swiped right to answer, his fears were confirmed when all he could hear was a faint sobbing coming from Lucas.

“Lucas?” Damien gingerly broke the silence. Fearfully, he continued his questioning. “What’s wrong?”

Damien’s jaw dropped upon hearing Lucas tearfully explain his situation to him, and he rushed to get ready, urging his boyfriend to hang tight as he made his way back to his car.

Trace amounts of snow dusted the roads, but Damien didn’t care.

Once he arrived, he got out of the car, and slammed the door behind him. He ran to Lucas’ building and rang his buzzer. Damien had a spare set of keys on him, but he wanted to make sure Lucas understood that he was there.

Damien ran up the stairs, and unlocked the door to Lucas’ room.

Lucas was curled up on his bed, hugging himself. The poor man couldn’t bring himself to move from that position, and Damien flew to him.

Damien lay beside him; he held him steadfastly. Nothing was said for a good while, and Lucas did nothing except cry and hang onto Damien.

Lucas finally let go after a long while to wipe away his tears and snot.

“I don’t know what to do, Damien.” Shakily, those words left his mouth. “I’m sorry, I should have told you that they were like this.”

Damien was so upset, that Lucas had put any consideration into apologising about his current predicament. Damien had been frustrated about how much Lucas avoided the topic of his family, but knowing the reason (and the outcome) did not a thing but cause his heart to ache for his boyfriend.

Lucas sat up, his crying calming down. Damien too sat up straight. He placed his hand on Lucas’ thigh in an attempt to comfort him.

“We’re going to get through this.” Damien too, teared up as he stared into Lucas’ bloodshot eyes. “Lucas, I promise you. It’s going to be okay.”