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Title: You Are My Signal Fire (Part 37)
Characters: Andrew Raycroft / Ian White
Word Count: 1963
Rating: PG-13ish, swearing
Setting: Steinbach, Manitoba
Disclaimer: I don’t own these players, nor do I know their sexual preferences. The whole thing is a work of my imagination. The title is part of the lyrics from snow patrol’s song ‘Signal Fire’.

***I warn you this one gets a little sappy at the end :P I'm just in one of those moods.

Ian’s POV

I pulled the covers around me tighter at the chilly morning Manitoba air, and attempted to hug Andrew to me a little tighter, sighing contentedly in his arms before jumping up and in turn making Andrew jump in surprise.

“Fuck! I slept in! I should have gone back to my room!”

“Are they going to be really mad?”

“I don’t know…”

“Well no pitchforks yet so…I think it’s safe to say that we’re good.”

“Shut up,” I picked up my pillow and whacked him in the head with it. Taking a deep breath I continued on, “Let’s go downstairs and face the inevitable yelling.”

“I don’t know about that. Your parents seem pretty chill about the whole thing.”

“You don’t know them. They’re just being nice, I know they’re not happy.”

He shrugged, “Whatever. I think you’re being paranoid.”

“Hey wait I lost a sock.” I crawled under the sheets to grab it, when I heard the door creak open. I froze in place at the end of the bed, then madly began tossing the sheets over my head to free myself from my obvious hiding place. My dad stood in the door way not looking overly impressed but sans pitch fork, as Andrew had a totally dumbfounded look on his face. I looked between them, “No dad, it’s not what you think! I just slept here I swear! And then my sock…I…”

“I don’t want to hear it! I definitely don’t need to see it…” He looked away from me, resting his gaze on the floor, “You know we’ve been awfully accepting of this sudden “life decision” and we only ask this one thing of you and you can’t even do that for us. And I can’t deal with this right now because I have to go to work.” Gaze still locked on the floor he turned and walked out, slamming the door.

“Well that went well,” Andrew said lazily getting up and stretching, substituting his pj pants for some jeans and pulling on a t-shirt. I dragged him into my room so I could change too and then we headed downstairs, where the smell of breakfast hit us the moment we got to the first floor. I wasn’t sure if I could eat now that my stomach was all in knots, but I knew my mum would force feed me anyways. I’m such an idiot.

“Morning boys,” my mother said cheerily, kissing me on the forehead and giving Andrew a hug. “Hello Andrew. I’m sorry I didn’t get to meet you yesterday before I went to bed.”

He patted her gingerly on the back, feeling a little awkward, “Er yeah. Nice to meet you Mrs. White.”

She beamed at him when they separated and we sat down at the table where she placed two plates in front of us and then went over to the oven to retrieve our breakfast. “I wasn’t sure when you boys were going to get up so I made this earlier and put it in the oven to keep it warm.” She pulled out a massive stack of pancakes, a bowl of bacon, another bowl of eggs, and a mound of toast. I swear I’ve never seen Andrew’s face light up so quickly as he grinned down at all the food, I couldn’t help but laugh which made them both look at me.

“Sorry, it’s just Andrew…” I laughed at him again.

“What? This is amazing! Thank you so much Mrs. White this is…amazing.”

“You said that dear.” A faint blush was creeping onto her cheeks though and I could tell that she was really flattered by his compliments, “And you boys need to eat more. You’re too thin.”

Andrew was preoccupied however by loading his plate up with food, so he just nodded. I had a feeling at this point he would have agreed with anything she said. I looked up nervously, pushing my eggs around on my plate, “So…did you talk to dad before he left?”

“Not really, no dear. He was late, storming out of the house. Why did you need something?” she asked distractedly as she filled the bread maker with ingredients.

“Uh…no. It’s nothing.” I bit down on my lip, and took a steadying breath. I’d been staring at my plate for what felt like an hour when I felt Andrew’s hand on my shoulder, fingers squeezing firmly.

“You okay?” When I didn’t answer, he sighed, “You know it will be okay right? It’s hard at first I know. They’ll get over it. Your parents are a hundred times cooler than mine and mine got over it…sort of.”

“Comforting…”

“Well I tried,” he laughed, but I was still kind of upset and knew I wouldn’t feel better until I talked with my dad, “Oh come on Ian, cheer up…please? Is there any way I can cheer you up?” He ran his hands down from my shoulders onto my chest.

“Jesus my mom’s…”

“…not home cause she went to the store? I know.” I looked around wildly expecting her to be behind me, “You were so into staring at that plate you didn’t even hear her announce that she was going to buy something for dinner. So I was thinking…”

“Are you insane? After what just happened with my dad?! You want my mum to walk in on us too?”

“Well to be fair your dad didn’t really walk in on anything he just thought…”

“Just stop talking please.” I said grumpily, jerking away from his grip.

“Fuck, I don’t know what you want Ian! I’m just trying to help.”

I turned just in time to see him walking away off to the guest room, “Wait! I’m sorry!” But he didn’t turn around, “Fuck.” I got up and kicked my chair doing nothing more than giving me a sharp pain in my toe. Well…at least it was something to focus on instead of the fact that my dad and my boyfriend were both angry with me.

Feeling angry and frustrated I decided to go for a walk, so I took the long slow trek into town. My feet carried me on their own to the local coffee shop where I quickly ordered an espresso and went to sit down in the corner. I sat there brooding in my own self pity when a familiar boy with blonde hair and a dimpled chin walked in front of the window. Upon seeing me he waved indicating that he would come inside. Great.

He ordered his coffee and sat down across from me, “So uh…you work things out with your dad? Sorry I just kinda split but…”

“Don’t worry about it, I would have done it too. And um…well…I did…” he looked confused by the statement so I took a deep breath, “Look Dustin…I have a boyfriend…I don’t know what I was doing, but I shouldn’t have been doing it and well he’s here now so…”

“Say no more man!” his voice was cheery and it confused the fuck out of me, “Me too. I was just kind of lonely and well…no offence…you were convenient.”

I laughed at the jab, “Gee thanks. Don’t worry you don’t have to tip me. So you too eh? Who is it? ...if you don’t mind me asking…”

He shrugged as he was obviously open about the whole thing, “Matthew Lombardi. We’re not that serious…but it still didn’t feel right, it just wasn’t…him, you know?”

I nodded, “Completely.”

“How about you? Who’re you going out with?”

“Andrew Raycroft. We er…live together actually.” Hearing it come out of my mouth made me realize just how horrible it all sounded…how horrible it was. I cheated on him…again. He was right to be mad with me, he should have someone better.

“You alright dude?” I looked up to see Dustin, staring back at me looking slightly worried.

“No…uh yeah. It’s just…I was just thinking how royally I could have messed up our whole relationship and it’s kind of freaking me out.”

“I can see that.” He took a sip of his coffee, “Maybe it’s a good thing that your dad walked in then. Stopped us before we could actually do anything regrettable.”

“I guess that’s the positive way to look at it…” My cell phone started vibrating before I could continue the thought and I picked it up right away when I saw the name.

“Where are you?”

“At the coffee shop, I thought you weren’t talking to me?” I asked confused.

“I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Wait…” Dial tone. Crap.

“Andrew?”

“Yeah…he said he’ll be here in a minute.”

Dustin nodded, finishing his coffee and getting up, “Look I understand that you guys might be having problems, but by the way you talk about the whole thing. It makes it sound like it would be even worse to let it go.”

“I know that, don’t you worry.” I smiled at him, grateful for his advice, “Thanks Dustin. I’ll see you this season eh?”

“For sure.” I shook his hand and he left as Andrew came in. He gave Dustin a look over his shoulder, probably having recognized him and wondering what he was doing here. I glanced at Dustin over Andrew’s shoulder and he gave me the thumb’s up and mouthed ‘way to go’, taking a minute to stare at Andrew’s ass before he left.

I suppressed a laugh as Andrew walked up to me, “Was that?”

“Dustin Boyd. Yeah…just catching up.”

He nodded sitting down at the table and looking serious. He leaned his elbows on the table so he was closer to me, and I felt a speech forthcoming, “Okay so I was a bit of an insensitive asshole this morning. I know how hard it is coming out to your parents, and I guess because I got it out so long ago I just…I don’t know, it’s like I expected it all to be over with by now. I’m sorry.”

Why does he always do this to me? I smiled propping myself up on my own elbows and leaning onto the table so our faces were only inches apart, “Would you please stop apologizing all the time?”

“No, I’m sorry! Really I am. It’s just this whole Vesa thing has me all wound up and then I came here and seeing you made me forget all about it, but this morning I don’t know I just started thinking about it again. And I snapped. And I’m sorry.”

I brought my hand up to his stubbly cheek and let my hand graze down his jaw, his head tilting towards my hand. We were sitting in a public place yes…but I couldn’t help myself. I leaned forward despite the shocked look on Andrew’s face and caressed his lips with my own. He didn’t need any incentive to return the kiss and I deepened it, leaning further over the table.

We continued for a moment stuck in our own little world, not caring what anyone around us might be thinking or saying at this point. Just me and him, no one else matters. When we finally broke apart, Andrew was all smiles and it made the knots in my stomach loosen.

“Well that’s a new feeling,” he said grabbing my hand across the table, “Too bad it’s not that easy in Toronto. A guy could get used to kissing you anytime he wants.”

“I kind of liked it.” I took a moment to glance around, a few people were staring, some looking disgusted others just in shock. I didn’t really care though, nothing could dampen my mood right now, “Let’s go home okay?”

He nodded and stood up, still holding my hand we walked out of the coffee shop and made the long, trek back to my house together.

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