Chapter Text
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?