Chapter Text
Richard is sitting at the kitchen table staring at his laptop with one hand over his mouth. Maybe he won’t throw up if he just never moves his hand again.
He’d been checking his email and buried under the work messages was a surprisingly short message from his mother about Thanksgiving and whether or not he wanted to join them for dinner.
He responds with a quick ‘sure, we’ll be there.’
And it wasn’t until he got the lengthy reply about dating and we’re so happy for you and is this the one are you getting married that he realizes that HE NEVER TOLD HIS PARENTS.
When he finishes reading the email he slides to the floor under the table and curls up like a pill bug.
“Richard?”
Somewhere in the back of his head a voice yells at him, reminding him that their table is glass and Jared was making dinner and he definitely saw him hide.
A chair scrapes and Richard peeks out to find Jared sitting on the floor with his knees drawn up. Jared smiles at him and Richard burrows his way between Jared’s legs. He doesn’t care that his face is pretty much in Jared’s crotch; he feels safe when he’s shielded by Jared’s long limbs.
“Do you need me to do anything?” Richard holds out a hand and Jared takes it, running his thumb over Richard’s knuckles. “I’ll stay as long as you need me to.”
After Richard’s parasympathetic finally kicks in and brings him back to homeostasis he sits on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate while Jared salvages dinner. He doesn’t think he can handle anything more than oatmeal right now but he has to admit it smells delicious.
Later, but still not very late because he can’t seem to stay awake much later than midnight anymore. Jared had mentioned he ‘has anxiety’ and ‘having a lot of stimulants can make it worse when he’s stressed’ and ‘the doctor told him to stop drinking energy drinks so much’, so they compromised and he only has caffeine in the mornings unless a deadline is extremely pressing.
He is not going to admit it but he may be sleeping better.
But that may be because his loft has become a storage space for extra blankets.
They’re lying in bed and Jared is tracing the outline of his hand when Richard remembers why he had a panic attack in the first place.
“Do you ever Thanksgiving?”
Well it was almost a coherent thought.
“Are you asking if I’ve ever had a Thanksgiving meal?”
Less coherent than he hoped.
“Yeah, that.”
“Well,” Jared slips his hand under Richard’s and laces their fingers together, “a few of my foster parents did, but I have not recently. Did you want to?”
“Um… my parents asked. They might be lonely, I don’t know. But uh… I said yes so we’re going to Tulsa, if that’s okay?”
“I’ll get to meet your family?”
“My parents. It’ll probably just be the four of us.”
“Okay. That sounds very enjoyable Richard. I look forward to it.”
Richard doesn’t remember falling asleep but when he wakes up he realizes he didn’t tell Jared his family doesn’t know about the marriage.
He’ll tell Jared for sure when he wakes up.