A Christmas to Remember

Part 3

*5 Days Until Christmas*

Jude woke up, finding himself laying on top of Connor who was in his sleeping bag with him. His family was looking at them, whispering furiously to each other. Jude managed to extract one of his arms from his sleeping bag, taking it and waving at his family to go away, managing the best 'bitch face' he could despite being still half asleep. His moms both gave him a raised eyebrow before shrugging and turning to shoo everyone away.

Jude slowly rolled his upper body over, off Connor (though their legs were still tangled together). Connor stirred, rolling over onto his side so the two of them were face to face, inches apart.

"Wow Jude, you have terrible morning breath," Connor whispered, wrinkling up his nose, eyes still closed. Jude giggled at the face, but also wondered how Connor seemed to think that making such a statement was no big deal. Jude moved to separate his legs from Connor, earning a grimace from him, Jude assumed because he had hit Connor's cast with his foot too hard. "Ouch, Jude, would you let me do that?"

"Sorry," Jude mumbled, lying still as Connor gingerly adjusted his legs so that they were now separated. Connor opened his eyes, intently studying Jude's face.

"You doing okay this morning Jude?" Connor asked softly.

"I—yeah why wouldn't I be?" Jude replied, confused by Connor's question. It was just a dream; now that it was morning he obviously was fine (besides the awkwardness that was hanging in the air they felt as they registered that they slept most of the night cuddled up to each other).

"I don't know, whatever you were dreaming about last night seemed to have you pretty upset," Connor shrugged. Jude froze; his dream (strike that, nightmare) that was about Connor.

"It-it was just a dream. I was over it after I woke up," Jude said. Connor eyed him suspiciously.

"If you were over it after you woke up then why did you cry into my chest for like an hour?" Connor questioned. "You don't have to lie to me, I heard you talking about me while you were dreaming," he continued softly.

"It-it was stupid really," Jude mumbled, keeping his eyes down on Connor's chest to avoid making eye contact. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I'm not going to think it was stupid, Jude. Dreams are dreams, you know? Like I don't think it's weird you were having a nightmare about me. It's not like you have much control over your dreams," Connor explained.

"You—you don't find it weird?" Jude asked innocently, not sure that Connor was being honest with him.

"Yeah, I really don't," Connor assured him.

"Well I guess then—I was upset because—because in my dream you—you got shot," Jude explained shakily.

"I can see how that would be upsetting," Connor commented, reaching over and pulling Jude into a hug to comfort him, as Jude seemed to be on the verge of crying.

"Boys! You two need to get up so we can go get our Christmas tree sometime today!" Stef shouted from the kitchen, breaking the spell between them. Jude quickly wriggled away from Connor, crawling out of the sleeping bag, grabbing some clothes from his duffel bag and sprinting up to the bathroom.

Whether Connor was judging him for having the dream or not, Jude was mortified and on top of that, worried. His feelings for Connor were developing way faster than he could've predicted. Like seriously, he was having nightmares about Connor dying already? Those kinds of dreams were usually only reserved for people he was really close to (meaning family), and they had never popped up so fast. He was still just getting to know Connor; he shouldn't be dreaming things like that about him. Though he supposed it was better than dreaming about—nope, he wasn't going to go there. Jude quickly tossed his clothes on, sauntering down the stairs and plopping down at the table to have breakfast. At the moment, only his moms were in the kitchen, his siblings and Connor nowhere in sight.