NatePat One-Shots

Drabbles (2)

#11 - Krampus

A child is supposed to find joy in the holiday. Spending time with family, waiting for Santa Claus to bring them presents; like any other holiday. For Nathan it was a constant reminder of what happened to his family that one Christmas Day, with him being the reminder. Unlike his husband, Matthew, he never had the kind of family that would behave on Christmas. They would fight, argue, and even when their own son tried to convince them that there was light in all the darkness they proved him wrong. Until he too had stopped believing. But it was that very night that he made a fateful mistake, he'd called upon the shadow of Santa Claus, the one who took instead of giving. And his parents were the price. Krampus, he'd left Nathan as a constant reminder that when you stop believing there are consequences.
"Nathan, darling, are you all right?" Matthew snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Oh, I'm okay." Nathan smiled.
The ebony knew that once their family got here it'd be all over, so he kept the fire high and prayed that everything would go as planned.

#12 - Comfort

"You're a fucking joke, Matthew!"

"Just kill yourself!"

"Nathan's gonna leave you..."

In his own voice, words of judgement and hate were thrown at him. In his own voice, he berated himself over and over for not being enough. The worst part was that he agreed with every word. It was every night and it only got worse when he stopped sleeping just to get away, the voice was his and he could hear it in his head. There was no escape.
"Matt, come here for a minute!" Nathan called from downstairs.
"Be there in a minute!" Matt called back, wiping his eyes.
As loving and kind as Nathan was, telling Matt that he was perfect, that he was important, there was a sense of dread that came from the pit of his stomach. Walking down the stairs felt like a chore and once he was next to his boyfriend it seemed that everything was lighter, except Matt never suspected that Nathan knew about his dreams.

"Matty, I want you to tell me why you haven't been sleeping." Nathan explained, holding him close.
"I'm sorry, I... I've been having nightmares recently and I just..." Matt sighed, finding it hard to explain even when he could just say it.
Nathan took Matt's hand and just held it, a wordless promise of protection and comfort. In the end, Matt confessed that his own voice was yelling at him that he wasn't enough. Threats of hurting him, threats of Nathan leaving him; it just wouldn't stop. Despite all the hateful things the voices said, Nathan listened and comforted him and promised him that leaving him would be the biggest mistake he would ever make.
"On that note, I have a question for you." Nathan said casually.
"What is it?" Matt replied, heart racing.
Instead of getting down on one knee, instead of giving some heartfelt speech, Nathan kissed Matt on the lips with so much passion that words weren't needed.
"Would you be down to get married?" Nathan asked once they parted.

#13 - Freak Show

A carnival was supposedly home to many freaks, namely those who needed money or who were interested in show business. Nathan was one of those freaks. He could tell exactly what others were thinking, he could see into the future, people often came to him for dating advice or who they'd end up with in the future. Nathan hated those people. It's all they wanted to know and they never considered what might happen, for the ebony could see so far that it was slowly killing him.
Until, one day, a young man entered his tent.
He was really quite handsome and Nathan had to conceal his blush, watching the youth before him smile and open his mouth to speak. His voice was smooth like honey and it captured Nathan in a sea of confusion.
"Can you tell me who I'm meant to be?" The man asked.
"Hold on, sugar, what's your name?" Nathan chuckled at his eagerness.
"O-oh, it's Matthew! Sorry." His face turned pink.
Nathan gently took his hand and clasped it gently, breathing in deeply before exhaling through his nose. Images melted before his eyes, colors mottled and almost unrecognizable, but he could make out the face of the man sitting in front of him. He was meant to join the circus, to find love with someone unexpected; Nathan couldn't make out who it was until he slowly opened his eyes.