Knightly in Shining Armor

Lourdes

           In the day I had been home, I spent my time speaking to people who I hadn't and catching everyone up. Thank god my parents had gone to The Philippines while I was gone for the wedding. They had been invited, of course, but my grandmother had already requested that they go visit for her 87th birthday.

          My boss was more than happy to have me take time off for the next few weeks I needed for recovery and physical therapy. Drew was covering me, much to his delight. He needed the extra cash and he was pushing me to take care of myself by popping over out of nowhere to make sure I was doing alright on my own.

          My professors were extremely accommodating to my circumstances, letting me catch up and take the exams after the break. Thankfully, I didn't miss all that much. I busied myself with emptying out my fridge. I really didn't plan on being gone so long.

          My phone had been ringing off the hook to the point of where I just shut it down. I was quite content with being alone for a long while. Not to mention it was Christmas Eve, so everyone should have had their own things to do regardless.

          At least, I thought that was the case until someone buzzed to be let up.

          "Who is this?" I asked.

          "Take a wild guess," The voice replied. My jaw dropped.

          "Sawyer?"

          I paced around the floor in front of the Emrys's that had shown up at my doorstep. Sawyer, Toby, Bradly, Theo, Hugo, Joey, Phillip, Earnest, and Louis were all sitting around my apartment. Lukas wasn't with them. I wasn't sure if I was glad or not.

          "How... What happened?" I asked. "Is everything okay?"

          "After you left, Lukas went off on father, and in return, he went off on mum, and it was a whole mess. The only ones to stay behind were Johnathan and his wife." Sawyer was sitting with Toby on one of the chairs.

          "Then, where's Lukas?" I asked.

          "He went to stay with Luann. He figured you wouldn't wanna see him at the moment," Bradly explained. I nodded, pressing my lips together.

          "So, you all just... left?"

          "Well, mum and father were... they were scaring everyone," Louis said. "Sawyer said we should come to stay with you since none of us knew what else to do. Can we stay?" I looked around at the boys in my apartment. It was Christmas Eve, and they had nowhere else to go. I bit my lip before breaking out into a grin.

          "My home is yours," I said. No sooner had I said that was I tackled by Earnest in a hug. I smiled, hugging him back. "Happy Christmas, by the way."

          "Oh hell, it is Christmas," Bradly said. "I didn't even go shopping for gifts or anything!"

          "I don't think anyone did," I laughed. "We can go once you nine get settled in, alright?" There was a chorus of agreements, and I started to clear out some space to fit everyone. They all piled their things against a wall and helped out however they could.

          The rest of the day was spent Christmas shopping. I spent a small fortune on things for the Emrys kids, my family, Bennett, Lu, Evan, and Drew. The boys picked out things for everyone as well, trying to hide them from their recipients. We got everything gift-wrapped and sent everyone back to my place in taxis with an adult. I set up a small tree and we put the presents underneath.

          I set up the projector with some Christmas movies and left the Emrys kids to enjoy. I brought Sawyer, Bradly, and Theo into the kitchen.