ATWT: Ending

[noelleleithe.livejournal.com]

Title: Ending
Author: noelleleithe
Rating: G
Pairings: Luke/Reid, Luke/Noah
Word count: ~435
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything here except my own words. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's notes: Safe for Luke/Noah fans. C’mon, this is ME. Hee. Beta by bluejeanbaby01. *hugs*

~~~~
"Hey." Reid gave Luke a small smile when he opened the door before crossing back over to the kitchen, where he'd apparently been about to make a sandwich.

"Hey." Luke returned the greeting as he followed Reid across the room. He stood at the end of the island and chewed on his bottom lip, watching Reid shake the mustard bottle and squirt a healthy amount onto a slice of bread before he spoke again. "We need to talk."

Reid didn't look up. "Inevitably," he said, setting down the mustard and reaching for a knife.

Luke frowned. "What do you mean?"

Reid stabbed the knife into the mayonnaise jar hard enough that it rattled against the countertop. He planted his hands on the granite and dropped his head forward, shoulders hunching. "You're here to break up with me."

Just because it was true didn't make Luke feel any better about it. "Reid--"

Reid sighed and reached for the knife again. "You're still in love with Noah," he said as he slathered mayonnaise on the second slice. "You'll always be in love with Noah."

Luke stayed silent for a moment before nodding. "Yeah," he said. "And you knew that going in."

Reid obviously also knew he couldn't deny that. He just shrugged instead.

"Look," Luke said, sliding his hands into his front pockets. "I know you probably don't want to hear what I have to say. You might not believe me anyway. But it's the truth. This wasn't meaningless. It wasn't just a pit stop or roadblock or whatever. I really did--do care about you. But it's not fair to you, to either of us really, because I can't give all of me. I don't have all of me to give. Part of me belongs to someone else."

Reid slapped down meat and cheese and bread. "Yeah," he said. "I know."

Luke didn't know what else to say. "I feel like I should apologize," he said. "But you'd either brush it off or come up with some snarky response, and that's not going to help matters."

He swayed on his feet, torn between just leaving or making some sort of goodbye gesture, but they'd never had a hugging relationship, and he wasn't going to end it with a kiss.

Reid saved him the trouble. He looked up, eyes shuttered, face blank. He held out a hand. "Good luck, Luke," he said, his voice more sincere than Luke had ever heard it.

He took the offered hand, squeezed gently. Smiled a little. "Goodbye, Reid," he said.

When he walked away, he didn't look back.