Bellamy/Gabriel ficlet written for the 12 days of bellarke prompts (oops sorry this isnt bellarke but you said any pairing):
prompt is: stockings
tagging: @klarkegriffin, @queen-of-the-wallflowers15
Bellamy had never celebrated Christmas in his entire nineteen year old life.
That is the one thought that didnāt give Gabriel any rest from the moment December came. Heās only known Bellamy for four months, meeting him in a hot summer evening, living in a tent a few streets fown from the shelter Gabriel ran with the help of his friends but most of all Monty, Harper, Jasper as well as his coworker Kane and his girlfriend and future wife, Abby.Ā
Heās been seeing the kid constantly in the past year but whenever he tried to approach him, Bellamy would run away or refuse to talk to him or only accept food whenever Gabe left it outside his tent and gave him the space to actually take it.Ā
Slowly, overtime, he had gotten closer to him, like befriending a really wounded animal that didnāt trust a living thing. Bellamy would sit by his side and eat the burger Gabe got him quietly, barely talking and only in whispers. He was always in bad shape and surely went through a lot of abuse but every sign showed Gabriel that heās been living out there by himself for a long while.
He was a curious kid, though, that much Gabriel could tell-heād try to peak at the newspaper Gabe had tucked in his pocket and he noticed books in his tent though they were hardly ever in any full edition. He was smart, at least judging by the questions Gabe had asked him but he was hurt...and really broken.
Even back then he knew the boy was suffering from frostbite, extreme malnutrition and probably many more invisible diseases-he looked like he had been in a fight every time Gabriel came over to his street and the more the weeks passed, the more often he checked on him cause he could see things were bad.
It wasnāt until one night he found him curled up in a corner by a dumpster, beaten up and bleeding that he decided extreme measures had to be taken. Before, Bellamy had refused to come by the shelter with him and always feverntly argued against it but now he didnāt have a choice because he was just so badly hurt he couldnāt even talk, just spit blood.
Gabe had taken him to Abbyās hospital and she had found all the broken things inside him within just a day. Some, she said, could be fixed over time, but others like his diabetes, high blood pressure, constant coughing and the results from the frostbite...couldnāt.
Gabriel didnāt take him to the shelter, no...instead he got him to his own appartment just above his work place and spent the next few weeks slowly bringing him to life.Ā
Bellamy was afraid at first, very reluctant to stay there. He couldnāt believe he actually had a home and thought that Gabriel was just doing this because he helped all the homeless people the same way.
It took the idiot kid two months and waking up to them very sweet and softly tangled in their bed, to realize that yes, Gabriel was attracted to him as more than just a friend and so was he, as scared as he was to admit it.
It was always touch and go, he was still very spooked, he didnāt like being touched and he hurt a lot and most of the time they didnāt have quiet and peaceful nights but there were also good stuff-things like kissing Gabe for the first time, nuzzling into his arms when he was cold and in pain or couldnāt breathe, letting him help him walk around the house, going out to the mall for the first place, getting new clothes....signing up for evening school so he could finish his education.
There was bad...there was pain and fevers and awful anxiety and fear...so much fear but there was also kind and soft hugs by the fireplace, letting Gabe help him put socks on (he hadnāt own a pair in years) or try out new shoes or get his hair combed up.
There was also Gabrielās dog, Samanta waking him up with a big wet lick on the face every morning or curling up next to him when he was cold.
There were little lights in between all the darkness he had in his live...he called them his tiny lanterns of hope. He wrote an essay for school about it and when Gabriel read it to help him proof of any mistakes he had cried and pulled him in for a tight hug.
But now that Christmas was approaching, Gabriel knew things may get rather sad or weirdly anxious. Bellamy had been slowly sharing pieces of his old life with him and had told him his mom died on Christmas when he was just ten, then the social services picked him and his sister and split them resulting in Bellamy going through various abusive foster homes before running away and never looking back. He cried thinking of his mom-she was the kindest woman, worked hard, raised him well but got sick with cancer and never got proper treatment because of their social status and his sister...he still missed and longed for her but they couldnāt find her trace.
So when December came and Gabriel didnāt rush into his usual very cheerful holiday mood, even Bellamy sensed something wasnāt right. He had heard him talk to Monty and Harper before, they made funny comments about his stupid Christmas sweaters which he wore every day (a different one for all 25 days) and how excited he was to decorate so when he didnāt....Bellamy got suspicious.
āWhy arenāt you putting on any lights or...stuff?ā he asked him from the kitchen table where he was doing homework one evening. Gabe was by the stove, checking on his famous mac and cheese and stiffening at the question.
āI...uh...I donāt know...I thought thereās time and all for that-ā
āItās the third of december thatās basically Christmas for you according to Monty and Harper.ā Bellamy raised an eyebrow and dropped his pen sighing as he feels another sharp bout of pain in his knee that always bothered him when the cold came. Gabe liked massaging it when they went to bed, help him breathe a little better, fall asleep easier.Ā
āI...well...I just thought-ā Gabriel blushed when he was cornered and that happened often with Bellamy. The kid got under his skin and talked him out of his bs attitude a lot sometimes.
āYou thought itād make me feel bad?ā Bellamy finishes up and juts his chin up stubbornly.āIt wonāt. I...I may get a little sad here and there but...this is a new beginning and I want you to celebrate it properly...I want US to celebrate it, okay?ā Gabriel had teared up at that, thinking how strong the kid is, how despite everything he tries to keep on going and how he underestimated his spirit.
They had decorated together but the most exciting thing for the both of them was when Gabe brought in Bellamyās stocking which he had ordered online a week ago. They put it over the fireplace together and Gabriel told him how when he was a little kid his grandma from Cuba would put little presents in the stocking every day from December 1st till the 25th and heād wake up rushing and digging his hand in, taking out something little like a lollipop or a sweet treat of sorts or new socks or a hat and itād be the most precious thing.
Bellamy loved that but he didnāt expect Gabriel to actually go through with the whole ritual too and when the next day he woke up to him kissing his forehead and urging him to get up and check the sock, he had been a little confused.
Nothing could replace the smile he got on his face when he dug out a few sweet bars and a pack of text markers. Bellamy had a thing for stationary-he metitiously picked up his notebooks, pens, sticky notes, pencils, rubbers, everything and he was the perfect student but that was the one thing that brought him joy. He started his own personal pen collection and Gabe helped him fill it up which made him beam and show them proudly to whatever guest came over or brag to his other classmates (also older and with weird hobbys).
From then on Bellamy woke up and limped to the sock every day, finding something new-a set of rainbow rubbers, new sharpener, jelly bean candy, chocolate bars (Gabriel had to ease it up on the sweet things unless he wanted Abby to castrate him but he couldnāt stop giving the kid joy) and in return, since he had no money, Bellamy used the stuff he got in the stocking to make little handmade presents for gabe-it was mostly cards or paper mache stuff-heād fold the candieās wrapper in a funny origami way and stick it to a white paper, writing in pretty cursive on top and every time heād blush when he gave it to Gabe but accept his kiss willingly and softly leaning into his touch.
When Christmas came and he woke up to a bunch of presents under the tree, he had forgotten about the stocking until Gabe reminded him of it and when he dug in this time, he took out something heavy.
Upon tearing the wrapping paper up, he found two photos in a double frame-one was of him as a child with his sister and mother, the only picture he had of them and the other was Gabriel and him, Monty, Harper, Jasper, Kane and Abby sitting on the shelterās front steps, dressed in funny sweaters and smiling for the camera.
He had teared up and threw himself in Gabeās arms.
Living on the streets for all those years had been hard, it made him doubt he was alive sometimes, if he was even human or if heād turn into a monster but he never, ever suspected, heād find his beating heart at the bottom of a christmas stocking with his name on it.
