Chapter Text
“Your sister got engaged!” were the first words from your mother as you answered the phone.
“Andrew?” you asked, both knowing it would be him and hoping it wouldn't be. You didn't dislike him per se, but he was an investment banker and you knew that this rolled the ball into your sister's court once again.
“Of course, she only has one boyfriend! Fiancé now. It's time we get you cuffed too, your studies can't take up that much time,” she brought up again and you rolled your eyes, grateful she couldn't see it. “Your dad and I met at college, you know?”
“Mom, I told you I want to focus on getting my degree first… I'm happy for them, though, really,” you added in your most cheerful tone before you would get accused of not wishing your sister good things. “When are they getting married?”
“They'll tell us all about it over the holidays! You are coming, aren't you?”
“Of course I am!” There was no way you were going to spend Christmas in an almost empty dorm. Even if that meant your relatives would try to play matchmaker for you and boys your age in the neighborhood, it also meant proper meals, presents, sleeping in your own more spacious room, as well as quality time with your family.
“Oh, thank God! We can't wait to see you, please call us when you're on your way! See you next week!”
After hanging up, you knew you couldn't turn up by yourself. Especially now that your only three years older sister was getting serious about marriage while you were still single—by choice, you insisted—you needed a plan.
You could already see it, she and the successful son-in-law acting overly affectionate while you were sitting alone at the dinner table and being pestered with questions about whether there was someone special in your life. Of course, you were happy for her and Andrew, but you didn't want to grant her the triumph of getting all the attention this holiday season. Hell, you were going to graduate in half a year, was that nothing to be happy about?
And you did come up with a plan—at least in theory. Now you only needed someone to participate and you had the perfect person in mind.
“Chris!” you called, frantically knocking on his door. It was quite late but early enough for him to still be awake. You were too proud of yourself for getting this bright idea so quickly to wait until tomorrow to share it with him.
You heard some stumbling over objects—his alphabetically sorted filth—and soon after, he opened the door. His hair was sticking up in different directions, his boxer shorts hanging low and he was wearing his shirt on the wrong side. He had probably thrown it on in a rush, not sure who wanted to see him.
His eyes lit up in relief when he saw you. “What's up?”
“I need you to come visit my family over Christmas until New Year's Eve and pretend to be my boyfriend because my sister got engaged to this promising investment banker and my parents are already nagging me to get a boyfriend, so I need someone to upstage her banker fiancé and that someone is ideally you,” you blurted out.
Chris blinked at you, his mouth opening and closing like a fish as if he wanted to say something but didn't know what. “Uh… why don't you come in first?”
He stepped aside and you walked past him, plopping down on his messy bed as he closed the door and sat on his chair, rolling it in front of you.
“So let me recap,” he started, resting his elbows on his thighs. “You want me to pretend to date you because your sister's fiancé is a banker and you want to shine next to her by having me as your ‘top ten minds of America’ boyfriend? And you want me to stay at your parents’ until New Year's Eve?”
You breathed in and nodded. “Exactly. Well, it does sound weird coming from you.”
“It sounded weird coming from you too,” he laughed, fidgeting with some device he had built, before looking at you with raised eyebrows and an amused smile. “I'm up for it.”
“Thank you,” you groaned and leapt forward to hug him, grimacing when you noticed Mitch was sleeping across the room. “I owe you big time, we'll talk about it tomorrow. Nighty, Knight!”
Chris chuckled and patted your back before you pulled away and made your way to the door. “Good night!”
The next morning, you met in the break room. Your first two classes were canceled and your friend had a habit of not attending his classes when he didn't feel like it. Not that he really needed to in order to pass his exams anyway.
Chris approached you, still wearing last night's clothes and holding a coffee mug in his hand. Before you saw him, you could tell it was him by the shuffling sound of his plush slippers.
Suddenly, he threw an arm around your neck from behind and rubbed his cheek against yours. “Morning,” he murmured sleepily. When you turned to look at him in surprise, he added with a smirk, “You need to get used to this, after all.”
“You're impossible,” you said, choosing to blame your flushing cheeks on the possibility of other students seeing you two like this rather than on the funny feeling in your stomach upon his touch.
“I'm your boyfriend whom you love so dearly,” he corrected you, raising his pointer finger before sitting down next to you.
He put the mug down and opened his spiral-bound notebook which had been dangling off his necklace by one of the rings along with a ballpoint pen. “So, how long have we been together?” he asked, scooting closer to you as he placed his hand on the backrest of your chair.
You sat up a little straighter, almost as if you were afraid of his hand grazing your back. “What's appropriate for bringing someone home? Six months?”
Chris nodded and wrote it down as if he was taking notes in class. Glancing at the paper, you noticed he had even prepared questions.
“As for how we met, I'd say we tell the truth, but we need to think of something that made us start dating,” you said, dragging your fingers across your lips in thought.
“I was stood up for a date and asked you to come because I already had the tickets for the cinema and didn't want them to go to waste, but it happened to be a romantic movie and they gave us a double seat. We walked back to my dorm and I let you sleep in my bed while I slept on the floor because you were too tired for the rest of the way to yours,” he answered after a pause that seemed too short for him to have come up with it spontaneously.
This was the part that had worried you the most because you didn't know what sounded realistic for a pair that had been friends for almost two years. Even more so, you didn't know what would be suitable to tell your parents. You knew a bunch of friends who started dating after drunk hookups, but you couldn't boast about that at a family gathering.
To say the least, you were surprised how quickly Chris got this idea that sounded like straight out of a romantic comedy. It wasn't very descriptive, though enough to write it down as a baseline—and enough to make you feel like you had been there when you closed your eyes as he told it in an unusually calm and soft voice.
“You still there?” You were pulled out of your thoughts by his chuckle and his finger poking your upper arm.
“I sure am, didn't know your eyesight was that bad from all the laser experiments,” you teased immediately, glancing at him before pulling the notebook away under his hand and writing down his first date scenario in bullet points. “When did we go exclusive?”
“Right away. I'm a loyal man,” he smiled.
You returned the smile and instinctively tapped the end of the pen against the corner of your lips, only remembering it wasn't yours when you noticed Chris’ gaze lowering to stare at your mouth. “Oh, sorry,” you murmured, putting it down and leaning back in your chair. After a moment of thought, you stood up with a creak of the chair.
“Where are you going?” Chris asked in confusion, putting his hand on yours that was on the backrest of the chair.
“Class, you should try it.” You gave his hand a light squeeze before grabbing your bag. “See you later!”
Because you hadn't been given quite the same intellectual gift as Chris, you actually needed to attend class this time to avoid failing your quiz the next day. Naturally, you didn't feel like sacrificing your precious study time for thinking up elaborate scenarios and detailed information on your relationship. His ideas were good so far and you trusted him to think of more if needed. You would have to take some notes anyway so your stories wouldn't vary later, but Chris seemed well-prepared and you still had almost a week left until this big presentation. No worries at all!
Figuring you would spend more than enough time as a couple over the holidays, you only hung out as friends on Wednesday. Chris did have a list ready full of answers to points you hadn't even thought of but were still useful in case your family did ask those questions. However, you told him you would go over it tomorrow because you wanted just one last normal day before both of your acting skills and endurance would be put on the test.
Chris agreed and so you joined him for whatever silly games, quests and pranks he had in mind. Like in the old days, you wanted to say, but it wasn't like your friendship or anything else had died. You would go right back to being friends after this trip. Although it did feel like a chore to some extent because you were tired of being the only single person at Christmas dinner once again, you remained optimistic. Maybe this week would bring you closer—as friends, of course. At least you seemed to have made a good choice by asking him out of all people to pretend to be your boyfriend.
Initially, you had chosen him because he was your best friend here and the one who would be crazy enough to go through with it. Mitch was way too young for you and he was dating Jordan, so that wouldn't have worked either way. All the other boys weren't so close to you that it would have been realistic. Chris was the only one who hadn't told you about his own holiday plans and the one you would actually want in your house for more than an afternoon. Besides, there had been a short-lived rumor in your second semester here that you were together, so the chemistry must have been there. On top of that, he was the most impressive person you could have possibly picked to act as your boyfriend. After all, someone with his reputation as a national genius could surely keep up with an investment banker.
While Chris respected your request for a relaxed day, toward the evening, he began to touch you in ways that weren't inherently romantic or sexual but more than he normally did. When strands of hair fell into your face that didn't even bother you, he tucked them behind your ear. Instead of asking you to turn around or calling your name to get your attention, he pulled you in by your waist. All the while, he didn't even flirt jokingly and he didn't bring up anything regarding next week.
You knew he had said before that you would need to get used to it, and it wasn't like you hated being touched by him, but it did make you wonder if he was taking this too seriously.
Thursday was spent answering Chris’ questions about your family. Anyone would know at least a little bit about their partner's family by the time they would be taken to meet them. As friends, you had both talked about them occasionally, but Chris wanted to know as much as future sons-in-law would. He also wanted to buy some gifts before Sunday and wasn't sure what would be fitting.
“Just to be sure… your family knows about me, right? That we're friends, I mean, so we don't have to repeat all my lore,” Chris asked.
“Of course they do, but they'll still ask you stuff, so better come prepared.”
“I'm always prepared, honey. At least I got the chance of a good first impression rather than being caught ice skating in boxer shorts. Shall I buy a tux?” He stood up in front of the mirror and straightened his back, trying and failing to slick his hair back with the excess hand cream you had shared with him after noting how dry his skin was when he held your hand.
The way he so easily incorporated pet names into his speech had you in awe because you were still so focused on being faithful to your background story and anxious about whether the plan would work or not. There was no time for physical affection and practicing sweet talk when you only had the organizational matters in mind.
“This isn't a wedding, it's only Christmas dinner,” you laughed, standing next to the mirror with your arms crossed.
“Well, who knows? If you wanna upstage your sister, might as well get right to the point.” He wiggled his eyebrows and leaned toward you, his hand reaching around your back to rest sprawled out on your hip.
This idea—which was probably a joke—was too crazy even for you. Still, your cheeks heated up and goosebumps appeared on your arms, which you hoped he wouldn't notice. But he did. That didn't make him withdraw, though. He let his hand wander just an inch, making your breath hitch and you stirred slightly to stand with your back against the wall.
“Are you cold? You got goosebumps all over,” he pointed out with a frown.
“No, I'm fine,” you quickly replied, yet you didn't move when Chris rubbed his hands up and down your bare arms to warm you up. Your eyes didn't leave his, even if you tried to hide that you were, in fact, not fine, though not necessarily because you were freezing.
Chris trapped you between the wall and his body. Despite giving you enough space to slither away if you wanted to, you didn't. One hand was above your shoulder and the other reached up to caress your face. Only his fingertips were lightly grazing your cheek, but it felt like dry ice burning streaks into your skin, no matter how warm his hands always were and surely were now too.
You closed your eyes for a moment and his hand settled your cheek, which made you look up at him again. His face was close enough to yours that you noticed all the different shades of green in his eyes for the first time. “Do you remember our first kiss?” he asked in a low voice.
Swallowing, you shook your head. You had never kissed, so what was there to remember? Oh right, maybe you needed a story for that as well. You didn't want to disrupt this moment and you were at a loss of words anyway, so you were glad when he continued.
“Our first date. We were walking home from the cinema, talking about the movie. You tried to pass it off as cheesy, but I knew you loved it. You looked so pretty under the full moon and I tried so hard not to kiss you, but while you were giving your review and looking at me every now and then for confirmation, I just couldn't help but give in,” he whispered, taking breaks in between to breathe against your neck and jaw, which was the only thing to convince you that you weren't only fantasizing.
The moment you wanted to open your eyes and respond in some way you weren't sure of, you felt his lips softly pressing against yours, lightly as if by accident. You didn't know your lips had been parted as his tongue slipped past your teeth for a second before hesitantly pulling away.
You wanted to initiate another one, just to savor it more than this, which felt more like kissing a cloud in a dream than a real kiss. But you refrained. Surely this was only part of his method acting he had practiced over the last few days. But then again, why would him kissing you feel so real—and so right? He might as well resort to corner of lips kisses actors use sometimes that look authentic to the audience.
Instead, you only opened your eyes to see Chris standing in front of you with a little more room to breathe, his hand still on the wall while the one that had rested on your cheek was tucked into his pocket now. He grinned sheepishly. “Mmh, cola chapstick?”
“Want another taste?” you asked in a rush of boldness and his eyes lit up as he leaned forward again. This time you put your hands on his cheeks, but you were afraid of deepening the kiss more than he had, so it remained on surface-level, but at least it lasted a little longer than the first.
“Hey Chris-” Mitch called as the door flung open. “Oh, sorry…”
“Nothing happened,” you blurted out almost too defensively, barely having pushed Chris away at the sound of his roommate's voice.
For sure it didn't appear like nothing had happened, but you felt embarrassed to have someone walk in on you. But walk in on what? It was only a kiss, you could see people kissing nearly anywhere on campus, it was no big deal. Mitch would understand, after all he had a girlfriend too. However, Chris wasn't your boyfriend. Officially, yes, he was going to be, but unofficially, not at all. Also, why were you surprised that his roommate came in? They both lived here, it was his right to go into his room.
Chris looked away from you, unusually awkwardly for him, and took a step back, fidgeting with a loose thread on his shirt collar.
“I was wondering if you think we should get started on that project later today,” Mitch continued and you stood there, not knowing what to do and silently hoping he would leave, even if it was probably you whose time it was to leave.
“Project?” Chris asked and his roommate's jaw fell open in disbelief. “Ah yeah, that can wait until January. We finished the last one in two nights, no problem.”
The younger boy sighed, flipping through his calendar to check the deadline. “If you say so… I'll get the theoretical stuff down then so we can head straight to the lab after New Year's.”
“Deal.” Chris gave him a thumbs up before patting his friend's back and opening the door. “You see, I'm working on my own project here.”
Mitch glanced at you, almost sympathetically as Chris grabbed your hand. “Those are ungraded projects that are your business only. I thought you two denied the dating rumors a while back?”
“Bud, I got no time for that right now, see you later,” the blonde cut him off and pulled you out of the room.
He didn't let go of your hand as the two of you aimlessly wandered around campus before he settled on the stairs outside. It wasn't very cold, but being the gentleman he had trained himself to be in order to pass as the perfect boyfriend, Chris laid his flannel he was wearing as a kind of scarf down for you to sit on. “Where were we?” he asked, turning to you after a moment of staring at the students passing by.
Kissing, you wanted to say, but thankfully he spoke first. “Anyway, do you have tickets booked for… Sunday?”
You nodded, squinting against the sun. “For the train, yeah. Flying is too hectic around that time and we'll still be early enough. Tuesday is Christmas, but I'd rather be there before Monday.”
Chris smiled blissfully, lying back and looking up at you. “Honeymoon extended by two days, got it.”
Rolling your eyes, you turned around and poked his stomach that was showing where his shirt had ridden up. “And remember, this is just for one week and everything I say during those days is for show. I don't want to hear about it for years to come, okay?”
“Sure thing.” His grin grew even wider and he propped himself up on his elbows so his face was only inches apart from yours. While your eyes switched back and forth between his eyes and his lips for a few minutes, you didn’t give in this time. As you straightened up, he hesitated to sit up again, probably hoping you would kiss him. You weren’t going to lie to yourself, you had hoped you would kiss him too. Still, that would have contradicted what you had just told him.