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There was the jagged scar on the underside of his left bicep, a present from a barbed-wire fence that decided to get frisky when he was clambering over it. The pockmarks on the back of his left shoulder, shrapnel from an IED that had gone off yards from him, he still wasn’t sure his hearing had recovered fully. The burn on the back of his right calf, courtesy of a makeshift Molotov someone had dropped in the hastily dug trench he’d been taking cover in. And then there was the ugly-looking semi-circle low on his hip, the one scar Nick rarely saw as it was below the waist, but the one that always cast a dark look over his face.

Before he could travel down the fickle path of memory lane, he tossed the towel over his shoulder and marched into his bedroom. With the music quieter and his bedroom door open, he could hear Nick’s soft thumps and clinks in the kitchen. No doubt the man was grumbling about something Matt didn’t have in stock. Half the seasonings and cooking utensils in his kitchen had come from Nick, either bringing them from his apartment or buying them for Matt’s kitchen.

He threw on a pair of lounge pants and a loose t-shirt before padding into the hallway to investigate what Nick was up to. Turning the corner into the kitchen, he stopped at the sound of something being beaten vigorously. Raising a brow, he peered over Nick’s shoulder as the man took a mallet to a piece of plastic-wrapped meat.

“There’s a joke about beating meat to be made here,” Matt noted.

Nick snorted, never looking up from his work. “Even worse joke when you consider it’s chicken.”

“Ah, yes, why beat the meat when you can choke the chicken.”

“I was thinking ‘cock’, but yours is better.”

“Look, I know we’re close and have seen each other naked, but I don’t think we should be complimenting each other’s cocks. At least take me to dinner first.”

Nick turned, giving him the dry, unimpressed look Matt knew so well. “I’m cooking you dinner. Isn’t that enough?”

Matt made a show of thinking it over. “Well...alright, yeah, I suppose that’s enough. Carry on.”

Nick snorted, turning back to the chicken and peeling back the wrap. “If anyone heard our conversations, they’d really think more was going on between us.”

“And that,” Matt said as he opened the fridge for a drink, “is why they’re conversations that happen when no one else is around.”

“Speaking of people who get funny ideas, my mom called earlier,” Nick said as he sprinkled seasoning over the meat.

“Yeah?” Matt asked, cracking open the beer. “What’d she want?”

“She was planning to invite everyone from the team for Christmas.”

“Mm, doesn’t quite work when no one’s going to be around.”

“Which I told her. So she switched to telling us to come instead.”

Matt didn’t bother to hide his fond smile. “Told us, huh?”

“She tried to make it sound like a request,” Nick said, pulling out thin slices of meat and cheese. “But she’s about as subtle as a grenade.”

Matt watched him layer the meat and cheese over the flattened chicken. While he wasn’t a deft hand in the kitchen,he didn’t mind watching someone whip up something good. He had no idea what Nick was making, but he sure as hell liked watching, completely trusting that he knew what he was doing.

“So, when are we expected?” Matt asked.

“She said by the twenty-third, I think she wants to get some quality time with us.”

“It has been a while since we showed our faces.”

“Which is why I didn’t give her any trouble.”

Matt wasn’t going to argue, either. As weird as it had been to have Nick’s family essentially adopt him after their first meeting, Matt was used to it now. Even when Matt quietly sent gifts to Nick’s parents and siblings over the years as a thank-you for everything, no one drew attention to it. Well, except when he’d bought Nick’s parents a ticket to New York to visit Nick while they were on leave. That had resulted in one hell of a bear hug from Nick’s dad and a tearful one from his mother.

“You think we’ll get the time off?” Matt asked.

“I don’t think the General will fuss too much. He’s a little distracted and probably feeling more holiday spirit than he was yesterday.”

Matt raised a brow. “Do I want to know?”

Nick chuckled, rolling the chicken into layered logs. “His husband showed up today. You should have seen him. He lit up brighter than your whole damn apartment at this time of year.”

Matt snorted. “It’s amazing how that man manages to date and then marry the guy who is not only, like, twenty years his junior but also once worked for him.”