Author's Notes: I know that Pas de Deux officially ended, but I wrote some shorts to follow up with it because it was too good to resist. Aside from a few, they won't be posted in any particular order, so much as when I get them done and beta'd.

The chill of autumn reminded him that the holidays were fast approaching. The holidays held warm memories for Flynn, although there were always those that were left tinged with bitterness. The past few years, the holidays hadn't been much of a source of joy, nothing like they used to, but this year, he promised himself that it was going to be different. He had plans. Maybe they were grand and his ideas lofty, but that didn't stop him from hoping. This year, there was something different, something that he hadn't had in years past. There was Yuri.

Yuri had never made any mention of his own family, and he and Flynn never talked on the subject. He didn't know what sort of traditions or holidays Yuri even celebrated. Maybe he was getting ahead of himself, but it was worth a try, right? It all started with plans for Thanksgiving. It was nearly a week away, and he had already started planning it.

Since Estelle was the only family that he chose to acknowledge at this time, as well as a friend and co-worker of Yuri's, he had invited her and Rita, whom he was having increasingly difficult trouble telling exactly what sort of relationship that she and Estelle had. They were close, but just how, he was unsure. But four people were better for the holidays than just two. It was a time to be with loved ones after all. Flynn had deep cleaned his apartment, planning to hold the event there. He hated the idea of asking Yuri to cook for a holiday that Flynn had planned, but Flynn was terrible in the kitchen and it was likely that Yuri would take charge anyway. Estelle had already offered up her assistance as well.

He was unnecessarily excited about asking Yuri to spend the holidays with him. Maybe it was a small thing to other people, but for Flynn, it felt important. It was something about making Yuri feel like a part of his own family. Maybe that was weird, but that feeling didn't stop him from waiting outside of the studio for Yuri to be finished with his practice.

Many times he had come to wait for Yuri, hanging around outside, and left peering into the tall glass windows at the lithe dancers within, practicing a number of moves that Flynn could barely begin to describe. On the tips of their toes, limbs slicing through the air and performing spins and daring leaps and bounds, complicated two person maneuvers and the like that Flynn was certain the he would never be able to perform. Unlike Flynn, Yuri's muscles where long and limber and his form slender, so these moves seemed to come almost effortlessly to him. But he knew that they weren't easy. Yuri trained hard between the studio and the gym and the bruises on his feet were plenty enough evidence to support just how seriously he took his training.

Yuri was within, separated from Flynn by only a pane of glass, slippered feet moving gracefully across the floor. His black tights accentuated every curve of his form, the bulge of muscle in his calves, leaving very little to Flynn's imagination. He knew Yuri very well without his clothing on. But he watched Yuri leave the wooden dance floor, and knew that in a short time, he would emerge from inside the studio.

And so he did, wearing more layers of clothing than Flynn liked between them and bundled up in a coat. The tinge of cold weather Zaphias had been having lately wasn't lost on him.

"What brings you to this end of town?" he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets. Flynn didn't often come to wait for him, because Yuri usually finished up his practice first, but with the holidays coming, it had to be busy even for him.

"I thought that maybe we'd grab some lunch."

"Sure."

Tolbyccia Pizza had been a regular place for them. Two or three times a week they found themselves there, and Flynn never got sick of the food. Yuri didn't seem to either. And it seemed like as good a place as any to discuss holiday plans.

"So about Thanksgiving..."

"What about it?" Yuri asked, stuffing a glob of saucy cheese into his mouth in such an ungraceful manner that Flynn sometimes forgot that he was a dancer, and a hell of a good one at that.

"I was wondering if you'd join Estelle, Rita, and I for dinner."

"Can't."

"What?"

"I'm busy."

"Is it some sort of family obligation?" Flynn wasn't trying to pry about Yuri's family situation. Okay, maybe he was a little, but Yuri never mentioned having any family.

"No. I'm just busy."

"All day?"

"Most all of it."

That took the enthusiasm right out of him. Here he had been making grand plans, and now wasn't going to be able to fulfill them. And the fact that Yuri didn't elaborate on it annoyed him, but he wasn't going to force the subject. Maybe it was uncomfortable or unhappy for him. Maybe he hated the holidays. Maybe he just didn't celebrate them. Either way, he wasn't forthcoming enough to make it any of Flynn's business, and just as quickly as his enthusiasm had come, his plans fell through. So much for that.

His plans had fallen through so quickly that he couldn't help but be disheartened. Yuri hadn't specified why he wasn't available for Thanksgiving Day, but Flynn felt that deserved a little bit of an explanation. Why shouldn't they celebrate the holidays together? They were /together/ right? As upset as he was though, he still had two other people on board with the plan he'd have to inform. Later that day, he called to tell Estelle that things had not gone at all as planned. From the breathiness of her voice over the phone, it sounded as though she had just finished with practice herself, but in the background, he could hear little quips by Rita, although he didn't know what she was saying.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asked, somewhat sheepishly.

"Ah, oh no. It's fine."

"I just wanted to tell you that Yuri said that he's busy for Thanksgiving."

"Oh! I can't believe that I forgot!"

"Forgot what?"

"He goes out every year. At least every year that I've ever known him."

"Goes where?"

"I don't remember the name of the place right off the top of my head, but I'll find it and text it to you, okay? And let Rita and I worry about dinner that night. Maybe you can still get him to come along when he's finished."

"Okay."

She quickly excused herself and left him on the end of a dead phone line. He went home to wait for the text and wait for the answer that wasn't forthcoming from Yuri. At least someone seemed to have the answer.

He often wished Yuri was more open with him, but in the days before they started dating, he had learned that Yuri was subtle, whether or not he realized it. Flynn was pretty sure he did, but that was beside the point. Some days, all he wanted to do was talk about something, something they disagreed on, fought on, or even were like-minded on. But Yuri wasn't one for talk. His body language spoke for him and Flynn learned that it spoke volumes. Sometimes, he wished he knew what those volumes meant.

Flynn tried. He really did. Some days were easier than others. Some days Yuri said one thing but seemed to mean another. But today, Thanksgiving Day, he wasn't sure at all what Yuri was doing. That was, until he walked in through the ratty, half boarded up glass door, out of the chill of the fall and into the suffocating warm of the building.

Yuri was behind the counter, his hair pulled behind him in a ponytail and his normal jeans and a t-shirt covered with a dingy grey apron. dropping ladles of soup into bowls and passing them off onto trays as the people opposite the counter marched on.

The dark and downtrodden gathered here, huddling their scraggly heads over what may have been their first hot meal in days, weeks, shrinking weary and cold forms into their old, ill fitting, scavenged, and patchy clothing. These people were society's forgotten and shutout, a layer of the city that those with means, those with jobs and homes and families didn't see. Flynn had been guilty of that, too.

"Oh, you must be Flynn." A perky young woman with coppery hair stepped up from beside one the tables where she had been checking on an older woman. "Thanks for coming to help out today. It's one of our busiest days of the year."

"I bet." This wasn't where he expected to be on a holiday like this, but seeing Yuri behind the counter, smiling and talking, and treating those less fortune with dignity and respect made him smile a little as well. "What can I do to help?"

"Let's get you an apron. You can be on line duty with Yuri."

"That sounds great."

She took his heavy woolen coat from him and returned with an apron that matched Yuri's, long used and threadbare, and ushered him back around the counter. She started to rattle off on basic procedure very quickly, between greeting those who were lined up for their meals with a heavenly smile. Flynn tried to keep his attention on her, but his eyes darted over to Yuri, who hadn't seemed to have noticed his presence. There was something warm and wonderful about him right now too, and Flynn could feel that rubbing off on him, even if only slightly. It filled up his chest and pushed out any annoyance and sadness he had felt earlier that week on the subject of their holidays together. Yuri was snark and sass and rough around the edges, and here he was.

"Got all that?" The young woman asked.

Flynn's face flushed, realizing that he had completely lost track of what she was saying while he had been busy staring at Yuri.

"Ah, yes."

"Thanks for helping." She smiled and turned to Yuri. "Would you mind giving him a hand if he needs it?"

"Sure thing, Penny." Yuri turned just an eye at her and then back to his work. A split second later, he was fumbling to keep from dropping a bowl, his attention full on Flynn. "What are-"

"I just thought I'd stop in and help out."

"Did you come here just because I'm here?" There was an edge of annoyance to his voice, thinly veiled with laughter as he turned back to dishing out soup.

"At first. But once I knew what you were doing here, I decided that I should do it, too. I wanted to spend Thanksgiving Day with you, and I should be doing my part to help out if I plan to make this city my home right?"

Yuri huffed, a pale pink tingeing his cheeks.

"Why didn't you just tell me?"

"Because." He only said that when he didn't have a better answer, but Flynn was all right with that.

"Happy Thanksgiving Day."

"You're lagging behind."

The hours after that flew by, between the warmth of the two of them just being together and the pride that swelled in him for helping those without. A big, fancy meal and all of the other trappings of this holiday didn't amount to much if they weren't together, and it was better to share what he could with others as well.

They chatted as the hours passed, mostly little jabs at one another and little everyday things. Other topics included the blond young man manning another soup station, with a suspicious looking mustache who seemed to be glaring at Penny and a man who was with her, their dinner to come, and fond memories of Flynn's own childhood. He never did get a chance to ask Yuri about his family or his traditions that he had never mentioned but none of that matter now. Other volunteers came and went, here to help and then to be with their own families, but he and Yuri stayed into the evening. And when they were done, satisfied on pride and warmth, the two of them left the soup kitchen for the dinner that was waiting for them back home. It looked to Flynn like he had a new custom for Thanksgiving Day, and one that he was happy to share with Yuri.