SCENES FROM A WEDDING

If ten years ago someone had said to Leo that he was going to marry a woman and three men at the same time, he would have laughed hard enough to give himself convulsions. Not only the idea was so impossible to sound totally preposterous – a human beings are gonna fly like eagles kind of thing – but it was also an extremely illegal concept. So, thinking about it, nobody would have actually dared to say something like that ever, not even as a joke. This kind of jokes weren't very appreciated back then and, in the best of cases, would lend you with a Decency Department Inspection.

The Country had known a very long period of freedom and acceptance before the NCP came in, the National Conservative Party, but Leo doesn't remember any of that because he was born after the change in government. Actually, he was born more or less in the middle of it, and he was too young to remember, so the only things he witnessed with his own eyes were the consequences of the NCP government, and growing up in them, he considered them quite normal.

He was five when he found out that over the wall that surrounded his playschool there was another playschool for special children, boys that looked a little like girls and girls who liked to be boys. He was ten when those schools were closed and all those special children taken away. But he didn't know what was happening back then. His father didn't explain and the newspapers were simply too vague for a kid his age to fully understand.

In a very short time – the few years he needed to grow up – words like homosexuality, bisexuality, transexuality, genderfluid, genderqueer were completely erased. And not only those specific words, but every term that could refer to sexuality in every form, even the only one that was legally permitted.

Marriage between man and woman was naturally encouraged, but highly controlled.
Everyone was expected to live by a set of very strict moral rules that would have been unthinkable and laughed at just ten years prior. The Country had gone back almost a century without even a flinch, and everybody who didn't agree was buried in the ghetto or dead.

Leo grew up in the City, and the ghetto was already part of it by then.
Nobody would go there, except the police or the politicians when needed, and nobody would talk about what was in there. As much as he's ashamed of this now, he didn't question anything until Blaine made him. He was accepting the situation, even though he wasn't quite content with it. He didn't fit the stereotype of the perfect boy as Meredith didn't fit the one of the perfect girl, but they would try to survive in the world they lived – by bending the rules for one another – rather than really fight against it, partialliy because they actually didn't know another way was even possible.
Press and news were controlled, the net and the borders were closed, and while the rest of the world was moving forward, the Country was trapped in a bubble that looked dangerously like a very bad copy of the 1950, one of the eras the NCP loved and approved.

The change, when it happened, came from the ghetto itself – and it was the most obvious place, really. Hundreds of people locked away and forgotten by the normal people like they didn't even exist, forced to live in shacks, in a gray place with no law to protect them, no life, no future.
The least it could happen was a revolution.

Adam had fled the city at the age of ten to come back years later as a hero. Following the footsteps of his parents, he finished what they had started, bringing down the government with the help of the UN, and taking temporary control of the nation. Ghettos were instantly dismantled everywhere, the people liberated and the wall of ignorance fell, forcing everybody to see what the reality was, forcing them to accept that no matter how tight they closed their eyes, people different from them were still there, and they were going to continue to be different because different was okay.

Adam had opened a communication channel with every part involved.
For a very long time he had really just listened to everybody. He had helped those in need, but he had also reached out to those who were his enemies. He had been perfect, and as a result, he was elected President in the following legal elections. The Nation was ready to give him – and the colorful circus that inevitably came with him – a real chance.

Leo was proud to have been part of this.
Helping the revolution had been a direct consequence of his finding out what was happening. There was no way he was gonna stay idle after he discovered the truth. And not only because Cody was in the ghetto and Leo had fallen in love with him. The people in the ghetto were the living proof that he and Meredith were not weird, and he was going to fight for them.

Now, almost two years later, some things are different, others are on their way to change, but the Nation is open again to the rest of the world, and people can be what they want to be without fear of repercussion, at least not from the government itself. Problems are still there – some of them brought a lot of people to the hospital, Adam and Cody included – but nobody is gonna stop for that, and that's what matters.

There's a whole new kind of freedom to do whatever makes you happy, which for Leo means – among other things – being together with the four people he loves most in the whole world. Somewhere along this relatively short but life changing journey, he found out that he can't just love one person. As Meredith so beautifully put it, he feeds on love, which can sound sappy but it's quite true. He fell in love – real love – with all the people that are in his life right now, and he couldn't do without a single one of them.

Actually, up to a while ago, the number was just three.

Three were the people he was with – Meredith, Cody and Blaine – but then Adam swept in, or came back (but had he really left? Leo's not sure), to be with Cody. It was hard for them to accept the fact that they were going to have to share him, but they did somehow. And that is why by 10 a.m tomorrow they're all gonna be married.

That, of course, if all the preparations don't kill them all first.

*

The ceremony is taking place in the house.

They had very few options in that sense. The wedding had to be impressive but safe, with Adam being the President at all. They had some great locations in mind, but Casey rejected them all for safety reasons – and also in the hope of postponing the whole affair indefinitely – and after a few months of mounting frustration, it was down to having the ceremony in the house or not having a ceremony at all, which at that point looked like a good option too.

Luckily the big mansion they currently live in – a generous non voluntary gift from Meredith's late father, who would have rather committed suicide than letting his only precious daughter live in it with her boyfriend and her boyfriend's many boyfriends – seemed to respond to all the requirements Casey had set in order to give the wedding green light.

The house has been decorated with white and pink roses all over the banisters of the stairs and along the doorframes. The main room has been dismantled and refurbished just for the occasion with tables and chairs, and a stage for the strings quartet to play on. The hall – which is in fact a studio in normal days – where the actual ceremony will take place has a new white carpet, two wings of chairs to accommodate the guests and a beautiful antique table to hold the registers for the signatures. The entrance hall is a triumph of flowers around the white wooden arches that will welcome the guests that are expected to arrive soon.

Even without guests, the house is already crammed anyway. Besides the bride and grooms, there are the bride's hairdresser and make up artist, Casey and a whole command of his men, a few chosen photographers and close relatives, even though their number has been reduced to three – Leo's father and Cody's parents – after the rebellion and their consequent abjuration by many of their loved ones.

Cody's parents have been fretting around their son all morning, leaving Leo's father alone in the big house. The poor man doesn't know what to do with himself; with these many people around, he doesn't think Leo needs his help, and he wouldn't know how to help anyway, so he's basically stepping aside here and there, trying not to get in anybody's way.

Dave has taken the news of his son marrying four people discretely well, all considered.
He had just barely found out that Leo liked both boys and girls alike, and he already had to understand the concept of polyamory, but he did a great job being all accepting and whatever floats your boat, son. The point for him is not acceptance. There's no question that he loves his son and accepts him no matter what. But for his simple and very traditional mind this is all very confusing. He knows what all the labels mean – he comes from the time when they were actually created – but some things are new for him too. And one of the newest thing, of course, is Cody and the fact that he's genderfluid.

"It means that sometimes he feels like a boy and sometimes like a girl," Leo tried to explain to him at the beginning of all this.

"But he's a boy," David replied.

"He was assigned male at birth," Leo corrected him, being specific was part of his job as a lawyer for equal rights. "But he's neither a boy or a girl."

At that point, the desperation was clear on Dave's face. He even liked the kid, he was so cute and funny, but he couldn't understand him for his life, and that made him feel at fault. "But he has to be something," he whined, unable to grasp the multifaceted concept that is Cody's sexuality.

"Just think of him as Cody," Leo offered. "It's easy as that."

It's not easy at all for him, but Dave accepted the suggestion and tries to go with it.
Besides, it doesn't happen often that he has to discuss Cody's sexuality with him and, once he got used to see him wearing skirts and dresses – something that David did pretty quickly because Cody looks extremely good in them and it's easy to forget all together that he's been assigned male at birth as his son put it – he had exactly zero reason to ponder on him any further since Cody is adorable and everybody would consider themselves lucky to have him as a son-in-law, as he is about to do.

Leo sees him smiling at one of their photos hanging in the hall as he passes by looking for the other grooms. As a matter of fact, he finds them in Cody's room, getting ready for the ceremony. Blaine is still in his shirt – his jacket resting on the bed – and he's helping Adam with his tie. "It is unacceptable that you don't know how to tie your tie," He says. "You are the President."

"I must have missed the passage in the constitution where it says that it's one of the requirements," Adam snorts.

"Well, it should be," Blaine replies. "A well dressed man is always a delightful sight, and God knows if this Nation needs good things to look at."

"We could dress him in a suit and throw him to the people next time he speaks in public," Leo suggests, entering the room. "They won't even need to give him back."

Adam is about to reply with something equally mean, but Blaine beats him. "Don’t' even start, you too!" He scolds them, and then sighs. "Leo, did you even try to look presentable?"

"I am presentable!" Leo says outraged, showing himself off. He's either totally oblivious to the shirt sticking out from his pants or he doesn't care, not to mention that he's wearing his tie loose around his neck, as a long strip of silk.

"Come here," Blaine says, pulling him closer by the jacket. "Aren't you wearing a suit every day to work? Is this how you go out?"

"No, Meredith fixes me," Leo explains, while Blaine puts his shirt back in his pants and makes a perfect knot to his tie too. "I don't understand why we couldn't just dress casually."

"I don't know," Blaine chuckles. "Maybe because this is a formal occasion, and you're marrying the President of the United States?"

"Ah! I knew it had to be Adam's fault," Leo jokes.

Adam was trying his jacket on, but he stops just to make a show of writing on his hand. "Look at me, I'm drafting a Divorce Bill just for you."

Leo genuinely laughs at this. "You're a prick!" He says, in between laughs.

Blaine looks at the two of them affectionately.
This is how they should be all the time. This is how they used to be when they were little, Blaine remembers it very clearly. Adam was Leo's shadow, and there was nothing Leo would do without including Adam.
Adam would usually go all No, we can't do that before following his friend anyway, knowing that Leo would find a way to hurt himself or get scolded if he didn't tag along. They lived according to the unwritten law of friendship that's better to be grounded both than leave a friend alone.

That forces a stupid sound of tenderness out of Blaine's throat. "Aw, you were so cute," he says aloud, following a line of thoughts the other two know nothing about. "Why can't you just be like this all the time?"

"Because he fucks my boyfriend," Leo promptly answers.

"Excuse me?" Adam replies. "I could say the same about you."

Leo snorts. "As a matter of fact, you can't. If anything, you're the lover that we decided to keep because that would make Cody happy."

"You make out with this lover," Adam points out.

"And that's totally not the point," Leo replies.

Adam looks at him with the eyes of incredulity. "You're unbelievable! How is this not the point? This is exactly the point, Leo."

Blaine sighs, rolling his eyes. "What is unbelievable is that today you two are gonna marry, and you're still hating on each other," he says. "Adam, you vouched for polyamory to the whole Nation. You're gonna be the first president with multiple partners. And you, Leo, you are the spokesperson for this specific kind of relationship. You are promoting it to the people! Did you two even listen to yourself?"

They both clear their throats and looks down, like little kids. Sometimes Blaine really wonders why he put himself in this situation. Why he had to hook up with people so much younger than himself. Most of the time it's like running a kindergarten again.

"So," Leo clears his throat again, casually, "have you seen Meredith yet?"
Blaine wasn't expecting an apology by any of them.
They can be persuaded to apologize about pretty much every other matter, but when Cody is involved, the only good result you can manage is for them to stop momentarily, and it's a miracle if you do it quickly. Sometimes they just go on for days and a lot of screaming, pouting and door slamming is involved. "No, it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding," he answers. "But Cody said she's a vision."

"Cody saw her?" Adam frowns.

Blaine chuckles. "He firmly believes the tradition can't work on genderfluid kids because when the tradition started, genderfluid kids were not acknowledged. He called it a loophole," he explains.

"Also, I'm feeling like a bride today," Cody offers in his own sweet voice, showing up at the door, "and the tradition says nothing about brides seeing other brides before the wedding."

The three men turn around and three jaws drop simultaneously.
Cody's wedding dress is a weapon of mass destruction, and none of them had the slightest idea that it was going to be like that. The kid wears the shortest pair of lace shorts they have ever seen on him under a white, fluffy tutu, and a tight, creamy white corset of military inspiration, with a fake double-breasted fastening and golden buttons. On his head, he wears a simple crochet headband that just makes his face look all the more feminine. And yet, he's not exactly a girl.

Leo is not aware of taking a step forward until Blaine stops him, grabbing him by his shoulder. "Where do you think you are going?" He asks. "It's best for everybody if you don't get near him right now."

"That's unfair!" Leo protests instantly. "Have you looked at him?"

"That's exactly why you are forbidden to touch him until after the reception," Blaine confirms.

"After the reception?!" Leo almost screams.

Adam pats him on the shoulders. "Sorry, bro," he says sincerely, he can feel Leo's pain right now, "we're trying not to scare the guests by banging each other stupid right in the middle of the ceremony. They might misinterpret the gesture."

"How?!" Leo keeps screaming, and it's not clear if he's more distressed by the temporary imposed celibacy or by the guests' supposed failure at seeing why they would want to have sex with Cody, in any case he's taking Adam's word seriously.

Cody chuckles and has pity on him, getting close enough to give him a comforting little kiss before stepping back again – he loves him a lot, but he also knows him, and if he wants to be presentable at his own wedding, he can't orbit around Leo much. "Don't worry, Leo," he just says, winking. "I'm gonna keep the dress."

The shift in color of Leo's eyes says everything Cody needs to know about what's gonna happen when the wedding is over and the banishment is lifted. Leo goes crazy for him in a skirt, especially if said skirt is a tutu. That might be one of the reasons why he asked the fashion designer to add one to the original design of his wedding dress. If he knows anything, Leo won't even take the dress off him.

Leo realizes the same thing and lets out a frustrated moan, letting himself go face first on the bed. "You're not helping," he whines. Then, he crawls back up, trying to put himself back together again. "You could make amend by telling me what does Meredith look like right now."

"I would never do that and ruin her moment," he says with an impish smirk. "You will see for yourselves soon enough."

*

Soon enough is actually three hours later, which is not soon at all on Leo's clock. Luckily, he's been passing all this time shaking hands and nodding left and right without knowing what he was actually nodding at, and being generally nervous.

It turned out that Casey's commando is not the only armed group present at the wedding. Casey is so nervous about the whole event – according to him, any kind of criminal act can be potentially perpetrated today from a simple shooting to a meteor rains maneuvered with non-existent technology to literally crash the house – and so he called backup, and the head of all these separate groups of armed men all want to check in with the President and the head of the house. The fact that the two figures don't match is driving everybody crazy.

After this roundabout of reports and What do you want me to do about that, sir?, it feels quite relaxing to be finally at the register table, waiting for Meredith and Cody to arrive. At least, none of Casey's gorillas can approach him with yet another question.

Behind the table, the functionary is already preparing all the papers they will have to sign besides the register itself, after he has done his speech. The three of them are standing in front of him, Leo in the middle with Adam and Blaine on each side of him. The room is quickly filling with people. Front row on the left side there is the small group of their relatives, the biggest absent being Meredith's mother. They have reached out for her several times in the past two years, but she was always adamant about not wanting anything to do with her daughter, or any of them for that matter.

The fact that she hates them more because they are four queers than because they were involved in the killing of her husband is proof enough of her being an evil woman. Meredith tried to talk to her and explain why they did what they did, that the rebellion had tried to reason with the man for years until they were left with no other choice, that people were suffering and something had to be done. Meredith gave up on her completely when she said that all those people – Meredith's people and Meredith herself – deserved what it had been done to them, and that her father had shown mercy on them, instead of putting them out of their misery as he should have done. From that moment on, Meredith has no mother anymore, and there was no reason to be sad about it because probably she never had one.

That makes him realize something about them being a very big group of people.

Organizing this wedding has not been easy – if traditional weddings are no piece of cake, try and have one with five people involved – and they had to think a million details over and all agree on each and every one of them, but among all the things they discussed, their honeymoon night never once came up. And Leo has really no idea what they're gonna do tonight, and it's not a small problem at all.

They are a mostly non-sharing polyamory group, that's the definition he himself came up with to explain the different typologies of these kind of relationships to the general public. Their dynamic is quite simple, really. He is sexually involved with any other member of the group (Adam included, if he takes the few times he, Adam and Cody had a threesome into consideration), but they don't have intercourse with each other, with the sole exception of Adam and Cody. And then, there's Blaine's peculiar situation. He's a father figure to Cody – no other feelings involved there – and, on some level, even to Adam, and he's gay, which means that he has no sexual interest whatsoever towards Meredith, despite loving her very much as part of the family.

Usually, this situation isn't a problem at all, they take turns with Leo according to their needs and that's it.
But tonight things could be much more complicated. Even if Leo spends his wedding night with Meredith – which is probably a given, since she's his original fiancée, so to speak – and Adam spends it with Cody, given that Adam is on tonight that is, that leaves Blaine alone on his honeymoon, which is not even an option. But Leo is the only one who can spend it with him, and that would mean leaving Meredith alone.

There's evidently too little of him to go around today.

"We have a problem," Leo hisses, leaning towards Blaine.

"What?"

Adam frowns at both of them. "Be quite, you two!"

But Leo has no time to be quite (when does he?), not when a catastrophe awaits them. "You don't understand, Adam! Come here!" He insists, pulling Adam closer, so that they can huddle. "We have a problem."

Adam sighs. "It's actually us who have a problem, but we decided to keep you, don't worry."

Leo doesn't even register his words, and that says something. "I mean about the wedding," he clarifies, looking at them as if they could read what the problem is on his face. They can't.

Adam is aware that his joke missed, and he knows that it can only mean one thing. "Leo, if you're having cold feet now, I'm afraid it's too late," he says, patting him on his shoulder. "Cody and Meredith are about to arrive, and Casey won't let you run away. Nobody is allowed to enter or leave the room without his consent."

"I mean tonight!" Leo insists, frustrated. "What are we gonna do tonight? How?"

Blaine and Adam look at him and realization suddenly dawns in their eyes too.
There's no sensible way to divide into couples and they can't be all together either. The mere idea of spending the night somewhere near Cody when he's with one or both of his boyfriends makes Blaine wants to cry. It's already hard enough to come to terms with the fact that he's somehow marrying him, but they can't ask him to do more than that. "Don't expect me to find a solution," he says, taking a step back and shaking his head, knowing that whenever Leo's got a problem, he turns to him.

Panicking a little, Leo turns to Adam. "Tell me that at least you're off," he says. "It'd be one problem less."

"Are you kidding me?" Adam snorts, and there's a vague hysteric undertone to the sound he makes. "I haven't touched Cody in two months to be sure I'm gonna make it tonight. If I don't have sex, I'll burst."

"But you can't do it!" Leo protests, and this time his complaint has nothing to do with Cody. "If you have sex, what am I supposed to do? Flip a coin? I can't go with Meredith and leave Blaine alone, or the other way around."

"Overdo it," Adam suggests him. "First one room, then the other."

"What? No! I don't even do that on normal nights!" Leo says, plainly outraged. "It'd be gross and totally not romantic. You suck at giving suggestions, Adam. You're not helping."

"And how are you helping exactly? It's you who goes with everyone, it's your problem."

"It wouldn't be a problem at all, if you hadn't tagged along," Leo replies, struggling to keep his voice low. The guests are starting to guess that they're not just chatting. "You make us an odd number."

"Excuse me? Without me, you'd have two people waiting for you to finish with the third!" Adam points out.

"At least they would keep each other company!"

Blaine wonders once again why he hasn't just moved to Bali and lived the rest of his life surrounded by tanned boys, none of which emotionally dependent from him. "Listen," he says sternly, the organ player has already sat down and the general vibe of the room tells him that their brides are coming, so he needs to be very quick about this, "we are going to be in Ibiza tonight. We go out, we get in the first club we see and we drink and dance ourselves stupid, until we fall asleep on the dance floor. The first night is gone, we can easily divide those that follow equally. There, problem solved."

"That's perfect!" Leo says. Apparently, avoiding first honeymoon night's awkwardness was more important than having sex for him. This is a first.

Adam doesn't agree with him, but he doesn't have another solution, so he accepts his fate bravely.
There's no more time to discuss anyway because, after a nod from the functionary, the organ player starts to play the wedding march. As a full hall of people stands up to greet the brides, Leo, Adam and Blaine turn around and their jaws struggle to stay in place for the second time in three hours.

If Cody alone was gorgeous, he and Meredith together are simply breathtaking. Their dresses are so well matched that they don't outshine each other in the slightest. Instead, they seem conceived to be looked at together, one not fully complete without the other, exactly like the beauties who wears them. Meredith's long blond hair is collected in a bun on top of her head and decorated with the same lace Cody's shorts are made of. There are flowers on her elaborated corset and she wears a big, fluffy skirt made of fabric waves that leaves her long, pale legs naked. Leo has never seen her look so gorgeous, and he can feel his own legs shaking just looking at her.

He must swallow pretty hard at the sight, because Adam chuckles at his side. "Are you still sure you wanna skip sex tonight?" He asks, smirking.

"Shut up. I hate you," Leo says, unable to tear his eyes off Cody and Meredith.

"That must be the reason why you're marrying me," Adam whispers to his ear. Luckily, there's no time to reply, 'cause Leo truly is speechless this time.

*
One hour and a great deal of signatures later, they are stuck with a hundred people – Leo doesn't really know how they can possibly call it a intimate ceremony with so many people around – in the main room, while the quartet plays a romantic but joyful song and Casey is really busy embarrassing himself with a speech he's clearly not fit to give.

At some point he started clinking a knife against his glass and insisted to say a few words.
He even stood up but the twins have not been blessed with height by Mother Nature, so it didn't do much for his scenic presence. Luckily for him, he's got a strong, assertive voice, so nobody dared to look away or get distracted. More than giving a speech, he's taking their guests hostage.

"I will say this," he starts, pointing at them. "These people are a real mess, and I hate them all. They are... Well, for starters they are too many, and they are stubborn, annoying and impossible to keep safe. All in all, they are unable to take care of themselves."

"Well, it could have been worse," Blaine murmurs sarcastically to the others.

"Yes," Adam nods. "He could have turned his men on us."

"For one," Blaine says.

"If they end up making my little brother suffer," Casey continues, speaking to the guests as if the five of them weren't even there. "I'm gonna kill them all, that's for sure."
"If anybody is shooting a video right now, it's gonna be viral by tonight," Leo comments, looking at what seems like their end, here played by Casey.

"Maybe I should stop him," Cody sighs, taking a step forward. But then he stops, hearing what Casey is saying next.

"But the point is this, you see?" Casey says. He looks over to them, and his expression doesn't really change – it's still the stubborn, angry frown it always is – but it's got a sweeter look to it, one only they can get. "They are unable to take care of themselves, that's why they need each other. When they're not fighting over stupid things, they are the less idiotic group of people I've ever seen."

Cody smiles, tenderly at his brother's words, and he's not surprised when he hears his voice tremble and his eyes get lucid. He feels the same way after all.

"Is he crying?" Leo asks in shock.

Blaine chuckles, amused. "It looks like he is."

"Oh, my God! We have to take a picture, so we can blackmail him later!" Leo says, looking frantically for his cellphone.

Blaine stops him from doing anything as he hugs him from behind. "Shut up," he whispers, leaving a tender kiss on his cheek. Leo feels Meredith's hand slip in his and Cody's featherweight against his side as Adam presses Cody against him with his own body. This morning he was scared about this marriage, but the truth is they were married before this and no signature can change the feelings that were already there, it only makes them more real, and so stronger and better. Point is, he doesn't know what's gonna happen next – not tonight, not the nights that will follow. He only knows that he's never been happier, and if that's the start, there's no reason for him to fear the rest.

CONVERSATIONS ON THE INVALUABLE WORTH OF OBLIVIOUSNESS

Getting used to a polyamory life has not been easy for Leo, and in fact he never did.

The idea of sharing Blaine with two more people has never really suited him. Even when he was still an escort and he knew for a fact that Blaine was seeing other boys like him, he had always considered Blaine something his, and their relationship something special, if not exclusive. Being him an escort, he couldn't demand real exclusivity from Blaine, but he had come to think that if there was some gradient of exclusiveness to be reached in their situation, they had reached it. So, when he found out that he was not gonna be the only one living in the big Hamptons house with Blaine, he was pretty pissed.

Now, he hadn't lived his whole life dreaming and waiting for a knight in shining armor to come and take him away from the horrible life he was living. One, he was not living an horrible life. He lived in a two bedrooms apartment in Manhattan, working a couple of hours a day tops with only selected clients, for a sweet amount of money, health and dental care included. Two, he was a romantic guy, but not a complete idiot. So, he didn't spend his time hoping for something that would possibly never happen. He would have done with a rich partner alright, but if none was available, he was not gonna lose his sleep over it.

But then Blaine had come along, changing everything.

He was incredibly handsome and generally more charming and well mannered than half the other clients Casey would throw his way – money doesn't equal class most of the time – and he seemed inclined to not only receive pleasure, but give it also, which was a pleasant surprise for Leo, who loved to be handled more than he loved to handle things.

In time, Blaine stopped being a normal client and became something more.

He would even come over the apartment outside Leo's normal schedule and without paying anything, breaking two fundamental laws in this line of work. Clients are not supposed to make surprise visits to your home and under any circumstances they should be allowed to get a ride for free, no matter how gentlemanlike they are, or how much they make you scream in bed. And bypassing Casey was not a great idea either. The guy cared very much for his percentage for obvious reasons.

But Leo was willing to risk Casey's anger – or better, he blatantly ignored the possibility that Casey could find out and get angry – just to let Blaine spoil him disgustedly. When the man offered Leo to come and live with him in the Hamptons, it took Leo exactly zero seconds to answer yes. Finding out that he wasn't the only hooker Blaine had rescued was brutal for him. Leo was outraged – he often is – and offended – he often is too – and he didn't want anything to do with Blaine anymore, or with those other two for that matter.

But Blaine's deal was clear: it was all three of them or none of them. And after a great deal of cuddling, cooing, and being given the bedroom closest to Blaine's, Leo got over it and accepted to share his man with two other boys.

Then, as often happens with him (and as Blaine knew it would happen), Leo grew quite fond of the rest of the family – very fond in Cody's case – and as soon as he got himself the chance to know the others better, he found out that he liked them. He hadn't had many friends back then, and having friends was fun.
Not only he got accostumed not to be the only one for Blaine – even if the most spoiled – but the boys started to have their own routine when Blaine wasn't there or when he was with one of them. Everything fell into place, and a few months after Blaine took them away from New York, Leo was quite content with his new life.

That is why Casey's sudden reappereance set Leo off again.

But it's not just Leo this time, Adam is pretty upset too by the situation. And he never is, so this should be proof enough that something really is not right. Casey is not the most pleasant of people at best, and he has the uncanny ability to annoy everyone with one single action, in this case showing up at their house randomly and unannounced. Either he wants to spend some time with Blaine (that is fucking with him) – a thing he's supposedly not allowed to do – or with Cody (and it's still debatable doing what), someone is bond to get really angry at him. Not that this changes anything.

"I hate him," Leo says, entering the kitchen. Adam's already there, drinking one of his high-protein shake, ready to frown upon Leo's coke as soon as he gets it out of the fridge.

"Must be Friday," he comments, tilting his head back to get the last two drops of what looks like chocolate milk but most likely is not.

Leo glares at him from behind the fridge's door.
"Ah ah, you're definitely here 'cause you're funny," he replies sarcastically, deciding that just a coke is not what he wants. Seeing food made him hungry. Just like seeing certain people makes him horny. He's a very simple guy as far as his urges go.

"And what would you be here for, then?" Adam replies.

"Boys, boys, calm down," Blaine joins them in the kitchen, a smile on his face. He's been quite happy all the time, lately. Having three younger boyfriends tends to do that to you, despite all the drama three young men barely out of puberty can bring onto you.

"He's hating on Casey," Adam explains.

"Must be Friday," Blaine comments. He goes to the coffeemaker and pours himself a cup of coffe, which judging by the hour, should be his second or third one. It's still morning, but he wakes up way earlier than any of them, Adam included.

"Would you stop doing that?" Leo protests, stacking slices of cheese and ham like his life depends on the sandwich he's making. He always eats like there's no more food in the world. "I'm not even angry half the time you say I am."

Adam makes a very meaningful face.
"Now, let's just not talk about that," Blaine says, averting the storm before it can even happen. "Why are you hating Casey today?"

"What is there not to hate about him?" Leo asks, taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Silly me not to be more specific," Blaine says, chuckling at Leo's glaring face. "What exactly are you hating about him? What did he do?"

"Except breathing and living and existing in the same reality Cody and I exist?" Leo asks, sitting on the table. Why using chairs like normal people do, after all? "He showed up without even a call and took Cody away, messing up our whole schedule. Not mentioning his inappropriate behavior with Cody."
It's not clear which one is Casey's biggest crime, taking Cody away when he was supposed to hang out with Leo or his inappropriateness, a word that doesn't even begin to cover the way Casey hugs, touches and kisses his twin brother on the mouth any time he feels like it. Both things are equally upsetting for Leo.

"He's his brother, Leo." Blaine always tries to use logic with him, even tho it never works. Leo's brain starts to work only after a great deal of emotion-ridden reactions.

"Oh, yeah? How do you know?" He asks. "Maybe next time me and you make out, we're brothers too."

"Well, you do look disturbingly alike," Adam offers, half serious.

"Why are we keeping him, again?" Leo asks Blaine, nodding towards Adam.

"'Cause he's cute, same reason you're all here," Blaine answers calmly as if this was a perfectly normal question – which it is, all considered. He leans in to give Leo a kiss, before going to pour some more coffee into his cup. "Anyway, Casey does nothing wrong with his brother."

"Blaine, you can't be serious," Leo says, big blue eyes open and filled with incredulity. "You live here, you have eyes. There's no way you could have possibly missed it."

"Yeah, I'm with the brat on this one," Adam agrees. "The guy's creepy."

Blaine sighs. "The guy's a guy," he says, blowing on his cup. "And Cody can be very hard to deal with when you are a man. You both should know that."

Leo has been shameless about the strong, overwhelming desire he feels every time Cody comes too close to him. Cody literally can't sit next to him without having Leo all over him in some way or another, and despite having sex together only when Blaine is breaking the rules and having it with Casey (it's both a form of compensation and a way to calm Leo down, stopping him from breaking the furniture), they always mess around anyway. So, Blaine said nothing new about him.

Adam, on the other hand, has never seemed interested in Cody in that sense. Actually, he never seems interested in sex in general. He has it with Blaine, he likely takes pleasure in it, but sex doesn't make him thrilled as much as it should do, at least according to Leo. "Wait, are you saying that the Ice Queen here is hot for Cody too?" He asks, smirking. "Elsa, what are you hiding? Let it go!"

Adam snorts so loudly that the sound coming out of his nose is ridiculous. "Why every time you open your mouth, I can hear bullshit?"

Leo smirks. "Blaine, Adam's withholding something, and I reckon this attitude is in direct contrast with our fully disclosure policy."

They don't have a real policy in the house, but they do have a rule to be honest and open with each other. Since the main reason of disagreement seems to be jealousy (that is, when it's not Casey), Blaine decided that nothing can happen behind anybody's back. "Come on, Adam," Blaine encourages him. "There's nothing to be embarrassed about."

"I'm not embarrassed!" Adam says, right away. "I just don't wanna say it to him, because you know what he does."

"Blaine!" Leo whines again, insisting for the man's intervention.

Blaine chuckles. "Let's say Adam was victim of a series of unfortunate events in the kitchen."

"It was an accident!" Adam protests. "I wasn't even thinking about it. I was leaning on the counter and Cody came near me, reaching out to the top shelf and..."

Leo's smile has progressively become bigger and bigger while Adam was talking, and now he looks like the Cheshire Cat. "And you humped him, didn't you?" He asks, knowing the answer already. He could read it on Adam suddenly red face.

"See?" Adam cries out, turning to Blaine. "Did you see that? I told you! That's why I didn't wanna say it. He always does that!"

There's nothing better than seeing Adam fretting for whatever reason. He's always so calm that Leo thinks he needs to be shaken every once in a while. "Oh! I'm so proud of you, Adam." He chuckles impishly. "You shouldn't be embarrassed. This only proves that you are human, after all!"

"It was an accident!" Adam repeats frantically, in a high pitched voice that comes from the deep and dark abyss of his embarrassement. "And I know that it doesn't matter how someone is dressed, but he never is! He's always hanging around half-naked!"

"Oh, it's way worse than that," Leo says nodding. He looks like he knows what he's talking about. "'Cause, you see, if he was just naked, you wouldn't mind so much. I mean, he's cute and all, but nudity is not so shocking. The point is that he's always dressed like he was ready to be undressed or if had just been ravished a moment before. Sometimes, the sight of his shorts barely covering the curve of his ass makes you cry in joy. What are we supposed to do?"

"Well, leaving him alone?" Adam tries, frowning.

"You didn't," Leo points out.

"It was an accident!" Adam repeats for the third time. They are talking about Cody's clothes as if they justified sexual harrassment, and that's not okay. This is why the whole thing makes him awkward. "I don't want to say that the way he dresses forces us to put our hands on him. But I really wished he didn't do....what he does."

He closes his eyes, sighing. He's really distressed, and that makes Blaine smile affectionately. "I understand what you mean, Adam," he says, calmly. "But I can assure you that Cody doesn't do anything."

"Yeah, he just likes to dress like that, but he genuinely has no idea of the effect he has on people," Leo says, nodding. "I mean, he knows he's cute and everything, and sometimes he does do that on purpose, but those are the times that he's really lethal. Once I had him coming into my room with some frilly pants from last century or whatever and a girly shirt, and he knew I would go mental – which I did. But most of the time, he's just himself and that's enough to make people crazy."

"He's completely unaware of his potential," Blaine explains. "That's his charm. The way he moves..."

"What he does..." Leo adds.

"Yes, also what he does," Blaine chuckles. He can see the little red hearts in Leo's eyes every time he talks about Cody. "Nothing is planned with him. That's just who Cody is. And he's got a certan effect on people, his brother included."

Leo's blissful face turns into a frown in a second. "No, that's exactly the point. The fact that he is his brother should prevent him from wanting to bang Cody."

"I don't think he wants to have sex with him," Blaine says, implicitly correcting Leo's register. "He's just not immune to Cody's charms. Besides, they are twins, and twins always have a special bond. That together with Cody's magic results in some..."

"Weird shit," Leo concludes for him.

"I was about to say unusual conduct," Blaine says, sighing.

"Whatever it is, I don't think it's right," Leo continues. "Cody makes us all crazy for him just barely walking into a room in his pajamas, which is both a torture and an insanely exciting thing. And it's okay if it happens to us because he's your boyfriend, which kinda makes him our boyfriend too. But you wouldn't let some random man on the street humping him, would you?"

Leo makes a little pause, and Blaine realizes that he's actually waiting for an answer. "No, of course not," he answers, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Right! Because it's a fucking random man. And Casey is something like that."

"Well, he's not exactly random. He's his brother," Blaine protests.

"Yes, but that's totally not the point. We can't let everybody have a go with Cody just because he's this overly sexualized individual who doesn't even know that he is."

"Nobody's doing that, Leo!" Blaine says, shocked. "Casey is his brother, and he's not doing anything to him. He's overly touchy? Yes, maybe. But they are twins and you can't consider this whole situation as if he were a stranger. Plus, Cody can decide for himself, and he seems okay with this."

"So you won't do anything about it?" Leo asks. He was probablye expecting Blaine to take action.

"Well no?" Blaine answers. "I mean, what should I do? Stop them from seeing each other? I don't think Cody would be happy about it. He loves his brother."

Leo shakes his head and cleans the table from the bread crumbs he left behind. "Yeah, the problem is that Casey loves him too much," he mumbles, throwing the crumbs in the sink. "Anyway, when he's back, I call dibs."

"Excuse me?" Blaine arches an eyebrow.

Leo shrugs, nonchalantly. "We were supposed to go out and Casey took him away. It seems only fair that I get to spend time with him."

"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be?" Blaine says. "You were so mad that he was here, and now you're stealing him away from me?"

Leo doesn't worry because he can hear the playful tone in Blaine's voice. He walks to him and leans on his shoulder. "It must be his sexuality working his magic on me," he whispers on his lips, a smirk twisting his lips upward.

"Oh, I see," Blaine nods. "So you're not sleeping with me tonight?"

The question is pointless. Even if they hadn't already decided that tonight was Leo's night to be with Blaine, Leo would have always answered yes. "Of course," he answers, giving him a quick kiss. "Eleven o'clock. In your bed. We are gonna have sex, in case you were thinking oterwise."

"When aren't we?" Blaine calls after him with a sigh, as Leo leaves the kitchen. When Blaine looks up, he meets Adam's questioning eyes and his even more meaningful arched eyebrow.

"Why are we keeping him?" He asks, mocking Leo's word. "Cuteness can't be enough in his case."

Blaine's chuckles. "That's his charm, you know?"

"Being a a spoiled prick?"

"Being so good at being spoiled that I actually want to spoil him more, I guess." Blaine has no better explanation for the things he's willing to put up with for Leo. Except that he loves him, of course. In fact, the two things could be connected. He loves to spoil him because he loves him, and he loves him because of how good it is to spoil him.

"I see. So, one is unhealthily sexy and he doesn't know, the other is too demanding and he doesn't care," Adam summirizes. "I guess you have some masochistic kink you don't acknowledge. What flaw did you choose me for?"

"You're too good to be true," Blaine answer promptly, pulling Adam towards him.
Adam chuckles and Blaine kisses his smile.

As a matter of fact, none of them knows the effect they have on him, and he decided not to tell. He already knows that he's gonna die having sex, he just wants to postpone the moment as long as he can.

MORNING HUNGERS AND MORNING WOODS

Friday nights out at the club have only recently become a thing.

Before Blaine – quite literally everything in Leo's life now is described according to the time it happened, and if it was before or after Blaine showed up, as if the man was the new Messiah – Leo's Friday nights out meant a pizza and a movie with Adam and Annie, or maybe the evergreen wasting of time at the mall, moving from one shop to the other without really buying anything and constantly eating or drinking something. But that changed after Blaine.

Now, those kind of nights are still happening, Leo keeps going out with his friends every week end (every day of the week, actually), but once a month – two if he's particularly lucky – he gets to go to Westerville and stay at Blaine's house for three days and two whole nights, instead of just staying with him in a hotel room in Lima. And, when he's there, they usually go to the Prince of Persia on Friday, which is currently one of the coolest things ever, according to his last comment on the matter.

The Prince of Persia, a gay club he wouldn't be let in if it wasn't for the fact that Blaine reached some God Status in there and he's basically allowed to do whatever he wants, even bringing a minor with him, is just one of the many many unusual-for-a-fifteen-years-old things that are currently happening in Leo's life.
Another is waking up completely naked in a bed currently owned by a man twenty years older than him, after a night of which at the moment he remembers very little.

He didn't drink – Blaine rarely lets him – but that doesn't matter. A very long, very exhausting night of wild sex has on his brain the same effect of drinking too many vodkas (which is just one glass, he found out recently with Adam). He just wakes up without even knowing his own name, let alone remembering what exactly happened between those sheets.

He opens his eyes and the only thing he sees for a moment is gray. His brain is so not working that it takes him a while to realize that he's having a moment of intense communion with Blaine's fancy sheets. The man himself is not there. They don't sleep spooning or whatever – Leo moves too much during his sleep to even think about it – but he always ends up draping himself around Blaine and spending the last hours of the night with his face hidden in his neck. Blaine's got a bigger, more solid body that he likes to feel when he wakes up, so, after getting to the farthest corner of the bed, he naturally tends to move closer and closer back to him, until he touches him again. And the fact that he's not embarrassed to admit it anymore it's a sign of him opening up. Or some other crap Blaine said.

Bottom line is, he doesn't like to wake up alone. Unfortunately, that almost always happens because he could sleep for days if let free to do so, while Blaine doesn't stay in bed more than eight hours unless you give him a good reason to. Leo keeps his eyes open but he doesn't move as he listens. The loft is big but the absence of anything even remotely resembling a wall helps carry sound. He knows for a fact that the hissing comes from the espresso machine on the kitchen counter, some Italian steel monstrosity that makes a lot of noise and gives you back only a tiny cup of super strong coffee that made Leo cringe the only time he tried it. That's the only coffee Blaine drinks now, even tho he admitted that he was a Starbucks addicted when he was Leo's age. Other than that, there's the clinging of Blaine setting the table, the swish of the sugar jar being dragged on the counter and the stools being moved a little away from the table, ready to welcome them both for breakfast.

Leo knows that, in a few moments, Blaine's coming to wake him up. He could pretend to be still asleep, so Blaine will crawl on the bed, nudge him and cuddle him until he's properly awake. That would be nice, but it'd probably lead to sex – everything that involves them being close to each other on a comfy surface leads to sex – but the truth is that he's hungry. And he must be the only male in the world whose morning hunger is more annoying than his morning wood.

He rolls over and crawls out from under the blankets and out of bed.

Blaine's bed is perfectly squared, low and vaguely oriental, and it's placed on a sort of freaking stage to which you access by a set of three wooden steps. Blaine says it's design, to Leo it's like one of those special prizes at the casinos, the expensive car placed on the rotating stage for everybody to see. And it's not even the weirdest part of the house.

The thing that always hits Leo is that everything in the apartment looks unused, perfectly placed in a certain spot to show off and nothing more. Sometimes it's like living in one of those fake sit-com set up. You've got the impression that if you take three steps to the right you're gonna get out of the set and find yourself in the warehouse where the TV show is being shot.
Luckily, it only takes him a couple of hours and his suitcase to make a lived and perfectly normal house out of this place. There's no end to the number of things – clothes, comics, video games – he can scatter around, and Blaine learned that it's easier to clean up after he's gone than while he's there. Besides, he would never have the time for that anyway.

Leo picks up his pants and t-shirt from the floor and puts them up. He never really got over the embarrassment of being naked when he's not supposed to be. Unlike Blaine, who feels so comfortable in his own skin that he could end up locked out of the house naked and still wave to his neighbor without feeling the need to cover himself, Leo can't go to the bathroom after they just had sex if he doesn't put some clothes on first. And he's not so sure it has anything to do with being an awkward teenager at all.

He just came around the set of shelves in front of the bed, which is the sad excuse for a bedroom wall, when he slams into Blaine, who is indeed half naked and wearing only his pants. “Look who finally woke up!” He says chuckling as he wraps his arms around Leo and pulls him closer.

Leo instantly hides his face in the man's neck, his body automatically adapts to Blaine's. It seems like there will be some pre-breakfast cuddling after all. “What time is it?” He asks, leaving a little kiss on Blaine's neck. Blaine smells like coffee and sex.

“It's almost noon, a time for a meal called lunch,” Blaine says, and then he chuckles hearing the low growl coming from the bundle of bones and curly hair in his arms. “But, knowing that you won't take a bite of proper healthy food unless you've stuffed your mouth with something containing an illegal amount of sugar first, I set the table for breakfast.”

Leo smiles. “Did you have it already?”

“Just coffee,” Blaine answers. “I thought I was going to need it once you opened your eyes.”

Leo chuckles. “Shut up! I'm not that bad,” he complains as he slowly disentangles himself from him and starts dragging himself towards the kitchen. “You are a very lucky sugar daddy. I could have been worse.”

“First of all, I'm nobody's sugar daddy,” Blaine says, following him. “And please enlighten me on the be worse part.”

Leo glares at him. “You know, you're lucky that I'm still too sleepy to be offended,” he says as he systematically opens every single cabinet and then steps back so he can look inside all of them at the same time. He's a big picture breakfast kind of guy. He needs to know exactly how much food is there for him to pick from, because sometimes he doesn't know that he wants something until he sees it.

Food in Blaine's house is always a problem. The man can't cook for his life, and he's not even interested in learning either. He's got a fridge the size of a small wardrobe, but all it contains are a couple of beers, some fancy bottles of water with a funny French name, probiotic yogurt, of course, because he needs to keep himself in shape, and not much else, really. And his cabinets are usually even worse, because what use could have for bread, pasta, or canned food a man who doesn't have meat or vegetable in his fridge? Blaine doesn't need fresh food because he doesn't cook. Best case scenario: he goes to a restaurant. Worst case scenario: he orders take away.

Leo remembers the very first time he got to spend the night at Blaine's house. It didn't happen so much time ago, so he obviously remembers it pretty clearly, but it is so important and it was so weird and exciting for so many reasons, that he's ready to bet he will never forget that, not in a million years. And among the many reasons he will remember it for – having sex with Blaine in an actual house for the first time ever included, of course – there's the moment he went to the kitchen to eat something and found nothing, literally nothing, to feed himself with.

He couldn't believe that in Blaine's fancy one million dollars house there was a chromotherapy shower but not bread. It was so illogical to him, that he stared at the empty cabinet for a good ten minutes. When he didn't come back to bed, Blaine came to look for him and found him still there, in shock.

That was the time Blaine found out what it means to have a teenager in the house, what kind of food said teenager expects to find in the fridge, and how much of it he's able to make disappear in a very small amount of time. And so, planning to have Leo over again in the future – possibly multiple times – Blaine learned how to grocery shopping specifically for the food catastrophe that he's Leo when he's hungry.

“The cabinets are full,” Leo notices, impressed. “You actually bought things.”

“With money, yes,” Blaine nods, playing along. “I learn quickly.”

Leo takes out some cereal boxes to look behind them, in the deepest part of the cabinet. “I'm quite impressed. I was worried that teaching you new things would be hard at your age.”

Blaine gets closer to him and pinches his hip. “I'm not that old, you know!” He protests. “Besides, it was survival instinct. I don't want to experience having you here when you're hungry and there's nothing to eat ever again. You're even less able to control your hunger than you are to control your sexual impulses.”

Leo blushes, taking out more boxes and a bag of chocolate chip cookies. “I don't have those,” he tries, even though he knows he does of course. But he still has problems with the concept of sex. Or sex itself. Or the fact that he wants to have it. It's complicated.

“Really?” Blaine helps him out with all the boxes, moving them on the counter. There's already enough food on it to feed a small state in Africa. “So what is it when you ask me to do it again? Or when you stick your hands down my pants or yours?”

“Shut up! I don't... I mean, I do, but they are not...” he mutters, turning purple. “Oh, just shut up! Where are the Oreos?”

Blaine chuckles and gives him a kiss on his cheek before he can scurry away in embarrassment, as Leo promptly does. “Second cabinet on the left. There was no room left,” he sighs. “Actually, do you really plan to eat all this stuff?”

“I don't know. I haven't decided yet,” he answers, reaching up to the top shelf on his tiptoes. He's still very small for a fifteen years old boy and he can't wait to grow taller all of a sudden, like everybody says he will. If it doesn't happen, he's gonna complain with the Universe. “Oh! Cool! What is this?” He turns around, holding another box in his hands. It's black with white spaceships all over it.

“I have no idea,” Blaine admits, as they sit down. Actually, he sits down, Leo climbs on a stool, as he reads the back of the black box. “I was shopping for you in the breakfast aisle and this young woman, a clerk, looked in my cart and said you would loved those. Well, she actually said my son would love those, but that would be you for anyone who sees me shopping for you. Anyway, I think they are spaceships shaped cereals or something. She probably thought you were five.”

Leo pours some cereals in an empty bowl. They are, in fact, chocolate and sugar coated cereals in the shape of spaceships, the Moon, astronauts and the like. A stars themed breakfast, the box says. They look cool. “She was hitting on you,” he comments, trying them out suspiciously. He grabs some with his fingertips and puts them in his mouth, a wine taster expression on his face.

“Oh, come on,” Blaine makes a face, pouring black coffee in his cup. “She was just being nice.”

“She was being nice because she wanted to slip in your pants,” Leo insists, eating another handful of cereals that he puts directly on his mouth. “Girls never guess you're gay.”

“Should I wear a rainbow flag?”

Leo smirks without looking up. If there's something Blaine loves about him is that smile, but it's very rare. Except the times Leo gets angry for some reason or another, he's still very shy around him, and extremely self-conscious. He used to be very self-confident when he was a kid, but he lost that along the way. That smirk is proof of that, it's almost a memory of the strength he misplaced somewhere, and Blaine's always proud and happy when he manages to bring that back, even for a moment.

“So, are they good?” Blaine nods towards the bowl. One of them, actually.
Leo's got three. One full of those chocolate spaceships, one with milk and frosted flakes and one full of fruit cut into pieces. That one is bigger than the others and he will bring it along with him until is empty even after breakfast. He's got a passion for fruit, which is unusually healthy for a kid who would feed solely on fast food for the rest of his life.

“Yeah, they are good,” he nods, munching at a spoonful of frosted flake. “Your secret girlfriend was right.”

Blaine sighs. “She was not my secret girlfriend,” he says, patiently.

“Right. I bet it's a man,” Leo says. “A young man, about twenty something. He's in college and he needs money, so he works part-time as a clerk in a supermarket. He thinks he's only using you for your money, but he's quickly falling in love with you.”

Sometimes Blaine forgets that Leo is extremely imaginative other than insanely jealous. “Oh, really? I didn't know he felt that way.”

“You wouldn't know,” Leo nods. “You're too busy with your career, and it has never been something serious for you. You're gonna break his heart.”

“Oh, poor... what is his name?” Blaine plays along.

“You tell me,” Leo hisses, the fine line between game and annoyance is about to be crossed.

Blaine can feel it, but he also knows very well where is the point of no return, so he pushes it a little further. “Carlos,” he answers. “He's half Mexican. His mother chose that name because it was her father's, Carlos' grandfather.”

Leo looks up, glaring at him. His eyes are ready to set fire to him, the kitchen and Carlos, wherever he is. He's going to spontaneously burst into flames, and nobody will ever know why. Suddenly, what was just a story Leo was telling becomes reality, only because Blaine took it into his hands. Leo is okay with fictional boyfriends as long as Blaine denies their existence when Leo tells him their stories, but the moment he plays along, the line is crossed and suddenly he's cheating. “Oh, so he has a name,” he comments, coldly.

Blaine smiles, knowing that he can't go any further without making a mess, and he doesn't want that. “No, he doesn't have a name because he doesn't exist. I was playing with you. Come on!” He offers him a bright, happy and charming smile that Leo welcomes with a judging frown. Blaine sighs and grabs a piece of apple and brings it to Leo's lips. They remain stubbornly closed, so he pushes a little, trying to break their resistance.

That's when he understands the mistake he has just made. Leo looks at him, but his lips open and then close, soft and warm, around the piece of fruit and his fingers, triggering both their brains. Blaine can read it in the kid's eyes and knows for sure that the light changed in his own too. He wonders if he should stop. They just woke up, they could do other things. And then Leo sucks at his fingers, and that's a no.

No, they can't do something else.

He was about to stand up and go make the bed, but apparently that would be pointless.
And he never does pointless things. As they leave a messy kitchen to reach the messy bed, Blaine thinks this kid always turns all his things upside down, and he doesn't even care.

IT'S SUNNY, THEN IT'S NIGHT

Blaine's house is a three stories mansion perched on a hill just outside the city.
You can see the whole of it from up there, from the columns of the Government Palace to the spires of the Temple, and the long, light blue line of the river dividing the circular city into two perfect halves.

The first time Leo got to see the house, it was the day he was brought here to be given as a wedding present to Blaine. Now, the memory of that horrible day and those that followed are slowly fading from his mind, drowned by the love and blatant favoritism Cody and Blaine shower him in every day, but you can't really forget the day you've been sold as a sex slave. He remembers how dark and scary the house looked to him, entering from the servants entrance. The hall where Blaine approached him with his deepest, hoarsest voice was cold and bare. It was designed to be used by errand boys and waitresses to come and go from the house without being seen. It was a thing of practicality, not of beauty.

For a few days Leo had only see that entrance and the dungeon where Blaine had kept him to break him – not that he managed, but anyway – and that was his whole new horrible world. A dark room where he was chained and starved, and an hall where he was forced to give blow jobs. Not exactly the best place to start for a love story. But, surprisingly enough, that's exactly how it went down.

Even when he was finally admitted to the private rooms, in the best part of the house, where Cody lived, the house didn't look better. All he could see was another place where he was going to be forced to do things he didn't want to do, chained as an animal and given orders to. On that premises, his own little room – which was actually bigger and more comfortable than his bedroom in his parents' caravan at home – looked like a prison no more than the dungeon's cell did.

Everything was horrible, back then. It took time, Blaine's threats to him, Leo's threats to Cody's safety, and a lot of convincing on both parts before things changed. If he looks back now, he can't believe he grew so fond of them that he refused his freedom when it was legitimately offered to him. Not that he doesn't want to be a free man on paper too, but the Law says that a freed slave must leave the house, and he would never do that. Not even in exchange for his freedom. So he stays, and makes everybody crazy by getting angry at Blaine's inability to both set him free and keep him.

He's officially still a slave, especially outside the four walls of their home, but Blaine and Cody treat him as one of them, a third party to their marriage, if such a thing even exists, and as a consequence of that the house is not a prison anymore. It's home.

The house is not huge as those of some of the other lords of the city, but it's big enough that it takes Leo at least ten minutes to go from one end of it to the other, and he enjoys it immensely when he can use that amount of time to annoy as many servants as it's humanly possible.

The house servants, they all hate Leo with a passion. He stands for everything they find unacceptable and, as if this wasn't enough already, he gloats about it. First of all, it's customary for a lord, especially of Blaine's standing, to get rid of his sex slaves the moment he marries. Since a sex slave basically lives in the lord's private quarters, it's considered unbecoming to keep one inasmuch as the lord's spouse would be forced to share space with him. According to the Law, sex slaves are freed after they have carried out their purpose, which would be prepare the lord to his married life. Actually, their lord's wedding is something they look forward to because it marks the beginning of a new life. But Leo was indeed a gift for Blaine's wedding, which was ridiculous to begin with.

Not only Blaine didn't get rid of Leo the moment he was given to him, but he somehow fell in love with him, which is preposterous. Now, none of servants would even dream of judging their master for whatever reason, but they can very well judge Leo, and blame him for everything that has befallen the house in the past year or so.

The servants social ladder can be even stricter than the common one.
A servant is born a servant, and can't aspire to be anything else. That is why, when your servant status is high, you stick to it, because it's the only form of pride that you can have. Looking down to those who are below you becomes almost mandatory in order to turn your own not exactly ideal position into a bearable one.
The house servants are the very top of the ladder – one step below craftsmen, who are out of the servants social ladder all together – and sex slaves are the very bottom of it. They are barely considered proper human beings, they are just props lords play with, as much as they would with a racket or a ball. The fact that one of them raised so high in rank to pass the status of the house servants and be allowed to act as a lord is unthinkable.

They think Leo doesn't know his place, and that he acts not only against the law but against what's proper for him and the likes of him. Basically, they reserve the right not to pass judgment upon their master's choice of treating Leo better than he would deserve, but they openly disapprove of Leo accepting the freedom that has been unfairly given to him, instead of politely declining it and acting accordingly to his lower status.

It doesn't help that Leo feels entitled to the freedom he has, and so he makes a show of it whenever he can. He never really considered himself a slave or a servant of any kind – he was an actor, son of actors, accused, charged and imprisoned for a crime he was forced to commit – and so now he's only acting as he thinks he deserves. He walks freely around the house, wearing whatever he wants, sometimes even clothes that belong to Blaine, his arms, neck and ankles always naked to show he's not wearing shackles nor his collar anymore. He leaves the masters' quarters whenever he likes, to go to the gardens or even the library, where he helps himself with Lord Blaine's books and reads them, not to Lord Cody – which would be unusual but not so shocking – but to himself, for his own pleasure.

After all, that would be the smallest outrage compared to the fact that he demands to take all his meals at the table with the masters, that he calls them by their first name and that he sleeps in their bed with them, instead of going back to his room after doing his job. And everybody knows that he's allowed to have intercourse with Cody alone whenever he wants, but nobody talks about that because Blaine would be hard to justify even for them.

Leo knows everything the servants say about him, and he cares exactly nothing.
He enjoys showing off and throwing the whole situation in their faces as much as he can, and when his relationship with Blaine and Cody began to take shape, turning into the closest thing to a marriage they could possibly have right now, he squeezed into it with great pleasure, taking the role that would have been Cody's, if Cody wasn't the tiny precious thing that he is. In this excuse for a marriage – as Blaine's father has put it too many times – Blaine is obviously the head of the family, the man who works and brings home the money, who should be guiding his much younger husbands and ends up being at the mercy of their puppy eyes most of the time instead. Leo takes care of the house, gives orders to the servants and reminds them what their masters like and dislike, and that despite the fact that most of the maids refuse to obey him the first time he says something, and they need to be pushed and screamed at. Leo has no problem doing that, while Cody would, that's why he's the pretty husband who, being legitimate, entertains the guests, attends to official events and is diplomatic for the three of them.

It works, despite all the frowning upon. Maybe that's why everybody is so pissed off about it.

Anyway, this morning Leo is not wandering about casually just to give orders and annoy the maids, he's out on a mission. Cody has been moody for the past three days, and that's weird because Cody is never anything but sweet, happy and calm. It took Leo a lot of coaxing and convincing to make him confess what was going on. It appears like the confinement they have been forced into is starting to weigh on him. Blaine's being busy trying to keep his career together, and he's only going out to attend mundane events he's required to go to if he wants to keep his job and status. Those are the only times he leaves the house, and he's not always taking Cody with him because he wants to shelter him from everybody's judgment as much as he can. It goes without saying that Leo has never left the house since he got here, because he can't go out alone and now he can't even do it with Cody because it could be dangerous. Sometimes that's hard to accept, but he's used to lash out whenever his anger is too strong, so his rage disappears as quickly as it came. But Cody is not like him. He bottles up. He's rarely angry, but when he is, he pushes his anger deep down inside himself to avoid hurting anybody. And now it reached the brim, and Cody is one step away to break down.

Leo saw it clearly in his eyes this morning while they were having breakfast together without Blaine.
The man has been holed up all night in his office and the idea that he's not gonna come out of it today either doesn't sit well with Cody's desperate need for a change of air outside this house. So, Leo took it upon himself to convince Blaine to go somewhere for a few days, even if he'll have to use violence to achieve that.

As he comes out of the bedroom and takes the corridor of the second floor, he comes across Harper, one of the maids. It's always a pleasure to meet her because she hates him as no one else in this house and Leo could set her on fire with the sole strength of his hatred. Their feelings of loathing clash against each other at such a speed that they almost generate visible lightnings able to warm Leo's self-entitlement filled heart.

She's a short, tiny thing with big blue eyes and dark blonde hair. Around his age, maybe a little older. She would be attractive, if she wasn't so unnerving. But she is, and Leo can only see her tensed lips set in a disgusted grimace as he approaches. “Clean that glass better,” he says as a way of greeting as she rubs the windowpane with a piece of cloth. “It must look like there's no glass at all there.”

“They are clean,” she protests, no trace of respect in her voice. “More than you'll ever be, anyway.”

Leo never gets offended when she – or anybody – just implies that he's a dirty thing just because he was a sex slave. As a matter of fact, he inevitably takes more baths in a week than she does in a month. “Clever for an house servant. Are they training you to repeat smart things like a parrot? Do you want a cracker?”

Leo watches her close her fists for a moment, struggling to keep herself from replying any further, or even from slapping him probably. Leo lives for the moment one of them will try and hit him. “I knew you would quickly run out of good sentences. Parrots usually do,” he comments. “Now clean them again. I'm gonna be back and I want to see them shine.”

He doesn't wait for a yes, sir. They never say it and he doesn't need it. Besides, he's taking enough revenge by having they actually do what he orders, instead of just forcing them to use words they don't mean at all. His good mood lasts until he reaches the private dining room they use when they are alone in the house – not that he has ever been present at official dinners anyway. There are maids here too, and they are setting the table for lunch. And as they do every day, at every meal, three times a day, they just set the table for two. Leo can't deal with it, and that's probably why they do it.

“You know the drill,” he says annoyed. “I don't want to repeat myself.”

“Then don't,” one of the girl says. “Have lunch where you're supposed to have it and be done with it.”

“Here is where I'm gonna have my lunch,” he says coldly, staring back at her. “Now, I know the concept is hard to grasp for you because your brain doesn't process complex thoughts, but things have changed. I came here as a sex slave, I'm not one anymore. Like you won't be servants anymore if you don't set the table correctly. It's your job, and I could get tired of the shit you pull off every day and tell Blaine you're not doing it right. I know you don't like it, but you know he would listen. So, it's up to you.”

They look at each other, uncomfortably. He could be bluffing, but it's true that Lord Blaine doesn't dismiss what comes out of his mouth as quickly as they would like. At the end of this staring contest among them, one of the youngest girls runs to fetch another plate and set of cutlery. Leo nods. “Now, before anyone even thinks about it, don't mess with my food,” he says in a stern voice, “because I'll make sure not to be the only one who eats it. And I know you don't want your masters to be poisoned or eat rotten food, am I right?”
Nobody answers and he speaks louder. “Am I right?” He asks again.

“Yes, Leo,” the governess says. She's way older than the rest of them, older than Blaine, and she's been in the house forever. She's disapproving of the situation, but she's not exactly hating him as the rest of them. Leo still has to understand what's going on with her, but he learned to deal with the old woman when things get particularly ugly between him and the other servants. She only gets annoying when he passes a certain line, but he only does that when they do. So, basically, she and Leo always manage to reach an agreement of some sort.

“Good,” Leo nods again towards her. He can hear the murmuring raising again as soon as he steps out of the room, but he doesn't care. For some reason, he know she won't let his food be ruined – maybe the importance she gives to the decency of the house prevents her from serving crappy food, even if it would mean to prank him – and he's got bigger problems to resolve.

Blaine's office is two doors down from the dining room. It's one of the biggest rooms in the house, excluding the bedroom which is an entire quarter on its own, and it's got heavy double doors that are mostly kept closed. Nobody is allowed in there alone, not even the servants, because Blaine keeps there very important documents concerning his work. Leo lost count of the times Blaine told him the importance of the books and ledgers contained in the bookshelves of his office. He doesn't care. Actually, he doesn't even care to enter the room, so his precious documents are safe. Why would he want to spend time reading war reports anyway?

The only thing that prevents Leo from getting offended by the implications is that Blaine says the same things to Cody, as if they were two children playing ball around very expensive exotic vases. They broke one last week doing just that but they were as far from Blaine's office as they possibly could, so it doesn't count.
Leo has spent so many time coming here to call on Blaine and try to take him out of this room that he would never come here alone for the sake of it. There are way more interesting places inside the house, like the pantry – which is his absolutely favorite place to take Cody and make out with him.

Anyway, before his brain gets lost in images that would distract him too much from his endeavor, he knocks twice and then enters before waiting for an answer. “We need to talk,” he declares, marching inside.

Blaine looks up slowly with a sigh. “I wonder what closed doors have ever done to you,” he says, rubbing his tired eyes.

“Nothing?” Leo says, puzzled.

“Then why are you unable to keep them closed?” The man asks.

Leo frowns. “If I wait for you to answer my knocking, I'm gonna grow old and die,” he protests, taking a seat on one of the two armchairs in front of the big wooden desk.

“Always so dramatic,” Blaine snorts.

“So, do you have a moment?” Leo insists, one dark eyebrow bent in a perfect arch.

“I suppose I do now,” Blaine sighs. “So, what happened?”

Leo's got the habit of playing with whatever happens to be around him, including rocks, precious items and Cody. And he's got a special fascination with Blaine's paper knife. It would be worrying, given Leo's records, but the truth is that the paper knife in question is golden and he likes to watch it spin because it shines. “Cody is sad, he needs a change of air,” he says, giving the knife another spin and sending a few paper clips to fly across the room. “We have to go on holiday.”

“You're right.”
Leo was expecting several kinds of refusals, to which he had several kinds of responses ready, so Blaine agreeing with the proposal confuses him. He looks up, blinking. “Excuse me, what?”

“You're right,” Blaine says, chuckling. “I know he's sad. And I know that makes you sad. And I can't deal with both of you moping around.”

Despite it being a wonderful news, Leo is suspicious by nature. “And where's the catch?” He asks, squinting at him.

Blaine laughs again. “No catch. The situation really is pretty bad around here, I'm not gonna lie. We need to relax, and if we can't do that by going out for a walk in the city, we're gonna change state entirely. I was thinking of taking you both to see the ocean.”

“You're really taking us out of here,” Leo says, in disbelief.

“You seem surprised,” Blaine says, maybe just a tiny bit offended. Every time he feels like that, his expression gets all stern.

“Yes! I mean no,” Leo clears his throat as Blaine glares at him. “It's just, it doesn't sound real that you want to come out of this office, pack and go somewhere with us. We were kinda losing hope, you know?”

“That's because you have no faith, both of you,” Blaine grumbles. “But one thing is true, I'm not gonna pack. You're gonna take care of it. Also, I leave you the honor of breaking the news to Cody. I'm sure that will keep you both occupied for the rest of the morning. Now, get out of here.”

Leo chuckles and pushes the armchair back, making noise.
Blaine looks up to scold him, but he's already out.

*

They leave the house at dawn, two days after Blaine and Leo's talk in Blaine's office.

Blaine refuses to take any servants with him, so they're a small caravan of three people, two horses and a little wagon containing provisions for a week and the big tent they're gonna pitch once they get there. There's enough room inside for Cody to sit when he gets tired of riding with Leo, but he never does. He's so excited by the whole adventure that he seems to run exclusively on enthusiasm.

They're crossing an almost completely desert land to get to the ocean, and there's not much to see except the golden sand and some very sporadic palm tree, but everything looks already interesting and magical to Cody's eyes, even the endless line of dunes that made Leo sick with nausea after two hours.

He rides in front of Leo, one of his big geographic books perched on the horse's neck and he points left and right at this or that particular landmark. Sometimes it's a rocky peak, sometimes the entrance of a cave that is apparently sacred for one nomad tribe or the other. Leo is not really listening to him.

He talks for hours. He asks questions. Every now and then he screams out of pure joy, just because he's so happy about this that he needs to let it out or he's gonna explode. He's enjoying himself so much that Blaine and Leo can't help but look at him with fondness. But at some point all this enthusiasm wears him out and he falls asleep. Leo puts his book away and gently wraps his arms around him, so he won't fall from the horse.

They ride in silence then, the sun burning so bright that Leo wonders what is it about with this people and this land. How could you possibly see such wasteland and think that it's gonna be the perfect place to build a country on. He was born in the northern regions. He's used to freezing winters and gentle springs. He loves running water and snow. Dry sand doesn't sit well with him at all, that's why he can't wait to see the ocean.
It's almost sunset when they hear the sound of the waves breaking on the beach. Leo leans in and kisses Cody on the cheek, waking him up. “I bet you wanna see this,” he whispers sweetly.

Cody blinks around confusedly. “Where are we?” He asks, but then his eyes grow bigger and bigger in awe and disbelief when he catches sight of the last of the desert, slowly declining into the bluest water he has ever seen in his life. “It's the ocean!” He screams, sitting straight up and then wiggling out of Leo's arms and off the horse. “We're here! It's the ocean! Blaine, it's the ocean!”

Blaine chuckles. “Yes, pet, it is.”

Cody screams excitedly and he runs to the shore. On the line where the desert meets the beach, he takes off his shoes and feels the softer, finer texture of the sand under his toes before breaking again into a run that brings him straight to the water. He splashes around, laughing, turning his face towards the setting sun, his eyes closed. The light of the sunset sets the horizon ablaze and turns the water a warm orange color.

Blaine and Leo bring the horses and the wagon towards a group of cluster pines a little far ahead. Once they get the tent set and the fire going, they will provide a good shelter from the wind. “He seems happy,” Leo says, watching Cody as he scurries left and right along the shore, bathing in what sunlight is left for the day, constantly keeping his naked feet where the water can come lapping at them.

“He surely does,” Blaine agrees as he ties his horse to a trunk. “But what about you? Are you happy?”

Leo smirks. “This is the first time I leave your fucking house in almost a year. What do you say?” He replies.

Blaine chuckles. “I'll take that as a yes.”

Meanwhile, Cody picks up shells and chases after crabs, screaming when they decide to chase him back. Blaine and Leo decide to let him play a little longer. He wouldn't be of any use pitching the tent anyway.
In fact, the tent is not a little structure made of fabric and a few poles, but a proper surrogate of their palace at home, something that is not supposed to be pitched by two people alone. Inside, there's room enough for the big bedding they need and the fire pit.

“Aren't you afraid I'm gonna run comes the night?” Leo jokes as he ties to the ground the rope Blaine just passed to him.

“Honestly?” Blaine looks at him from the other side of the tent. He took off his jacket to work, remaining in his short-sleeved shirt. His hair is messy and he's got stains of dirt on his face where he passed a hand on it to wipe away sweat. It's unusual for Leo to see him like this in a place that is not their bedroom. It's an image of intimacy he's used to associate with their little private world. It fills him with pride and a brand new kind of hunger to see him so disheveled and relaxed outside the house. “No. No, I'm not afraid of you running away.”

“And why is that? I know where we are. I know how to get to the nearest city, and I wouldn't need all this stuff to make it there,” Leo insists. He moves on to the next peg and hammers it in the ground.

“I don't doubt that. But unless you take Cody with you, and you wouldn't dare, I calculated that you can't stay without being all over him or me more than two hours. You'd be starving for cuddles halfway through the desert.”

Leo chuckles, knowing that what he's saying is true. “You got me.”

“You're good at this,” Blaine comments, watching him as he secures another rope.

Leo shrugs. “I used to do this with my father,” he explains. Leo never talks about his family because it's too painful, but at least now he manages not to get angry every time that the argument comes up. Possibly because, even if the current situation doesn't let him free to go and find his people, at least he has something he loves to cling too.

Blaine nods, and then leans in to give him a kiss. They both linger in it for a moment, acknowledging without words that there are things Blaine can't fix right now but that he promised to fix one day, and then Blaine sighs, leaving another kiss on his forehead. “Now go get Cody, before he grows fins.”

Leo chuckles and grabs a towel, it's gonna take some convincing to drag him away from the water, but he's got promises of chocolate to make and that always does the trick.

*

“Aren't you cold?”
Cody turns around and smiles at Leo as he approaches him.

They had a pleasant dinner around the fire pit, laughing and joking with each other as they only do in their bedroom. It was nice and Cody cherished the moment, but at some point he couldn't stay inside the tent any longer. With freedom so close at hand – just a step away – he couldn't think of staying inside four walls, even if they are made of fabric. He would sleep outside, if Blaine let him. So, he went out, leaving the other two alone for a while.

“It's not that cold,” he answers, and then the wind betrays him. Apparently, nights on the ocean are not as warm as he had thought. “Okay, maybe just a little.”

Leo produces a blanket and wraps himself and Cody in it. “Blaine didn't get you here to catch a cold, you know?”

“Did you know it was gonna be so cold on the ocean?” Cody asks, snuggling closer to him and resting his head on Leo's shoulder.

“Yes,” Leo chuckles.

“Of course you knew,” Cody pouts. “This is not the first time you see the ocean, is it right?”

“Well, it is the first time I see this ocean,” he answers, leaving a kiss on top of his head. “I went all the other way across the country once. I saw the ocean there.”

“Was it different?”

“No, not that much,” Leo says honestly. “Water is water. The sound of the waves is the same everywhere there's enough water for them to be born and die on the shore. It's a little bit like the Moon. No matter where you are, it's always big, shiny and magical.”

“But the Moon is only one,” Cody chuckles. “It always looks the same because it is the same. It does look brighter here, tho.”

They both look up at the full moon, a huge sphere just above their head. It looks closer tonight too. “It's because there are no other lights,” Leo says. “The city hides her from us.”

Cody frowns. “Then we should live here, so we can watch her all the time. It's beautiful, isn't it?”

Leo watches him, not the Moon. “Yes, it is.”
*

The morning after, Leo wakes up in a tangle of arms and legs, which is what he opens his eyes to every day, the only thing missing is Blaine.

They usually fall asleep hugging in an orderly fashion, gracefully draped around each other, but Leo is a messy sleeper and Cody is hardly less so, and they end up rolling around and kicking each other or Blaine until what is left is a muddle of limbs and faces press against the most improbable parts of a body. It's something everybody got used to pretty quickly – also because there was no other way – so when the number of legs and arms changes, they can feel it.

It's this, certainly not the right amount of sleep he got, to wake Leo up when the sun is not even out yet. He opens his eyes and blinks, seeing nothing but black strands of hair for a moment. Cody is sleeping on him, covering half his body with his own, one leg across Leo's crotch and his left arm wrapped around his shoulder. His face is buried in Leo's neck, and Leo's got black hair stuck in his mouth.

There's not enough light coming from outside the tent, and that can only mean one thing: it is too early to be awake, no matter the reason. He looks around, as much as Cody lets him, he's as heavy as stone when he's asleep, and he notices Blaine's gone. Now, it's not unusual for Blaine to be up and about hours before them to take care of some business or another. But they are on a beach away from everything and everyone, so Leo doesn't see what could have possibly dragged him out of bed at this ungodly hour.

He gently pushes Cody away towards his side of the bedding. Cody grumbles something that sounds like a complaint but he doesn't wake up. Instead, he grabs his own pillow and hugs him, showing Leo how replaceable he could be. “Thank you very much,” Leo hisses, crawling away. “I love you too.”

He finds his pants under the bed, where Cody threw them last night, and a shirt that could be his or Blaine's, he's not sure. He comes out of the tent squinting at the whitish light of dawn and looks around. Blaine's perched on the very same rock he and Cody were sitting last night, watching the moon. He's fully dressed and he's looking at the ocean, holding something in his hand.

“You are being too much of a morning person to be on vacation,” Leo says, climbing the rocks to sit next to him. “You're just not used to relax, aren't you?”

Blaine smiles at him and there's something in his smile that makes Leo cringe. “Did I wake you up?” He asks, pulling him closer.

“Yes, by not being there,” Leo answers. “I got used to have you somewhere on the bed. It feels weird when you're not.”

“I'm sorry about that,” Blaine says.

“So why do you sound like you're sorry for something else?” Leo asks, suspiciously. He's not very good with feelings, especially others', but he's always the first to sense that something is wrong, probably because he never expects things to go right. He nods towards Blaine's hand, there's a piece of paper folded in half in it. “What is that?”

Blaine sighs. “Something I need to talk to you about,” he says, giving it to him. “It's a drafting. A messenger brought it in this morning.”

Leo doesn't know what a drafting is, but it's immediately clear when he sees the seal of the Department of War on top of the page and the first lines of the missive. Blaine is called to the front, and by the look of it, his presence doesn't seem optional. “I don't understand,” he says, looking up. “I thought you were retired. Doesn't it mean that you don't have to work anymore?”

“It does,” Blaine confirms. “But in some special circumstances soldiers are required back on the field. When the army suffered too many casualties, for example. Training new soldiers takes time, the retired soldiers know what to do already. The situation at the front hasn't been good for the past three months. I was expecting something like that.”

“That's why you brought us here,” Leo realizes, suddenly. Blaine expected to see betrayal in his eyes, but there is none. All he can read in them is confusion and panic. Leo has never looked like the kid he is as he does now. “So there was a catch, after all.”

“Don't look at it as a catch,” Blaine says, calmly. “I just wanted to give you two a good memory, in case–“

“When are you supposed to leave?” Leo asks, interrupting him. The expression on his face clearly expects him not to say another world on that matter. But Blaine will, he has to.

“In about a week,” he answers. “There is no need for us to rush back home.”

Leo can't stop reading the few lines composing the letter. Some of the words are unknown to him, but the meaning is still pretty clear. They are taking him away. “Here it doesn't say for how long,” Leo notices. His voice doesn't show emotion, but the way he keeps swallowing is proof enough of how nervous he is.

“It's usually for how long it's needed,” Blaine says. Leo doesn't say anything. His lips close in a hard line, as if he was afraid that speaking he would let out too much together with words. Blaine feels a surge of tenderness and love for him because he is so scared that he can barely keep himself together, but he's trying so hard. Last time he saw him like that it was when they met. He was terrified of him, now he's terrified of losing him, and in both cases, Blaine doesn't know how to comfort him. “Leo,” he sighs, taking his hand and play with it in what he hopes is a soothing way. “Now you have to listen to me, because this is very important.”

Leo looks like whatever words he is about to say will be enough to make him calm down, which, considering what Blaine is about to say, is already a problem. Blaine holds his hand tighter, rubbing the back of it with his thumb. “In the last few days, I took care of things,” Blaine says, looking in his eyes. “If anything happens to...”

“Blaine!”

“If anything happens to me,” Blaine insists, “The title deed to you is in Cody's name, now. You will decide together what to do, of course, but it is important that he can now sign any document regarding you.”

Leo looks away, biting his lips. “Blaine, I don't wanna listen.”

“You have to,” Blaine grabs his chin and forces him to look at him. “I need you to hear this. I need you to be aware of what me not coming back would mean. If you two are left alone, I made sure you will have the means to go on for a while.”

“It won't be necessary,” Leo hisses. “You will be back.”

“But what worries me,” Blaine goes on, ignoring Leo's protests, “is that someone could take advantage of the situation. My father, for once, would try and take back what is mine, based on the fact that it's his name and not Cody's. I need you to protect him.”

Leo snorts a laugh, nervously. “Me? How? From the chains your father would put me in, if he doesn't sell me?” He asks. “No, Blaine. You need to come back. You will come back!”

Blaine hears his voice breaking, and his own heart breaks too. “Cody can do anything he wants, if you help him,” he continues, trying to stay calm for the both of them. “I know you could work this out together.”
“No!”

They both turn around and find Cody standing there, barefoot and disheveled as if he just got out of bed. They don't know how long he has been standing there, but it's enough to look at Blaine in horror as he shakes his head. “No, that's not possible,” he says again, shaking his head slowly and shrugging. “You are retired, they can't ask you to go back.”

He says each word as if it costs him all he has, and as if he didn't believe it either. He knows that the army can in fact call his husband back. He knows – as every husband or wife of a soldier – the rules of the military life. The fact that he hadn't had to live such a dreadful moment until now only means that he has been lucky.

“Come here, pet,” Blaine says, reaching out to him. Cody bursts out into tears the moment he touches him, and Blaine holds him close to his chest. He could tell him everything's gonna be fine, but he doesn't know that. He will have to fight in the field – a thing he stopped doing ten years ago – and he could be rusty, everything could go wrong. He doesn't want to lie to them.

Leo keeps his distance for a while, wanting to give Cody a moment with Blaine, and also trying not to breakdown too. But he does. Suddenly. He lets out a desperate sob that shakes him to the core, as if he had been trying to keep it down until now and it exploded just right out of him. Blaine reaches out for him too, and they all just hug for a while.

When this all weird relationship started, Blaine knew it was going to be hard, but it's nothing – really, nothing – compared to the pain he's feeling right now, knowing that he put them both in this situation and now, going away, he could be putting them in an even worse one. Cody is unprepared. The kid is smart, but he's too young and he wasn't supposed to be alone, taking care of the family name and business. Blaine had married him after he retired to avoid leaving him alone. Leo can help him, of course, but not outside the house, not in official matters. And he can't foresee how much Cody will be pressured for having him in the house without Blaine to act as a disincentive. People can be mean. Politicians can be even worse.

But he can't dwell on it. Not now. He did all he could to help them out, even in the event he doesn't come back. He believes they can do just fine on their own. He has to believe it. “Enough tears,” he says sweetly, when he feels them calming down a little bit. “Come on, look up. Look at me.”

Both kids look up, their eyes red and still shiny with tears.

“I know it's a terrible news but nothing's lost yet, and we won't act like it is,” He says, and the tone of his voice, though sweet, doesn't expect a negative response. They know, and in fact they both nods. “We will forget all about it for the time being, and enjoy our vacation. We will create good memories to cling on to during our darkest hour, and you will get through this as you got through everything else.”

He looks at them until the first kid breaks into a tiny smile, and he smiles back. He can't tell them what they want to hear but he can say the only thing that count.

Whatever happens, you'll be okay.

CHRISTMASTUCK

Christmas is not a festivity to Leo, it's a war.

Having been raised by Kurt Hummel – basically the incarnation on Earth of Santa's crazy interior designer elf – in the very heart of that Midwestern Winter Wonderland that is Lima, Ohio, Leo officially starts with Christmas preparation in mid-November and ends around December 23th at the latest. If anything exceeds the time window, that is considered a catastrophe and nobody wants to talk about that, or being around Leo for that matter.

When he was a kid, Kurt would involve him in the preparations, whether Leo wanted to be involved or not. There was no end to the things Kurt had to do to secure a perfect Christmas for his family. He would roam the state, visiting every greenhouse worthy of his attention, to find the proper tree while everybody else was still busy with Thanksgiving, and then enslave Dave to bring it home on the roof of the car.

Then he would choose the color scheme of the tree – which was different every year, of course – and consequentially the colors of the decorations in the rest of the house. After that it was time to decide what kind of illuminations he wanted both inside and outside the house, and of course which one of everyone's beloved Christmas characters would show up in their garden in the form of a life-size wooden statue perfect in every detail.

One year it was Rudolph, another one it was the Gingerbread Man, the next one Santa himself, but never the same character two years in a row. One glorious year Leo convinced Kurt to have Jack Frost – his all time favorite winter character – sitting on a big snowball, and it was a real tragedy to do without him the next year, when Kurt proved to be adamant on his different-character-every-year policy even facing the tears of disappointment of his five years old son. That year they had a stupid lame elf, and Leo hated its guts all the way till the time came to take him in.

Next on the list was the picture for the cards to send to family and friends, which required not only the collaboration of Leo – who was actually dressed up and posed like a doll well past the age when such a thing is shameful for both parents and child – but also Dave, who never wanted more out of the family than when they had to take the Christmas picture. Clothes, setting, combination of the family members, pose and words to write on the card were carefully chosen by Kurt during the weeks before the actual shooting, and nobody was allowed to go on with their life until the photo was exactly as he had pictured it in his mind, which would prove to be almost impossible more often than not.

As they were gradually getting closer to Christmas, Kurt would decide the menu of the lunch he would give, choose the centerpiece, the tablecloth, the placeholders that would arrange everyone in a suitable order – not to be broken, of course. Despite the military rigor, that would actually be a necessary measure when Finn, Santana, Rachel, Dave and Blaine were sitting at the same table. There were powers to balance and personalities to keep separated as at a round table for a peace treaty. Leo still remembers how his father would place him as a divider between Blaine and Dave, which was cute to see back then – his ten years old self in a designer outfit, all grumpy and pouty to be seated next to the man he hated the most in the whole world – now it just freaks people out, since he married said man. Every time he tells some old story of his childhood and Blaine ends up being in it, people look various shades of uncomfortable. At the beginning, this would annoy him. Now he has fun with it, much to Blaine's dismay, never missing the chance to stress the fact that, by the time he was six years old, Blaine was already a man.

Last but not least, the presents. The majority of them had already been bought by the end of the first week of December – Kurt never liked the crowd in the shops much – but there was always some little present to buy here and there, and of course there was Dave's present from Leo. As a kid – even a very young one – Leo had an allowance that would allow him to buy his parents Christmas presents, which he did. But they were little things a kid could buy and, despite being very proud of what he could buy on his own, it was important to him to buy Dave and Kurt proper presents, so he would arrange to go out with one father first and then the other to choose the perfect thing that his parents would basically buy for each other on his behalf.

Now, if this was a funny, relaxed bonding moment between him and Dave, it would turn into a mission from God when he had to go out with Kurt to find something suitable to give Dave. His father would drag him all around the city – and that city could sometimes be New York, depending on what they were doing at the time – until Leo's eyes would literally beam with recognition, looking inside a shop window. In retrospect, Kurt was just trying to help, but the whole procedure was stressful nonetheless.

That is why he sworn that, as much as he loved Christmas, he would never become like his father when he grew up.

Unfortunately the oath was completely pointless, since the imprinting had already happened long before he made it. Kurt's idea of Christmas was already molding Leo's very festivity core, and that was perfectly clear, if not to him to everybody else, by the time he moved in with Adam. Their brand new, awfully small and messy house wasn't spared from the Christmas frenzy at all.

A tree was bought and with that enough decorations to cover their house and probably the whole college dorms too. Even Leo's room, usually the scene of a nuclear fallout, was tidied up and subjected to a full Christmas renovation. There were stickers of snowmen on the windowpanes, angels hanging from every handle and elves scattered all over the place. He even organized a small dinner party for the two of them and Annie the day before the family one he was going to attend at his parents' house.

His heart was slowly turning red and white like a candy cane. It was just a matter of time.

And then, one day of November, in his late 20s, almost completely out of his darkest hour, married and with a five years old son, he had woken up to find out that the transformation was complete. As far as Christmas was concerned, he had turned into his father.

It took him five minutes to accept his fate, really.

It took Blaine a little longer to get used to his lazy younger husband turning into a Christmas Nazi killer machine once a year – it took him a few years, to be honest, during which the number of their children tripled – but he did get used to it. So, he thinks he's ready to deal with him this year too, and that's where he's totally and catastrophically wrong.

Since the moment he was allowed to invite Matt to their annual Christmas lunch and, most of all, since the moment Matt called to say he was coming, Leo has been on cloud nine. Matt has a very special place in his heart. The guy was there when Leo had nobody else to turn to. He took him in, cared for him, gave him a place to stay and take a breath from the mess his life was at that time. And he put up with him, with all his coming and going, and never asked for anything in return.

Blaine is aware that, without Matt, he probably would have had nothing to return to and fix.
In some way, he and Leo own him everything they have now. That is why Blaine instantly agreed to have him for Christmas. He is even ready to bear with their inside jokes, that cultist language they use and their excess of intimacy and indifference for each other personal space.

What he hasn't prepared for is his husband's frenzy.

Leo is like his father, but not quite. He wants the house to be decorated, but he doesn't care about interior design. He doesn't choose color schemes or the perfect style. He just wants the house to look festive, and to smell of chocolate and cinnamon. He needs to feel the Christmas spirit. On December, his life must feel like he's living in one of those Christmas movies where the entire family get involved in the holiday madness, then Christmas risks to get ruined but it's obviously saved in the end. Possibly without the risking part.

And unlike Kurt, he likes to do things with his hands.

No place is more alluring to him than the Jo-Ann Store around Christmas. The first time ever Leo told him he was going there, Blaine had to wonder who was that young man claiming to be his husband but acting anything like him. He couldn't understand why in the world Leo would want to even pass by a store that he mostly associated with old ladies, crafty moms and preschool teachers. He didn't even know Leo was aware of such a store! It turned out Leo not only knew the store very well, but also knew how to use most of the things that were sold in there.

Leo has known how to use a glue gun on a piece of felt since the age of ten, and he still can't change a tire for his life. As far as stereotypes go, Blaine still wonder how nobody noticed he was on the gay-side before he was fifteen.

So, Blaine is not surprised when the door opens and lets in a gust of cold wind and snow, a huge cardboard box, followed by his husband and another tiny box, behind which he supposes there's his son. “Hi dad! We're back,” Leo says, putting down his box on the living room table, and taking off his gloves.

Blaine shivers. He's sitting on the couch, feeding one of the twins on his lap, while the other is in the sleeper next to him. “Every time you say that, a part of me crawls in a corner and cries,” he says, tilting his head back to have a kiss.

Leo chuckles and leans down to kiss him. “It didn't look like that last night,” he jokes.

“What didn't look like that last night?” Timmy asks, wandering blindly across the living room. Leo grabs him by his hood before he can crush against the sleeper and knock his sister over.

“Where are you going?” Leo asks.
“I don't know,” Timmy protests, trying to look around the box he's holding, and failing. “I can't see anything!”
Leo snorts, but tries not to be too obvious about it. Timmy is in that phase where children are filled with self-importance and get offended very easily. Blaine mocks Leo, saying he never came out of it.

“Here, let me,” Leo says, taking the box from his son's hands and putting it down on the table next to his own. Then he helps Timmy undress, since he's pulling at his scarf and he's more likely to strangle himself than taking it off.

“Dad! Dad!” Timmy says excitedly, wiggling away from his coat. He places both hands on the arm Blaine keeps bent to hold Logan against his chest. He is not jealous of his siblings – Blaine invested him with too much responsibilities to be really jealous – but he never misses the chance to touch his fathers and make his presence known every time they're holding one of the twins. “We bought tons of stuff!”

“I had a feeling you might have,” he says, glancing over at Leo. “Did you pillage the store?”

“There wasn't much left to pillage,” Leo comments. “But we got what we went there for. We have a lot of work to do.”

“Now?” Timmy asks, looking up. Logan follows his voice with adoring eyes.

“No, after lunch. Go wash your hands, I'll fix something up,” Leo answers. He waits for the kid to run to the first floor bathroom, and he sits next to Blaine, kissing him once more. “How was your day?”

“I got puked on twice, and I've changed a number of poopy diapers incredibly high for these two tiny things,” he answers. “How can they poop so much is behind me.”

“You promised me they will learn to clean themselves some day,” Leo reminds him.

“Well, Timmy did, so I just suppose they will do the same,” Blaine says very seriously, as this was a real scientific conversation.

“You suppose?”

Blaine shrugs. “Pooping is not an exact science,” he says.

Leo chuckles. “Right. Anyway, I'm sorry you had to stay here alone with them,” Leo says.
He rarely apologizes, but there's nothing he knows better than the dread of being left alone in the house with two newborns set to cry, poop and being hungry always at the same time. Blaine was out of town for three days last month and Leo almost had a breakdown.

That is why Blaine decided to take a break from work at least until the twins won't be so very tiny anymore. By then, he hopes Leo won't be so scared to do something wrong all the time and it'll be possible to leave him alone with them without him going insane. Taking a break wasn't a suffered decision, anyway. Blaine is so in love with the twins that he would spend hours just looking at them – he has always been emotional, but he's even more so now – so staying at home during these first few months to take care of them is not a burden at all. The only one complaining is Dotty, but nobody listens to her. Exactly as nobody listens to Mark, who's been trying to get in touch with Leo for two days now, but Leo is too busy decorating the house for Christmas to send him the fifty pages he wants, provided he wrote them at all.

“Don't worry,” Blaine says, leaving a kiss on his husband's forehead. Logan squirms between them, trying to get their attention. “As long as you have the heir with you, I've got everything under control.”

“That much I can do. Actually,” Leo says, gently pushing Harper's nose with a finger. She curls her lips in a concentrated pout as he tries to see what's happening to her face, “he's gonna help me decorating, so if we get these two beans napping, you've got yourself a free afternoon.”

“Deal.”

*

Despite a rocky beginning and the problems they still have dealing with two babies instead of one as they had planned, they have managed to slip into some sort of routine very quickly, possibly because Blaine made sure that it was established more around them than the twins.

He always put his kids first of course, but he knew that organizing his time and Leo's by only taking into consideration the children's needs wasn't going to work. He had tried it with Timmy – who's half the burden the twins are – and it didn't work. He and Leo need time alone, and Leo need to deal with things his own way in his own time, especially if it's something he has never done before.

So, Blaine gets more things done if he always takes care of feeding and changing the twins, rather than insisting on Leo doing that for once. In exchange, Leo prepares all their meals and usually helps Timmy with his homework too. As far as the twins are concerned, Leo takes them to sleep – something he likes to do because he can sing – to give Blaine time to relax and possibly spend some time with his older son. Blaine knows that if he keeps quiet and leaves him be, one day Leo will grab a bottle and feed Logan and Harper as if it were nothing special. Or he will take them out for a walk alone.

It was the same with Timmy. One day he was ignoring him, the day after he was playing together with him, blowing his nose and scolding him for something bad he had done. Now he acts like a father with him. He just needs to learn how to be a father of three.

That is exactly what happened today. After lunch, Leo took the twins to his and Blaine's bedroom, leaving his two men to tidy up the kitchen. They cleaned the table, swept the floor, and Blaine unloaded the dishwasher and loaded it again – him being reigning house champion of dishwasher's Tetris – as Timmy carefully dried all the dishes and put everything away. By the time Leo is back the kitchen looks brand new, and they can move to the living room table, where all the Christmas magic usually happens.

Timmy climbs on a chair and kneels on it, so to be tall enough to work freely on the table's surface. He grabs his box and starts taking out tools and materials looking like he knows exactly what he's doing. Blaine is so fascinated by Timmy's self-confidence around these things that he sits down too to observe him as he does things he himself knows nothing about.

This is not the first time Leo and Timmy do some project together. They started with fingers painting when Timmy was very young. There's a whole gallery of his masterpieces on the wall of Leo's office, showing the evolution of his son's painting skill through time, from two to approximately six years of age, when he stopped wanting to paint with his fingers because it was a thing for little kids. Then they moved to polymer clay – which is something Timmy goes crazy for, so it is expected to be a long lasting passion – but Blaine knows for a fact that one of Leo's Christmas presents for Timmy this year is going to be his very own first resin figurine to paint – just like those Leo paints –, and Blaine can't wait to see his son's face when he'll open the box and see it.

“So, what are you two making today?” He asks, as pieces of colorful thin cardboard are taken out of their packages and placed in orderly manner on the table.

“Cardboard characters and felt stockings,” Timmy answers. He can't look up because he's too busy sorting out the pieces of felt by color and size, but he's not ignoring his father. In fact, he continues to speak. “Dad's gonna let me use the glue gun this year.”

Blaine can hear the excitement in his voice and chuckles. Apparently, he's gonna witness one of the many rites of passage his son will have to face. Who could have known! “Good for you,” he says. “Can I help?”

Timmy thinks about it for a moment, and then grabs some black cardboard and gives it to his father, together with a pair of round tip scissors and a pencil. “Draw circles on the cardboard and then cut them. We need two sizes, smaller for the eyes and bigger to make buttons and such.”

“Timmy doesn't like to cut,” Leo explains with a smile as he gives his son some pre-cut shapes he can use to draw the characters on the cardboard.

“It's boring, so you can do it,” Timmy decides. He bends over on the table, keeping the cardboard still with his whole body as he carefully draw the silhouette of a snowman, his tongue out in concentration.

Blaine accepts his sad fate with a patient sigh – after all newbies are expected to do the most boring jobs – and he concludes that he can very well make some conversation while he draws circle after circle. “So, did you hear from Matt? When is he coming?” He asks.

Leo has laid down a sheet of paper, and on it he's placing polymer clay balls. He carefully made them one by one, all the same freaking size. “He'll get here on the 23h. It's a long trip, so I thought he could arrive one day early and get some rest before the dinner.”

“And spend more time with you,” Blaine jokes.

“That too, yeah.” Leo smiles. He doesn't even bother to defend himself because it would be pointless. Blaine knows how excited he is to have Matt in the house.

“Things with his family are still bad?” Blaine asks. He knows Matt and his parents weren't in good terms back then, but it was more than ten years ago. Things change. Even Leo, who still hates Kurt enough to avoid him as much as he possibly could, found some common ground with him. Sort of. He's working on it, at least.

“Last time he heard from them was five years ago. His cousin was getting married, and his mother specifically called him to tell him not to come,” Leo says. “This answers your question?”

“Geez,” Blaine comments. “Every time you think your faith in humanity is restored, there's always someone ready to prove you wrong.”

Unlike all the other children who look like they're not listening to the nonsense their parents say, but they actually hear everything, Timmy is a very serious kid, so he always kinda looks like he's listening to something and judging the crap out of it too. “Who's Matt?” He asks, without looking up. He drew three snowmen and now he moved on to Rudolph. The reindeer's red rounded nose is pretty challenging, so the inches of tongue out of Timmy's mouth are slowly increasing.

“He's dad's friend,” Blaine answers. “A very tall one.”

“Taller than Adam?” Timmy asks. Leo and Blaine keep track of his height since he was a baby, and seeing his marks on the door going higher and higher is one of the things that make Timmy prouder. He declared a long time ago that he wants to be tall when he grows up – he's absolutely convinced that it will depend on him – and so tall people fascinate him as if they found some height secret they might be willing to share.
At the moment, the taller person in his life is Adam, who beat the ultimate record by being even taller
than his fathers, something that Timmy, in his infinite love and adoration for both his parents, would have never thought possible, until one day he was old enough to see with his own eyes that it was an undeniable truth. So, being shorter or taller than the current champion is a very important matter to him.
It's the first question he asks right after the name.

Blaine frowns, as he tries to mentally compare the two men. “Let's see...”

“Yes, he is,” Leo answers, easily enough. “Matt is definitely taller than Adam. A lot taller, actually.”

“Of course your father would know that,” Blaine says. Leo pretends he didn't hear that.

Luckily, Timmy doesn't get sarcasm yet, but he looks up. “Really?” He asks, bewildered. Is there any limit to how much a person can grow? “How tall?”

“Well, I think you will see that soon. He's gonna stay with us a few days at Christmas,” Leo answers, standing up and taking his tray of little polymer clay balls with him to the kitchen where he will cook them in the oven. “Actually, I think you will like him. He's very funny.”

“Is he now?” Blaine asks, arching an eyebrow. He thinks he cut enough eyes and buttons for one day, so he stands up and follows his husband. Timmy rolls his eyes, sensing the change in tone in his parents' voices. Now they will hide in the kitchen to kiss, and then smooch forever. By the time they're back, it'll be summer again.

*
On December 23th – a date that, in the Anderson Karofsky-Hummel household will be compared from now on to the Moon landing or the Berlin Wall fall as far as enthusiasm and emotional investment are concerned – the house itself seems to shake in anticipation of Matt's arrival.

The house is so shiny as Blaine has never seen it before with Leo inside since the day he bought it.
Rooms have been tidied up, bathrooms have been cleaned, children have been bathed, and the t-shirt of the great occasions has been put on some very skinny jeans of which Blaine was mildly suspicious but didn't say anything about.

Matt called a couple of hours ago, checking in with Leo and assuring him that, despite the snow in New York, the airport was still open and his flight had left on time, but Leo was in such a frenzy after the call that Blaine had to sent him playing videogames with Timmy to calm down. It was either that or knocking him down for good with a baseball bat.

That proved to be a great idea. Matt is expected to arrive any minute now, and Leo and Timmy are still sitting on the carpet, shooting at pink baloons and collecting coins as they ride little dragon-like creatures that look like dinosaurs but, as Blaine's been instructed multiple times by his own son, are something called Drath. He doesn't know and doesn't want to know more than that. Blaine is pretty content just with sitting on the couch and trying to read a book over the pew pew sound and the annoying music of the videogame.

When the doorbell finally rings, Leo pauses the game without warning – something he never does because there's a gamer rule in the house, and in fact Timmy instantly protests – and drops the controller on the floor, running towards the entrance, his socked feet padding on the parquet. "I get the door!"

Blaine doesn't even move, he just keeps reading. Hopefully, withouth the music, he will finally manage to finish this page. "I wasn't even dreaming of doing that for you," he says. "Anyway, if you moved so fast any other day of the year, we would have a lot more free time, you know that?"

"Shut up, Blaine!" Leo screams from the entrance, and then opens the door with a big, beaming smile.

Behind it, Matt is smiling. The mask of usual calmness and perfect relaxation as always straightening his features, making him look a lot sweeter than his sharp bone structure should make possible. "Hey, bro!" His smile widens, as he shivers a little. With his simple purple hoodie and a pair of jeans, he is – as always – pretty underdressed, especially for this time of the year in Lima, Ohio

Leo shamelessly throws his arms around his neck and hugs him. "Ah! You made it!"

"'Course I made it," he says smiling. He hugs Leo tight and smiles against his cheek as he leaves a small kiss there. "Even with my messed up sense of direction, it'd have been pretty impossible to miss your house. Looks like a freaking Harrods Christmas window minus the London look. "

Leo chuckles. "Hey, first rule of the house, never mock the motherfucking decorations, bro." He instantly falls back in their common language. "Christmas is a silly human tradition, but it's tradition and you get to respect that. But I can compensate for the missing London look by offering you tea." He grabs him by the hand and drags him along. "Come inside, I don't want you to freeze on my doorstep. It'd make a bad impression with the neighbors."

"You know what, I was expecting it to be colder. Instead look at me, came all the way down here without freezing my ass," Matt says conversationally as he walks in the sitting room, following Leo, and then stops when he sees everybody there. He lifts a hand to wave in mid air. "Hello, family!"

Leo smiles stupidly, as he always does when he's insanely happy. Having Matt meet his husband and children means way more than just a friend being introduced to his family. It's one of the most important people in his life meeting the others, having some of his loves in just one room. That always makes him happy, even more so when it's Matt who actually made it possible for all of them to be here. "So, you already know Blaine, of course..."

Blaine stands up from the couch and shakes his hand. "Hi, Matt. How are you?"
Hearing the noise Leo just made after opening the door, Timmy stood up to see what was going on and watched the stranger's entrance with curiousity, but he's cautious. So, he takes three steps forward to have a better look, but remaining in Blaine's safe surroundings.

"I'm fine, thanks," Matt answers, nodding at Blaine with a smile. "Thanks for having me,".

Leo points at Timothy. "And the blondie hiding behind his father is Timmy," he says with a smile.

"I'm not hiding!" Timmy says, instantly stepping forward to prove it.

Matt chuckles, amused at Timmy's instant display of bravery. "'Course you're not hiding, why would you? Ya look straight out some fairy tales book, lil' prince, you know? You seem cool," he says, his strong Texas accent seeping through each word that comes out of his broad mouth. He stands right in front of Timmy in all his impossible height, and then he kneels, lifting an arm. "C'mon, gimme a high one. I'm Matt, nice to meet ya."

Timmy looks at him in complete awe. Matt is the longest, tallest human being he has ever seen. He can't even believe his eyes. Matt must definitely be a giant, there's no other explanation. That, he thinks, that is how tall I wanna be. He gives Matt a big five, his initial ditrust of him dissolving into admiration. "You talk strange," he notices, tho. He is not that used to hear different accents, except when his dad takes him on holiday somewhere far far away where they don't even speak English and he doesn't understand a word.

"That's cos I'm from Texas, lil' bro," Matt explains, nodding, as he pretends to wear a cowboy hat and tilts it. "The Lone Star State. All hail the mighty State! So wonderful, so great!" He half-sings the anthem of his motherland.

Leo chuckles, shaking his head. "You're such a clown!"

Timmy beams. "I know where Texas is!" He exclaims, happily. School is not exactly is favorite thing – except for sports, he plays a lot of them – but he does his best to get good grades because he knows it's important. So, every time he actually knows something and he can show the world that he knows it, he simply has to say it. He lost count of the times his teacher rolled her eyes and told him to raise his hand to speak before actually speaking. "It confines with New Mexico and... Oklahoma and... Louisiana!" He frowns, shaking his head. "But I've never been to Texas. Isn't it right, daddy?"
He keeps track of all the places he has been – he's even got a map on the wall in his room for that –, and at such a young age he's been in a lot of places already.

"No, honey. You've never been to Texas," Blaine confirms.
"Great, you're not missing out," Matt smiles, standing straight on his legs once again. "A bunch of cows, some men with a very weird accent, cowboys and deserts. It's prettier here, innit?"

He doesn't know about that. He likes Lima, and he likes snow, but when he goes visit his aunt Tana – the older one, not the girl he's in love with and whom he's gonna marry, who's also is his aunt Tana – at her holiday house in California, he really likes the sea too. So he's pretty sure he would probably also like the desert. And he likes all the animals.

"I like cows," he says. But then the long, articulate speech he was about to make on farm animals and the like just disappears from his mind, as he gets distracted again by Matt's impossible height. "You are taller than Adam for real."

Leo chuckles. "I told you he was."

Matt laughs his deep, throaty laugh. The kid is something. "Hey, you wanna try and see the world from up here?" He asks. A lot of kids come to the restaurant where he works, and he's used to deal with them. The older ones can be tricky and the very small ones are too easily scared, but he's got no problem with children Timmy's age, especially if they are amusing like him.

Timmy beams. No offer has ever been better than the one that has just been made to him. He turns to Blaine, almost jumping on the spot. "Can I?"
Blaine scoffs a little laughter. What can he say? Apparently all the men in his life are destined to fall in love with this insanely tall human being. "Of course you can."
Matt leans in and takes him from under his arms, turning him around in mid air with a little bounce and then placing him effortlessly on his shoulders. "Now sit. Don't worry, I've gotcha."

"Whoa!" Timmy drapes himself around Matt's head like an headband. "Look, dad! I can almost touch the ceiling from here!"

Blaine spent a fortune on a house with ceilings so high that you can bring a 7' tall Christmas tree inside and still have room for an entire new tree just on top of it, so Timmy's sense of measures is a little messed up, but he's cute anyway. "I think you just bought him," Leo says to Matt.
Blaine chuckles in amusement and tenderness. "You're so very tall, powder puff."

"It's cool, innit? Maybe one day you gonna get that tall all on your own," Matt comments. He puts Timmy back down on the floor and then turns to Leo. "But what, did you trick me into coming into this snowy hellhole using two newborn twins as a bait and now you keep 'em hidden? I shall ask for a refund on my tickets."

"Don't get all sober on me. I never lied," Leo answers. "I actually have two grubs to show you."

Honestly, Blaine was fearing this very moment. Whenever these two are together, they progressively lose the use of English in favor of some sort of hellish lingo, coming directly from that weird comic, videogame, book or whatever it is that they both read. Soon they will start talking about trolls and doomed timelines and creepy creatures with clubs as weapons, and he will totally feel left out. "You have two what?" He tries to ask, knowing that he will be ignored.

"What's a grab?" Timmy asks too.

Leo doesn't answer to either of them, equally caught up in Matt and the thought of showing him his two tiny, perfect twins. "Follow me, they were put deeper inside the hive, because me and Timmy were playing Castle Cloud."

The twins have been soundly asleep in their nest-shaped bed for the past two hours. They're never so good, so Leo mentally thanks them for this special favor they're making him as he and Matt quietly enter their room. Matt gets closer to the cradle and looks at the two babies. They're pink and chubby, and they sleep very close together, almost using each other as a teddy bear.

He's excited to know Leo's kids, this is the first time he comes around since they've been born. He's seen pictures, of course, but that's not quite the same when it comes to babies. "You gotta know, we've been following the updates of Facebook", he says, referring to their old cosplay group. Leo posts pictures of his family on the social network whenever he can. The only thing that makes him more bearable than those sappy mothers posting lame poetry about their precious children is that he's stupid. Under the very first photo of the twins he posted, he wrote I made this, and that one was followed by other photos with similar captions. "How Logan doesn't seem to be able to ever stop crying and messin' around? We already call him Baby Sufferer."

Leo chuckles. "He's kind of a Baby Sufferer, indeed. He usually cries when his sister is not around, or when he thinks she's not there because he doesn't see her," he says, as he proudly shows him his two little sleeping beans. "This one is Logan," he points at the baby on the left without hesitation. People can't tell them apart, but they look very different to him already. "And she's Harper."

Timmy followed them upstairs, possibly because he wanted to understand what those grubs were. He must admit that he's a little disappointed to find out that they were just his little siblings. He looks inside the cradle, like Matt and his father are doing, and he doesn't do anything that could disturb the babies. He's a good big brother.

"Ah, you came along!" Matt exclaims, when he looks down and notices him. The twins are cute, and he looks at them with the obvious adoring smile he'd always thought he'd reserve for Leo's offspring, but Timmy's way funnier for him, because he's interactive. "Tell me, how d'you deal with these two nuggets? How do you baby even?"

"They are okay," Timmy says with a shrug. He always acts like he doesn't care much, but the truth is, he's very protective with his siblings. Nobody touches them or gets closer without him noticing. "But they cry a lot, and they never wanna sleep. But I can change them and give them their bottles, and they smell like cake."

"They don't smell like my kind of cake," he says, chuckling, as he sits on his heels in front of Timmy. "And you wanna know what that cake is?"

Timmy nods. Whenever someone talks about cakes you don't know anything about, you must listen to them. That's a rule. You never pass on info about cakes.

"It's a slime pie. A pie I make with the green sopor slime from my cocoon. And, Lil' bro, it tastes like a motherfucking miracle," Matt says with a creepy grin that instantly turns him into Gamzee.
Timmy blinks and actually takes a step back, turning to Leo. "Leo?"
"He's joking," his father says.

Leo's word reassure him, but not quite. So he keeps his distance. "What's a... you know, that thing you said."

Matt laughs, standing up. "You'll know soon enough. Very soon, actually."
He's brought Christmas presents for everyone, and he got Timmy all seven books of Homestuck, his very own collection, the new and improved collector's edition. When he told Leo, he had to make him promise that he was not going to steal his son's present.

All the noise makes Logan jerk and stirr. He mewls a little, drawing Leo attention to him. "We're waking up the little beasts," he murmurs. "Timmy, why don't you go see if daddy can put some tea on? I'll show Matt his room."

Matt's words made him very curious, but Timmy is always ready to answer a call to arms, since he's been taught to be the Responsible Child. He nods and disappears out of the bedroom and down the stairs.
"Your grubs are cool, bro. The big one too," Matt says, looking down at Leo with fondness. "You got a good thing goin' on here. I'm proud of ya. Happy for ya, too."

"The big one's not my doing. Blaine did most of the job," He plays it down as he walks along the corridor towards the guest room. "He was already polite when I met him."

"Yeah? I dunno. By the way the lil' blonde dwarf looks at ya, I'd say you've been at least as important in his upbringing." He follows him, one long step after the other, getting closer to Leo just to share the same warmth as they walk.

Leo smiles, sweetly. "Thanks. It's important for me when people say that... but you know that."

"'Course I know," he smiles too, affectionately, and reaches out for him, placing one of his long, wide hands on Leo's head and ruffling his already pretty messy hair. "You're doing a great job."

"Thanks. Shit! I do say thanks a lot, right?" He sighs and opens a door, showing him inside. "Here."
The room is smaller than Leo's, but it's a double nonetheless, and the bed is big. There's a huge window, a desk and a big wardrobe. "There was smaller room with a private batroom, but it's next to the twins' and you will thank me tonight."

"You shitting me, bro, I'm already thanking you," Matt walks in and drops his bag on a chair. "This room is twice the size of my apartment."
He opens the bag and takes out four presents he brought with him. The twins have the bigger one, a proper twin baby gym he found online, specifically studied with activities that involve both babies, in which they pull each other up, play with shared toys hanging from the structure and so on. "There's something for the lil' grubs in here too. There are labels everywhere, can't miss it," he says, as he passes the wrapped up presents to Leo. "Put 'em under those majestic Christmas tree you got yourself in the sitting room, will ya?"

"Oh, you shouldn't have!" Leo quickly says with a smirk as he goes through the boxes. "But I kinda like that you did. Is this for me?" He's got Matt the new Gamzee hoodies. Hussie got them out, like, ten days before, and Leo both threatened the life of whoever among their common friends had even thought about buying one for Matt, and basically paid a shitload of money to have them both shipped to Lima in about three days.

"That's for ya, yeah." The box contains a vinyl figure, but not a kit because it was custom-made, designed after a Gamkat fanart. He knows Leo will go crazy about it, scream in ecstasy and probably lose his husband after all the drooling he will do seeing it. But, Matt thinks a figure like that is worth ruining a marriage for a day or two. "No sneak peeks. Get 'em under the tree, now.

Leo frowns. "Are you throwing me out?"

Matt laughs. "I'm tryina get those presents under the tree, cos I know once they get there they're sacred and you can't take peeks anymore," he answers. He knows Leo's Christmas rules well enough to use them against him. But then he smirks widely, showing a bit of his teeth. "But if ya think I'm gonna let you out of here without some motherfucking cuddles first, bro, you're delusional."

Leo puts the presents on the desk and looks at him the same old way he has always looked at him, with a different kind of love that goes a long way back. "If you thought you were gonna stay here without cuddling me like a good moirail, you were delusional."

Matt wraps his arms around him, pulling him in for a tight, warm hug. He doesn't let him go for two full minutes, just standing there, hugging him without even moving a limb. Leo clings to him, grabbing his hoodie and hiding his face in his neck. It feels so good to have Matt here, to be able to hug him and talk to him in person. They text each other a lot, but they haven't seen each other often since the twins were born, and even before – when they were in the making, so to speak – there hasn't been much time. Leo misses this a lot. It's almost a physical need, one he realizes he has only when he can actually touch Matt.

Matt feels the change in him, he can read his body through the tensing and relaxing of his muscles, since there was a time when that was the only way Leo would let him know what he felt. "Don't start gettin' all emotional on me, now," He smirks and takes a little bite out of Leo's neck. "Your husband's downstairs."

"...and he knows what it means that you are here," Leo says, stubbornly refusing to let go. It's true, Blaine agreed on having Matt over knowing that he and Leo were going to stay too close to each other not to be uncomfortable for him on some level. "He's not even grumpy."

"That's cos he's a motherfucking saint," he smiles, kissing him on his cheek, on his forehead and only then, very naturally, letting him go. "Thanks again for having me. For good ol' times' sake when it was me havin' ya."

Leo smiles, and then sighs, before this becomes too overwhelming. "Okay. Enough emotions for now! I'll leave you settle. You can use the bathroom down the hall, towels are there. And when you feel like it, you can come downstairs, there's tea ready for you."
Matt smirks. "I'll be there before you can say motherfucking miracle out loud."

He leans in and kisses him on the cheek. "I'm counting on it. I brought you here for your miracles."
But indeed, Matt is already one on his own.

THE POSSUM STRATEGY

The bus from Columbus arrives in New York at 2 am. The lamplight in the parking lot has been broken since Leo can remember, so all the bus drivers keep the bus lights on to let people see where the fuck they're going.

Getting off the bus, nobody is speaking. A ten hours drive through the nothingness of the highway usually does that to you. It destroys your will to socialize, if you ever had one. And if it doesn't, the person sitting next to you for the most part of those ten hours probably takes care of that instead. Buses are way cheaper than flights, so more weirdos are able to afford them. Another happy perk of being broken!

In the distance, sirens whine continuously. This city is never really quiet. There's always some criminal to catch or someone to scrap from the ground after an incident. It's like nothing ever stops, and it's tiring even thinking about it. Leo used to love New York when he was younger. It had all the lure of the big city and the reasons why he would fly there – it was first class flights back then – were wild and exciting and made him feel all grown up an important. Now some very specific areas of the city are off limits for him – even if he's not totally aware of avoiding them – and the only reason why he drags himself here is because Matt doesn't ask many questions and he has a bed he's willing to share.

Leo never has any luggage – just his ever present backpack – so he leaves the queue of worn out men and women to retrieve their suitcases and accesses the subway, which looks eerie at this hour of the night with its flickering neon lights and the occasional junkie scowling at him when he passes by. He walks all the way down to the end of the platform and finds a bench nobody's sleeping on. He sits down, stretching his long legs on it to occupy as much space as he possibly can. He doesn't want to risk anybody getting too close.

The display over the track says the next train is in fifteen minutes. It'd be a good time to listen to some music, if his player hadn't died two days ago. He's got the charger with him – he always does – but he hasn't seen a viable plug since Kurt thrown him out of the house a week ago. This time it was because he was a little tipsy, the time before it was because he was with someone. But it wouldn't matter, really. The truth is, Kurt doesn't want him to ruin the perfect family picture he and David and Tana make together. He can't stand the fact that the boy he was before doesn't exist anymore. This is him now, but he's not exactly as Kurt wants him, and so he has to go.

Usually, when Kurt slams the door on his face, he sleeps around. Finding someone willing to take him home is not that hard. Then, all it takes is to give them enough reason to keep him 'till morning, and he's got a talent for that. After that, he spends the day around until it's time to find another place to stay. It's not as hard as it seems, but it's tiring and he barely sleeps at all. That is why sometimes he needs a place to catch his breath, somewhere he knows he won't have to earn his stay. And that place is never ever Kurt's house.

The train arrives on time, and it's almost empty. He chooses one of the last coaches and sits down again. He doesn't need to check the route, he knows it by heart. In fact, he keeps his head down, distractedly looking at his shoes. It's his favorite pair of All Stars, navy blue with a black Hawaiian floral print stripe on the outside. He bought that in Maui three years ago and he barely wore anything else since then. When he saw them in the shop window, he fell in love with them – love is not common between him and clothes, so when it happens it must be fulfilled at any cost – and he was excited that, given the flowery pattern, they didn't come only in girl sizes. He remembers himself as he suddenly stops talking about his latest fixation – whatever was at the time – and enters the shop as if compelled by an external force. He remembers that part of the day, he never thinks about the rest of it.

The trains stops again and he stands up, pivots around a pole and slips out of the coach in a fluid motion. It's 2.30 am and the station is empty. He's the only one who gets off. Out of the subway, the sirens are still whining in the distance but the city looks abandoned. This is a poor neighborhood, such as you can't find in Lima, which is a little, simple town but it's not poor. Most of the families in Leo's neighborhood are middle-class, and even when they are not, they're still not as poor as some of the families here. He comes from a place of small houses, with their own driveways and enough space to accommodate families of four and fives. Here, everywhere you look there are only tall buildings with twenty or thirty tiny apartments inside, where couples with one or two kids live in an almost suffocating space.

Matt lives in one of these decaying old buildings, at the end of a street that presents nothing else except for a tiny convenience store and a small gray park that looks dangerous during the day, let alone at night.
The front door has been broken since the first time he came here more than five years ago, you only need to push it to get inside.

Third floor, apartment 4C. He counts the floors as he climbs up the stairs – Matt said there was an elevator once upon a time, when the building was new, but then it broke down some time around the '80s and the owner had it removed, so now there's only an empty space in the stairwell. He rings the doorbell and waits, ears tensed to catch the slow rustle of Matt's steps from the bedroom, but it never comes. The guy is usually home by two o'clock every night, but sometimes clients don't want to leave the restaurant or his boss keeps him there for an extra hour to clean the kitchen. Leo sighs and slides along the wall, curling up in a ball on the floor.

*

Sometimes clients just hate you and want to see you burn in the hell of a kitchen you've been working for the past ten hours. Matt is quite sure about that, because it's either that – people being douchebags – or someone up there personally hates him for something he did in his previous life.

They usually enter the restaurant two minutes before his boss is about to declare the kitchen close, so he's forced to wait on them. A table must be prepared. A kitchen that has been just cleaned must be readied at once and, of course, cleaned again after. A smile has to be retrieved from the deepest abyss of your darkened, annoyed, now homicidal soul.

Matt is a very very calm and steady person – people who don't know him sometimes think he's almost lethargic – but tonight he has been a step away from murder. He was ready to go home – just waiting for permission – when the couple entered the room. He was short, sturdy and arrogant, and she was a cheerleader. Not that Matt thinks every blonde girl with a shrill laugh is a cheerleader. She was actually dressed as one. And he knew they were going to be trouble the moment they sat down, not even asking if the kitchen was still running.

The guy was trying to impress her with what he clearly thought was self-confidence and was just bad manners, on account, Matt thinks, of a very small penis and not much else to show for himself. She was okay as far as girls with no brain go – again, not a prejudice, she opened her mouth and suddenly the entire human race took a step back in cognitive development – but she had an incredibly annoying voice and suffered from a chronic inability to decide what she wanted to eat. She kept Matt there waiting for an order for about twenty minutes, changing her mind at least three times until she ended up having just a salad, that she changed for a burger after she got it. Burger that she sent back because there was mayo in it – something that she hadn't asked Matt not to put in it. All the while the guy was treating him like a lower human being and making funny remarks – which weren't funny at all, actually – about Matt's strong Texan accent.

Matt is very proud of himself for having stirred clear from a double homicide. But after a night like this, all he wants is to fall on his bed, get to sleep fifteen hours and possibly be ready enough to go back to work tomorrow. It would be all he needs, really. It's not that much. Unfortunately, he knows from experience that the nights he needs peace the most are those he gets the least of it. And his knowledge of how his life usually goes is proven right once again as soon as he reaches the main door of his building.

There's nothing visibly different about it, it's even half closed as it usually is but he senses something. A vibration in the Force, he would say. He instantly knows the moment he steps into the building that this night is not over. He doesn't know how he knows – maybe he's really got a sixth sense or maybe it's just because he's unconsciously aware that it's been long enough for Leo to show up again – but he's not surprised when he glimpses what looks like just a bundle of clothes on the floor in front of his door.

Matt never knows when Leo will come around, but he always accepts his presence as a fact. After a day such as today he'd naturally have preferred not to find him here, but here he is and Matt sees no point in wondering why tonight of all nights. No matter the explanation he could come up with, Leo is here and he will take care of him because that's what he does, and that's why Leo is here. At least it's proof that he's still alive.

He steps right in front of him and sighs. “Come on, bro. You gonna get yourself dirty... ier than you already are,” he says. Matt never acknowledges the ridiculous amount of time that passes between one of Leo's visit and the other. It would only make the situation worse to count the days Leo has been out there fucking around. So he always acts like they have seen each other two hours earlier, or even less, and he never ever asks why Leo showed up. “Floor's filthy.”

Leo looks up, following Matt's endless legs. His big blue eyes look even bigger now that he's so skinny. "Wasn't that bad," he says. His voice is just a murmur, that's how he speaks these days. Everything in him screams insecurity. His only acts of bravery and self-assurance – throwing himself at people and acting out - are exactly the wrong ones.

"Please. I live here, you forgot?"

Only Matt's unshakebale calm stops him from wincing at the sight of the black-and-blue mark next to Leo's lips. This is not the first time Leo shows up a little bruised here and there, but they are usually signs that someone grabbed him too roughly – it's easy to leave marks on him now, even when you are gentle – but this one is pretty big, going from the corner of his mouth to almost half of his left cheek, and it's still bluish, meaning that it has been a strong blow and it's recent, let alone that it's on his face. It looks too much like a punch for comfort.

Matt pushes the question aside for the moment. He has learned that the only way to deal with Leo is sort out the priorities and take one step at the time. The first thing to take care of now is to get him inside and feed him, since he probably didn't eat anything on the way here, if at all in the past few days. Instead, he smiles and holds out his hand towards Leo to help him stand.

Leo grabs his hand, his long fingers closing around Matt's and clinging to them. There's always some sort of urgency in the way he touches him, as if he had been waiting for hours the moment to do so, which is probably true considering that his need for comfort and contact is what pushes him to jump on a bus to New York.

Once he's on his feet, he doesn't let go of Matt, tho. He just stands there, looking nervous, his head a little bowed and his backpack hanging from a shoulder. This is the way Matt is used to see him now. "So? You were around?" He asks, using his free hand to open the door.

They both know Leo is never just around New York – first because he lives 600 miles away and he has no reason whatsoever to come here, and second because New York is a dangerous place for him – but that's a code for You needed a place away from Lima . Leo appreciates Matt's choice of words. "Sort of, yes," he answers. He's forced to let go of Matt's hand when his friend steps aside to let him inside the house first.

This is not exactly politeness, Matt wants to get a good look at him and this is a more unobtrusive way to do it, instead of plainly ask him to be inspectioned. Leo's jeans and hoodie have seen better days and are ready to be set fire to, and his shoes are falling apart. Everything looks filthy, him included. He's clearly not been in his own home for at least a week – and Matt is not sure it has been his choice at this point – and he needs a shower and a good twelve hours of sleep.

"How's it goin'?" Matt asks casually as he closes the door and drops his bag on the couch. Luckily, he managed to tidy up a little two days ago, so the house looks good enough. Not that Leo would mind, but a warm, welcoming place always has a good effect on him.

"It's fine," Leo answers, but his voice says it's not. Besides, he never says his life sucks. When your life is in a persistent state of continuos sucking and not one day passes without it being bad, being fine means that he has not tried to cut his wrists just yet, which is a good thing. Even though Matt is quite sure Leo would never try to actually kill himself. He's destroying himself day after day, but it's not a completely deliberate act. Not as it would be if he popped too many pills and got it over with.

"Great. You hungry? I am," Matt says, heading for the kitchen. It's very small but functional, and that's all he needs from a kitchen since he spends barely any time home, let alone cooking. But, despite not being a cooking person himself, he understands the importance of having at least three proper meals a day. And he knows for a fact that, when left alone, Leo forgets to feed. And once again this is even scarier than if he starved himself on purpose. It means that he's so out of it that he can't take care of himself.

"I had a Snickers at the last service station," Leo declares as if it was enough to keep him going for the next two days. He sets his backpack down next to a kitchen stool. He never keeps it more than three feet away from himself. Matt is used to look around knowing that he will always find it somewhere next to Leo.

"'kay, but you see this shit, bro?" Matt opens the fridge and starts scavenging for food. He retrieves half a roasted chicken with some potatoes, and puts it on a plate, showing it to Leo. "It's half a ton of chicken, you gotta help me out here."

That chicken is in no way half a ton, but Matt always exaggerates the amount of food he has left in the fridge to give Leo the extra push he needs to accept his food offering. In fact, Leo nods and heads towards the kitchen cabinets to start setting the table, before remembering that he's been on the floor for the past hour and his hands weren't that clean even before. So, he stops at the kitchen sink first.

Matt takes another good look at him. If he thinks about Leo just about a year ago, he doesn't recognize the kid that is in front of him now. Leo has always been slim, but never skinny, never so sick-looking as he is now. And despite being dressed casually – actually Matt doesn't remember Leo ever wearing something that wasn't a shirt, a pair of jeans or a hoodie – he has never been so unkempt. It's almost like he doesn't care at all about himself, which is probably true. At some point his brain just switched off and Leo stopped being not only who he was before but himself altogether. He just stopped being somebody, for a lack of a better term. He went as close as possible to erase himself without actually dying.

Matt doesn't know exactly what happened. He never asked and Leo doesn't seem to want to talk about it. What he knows are the bits and pieces Leo gives away every now and then, and that Matt uses to put together the bigger picture. Leo was engaged with a girl when Blaine showed up again in his life. Leo was sure the two of them were going to be together again, but apparently Blaine disagreed and left again. From that moment on, everything went downhill.

Leo broke, that's the only way to describe how he's now unable to live his life. He barely reacts to what happens to him or around him. He doesn't think about the consequences of what he does to himself.
He just follows the needs and urges he has always had, but they are now twisted and aimed to destroy whatever is left of him. Matt knows that Leo's throwing himself at people is both a way to get revenge on the man, at least in his clouded mind, and a desperate cry for help. The point is Leo doesn't want anybody help but Blaine's. He's stuck in this loop where he hates this man with all he's got because he still loves him, and there's no way out of it. Sometimes it's too much even thinking about it.

Anyway, Matt doesn't delude himself. He is aware that he can't really fix him. He can only help him every time Leo asks for help, and give him the chance to take a breath before he goes right back drawning underwater. Matt swore to himself that he will always be there when Leo comes to him if that's what he has to do.
"D'you wanna go have a shower?" Matt asks, pushing away those thoughts and trying to focus on the task at hand, that is putting Leo back together. "I can set the table. Besides, that's my job."

Leo looks at him knowing that that is not an offer. In their world of coded sentences, Matt just told him that he has to have a shower and that refusing is not an option. Besides, he craves one. He has slept around, but it almost never was the case to stay for a shower. "That'd be nice," he murmurs.

Matt retrieves some sweatpants and a black shirt from his wardrobe and gives them to Leo.
Black, gray and purple are his colors of choice and almost everything he owns is in one of those colors. It wasn't really hard for him to find something suitable to play Gamzee when they were cosplaying. And he has always something suitable to lend to his Karkat when he needs clean clothes.

Leo notices the color combination – gray sweatpants, black shirt – and there's the smallest of changes in his eyes, but he doesn't say anything. He just turns around and walks towards the bathroom, his skinny self disappearing behind the door a moment after. Matt doesn't need to give him any other indications. They've been at it long enough for Leo to know what he can and cannot use and where to find it.

Matt sighs and walks back to the kitchen. He waits to hear the water flowing, and only then he puts the food in the microwave, and starts setting the table. After that, he waits for the chicken to be hot enough and divides it in two plates, giving Leo the biggest part and also the more potatoes. Then he sits on his stool and waits for him. Actually, he told Leo a lie because he is not hungry at all – he is too tired even for that – but he knows that if he doesn't have dinner with him, Leo will refuse to eat. The trick is to eat very slowly, let Leo finish his part and then offer him the other too.

Leo shows up fifteen minutes later. He's wearing the clothes Matt gave to him, which hang from his shoulders and hips. He washed his hair too, but he didn't dry it completely, so now his curls are less defined. "I think I finished your conditioner," he announces a little sheepishly.

Matt can't help but smile a little. Given the state his hair was in, it doesn't surprise him at all he needed all the conditioner he could find. There's no way out of those curls without. "Don't worry," he says, his voice a little softer. "You look good."

"Thanks," Leo says stiffly. Despite feeling a little more at ease than in any other place around Matt, it still takes time for him to let go. Right now, everything passes over him leaving no trace. He sits down and his stomach makes a very ominous sound.

Matt laughs, quiet loud actually, making him blush. "Eat, you must be hungrier than you thought," he orders playfully, pushing the plate towards Leo. And when Leo starts eating, he sets his mind to stun him with the tale of his adventure tonight. "You have no idea what happened at the restaurant," he says, picking at his food with fake enthusiasm. "It was ridiculous, dude, I'm tellin' ya. I'd have set the shit on fire out of this couple of idiots."

Matt proceeds to describe to him in great detail the couple that entered the restaurant right when they were about to close. He takes his time to tell him that the girl was still wearing her cheerleader uniform at that hour of the night and how she couldn't decide what to order for her life. And he doesn't forget to mention that the guy was treating him like he was some fucking minion or something. Leo just listens to him without saying anything. He mostly nods, making difficult to have a proper conversation, but he keeps eating the food in front of him, so Matt keeps going. "Man, you have no idea how much I wanted to tell him: dude, make no mistake, she's maybe gonna marry you but she's still gonna fuck the gardener."

Leo gives him a little smile, which is a victory in itself, but it's also very hard to watch. He used to have the brightest and most open smile Matt had ever seen. The smile of someone who had never been really sad to the point of forgetting how happiness feels like. And it was true that Leo had everything he wanted – so no reason to be sad – but it was also true that it was very easy to make him smile, and now it's almost impossible. Sometimes Matt looks at him and thinks that Leo has never been equipped to be sad, let alone broken like this.

Leo takes off another little piece of chicken meat from the otherwise stripped bone. "Was he so bad?" He asks.

Matt nods. "Yeah, and he was ugly as fuck. But I kept my smile on and delivered," he answers, actually proud of himself. To work as a waiter, being a decent human being not particularly inclined to killing other fellow human beings isn't enough. You must have a zen attitude, and possibly have been trained by some legendary master in the very heart of China itself. Matt considers his hellish teenage years in Texas his training.

"I had no doubt about that," Leo comments, still chewing. He eats slowly, but constantly – that didn't change one bit – so he has almost finished the chicken. He left all the potatoes, but that's only because he likes to eat them after.

Matt has been eating even slower, and mostly all the potatoes, so his chicken is still basically all there. "Here, eat this too. I'm already stuffed," he says as expected. He takes his piece of chicken and moves it to Leo's plate. "I'll steal a potato in exchange."

Leo glares at him as he eats one of his potatoes. He knows exactly what Matt is doing and he hates him a little for that because now that he started eating for real, he's hungry, and he's not strong enough to refuse. Matt knows him too well. "Won't you need this for tomorrow?" He tries anyway.

"Dude, I've got a shitload of food in the fridge and my refrigerator is stuffed," he says, smiling. This is actually true. He brings back more food from the restaurant than he can actually eat. "Besides, it's not like I won't have anything else to eat tomorrow. Eat the motherfuckin' chicken."

That gains him another little smile from Leo. For a little while they just chitchat, talking about Faridh, Matt's collegue at the restaurant, who apparently, can make you wanna marry the shit out of whatever meat he roasts but he can't make a sauce for his motherfucking life. But that conversation dries out pretty quickly because Leo doesn't really know the man, so it's even harder for him to find three words in a row to say about him.

That's why at some point he decides to change the subject, maybe hoping they won't talk about him, which is actually quite delusional. "Everything's fine with you?" He asks.

"Sure," Matt smiles. He appreaciates Leo's attempt to be polite. "Everything as usual. Missed you, tho."

Leo looks at him, his long eyelashes still give his eyes a languid look. He finished the chicken, so he's now eating potatoes, one by one with his fingers. "I missed you too."

Matt arches an eyebrow, but keeps smiling. "Yeah? Could've come earlier then. Been busy, I get?" He finally nods towards Leo's face. "What about that?"

Leo instantly understands what Matt's talking about, but he fully believes that ignoring something will make other people ignore it too, even if it's big, awfully on the indigo-side and right there on his face. "What?" He asks casually.

Matt doesn't lose his smile. "The bruise," he says patiently, leaning against the back of the stool. "Some fight?"

Leo sighs and looks down, but there are no more potatoes there to distract him. By the way he's avoiding Matt's gaze and fidgeting on that stool as if it burned, this must be something shameful. "A disagreement," he concedes.
"Yeah?" Matt presses him, gently. "'bout what?"

Leo knows that he can avoid answering now, but Matt is going to ask him later. There's no way he's gonna leave it at that. "A guy in a bar," he finally answers. "He thought I should suck him off."

Matt never has the reaction you would expect. In fact, he didn't scowl at the clear action of violence. He arches an eyebrow, laughing instead. "Wow. How dare him," he mocks him.

Leo turns to glare at him very quickly, a look of outrage in his eyes. He's one step away from getting really really mad. Matt knows that – he knew that even before saying those words – and he's satisfied with it. He's always happy when he manages to get some sort of genuine emotion out of leo, especially when Leo feels so closed as he did when he came in.

There are things that Leo has never wanted to do and he still doesn't – which gives Matt hope for the future, because it means that Leo is not so far gone as to accept to do anything, even things that have always made him uncomfortable, like giving oral sex. That spark of self-respect in Leo's eyes when he playfully suggested that the man didn't ask for the Moon, that How dare you! You know me better than that that lied in the glare he shot at him warmed Matt's heart. He doesn't turn it into a sappy thing, tho.

Instead, he laughs amusedly. "Sorry, man. Just joking. You're right." He leans in on the table, kneeling on the stool, and pulls back Leo's bangs to look at his face better from up close. The bluish tinge of the bruise fades to green at the edges, especially around his lips. It looks pretty rough. "Did he hurt you bad?"

"Yeah," Leo mumbles. He doesn't move away, but he doesn't look directly at him either. "He was drunk and he was angry because apparently he thought I was going to do it, something he decided for himself, of course. This and a couple on my stomach were his retaliation."

Matt cringes inside at the awful details Leo casually adds like that. This means it was not just a blow, it was a beating, which makes everything more worrying. "Men can be dicks," he comments smiling, though. He tries not to make a big deal out of it because he knows that that usually scares Leo away. He doesn't want to be scolded for the risks he takes, even when he very well deserves to be. Matt will find a way to do it without being so direct. He carefully touches Leo's face around the bruise with his fingertips. "We think having one entitles us to be one."

Leo tilts his head to the side and gives him a knowing look. "Luckily, I know for a fact that size is not indicative of how much you can be one," he says, hinting at the burden God blessed Matt with.

That is without any doubt a full-fledged joke. Matt knows he won the night. "Thanks, that's flattering," he laughs as he climbs off the stool and starts cleaning out. "You planning on stayin' a while?"

Leo seems hesitant, but eventually he decides to speak. "Can I stay a couple of nights? Kurt's leaving for Broadway in two days."

Bingo, again! Matt'd like to be so lucky and intuitive with lottery numbers as well. Leo's relationship with both his fathers have never been actually easy as far as he knows, but Leo and Kurt have never really found a way to deal with each other after Blaine entered Leo's life. Kurt has always been against him – no blaming him for that – but apparently he's not doing a very good job in dealing with Leo without Blaine either, which is sad but unfortunately very common. Matt's parents couldn't deal with him either, after all. Sometimes parents just can't do their job, that's proof enough of them being also human beings, Matt supposes.

Leo can't live under Kurt's roof for more than a couple of months before they fight and either he runs away or Kurt throws him out. Matt doesn't want to judge Kurt as he doesn't judge Blaine – he saw the man twice in his life and all he has of him are good memories, so he knows the story must be a little more complicated than what Leo makes it out to be, especially because Leo tends to see only his point of view – but he's the one who's dealing with the consequences of both Kurt and Blaine's actions, and sometimes that makes him a little resentful towards them.

"Fine by me," he nods as he puts everything away in the sink or in the drawers of the kitchen. Leo never stays for more than a couple of days anyway, and sometimes not even that long. It's not uncommon for Matt to wake up the day after Leo arrived to find him gone already. "Wanna get some sleep now?

Leo looks at him and nods. He's visibly restless. He keeps opening and closing his hands, his fingers are always busy combing his hair or pulling at his shirt. He tries to be casual about it, but his nerves are taking over and quickly hiding his hands in his pockets when he realizes what he's doing doesn't do him any good.

What pushes him to come all the way here to New York is always his need for closeness. He meets with tons of people every day, he gets intimate with most of them, but he's not close to anyone. Leo is not build to be alone. As much as he acts like he can do just fine on his own, he can't. He never could, actually. He's one of those people who need to feel loved all the time, and your love for him must be strong, your love declarations to him must be reiterated continuously.

So, it's easy to see how much his current situation is far from what he longs for.

While it's easy for him to find someone to fuck him senseless, he burned so many bridges in his own hometown that there's no one left there willing to tend to his needs. When Leo shows up on his doorstep, what he's really looking for is warmth, it's a hug. The fact that cuddles always turn into sex with him is just the way he deals with human contact when people he loves are involved. The two things are strictly connected for him, as if one thing was the direct consequence of the other. He always perceives sex as a form of love, another way – the best and stronger – to be with you.

What he lets perfect strangers do to him in the bathroom of a bar has nothing to do with any of this, it actually twists how he lives his sexuality. That is why it's horrifying that he does it on purpose, knowing what it will do to him after.

Knowing all this, Matt is not surprised when Leo drapes himself around him the moment they are in bed. A more peaceful, enclosed space, and speaking in wishpers help them getting closer. It doesn't take long before Leo asks for a kiss and another, until Matt can expose the other bruises on Leo's stomach.

He makes sure of one thing before giving in, and that is Leo is present to himself while they are together.
This is the only thing he has always asked him, that Leo doesn't use him as he uses the other men he goes with. When Leo's in his bed, he must know where he is. But Leo's eyes are not lost for once, when he looks into them, so Matt's kisses get deeper and hungrier, as they cut a little piece of that night for themselves before falling asleep.

*

The first thing Leo sees when he wakes up is the giant poster of the Homestuck's Subjugglator on the wall. That alone would have given away whose room he was sleeping in, but luckily he doesn't need any reminder today. His mind is clear, he knows where he is and what he did last night. Plus, the smell from the kitchen speaks of milk and coffee, and he can hear the faint clinking of spoons. Not many people except Matt would be making him breakfast nowadays.

He would like to stay in bed a little longer, but he knows that if he waits Matt might show up with a tray – true story – and that would be very embarrasing. So, he yawns and stretches as much as he can, then rolls out of bed. He shows up in the kitchen yawning and scratching his head, and what he sees makes him burst out laughing. "What?"
Matt looks up and smiles at him; a bright, open smile that looks bigger under the white paint around his mouth. He wears a huge purple hoodie on a pair of skinny black jeans that makes his endless legs look even more endless. On his head, his old yellow and orange horns, as steady and natural as if they were real, in a mess of his wild black locks. He's dressed as Gamzee, given or taken a couple of details, and everything looks exaggerated in him this morning.

"What are you doing?" Leo asks, chuckling.

Before even speaking one word, Matt gives him a headband with chubby little horns on it, and Leo realizes that his black shirt and gray sweatpants make him a perfect Karkat. "Oh, so that's what we're doing," he says, smirking. Yesterday, he wouldn't have had the strenght to keep this up, but he woke up happy and Matt even painted himself gray. How can he not play along? "When I open my eyes in the morning, given that I do open my eyes in the morning, which is not a given with you fucker around, the last thing I want is to find you messing around with my fucking breakfast," he mutters grumpily as Karkat would do.

Only then Gamzee!Matt grins – a creepy smile that shows phony pointy teeth – and speaks to him, and luckily he's not sober. "Mornin' bro! Thought you could use some motherfucking miracle today," he says. And he's incredibly good at playing Gamzee, even his voice sounds perfect. "Wanna know what I came up with?"

Matt uncovers one by one all the bowls he's got in front of him on the counter, each one containing a different ingredient. Leo spots flour, eggs, and milk, but it's the little bottle of bright green food coloring that makes it instantly clear for him. "No fucking way," he says, chuckling again. Matt laughs, seeing his bewildered, happy face. For a moment it's like they were back in time, when Leo was sixteen and they would roleplay all day long. "I'm not baking you a fucking slime pie, you ridiculous, crazy, idiotic clown."

"Aw, come on, bro!" Matt comes around the counter, and he's all over him the moment after. "You know you wanna bake my pie. Bake my pie." His body invades Leo's personal space and his face occupies all his view. For a moment, all Leo can see, touch and smell is Matt, and the feeling is so good that is almost too overwhelming.

Leo smiles sheepishly. "Goddamnit! Fine, but only if you shut the fuck up," he says. "You're creeping me out."

Matt lets out a loud and eerie laugh before leaving the room, his eyes looking sleepy under the make up. Leo smiles looking at the ingredients on the counter. Making a cake was the last of his thoughts when he woke up this morning, but the idea of cooking is suddenly very appealing. It's been a long time since he prepared something for someone. It's been even more since the last time he baked a slime pie for his moirail, and it's about fucking time he does it again.

HONK

That's when the ominous sound breaks the silence, summoning images of pile of horns, asteroids, and a very scary troll gone sober. Leo had just picked up the bowl with the flour to start making the pie when he hears it. "Don't you fucking dare!" He screams, but the shiver he feels running through is body is so good that he doesn't move until he hears another honk just to shiver again.
Maybe later, when the pie is ready, he can try and see if their quadrant still works and shooshpap him out of sobriety. And this all might be weird but it feels like normality, and he's gonna cling to it as long as he can.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER THAT FLOCK TOGETHER

It's a sunny day of late May, the weather is lovely, and Blaine is free but he is also stuck in the kitchen, pitting tons of cherries. He would be annoyed if Leo wasn't making homemade jam. The process sounds complicated and mysterious enough to keep Blaine interested and entertained. Besides, his plan of taking his kids to the park was totally ruined by Harper stating that she and her brother were going to some girl's party alone. Emphasis on alone.

The twins are going through that annoying phase of their life where they feel grown up enough to go places by themselves. Having given them permission to go alone wherever they want as long as it's in a three miles range is not helping.

Since he went through everything with Timothy already, Blaine knows that the only thing worse than this phase is puberty and now he dreads it because Harper is already getting on his nerves now that she's only ten. If it goes on like this, he will have to kill her by the time she turns fifteen.

“How is it going?” Leo asks. He's sitting at the other end of the table, a bowl on his lap and pitter in hand. It's a torture looking tool, coming straight out of the Dark Ages, and it took Blaine half an hour to get it work, but Leo looks like he was born knowing how to use it. He's taking out pits and leaving perfectly rounded cherries at full speed.

There must be fifty pounds of cherries, stored in carefully piled boxes with the name of Alex and Timmy's farm on them. And by the look of it, Blaine won't do much of the work. He's still working on how to hold the cherry to perform the surgical operation he's been entrusted with. “At least I didn't drop this one.” He said it like it's a great accomplishment. And it sort of is, judging by the amount of maimed, smashed cherries that lies at his feet.

“It felt weird not to pay for that,” Leo says. Timmy just randomly showed up the day before and unloaded all those boxes from his pick up. Apparently, the first harvest was very good and he ended up with too many cherries. So he gave them some. Blaine offered to pay but Timmy wouldn't hear about it. “Maybe we should buy them something. It would be like paying for the cherries but without actually giving him money.”

“Something like what?” Blaine asks as the cherry slips from his hands and flies all the way across the room, missing Leo's head by an inch.

He doesn't even flinch. “I don't know. What does he want? A cow, maybe? Or a pig. He likes pig.”

“Honestly, I wouldn't even know where to buy a pig, honey.” Blaine chuckles. “Besides, who knows how many pigs are all these cherries worth? One? Two? Three pigs and a cow?”

“Now you're just mocking me,” Leo glares at him but he's also smiling, so Blaine doesn't worry.

“Maybe a little,” Blaine chuckles and then he drops the fifth cherry that he managed to pit in an hour in his half empty bowl, feeling quite accomplished too.

Fifteen minutes pass without them saying a word. The silence interrupted only by the rhythmic drop of Leo's pitted cherries and Blaine's quiet curses. Then Leo speaks, quietly. “I was thinking,” he says. And those words have the ability of throwing Blaine into a bottomless pit of worry. Especially when they are spoken so calmly as Leo is speaking them now. When Leo has a weird idea and Blaine turns out to be against it, the line between a simple fight and a disaster is always thin.

“About what?” Blaine asks, as casually as he can.

“About what you said in the chicken coop at Timmy's farm the other day,” Leo says. “Maybe we should start planning it now.”

For a moment – a very long one, actually – Blaine has no idea of what he's talking about. He's getting old, but his memory is still very strong, so it might be a matter of something so trivial that he just didn't register it. They were in the chicken coop because the eggs were hatching. Timmy was very excited about it – as he gets excited for everything concerning the farm – and then he became very emotional when it turned out one of the chicks was dead.

“You don't remember, do you?” Leo frowns.
Blaine thinks harder. He remembers comforting Timothy. And after that...

After that Blaine was so emotional himself – by seeing his son being so emotional – that he suggested that it would have been nice to have another baby. “You mean the baby?” He asks, hoping he managed to hide the incredulity in his voice. He wasn't speaking seriously.

“Yes,” Leo says. “We should go back to the same clinic we went to for the twins. That was good, wasn't it? And then go through all those surrogate mothers' profiles. Last time it took us almost three months to agree on Michelle, so we better start as soon as we can.”

Leo is smiling. And somehow that smile is even more frightening that his previous frown. He's looking calm, relaxed, the same way he does when something has already been decided and it's something that gives him peace, which puts Blaine in a very bad position. One thing is just turning Leo's casual plans upside down. Another is planning to take away from him something that he clearly cares for, even if it would be reasonable doing so.

“Honey,” he starts, his voice sweet to tame the beast. “Shouldn't we discuss this first?”

“Aren't we?” Leo blinks.

“I mean, about whether or not we should do this,” he says with a sigh.

Leo puts down the pitter and the look on his face is already one of disappointment. Blaine doesn't like to see that face on him. He'd rather have anger from him. Sadness makes him feel a little anxious and brings back memories that are still difficult to deal with after fifteen years. And that's because usually Leo gets angry for the silliest things and more often than not he's wrong. But when he gets sad, Blaine usually did something – maybe not voluntarily but it's his fault anyway.

“But I thought we had agreed,” Leo says, in fact. “Actually, you proposed it. Do you remember that?”

“Yes, yes. I remember,” Blaine nods. “But it was a random thought.”

“No, you asked me and I said yes,” Leo says.

Blaine is sure he never asked. It was just a suggestion, and Leo happened to agree with it. In fact, his actual words were It would be nice, if we had another baby, implying that they were not gonna have it, despite it being a nice thought. How many times he said it would be nice if they visit India? But has Leo ever showed any interest in flying to Mumbai? Of course not.

“Alright, but that one time in the chicken coop was the only time we've ever talked about it, Leo. And it was five minutes top. We should think this through.”

Leo nods. “Fine. Let's think this through, then.” He said. “But I thought you wanted it.”

“It's not a matter of me wanting it or not. Of course I'd like to have another kid,” he says, to make sure not to come across like an horrible husband hating the mere idea of having a bigger family, like Leo's brain is probably picturing him right now. “But should we really have another baby, now? Let's just ask ourselves this question before even considering the idea.”

“Well, money is not a problem,” Leo begins to list. “And now that we're both working at home, taking care of a baby won't be a problem anymore. The twins are big enough not to need us 24/7 and this house has more rooms than we ever gonna need. We can spare one for another baby.”

“You're forgetting something. Actually, the most important thing here.”

“What is it?” Leo asks, shrugging. Honestly, he thinks the most important thing as far as this whole endeavor is concerned is money, and they have plenty of it.

Blaine sighs. “That I'm not young anymore.”

“You're not old either.”

“Despite your denial, I'll be sixty in a few months, which means I'll be eighty by the time this kid is twenty,” Blaine clarifies, his voice turning almost into a whine when he says the numbers. “Even saying it aloud is frightening.”

Leo looks unfazed, tho. “At twenty, he or she will be a grownup. Problem solved.”

“Not everybody turns magically into a grownup when they come of age. And yes, I'm looking at you,” Blaine insists. “I love you to bits, but you were a mess when you were twenty, and you had two forty-something years old dads.”

“But I wasn't one of your kids!” Leo says. “You raise incredibly independent kids. Look at Timmy! At fifteen he was so self-contained already. Now he's twenty-five and he's got his own business already up and running. And the twins? Your daughter is ten and doesn't need us to organize her weekly schedule and Logan can very well take care of his own meals when I can't. This kid would be just fine.”
Blaine sighs, knowing that no word he could possibly use will make Leo see what he's trying to say here; and that's because they are at that point in their life where they should really sit down and talk about something they won't be able to avoid, when it happens. But Leo has been in denial for years, now. He has probably been in denial since day one. “Leo, don't make me say it,” he pleads, eventually.

When Blaine looks at his husband, he still sees the young kid he fell in love with; past all the new lines on his face, nothing's changed. And he knows that's the same for Leo, that he really doesn't care if he's not the man he met when he was just a boy. Blaine only wishes that Leo could accept the truth after facing it and not because he's shrinking from it like he so obviously does.

“I only think that there's plenty of time,” Leo says, shrugging. “And you wouldn't even be the first older man having a kid at your age.”

Leo stands up and grabs the bowl of pits. He walks in silence all the way to the trashcan, his face tense. Blaine can read it clearly on his body that he's closing up, withdrawing inside himself where he feels more secure and he won't lash out. He learned how to do that when the kids came along. The trick has been not to get stuck inside his own mind.

Blaine feels a surge of tenderness towards him for all he overcame. “Why is this so important to you?” He asks, softly.

Leo shrugs, putting the bowl back on the table to start pitting a new batch of cherries. “I don't know. Because I wasn't even thinking about it, and then you said it and something clicked inside of him,” he whispers. He's disappointed, but still determined. And Blaine sees that in his eyes when he looks up. “I want this, Blaine. I feel more ready now than I did when we had the twins.”

Blaine remembers very well what it took him to convince Leo to have a kid back then. He stubbornly refused for months before even taking the idea into consideration. He was scared, but most of all he was jealous. He wanted Blaine all to himself. Timothy was already a person too many to share him with. He was against the idea like a child that has been told he is not gonna be the only one for much longer. Then things changed, but in the beginning Leo behaved like his older child. That suddenly makes him realize something.

“I think that's our curse, isn't it?” Blaine says with a little laugh. “You being ready for something always about 15 years later than me.”

Leo can't help but chuckle, and then looks at him tentatively. “Is that a yes?”

Blaine sighs. “Let's say that I'll think about it.”

*





Blaine has never turned a I'll think about it into a no in all his life.
He's a man of strong opinions. So when he agrees or disagree on something, he makes himself clear right away, and there's usually no way to make him change his mind – also because he always assumes he's right to begin with. Telling someone that he'll think about it, it's his way to give himself a last, useless chance to do the right thing and say no when he already knows he will say yes and that yes is a mistake.

It took him two weeks, during which Leo lived hanging on a thread, almost holding his breath, and then he capitulated. Now that he accepted to live his retirement years potty training a toddler, the next step is telling the family.

They gather everyone in the living room. The twins – Harper looking like she'd rather be in Hell than sitting there – and even Timothy, who shows up in his farmer gear and with straw in his blonde hair, which is still an unusual sight in Lima, Ohio, despite it being a rural town.

“Listen, I love the little family reunion, even though we literally saw each other two days ago,” Timmy says, putting in his mouth a handful of the chips Leo place in a bowl on the coffee table, “but let's make it quick. I've got a pregnant sow.”

Blaine chuckles, nervously. “Oh the irony.”

“What is a sow?” Logan asks.

“A female pig,” Timmy answers, sitting with his legs spread between his brother and sister. Harper instantly curls at his side, resting her head on his shoulder.

“You stink,” she says, but as anything else concerning her big brother, even bad smell doesn't seem to bother her.

“Does it mean that we're gonna have piglets?” Logan realizes, suddenly. He kneels on the couch, leaning against his brother's shoulder.

“Hopefully, yes. You can come and see them, if dads let you.”

“Speaking of which,” Leo says, and then glares at Blaine, nodding towards their progeny.

Blaine sighs, and then he claps his hands. “Can I have your attention for five minutes, youngsters?” In a second, there's silence in the living room, and three sets of eyes are looking at him. “Good. Where was this obedience when you were growing up? Anyway, we have a special announcement to make. Your father and I have talked about something and we made a decision.”

The kids and Timmy look at him knowing what it means. They are not here to give their opinion on anything. They will be merely informed about some choice their parents have already made about something that must be very important to require a family meeting, which is kind of annoying. But this is not the first time that happens. This family has never been a democracy, but some sort of lenient dictatorship.

“So, after long consideration,” Blaine continues, knowing that he's lying but not showing it in the slightest, “we have decided to have another baby.”

The silence that follows is heavy and uncomfortable. It's not exactly the reaction Leo was expecting, but Blaine is almost scared of it. His children are looking at him like he's crazy, which may be true. The moment he dreaded so much for so long has finally come.

“Nobody has anything to say?” Leo butts in, opening his arms. “That's great news, right?”

“In what universe this is great news?” Harper asks, shocked. She can't believe they really believed this was a good idea.

“Well, I'd like to have a baby brother,” Logan says, thoughtfully. With his sister being so overpowering, he's technically the youngest children, and of course he doesn't like that very much.

“Thank you!” Leo cries out. “At least one of you is happy. A new member of the family, that's exciting!”

Harper doesn't seem very excited at all. If anything, she looks annoyed. If the fact that her face right now is so much like Leo's at her age is of any indication, they're in for quite a few tiring years with her. “Where is he gonna sleep?”

“He or she will sleep with us until he or she is old enough to have his or her own room,” Blaine says, “But it's too early to talk about that. What's ahead of us it's a very busy period, and we're asking for your patience and support. As your brother Timmy knows already, there are a lot of things to do when a baby comes.”

“Yes, about that...” Timmy clears his throat. His face has that seriousness to it that he only reserves to questions of life and death, and to comments on their parents' silly behavior, as this must be the case. “Can I have a word with you two? In the kitchen.”

Leo and Blaine look at each other, and then Blaine nods. “Sure. Kids, just give us a minute,” he says to the twins, before following his older son and his husband in the other room. “And then, if you have any questions, dad and I will answer them.”

Once both his parents are in the kitchen, Timmy closes the door and then pushes them towards the other side of the room, so the twins won't hear even if they eavesdrop. “Have you two gone completely nuts for good?” He asks, when they are both with their back against the wall.

“Now, can we just sit and talk?” Blaine asks, trying to be reasonable. It's hard enough to deal with what's coming without his son freaking out about it.

“You can't do this,” Timmy goes on, unfazed.

“Excuse me?” The note in Leo's voice is already dangerously irritated, so Blaine just steps in front of him and leads his son towards the table.

“Let's just sit down and talk,” he repeats more sternly.

“Listen, I'm gonna sit down and talk,” Timmy says, actually sitting down on a chair, “but this is still crazy. Dad, you're a thousand years old now!”

Blaine lets out a tired sigh. “I'm always impressed at your subtle attempts to not let me feel so old, son. Thank you,” he says with sarcasm.

Timmy snorts. “Come on, you know what I mean! Just, this should be the time for you to go places and do things together and be free or whatever. I know you have always acted like you didn't have responsibilities, but I'm telling you that this is actually the time when you can really take time for yourselves and nobody will think you two are bad people. Why can't you do that?”

“Nobody thinks we are bad people,” Leo says, totally missing the point.

Blaine butts in before Timmy can say something they will regret all the way down to the next year. “I understand that this comes as a surprise for you, and that it's unusual--”

“No, for you to have a barbecue and invite the neighborhood would be unusual,” Timmy interrupts him. “This is just plain crazy. Have you done the math? This kid will bury both of you before he turns twenty, how about that?”

“Hey, I'm just forty! Thank you,” Leo protests. “And your father will be here too.”

“Are you aware that if Alex and I decide to have a baby, my child and my brother will be virtually the same age?” Timmy insists. “How fucked up is that? You two are already society's worst nightmare, and if things had gone differently, I could be now married with my aunt. My aunt! Why do you want to turn this family into a Freak Circus more than it already is?”

As he usually does, Leo just tunes out everything he doesn't care to listen to, Timmy's complaints in this case. What's left is what he cares about. “Are you and Alex thinking about having a baby?” He inquires.

“No!” Timmy cries out in exasperation. A baby is exactly the last thing he wants to have ever in his life. “It was just an example.”

“Well, I can't base my decision on what ifs, don't you think?” Leo says. “And even if you were having a baby, I don't see why that should stop us from having ours. Actually, I don't even see why we're having this conversation at all. We just wanted to inform you before beginning the process, it seemed the right thing to do.”

“No, the right thing to do would be stop this madness before it even begins,” Timmy says, but his voice has lost all its strength. He worked all day, he's got a fifty miles ride awaiting for him and he knows Leo – because this is Leo's idea for sure – enough to know that he won't change his mind and Blaine will forever stand by him if he already decided to do so. “But you won't and I can't fight this battle now,” he gives up with a sigh. “Who's it gonna be?”

Blaine smiles, realizing they just avoided this storm. They haven't talked about who's gonna be the biological father yet, but it seems pretty clear to him. “Leo.”

Or maybe not.

“Blaine,” Leo says instantly. He feels his husband's eyes upon him but he doesn't turn towards him. That's Timmy's cue not to inquire any further. Whatever is happening here, they clearly didn't talk about it, and he doesn't wanna be here when it happens.

“Fine. I will say this, though. I won't be your emergency baby-sitter, if you suddenly realize that a baby takes up all your time and you can't fuck each other's brain out anymore. You want this baby, you take care of the baby. End of story. Are we clear?”

“Yes, we are,” Leo spits out, annoyed. “Nobody was asking you that anyway.”

Timmy decides it's better not to answer him. At some point, in about a year or so, Blaine will call him, begging him to watch over his kids, and he will hung up on him, laughing.

*

“What about this one?” Blaine shows him a picture on his tablet. It's a woman with long, curly black hair. She's got a beautiful, open smile but she looks at least thirty-five.

“She's too old,” Leo says.

“It's says here she was born in 2024, that makes her thirty-two.”

Leo turns the page on his own tablet with a swipe of his finger. “Exactly. Too old.”

“But it says here that she's healthy and she only had a baby before, and she's got the right colors,” Blaine goes on. They are not adamant about that, but someone with at least black hair would preferable, and this woman has also blue eyes like Leo.

“I'm not denying that. I'm sure she's healthy,” Leo shrugs. “But I think we need someone younger.”

Blaine chuckles, amused. “Isn't that a little hypocritical?” He asks. “After all, she's still younger than both of us.”

“Honestly? It's not,” Leo answers, way more seriously than the question would require. “I don't have to physically have this baby. The state of my body right now has nothing to do with my baby's health. Her body, on the contrary, is another matter. I want someone whose pregnancy is less likely to be problematic.”

“Alright, alright!” Blaine chuckles, discarding the woman's file. “Here, she's gone. Oh! What about this one, then?”

Leo leans over, his reading glasses sliding along his nose. “She's got freckles,” he says, instantly going back to his profiles. There are so many of those to go through that they had to split them into to group and take one each.

“So? Timmy's got freckles,” Blaine points out.

“Yes, but he's different. And I didn't choose his mother,” Leo says, discarding two more profiles with the flick of a finger.

“Well, actually neither did I,” Blaine chuckles, clicking on the X. “I'm sorry, young lady with a pretty nose, my better half banished freckles from this realm.”

“I haven't seen a good looking woman in twenty pages,” Leo complains with a sigh. It's hard to believe that, but Blaine knows Leo's got weird standards when it comes to women. His struggle to find someone he likes doesn't come as a surprise at all.

“I've got one!” He tries again, excitedly. His plan is to present him with a great amount of women so to increase the chances of him choosing one within the year. “Look.”

Leo turns his head and looks at the smiling face on the screen. At least this girl is young and pretty. “But she's blonde,” he comments, uncertainly.

“I thought we had agreed that every color would do, as long as we didn't have a better black haired candidate,” Blaine says. “And we don't have one at the moment. She's pretty, isn't she?”

Leo thinks about it and then he nods, even though he doesn't look exactly excited. “Okay, flag her as maybe.”

“Wow. How generous, m'lord, ” Blaine chuckles. “And with this lovely lady here, we have an astounding total of ... one possibile-not-yet-approved candidate. We're going strong!”

“Shut up,” Leo mutters. “Keep working.”

Blaine looks at him and smiles affectionately. He's pretty used to see his husband pouting – being that Leo's natural condition – but this time is different and he's pretty sure it has nothing to do with his remark and a lot to do with what they are looking for right now.

“Aren't you being a little too picky even for you?” He asks, tentatively.

“I'm not being picky,” Leo protests. “I'm evaluating.”

“An evaluation process requires a choice at the end,” Blaine insists, “and you seem to have an hard time choosing right now.”

Leo sighs, sensing the beginning of a discussion – not necessarily an argument, but still an exchange of thoughts he doesn't want right now – coming his way. “I'm not bailing out by not choosing a surrogate mother, if that's what you're hinting at. I want this. I'm not scared. I'm just carefully choosing the perfect candidate, and that takes time.”

“That is my point exactly,” Blaine keeps smiling. “We will never find the perfect candidate, kid.”

“That's not true. We did the first time.”

Blaine chuckles. “No, we didn't,” he says, amused. Somehow he just knew this was the problem. “We looked for a suitable candidate and then Michelle turned out to be also a wonderful human being, but that was just random. We were very lucky, that's all. We don't have to find someone who's perfect from any point of view. We have to find someone suitable for the task, if she's also another Michelle, that will be great but it's not mandatory.”

Leo sighs. “You're right. It's just,” he takes his glasses off and rubs his eyes, “it was so easy the first time. We turned a page and she was there. I thought we would have the same kind of revelation.”

“Actually,” Blaine chuckles again, “that's not exactly how it went down, you know? You refused to go through the profiles with me for the first three weeks. So I went through them by myself and I presented you with a selection of the best candidates, and there she was in all her raven haired glory. You just skipped the worst part, which you don't get to skip this time. Come on, let's pin the number down to at least five women.”

“Five is a big number,” Leo murmurs.

Blaine sends him two hundreds more profiles to his tablet with a swipe of his finger. “Then you better keep reading,” he smiles. Then he remember something. “Love?”

“Hmn?”

“Do you remember what you said to Timmy?” He asks, carefully.

“It depends, I told him a lot of things in the past ten years.”

“I mean the other day,” Blaine explains, “when we told him. You said it's gonna be me.”

“Yes,” Leo looks up. “I mean, I would love that.”

“And why me?” He asks again. Not angry, just curious.

“Why not?” Leo instantly replies, his mouth set in a hard line. He doesn't sound aggressive, but there's a dark shadow in his eyes when he looks at Blaine. “Since there's a strong chance that we already fathered one each, you are a choice as good as me. And I'd rather choose you.”

Blaine senses something in those words, something is not quite sure he wants to dig up right now, so he nods. “Alright, but be aware that it could be more difficult,” he warns him. “For obvious reasons.”

“We'll see about that.”

*

It took them another couple of weeks, but they finally made a choice. Once again, it was Blaine who was keeping more than discarding, but it was Leo who literally had a revelation when the right picture turned up on the screen. Blaine just went along, since the girl was already in the suitable pile for him.

Madison is twenty-five. She's tall, slim and she's got the perfect colors. And if being healthy and beautiful hadn't been enough – which it was, by the way – she moved to Lima for work, but she comes from the border, which gives her two perks that made Leo go crazy: she's of Mexican descendants and she's got a southern accent so strong than when she opens her mouth, it's like being in Dallas.

She's doing this because she needs the money for a year long trip around the world – beside wanting to help a couple of gay men making their wish come true, of course. Blaine chuckled when she hastily added that pro-rights bit, as if that was mandatory or something. He also chuckled at the face she made when they explained to her that it was actually their fourth wish coming true.

They got along well right from the start – with Leo loving her and all – and everything was set within a couple of months. They wanted to try as soon as possible when she was ready, and she pretty much was. So, it was just a matter of medical exams, donation and boring waits at the clinic, three sets of finger crossed.

Now, five months later and three into the pregnancy, everything seems fine.

Actually, everything is going so well that they could merge Madison's schedule into their own very easily. They hang out with her a couple of times before the process begun to set details, hows and whens, but now they only see her on medical exam days, and that's enough for the three of them.

Leo is so excited about the whole thing – which is both funny and irritating since he wasn't at all the first time around – that his inspiration's got a boost and now he's always writing in his studio when he's not planning the room for the newborn, with Blaine and Madison at the medical center or playing with his younger kids.

Blaine is relieved about this last bit. Leo was so caught in this new baby thing that Blaine was afraid his husband was forgetting he has two other kids – it wouldn't have been so unlikely, Leo being Leo. But he didn't. He spends as much time as he can with the twins, which apparently is even too much for Harper – she's quickly growing out of her sci-fi passion, or at least now she rather talks about movies and books with her friends than his father. Leo's working on that, trying to find something to do with her that she would actually enjoy, but teen girls are way harder to deal with, and he's finding that out firsthand.

Logan, on the other hand, would play video games for the rest of his life if he could, which sits well with Leo who would happily do the same thing. Once they sit on the floor of the living room – Why the floor? It's always the floor. Blaine really can't get what's wrong with their couch – they don't move from there unless Blaine calls them for dinner.

That's why it's weird to see Logan sluggishly drag himself into the kitchen while the dark, obsessive music of Symphony of blood is still playing from the living room.

Blaine looks up from the screen of his laptop and smiles. He's writing a review for a play he saw three days ago, and no matter how he rephrases his thoughts, the author's gonna cry. He can very well take a break from destroying people's carriers to talk with his son. “Hey, little bear. I thought you were killing dragons.”

“They're humanoid aliens, dad,” he says in a resigned tone, as if his father was hopelessly unable to grasp the difference between a game and the other, which unfortunately he is. “Anyway, I came here for some snacks.”

“Oh no. We have dinner in two hours, you tell your father it is too late for snacks,” he chuckles. He knows the evil mastermind behind this request is Leo. Logan hardly eat enough, even when he's hungry.

Logan's expression doesn't even change. He's calm and pacific and borderline apathetic sometimes as his sister is fiery, hotblooded and mettlesome. “He says that there are dried apricots in the cabinet, and those are fruit so they don't count as snack.”

Blaine can't help but laugh. “You tell your father that he's very smart,” he says, opening said cabinet. He grabs the little pack of dried apricot that is in there and gives it to him.

Logan smiles. “Oh, he knows that.” Instead of running back to the living room though, he lingers there. He fumbles with his pack of apricots, taking ages to open it. “Dad?”

“Yes, little bear?” Blaine asks, pretending not to know that he's got a big question to ask. He knows kids don't ask you big questions if you act too eager to hear them. They feel embarrassed.

“Can I ask you something?” He asks, tilting his head to the side.

“Sure. Whatever you want.”

Logan climbs on the stool at the kitchen's island and sighs. A very big, heavy sigh. It must be something very important. “The baby is on its way, right?” He begins. “It means that it's in the lady's belly.”

“Hm-hm,” Blaine nods. “He or she will be here in about six months.”

“Is it the same fake mom me and Harp had?”

“It's called a surrogate mother, and no, she's a different lady,” Blaine answers patiently.

Logan seems to think this through for a little while. Blaine and Leo told the twins how they were born right from the start. Besides, there was no way out of it being them two men, and telling them stories about adoptions didn't seem right. “But... dad?”

“Yes, honey?” Blaine looks at him with a smile while Logan only looks at him every now and then, while he tortures his hands in confusion as sometimes kids do.

“That sex thing is involved in this, isn't it?” He asks again, not very convinced about his words, tho. “In making the baby, I mean.”

“Generally speaking yes, but not exactly,” Blaine frowns. “What do you mean?”

Seeing confusion in his father's eyes makes him confused too, but he started the conversation and he's old enough to know that he has to at least say something more to explain what he wanted to know. “I thought you said that sex is something you do with someone you love, why aren't you angry at each other for this lady's baby? Harp says cheating is bad because you're not supposed to have sex with anybody but your husband or wife. But she didn't know which one of you did that.”

Blaine can't help but laugh, which makes Logan frown. “Nobody did that!” He says, chuckling some more. “Is that what you were thinking? That me or your dad had been with this lady to make this baby?”

“Isn't that what happened?” Logan asks, mentally taking note of telling his sister she's so very wrong.

“No. No, honey, it's not. Neither me nor your father cheated,” Blaine says. Then, he sighs, sitting straight. “We've already talked about babies and how they're made, right? And you studied it at a school.”

Logan nods. “The special egg, the special seed, all that stuff,” he says. He vaguely remember his father showing him a book with drawings of internal girl and boy parts, and a very weird lesson in class during which he and his friends just chuckled a lot.

Blaine sighs. “Yes, right. All that stuff,” he gives in to his ten years old son's vocabulary. “Well this egg and this seed can meet when two people have sex, or you can give the seed to a doctor and he can put it in the egg, which is exactly what happened this time.”

“Like how?” Logan asks, but there's something in his eyes, some sort of recognition. “With a shot?”

“Now, the procedure is a little bit more complicated than that,” Blaine slowly admits, “but let's say it's some sort of shot.”

“So, this baby has been made in a laboratory!” He cries out, his eyes beaming with what can only be described as the holy fire of science-fiction's beliefs.

“A clinic,” Blaine instantly corrects him, almost choking. “Your brother or sister has been made in a clinic.”

But Logan is too far gone in his mental confused image of androids lying on a slab with cables and tubes coming out of their head. “It's like in Symphony of Blood!” He declares, excited.

“What?”

“Yes! At the beginning of the game Mako gets attacked by an alien during an expedition, and she comes back to Earth with a baby alien in her belly. But she dies, and you think the baby alien is also dead. But he's not. Or at least, they got the alien dad seed somehow, now I get it!” He explains to his father, all excited. “They give a shot to Maja and she has a baby alien, which is like a normal baby but blue and with big black eyes. And then a few years later there are more and more of these baby aliens because someone wanted to build an army and the aliens are stronger. And Maja is supposed to kill them, 'cause she's a soldier too, but it turns out all the human-aliens have a hivemind and somehow she can hear what they want and feel too, maybe because she's the mother of one of them, and she doesn't want to kill them!”

Blaine is flabbergasted, to say the least. During some parts of this story he was plain appalled. “Wait. Is this what that game of yours is about?” He asks. Raping aliens and in vitro alien fecondation. He has to speak with Leo.

Either Logan ignores the question or he doesn't hear it, anyway he's out of the kitchen before Blaine can do anything about it. After a few seconds, the music coming from the living room changes and turns into a very deep, mysterious chorus – like some black church chanting – followed by shootings and screams. He wonders if he should go there and stop that game right away, but that would violate the first rule of good parenting: never show disagreement with your partner in front of the kids. They do that too much already.

He will have to sit this through until tonight, and trust Leo that their son is not growing to be a psychopath.

*

By the time the new baby comes, Logan isn't any crazier than he was before and he's not allowed to play Symphony of Blood anymore, not even with Leo. The new rule caused a bit of a fuss and Leo was accused of betrayal because he agreed with it, but ultimately Logan accepted it and turned his interest to a more suitable game.

His parents are very tired, tho. They've spent the past months preparing everything for the new arrival and dividing their time between work, Madison and the twins, lest they thought they were abandoning them. Their days begin with them crawling out of the bed and end with them crawling back in, barely awake enough to cuddle.

So, it's no surprise that when the phone rings at three in the morning, they don't even stir. After a ridiculous number of rings, the phone goes quiet and Harper shows up at their bedroom door. “Dads?” She calls in a mercilessly loud voice.

Blaine immediately sits up, looking frantically around. The house must be on fire, criminals broke in or someone is sick. “What?” He asks, scared. That gives Leo the time to realize that people are making a fuss in his bedroom.

Harper sighs and hands his father the phone. “It's the surrogate mom from the hospital,” she announces, totally unimpressed. “I think the baby's coming.”

Leo sits up too, sleep gone in the blink of an eye. “What?”

“Are you alright? What's going on?” Blaine is asking Madison. He listens to the answer, and then he nods. “We're going to be at the hospital in twenty minutes. Hang in there, okay?”

“What? Is she having the baby?” Leo asks, following Blaine out of the bed. “But it's two week early!”

Blaine grabs his pants and puts them on, quickly. “Sometimes it happens. Don't worry, it's still okay if it comes now,” he says. Then he seems to realize his daughter is still there. “Harper, baby, wake up your brother. We're leaving in five minutes.”

She frowns. “Can't we stay here?”

“Not alone,” Leo answers, slipping in the cleanest t-shirt he managed to find. “Come on, girl.”

Harper whines. “But it's a school night. I can't even watch a movie during school nights, and now I get to go out?” She protests, as a barefooted Leo pushes her gently along the halls and towards her and her brother's room.

“I'd say a new member of the family can be considered a special occasion,” Leo says. “Logan, honey, wake up. The baby's coming.”

Harper drags herself to her wardrobe and looks at the endless line of clothes she owns as if she was really considering what to wear for a run to the hospital. Her brother crawls out of the bed very confused. “What's going on?”

Leo sits down on their panda chair to tie his shoes. He looks ridiculously tall and long in this room where everything is still kid-size. “The baby's coming. We need to go to the hospital,” he answers, finally drawing Logan's attention on himself. The boy looks at him as if it made no sense that he's there. “Harper, please, just put on what you were wearing yesterday.”

“Are you crazy? This is the first time I see our second fake mom, I can't wear dirty clothes.”

Leo rolls his eyes and pushes some shirt and shorts into Logan's chest before the kid too can protests about his outfit. “One, she's not yours or anybody else's fake mom. She's just a lady who helped us out. Two, you won't probably see her. Three, even if that happens, those clothes are not dirty and she has no idea you were wearing them yesterday. Now, please, just put some clothes on or I'll be forced to drag you out in your pajamas.”

As Harper gives in and starts wearing her flowery skirt with an annoyed sigh, Blaine appears at the door. “Are we ready?”

“In a moment,” Leo answers, helping a very sleepy Logan with his shoes. Leo's hair is a mess. It'd need to meet a brush, but there's no time and he probably wouldn't bother even if there was.

Blaine nods. “I've got all the documentation, grab the baby's bag,” he says, running away before he finishes talking. Leo hears the rest of his words coming from the hall. “I'm starting the car. Hurry up!”

In the few minutes that follow, Leo grabs the bag they prepared for the baby's first days, he grabs the twins and drags them out of the house where a very impatient Blaine is already honking, making all kind of gestures towards the car. If this is of any indication of the times that await them, Leo is now sure they're pretty much screwed.

FOOTPRINTS IN THE (BAD BAD) SAND

If someone had told Leo that by the time he was thirty he'd be married and with three kids, he would have laughed himself to death. At six, he thought he was gonna become a pirate. At eight, he thought he was gonna be a pilot, an astronaut and a race driver. At fifteen, the only thing he wanted was Blaine. Kids had never been in the picture.

Then, Timmy arrived – which wasn't exactly a positive experience for Leo. He couldn't see the whole bundle of joy thing and, in his humble opinion, the kid was in the way of his and Blaine's life together. Timmy was the typical case of unexpected child, except that someone else burdened Blaine (and consequently Leo) with him – besides, in no possible way it could have been an unwanted pregnancy.

Also the twins were not programmed, at least not for Leo. Once he got out alive through the worst period of his life and he came to accept – and also love, actually – Timmy, he thought that was it. He and Blaine got married, they had a kid. That was how the rest of their life was gonna be. But Blaine wanted another baby, who halfway through the pregnancy turned out to be two. And that was it.

Now, at thirty and fifty, they've got three kids and Leo's dream of having a holiday alone with Blaine in some cool place is gone forever. With kids you don't have free time, not mentioning alone time, and the coolest place you can be is wherever the kids won't bug you because they are bored.

Now, they're rich enough that they are not forced to stuff a car and undertake a ten hours journey just to get to a lousy camping and sleep in a bungalow. But still, their destination must be decided taking into consideration a couple of two years old who need quiet places to nap in the afternoon, and a teen boy of fourteen who won't be happy if there aren't suitable things for him to do alone, because he won't – for any reason – want to spend time with his dads and siblings.

Blaine rented a summer house in Sardinia, an all time favorite with him and Leo, They used to go there with Leo's parents when Leo was just a child and Blaine was still Kurt's best friend. Plus, they both love Italy and Blaine has planned some little trips to the major art cities, hoping this holiday can also be educational.

The house his too big just for the four of them, but their home too is unnecessarily huge, so it's not like they're not used to all that space. Blaine chose it because it's situated in a place whose name roughly translated in “Stars Tower” which was both extremely romantic and vaguely fantasy. Blaine has been trying to say the name in Italian since they found out about it, but to no avail. He sucks at foreign languages as much as Leo does.

The house is a two stores villa with four bedrooms, all of which with a double bed, sea view and doors opening to a terrace. One of them will be utterly unnecessary since the twins sleep together, but it's equipped with TV, DVD and game consoles, so Leo will probably going to take possession of that one too, and declare that his own little kingdom. There's a private swimming pool and secluded gardens with a large BBQ area, in case they want to organize a get-together with their fellow vacationers, which they don't because they hate other people.
The only thing missing is a proper private beach, but the place is so isolate and exclusive that they're gonna find very few people anyway. Plus, Blaine hates to socialize, but he wants his kids to play with other kids, so he's okay with sharing some miles of golden sand with someone else as long as nobody bothers him.

This is the second year at the beach for the twins but they don't remember much of last year because they were just one, so their excitement is over the roof. The moment they reach the beach, Logan starts running as fast as he can and dives head first in the water, still in his t-shirt and shorts. He can't swim yet, but he's not afraid of the water, so he compromises by lying on his belly in three inches of water and splashing around.

Harper always does what her twin brother does (and vice versa) but she doesn't feel like running, so when she sets a foot in the sand, she feels that it burns, and refusing to wear her clogs as she stubbornly did seems suddenly a very bad idea. She stands on one foot and then the other, jumping on the spot. It doesn't occur to her to start walking fast – because the sand is hot! – and her stupid fathers are too busy laughing at her to tell her. She's wearing an impossibly frilly swimming costume ruched on her bum and she's hilarious while she's swinging it left and right, occasionally blowing at the sand to make it stop burning.

Feeling helpless and mocked, she eventually starts crying, forcing them to stop being so amused by her struggle in dealing with the evil beach. “Oh, come on! It's not that bad!” Leo says to her as she lifts her arms and asks to be picked up. She hugs him at his neck the moment she's in his arms, sniffing and pouting. “Did you burn your feet?”

She nods and sniffs again. She's not crying anymore – on/off crying, one of the best features of little kids – but she's got an angry face. She looks like she wants somebody to pay for all the pain she felt, but she doesn't exactly know how to slap the sand on its sandy hands.

“Okay. I know what we can do,” Leo says, dusting her feet. He takes his backpack off without letting go of her and walks toward the sea, where his son is literally rolling around on the shore, squeaking in pure joy every time a foamy wave laps at his legs. “We can wash them in the water.”

“No,” Harper says, clinging to him.

“Why not?” Leo asks. But Harper doesn't answer. This day can be fatally ruined after this rocky beginning, if he doesn't do something about it. “What about dad tries first?”

“Yes,” Harper says, watching the water suspiciously. What if it's mean too? You can never be too sure.

Leo is not a normal parent. He's not even a parent, just a very tall toddler himself. So, instead of stepping barefooted in the water to show her water is okay, he just sits down cross-legged on the wet sand, his long shorts soaking instantly, and he places Harper on his lap, so she's still high enough not to get wet.

Meanwhile, Blaine is settling under their beach umbrella. He and Leo are both famous and rich enough to be one of those star couples that bring a baby-sitter with them on holiday, but Blaine would rather die than being that kind of father. So he grabs all the bags and stuff they have to bring with them whenever they go somewhere with the twins and places them under the umbrella. Luckily, his older son is helpful enough.

When Blaine finally sits down on the lounger to put some suncream on, Leo is still sitting on the shore with Harper in his lap and Logan hanging from his back like a little monkey. All he can see is a mess of curly black hair. He smiles as he watches him, feeling the familiar surge of love he always feels every time Leo plays with the kids.

“So, did you see? Water is okay,” Leo says, scooping up some water in the palm of his hand. Harper cautiously dips her tiny finger in what water is left now. It's warm but not hot like the sand, and in no way threatening. She chuckles and splashes it a little. “Wanna try again?”

“Yes.”

Leo scoops some more water up and this time Harper is ready to splash her hand in it before it disappears through her father's fingers. “What about we try with our feet?” Leo asks. He scoops up water again and offers it to Harper. She stomps her foot on his hand, sending water flying everywhere. She chuckles and the second after, she's already wiggling her way out of his father's arm to go stomping in the water with her brother, all fear and anger towards the evil sand completely forgotten.

“Do you want to go there too?” Blaine asks playfully to Timmy, who lies on his belly on the second lounger. “You can ask Leo to put your feet in the water too.”

Timmy glares at him with the most unamused expression ever. “A-ah, funny. No. I'm gonna wait here until it's time for me to go surfing, thanks.”

Blaine chuckles. “Right. I also heard there's a climbing gym nearby,” he says, conversationally.

“One step ahead of you,” Timmy smirked. “Already booked a climbing lesson for tomorrow.”

Blaine chuckles again and then sighs. “Will we ever see you during this holiday?” He asks. His baby boy's all grown up, he will never get over it.

“Not if I'm lucky,” Timmy says, but then he smirks again and Blaine squirts some water at him from his squeezable bottle. His son screams in indignation but he's ready to respond in the same way.

They're both soaking wet and laughing by the time Leo gets there. He sits down on Blaine's lounger and forces him to make room for him, even if there's a free lounger for him too. “Wow, I leave you two alone for five minutes and you start having fun without me,” he jokes. “I hate you both.”

Blaine wraps his arms around him and kisses him on his neck, which is sign enough for Timmy to get up and see if the surfboard rental shop down the beach is already open. “I don't wanna see anything,” he declares, waving them goodbye as he walks away.

“Are you having lunch with us?” Blaine asks.

Timmy doesn't turn around to answer, but by the tone of his voice it's clear that he's joking. “I'll see what I can do.”

Blaine chuckles and then kisses Leo again. “So, are the princess' feet alright?”

“Better than ever,” Leo nods. “She declared water the ultimate weapon against the evil sand, or something on the line of bad bad sand, I like water more.”

“Well, that's a complete sentence. I'm impressed,” Blaine chuckles, and looks over to the twins who are whispering to each other, clearly plotting some evil toddler master plan. “So, what are they doing now?”

“I don't know. I sold them to the mermaids, so we could be alone,” Leo says, leaning against Blaine's chest as they both lie on the lounger and watch the twins.

“Nice plan,” Blaine nods, and then chuckles. “We should run before they know what they bought.”
Leo chuckles and asks for a kiss.

If someone had told him that by the time he was thirty he'd be married and with three kids, he would have laughed. Nobody told him, but luckily he's laughing anyway.

GIVE ME HELL, IT'S A MERRIER PLACE

“When you said pirates, I thought you meant some futuristic-spaceships-roaming-the-universe kind of pirates.” Leo's voice is strained, a clear sign that he's really making an effort not to blame everything and everyone for the situation they're currently in. And considering they're tied up one against each other on the floor of a vessel, maybe they all should appreciate his attempt at being reasonable for once.

Pete sighs. “That's another instance, Leo.”

“So we have the spaceship thing?” It's incredibly easy for Leo to forget they could just probably die when other possible universes get brought up in the conversation. He just can't help but ask questions after questions about this or that world. He's keeping a list of it on his tablet and it keeps getting longer and longer because the universes are literally infinite. He's even trying to make some sort of timeline which now cover a wall in his office room. Blaine has seen the drawings, the dates scribbled on tiny pieces of paper or on the wall itself when there were none around, and the long pieces of red thread going from one point to another. It was a little scary, to be honest, but sometimes Leo gets obsessed over things and he needs to be involved in them as much as possible before letting them go forever.

Not that there's any chance they will ever let go of this multiverse thing, but still. Blaine can hope for some balance in Leo's passion for the other versions of themselves.

“Yes, you have that instance too,” Pete answers, with another resigned sigh. Somewhere along the way he just stopped asking Leo not to ask questions. There was no point in that. Leo couldn't be stopped. And Pete found out it was easier to give him quick answers and be done with it anyway. “You have all the instances. All of them. It's like dealing with Barbie dolls. You can be animal doctors, plumbers and ballerinas. Here you are real 1600's pirates. Your 1600.”

“Well, that's good to know,” Blaine says, speaking for the first time since they were brought in what it's supposedly the captain's cabin. “Thank God you told us, I hadn't noticed the ship while we were dragged in here by kinda stinky, bandana-wearing men with one or two missing limbs each.”

“How can we be real pirates?” Leo asks again, totally oblivious to the matter at hand, which would be surviving. “If we love each other here, shouldn't we be dead or about to? But we must love each other because otherwise the worlds would be in danger again. Or is it why you brought us here? Is one of us dead?”

Pete lets out another desperate sigh. “You don't know much about pirates do you?” He says. “It gets lonely on a ship full of men for months. They're not so picky about sodomy as the rest of the world. Plus, no one in his right mind would tell this Blaine not to have sex with anybody.”

Blaine grins. “Am I dreadful?”

“You're batshit crazy,” Pete says. “The skinning people alive just for fun kind. Leo's the only one who can deal with you.”

“So, it's like in real life,” Leo says. “Except that here he's the psychopath.”

Blaine's hand automatically reaches out for his husband's. He knows Leo jokes around his mental health problems to hide the fact that they upset him sometimes. “One more reason to get out of here,” he says, trying to change the subject. “What do we do now?”

“Nothing,” Pete says, perfectly calm. “Unless you want to be brutally murdered by Adam out there.”

Leo tries to stand up, momentarily forgetting that he's tied up to two other men. “I can talk to him,” he manages to say before falling back on his ass.

“No, you can't,” Blaine and Pete says at the same time. And then Pete adds, “Last time you tried to speak with an Adam, you almost drove him mad. Leave the poor guy with the machete alone.”

Silence falls again while they all contemplate the situation. Pete is used to analyze every detail of a particular scenario and acting accordingly – that's why he chose not to do anything this time, because the consequences of their every possible action is apparently death or something that comes very close to it. Blaine has stopped analyzing anything around the first or second time they went on a trip like this. He's usually a man who thinks things over and finds solutions, but crossing universes is not his cup of tea and he considers himself lucky enough to have finally managed to understand the process of actually leaving one place in space and time to reach another one. So he leaves the problem solving to Pete entirely. Leo, on the other hand, is and has always been thoughtless, so he's not really worried.

He strongly believes that since they are constants that the entire structure of the multiverse needs to survive, the multiverse itself – like a sentient power – will not allow them to die outside of their world of origin and by the hand of some other version of themselves. And that despite Pete told him several times that it's entirely possible for them to die anywhere and whenever, just like any other human being. Leo refuses to believe that and Pete doesn't willingly bring up the discussion because that leads to Leo asking him if he knows when and how they're gonna die.

Ad that's something Pete doesn't want to talk about – which means that he knows very well.

“So,” Blaine clears his throat and turns to Pete. “I don't want to insist but isn't waiting here doing nothing a little risky? Shouldn't we at least try not to get killed? Just in case.”

Pete doesn't have the time to answer because the door opens and the cabin is suddenly too crowded when three boys and a girl come in. Pete, Blaine and Leo do what they usually do when they first meet people in another universe: establish who's who.

Quite predictably, the girl is Annie. It could have been Sam, but she's usually way louder when she makes her entrances. Annie wears a pair of leather pants tight as gloves, and her ass could easily revive the dead. Her long red hair is especially wavy and stands out against the black of her corset that nicely present the upper side of her milky white breasts. She's even more beautiful than she usually is, but she also have a dagger bigger than Blaine's head, which makes her very threatening.

With the boys you never know. They could be everyone. One of them is Adam, who's pretty much like their Adam, except for the machete, the longer hair and a scar that runs along his right cheek from eye to chin. It makes him look tougher but the kid's so handsome that the scar doesn't manage to ruin his face. If anything, it makes him more intriguing.

The second boy is Matt. It's rarely Matt, so that's a nice surprise. Deep down Blaine was hoping for Cody, but Cody is not exactly the pirate type. Casey would have been more like it – but it's not always pleasant to meet him. Here Matt is his usual tall and skinny self, but he's got a skull mask tattooed on his face and hands. He looks scary even before you see the chains of teeth hanging from his neck. His eyes scan the room twice and then land on Blaine, who swallows and looks away.

“Move away.” The third boy pushes the others aside and, once they all have made room for him, they can see that he's Leo. He looks in his late twenties, his hair and general appearances are the same, but his eyes are colder. He wears a loose, dirty shirt over dark trousers and a pair of boots high to his knees. He is buffer – which is nice – but he moves more briskly, and yet not nervously, as if he lacked that kind of patience they'd need right now. He stops a few inches from their lot on the floor and looks down at them. Blaine doesn't fail to notice the ring hanging from a chain at his neck. It's rawer and darker with grim, but it's the same wedding ring he wears on his finger. “So, it's true. You do look like me,” he says, looking at the real Leo on the floor. He's got a bit of an accent. “What is this sorcery?”

“It's not sorcery, captain.” Pete steps in before Leo can say anything. “If you would be so kind as to let me, I could explain.”

Pirate Leo slowly turns to Pete and his eyes scan him for a long time before he speaks. “I'm never kind,” he finally says with the softest, most detached voice that ever came out from Leo's mouth. “So I suggest you to shut up, unless you're spoken to.”

Pete nods quickly and looks down. In other circumstances Blaine would joke about Pete's total subservience to Leo in every form. But this is not the case. He feels the threat behind those words too. And the fact that Pete is so quick to obey makes him wonder if this is really the time when they're all gonna die for sure. He doesn't want to panic, but now he feels entitled to.

“So?” Pirate Leo asks the other Leo once again. “Why do you look like me?”

Usually, Leo would start asking the person in front of him if they are familiar with the theory of the parallel universes, but in this case it's pretty obvious that pirate Leo can't be. So Leo clears his throat and fidgets. “It's not sorcery, captain,” he repeats Pete's words, hoping they were the right ones, just said by the wrong person. “As strange as it may sound to you, I am you but from a land far far away from here.”

“Witchcraft!” Matt hisses at the captain's side. He takes a step back and holds up a cross made of bones.

The captain seems unfazed by Matt's reaction, but he doesn't look convinced either. “How can you be me if I am here?” He asks. He pronounces every word in a very controlled way. It sounds like he's trying to show Leo how stupid what he said was, which it must be from his point of view.

Leo looks at Pete, but there's nothing he can do. It's happened before that Pete was not around to fix things for them. Leo is used to take care of everything by himself – and besides some minor mess he made, he's even good at it – just not when his other self is so strongly suspicious about him. Or he can't possibly understand what's going on. When your other self is more inclined to think witchcraft instead of fraud, you might start worrying.

This is the reason why he decides to go with honesty. “I'm not sure I'm able to explain that,” he says.

“Well, that's unfortunate,” the captain says, grabbing a preposterously frilly chair and sitting on it. “Because if you can't explain that to me, I will just assume you are a threat either to me or to my ship, which in both cases will result in me forcing you to walk the plank. So, would you like to think about that explanation again?”

Last time he checked, Leo was sure pirates talked with a lot of arr and matey. But this Leo speaks like he came straight out of a book, which is a bit disconcerting. He pushes him to speak in the same way and he's not very good at it. “I'm many things, captain, but I'm certainly not a threat or an enemy. As you can see, I'm harmless and unarmed. Me and my friends, we're here by chance. We... took the wrong route and ended up here against our will. If you just let us go back to our ship, you won't see us ever again. I promise.”

This is actually the truth, even tho Leo is not sure that what Pete's ship follows can really be consider a proper route. They were heading elsewhere and Pete just inserted the wrong number. Apparently because Leo distracted him with his chitchatting.

“And where is your ship?” The captain asks. “As far as I know, my men brought you here from land.”

“They were on the docks, sir,” Adam says, looking at Leo with such hatred, as if he was accusing him to deny his captain's existence by his mere presence. “The only ships there were ours. He's lying.”

“I am not lying, Adam,” Leo snaps.

Adam's eye grow so big that he's almost ridiculous. “How do you know my name?”

“Witchcraft!” Matt hisses again. “Told you.”

Leo sighs. “It's not witchcraft,” he repeats, refraining to reveal that he knows his name too. “Listen, we don't have a proper ship. It's just... a mean of transportation of sort. Point is, it moves and it takes us places. If you let us go back to it, we can be out of your way in an instant.”

Captain Leo seems to ponder his words for a moment and then he sighs too, the same way Leo just did. “So, let me get this straight. You are me, but not exactly me. And you came here from a place without name on a ship which is not exactly a ship,” he summarizes. “Am I correct?”

“Of course if you say it like that, it just...”
“Am I correct?” The captain asks again, clearly showing that he's very quickly losing his temper.

“Yes, you are, captain,” Leo replies, equally annoyed. “But--”

“Then, do you know what I think? I think that you're messing with me and I don't like that,” the captain says. “I have no idea how you can look like me, but ultimately I don't care. If you are witches, you are gonna drawn. If you are not, the sharks will eat you. Either way, my problem is solved. I have no time to waste after you lot.”

Sensing that they are not going anywhere, Blaine steps in, risking it all. “He is telling the truth,” he says in his calmest, most soothing voice. The same that resonates inside every Leo in every universe they ever visited. “If you don't want to trust him, trust me, Leonard.”

Captain Leo turns to him and he seems to really see him for the first time. Typical Leo not to notice anything unless is strictly related to himself. The captain's eyes, surprised as they are, grow softer at the sight of him and for a long moment he stands still just looking at him.

Blaine smiles at him, appealing to that string that he knows it's inside captain Leo's heart too. Every Leo is different but they are all built the same way. There's a part of them, a series of keys, that makes a certain music only when it's Blaine pressing them. And the other way around of course. So, every Leo is perfectly tuned with his Blaine but it works perfectly well with another Blaine as well. And the fact that captain Leo's expression just visibly changed is proof enough of that.

“You are not him,” he says.

“No, I'm not,” Blaine shakes his head. “And yet I am. Just think of me as a reflection of the man you know as he looks himself in a body of water. We look the same, but since I'm made of water I change constantly and I can do you no harm.”

Captain Leo shakes his head. “No, you don't understand,” he says, and there's the slightest trace of nervousness in his voice this time. “You can't be him.”

Blaine would like to explain further but a scream stops him. The four pirates turn to the door and all four of them seem to know exactly what's going on. Suddenly, there's commotion on deck and they hear another loud, piercing scream.

“Captain,” Adam says. There's alarm in his voice.
The captain doesn't move. He looks at the door and it's clear that he knows it's gonna open and dreading the moment it will.

“We can't take care of him.”

Captain Leo doesn't turn to him. “No, you can't.”

That's when the door opens with a slam and Blaine shows up on the threshold. He's pretty much the same age as the real Blaine on the floor, but he's got an hunted expression that makes him look younger and wild. His hair are long, unkempt and stuck in dreads here and there. It looks like he's dressed like his Leo, but his clothes are in tatters.

He quickly scans the room and throws himself at Leo the moment he sees him. He grabs him by his shirt and pulls him up from his chair to slam him against the wall. “Where the fuck were you?” He hisses, inches from his face.

Both Adam and Annie step forward but Leo raises a hand. “Back off!” He orders, his eyes darting towards them just for split second. Then he turns to look at the raging man who's keeping him pressed against the wooden wall of the cabin. “I was right here, Blaine. Merely ten steps away from you.”

“You said you weren't going to leave the room. You lied!” Blaine hisses, wickedly.

On the floor, Leo shivers. There's something wrong in this Blaine, he can feel it. Something broke inside him and turned him into a person Leo doesn't like. And he never dislikes any Blaine.

Captain Leo doesn't flinch, tho. He keeps looking at his man with the sweetest look in his eyes and speaks as softly as Blaine growls at him. “I had to. We had problems with some prisoners,” he says, carefully explaining the situation to him as he would do with a child. “I was going to come right back to you. As I always do, Blaine.”

Blaine's expression changes. Rage seems to dissipate and leave room to something that looks a lot like nervousness mixed with fear. “They came back, Leo,” he whispers against Leo's lip.

“Who came back?” Leo strokes his hair.

“All of them.” Blaine nods. His eyes never leave Leo's. “They came for me, Leo. They're gonna take me away and you weren't there.”

Leo takes his face in his hands and rests his forehead against Blaine's, sighing softly. And just like that, he shuts the rest of them out, like they were not even there. “They're not real, love. Nobody's coming to take you. I wouldn't let them.”

“But they are! They are coming, Leo!” He shuts his eyes, murmuring those words over and over and over. “They're coming. And they're gonna take me. I'm doomed. I'm doomed. I'm doomed.”

“You're not.” The grip of Leo's hands around Blaine's head tightens. “Look at me. Blaine, look at me.”

When Blaine looks up, he's grinding his teeth as if he was in pain and his eyes are watery. “I can feel their voices in my head,” he whines, slamming his open hand against the side of his head. “I can feel their hands on me at any time, any time, any time.”

“I won't let anything bad happen to you,” Leo says, the expression on his face is calm and assured but his eyes speak of a great sorrow. On the floor, Blaine instantly knows that in a recent past Blaine wasn't like that. And he knows that because there was the same expression on his own face looking at Leo some time ago. It's the same desperation of having to deal with someone that it might be ruined beyond any repair.

Pirate Blaine nods and rubs his face against Leo's. “Please, stay with me,” he whispers softly.

The Captain turns to look at his men and nods towards the door. “Leave us alone,” he orders. “Take the prisoners below deck.”

Adam blinks. “But...the plank, sir?”

Leo kisses Blaine twice on his lips gently, and only then he seems to acknowledge Adam's words. “I'll take take care of it later, Adam,” he says. “Now get out of here. Everyone.”

There's a clear threat under the surface of his calm voice and nobody fails to notice that. Adam nods, quickly. Then, he and Matt pull up Blaine, Leo and Pete from the floor and push them unceremoniously out of the door.

Before leaving the room for good, Blaine glances over to Captain Leo and he's not surprised to find him already looking in his direction. He understands now why he couldn't be his Blaine, because the Blaine he knows is so far gone right now that he can't come back. Not even with sorcery.

He needs love, he thinks. You will get over this. You always will.
Blaine would like to tell him this, but he doesn't. This Leo would not understand how he knows and there's no point in making him lose his temper now.

He keeps watching him until Annie closes the door on him, and then he hopes that they will really work as they always work, in this time and place as everywhere else.

THE LINE OF SYMMETRY

It was safe to say that there were several types of Shadowhunters.

Some of them understood the importance of protecting mundanes and took their mandate very seriously, living and dying by the Law as Jonathan – the first of them all – had done.
Some of them liked killing demons more than they liked protecting mundanes, but they still did their job efficiently by slaying everything that could be legally killed.
Others wanted to be useful to the cause and yet despised – or were not suitable for – the act of fighting, and so they dedicated themselves to research and archives, doing the Shadow world a great service by keeping records of its history and tradition.

And then there was Kurt.

Kurt Hummel came from a long line of incredible fighters, each one better than the one before. His own mother had been the first woman in more than one hundred and fifty years to kill a greater demon and when she died, just a couple of months after Kurt was born, she became even more of a legend than she had been in life. It goes without saying that once it was his turn to be marked and choose a path for himself, Kurt had been expected to be like his mother if not better.

Kurt didn't like to research or archive, so becoming a bookworm would have been impossible for him. And he wasn't made for a contemplative life – not to mention that he really despised self-mutilation – so becoming a Silent Brother wasn't even an option. The only thing left was becoming a Shadowhunter in the highest sense of the word: a fighter, a slayer of demons. At least, the battle gear was fashionable.

So he had trained and worked, doing whatever the Clave required from him.
Luckily for him, he was born in a time and age not particularly vexed by class struggles and blessed by the lack of a charismatic psychopath, demanding a world without Downworlders. So, he had mainly fought lesser demons – which was an easy task all in all – long enough to be elected Council representative for his Enclave.

Now his main task was sitting through countless meetings a month and deciding what was best for both Shadowhunters and Downworlders, which was satisfying enough for him after a life of unwanted, really tiring fighting. He had expected to spend the rest of his life basking in the comfort of his position and he planned very well to do so until the day came when he could retire, but clearly his son had other plans.

Having Leonard hadn't really been Kurt's choice. Like his career, parenthood had been a causality.

Kurt was head of the New York Institute at the time. It was the last week of August and the Accords had just been signed again. He was back from Idris and he was getting ready to resume his work in New York when someone had knocked at the door and run, leaving a little bundle in a basket on the stairs, like that was the XVIII century and the Institute was a common orphanage.

Now, the fact that whoever left Leo had seen the Institute for what it was and knew that there were people inside meant that they were at least from the Shadow World, if not Nephilim. Therefore, Kurt was presented with a conundrum. No Downworlder would have left their child in the hands of Nephilim and yet a proper Shadowhunter would have never abandoned his son like that, under any circumstances.

A Silent Brother was instantly summoned from the City of Bones to determined what the boy was, an he confirmed that the baby had Nephilim's blood in his veins. That was both outrageous – because the kid had been abandoned – and discomforting – because there was no way to find out who his parents were. Kurt just assumed the boy was the result of an illicit affair between a Shadowhunter and a mundane, which explained the necessity of getting rid of him and the choice of leaving him in a place where he would be taken care of as his mother or father had been.

Unsurprisingly, none of the families asked to adopt the baby. Family bloodlines were still a thing and preserving it was the reason why the baby had been left to himself in the first place, so he came to live at the Institute and Kurt named him Leonard, that meant Brave as a Lion, hoping that it could bring him the luck he hadn't had so far.

This was supposed to be a permanent solution, Leonard's life forever tied more to the Institute than to the head of it, but when the time came for Kurt to leave his position and become a full-time representative for the New York Enclave, he had grown so attached to the kid – who was already six at the time – and the kid to him, that he brought Leonard with him to Idris, officially adopting him the year after.

Leonard received his first mark at twelve, like any other Shadowhunter child, and his and Kurt's life would have probably kept on being pretty normal if Leonard hadn't chose to train in New York and Kurt hadn't agreed, reassured by the fact that the head of the Institute at the time was one of his best friends. How could he know that it was going to be the beginning of a catastrophe that was going to climax in the most appalling, shame-bringing and probably career-ruining way?

Blaine Anderson was the heir of one of the most ancient Shadowhunter families and the epitome of The Shadowhunter warrior. He was tall, strong, educated, skilled with basically every weapon known to man and a natural born leader. When he came of age, everybody would be so keen to pay him compliments and throw their daughters at him that one would think Blaine was going to become King or something.

Blaine hadn't accepted any of those proposals because apparently he didn't like girls, something that at some point he had briefly shared with Kurt. They even had some sort of secret affair for a few months, until Kurt called it off. He didn't want to be caught and risk his career, so he convinced himself that this was just a phase and he could very well move past it. Eventually, he didn't but he did not give in to his inclination either.

Blaine, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction.

After his break-up with Kurt, he made a formal announcement and proclaimed himself homosexual and proudly so in front of the whole Council, in the loudest and most flamboyant way he could think of: by kissing a very manly warlock who had covered himself in glitter down to the tips of his bat-like wings.

The aftermath of the gesture was mayhem.

The Shadowhunter community was shocked. Half the Council wanted him stripped of his marks. Most of the families refused to have any contact with him whatsoever. Someone asked him to reconsider or downsize this inclination of his for the sake of their institution. But Blaine didn't even bulge. Freed of any restraints social rules had given him, he kept associating himself with male lovers, making sure everybody knew. He was not going to hide anymore and if they wanted to knock at his door and strip him of his Marks, then so be it.

Nothing like that happened, tho.

The Council met three times to decide over his fate, coming to no conclusion because the vote against him was never unanimous. Blaine had planted a seed in the minds of those more sensible Council members, each of them knowing someone who had been suspected of Blaine's exact crime. And, most importantly, Blaine had set an example and more and more people every day were coming out, making impossible to act against Blaine, since taking action against him meant taking action against every man and woman who declared to be homosexual. Losing all those Shadowhunters would have been risky for the cause.

Eventually, the Consul spoke in Blaine's favor and in favor of all those who had come out. He didn't exactly address the matter of how and in what measure homosexuality was going to be accepted, but he pointed out that they had more pressing matters at hand and, since no straight couple was going to turn gay overnight, the Shadowhunter breed was currently safe as it had been before this major coming out.

When his son Samuel later became Samantha, people said that that was the reason behind his enlightened speech, but he didn't even bother to reply. At that point, things were already changing and no one could stop them. Thanks to that first step, Blaine could become head of the New York Institute years later and despite rumormongers saying he had just fucked his way up, he proved himself more than capable of his role.

Now, fifteen years later, Kurt wished more than anything that Blaine hadn't got the job – and therefore hadn't been there when Leonard moved to New York to start his training as a Shadowhunter.
One moment Leonard was his beloved son – a lovely young man who loved to read and hang out with his friends – and then suddenly he was this fifteen years old irritating little monster proclaiming himself to be in love with a man twenty years older than him.

It had been a shock. Kurt hadn't seen that coming – how could he? And since by the Law the trainees couldn't have any contact with their family during the first year of training, the damage was already abundantly done when Leonard told him. It wasn't even a confession, let alone a request for permission. It was Leonard just stating a fact: Dad, I'm in love with Blaine. Like Kurt could just nod and be happy with it.

Obviously Kurt tried to put a stop to that nonsense but to no avail. Fighting with his son, punishing him or grounding him was completely useless because one way or the other he would always manage to meet with his boyfriend, aided by the fact that said boyfriend was a grown up man with a car.

Blaine even came to their house, trying to explain what was going on and failing miserably – mostly because he didn't admit to be wrong as Kurt had wished. Actually, he told Kurt that he loved Leo as he had never loved anyone before and categorically denied to have forced Leonard in any way. The kid – as he called him, making Kurt cringe – was perfectly capable of making his own choices and he was also able to kill an Hydra Demon on his own, which alone nullified all the coercion accusations since Blaine would have been way less hard to fight if he had done something Leo didn't want.

Kurt had to give in. Or at least to retreat, in order to think of a better way to keep them apart. And while he was doing just that – and slowly getting used to them in the process – they went and did the unthinkable. Kurt will never forget the moment that Leo entered his office and proclaimed – because that was the only way he knew how to say things – that he had chosen his parabatai and that parabatai was Blaine.

Kurt was suddenly terrified at the realization that not even the Law – that clearly forbade love between two parabatai – was going to stop them. They were going to undergo the ceremony, unless Kurt tattled to the Council. And Kurt, as much as he loved his job, would have never condemned his own son to be exiled.

*

Kurt looked around and wondered once again how it happened. How could he not see – even if he wasn't even there to watch – that his son was falling so badly for Blaine? How could he not stop him from going on with this nonsense? He was Leonard's father, he should have managed to keep him out of harm's way. Sometimes he wondered if he had failed because it was not a fight between his son and him, but his lone battle against two people ready to protect each other no matter what. He had been alone in this all along.

The fact that not only his son but even Blaine had always been so stubborn about this relationship didn't count as a merit for Kurt. Maybe it should have. Was a man who gets what he wants from your fifteen years old son and then bails on him as soon as shit hits the fan really preferable to someone who claims to love your son and stays with him to prove it even when you threaten to report him? Kurt didn't know anymore. Surely, he didn't want Blaine in his son's life – but was it because Blaine was doing Leonard wrong or just because Kurt couldn't accept the idea of their relationship being weird but not unhealthy?

The low, gloomy sound of the bell tore him away from his thoughts and pulled him back to the present.

The ceremony couldn't be performed in one of the usual venues or anywhere that could be easily found or where they could be easily seen by anyone who could refer to the Council. It was not easy to find a proper place, being the parabatai ceremony so theatrical – like any other Shadowhunters ceremony, for that matter.
So, obviously, Kurt had turned to the mundane world, to which no respectable member of the Council would get close if not strictly necessary.

He had found an old, abandoned warehouse and tracked down the owner for months, until he found the man drunk just outside his parked trailer. He had expected to have to extort silence from the man in ways that he wouldn't have been proud of – if not to kill him – since he wanted as less people as possible involved in this, but the man was already out of his mind and he had been clearly so for a very long time. He didn't even remember that he had a warehouse. Kurt paid him a lot in mundane cash and then destroyed his ownership documents, in case the man snapped out of his drunken stupor and decided to come and see what was of his warehouse.

The place was not huge, but big enough to host the ceremony – especially when the usual crowd of friends, family and community members was not going to be there. In fact, Kurt was going to be the only witness to this preposterousness, except of course the Silent Brother who was going to perform it, since Blaine's family hadn't been informed of anything, lest they all died of a heart attack or went straight to the Council.

Brother Isaiah was a mystery Kurt couldn't solve. He had thought they could try to be secretive all they wanted but in the end the ceremony couldn't be performed without one of the Silent Brothers and they could not be bribed into doing anything because they trained themselves all their life to want for nothing. But Blaine had come to him saying that he knew one of them who owed him a favour, which was unbelievable as it was crazy. And yet, the man had come and no retaliation from the Council or the Brotherhood had followed him.

Brother Isaiah was like any other Brother Kurt had ever seen. He was inhumanly tall, with dark deep cavities where his eyes should have been. His lips where sewn together by a thick, black thread and he wore the usual parchment-colored, hooded robe. He had showed up at the appointed hour and not said a word since then. He was walking about without a sound, getting everything ready while Kurt – the only other person in the room – watched him.

Leonard and Blaine were preparing themselves, separately now. As unconventional as this ceremony was going to be, they had been following the rules as much as they could. They had studied to be mentally prepared for what they were about to face and they had trained together for months, fighting, eating, sleeping together more than they were already doing. According to the Codex, their hearts should beat at the same rhythm – they had to become a synchronized mechanism, so to speak – in order to receive the bond. And now, a few moments away from the ceremony, they had to be alone to recollect their feelings and be ready to deliver and trust them all to one another.

We are ready to perform the ceremony.

Brother Isaiah's voice was deep and detached, and yet it was not mechanical. It had a precise undertone, a sort of vague accent, that made it unique.

Kurt nodded and sat straight, taking a deep breath. Probably called by Brother Isaiah's mental voice, Leonard and Blaine entered the warehouse in the same moment from different doors. They both wore their battle gears, including their weapons, symbolizing that the bond was one of the spirit to aid them in battle as well as in life.

Each of them stepped into one circle, keeping his head low. By the Law they could not look at each other until the moment came to pronounce the oath. Kurt watched his son, a wave of both pride and concern swelling in his heart. Leonard had changed so much in the past year. He wasn't the skinny, little bird he was when he left home. Now, he was a tall, fit young man. The baby blue of his eyes had darkened with determination and self-awareness, his face was more defined, the line of his shoulders was set into a much surer stance. Even if his body still showed the curves and disproportions of childhood, the first traces of manhood was already there. Kurt could see in him the man he was going to become.

In that sense Blaine, standing in the circle in front of him, seemed like Leonard's older reflection in a mirror. They had the same curly black hair, the same rounded face, the straight line of their closed mouths was the same on both faces, and Kurt didn't know if it was because the Angel had given them the same determined expression or because in this past year Leonard had been slowly but relentlessly molded into a younger version of Blaine. It was astonishing how much they resembled each other without actually looking alike.

Both circles lighted up at Brother Isaiah's nod. None of them even flinched as the flames went up with a roar, encircling them. Kurt could see them sparkling in their eyes, their dancing shadow drawing swirls on their pale faces.

Are you aware of what lies ahead of you?

Both of them nodded slightly. The crackling of the fire intensified.

Are you aware of what will be required of you?

“Loyalty,” Blaine answered, his voice determined and deep as it was rich. Kurt had heard him talk like that only once, when he came out. “And protection.”
“Compassion,” Leo said, his voice still youngish and bearing a vague trace of nervousness. “And patience.”

Blaine, this ceremony was not intended to be performed on a man of your age. The consequences of this action cannot be predicted. The Mark could be fatal to both you and Leonard. Are you aware of that and prepared to face what comes?

Kurt flinched and saw his son shiver just as much. The main problem with the parabatai ceremony was that, being it intended to bond two people, they were both in danger from the moment they began the process to the moment it ended.

“I am,” Blaine said. His answer was clipped, but determined. Kurt knew all of a sudden that Blaine was willing to go through hell for his son. The problem was that if the ceremony went bad, him going trough hell was going to be pointless.

Leonard, the same applies to you. Are you prepared to face what comes, including death?

Leo shivered again, but didn't move. “I am,” he said. “Whatever comes, I accepted it long before entering this circle.”

The Law forbids to lovers to be parabatai because love affects the bond in ways that cannot be controlled. So, you are doing this against the Angel's word, against the Law and against the Council's will.

There was no judgment in Brother Isaiah's voice. He was simply stating a fact, which was both comforting – at least he wasn't against it, so to speak – and utterly terrifying – because he was making it absolutely clear that this was considered wrong on a much higher and scarier level than his own judgment.

Whatever will befall thee will be your responsibility and yours alone. Actions will be taken against both or one of you alike, if necessity comes from this, regardless of your bond, your Nephilim nature and your reasons.

It basically meant that if something went wrong because of their bond – and by the way he was telling it, it was bound to go wrong – the Council was going to take any measure to fix the situation, ignoring the fact that they were Children of the Nephilim, that is they were going to be killed at the mere order of the Consul, with no trial whatsoever, the safety of the community being more important than theirs.

Are you prepared to become parabatai, even knowing this? Be aware that once the ceremony starts, it cannot be stopped unless you die.

There was not a single moment of hesitation when they answered “Yes,” at the same time.

Then, proceed.

No name was pronounced, but it was Leonard who moved. The flames went down at a nod from Brother Isaiah, becoming just a line of fire at his son's feet. Leonard stepped over it, entering Blaine's circle. Blaine didn't move, waiting for him to be inside of it and so close to him that their bodies almost touched.

The circle has become one. The oath must be pronounced.

At the same time and with the same tone, their voices tuned like instruments of the same orchestra, they begun to chant the words that would bind them together. Kurt knew those words by heart and his own lips unconsciously moved with them, without a sound.

“Entreat me not to leave thee,
Or return from following after thee—for whither thou goest, I will go,
And where thou lodgest, I will lodge.
Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.
Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.
The Angel do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.”

The flames went up again around them, taller and stronger than before. Kurt, sitting a few feet away, could feel the heat coming from them and he clenched his teeth, but they were not moving. Blaine and Leonard were looking at each other now, the eyes of one lost into the eyes of the other, their hands along their hips but visibly itching to reach up and touch the body in front of them.

There was a powerful hum, a vibration coming from them and running across the circle, making the flames tremble. Brother Isaiah didn't look any different from when the ceremony had started, and yet Kurt could feel his concern, maybe as it resonated with his own. The hum grew stronger, louder and turned into a ringing. The windows of the warehouse started shaking.

It's now time for you to draw the Marks.

Brother Isaiah's orders seemed to beat the time of a secret tune Kurt wasn't aware of. It sounded like tolls of a bell: deep, precise and echoing, bringing them all to the end of a period of time and announcing the beginning of a new one.

Blaine took out his stele from inside his boot. Leonard took off his leather jacket and the shirt underneath it. He let the man turn him around and stared right in front of himself as Blaine drew the parabatai rune on his right shoulder blade. Leonard winced but he didn't make a sound as the rune beamed bright red for a moment on his tanned skin and then turned black and indelible. The flames sprang up, roaring. The humming so loud now that Kurt's ears were hurting.

Blaine took a step back and his shirt off, waiting. Leo took his stele and draw the same rune on Blaine's naked chest, just over his heart. This time, while the rune blazed red, the flame became a wall, hiding them to the sight. Kurt couldn't help but stand up, screaming his son's name, but Brother Isaiah lifted a hand, a stern expression on his face, and he shut up again, fear making his heart beat faster.

The ringing grew louder and louder, forcing Kurt to cover his ears. The sound concentrated into one, single, piercing hiss and there was silence for just an instant. Then, whatever energy was gathering in the circle exploded and the warehouse's windows exploded with it one after the other. The silence that fell after that was ominous.

Slowly, Kurt looked up. The first thing he saw was the sea of broken glasses everywhere. Then Brother Isaiah, standing there as he was before. There was a circle of clear floor around him, sign that something protected him from being showered in glass. A few feet from him, Blaine and Leonard were still looking at each other, their lips curled in the same calm smile. They were unharmed. The flames had protected them, closing in around them.

It is done. Brother Isaiah said, closing the ritual as if nothing weird had just happened. You're part of the Law, inasmuch you are parabatai. You're outside the Law, inasmuch you are lovers. Now you are of each other's and, in this case, on your own. May the Angel be on your side.

And if He is not, Kurt thought, I will be. He just hoped to be enough.

THOUGH PLEAS'D TO SEE THE DOLPHINS PLAY

Leo looks outside the window and sees the garden in bloom. Trees are a vivid green against the perfect blue of the sky and all the bushes along the path of white tiles that leads to the central fountain have yellow little flowers that will smell so sweet later this month. He's been here for almost two years now, but it's still hard to remember that there's basically no winter in this part of the country. Nights can get a little chilly – nothing in comparison to what he was used to – but that's as cold as it gets.

Cody has never seen the snow and sometimes he asks about it. So Leo sits with him and talks for hours of storms and blizzards and snowmen that melt the first day of spring as if they were legends, bits and pieces of a world that once was and now it's lost. Cody is fascinated by every word that comes out of his mouth and listens to him carefully, eyes shining with the desire to see all those places Leo is talking about. And every time the story ends, he promises Leo they will see those lands together one day.

Leo knows this will never happen. Blaine doesn't even let them go to the market alone without protesting. He would never give them the permission to go all the way across the world to see mountains covered in snow. But he never says that to Cody. He likes the way he gets all excited at the idea of wearing fur lined boots and walk in snow up to his knees. How can he find in himself to tell him his dreams will never come true when all he basically wants is to feel really cold once in his life?

“You look very thoughtful.”

Cody's voice comes through his thoughts and brings him back to reality. It is sweet and childish like the rest of him, always soft as if he were asking for permission, a thing he certainly doesn't have to do in this house. Cody is thin, with black shiny hair and big blue eyes. He is the only person Leo knows for whom the words porcelain skin really fit the descritpion of his skin tone. Cody's skin really is milky white and it makes him look like a living doll.

Leo too has black hair and blue eyes but, apart from this, they couldn't be more different. Leo's got the tanned skin of someone used to be outside all day – his tan has faded in the past two years, but not enough to say his skin is fair – and his hair is curly and always messy. His eyes are narrow, almost almond shaped, giving him a defiant look. He is tall whereas Cody is small and his slim body betrays a past of excercise. Leo looks as untamed as Cody looks unreal.

Leo really doesn't know how Blaine can like them both.

"Actually, I was just looking at the garden," Leo answers, turning towards him with a smile. "It seems to have bloomed overnight."

Cody climbs on the cushioned windowsill, right next to Leo. But instead of sitting there like he does, Cody kneels, placing both hands on the glass and smashing his nose against it. "You're right," he says, after a long pause. "There are a lot more flowers now. Lady Spring must be coming."

"Hasn't she been here for the past six months?" Leo says, amusedly. This story of Lady Spring comes from an old gipsy fairy tale he told Cody once that they were both bored to death, and they had already spent most of the afternoon messing around. Cody were so impressed by the story that it stuck with him. Now he never speaks of normal seasons anymore, but of Lady Spring and Mrs. Summer, Master Autumn and of course, King Winter, who apparently doesn't care much about this country, since he never bothers to show up. Leo never told him that in the original story each season kills the one that comes before to take its place, in and endless loop of death and rebirth, because that's how his people see the turning of the seasons. Soaked in blood and drama, as they see almost everything. Cody wouldn't understand that.

"Ah! But I came here to tell you something," Cody says as he quickly comes down from the windowsill and jumps on the spot a couple of times with his fists closed. "You distracted me."

"What? I didn't do anything!" Leo protests, but then he lets it go. Now that he looks at him, Cody seems quite excited and, most importantly, unable to stay still. "What's with all this energy, anyway? What did they feed you at breakfast?"

Cody blinks. "We had bread and chocolate for breakfast. Don't you remember?" He asks. Cody can't quite grasp jokes sometimes.

"Nevermind," Leo sighs. "What's going on?"

"Oh, yes! I've got a surprise," Cody says, excitedly. He sits down again on the windowsill with a little hop, his naked feet swinging in the air. "Look what came in the mail today!"

Cody produces a scroll out of the folds of the light blue tunic he's wearing today. The scroll is made with yellow parchement and it bears Blaine's emblem in wax on the front. "It's from Blaine and it's for both of us," Cody goes on, pointing at the few lines scribbled in red on the side. "See?"

The missive is actually addressed only to Cody but his name is followed by a dotted L, in place of a second name Cody doesn't have. This little act of endearment brings a smile on Leo's lips. "I wonder how nobody noticed."

"They did," Cody says. "They just assume they don't know my full name, which is true. Half the people in this mansion are not aware that I still have my own surname. They just think it was canceled from existence the moment Blaine married me."

Leo chuckles. Blaine and Cody's marriage is something they never talk about because it reminds Leo that it will always be a step below Cody – even though both he and Blaine deny that strongly – but every now and then Cody accidentally lets something slip. He's never aware of that, so Leo is simply learning to deal with it. "So, what does it say?"

"I don't know yet. I was waiting to open it with you," Cody replies as he tears the sigil open. He unrolls the parchement and gently flatten it out on his thigh.

Blaine has a very tidy and precise handwriting. All the letters are the same size, except for capitals, which are big, frilly and convoluted. In his businesslike style he asks them how they are and hopes they are behaving. In his coded language – where you actually always means you two – this means that he expects them to be discreet since nobody must now that Leo is not just a common sex slave for Blaine and Cody but an active third part of their current and very illegal threesome.

Leo pouts a little, reading those words. They both know how important it is that they keep this a secret, Blaine doesn't have to repeat it every time. They are very discreet. Most of the times, at least. It's not like they have sex in the garden or outside the bedroom's anyway. And nobody enters without Cody's permission, so not only they're not taking any risk, but there's actually no risk to take.

Blaine goes on telling them that the campaign is going even better than expected. The enemy lost all battles so far and it is quickly retreating to the North. If everything goes as planned – and Blaine has no doubt it will – the war will be over before the Summer.

Then, addressing some of their concerns in their previous letter, he says that they don't have to worry because he's not wounded nor he plans to be so. As a retired officer, he has been called back in his capacity of consultant – since he has faced and beat these same enemies many times before – and he's only required to plan the attacks, not to actually perform them on the field. He would be requested to return to battle only in the event of an impending crushing defeat, which it is unlikely to happen at this point.

Both Leo and Cody have a very vague notion of the war. Despite the fact that Blaine is a military officer, Cody only read about it in books because Blaine never talks about his job, thinking that it's not a suitable subject for his young and impressionable husband. And as far as Leo is concerned, he had the luck to only experience war as a distant nuisance, the news of an incoming attack forcing his fathers' travelling teather company to move somewhere else. What they know, though, is that war is a bloody and messy affair and they constantly imagine Blaine in a pool of his own blood, trying to make it back to the camp with a knife between his teeth as his only weapon, a thing Blane has never had to do even when he was actually fighting. It's not like they really care about the war or have a real opinion about it – war is still a distant concept they can't quite grasp – but whatever it is, they don't want Blaine harmed. Blaine's reassurances of his wellbeing and mainly staying at the camp far far away from battle works for a couple of days, but since they receive only one letter about every three weeks, they worry pretty much all the time.

In the letter, Blaine goes on saying that he's currently in the Asada region and expects to move towards the city of Lumpur in a couple of days. He gives them the new coordinates to tell the messenger, so they can write him back and closes the letter with a five lines declaration of unwavering love.
No name is mentioned in this last part but he phrased it so skillfully that no unwanted reader would think he was referring to other than his husband, except for his kids who know exactly which line is for whom.

Once they have finished reading one of Blaine's letter, they are always a little dizzy; both because they have been holding their breath for days, and because Blaine's way of expressing his love can be rough but it's also overwhelming and it always leaves them a little shaken.

"I'm glad that he is okay." Cody is the first to break the silence as he carefully folds the letter to put it away in a box together with the others they received.

Leo nods. "He said he's in the... Asada region, was it?" He asks frowning. "It's supposed to be in the East but I've never heard about it."

"You haven't?" Cody looks at him, puzzled. It is a strange thing that Leo doesn't know that. He wasn't born a slave. So he can read and write and since he used to be a travelling actor before he was sold as a sex slave, he knows geography too. He and Cody talk about foreign countries – most of which Leo has actually been to – almost every day. Then Cody realizes something and instantly blushes. "Oh."

"What?" Leo asks, frowning.

Cody looks at him, a guilty expression on his face. Leo instantly knows he must have said something triggering – because that's Cody's reaction every time he opens his mouth before thinking – but he has no idea what it is. "Asada is one of the new territories," Cody explains with a sigh. "It was created after you were... imprisoned."

"Oh," Leo comments dryly. That was almost two years and a half ago, then. He spent six month in jail before they sold him to the slave merchant and it took them almost another month to reach the market where he was sold. Suddenly he realizes that in all this time, he has been too busy adjusting to his new life and he has no idea of what happened or what it's happening right now outside the walls of this house. "So," he clears his throat, "Where is it, this Asada? What was it before?"

Cody gets it, for once. This is Leo's effort not to transform this into a reason to get sad or angry. "I can show you!" He says, instantly. He pushes the box back under the bed where they keep it and runs to his bookcase. He's got tons of books in there, but he knows where everything is. "I've got a book."

He grabs an atlas, with a big wind rose on the front cover.
It's embossed in gold, with the four cardinal points tipped in blue and the other twelve in red. The names of the winds are skilfully written inside each line in that same old and fascinating font treasure maps are sometimes written. It looks ancient, even if it's not. Cody thinks that it looks like something you would find in the captain's cabin on a pirate ship. Blaine bought this book for him because he fell in love with that wind rose more than with the maps inside. This atlas is one of his most precious possessions, and he always finds an excuse to look at it.

He climbs on the bed and gestures Leo to join him as he flips feverishly through the pages. "This is the new atlas of the East, after the Seven Reigns Treaty," he explains, his eyes quickly scrutinizing every page. "It was Blaine's last real assignement in the Army. He was between those who signed the treaty."

"And they were only feeding me bread and water at the time," Leo snorts. "Go figure."

Cody looks at him, feeling his bitterness. "Do you want me to stop? I thought..."

"No, don't worry," Leo smiles at him. "I couldn't help myself. But go on, I want to know."

Cody hesitates for a moment, but then he nods. Once Blaine told him that Leo needs to make snarky remarks from time to time, even when he's not really angry. It's his way to deal with things he wouldn't know how to deal with otherwise. Besides, when Leo is really angry, he starts trashing things and being mean. So, Cody can assume he can safely go on.

"Well, there was a war on the coast. Here," he points at the East coast of the land, the one facing the Twin Oceans. Cody's finger traces a line connecting a few countries and then taps twice on one named Abaet in bright golden letters. "Abaet, which is our colony, won against three other countries that were also our colonies and were rebelling against us. After the war, their territories were combined into one, that was later divided between us and our six allies with the treaty, as a reward for their help. So, what now it's called Asada region were..."

"The reigns of Clare, Freca and Elphine," Leo finishes for him. "I knew those places."

"Have you ever been there?" Cody asks immediately. This is his first question every time someone says that they know a place.

Leo nods. "We used to perform in that area during winter because it was still warm enough to set the tent in the squares instead of renting places as we would have to do if we stayed up North," he says as he remembers his dad demanding to go to Elphine at the first draft because he hated the idea of being even a minute cold. "They didn't always understand our accent there, so we would change some words of the script with easier terms to make people understand."

"I understand you," Cody says. "Even though your vowels are so close."

"I never used my accent with you," Leo says, his tone and pronunciation suddenly changing. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have understood."

Cody shakes his head and covers his face with both his hands. "Stop! Stop! You don't even sound like you!" He says, laughing. "How do you do that?"

"What? Do accents?" He asks. "That's part of the job.... well, it was. I can do almost any accent you want."

Cody eyes glow, and Leo knows what comes next. "Let's play a game," Cody says. Every sentence that starts with those words leads to things that never last less than three hours. "I choose a country and you do the accent for me. If you know it and you prove it, it's a point for you. If you don't, it's a point for me. The winner chooses what we're doing tonight."

Leo watches him blush as he says those words. "How do you know I'm not making a random accent?"

"Well, I trust you," Cody pouts. "Would you lie to me?"

"No, I would not," he replies with a chuckle. "Okay, go ahead. Pick one."

As Cody carefully looks at the maps on his atlas, tapping his finger against his lips, Leo has already decided to let him win. If there's something he likes more than being with Blaine, it's waiting for him to return while Cody tries to tell him how he wants to have sex. That's why, despite all his travels, the only accent he remembers is his own and a couple more.

SAFE AND SOUND

It's been nine months and a half since his temporary staying at Blaine's house became a permanent solution. In the beginning it was Leo moving in with Blaine only because his parents had decided he was no longer welcomed in their house as long as he was so messed up. Then it was him staying at Blaine's because he had nowhere else to go, but he was still ready to leave the moment he would find a place to crash. After that, he simply stopped wishing to be somewhere else. He has no idea how or when that happened, but at some point halfway through the process of getting better, he suddenly didn't want to leave anymore.

But, as far as the house is concerned, Leo still doesn't consider it his own no more than he considered Kurt and Dave's his own. He lives here. Here he's got a room where he can hide when things with Blaine get too overwhelming and Leo doesn't feel like sleeping together in the same bed. Here he's got all his clothes and all his stuff, and a personal wardrobe and shelves to put everything away. There are traces of him everywhere in the house; Blaine even took some new pictures of him to frame and put on the shelves in the living room, with all the other family photos.

And yet, this is still Blaine's house. It's not a totally negative feeling, though. It just feels like something is not over yet. Leo's pretty sure he is supposed to feel differently about this whole arrangement some day, whenever it may be. Right now, the only place that doesn't give him any weird vibe is the bathroom. And not any bathroom – there are three of them in the house – but the one in Blaine's bedroom.

Bathrooms have always had a special meaning in Leo and Blaine's relationship. It was in a bathroom that they got into trouble with each other and, most of all, with Leo's parents. Leo hid in the bathroom of Blaine's hotel room when he was fifteen and had that first horrible fight with Kurt. It was in a bathroom that Leo has cut all his hair a few months ago. And finally, it's in the bathtub Blaine has gone back to touch him, gently and reverently, washing his bad nights off his skin.

No matter how triggering a bathroom can be, it always feels like something theirs.

This one in particular is big to be a private bathroom and Leo is very fond of it, because it's isolated; once you are in here and the door is closed, you can easily pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist. Also, it's got a huge bathtub and two sinks and all those details that are the telltale of Blaine hiring some professional to find the most classy and in-style house in the middle of nowhere in Lima, Ohio. Like coordinated towels, curtains and rugs. Or the frankly atrocious oval vase that sits on a cabinet with no purpose whatsoever. It's funny and very Blaine's that, even in his need of finding quickly a house for himself and his three years old son to look after his deranged ex-boyfriend, he found the time to buy the perfect house on the market.

As if summoned by the mere thought of him, Blaine shows up at the door. His long, big shadow stretches over the tub. “I knew you were hiding in here,” he says fondly. He must have taken off his jacket on the way upstairs and he's now loosening the tie around his neck.

“I wasn't hiding,” Leo replies, calmly. “I just wanted to take a bath.”

The tie ends up on a stool. Then, Blaine starts unbuttoning his shirt. He suited up this morning, so it must have been an important meeting the one he went to. “Mind if a join you?” He asks casually. He didn't ask if he could enter the bathroom while Leo was using it. He's not asking if he can enter the bathtub either. It's not like Leo will tell him no, anyway. He can hardly take his eyes off him. He nods and sinks a little lower in the water.

Blaine slips in the tub gracefully, barely upsetting the water. Leo knows he would have made a mess, if he had to do the same; but Blaine has total control over his body. His every move is precise. Leo has never seen him move less than perfectly. Not even in the intimacy of the house. Blaine makes him slide forward, so he can sit behind him and he shivers just a little when Leo's wet back touches his chest.

“How was your day?” He asks, leaving a tender kiss on his head.

Being so intimate is still not how it used to be. Leo is still wary every time Blaine touches him, there's always a little part of him that gets scared of consequences and wants to run, but they're working on that. And Blaine's way to make him used to this again is acting like nothing has happened and everything is perfectly normal, while being very careful not to cross any line. He is good at that – he always has been – that's why Leo never really runs, even when his body wants to. “Not very exciting,” he replies, trying to relax in the man's arms. “I woke up, had breakfast and watched TV. I made dinner too, but I ate half of it for lunch, so I'll have to make something else later.”

Blaine chuckles. Since Leo has spent months not caring about meals at all, getting so skinny that he was painful to look at, Blaine never gets mad when Leo actually goes into eating spree. It reminds him of when he was healthier and he would literally show up in the kitchen at random hours, open the fridge and take out whatever was even remotely edible. “Did you go to see Dr. Williams?” Blaine asks, in what looks like a casual tone. Blaine and Dr. Williams are not exactly best buddies. She thinks he overstepped his role as Leo's guardian by getting back with him. He thinks she's a wonderful therapist, but she should keep out of this specific dynamic between him and Leo. Luckily, both want Leo to feel good again, so they learned to cope with each other.

Leo can't go out unsupervised, except to see his therapist. That's a precaution, most of all. But also, it's Leo not trusting himself to do anything on his own. So, if he had the freedom to leave the house alone every time he wants, he probably wouldn't anyway. Taking the bus twice a week to see Dr. Williams is enough to deal with for the moment. “Of course,” he says, with a little annoyance. “I promised you I won't skip any more days.”

“I was just checking,” Blaine says calmly, careful not to unleash the ever present teen that lives inside Leo's brain and often urges him to go berserk for any little thing. “You know I want you to be okay.”

“She said I'm making visible progress,” Leo informs him.

“What did you talk about today?” Blaine asks, even if he has no right to. He's not the type of man who goes around things if he wants to know something. Leo knows he doesn't have to answer if he doesn't want to, so Blaine think it safe to ask.

“Timmy.”

“Oh. What about?” Blaine takes the sponge and starts cleaning him delicately. It's a casual, natural enough gesture that gives him something to do as they speak and should help Leo relax.

Leo shrugs. “How he is. What he does and about his general presence in my life,” Leo says, leaning into his arms and let him clean him up. Blaine fingers are soothing and, no matter how close and naked they are right now, Blaine manages to keep it non-sexual, which is good.

“What did you say to her?”

Leo's getting along with his three years old son is one of Blaine's main concern right after Leo's health. It's important that Timmy accepts Leo as much as Leo accepts him because they are both very important to Blaine – they are actually the only two people that matter to him – and they are going to be part of the same family. They actually already are, but he doesn't explicit this often to any of them, because Timmy is too young and Leo's fragile mental balance is easily upset by these things.

Luckily for Blaine, Timmy seems perfectly at ease with Leo and he has accepted his presence in Blaine's life long before things got ugly. After all, Leo's always been around since Timmy was very little. Those two years Leo disappeared are a blur to Timmy, because he was just one or two years old. To him, it's like Leo just wasn't there for a couple of months, so when he suddenly showed up to live with them, it was just a pleasant surprise for him.

In fact, he adores Leo. He would let him do anything to him, which led to Leo closing him in a wardrobe for more than a hour just to get back at Blaine a few months ago. But Leo was not himself, he feels bad about that now and Blaine swore to never talk about it ever again.

“I told her we went to the mall the other day,” Leo says after a long pause, during which he got lost somewhere Blaine couldn't reach him. He saw his eyes get unfocused and he just waited for him to come back. “She asked me if it was hard for me and I said no. I actually had fun, even if you let him run away wherever he likes and that makes me anxious. She laughed.” In that very moment, Blaine bursts out laughing and Leo frowns. “Exactly as you're doing right now. Why are you laughing?”

“Because you were hilarious,” Blaine says, without pity. “You're so apprehensive!”
“I didn't want him to get kidnapped and sold on the black market!” Leo pouts a little, but he doesn't go on for long because Blaine starts kissing him on his cheek and neck, affectionately.

“I like the fact that you're apprehensive,” he corrects himself. “You can be a little overdramatic about it, but I like it nonetheless.”

Leo frowns playfully. “Now you're just trying to distract me.”

Blaine chuckles against his skin. “Indeed I am,” he confesses. “But I really mean what I said. I love you and I love you more when you are so good with Timmy.”

Leo feels the awkward subject coming up and skillfully avoids it. “Speaking of which. Where is he? Shouldn't have you picked him up from school after your meeting?” He asks and arches his head back to look at him. “Did you sell him on the black market?”

“He's at his friend Harrison's house. He never wants to stay at anybody's house and this time he asked me to, so I let him,” Blaine explains. “They're gonna bring him back after dinner. So we have the house to ourselves for the next few hours.”

Leo tenses, those words instantly taking a very specific meaning which he's not at ease with. He swallows and fidgets slightly, not wanting to disappoint Blaine but at the same time wishing to tell him he's not up for anything more than what they're doing now.

But Blaine feels it and smiles, rubbing his nose against his neck and kissing him on his cheek again. “We can watch one of your movies and then I can help you with dinner,” he offers, not even suggesting that any other kind of activities has ever crossed his mind. Leo feels a rush of love towards him that is really hard to contain. “Just to make sure you won't eat dinner before you have even made it.”

Leo chuckles and pushes him playfully. “Shut up!”

“Now, let's get you out of here,” Blaine says, with one last kiss. “I like you more without fins.”

As Blaine wraps him in a big white towel and rubs him dry, Leo distinctly feels happy and safe.
It hasn't happened for a long time, so the thought hits him hard and gives him a shiver of pleasure. He turns around in Blaine's arm and gives him a kiss, which is very well welcomed with an affectionate smile.
He doesn't know if it's the bathroom again, Blaine's arms around him or Blaine's way of handling him, but for the first time in months he really feels they can make it. Again.

Some pieces of them are coming back more easily than others, but what's missing is on the way. Not lost, just slow. And he can live with that.

THE KID ISN'T ALRIGHT

Blaine is always very responsible in his everyday life, except when it comes to Leo.
It's not like he does things he should not – at least not in public – but he surely pushes his luck and stretches the boundaries of common sense as much as he can in dealing with the kid. His friend Sam – who has never seen Leo but already know enough about him to know him by heart – says that there's a switch in Blaine's brain. It usually works properly but sometimes the thought of Leo makes it go off, and everything becomes possible.

Today is one of those days. Actually, said switch had been threatening to go off the whole week, and it was only a matter of time before Blaine gave up to the urge of seeing him again. That's what happens when they fight, or whatever they do that is close to fight. Usually, it goes like this. Blaine says something Leo doesn't like – and that's easy, because Leo doesn't like a lot of things Blaine says, especially when it's about having to leave or not coming the next week end because he has to work – and Leo pouts.

Since the kid turned sixteen two months ago and he has been in a relationship with a thirty-five years old man for more than a year now, one would expect him to be mature enough to understand that Blaine can't leave his job to be with him whenever he wants, that he has a life like everybody else. But this is not the case. Leo is not stupid. He intellectually understands that Blaine has a job to go to, a house to tend to and friends and family who need to see him every now and then, he just doesn't seem to be able to let him go, no matter if it is just for a short period of time. Of course, Leo can live without him. He too has friends, family and school to think about. It's not like he curls up, withers and die when Blaine's not a round for a week. It's just the moment of parting that he doesn't like, when he sees Blaine's car disappear behind the corner. It makes him sad and scared for some reason. And since his way of dealing with sadness and fear is to get angry, he gets mad preemptively as soon as Blaine says he has to go. He doesn't even wait the moment of goodbyes anymore.

Blaine knows Leo has some serious abandonment issues. He easily feels betrayed and left behind, he's clingy and has no idea whatsoever how to deal with his own feelings, so Blaine tries to be patient, supportive and reassuring. He often indulges him when he thinks that's what he needs, he coaxes him into let him go, but sometimes he just can't. Sometimes he really has no time to ease him into the idea of being left, and that wreaks havoc.

Two weeks ago he surprised Leo by coming over to Lima on a Monday, knowing that two really busy weeks were ahead of him. He just wanted to make sure that he felt loved, even if fifteen days were going to pass by without they seeing each other at all. So, he planned the most romantic date he could have in a hotel room with a kid Leo's age. The idea was doing something nice for him in preparation for these two weeks that he knew were going to be hard on Leo.

He just forgot to tell him he wasn't gonna stay the night.

To be fair, Blaine had thought it was obvious since the date was clearly a surprise, that it was a school night and everything, but apparently it wasn't. They had a nice dinner fast food based – Leo's favorite – silly chatting and what they just call cuddles but it's actually plain sex. Everything was perfect until he said he was going. Leo paled, his eyes became instantly big and hurt and the whole date was ruined. Blaine tried to explain, but it was useless at that point. Leo's brain shut down and he just refused to understand anything at all. He was enraged when he left, and Blaine was too tired and disappointed to do anything about it.

Five whole days passed without Leo texting or calling, which was a stunning record for him. Then Blaine gave up and decided to be the mature one – which he is, after all – and sent him a text, that received no answer, like the three that followed and the one call he managed between rehearsals that was outrageously refused. After that, Blaine grew restless and worried, shamefully so to be a fully grown up man.

What if the kid was not just sulking, but really mad at him? What if Blaine thought that going to visit him for just the evening was a perfectly reasonable idea but Leo was not equipped to deal with it like, in fact, he wasn't equipped to deal with anything? And underneath all these layers of paranoia, there was his own desire to see him again, no matter how angry he was at Leo's tantrum the last time.

That's why he drove all the way down to Lima, and now he's parked in front of Leo's high school, waiting for him to get out.
Leo is one of those kids who doesn't hate school, but he's not willing to attend it one minute more than it's necessary. So, as Blaine was expecting, Leo is out of the building five minutes after the bell rang; basically the time it took him to tow his two best friends out of their respective classrooms.
As they start walking down the street, Blaine starts the engine and follow them, slowly driving along the sidewalk.

It takes them five whole minutes to notice him, and they do only because he eventually leans over and turns down the window. The faint music coming from inside the car and the buzzing of the window finally catch their attention.

The way they turn around at the same time like three kitten makes them look extremely cute, even Adam whose expression instantly becomes dangerous and threatening. Leo's surprise doesn't go unnoticed by Blaine, even though it lasts two seconds tops before becoming an angry pout. Blaine gives him a flashing smile as he pushes his sunglasses down his nose to look at him. “Need a lift?” He asks.

“Are you kidding me?” The tone in Adam's voice manages to be both incredulous and incredibly annoyed. Blaine knows he is torn between hating him and loving his car. “Do you realize how this looks like? You're picking up kids in front of an high school!”

Blaine never questions himself about such things and several others that come with them. He knows exactly how it looks like, but it most certainly isn't like that, so why even consider the question? He keeps smiling. “First of all, I'm not here picking up kids, just one. Secondly, I wouldn't need to stay here any longer if you let him answer my question.”

Leo doesn't answer his question, he asks his own instead. “What are you doing here?”

“Visiting you,” Blaine says. He doesn't lose his smile. He knows Leo just wants to make things hard for him. To Leo giving up too soon means lose the argument, instead of letting it go, as if this were a challenge or something. He must give you the impression that he granted you his forgiveness or something. Sometimes Blaine really hates to have a teenage boyfriend because it totally looks like having a kid.

“I thought you had to work,” Leo says, crossing his arms to his chest. “How many hours have you decided to spare?”

Leo thinks he looks very stern and grim right now, but he's only just a pouting kid and Blaine is really struggling not to laugh in his face. “Why don't you get in the car, so we can talk?” He asks, instead. “At least I deserve a chance to explain myself, don't you think?”

For a long time Leo seems to consider the offer. Then, he sighs. “Fine,” he mumbles, indolently opening the door and stumbling inside.

One second after comes Adam's predictable croak. “What? You're not really going, aren't you?” He says, shocked. And then turns to Annie, next to him. “He's not really going.”

“I think he is,” she says, with an amused smile on her lips. Blaine likes Annie very much because she doesn't automatically think he is a bad person whatever he does. It's comforting.

“We can't let him do that,” Adam says, outraged. “Leo, you can't go with him. You are mad at him.”

Since Adam is the only person in the whole world Leo is willing to be reasonable with, he sighs and spends a little of his time to explain. “I know I'm mad at him, Adam. I just want to know what he has to say.”

“Then he can call you, while you are in a safe and controlled environment,” Adam protests. “Not in a filthy hotel room where he can put his hands on you!”

“The room is a suite in a five stars hotel,” Blaine points out, just to be clear. “And I'm not taking him there if he doesn't want to.”

“Don't worry, Adam. Everything's fine.” Leo closes the door before Adam can snatch him out of the car. “I'll call you later.”

As soon as Blaine starts the car, Leo changes radio station and rests his feet on the dashboard. “Put your feet down, please,” Blaine says as gently as he can.

Leo snorts. “You sound like my father.”

“Then your father is a much more sensible person than I thought,” he says, then he sighs. This is exactly how he didn't want to start this conversation. “Are you really still angry at me?”

“What do you think?”

Blaine sighs as he idly drives around the city. “I'd hope you are not, but I see you are,” he answers. “And frankly I don't know how you manage. Isn't it tiring?”

Leo frowns, and it's so totally clear he doesn't get what Blaine is saying that Blaine feels all the weight of the twenty years between them. “It's not a matter of tiredness. You did something I didn't like, and I'm angry. I can't stop being mad at you just because it takes energy.”

“Actually, you could,” Blaine comments, and Leo glares at him. “I'm just saying that we have worse problems than this one.”

Leo blinks, his arms still crossed. “So, now we have problems?”

“I didn't say that.”

“Yes, you just did. You said we have worse problems than this!” Leo insists. “What problems do we have?”

“That I'm thirty-six and you're sixteen, therefore I can't take you anywhere in public? That your parents threaten to report me to the police at any given moment? That I risk my career every time I come here to visit you because someone could take a photo of us together?” He retorts, irritated. “These are real problems, Leo. Not me visiting you for a few hours – because it's the only free time I have in two weeks – instead of a week like you demanded.”

Rage has clear effects on Leo's body. You can see it coming seconds before he speaks. In fact, his whole body tenses, his lips become a straight line and his eyes get instantly lucid, because he is always very prone to tears – of sadness or anger, it doesn't matter. Crying is his ultimate outlet. “So now I am the problem because I'm sixteen,” he mumbles. “Of course I am. When am I not wrong or a problem for you?”

Blaine closes his eyes for a second and takes a deep breath. It's either calm down or slap him. “You should really stop taking only what you need out of what I say, because it's really annoying,” he says, his voice barely hiding his irritation. “You are not a problem, but your age is. I hope you agree on that, at least.”

“Yeah,” Leo shrugs, stubbornly looking out of the window.

“Good,” Blaine nods. “Now you will agree that this is a much worse problem then me planning a shorter date than you expected, am I right?”

Leo doesn't answer to that and Blaine would like to grab him by the shoulders and shake him. He's usually very patient, but this attitude makes him mad. He decides he can't keep driving around without a destination, especially when Lima is not exactly a big city and they're passing by the same streets over and over. So he goes towards the hotel and parks nearby, close enough to see the building but not for the boy to come and ask for the keys to take care of the car.

“Leo, would you please stop doing that?” He asks, turning off the engine and resting against the seat.

“I'm not doing anything.”

“Exactly,” Blaine says. “I get you're angry, but sulking won't get you anywhere. Why don't we try to talk this out, instead? That'd be the mature thing to do, in case you're wondering.”

Leo rolls his eyes and then looks at him, annoyed. “What do you want me to say?” He blurts out. “You know why I'm angry, but apparently I've no right to be, so that's it. I got it.”

Blaine unbuckles his seat belt and turns to him. “No, you don't. You just want me to drop it and leave you alone, so you can keep sulking and telling yourself I'm mean and I don't love you.”

“That's not what I tell myself,” Leo protests, looking away.

“Then what?”

Leo's anger has a well established pattern. Something happens. He gets really mad. He sulks and doesn't forget to let you know how badly you wronged him by giving you either the silence treatment or a passive-aggressive attitude, where you ask him things and he answers in the most annoying way ever. By that time, you have already lost your patience, so you face him. That's when he realizes that he's not really angry. He got angry at first – because that's his first reaction to everything he wasn't expecting – but then he just needed to talk about it. But not just once, several times, until he feels that letting go doesn't mean him totally losing the argument. Leo's anger has to burn out or it doesn't go away. Blaine knows this very well, but he falls for it every time.

By the way Leo sighs and looks at him, with no rage in his eyes for the first time since Blaine got to Lima, his rage must have finally been spent. “I just don't like when you come and go,” he says with another tired sigh. “It doesn't feel right and it makes me feel bad.”

“You know I can't move to Lima.”

Leo nods. “I'm not saying that,” he says, even though both know Leo wants exactly that. “I just don't like when you come here for a couple of hours, we lock ourselves in your room and then you're gone again. It doesn't feel like... we're together.”

Blaine starts to understand where this is going. He sighs and dares to reach out and stroke his hair. Leo doesn't back off. Actually, he leans into his touch, relaxing a bit. “You know I don't come here just to have sex with you, right?” He asks. “It happens, and I love that it does. But I don't come to visit just for that.”

Leo nods again. Intellectually, he knows that. He has never thought Blaine came to Lima just to fuck him, but he can't stop the feeling of wrongness every time all they have time to do is having sex. He wouldn't go as far as to say that he feels dirty or anything, but he feels weird nonetheless. “Listen, I know you're not like that, okay? If I did, I wouldn't want you around anymore,” he says with a little smile. Blaine remembers when Leo thought he wanted to be fuckbuddies one year ago and chuckles. The kid had never been really good at that. “But I can't shake the feeling that there should be something else, or that it should go differently.”

“Well, it definitely should go differently,” Blaine agrees, “starting with your age and the way we got together in the first place. But all considering, it could be worse. We're doing all we can, kid.”

“Are we?” He asks, arching an eyebrow.

Blaine chuckles and prays all the Gods he knows they have not been followed when he signs Leo to come to him. He doesn't look around first only because that would ruin the gesture. Leo scrambles towards his seat, sitting on his lap, and instantly buries his face in Blaine's neck. Cuddle-mode instantly engaged. Fights tire him too, after all. “I come here every time I can, especially when I know that, if I don't, I won't see you for weeks,” he explains, leaving a tender kiss on his neck. “I know a few hours are not the best, but it's better than nothing. Would you prefer me to come only if I have a free week? I can do that, if you think it would make you feel better.”
Leo thinks it over for a moment. Having him only for long periods of time would be good, but Blaine doesn't have many free weeks at a time. He usually comes for the week ends, which means he would come to Lima something like once every two months or so. “No, I don't think I want that.”

“So?” Blaine smiles, giving him another little kiss.

Leo rarely says that he is sorry or that he is wrong – Blaine thinks those words just can't get past the barrier of his tongue and teeth –, actually he rarely says what he feels, but by the way he hugs him, Blaine knows, at least, that he understands now. Leo needs things Blaine can't give him yet, and he can't live only with the things Blaine manages to give him. It's not easy to adjust to something like that when you're sixteen, without thinking you're being misused. But Leo is doing what he can, and Blaine can't really be mad at him if sometimes he just acts like a kid, because he is.

“How long are you gonna stay this time?” Leo asks, his lips brushing his neck.

“A couple of days,” he sighs. He doesn't know what he expects. To feel him tense anyway. Or a sad whine. But Leo just hugs him tightly.

“Can we have junk food again and start that thing over?” He asks, his voice muffled.
Blaine smiles, ignoring that little voice inside telling him there's still something wrong in the way Leo gave up. But yes, they surely can. Starting over until it works seems a good plan, after all.

ONE WAVE SHORT OF A SHIPWRECK

Annie was different from any other girl at school and she had always been, even at the private school she went to before moving to McKinley first and then to college. She was a girly girl enough to wear frilly clothes and like to go shopping or to the hair salon but she'd rather talk about video games than fashion, and she acted toward sex like a guy would, having no problem at all saying how horny she was or how badly she needed to get laid. Other girls found her threatening because she was usually more beautiful than anyone of them, and weird because she wouldn't gossip much and if they all liked a guy, she would rather go to him and ask him out than stay in a corner giggling. She was too straightforward for the uptight cheerleaders and too perfect for the nerdy ones. That was why she was more at ease with boys than girls.

Unluckily, her two male best friends somehow managed to be worse than girls sometimes, and she had to bear with them and their petty problems. And now that they were together – God knew if she could believe they had finally came to that after years of unresolved sexual tension and beating around the bush – they were more of a mess they had ever been.

Of course, Leo was the worse of the two. He had always been selfish and self-centered, very emotional and prone to make a tragedy about everything, and now he was even more so. The end of his story with Blaine had left him scarred, hurt and more clingy than he was before. When he came back from Dublin on the verge of a breakdown, Adam was able to save him from it only being with him as a boyfriend but he clearly wasn't fit for the task.

He loved Leo – always had – but Leo was used to be taken care of and adored. He had been pampered for years by a man much older than him who liked to do exactly that, and Adam wasn't like that at all, of course. He cuddled Leo, but as a guy his age would – in a much healthier way – and, as dedicated as he was, he couldn't read Leo's needs as Blaine had, which was way before even Leo himself had known to have them.

Leo was too messed up to understand that there was nothing missing or wrong in that, that Adam was just different and needed to be understood as well. So, he had the habit of complaining with her every time Adam didn't get him – which was more often than not because Adam never got anything, unless he was told very clearly.

And as if all the emotional crap wasn't enough, sex between them was another problem – and she knew more about that than she cared to admit. That too was Leo's fault, of course. Leo's sexual drive would be too much for anyone, let alone for Adam whose behavior toward sex almost bordered on indifference. He liked to have it, of course, but it wasn't his reason to live. On the contrary, Leo seemed to function on that alone. He could spend entire week ends in bed.

That again was Blaine's doing. Leo had been literally educated to have sex every waking hour and the fact that Adam couldn't keep up with that frequency was frustrating for both of them. But because of Adam's manly inability to admit of not being enough in bed, it was Leo the only one who burst into Annie's house, screaming hysterically that he wasn't getting any. It didn't even cross his mind that his any was around the three times a day – being it either the real thing or just messing around – and not everybody was up to that.

She was so used to this routine that when she opened the door, after the last angry text message from Leo, she was really surprised to see Adam's blond hair instead Leo's black mane. “Adam?” She asked, frowning in disbelief. He had the darkest eyes Annie had seen in ages and he looked really tired. “Is something wrong?”

“Please, let me in,” he said with a sigh. “I need a place to stay and someone who stops me from going back there and kill him.”

She moved aside to let him pass. “What happened?”

Adam walked in and let himself go on the couch without permission. They had spent so much time in Annie's house that it felt like home. “What didn't happen, you mean.”

Annie joined him on the couch, sitting on her own bended leg. So it was another allegedly sex deprivation problem again. She should have known after Leo had complained that despite having the most gorgeous guy on campus, he was forced to watch porn. “Do you want to talk about it?” That was a routine question, of course.
“He is unbearable and annoying,” Adam began “Sex is all he can think about.”

Annie sighed. “Sex is all he can think about, if he didn't have enough of it. You know that's how he works. He becomes restless and, when he is, nothing can distract him.”

“And that I could understand if his enough wasn't a crazy amount of it,” Adam protested. “He literally spends most of his time having orgasms or wanting them. He's always all over me.”

Annie couldn't help but laugh. “I'm sorry,” she apologized, waving a hand in front of him. “It's just that most people wouldn't complain about having too much sex.”

“Most people don't have Leo as a boyfriend,” was Adam's grumpy reply.

“Right,” Annie agreed, tiredly. They always told her the same things over and over. Leo would complain that Adam never wanted to have sex, Adam complained that he was giving all the sex he could, Leo would insist that Adam just didn't care enough about it and that wasn't normal, then Adam would state that Leo's pathological need to be fucked was sick, so Leo would get mad at him and pouted. All of this, of course, would happen at Annie's in different moments, so that the two of them never talked to each other and she was doomed to hear them both. After that, they would eventually go back home and fuck, which made Annie mad because after all they were going to her to complain about their sex life when she had none. But nobody cared about that. “Did you talk about this with him?”

“Of course I did,” Adam said. “But do you think he listens to me? Of course he doesn't. He can't accept the fact that I don't want to have sex with him all the time. He takes it personally and he gets mad. And you know what? Even when I do want to have sex, he's not happy either because once is never enough with him. And then he has this habit that... I really don't get it!”

Annie frowned. “What habit?”

“He can't just have sex,” Adam explained. Annie didn't know if he was expecting the question or he didn't even need it. “He has to do all this... stuff that he does. Like, why can't you just have normal sex like everybody else?”

“What do you mean like everybody else?” She asked. “Last time I checked he wasn't into weird stuff.”

Adam was not even listening to her anymore. Apparently, he just needed to talk, since he probably didn't do that with Leo. “He is always touching me, like...” Adam hesitated, looking everywhere but at her.

“Jerking you off?” She offered.

“Yeah,” he nodded, blushing furiously. “And not only that. He always does things to me, either he bites me or kisses me in places that are not my mouth – what's wrong with normal kisses on the mouth anyway? – and he can't stand still. I swear, Annie. He moves a lot, like, whenever I'm, you know, at it and I'm holding him, he's fucking everywhere. Can't he just let me do it? No! Because he gets bored, he says. And he has all these weird positions he always tries to make me do, like.... how am I supposed to do it like that? I don't, I mean, can't we just do it the old way?”

That was their problem, right there. Annie had always known that but it wasn't her place to tell him. Adam loved Leo and in some way he was probably even attracted to him – Leo was beautiful and Adam was an artist after all – but he wasn't gay, not in the slightest. So a great amount of affection and a little dose of attraction would bring Adam to have sex with him; but one thing was having sex – the act itself, which had more to do with an urge to satisfy than anything else – and another was being willing to touch another male body or be touched by it. According to Annie, Adam's love for Leo came from their co-dependance and was easily mistaken for something else. That kind of attachment between two people never took gender into consideration and that was okay until those two people got physically involved with each other, and one of them wasn't gay. Leo clearly found Adam attractive – who wouldn't? – so he not only needed that kind of intimacy with his boyfriend in general but wanted it. Adam just followed the lead of his body when he finally needed something and trusted his affection for Leo that he wanted that from him, but experimenting or touching him unconsciously felt weird to him.

Basically, they had brought to the next level a relationship that was already giving them all it could and even something else that it couldn't. They were supportive and touchy and very close already, they weren't supposed to be lovers too. Leo had always had that special place in Adam's life, it was simply not fair that he should be his boyfriend too.

Sometimes Annie wondered if she thought that just because she was jealous. Being part of their little trio had always been hard for her because when she had arrived, Adam and Leo had already been friends for fourteen years and they were basically glued together. She had to work her way into the perfect world they were together and find a place for herself in it. Leo was easy to conquer because he had been very similar to her and he looked at things the same way she did. Despite being a very jealous and possessive person, Leo had never felt her like a threat because Adam adored him. Since kindergarten Adam had never let anything or anyone between them and Leo had no reason to believe he would start with her.

And he was right. That was what hurt the most.

Adam had accepted her and he considered her his best female friend – that was true – he even went so far as to think she was some kind of little fragile thing that he had to protect – and that was cute – but Leo had always came first before and he obviously did even more now. There was literally nothing Adam wouldn't stop doing to run to Leo's call. Annie had lost count of the times Adam stood her up because Leo had needed him for whatever reason. Even now they were using her to hate at each other and none of them had time to ask her how she was doing.

She had always bore with them because she loved them both too much and knew they couldn't help it, but it was harder since her feelings for Adam had become stronger. Her crush on him had started in high school. Adam was the only boy she couldn't ask out because they were friends and she was afraid to ruin that, and because what she felt was different and warmer than simple desire. She had spent five years hoping he would notice her but he never had. She was a friend, therefore no girlfriend material for him. Or for anybody else, actually, since he had this stupid tendency to dislike whoever tried to hook up with her.

She had been strong and went on. She couldn't stop loving him, but she could live her life. Eventually, she was going to get over him. At least, that was what she hoped for. Then, Leo came back from Dublin and Adam stepped up and become his boyfriend, and all her determination was lost.

The fact that Adam was going out with every girl in the damn world but not her, she could bear with it. But she couldn't fully accept that Adam was willing to take that step with Leo too. She simply couldn't. Just being a girl she should have had more chances than Leo, but she didn't and that was infuriating and frustrating and made her want to scream and tell them both to fuck off and get out of her life.

But she didn't. She would open the door and listen to them talking about their life together – a life that they had long before her and that they had gone back to have now, cutting her out – giving suggestions and calming them both down. And that was because there was nothing else she could do except stop being her friend, and she didn't want that.

“Thanks for listening,” Adam told her with a sigh, after complaining about Leo some more. “It really means a lot to me, you know.”

Annie nodded, only then noticing she had just spent the past few minutes nervously braiding and undoing her long red hair over and over. Her hands were shaking and she quickly hid them under her legs. “No problem,” she stammered and then cleared her throat. “Do you wanna stay for dinner?”

Adam smiled but shook his head. “Nope, thanks. I better go back home and stop him from having one of his really whiny mood. I'd rather stop this now than bear with him like this for three more days.”

“Okay.”

He stood up, not even noticing her eyes were watery. “Thanks again,” he said, kissing Annie on her forehead. He smelled like his cologne and paint and unfortunately a little like Leo too. “You're the best.”
He knew the way and he was quickly gone, without asking her to walk him to the door.
Luckily so, because she was already crying by the time he got there.

I KNEW WHO I WAS THIS MORNING
(BUT I CHANGED A FEW TIMES SINCE THEN)

The existence of different universes where they were different people doing different things or where things between them had gone in a very different way has been a really difficult concept to grasp, especially for Blaine who's very young at heart but not exactly an enthusiast of parallel universes and sci-fi in general. Leo had to explain him all the theories and make him see all the movies and series he could think of before Blaine could even start to understand what had happened to them during the most confusing period of their life. At the end he had understood some of it – especially that it was over for good – and he was proud of himself.

So when everything goes nuts again, he's more frustrated than he's worried.

Yesterday has been a very long working day, followed by a very troubled night. The awful weather – thunders, lightening, rain for ten hours straight – has given him problems sleeping and he wakes up way later than usual, which always puts him in a bad mood, only to find a girl in his kitchen.

“Excuse me?” He frowns, watching her put some slices of bread in the toaster and move around his cabinet like she knew where everything is. “Who the hell are you?”

“What do you mean who the hell am I?”

For one lost moment, Blaine thinks Leo is in drag. Her face, the straight line of his nose, her plump lips are Leo's. Even the way she tilts her head and curls her nose to show confusion are the same. But her curly black hair is a little longer than his boyfriend's and where Leo is flat, she's obviously not.
Sure, Leo could have wore a wig and stuffed a bra, but when Blaine looks closely, he notices that the features of this girl are more delicate than Leo's, she has a waistline and the general way she moves is too feminine for Leo to be mimicking it. That's a real girl.

“Leo?” He asks, tentatively.

She looks amused, and chuckles. “You mean Lea,” she says, and he's literally plunged into desperation at those three simple words. “You must be really tired if you don't even recognize me.”

“I don't understand.”

“I know. That's what always happens when you work too much, come back late and probably drink too,” she goes on as she resumes toasting bread. “You wake up all confused. Come on, sit down. I made you breakfast.”

Blaine sits down only because standing up is too much to bear for him right now. He can't look away from her boobs for the only reason that they are there and they shouldn't be. “How did you get in?”

She puts the slices of bread on a plate, whistling some kind of silly tune. “You gave me the keys last month, remember? When you went to New York and you said I could use your apartment to study?”

Obviously, nothing even remotely close to that has ever happened in general, let alone in the past month. Last time he went to New York was six months ago and Leo stopped studying when he had the breakdown and never resumed again. This is enough to confirm that the universe screwed something up again, if the fact that his boyfriend is a girl weren't enough. Now it is a matter of understanding if he moved to her reality or the other way around. But since the house is the one he bought in Lima, then she must be the one out of place.

“What was wrong with your apartment?” He asks, feeling calmer than the thought he would be knowing that the whole world could be in danger again. The fact is that he knows that talking nonsense and insisting on facts that only happened in his reality won't get him anywhere, so the best thing to do is try to understand what her reality is and how she fucking got here. “Why didn't you go there?”

“Because,” she brings him his coffee, for which he's grateful, “I don't have one after Harper moved out to be a star in Brooklyn. But studying at home is not an option. Tana makes too much noise.”

The fact that at some point of her life Lea has lived with Harper almost makes him laugh, especially knowing that his Leo would never do such a thing. He loves Harper in some twisted hating way and the other way around but those two can't occupy the same space for more than two hours without screaming at each other. He would love to meet Lea's Harper and see what kind of girl she is. “So,” he says, tentatively, “did she have a breakthrough?”

“Not yet.” Lea shakes her head as she sips her coffee, leaning on the counter. She shows her cleavage directly at him and Blaine starts to wonder if she's doing that on purpose. If he thinks about it, that's something Leo would do if he had boobs. After all, his adoration for that part of the female anatomy can be almost embarrassing, sometimes. “But she has an audition with that producer you told her next week, so fingers crossed.”

Blaine mimics her gesture and smiles. “I really hope she makes it,” he says, and he's sincere. Harper is very talented and she wants to be a star so much that she deserves it.

“Me too,” she tilts her head to the side and shrugs. She looks so much like Leo that it's almost disturbing. He has nothing against people in drag or people who change sex, but this is different. It's waking up one morning and finds out your life-time male partner doesn't have a cock anymore. “God forbid she won't make it. I don't wanna spend the next six months restraining the flood of her tears if she doesn't.”

Blaine chuckles. This is so Leo too. Then something strikes him and he tries to sound casual when he asks, “Where are the kids?” He's aware that not knowing where his children are is weird, but he's ready to play the dumb and confused card again.

There's no need for it, though as Lea gets instantly annoyed and seems to forget that he should know the answer to that question. “With their mother, I would hope,” she spits, straightening up to go and put her mug in the dishwasher. “She called earlier, anyway.”

“Helena called?” He asks, his heart skipping a beat like every time they encountered a universe where Helena is still alive. Even now that she can't possibly be anywhere because it's Lea who slipped through her world to his, Blaine can't help but get excited hearing her talking about his long lost friend.

“No,” Lea frowns, glaring at him. “Michelle, of course. Blaine, what's wrong with you?”

Blaine realizes that he never thinks about mothers when talking about his kids. They have parents or fathers – him and Leo – an nothing else. Except for Helena. Timmy has a mother in his head, even if he never met her. In some way the twins don't, even if he loves Michelle very much. So, when Lea has said mother, he has instantly thought about the only one he considers as such.

“And what did she want?” He asks, clearing his throat and trying to act natural.

“To scream at me because I answered the phone, to begin with,” she makes a face. “I swear, she must be doing that on purpose. She knows I practically live here now. What does she expect, that I keep the phone ringing if you can't get it? Anyway, she wants you to know that she's calling her lawyer again and you will hear from her soon. Apparently, you're earning more than you were when the agreement was stipulated – no kidding! – so she wants more money for the kids. She seems to forget you're paying for their every need already, since she's still playing the bohemian artist!”

Now, that is more than Blaine was expecting. In his own version of the story, Leo and him suspended any contact with Michelle the day they brought the twins home. She was adamant about that and they agreed with her. But Lea speaks of alimony, which means he must have had the kids with Michelle. And that's weird. He wonders if they were married too, and what's Lea's place in all this.

“Did she really want more?” He asks, pretending to be upset. If anything, at least he can play the part of her Blaine to get information out of her.

“I know, right?” Lea shrugs in outrage. “Like, wasn't it enough that she took the house in the Hamptons and the Lexus out of the divorce? And mind you, she's still pissed that you got the custody. But, I mean, how could she even think you wouldn't? She can barely sustain herself, let alone two children. Gosh, I really wish your ex-wives were all like Helena. She's so cute and reasonable.”
Blaine can't stop his eyebrow from rising. How many ex-wives does he have, exactly? And again, where was Lea in all this? “And you didn't hear from her too, I suppose?” He asks confused.

“Actually, I did,” Lea nods. She walks around the kitchen counter and past him, so he sees that she's wearing something that couldn't be considered a skirt in any possible universe. It barely covers her ass, and since it's made of a flimsy fabric, every steps she takes, the skirt billows and he can see the curve of her ass. She doesn't seem to mind that at all, and when she bends to rummage into her bag on the couch, he is forced to look away. “She sent me a text saying that Timmy and her will be back from Boston next week. Speaking of which, I can take him to the Tricksters concert, if you're fine with it. I've always wanted to see them live, anyway.”

Blaine smiles because no matter the universe, Leo bonding with his elder son always warms his heart. “I don't mind at all,” he says, putting his mug away too. “He's old enough to go to a concert now, I guess.”

If the timing is the same as his universe, at least. “I'm happy to hear you say that,” Lea chuckles as she retrieves her phone probably to text Helena or Timmy back. “He'll be fifteen next month, it's about time you take him out of the cotton wool. After all, you thought I was old enough to do a lot of other things.”

Blaine is not surprised to know that part of their relationship isn't different here, because it never is. That's what being a constant of the universe means. Very little about them really changes in every universe. “That's another story. You weren't my daughter,” he says, hoping that it's true.

“But I was somebody else's and you didn't care either,” she replies with a chuckle. She puts the phone away and grabs the mail on the coffee table, giving it to him. “Oh! Here. The invitation to the annual actors and directors charity ball has arrived. It's all fancy and sort of handwritten, they like to do things old style. Can we go this time? I really, really want to.”

Blaine looks at the invitation for the ball, something he has never received in his life and that must be arrived with her. He's not even sure there is such a thing here in his universe, but the idea of telling her they are going and leaving his other self deal with the consequences of a withdrawing amuses him. “Of course we can, I bet you will be stunning in a dress,” he says, charmingly.

She beams at him and instantly throws her arms around his neck, leaving on his lips a little kiss which is both unexpected and pleasant at the same time. “What happened? This is not you. You never wanted to go before!” She says, happily.

Blaine chuckles. “I must not be myself then,” he jokes. “What are these other things?”

“Just bills,” she answers. “But I'm done being your assistant for free, you know? You should pay me. Hollywood assistants earn fortunes.”

She naturally slips on his lap. It's not so natural for him but there's not much he can do except for holding her by her slim hips. “But I'm not an Hollywood actor,” he says, trying his best not to feel her soft body against his own.

“That worked three years ago before the Golden Globe,” she says. “Now you are one.”

A Golden Globe and no Tonys? That's the worst universe ever. He would like to complain more, even forget what's happening for a bit and explain to her how disappointing this is, but she doesn't let him because her body fully pressing against his chest and her legs opening to straddle him are very distracting and upsetting in ways that she can't possibly understand right now.

“What are you doing?” He asks, hesitantly.

“Do you know,” she says, nosing her way up his neck to reach his ear to which she speaks in a whisper, “that this is the first time in weeks we're actually at home at the same time without one of your kids around?”

“And this is incredibly nice,” he stammers. She moves on his crotch and the skirt goes up, leaving her legs naked and Blaine with no place where to put his hands, “but it doesn't seem the right time.”

She bites at his earlobe and leaves little wet kisses along his jaw. “There is no better time than this. Nobody can interrupt us. We've all day, actually.”

Blaine has never felt that Leo was harassing him, even when he was being pushy. But this is probably different. It's not just the wrong Leo, at the wrong time, thinking that he is another Blaine. It is a woman, and despite having to deal with some pretty creepy versions of Leo in the past – he has met a Leo who was his son, after all – this is the one he can't stand because he doesn't like women. At all. “Alright, but this is not even the real problem,” he mumbles as she tries to kiss him properly. “Lea.... gosh, we need to talk.”

“Can we do that after?” She asks, with a naughty look in her eyes. “There's something I wanna do to you and it may involve my mouth.”

For the first time since he can remember, a hint like that makes him shiver in awkwardness. He gently pushes her away from himself and keeps her at distance. “No, we really need to talk now,” he says, seriously. “Or you may end regretting this, later.”

“Whoa, you do look serious,” she comments, rising an eyebrow.

“Because I am. I—Can you stand up, please?”

Lea sighs but she climbs off of him and straighten her skirt. She stands there tough, and doesn't look too happy. “So, what's so important that we can't have sex?”

This is a legit question coming from any version of Leo, after all. “Okay, listen. What I'm about to tell you is a little confusing and you probably won't believe me at first, but please let me tell you everything before thinking that I'm crazy, alright? Can you do that for me?”

Lea nods and grabs a chair. “Alright. What's happening?”

Blaine has explained this so many times to many different Blaines and Leos, but it always feels weird. “Are you familiar with the theory of the parallel universes?”

Lea looks at him as if she was about to burst out laughing, but she doesn't. “The theory that says that there are thousands of millions of other universes similar to our own in which copies of ourselves live other lives?”

“Exactly,” Blaine nods. “I can tell you for sure that it's not just a theory and that all those universes exist and have the irritating tendency to collide whenever something somewhere goes wrong. Now, I know that I look and sound and feel like it, but I'm not the Blaine you are with.”

“What?”

Blaine sighs. “I am Blaine Anderson and we are together, but in my universe – which I'm actually pretty sure is this one – I don't have any ex-wives. Helena died giving birth to Timothy and Michelle was the surrogate mother we chose together because we wanted a child. But most importantly, here you're a guy.”

“What?” Lea asks again, in a high-pitched voice. “Blaine, what are you talking about? Are you drunk or something?”

“No, I'm not—please, let me finish, okay?” He insists. “I know this is upsetting and extremely confusing, I've seen it happen before. Many times. Just let me explain.”

The look in Lea's eyes is the same confused and angry look he's seen in all the Leos he has met. She wants to scream at him and be mad at him, but there's a little part of her, a voice inside her head, that urges her to listen because deep inside she knows he's telling the truth. Blaine knows how it works because that's exactly what happened to him when the other Leo came to him for the first time. Lea nods quickly, inviting him to go on.

“Thanks,” he says with a little smile. “A few years ago, my husband – which means you – came home and he looked and sounded slightly off. I sensed that something was wrong, but I still thought he was him. He was not. He told me that for some reason two universes where my Leo and him were very similar had collided, and now he was there with him and my Leo was in his place. I didn't believe him, obviously, before I really started to notice that he acted slightly differently from the Leo I knew and that he really didn't know facts that he should have known. There were two possible explanation, either he was making fun of me, or he really was who he said he was. Later I came to understand that we – me and you, whatever version of us – are a universal constant, essential for the universe's well being; which means we must be together in all the universes, in order for the fabric of space and time to stay whole. If something happens and we are not together, this fabric starts to deteriorate and the universes start crashing against each other.”

Lea has been listening very closely but she looks doubtful. “It sounds like the plot of one of your movies. A very good one, actually. You should think about writing it down or something.”

“Unfortunately, this is not a movie. Every second we spend talking, the risk of the universes collapsing increases. We need to find a way to send you back.”

Lea frowns. “Wait, why me? What if this is my universe and you're the one who's been traveling?"

“I am not,” Blaine shakes his head. “This is my home. Everything here is exactly as it should be. Except you.”

Lea seems upset. Blaine recognizes in her that moment when an other-self realizes that something is really wrong and starts feeling scared. “Nope. If what you say it's true, and I'm not saying that it is, this is my home too. It looks like it.”

“But it's not. Look around Lea,” he says, showing her the place. “Look closely, there must be something that looks right but it's not. Usually, if we have the same house, there's a little detail that gives it away. And If there isn't, then look at the photos. You aren't in any of them.”

She actually seems to notice that this place is not exactly how she's used to see it. When she lays eyes on the row of frames on a shelf to her right, she lets out a little surprised scream. “Is this...?” She picks up one frame. The photo in it is one of the many of Leo Blaine has taken during the years.

“Yes, that's you here. Can you see the similarity?”

“He looks exactly like me,” she breathes out, shocked. She looks at each and every photo. She sees that Leo is everywhere, with Blaine, with Timmy and the twins. “But if I'm here, where is he?”

“With your Blaine,” Blaine says. “Is he a reasonable person?”

Lea shrugs. “I think so, but he won't be happy that I turned into a guy.”

“I thought as much. He has two ex-wives after all,” Blaine chuckles.

Lea is still confused and the only thing she seems able to do is sit down and look like she's gonna throw up or something, so Blaine decides he can give her some time and talk about her world to help her focus. Maybe this could even help the reverse process. “How did it work between you two?” He asks. “You said you were fifteen when you met him, so when did he get married... twice?”

She takes a deep breath and starts to explain. She looks nervous at first, but speaking of things she knows calms her down a little. “He is an old friend of my father and he came to my school to give a drama class. I went to it and we had the chance to spend a lot more time together after school for rehearsals and everything. By then, he had already divorced from Helena. We fell in love and got together the summer of that same year, but since I was underage, we kept it a secret until I was eighteen. My fathers freaked out a little because of the age difference but I was legally an adult and they've never known we had been seeing each other before, so they accepted it eventually. But Blaine thought I was too young to be with him in a serious relationship and I agreed with him. I wanted to make my own experiences, I wanted to travel the world with my friends and be with people my own age. I think I wanted to see if I loved him for real or just because he was older and he made me feel special. So we decided that we would take some time apart. Actually, we never really managed that completely because we would have sex every time we met and we were alone, but nothing more than that. We've been some kind of strange friends with benefits thing for a very long time. Then, five years ago he met Michelle and he was happy with her, so we stopped seeing each other for good. I started dating my best friend, so the whole thing wasn't so dramatic. When we met again three years later, his marriage with Michelle was over and he had two kids, and my relationship with Adam hadn't worked out, so we just fell for each other again. Everything fell into place, actually. It was as if we had just seen each other the day before. We've been together ever since.”

Blaine is smiling with a mixture of affection and sadness. This version of them has had the story he wanted for Leo and himself. Lea has done exactly what he had asked Leo and he always refused to do. Now he has proof that they could have been alright like this too. It's easy to think that without talking to the other Blaine and asking him what was in his mind at the time, if he really wanted Lea to be free of have her experience or if he just didn't want to get involved with her too much. He deliberately decides not to dwell on this kind of thoughts.

“So, are you planning on marrying?”

Lea laughs. “Oh God no!” She exclaims. “He'd love to but I know that would be a train wreck. Blaine's the perfect boyfriend but a terrible husband. Marriage makes him anxious and he doesn't work well under pressure. We're good as we are now. Are you two married?”

Blaine nods. “Yes, we are. He didn't want to, but I insisted so much that he said yes to make me stop asking,” he chuckles. “You are very different from him under many different key characteristics.”

“Same goes for you and my Blaine,” she says, and then she rolls her eyes with a chuckle. “It still feels strange to say that.”

Blaine smiles back. “I know.”

“So,” Lea sighs, apparently embracing the explanation. “Is there a way to fix this? I mean, if I came here, there must be a way to go back right?”

Blaine doesn't miss the anxious tone in her question. “Yes, but we have to find out how you arrived here, where's the hole in the fabric, and bring my Leo on the same exact spot on the other side. I need you to tell me everything you did this morning.”

“I didn't do anything special,” she muses.

“It doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be something special at all,” Blaine explains. “Usually, it has something to do with mirrors. They seem to be perfect places of passage.”

Lea thinks about it. “Well, I've looked at myself in the mirror, but...”

“Where? Here?” He asks, already moving toward the bathroom. Lea nods and follows him there. Blaine checks the big mirror above the sink and touches it to feel if it's still there. It's not like whatever let you go through usually melts into water-like substances as you see in the movies, but it's worth a try. “Do you have something to write on this?”

“What? Wait...” Leah disappears in the other room and comes back with a lipstick. “Here.”

Blaine takes the lipstick and sighs, wanting his boy back as soon as possible. The first time Leo crossed universes, it was through a mirror in his parents' house. Unlike Alice, he didn't go to Wonderland, and bringing him was not easy at all. But they learned one thing, that the two universes were connected and they could talk to each other by writing on the objects, provided that they were in the same space in both realities. After the second and third time they had to deal with stuff like this, they decided that the first thing to do while being trapped in some place was find out where you came from and write on it, so that the person on the other side could see it and work with you to take you out. So, Blaine writes Leo's name right in the middle of the mirror and waits for an answer.

Lea holds her breath next to him, looking at the mirror for something to happen, but nothing changes. “Is it working?” She asks after a while.

“No. Is there a mirror just like this in your Blaine's house?” Blaine asks, and when she confirms that the house is indeed identical to this one except for the photo, he growls. “Shit.”

“What?” She says alarmed.

Blaine breathes in and out, trying to calm down if not for her, for himself. Panicking doesn't help anyone think straight. “Maybe he's not in the house,” he says. “But that could be a problem because if he didn't appear right in the house--”

“My Blaine might have not let him in because he's a guy.”

Blaine nods, scratching his nape. He covers his face with his hands for a moment and tries to think. The very first time he did almost nothing to change things back as they were, the whole issue being in the hands of the two Leos. And after that, they had a glimpse of a great number of universes, but that kid Pete was there to help them. He feels a little lost, here.

“Does it have to be a real mirror?” Lea asks, suddenly.

“What?” He asks, looking up.

“Does it have to be a real mirror or any reflective surface does the trick?” She asks, waiting for the answer as if from that depended her life, which it's true in the end. Sudden realization dawns in Blaine's eyes.

“No,” he shakes his head. “It can be anything, actually. It just needs to reflect images.”

“Then I dusted the TV screen this morning,” she says. “That thing is so huge it can reflect almost the whole room if it's clean.”

Blaine smiles so brightly that he's almost comical. “You're awesome,” he says, grabbing her head and kissing her on her lips, without thinking. She stands there a little shocked as he runs in the living room. On the big TV screen that hangs on the wall his name shines bright red, written in marker. And under it, the question: “Where the fuck are you?”

He laughs as Lea joins him. “What's so funny?”
“Your alternative self,” he answers. “Give me the lipstick, please.”

He's still laughing when he writes: “Right here. Thought it was the bathroom mirror. Is everything okay?”

Leo's answer doesn't take long to arrive, which means he must be right there. “Yes, but hurry up because you're pretty freaked out here.”

“It doesn't surprise me. You're a girl there.”

“I so wanna hear about that,” Leo writes. Blaine can imagine is face right now. Leo's always very excited to know about their many alternative selves. “Make me stand right in front of this thing. Step away.”

Blaine turns to look at Lea. “Now you need to stand in front of the TV screen as you did this morning when you were dusting it. We think that recreating the exact conditions of the passage will reverse the process. On the other side, Leo will do the same. Hopefully, your two selves will lock to each other and you will switch to your rightful place as the universe of origin always calls its elements back to itself.”
Lea nods, confused. She understands half of what he says but he's Blaine and she trusts him. And she trusts her male self too. She opens her arms, smiling. “Can I have a hug?” She says.

“Of course.” Blaine smiles back and hugs her closely, leaving a tender kiss on her head. “Be a good girl.”

“I always am,” she chuckles. Then she stands right in front of the TV, trying to remember where she was that morning. Since she didn't notice the her going through the passage, she can't know when it happens and what she was doing exactly. So, she starts doing everything she had done. Nothing changes, but when she turns to ask the other Blaine what to do, he's not there anymore.

Leo turns around and finds himself staring at his very own Blaine. He would recognize him anywhere in the universe, even if he hadn't that sparkle in his eyes that says he recognizes him back. The next thing he knows is Blaine hugging him like there's no tomorrow. “You're back!” The man says.

“I'm back,” Leo whispers against his neck, leaving a kiss there. He sniffs, smelling something sweet and vaguely fruity. He backs off, looking outraged. “Is this her scent? Did you fuck her?”

“No!” Blaine cries out, equally outraged. “I just hugged her! Geez, Leo, she was a girl!”

“Well, she was still me!” He protests. Some very weird part of him feels a little offended that Blaine didn't want to fuck her just because she was a girl, even if he really didn't want Blaine to have sex with her. It's a complicated feeling when you are both jealous and offended by your boyfriend's refusal to cheat on you with another version of yourself.

“Yes, and she had boobs,” Blaine protests, shocked by Leo's pretenses. “And I don't do boobs.”

“But they were my boobs!” Leo insists, forgetting for a moment how crazy this is. “Did you touch them? How did they feel?”

Blaine frowns badly at him. “No! I didn't touch them!” He freaks out. “And for God's sake just stop this nonsense. I don't even understand if you wanted me to be with her or not!”

“I don't know,” Leo answers thoughtfully, as if it was a serious question. “It's complicated. Anyway, it has been the worst two days of my life.”

“What? You've only been away a couple of hours.”

Leo sighs. “Different realities, sometimes even different time. Blaine, how many times will I have to tell you this?” He sighs. “Anyway, we really need to find those two of us that keep screwing things up. Really, what's wrong with them? Each and everyone of us learned our lesson already, why can't they? I swear that once we find them, I'm gonna chain them together!”

Blaine sighs. “You know, that wouldn't be enough. They need to love each other to make it work.”

“But that's not even the problem!” Leo protests. “We always love each other, no matter where we are or who we are! That's the point with us.”

Blaine drags him into his arms and hugs him tenderly. He can't help but smile stupidly against Leo's neck and cuddle him a little. And when Leo predictably calls his name, confused by the hug, Blaine doesn't answer. There's no better Leo than his, especially when he says the most precious things without even noticing.

NO KID IS SO LOVELY YOU'RE NOT GLAD HE'S GONE TO SLEEP.

Monsters don’t exist.

Timmy is almost sure about that. Or at least he’d really like to be sure about it, so he could stay in bed and try to go back to sleep. Instead, every time he closes his eyes, some noise forces him to open them again. Sometimes it’s a squeak, sometimes it’s a creak, sometimes he even hears the wardrobe's door open but he's too scared to see if it's true. Whatever it is, he gets the clear impression that something is moving around his room. Obviously, it can’t be nothing good, because nothing good moves around the house at night. Unless it's his father or Leo going downstairs to get a glass of water. But they almost never do that because they are too lazy to go downstairs and they get water from the tap in their private bathroom.

Now Timmy is presented with a big dilemma.
He can stay under his green lucky blanket – the one grandma Marjorie knitted especially for him – and hope for the best, or he can make a run for his father's bedroom and try to escape whatever lingers in the darkness of his bedroom right now. According to what the other kids say at the playschool, this is a choice every child is given in every part of the world and universe. It's like a live or die thing, where you can bet on where your best chances are. If you're a fatty, maybe you want to stay in bed and hopes for the monster to fail at seeing you beneath the blanket. But if you choose to run, then you better run fast or the monster can get you. His friend Thomas says that a friend of his bigger sister got caught one step away from his parents bedroom. He was almost there, but the monsters got him first, and then he was gone. He was fat and he chose wrong. You always have to think twice before deciding what to do.

Timmy is not fat, but he can't run very fast.
Leo always catches him when they play chase, even when Timmy stars running way before him. So maybe trying to escape is not a good idea. Still, he doesn't really believe that monsters can't see you if you hide under a blanket. When his dad hides in bed, he always finds him because his body makes a huge bulge. How can a monster not see that? The existence of magic blankets could explain this strange blindness, but he doesn't know if grandma Marjorie can knit magic blankets. So, what if he hides under his blanket, thinking that the monster won't see him, but it really can? It would be embarrassing, let alone very upsetting because then the monster would eat him.

Another creak. This time it's so close he can swear it came from beside his bed. He curls under the blanket and listens but the room is silent again. The monster is probably listening too. Timmy's heart beats so fast that he can hear it, and hiding under the blanket is proving to be of no use. He feels the monster knows where he is and it's just a matter of time before he jumps on the bed and eats him. Plus, he really wants his father now and he can't breath anymore. He must get out of here and take a risk.

He takes a long breath and counts to five, which is the longest he can count. Then he throws away the blanket and jumps out of the bed, running as fast as he can towards the door. His room is not so big but it's dark enough to seem endless. The little mushroom light on his nightstand doesn't work that much. He can never see the end of the room or the corner were the wardrobe is. That's how the monster can come out of there and never be seen.

Luckily, nothing catches him before he can reach the door but he hears another creak behind his back. So, he just runs faster and sprints out of his bedroom and into the hallway, where he stops for a moment to catch his breath. The house they have in Lima is so much bigger than the one they had in Westerville.
This one is two stores high, it has a garden, a backyard and tons of rooms, which is good when you play hide and seek, but not as much when you wake up in the middle of the night and you have a big, scary monster chasing after you and your father's bedroom is at the end of the hallway.

In the beginning, Timmy had the room right next to his father's bedroom.
It was a ten seconds trip to one room to the other and it was basically perfect. But after three months of Leo being with them, his father has made them switch rooms, saying that Leo wasn't feeling very well and he needed to keep a closer eye on him. Then, when Leo got better and he started sleeping with his father in his father's bedroom, Timmy didn't change room again because Leo's old room became Leo's study. So now Timmy's room is very far from his father and Leo's, which basically means making another long run for it and hoping for the best again.

He runs without looking back, holding Mr. T-rex against his chest with both hands, so he won't drop it. The house seems darker and quieter than it should be. All the pieces of fancy furniture his father brought from far far away look big and scary. Everything looks like something horrible is hiding behind it, making the hallway even longer. When he reaches the end of it, he pushes the bedroom's door open and slips inside. The mere presence of his father makes the room safe, so he just relaxes and catches his breath. He can imagine the monster snapping his fingers, knowing that he has lost. But he doesn't think about that too much, because the idea of a monster waiting outside still scares him a little bit.

He looks around. His father's bedroom is huge. Aside from the bathroom, there is another room where his father and Leo keep all their clothes and shoes. His father taught him that it's called a walk-in closet because it is a closet you can walk in, obviously. It's Timmy's favorite place to hide and his father never thinks to look for him there. The bed is huge too and Timmy's still to short to climb on it alone. Luckily, Leo always leaves a pile of books and comics on the ground by his side of the bed, so he can step on that first, and then grab the blankets and climb on the bed.

When he reaches the top of the bed, Leo is perfectly sleeping on his side and so is his father, which leaves him the whole central area of the bed. Timmy loves when they don't hug and smooch in their sleep because that way he can comfortably lie between them, and they only notice that when he's already been sleeping there for hours and they can't send him away. Sometimes he even pretends to be sleeping, so they leave him alone.

This time, he is not so lucky. As soon as he rests his head on his father's pillow, Blaine opens his eyes and glares at him. “What are you doing here, kid?”

Timmy has been taught to answer properly when he's been asked something, and he usually does. But he knows that he can't win an argument with his father, so this time he just curls up against him as he sleepily rubs his toy dinosaur on his face and mumbles something.

Blaine sighs. “What?”

“There's a monster in my room,” he repeats, this time louder. He hides his face in his father's neck, hoping that being all cute will stop Blaine from sending him away.

“How many times do I have to tell you that monsters aren't real?” Blaine asks, sitting up and yawning. He doesn't want to look at the alarm clock. He has to get up at six, so it doesn't matter what time it is, he shouldn't be awake.

“This one is,” Timmy insists, hiding his face even more.

Blaine sighs. “Alright, come here,” he says, placing the kid on his lap. “What did you see, exactly?”

“Nothing,” Timmy says, honestly. “But it was there.”

“And how do you know that? Can you see invisible things?”

Timmy shakes his head. “It made noises. Like, squeaks and creaks,” he says.

Blaine sighs, combing his son's hair with his fingers. “Like the ones your wardrobe makes? Those sounds that we already said it's just the wood adjusting itself?”

Timmy nods. “But there was a monster this time!” He insists against every logic. “I hate monsters.”

On the other side of the bed, Leo grunts and turns his back to both of them. If anything, the worst part of being the boyfriend of a man who has a five years old son is definitely the five years old kid. “I hate monsters too,” he grumbles. “And kids who come in my bedroom and remind me of them.”

Blaine glares at him, if even Leo can't see him. Whereas Leo, being a kid himself sometimes, knows everything about cartoons and toys and stuff that Timmy talks about all the time and he's very helpful in keeping the kid entertained for hours at a time, he is completely useless in this kind of situations because he can never be bothered with tantrums, fits or caprices. As with any other thing that he doesn't like to do, Leo gets annoyed when he has to deal with whiny Timmy. Blaine knows that Leo will have to learn how to deal with responsibilities if he's ever to become Timmy's step-father, but this is no the time to talk about that. After all, he can only deal with one kid at a time.
“Listen pumpkin,” Blaine says, “Daddy is very tired and he needs to sleep because tomorrow he has to wake up really early to go to work. You too need to sleep, because where are you going tomorrow?”


“Playschool,” Timmy answers, mumbling and then proceeding to yawn so hard that he needs to throw his head back.

Blaine chuckles. “Right. And you don't want to be sleepy, do you?”

“No,” he confirms. “I wanna play with my friends.”

“Right,” Blaine says again. “Do you remember that Leo is taking you to school tomorrow?”
Timmy nods and looks at Leo, thoughtfully. This is not the first time Leo takes him to the playschool, but his father always makes a big deal out of it.

“If you let me sleep,” Leo grunts.

“So, let's go to bed now,” Blaine proposes, and he actually starts to stand up, so Timmy will know he has no much of a choice.

“But there's a monster in my room!” The kid insists, whining.

Leo sighs in frustration and turns on his side to look at them. “Really, Timmy, do you know how it works for real? Monsters eat kids who jump out of bed and go to their parents' room. So stop whining and go back to sleep before it comes here and eat us all out for revenge.”

“Dad?” Timmy asks in panic, turning to his father.

“Leo!” Blaine hisses, glaring so much at his boyfriend that he could set him on fire.

“What?” Leo hisses back, annoyed.

Blaine is this close to kill him, but he decides for a better punishment. “There's no monster in your room because monsters don't exist,” he repeat for his son's benefit. “Now Leo will show you that.”

“What?” Leo hisses again.

Timmy keeps looking from his father to Leo, trying to catch up. “Leo will take you to your room and show you that there's nothing to be afraid of. Is it right, Leo?”

The look in Blane's eyes tells Leo that if he doesn't want to fight tonight, he better makes up for the stupid thing he has just said. It's either waste ten minutes to make Timmy feel safe or lose the whole night arguing with Blaine. So, Leo sighs and gets out of the bed, reaching out for the kid.

“Come on, T.T.,” he says as the kids crawls to him so he can pick him up. “Let's go to bed.”

The kid waves his father goodbye, his legs hanging in the air as Leo holds him in his arms and takes him away. Leo is very tall and skinny, he doesn't look and feel strong as his father does, but they have the same kind of hair, so Timmy instantly starts curling one lock of Leo's hair around his finger, which almost instantly gets him sleepy.

By the time they reach Timmy's room, Timmy's eyes are already half closed and he doesn't protest much when Leo places him in his bed. “Can you stay with me until I fall asleep?” He only asks. And since it doesn't look like it will take much, Leo nods and sits on the armchair next to the bed, curling up on it like a kid himself.

*

Ten minutes later, Blaine starts to worry.
He tried to go back to sleep but something in the back of his mind just stopped him from doing it. Leo hasn't probably closed his son in a wardrobe again, but you can't never know with him. Maybe he couldn't convince Timmy to go back to sleep and he is now telling him the monster will eat him, so Timmy will hysterically asks to sleep with them and he will have no excuse to be there and try to calm him down because it will be impossible at that point.

But this theory proves to be a plan too complicated for Leo at his hour of the night.

When Blaine enters the room, he finds both his son and Leo soundly asleep and holding hands. He can't help but smile and let out a shamefully tender sound. He contemplates the idea of waking up Leo before his back takes the shape of the armchair but he is so cute as he sleeps there with his hand under his cheek, matching Timmy's pose so perfectly, that he can't do it. So he covers him with the spare blanket at the feet of Timmy's bed and leaves the room, leaving the door ajar.

Once back in his room, Blaine looks at his bed and smirks even in the confusion of his sleep-clouded mind.

The cuteness overload he has just experienced instantly fades at the thought that he has his bed all to himself for the first time in about five years. He's so happy that his brain starts to enjoy this gift of the events long before he gets inside the bed.

By the time his head touches the pillow, he's already asleep.

POSTCARDS GO WHERE YOUR HEART IS

It's been three weeks since Leo left for a three months trip with the so called love of his life and he didn't bother to call home once. Not that Adam would answer the phone if he did, but still. This shows perfectly well what Adam always thought about him. Leo cares for them only as long as he can't be with Blaine. As soon as the man shows up and mesmerizes Leo with his cock, they all just disappear for him.

Last time Adam saw Leo was the day before he left. And they fought.

Adam is not really proud of what they have said to each other, but he knows he was right telling him the truth about Blaine. Somebody had to, and being his best friend, that was Adam's duty. Leo is so in love that he can't see clearly. Or prefers not to, that would be a much better way to describe the situation. Every time Blaine bothers to show up, Leo forgets that he was left alone without even a call for months.

And now this trip.

Adam knows why Blaine has organized this trip around the world. He wanted to take Leo away from Cody, since the two of them had grown pretty close in the last six months. Actually, that was love. Every time Adam thinks about it, he gets really angry. Leo has always slept around a lot but never really fell in love with anyone. Never, except with Cody. Adam saw it in Leo's eyes that he cared for the boy more than he cared to admit.

But Leo broke up with Cody anyway the moment Blaine showed up. It was painful and it was unexpectedly hard for him to do it, but he did it anyway. Just a little less hardheartedly that he would have done with anyone else. And Adam couldn't help but think that if Blaine hadn't bothered to come back and ruin everything for good, maybe Leo was going to be happy and have something special with Cody.

But Adam doesn't care. He doesn't care at all. He so doesn't care that he has to say it aloud a couple of times just to let the empty apartment know too.

He is not Leo's father or brother. There's only so much he can do to avoid his heart from been stomped on and broken into millions of pieces. He tried. God knows if he tried, but Leo doesn't listen to him. So, who cares? Adam certainly doesn't.

That's when he leaves the house to go to class and he sees the postcard in the mailbox.

They don't receive much real mail, except for constant reminders of due rent payment and bills, so he immediately knows that that must be from Leo. It's a simple postcard from Barcelona. It's not even that original, showing just a few monuments and the name of the city in white capital letters. But he must admits the Sagrada Familia is really beautiful at the very center of the image. Leo must have chosen it on purpose, knowing how much he likes Gaudì's work.

That makes him angry. Not only Leo doesn't call and thinks he can fix everything with a piece of paper, but doing so he also takes the chance to throw in his face that he can visit places Adam would love to see more than he does but that he can't visit because he doesn't have wealthy parents or a disgustingly rich boyfriend. It is annoying how the whole world plots against him when he's trying to just forget Leo even exists.

It doesn't matter if the whole world means just a postcard with the worst timing ever. He is too angry to think of such matters.

Adam decides that the best punishment for Leo will be ignoring that stupid postcard all together. It's not all he deserves – he deserves to be repeatedly beaten until some sense comes into him – but it's a good compromise until he comes back. If he bothers to. So Adam throws the postcard away without even read it once.

He manages to walk three steps before running back and picking up the postcards from the trash.

Maybe this time Leo really feels guilty about what he did. Maybe he wants to apologize in advance, waiting the moment he will be back to do that again in person. It would be a double apology from Leo, the closest thing to a miracle Adam will ever experience.

“Hummel, I hope you wrote you're sorry in here,” he says aloud as he flips the postcard.
The apology is there in the mess of words Leo used to beg him not to throw the postcard before reading it.
Adam can't help but chuckle at the way their minds seem to think alike sometimes. He just wishes they agree on Blaine too. But that will take time, he thinks.

And it will take patience. Luckily, he's got plenty of that because you can't be Leonard's best friend for fourteen years without it.

HALLOWEEN IN CHAINS

Blaine has been preparing this for almost a month, now.
When you work seven days a week for five months straight, Halloween can look like the most exciting day of the year even if you're almost forty, if it's the only free day you will have till the end of the year. His tour is going great and he is happy about it. He is particularly happy that his career didn't encounter a critical point after Timmy's birth and that he continues to be one of the most requested actors on Broadway, but he really needs a break. A real seventy-two hours break, Friday to Sunday with time enough to catch up with everything that is going on in his life again. Starting with clubbing. God, he missed the Prince of Persia. He missed the nights of freedom, going out at sundown and coming back home at sunrise with a stranger's number written on his left buttock. After months of work and concentration, of being so focused and into his part to not have time left for anything else, he feels the need to let himself loose in order to be back and ready for two other months of playing Scar in a very modern and bold version of The Lion King.
He brought Timmy to his grandparents and he has all planned out. Tonight he will knock himself out at the club. He wants to do everything: drink too much, dance too much, pop down pills like he was twenty again and hope to avoid an heartache for another year or two. Maybe even fuck, if it comes to that. He will come back home at five, sleep through Saturday morning, get in the car by lunch time and be in Lima around two o'clock in the afternoon, in time to pick up Leo from school and spend the rest of his break with him. The kid doesn't even know he's back in town, so his surprised face will be worth the months of waiting.
Obviously, as he changes into his Halloween costume, all his hopes and dreams are crashed.
When the doorbell rings, he just sighs and grabs the bucket of candy to give to the kids from the kitchen counter. There are a lot of families in the neighborhood and in the past few years everybody had kids, so there has been a little candies-seeker toddlers army invading his street for Halloween. He doesn't care much for other people's kids, but he would never open the door and tell them he has nothing to give them. It's just not proper Halloween's spirit. Plus, gorgeous moms are the perfect audience to test his costume on. "Trick or treat?"
But when he opens the door there aren't cute kids from the next door nor the always eager to hug him MILF he was hoping for. On the doorstep there's Leo, wearing a costume Blaine is not sure he wants to recognize. It is so twisted from the original that it looks like the kind of wrong that it's also terribly good. He's got some dark purple skinny jeans on that happen to hang on his hips for dear life and they are so incredibly low that the lilac line of his underwear can be seen underneath. Blaine knows how they stretch on the ass, because he knows how Leo's ass is and those pants are just painted on it. The shirt is tight too. It is some sort of military jacket with short sleeves, the same color of his pants, with golden buttons and shoulder patches. There must be an headband lost in Leo's messy black curls and on it two furry ears.
"What are you supposed to be?" That's the first thing Blaine can come up with, even if he knows the answer. Saying something smart is out of the question when he needs all his concentration to look away from Leo's crooked belt that makes a perfect curve on his hip. And he can't do even that, so.
When Leo smirks, it's clear why there was no need for him to paint his lips to mimic a certain crescent smile. His lips are perfectly able to do the trick themselves. "Wanna do a double take?" He says, amused. "Given that you manage to look away, first."
Blaine snorts. "At least you've got a costume that matches your personality," he says.
"I can say the same for you."
Blaine can't help but laugh. Since he's wearing nothing but a pair of harem pants for his sex slave's costume, he has to agree with him."You are right. I must admit, though, that I had never seen a Cheshire Cat quite like you. How come you are here?"
“You don't see me for weeks and that's all you can say?” Leo asks, his voice is still mocking though, so Blaine knows he is not really mad.
“You didn't know I was back.”
“I know everything, my father is working on Broadway too, remember?” Leo shrugs. “He told me you had a break.”
Blaine takes mentally note of his foolishness. Of course, Kurt knew. “How come he told you? I thought he wanted you as far away from me as humanly possible.”
“Oh, he does. He just let it slip and once the news was out, there was very little he could do to take it back. I was already packing.”
Blaine can imagine Leo taking his emergency bag from under the bed, a little backpack he keeps ready in case he has to jump on the first train and seize the opportunity to be with him, wherever he is.
“What if I wasn't home? I could have stayed in New York. It's a three days break, after all.”
“I took my chances. If you hadn't been home, I would have gone back to Lima and hated you forever.”
“Of course you would,” Blaine chuckles. Leo has the tendency to hate very easily, especially him.
“So, can I come in, now? I'm freezing outside.”
Blaine moves aside and half bows comically. “Please,” he says. As Leo passes him, Blaine notices the Cheshire Cat's tail, swinging behind Leo's back. “Oh my God, you've got a tail too,” he whines, desperately. Now he just wants to rip off all Leo's clothes and have him there.
“I am a cat, ain't I?”
“Is it a built-in tail or is it stuck somewhere?” Blaine smirks.
Leo doesn't turn so he can hide the fact that he is suddenly blushing. “Oh, you'd like that,” he chuckles. “But no, it's just stitched to my pants.”
“What a pity!” Blaine sighs, dramatically.
Leo takes possession of the couch and eats some of the candies Blaine keeps in a bowl. “So, when are you going to tell me why you clearly didn't have any intention to call me, tonight?”
Blaine frowns and joins him on the couch. “Why are you so sure about that?”
“Your costume,” Leo nods to Blaine's naked chest. He acts like it's no big deal but Blaine can recognize the dark shadow he sees in his eyes because he has seen it before so many times. “You are going to the Prince of Persia, aren't you?”
Blaine sighs. “Not now that you are here,” he says. He grabs one of Leo's ankles and strokes it fondly.
Leo kicks his boots off and rests both of his legs on Blaine's. “We can go, if you want.”
“Nah, we can have our party here.”
Leo looks at him with the expression of a person who knows exactly what's going on in your mind. “You wanted to go crazy, tonight.” He says that as if he doesn't need any proof.
Blaine never lies, so he nods. “I wanted some sort of freedom. It's been a tough period,” he says. “I just wanted to get loose. But I was going to pick you up at school tomorrow and stay with you in Lima till Sunday evening.”
Leo is not satisfied with the explanation. Whatever keeps Blaine from running to him as soon as he's got free time still screams of cheating in his head, but he knows very well that if he prompts this up now, they are going to fight and he doesn't want that. So he nods and clears his throat. This is enough to let Blaine knows he's just dropping it. “So, what with that costume?” He asks, nonchalantly. “I didn't know you were the slave type.”
“Why not?” Blaine chuckles.
Leo shrugs. “I don't know. It just doesn't seem you.” But then he doesn't get to see Blaine when he's away, so maybe a slave is exactly what he is.
Blaine shows him his cuffed hands, there's a long chain between them going from one wrist to the other. Leo laughs. “Oh, I see. That's why. You want to be chained.”
“Well, I wasn't going out purposely to be chained, but it would have been a pleasant thing.” He pushes Leo's pants up his ankles to show more skin. Both of them know where this is going, there's no need to say it aloud.
“If you say so.”
Blaine smirks at him. “Do you wanna try?”
Leo just stares at him for the longest moment ever. He always fears that question a little, because it's always followed by him doing something very embarrassing. But he usually ends up loving whatever Blaine proposes, so the hesitation is never really serious. Just an automatic reaction to anything new. “Why being chained should be good?” He asks, his constant need for detailed information instantly kicking in. “What's interesting and sexy in being restrained?”
“The thrill of the whole being captive for whatever reason set up,” Blaine says, letting go of Leo's legs and kneeling on the couch. “The enhanced pleasure of wanting more and not being able to get it,” he continues. His voice is suddenly low and incredibly sexier. This would be enough for Leo to even forget the question, but Blaine does even more and slowly slides on him with his body, until his lips are inches away from Leo's. “And last but not least, the unquestionably practical benefit of complete abandon, when you let someone else do all the job.” Blaine kisses his nose and lips, and smiles a little. “But that's something you do all the time, so maybe you're not interested into that.”
Leo pouts, offended. He hits Blaine on his shoulder. “Shut up!”
Blaine laughs amused, and he kisses him tenderly. “I didn't say it was a bad thing.”
“You were implying it.”
“I wasn't,” Blaine gives him another quick kiss on the lips and yet another. “So, do you wanna give it a try or not? It's not mandatory, but it could be fun. Plus, being chained and tortured fits the spirit of Halloween.”
“Tortured?” The way Leo's eyes can turn twice bigger when he's worried is always exhilarating.
Blaine takes his time to bite and lick at his neck a couple of times before clarifying. “In a totally non-painful, non-bloody, all-pleasurable manner. I promise.”
“Fine.” Leo sighs as if this were a favor he was doing to Blaine, but Blaine doesn't mind. This was exactly what he was aiming for: it's even funnier to blow Leo's mind with something after he explicitly showed he wasn't convinced of it at all.
“Good,” Blaine jumps up and reaches out for him. “Come on. Stand up.”
“What? Why?” Leo whines, frowning. “Can't we do it here?”
Blaine chuckles and pulls him up by his wrists. “There's nothing to chain you to, here,” he says as he gently pushes him forward towards the bed. “Come on.”
Leo unwillingly stumbles to what's considered Blaine's bedroom.
Actually, the only real room of the house with a door is the bathroom, the rest of the house is a big open space, decorated by the gayest interior designer ever. So, the bedroom is just a corner where the bed is, separated from everything else by a weird bookcase filled only with books of the same color. The only thing that makes it cool is the fact that Blaine's bed is huge. It's the biggest bed Leo has ever seen, with the coolest and strongest headboard ever, which basically makes the most perfect place to have sex for Leo. He fell in love with it the first moment he saw it the year before and he's been in love with it ever since. How could he possibly have forgotten how the mere sight of it excites him? He was about to have sex on a couch just for the sake of not moving his ass. His laziness is really getting out of control.
Leo lets himself fall spread on the bed as Blaine chuckles, taking off his handcuffs. “Do we need to role play?”
“Do you feel like it?” The man asks, passing the chain behind the bar of the headboard.
Leo shrugs. “What would you be? A slave trader?”
Blaine climbs on the bed and kneels beside him. “Give me your hands,” he says. “I was thinking something more on the line of me being some rich man and you being a slave that has been given to me as a gift.”
Leo looks at him as he proceeds to close the handcuffs around his wrists. “Am I happy to be given around like this?”
Blaine shakes his head slowly. “Of course not,” he says, his voice low and triggering again, as he lowers his mouth on Leo's neck again. “You were a free kid just months ago. You were wrongly imprisoned and then sold to someone who brought you to me. You're so pissed.”
Leo is mildly amused to see how far Blaine can go with the storytelling just to get laid, but he can't say anything about it because Blaine's kisses are too warm and wet on his skin to form any coherent thoughts. “And I guess I hate you,” he suggests.
Blaine nods, going back up where Leo's lips are and kissing them. “You do, until I put my hands on you,” he explains. One of his hands slips under his t-shirt and caresses his hip. “Then you hate me even more because you like it and you don't want to say it.”
Leo's body stretches under Blaine's hands and he tries to reach out to touch something too, but he can't. He pulls at his restrains and feels the chain slides around the headboard bars with a cold, metallic sound. Weirdly enough, he shivers.
“Don't move,” Blaine says. He looks at him with darker, lustful eyes and Leo can't look away. “It's easier when you don't fight it.”
The way Blaine speaks to him makes Leo's stomach tighten. It's not hard to imagine the whole set up, the richly furnished room of some powerful man in a country that he doesn't know, so far away from home. “What if I don't want to be here?” He says, playing along.
Blaine chuckles in the mean way only he can pull off because he's an actor. “It doesn't matter at all what you want,” he states. He backs off just to look at him for a moment. “Now, what do we have here?”
He starts unbuttoning Leo's military jacket. For every button undone he leaves a kiss, his whole body slowly sliding downward, making Leo restless.
“Stop it. Let me free,” he moans in a so unconvincing way that nobody would believe he is more than consenting to all this.
“I've not even started, kiddo.”
Leo is not very good at playing the angry slave. He forgets to pull at the chains that restrain him, and he just loves the way Blaine takes possession of his body, doing whatever he pleases. He's not the right guy for the role, but none of them care too much, as Blaine loves to take care of him as much as Leo likes to be taken care of. He likes to mock him, though. “Aren't you supposed to hate to be chained?” He whispers to Leo's ears.
Leo nods vaguely, his eyes close. “Of course I do,” he moans, moving his hands a little.
“Oh, I certainly see that,” Blaine smiles.
This would be the case in which Leo gets offended because he's being mocked, but this time he can't because Blaine sticks his tongue in his navel and plays with it, and Leo can't be bothered to be angry at all. He pushes his tummy up to give him more access, so Blaine is forced to stop and dedicates himself to something else. “If you want it, then I can't give it to you,” he says.
“Oh, come on!” Leo whines.
Blaine shakes his head while his skillful hands unfasten Leo's belt and undo his zip. “Play along,” he admonishes him, playfully.
Leo snorts and complains a little first, but when he goes back to play the slave, his acting is improved a lot because his frustration and anger are real. He tries to move away from Blaine but the man keeps him in place, handling him not so carefully as he pulls down his pants and underpants. “Where do you think you're going?” He asks, sitting on Leo's legs and pinning him down on the mattress.
Blaine is not really weighing on him but the feeling of constriction is real enough to make Leo's heart beat faster. He growls and hisses and pulls at the chains.
“Now, that's better,” Blaine murmurs, his lips grazing along the skin of Leo's neck up to his ear. “Do you want me to touch you?”
“No,” Leo groans.
Blaine lets his hand slide between his legs and palm him, forcing a liquid moan out of Leo's mouth. “Are you sure?”
“No... I mean, yes,” Leo breaths out, but he pushes his hips upward nonetheless, standing on the tip of his toes when Blaine retrieves his hand, chuckling.
“Yes or no?” The man asks. “You must be precise. I have to know if you want this or not.”
For Leo being clear about what he wants and what he doesn't want is already hard enough in normal conditions. Reverse psychology is not exactly his thing, so he actually needs to focus to understand what's the right answer here. He wants Blaine's hands on himself badly, so it must be a no. “No,” he swallows, trying hard not to push his hips up again.
Blaine is having a hard time not to laugh when he goes back touching him and Leo lets out the most genuine sigh of relief he has ever heard from him. His fingers close around Leo's cock and he starts stroking him slowly, following the rhythm of Leo's already labored breathing. At some point, Leo starts to move his hips accordingly but Blaine doesn't let him.
“Don't move,” he says.
Leo whines again but he obeys, and his complaints melt into moans when Blaine bends over to kiss and bite at every inch of skin he can reach. Leo's wrists pull at the restraints with frustration. He needs to touch something, at least for the time being if not all the time, because letting Blaine do all the job is one thing, but being helpless while Blaine touches him is torture.
He closes his eyes and tries to concentrate on something else, partly because he does need a distraction or he's going crazy, partly because he doesn't want to give in to him so easily, even though he's pretty sure he's doing a shitty job in that regard. The wave of pleasure that mounts from between his legs right now has taken over his perception, and the only thing that matters is Blaine's hand stroking him steadily. The need to move is a strong drum beat in the back of his head that never stops.
When suddenly Blaine slows down, Leo struggles to open his eyes and focus on him. He just opens his mouth to pretest – completely oblivious of the orders he received earlier – but Blaine is ready to sign him to shut up, just before he slides even lower and puts his mouth when his hand was. The utter curse that escapes Leo's lips is almost hilarious. Suddenly, there's nothing but the wet and warm feeling of Blaine's lips and tongue around his cock. There was nothing before and probably there won't be anything else after.
That's when Blaine is forced to keep Leo's hips down to avoid chocking more than for the roleplay's sake. When he manages to get the hand of this restless kid desperately trying to disappear in his mouth as much as he can, he also manages to set the pace to one that is actually bearable to him, then he closes his eyes and he focuses on the task at hand, knowing very well Leo won't take his eyes off for anything in the world.
In fact, Leo is looking very intently at him. He can't help it. That's something fascinating in what Blaine is doing. He doesn't know if it's because of the pleasure or because he finds the idea of oral sex disgusting, and like what happens with roadkills he can't look away. Maybe it's a combination of the two things. He can't resolve to do the same for Blaine, but he can't look away if Blaine's doing it, even if the idea of Blaine having his cock in his mouth freaks him out on certain levels.
Lost in his own mind, he forgets they are supposed to be roleplaying. Actually, he forgets they are supposed to go all the way too. Pulling at his restraints, he just lets himself go to Blaine's ministration, feeling himself sliding in his mouth every time he moves his hips.
That's why Blaine is forced to stop and back off, chuckling. “Slow down, kiddo,” he says. “I plan to be in you when it happens.”
Leo lets out a little growl. “Then why don't you enter in me, already!” He spits out. Then he realizes what he has just said and blushes furiously.
Blaine chuckles again. “My, my. Dirty talking from you. Now I've seen them all.”
Leo frowns. “Shut up”.
Blaine laughs again, but then he leans on him, sensually. “Have you had enough of the chains already?” He asks, with a playful kiss on Leo's nose. It's not a question, he almost knows for sure.
In fact, Leo nods. “Can we just...?”
Blaine sighs, but he's more amused than annoyed. “Roleplay is not your thing, isn't it?” He says, freeing him from his fake chains. Leo doesn't answer and doesn't give him the time to say anything else. As soon as his hands are free to move, he hooks them behind Blaine's neck, bringing him closer and making their bodies collide. They both moan, then Blaine sits down and drags him into his lap. They hurriedly settle, unable to take off their hands from each other. They don't speak as Blaine enters in him with one single thrust. They don't speak as Leo understands and follows Blaine's rhythm immediately. They don't speak during those few minutes when neither of them know where he is and all that matters is the point where their bodies connect. The first sound they speak is a shared sigh against each other skin.
More like a cat now that he is naked than when he had his costume on, Leo snuggles closer to Blaine and hides his face in his neck, seeking warmth and cuddles.
Slave to the kid, less free than he was before, Blaine just hugs him and leaves a kiss on the top of his head.

BROKEN HEART SYNDROME
REPORT ONE: AMBIVALENCE

“So,” Adam says, walking inside the room with a couple of Coke cans in his hands and countless different types of junk food between his arms, “Mom said you can stay as long as you want, maybe even stay the night if it pleases you, but I’m telling you, if you’re really planning on planting roots in here, you better start paying your own share of bills, you hear me?”

“Fuck you,” Leo answers, trying to kick him in his knees when he walks past him and the chair he’s sitting on, but clumsily missing the target, “Gimme one of those,” he whines, pointing at a chocolate bar.

“I should have you pay for this too,” Adam chuckles, throwing the snack at him and then opening one of the cans to sip at it, “You know, not everybody here is the son of the most important Broadway actor of the last ten years, with a hundred dollars per week allowance. Some of us are poor. I hate to break it down for you.”

“I said fuck you,” Leo snorts, unpacking the snack and taking an angry bite of it, gnawing violently, as if he’s trying to take his anger out on the innocent chocolate bar, “They used to give me more before Tana was born.”

“Yeah, let’s complain about that, Leo, that’s exactly what I’m in the mood to hear about when my mom’s doing double shifts to pay the rent,” Adam shakes his head, rolling his eyes and casting a resigned glance to the ceiling. He’s not really angry at Leonard, he knows him too well, and has been knowing him for much too long, not to know he doesn’t see anything else in the world that doesn’t concern himself. He doesn’t do it on purpose, he’s not even mean. He’s just self-centered. And kind of dumb, actually.

“I’m sorry…” Leo sighs, finishing his snack in a couple of bites and then asking for some coke. Adam gives him his can, and opens the other one, “It’s just that… that man’s home now. It’s making me even angrier than usual.”

“And, considering you live your life in a constant state of deep, wild and unreasonable anger even when he’s not around, that’s saying something,” Adam chuckles, mocking him.

Leo turns to glare at him, but he ends up losing all his drive halfway through, so when he’s actually looking at Adam he’s doing it with an annoyed but too-tired-to-be-really-threatening look, which is fine. Adam knows him enough to know he’s about to surrender. “You don’t need to make me feel stupid about it, y’know?” he says.

Adam nods. “I know, but it’s funnier that way,” he answers, and when Leo starts whining, he chuckles. “Come on,” he says, “You can’t expect me to take it seriously, I mean, you never talk about him, I don’t know what he did to make you hate him like that, how can you expect me to sympathize?”

“Maybe ‘cause you’re my best friend?” Leo asks back, arching an eyebrow.

“I am,” Adam nods, “But that doesn’t mean I can hate a man just because he exists or something. Come on, all I know is that he was your father’s boyfriend when they were in high school, and that coach Karofsky has always been jealous of him.”

“And that he almost ruined my parents’ wedding, a wedding I had worked my ass off to make possible!, nine years ago!”

“That’s not exactly accurate,” Adam laughs, opening a pack of onion-flavored chips to start eating them, “What really happened is that he was a guest at your parents’ wedding and that you misunderstood what was the purpose of him being there for your father, and you ran away in tears, making the hugest drama queen scene you’ve ever done, getting yourself lost in the woods and putting yourself and the wedding in danger, until your fathers just sat down and figured everything out, making it alright again.”

Leo swallows down all his coke and then throws the empty can at Adam, missing him spectacularly. “Fuck it,” he whines.

“You really are hopeless, aren’t you?” Adam chuckles, standing up to retrieve the empty can from the floor before the couple of drops of coke still left inside it could stain the carpet. “I don’t know what this Blaine guy did to you, beside looking like you in quite a disturbing way—”

“He doesn’t look like me!”

“—but you really should let it go, Leo,” Adam sighs, throwing the can in the trash.

“Listen, I’m not making this up or anything,” Leo snorts, sitting better on the chair so he can look at Adam straight in his eyes, “I’m not exaggerating! He’s, like, the worse human being ever conceived, I refuse to acknowledge he has a mother because nothing that evil could ever come out of a living woman, it would kill her. Maybe that’s why his is dead, after all.”

“Now you’re being mean.”

“No, now I’m being the one who doesn’t give a fuck about Blaine Anderson, okay?” he insists, getting all fired up, “I hate him. Now, you’re free to believe that I do it for stupid, trivial reasons, or whatever, but I know him better than you, I’ve been knowing him my whole life, and that man is scum. He’s inconsistent, always showing himself off inappropriately, he doesn’t know what the word respect means, he’s a whore and he’s not even ashamed of that, and yet everybody looks at him like he was some sort of Greek God, just because he’s good-looking and has abs. I can’t stand him, he’s exactly the kind of person I don’t want around, and yet I’m forced to have him around because my father, just like everybody else, falls for his Prince Charming shit every single time. So, is this enough, Adam? Is this enough for you to understand why I’m so fucking angry whenever he’s around?”

Adam blinks a couple of times, looking at him like he’s never seen him before. “Leo?” he calls out, standing up from the edge of his bed and walking towards him to put a hand on his shoulder, “I think you should talk about this with somebody.”

“I just talked about this with you,” Leo answers, frowning.

“No, I mean somebody who can understand what’s going on in your head, because dude, what you just said sounds so totally unhealthy and kind of messed up, if you want my opinion.”

“Oh, please…” Leo says, letting out a frustrated moan and standing up too, walking away from Adam, “I don’t need a shrink because I fucking hate Blaine Anderson.”

“You sure?” Adam insists, tilting his head a bit as he keeps following him around, “’Cause, dude, everything you said… I mean, what do you even care about it? So he fucks around, alright. What do you care?”

“It’s not just that! It’s everything else too! Did you even listen?”

“Yeah, man, I did! I heard you fine and clear, it just seems to me that you’re, like, you know…” he tries to find the right words to say, because he knows Leo’s in a very bad place now, he feels like he’s been cornered and Adam’s almost sure that if he tried to reach out for him carelessly, Leo would bite his hand off. “…a little overinvested, maybe?” he tries, looking cautiously at Leo.

Who drops his arms down his sides and parts his lips in shock. His eyes scream “betrayal!”, and Adam instantly knows maybe he didn’t choose the words correctly enough.

“Yeah, sure. It’s me. I’m the problem,” Leo mutters, walking past Adam as if he didn’t even see him, to retrieve the jacket he abandoned on the back of the chair when he walked in, three hours ago, when he took it off. “Doesn’t matter anyway, he’s still going to be there. Dad wouldn’t throw him out even if I ran away from home.”

“Leo… come on,” Adam sighs, following him as he tries to stop him, “Aren’t you taking it a little too bad? And don’t get mad at me!”

“I’m not mad at you, okay?” Leo turns around to look at Adam, as if he could trick him into believe that if he’s able to look at him straight in his eyes, he’s telling the truth. Adam, however, knows it’s not that simple. “I just need to go. If I move now, I’m gonna be home before midnight.”

“Wait— what?” Adam opens his eyes wide, almost throwing himself between Leo and the door, “Leo, you live in the other side of the city! Come on, at least wait for my mom to be back, she’ll drive you home!”

“No, I’m fine,” Leo shakes his head, forcing a smile that doesn’t look even half as sincere as he wanted it to, “I need to walk. It’ll help me cool down. I need it, if I don’t wanna punch him in the face the very moment I see him.”

Adam sighs, moving away from the door and opening it. Leo smiles at him and walks to the front door, whispering a “thank you”.

“You sure you don’t wanna stay for the night?” Adam asks, “I was joking, you know, about making you pay for it.”

Leo lets out an amused half-chuckle that actually sounds half-honest too. “I know, Adam, I know,” he says, “I’m fine, don’t worry. Besides, even if I slept here, he would still be there in the morning. And I can’t let that man kick me out of my own house. Don’t worry, I’m gonna be okay.”

“Sure you are,” Adam sighs once more, lifting a hand to ruffle Leo’s already wild enough curls, “Some day, my hand’s gonna get stuck in it,” he says with a light chuckle.

Leo echoes it with a chuckle of his own, looking at him with a flash of gratitude in his eyes. “Then you should stop doing it, already,” he says, punching him lightly on his chest, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“No, you’ll call me tonight, so I know you’re alive,” Adam says, with one last sigh.

Leo’s not going to call him tonight, but this he still doesn’t know.

*
When Leo has said he was fine going back home alone, he hasn't realized how really far his home is from Adam's. While he walks down the road with his cellphone on so to make some kind of light the seldom drivers can see and not run him over, he understands thoroughly the difference in condition between their family. Never, in all his life, he has wished more not to live in the suburbs.

Apparently, they are a longer way away if you don't drive a car or take a bus.

He has just passed the cafeteria downtown where they always go when they should be studying at the library and for some reason or another they don't want to – that's the furthest he and Annie can convince Adam to go before his ever present sense of duty kicks in – when a text message arrives. It's Adam of course, asking if he has made it home yet.

“No, I didn't made it home yet, Adam,” Leo snaps and writes him an answer. Geez, can the guy stop worrying for a couple of hours? He has all it takes to be the so called leader of their trio: he is the strongest, the most popular, he is the tall, handsome blonde and he is not even dumb. He could be the hero. Instead, he goes on and plays the mother-hen for him and Annie.

When he gets home, another hour has passed and Adam has written ten other messages, one more anxious than the previous one. Leo has answered the first four, then stopped all together because he may receive more money than Adam from his parents, but his allowance is not endless, and he doesn't want to spend it all in one night to make sure his overprotective best friend knows he's still alive.

The house is dark, of course.

Since Santana is born, his parents go to bed early, hoping she will follow their example and fall asleep sooner, but she never does. She always keeps them awake for the most part of the night. Luckily, Leo is an heavy sleeper, so she can cry all she wants, he never notices. Only the morning after he knows that she has been generally unbearable because Kurt is so tired that he doesn't even bother covering the shadows under his eyes before showing up for breakfast.

But they have a guest in the house tonight. The thought of Blaine being unable to sleep because of his annoying little sister's crying makes him happy. “I hope you wanted to sleep, Anderson, and that she kept screaming and screaming and screaming until your head felt like exploding and you ran away,” he says aloud, as he looks right and left approaching his home.

Santana did cry.

She cried a lot. She cried so much Blaine actually thought she was going to scream her head off or something. He usually loves kids. He's not the kind of man who goes head over heels just to hold them or makes those stupid little noises every time a toddler under six months is anywhere near, but he finds them cute. He was sure that someday he would stop fucking around and even have a kid; possibly with the gorgeous guy who tends to all his needs in his dreams every time he is in bed alone. But Santana did whatever she could do to make him reconsider. The little girl – no more than five months old if he understood correctly – was the cutest thing ever while she was with them at dinner and right after that, while they were talking in the sitting room. But as soon as her fathers said goodbye and brought her to bed, she started howling and she wouldn't stop.

Blaine tried to ignore her for a while, burying his head under his pillow on the couch, but to no use. Even behind a closed door the kid's high pitched wailing was clearly audible. He even wondered how Kurt and Dave could stand that torture every night without swinging her out of the window. After hearing Kurt singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” Barbra Streisand style for the third time in a row, he decided it was time for him to do something different instead of tossing and turning on a couch and went to have a shower.

Spending the night at Kurt's house after their lovely's monthly homecoming dinner wasn't a great idea. He likes Kurt and he sort of likes his family – even though part of it hates him – but he likes sleeping as well, and apparently he can't do that in Kurt's house. Luckily, the shower gave the little princess enough time to collapse and when he gets out of the bathroom, a white towel perfectly wrapped around his equally perfect hips, the house is finally silent.

Blaine combs with his fingers his long and curly hair that is still ruffled and dump. It's in moment like these that he regrets not sticking with the tidy look he had in high school. Wild curls look wonderful at any given moment, except when he actually has to comb them. As he tries to make sense of his hair again, he goes back in the sitting room, which is comfortably dark and quiet now, and just watches the moon that he can see through the window.

He is toying with the idea of drying his hair as quickly as possible and enjoy what little is left of the night before Santana wants to eat or something, when the front door opens, however silently, and he suddenly remembers that not all the members of this family were already back home. He thanks his legendary shamelessness for being able to turn around and facing with a smile who's entering, wearing only a towel.

Leo tiptoes into the house and tries to close the door as silently as he can. God forbid that the click of the lock wakes up the demon upstairs. A few days ago he dropped the keys in the hallway, Santana started crying and his father appeared on top of the stairs, looking ready to claw his eyes off. He doesn't want to repeat the experience, so it takes him a little time to realize someone is watching him doing his best not to be noticed.

“Oh, great,” he snorts, as he tries not to show Blaine has startled him. Last thing he needs right now, having to deal with this man he hates so much. “I was hoping you would be gone already. Or dead.”

Blaine doesn't lose his smile. He knows Leonard since he was six years old. Yes, he almost ruined his fathers' wedding, but in the course of his life he had also the privilege – and the mildly devastating rotten luck – of babysitting him multiple times at different ages, much to Leonard's annoyance, and if he doesn't know him pretty well, he at least learned how to bear with him. “Oh, hey,” he says, waving nonchalantly. “I'm sorry I have to invade your privacy like this. It's only for tonight, anyway. Your fathers and me had a late night and Kurt invited me to stay. I hope you're not mad at me.”

“You can bet your ass I am,” Leo replies, being excessively rude just to show he's tough. He usually doesn't speak like this to adults, but he feels the need to when Blaine's around. He leaves the keys at the entrance and takes off his coat that bears every sign of Kurt's sense of fashion, being a three quarters coat that has nothing to do with the jeans and shirt the kid wears underneath.

Blaine looks genuinely surprised. “And why's that so?”

“You ask me why?” Leo says, unbelieving. This man is here, exceeding his dad's hospitality by being naked around the house and he asks why Leo is mad at him. How shameless can he be? “'Cause it's not cool, dude. That's why. And it's inappropriate. My dads are a married couple and they almost broke up because of you once. I'm not eager to go through that experience again, thank you very much.”

Blaine understands teen's anger. Or at least, he acknowledge its existence, even if he finds it stupid to be angry at everything and everyone as teens usually are. So, he is not surprised that Leo is angry, but he honestly thinks that he should be so over the wedding issue already. “I honestly can't understand why you're so stubborn about it,” he says matter-of-factly. “I couldn't get it back then and most of all i can't”

Leo raises an eyebrow. “'Cause I love them and I don't like you? And Geez, dude, put some pants on if you wanna keep talking to me. You're distracting.”

Leo looks away, making himself busy with whatever he keeps in that ragged looking backpack of his. Blaine can swear he has just seen him blush, and that's something that can keep him entertained for hours: embarrassing Leo. He's been doing that for years now.

“Am I?” He says, looking at himself with a raised eyebrow. “All my intimate parts are perfectly covered, kid. I'm not showing off for you in any manner, and if you think I'm doing that, please, remove this thought from your head, because I'm not.”

Leonard blushes even more, and whatever he is looking for in his bag seems suddenly nowhere to be found because he keeps rummaging and rummaging. “You're half naked, you're wet and that towel won't cover you for very much longer,” he declares, confusedly, giving proof of having spent the last few minutes watching him very closely. “In this house, that's for me the signal to go and sleep at one of my friends house 'cause my parents want to get some. Now, maybe you're not showing off, but I don't know if I'm talking to you or your six pack, so please, dress. Or leave, better.”

Blaine is incredibly amused, but it's hard to tell his amused smirk from his usual smug one. He looks at himself once again. “Well, my six pack wouldn't find completely bad to talk with you for a while. You never really had the chance to meet him during all those years. And now this sounds terribly dirty, but I swear I started it as a joke,” he says, blinking.

“What makes you think I would like that?” Leo says, outraged. “Dad's so right about you. There's something creepy in what you say sometimes.”

Blaine knows he's talking about Dave this time. It's pretty easy to get the change in tone. Leonard is always angry as Dave when he speaks his words. Blaine just wishes he would be sweet as Kurt when he speaks like him. He rarely does, though. “I wouldn't call myself creepy, and neither should you. It's not exactly a compliment, you know?” He says. “Didn't your dad teach you that, too?”

“Dad taught me to be honest too,” Leo grins because he can answer to the point for once.

Blaine finds him really cute when he tries to talk as cleverly as himself and fails miserably. Leonard always thinks to be right and to have the right answer to everything. Unfortunately, he almost never does. “Yes, I appreciate honesty, but there's a difference between being honest and being rude, and I think you're being rude. So maybe your dad didn't teach you very well.” Then he smiles, trying to sweeten his last words, maybe. Or maybe not. “Why don't you come here?”

Blaine pats the spot beside him on the couch. For the longest moment ever, Leo looks at him, then at the spot on the couch, then at him again. He doesn't know exactly what makes him go there, eventually. Probably the wish to show Blaine all the disdain he feels right now. He wouldn't see it in the dark, if he wasn't close enough. He goes there slowly, though, always watching him and sits on the other end of the couch. “What?” He barks.
Leonard doesn't exactly sit on the couch, he just falls on it, like his legs couldn't hold him up anymore. Blaine watches him as he curls up in a stubborn ball the farthest he can from him, crossing his arms on his chest and trying to look very mad and deadly serious. He fails again. There is something off with the kid, tonight. Blaine has noticed that since the kid has looked up at him, entering the house. The way his eyes never linger on him too much doesn't seem quite angered as it usually is. He knows Leo's rage very well, and it doesn't look like that. Plus, his knee is shaking so fast he could make a hole in the ground with his foot if he keeps moving it. It looks like someone is feeling really awkward at his naked presence.

If it's a nudity problem, and he is not sure about that.

“Don't worry, I just want to talk,” he says, with his best reassuring tone as he tries not to smile affectionately at the way Leo is looking at everything but him. “So, when did it start?”

“When did it start what?”

Blaine smiles sweetly. He has the feeling this is going to be a very long night. “When did you first notice that you like boys.”

The snicker that comes out of Leo's mouth is so ridiculously nervous and sudden that Leo closes his mouth right after it, feeling ashamed. Then he swallows and tries to chuckle in a more controlled way. “I don't like boys,” he says with half a smile.

Of course he doesn't. Who ever admits it right away the first time? “My gaydar never failed, boy,” he says with a raised eyebrow. “Plus, you're staring at me. Like, really staring.”

Leo pouts instantly and glares at him. “Maybe you should have it overhauled, then 'cause I'm not gay. I'm staring at you because you are naked.”

“Why do you insist on me being naked? I am not. I could show you what the word naked means, if you wanted, but this,” he says, calmly pointing at himself as if he wanted to talk some sense into him with logic “is not how you define naked.”

That's exactly why Leo hates him, because nothing ever phases him and, instead of getting mad, he always answers with tons of explanations nobody wanted to hear in the first place. Leo always ends up arguing on his own because Blaine doesn't even start to get as upset as he is. “Well, you're half naked then. And I'm not used to have half naked guys on my couch, OK?”

“Don't you?” Blaine smiles. Leo is so hilarious right now that he's having a hard time not just laughing in his face. “How do you find the sight, then?”

Leo averts his eyes almost immediately. “Pretty disturbing,” he says, pretending to sound disgusted while the only thing that comes through it's his mounting awkwardness.

Blaine watches him as he picks at non-existent loosened threads on the couch. Leo hasn't lost all his baby fat yet, so his face is still a little rounded and his now blushing cheeks are adorable in their puffiness, but you can already see the beauty he's bond to become in a few years. The kid has gorgeous, delicate features that would make you think he really is Kurt's own blood. His nose is a straight line and his almost almond-shaped eyes are so azure like Blaine has never seen before. But the thing that never fails to catch Blaine's attention are Leo's lips. They are full, just slightly pinker than the rest of him and when he happens to look at them, he always thinks that he really should be looking at something else.

“Now, disturbing is a word that can have a lot of different meanings,” Blaine says, moving a little closer to him. “So, since your father told you to be honest, what kind of disturbing are we talking about?”

Leo sighs heavily and what comes out of his mouth has a strange resigned tone to it. “Why are you asking me these questions?” He would like to ask Blaine what the hell he wants from him, but then he realizes that he has given nothing but rage and sarcasm to him, which he deserves anyway, so maybe this is just revenge, or something. He just needs to find a way to get away from him.

“I don't know,” Blaine shrugs. “Maybe I just want to understand if you really hate me or if you just don't want me to come too close to you, because you're scared of the consequences. It's a possibility I'm still taking into consideration, regardless of your continuous denials.”

Leo turns on the couch, so to face him. “OK, let's put this straight once and for all. I don't like you.” He tries to state this as much clearly and slowly as he can, so if the man has some hearing problems or something, he will understand anyway. “And even if I did, you're one of my dads' ex boyfriend and the other's archenemy, so...”

So the problem really is me, Blaine thinks amused. The flow of Leo's words goes on for a few minutes, describing how much he doesn't like him at all and how hypothetical scenarios where he likes him would be hilariously and stupidly so not true. It doesn't matter, Blaine has already stopped listening to him long ago, as soon as the problem was crystalline clear to him.

“OK, now it's my turn to put this straight.” He smiles and moves even closer. So close he is now inches away from Leo. So close that when he speaks again without being bothered by the fact that he's embarrassing him to no end, Leo can blush but he can't move away, unless he stands up. And he doesn't. “I think you like me. I don't know if you already found me cute when you were a kid, but now? You're eating me alive with your eyes, kid. Do you know why you keep saying I'm naked? That's because you're undressing me. In your head.”

Leo's eyes grow so big he is almost comical. He gets instantly agitated, but even if he fidgets on the spot, he doesn't go anywhere. “I'm not!” He almost screams. “What... What are you talking about? It's nothing even close to that!”

“Come on, kid, it's so obvious. Don't you even notice? You're freaking out and I haven't even touched you, yet.”

“And you won't do that!” He shrieks, outraged. But then he deflates, like he had put all the strength in denying Blaine the permission to do something he has never really intended to do, and now he had to resign to just sighing and begging him to just leave him alone. “I'm not comfortable with this.”

There's an echo of Kurt in these words. Blaine remembers very clearly how Leo's father used to say he was uncomfortable every time he had to face something he was scared to do, however curious he was to do it. He stated he was not comfortable, and the case was closed. Not that Blaine would have forced him to do anything he didn't want to, but Kurt continuously closing to him was one of the reason why he and Blaine broke up in the end.

Leo is exactly like his father. He is scared, therefore he's trying to avoid speaking of what scares him, but Blaine is not gonna let him because he doesn't want to repeat the same mistakes he made with Leo's father. “So you are asking me not to do it, not because you don't want me to, but because you're scared about it?” He inquires.

That's when something changes in Leo's eyes, as if the question had melted something inside him. Blaine knows he has hit a soft spot by the way Leo finally gives up and sighs, looking confused. “I'm asking you not to do it because I'm not exactly sure of my things.”

“What things are we talking about here? And why aren't you sure of them?” Blaine asks gently, his voice almost soothing as he comes even closer to him. They are practically touching now. “Maybe I could help.”

Leo doesn't think Blaine can help anybody, let alone him. But these feelings he's been having lately about other people torture him and mess up his head to the point that he is more than willing to talk about them with the first person who bothered to notice that something was off about him. Too bad said person is one he despises so much. But he showed some interest at least, didn't he?

“Sometimes it happens that... I can tell a male body is gorgeous,” he eventually confesses, looking down, his face as red as it can be. Now that he has said that, he doesn't feel any better about it, but at least he feels lighter. As if he has just passed his problem to somebody else by saying it aloud. It doesn't work like that, of course he knows that, but it feels good. So maybe that's why he doesn't run away. “And I'm not sure why this happens.”

Blaine smiles at him reassuringly. “That doesn't mean anything, you know? We're human beings, and it's our nature to be particularly fascinated by beauty. If you just think a male body is beautiful, that doesn't make you gay, or even bisexual. It just makes you a normal human being. On the other hand,” he raises a hand and lets a finger slide on his chest down to his stomach “if a male body has other effects on you other than making you notice how beautiful it is, than maybe there's something else.”

Leo follows his finger with his eyes and he is a little startled when Blaine gently pushes his stomach with it.
He knows what he means by that. He knows really well the tangled feeling that makes his stomach hurt sometimes. “It might have done that once or twice,” he says vaguely, turning purple.

Blaine knows how much it costs Leo to say it aloud, especially to him. He can read how troubled he is on the tense lines on his face. “And does it happen in a specific moment or with a specific person?”

“No, it just happens randomly,” he says.

And that's a lie. Sometimes, when his eyes fall on his male friends during P.E., he feels weird, and even if this upsets him, he can't really turn away from the curve of their back or the way their flat stomach dives underneath the waistband of their pants. Exactly as it happens when he's looking at girls and he's intrigued by what lies beneath their clothes. That's why he is so confused. He doesn't know which one of the feelings is real.

But all this came after.

The truth is everything started with Blaine, and Leo is very well aware of that. He may not know what drooling over both guys and girls means right know, but he knows what happens in his head every time this stupid man is around, how his stomach hurts at the sight of him. How it's not really his stomach that demands attention. And how his mind answers with rage to that upsetting and embarrassing feeling between his legs.

So now he doesn't know anything for sure. If he likes boys, girls, both. Or what in the world this man has done to his head lately. He thought that hating him would stop the confusion, but it's not working very well, it seems.

But he can't tell him any of this, though. That's why he needs to lie, because he really doesn't want to face the consequences of confessing to Blaine stupid fucking Anderson that he has felt something for him in his belly more than once.

Blaine is currently holding his breath because Leo is so beautiful in his confusion. Whatever wall there was between them, it has crumbled down, leaving him defenseless. Even though this sounds bad even in his head – and he knows it's gonna sound even worse once he will speak again – he just can't look away from the kid.

“Then you should probably try,” Blaine says. “Just to see how your body reacts.”

Leo shivers. “You are not suggesting with you, are you?”

Blaine chuckles, but he makes sure not to make it come across like mocking him. “Well, as a matter of fact, I am,” he says. “I mean, it would be alright. I promise I would never do something you don't want me to do. It would be just a test. Plus, you could even finally stop hating me afterward. So I'd really like to take the chance.”

This is not right for so many reasons, Leo is pretty sure about it. But what really worries him now are other kind of possible consequences. “What if I don't like it and hate you even more?” It shouldn't be a problem hating him more than he hates him now. But since Leo is not so sure that hate means really hate in his case, he doesn't want to risk to sort of-hating him even more. He doesn't know what could happen then.

Blaine doesn't look as worried as much as Leo is. Actually, he shrugs like this is not a big deal. “They're two different things, you know. You could still hate me but like the kiss, for example. And that would mean the experiment wasn't completely useless, because at least we would know if you like boys too, or if you don't.”

Leo makes a face. “Why exactly if I like kissing you, I like boys?”

Blaine blinks, pretending to be very puzzled and dying a bit of laughter inside. “Because I happen to be a boy, maybe?” Then he grins in that way that always manages to give Leo shivers he can't quite define as good or bad. They're just weird. “Obviously, there's another possibility, that is you liking to kiss me because you just like me. But we're not even taking this in any consideration, are we?”

Leo instantly shakes his head, looking outraged and purple. “No way. Not even the slightest chance!”

“I thought so,” Blaine nods, as he sits more comfortably, resting his back against the couch back. “Well, then, there's nothing more to discuss, am I right? Come here.”

Leo looks at him very suspiciously, but he goes there anyway. “For what?”

Blaine doesn't waste much time to explain what's gonna happen. He strongly believes that there's only so much you can explain with words. “For this,” he says, grabbing Leo by his nape and pulling him closer for a hungry and incredibly wet kiss. For a very long time, this is the only thing he says.

Leo feels Blaine's hair dripping water on his t-shirt as he's pulled closer, and the next feeling is the softness of Blaine's moistened lips. For a moment, he'd like to stop him because this is happening too quickly, but he doesn't. Instead, he kisses him back the moment after, with a soft moaning noise.

Blaine lets his fingers run through Leo's hair, caressing his scalp and pulling him slightly closer, so that their bodies touch, even though not too much because he doesn't want to frighten the kid away. Leo is so lost in it already that he just leans in. Blaine lets that same hand slide down his neck then, and starts caressing him slowly as he deepens the kiss.

Leo opens his mouth, allowing Blaine's tongue to explore it as much as it wants. And it actually feels so good that he stops trying to understand what is really happening with and around them. He rests one hand to the couch to balance himself as he gets a little closer by himself.

Encouraged by the way Leo's reacting, Blaine pulls him to his chest, deepening the kiss even more. But now that there's nothing but Leo's clothes separating them and Leo can feel Blaine's body against his own, something clicks in his head and he withdraws, suddenly.

“Wait... I...” he stutters, lips red as cherries and the most confused expression Blaine has ever seen on him. “That's enough.”

Blaine immediately stops pulling him by his nape, but he gives him one last kiss anyway. “So, how did it feel?” He asks, still so close to him that he breathes on his puffy lips.

Leo takes a moment before answering as he unconsciously wets his lips with the tip of his tongue. “Weird... that it's so good.”

Blaine smiles a little, his hand still lazily caressing Leo’s neck. “You want to do it again?” he asks, and it’s not like he’s expecting Leo to say yes, considering the kid was the first to pull away, after all, but somehow that’s exactly what he gets: Leo barely lets him finish his question, and the second after he’s literally all over him, pressing his little body against Blaine’s, and that’s an invitation Blaine is not really able to refuse.

He wraps his arms around Leo’s shoulders, keeping him close as the kiss grows a bit more forceful, a bit hungrier, a bit messier. Leo whines when Blaine’s teeth playfully close around his already swollen bottom lip, but he doesn’t pull away, and it’s up to Blaine, this time, to put a stop on things, before they get too wild, too fast.

“You sure learn fast,” he comments, an even smile curling his lips, still so very close to Leo’s, “You’re adorable,” he adds, gently stroking one of Leo’s cheeks with his index finger, and then biting at the kid’s bottom lip again, before he starts trailing its outline with the tip of his tongue, making the boy shiver with pleasure. “You know, I could make it better, if you wanted.”

Leo slowly opens his eyes, struggling to focus on him. It’s so obvious – written all over his face – that, if it was for him, he would have kept going on kissing him for the rest of his life. It kind of feels like, whatever it was that kept Leo so frustrated and angry, it’s slowly fading away, leaving him freer to do things he would have never thought he could do before. “You… You can?” he says, his voice cracking in surprised anticipation, like he wasn’t even struck by the possibility of a kiss feeling even better than how it had been up to that moment.

Blaine smiles sweetly, nodding slowly. “Yes, I can,” he says, every word a kiss on Leo’s lips, so light that the boy keeps chasing those kisses and never manages to catch them, “You just have to let me know when I have to stop because you’re not feeling comfortable anymore,” he warns him, kissing him once more and smiling when Leo lets out a frustrated moan because, once again, he didn’t manage to kiss him properly, “Promise you’ll stop me if this ever becomes unpleasant.”

“Stop running away…” Leo whines, firmly holding Blaine’s head between his hands and keeping it still to win another real kiss, taking his time to savor it before he pulls away, looking kind of lost, now. “By the way you’re saying it… I mean, am I supposed to feel uncomfortable, at some point?”

Blaine kisses him again, and then stays as close to him as he can, lips brushing against Leo’s with every word he says. “I tend to be honest,” he says, “And I can’t lie: you could, depending on how far you want to go. But,” he promises with a light smile, “I’ll do my best to make you feel good.”

Leo somehow manages to find his lost smartass self back again, and smirks against Blaine’s lips. “You forget I never trusted you, I’m not trusting you now and I certainly won’t do it from now on. But I’m curious to see how far your lies go.”

Blaine grins, his hands running down Leo’s body and closing around his hips. “Sounds like a challenge,” he says, helping Leo to lay on his back on the couch while holding the towel at his place, so it doesn’t slip away while he settles on him. Then, he starts kissing Leo again, hands running up and down his body, through his clothes, and the kid, who wasn’t expecting another kiss, moans slightly at the feeling of Blaine’s lips. He fidgets uncomfortably under the man’s body, though. He’s not used to the new position, and right now, with the torturing pressure of Blaine’s body all over his, he definitely thinks he could never get used to it.

It’s so embarrassing, for fuck’s sake. He’s so hard. They both are, and he can’t help to ask himself if he’s prepared for where this thing’s going.

He’s not sure he is, but after all he’s not sure he could ever be, even in twenty years. He figures he just has to take the chance.

“Listen…” he says, when Blaine’s lips let him free to talk, “Who decides who gets to top or bottom, exactly…?”

Blaine can’t help a laugh from slipping out of his parted lips. He’s trying not to mock the kid because he doesn’t want to have him run away with an angry mood – who knows what he could do in retaliation? After all, he put a dead snake in his bag not more than three years ago just to spite him during a family holiday Blaine had been part of – but Leo’s making it very hard to be serious, right now.

“Now, now,” he says, shaking his head, “Aren’t you running a little too fast? I never talked about getting to the real thing. Yet,” he adds with a dirty smile that sends wild shivers down Leo’s spine.

Leo frowns, blushing furiously, and Blaine stops the hell from breaking loose by kissing him deeply again. One thing he’s sure of: Leo likes kisses a lot. He instantly melts under his fingers when Blaine starts to kiss him, and so, despite having clearly offended him, with just that single kiss Blaine gets the free pass to let his hands run down Leo’s sides and then dive under his t-shirt, fingertips gently brushing his skin. “You’re hot,” he whispers on Leo’s lips, and he can almost feel Leo blushing again.

“…am I?” he asks in a low, soft, kind of surprised voice. “I mean,” he adds then, clearing his throat and looking away after he realizes how his voice sounded, “Are you even supposed to say that to another guy? I mean, even if you like him, shouldn’t you say something more…” he shrugs, “I don’t know, manly?”

Blaine laughs again, harder, trying to restrain himself but not really making it at all. “I just meant your skin is hot,” he clarifies, shaking his head. Leo blushes more violently and tilts his head, looking someplace else, to some random point behind Blaine’s shoulder. “As for how you look,” Blaine says, his smile growing a little sweeter as he lets his eyes wander on Leo’s childish and stubbornly angry expression, “I think you go far beyond every dream of a man my age.” He pulls up Leo’s shirt to take a look at him. Leo’s tummy is still a little rounded, and seems so very soft, and Blaine wants to take a bite of it so much that he feels dirty just thinking about it. “You are flawless,” he says in a whisper as he gently bends over Leo, kissing his navel and playing with his tongue in and out of it.

Leo lets out a liquid moan, arching his back enough to offer his belly to Blaine’s kisses. “That was…” he says in a heavy breath as he throws his head back after Blaine kisses his navel again, “That was so lame.”

Blaine laughs, and he’d like to answer that – asking Leo, for example, why did he blush so much, if the compliment was so lame – but he prefers to keep kissing his skin, soft and smooth, silky like a baby’s, and so his answer ends up to be his laughter alone.

“If you stopped laughing,” Leo says, annoyed, “That would be very helpful. You’re distracting me from your tongue,” he adds in a light smirk.

Blaine looks up at him, raising an eyebrow at his newly found confidence in himself. “How could I possibly laugh with a mouthful of your tummy?” he asks, running his tongue up the kid’s chest, “Would you take your shirt off for me?” he asks then, eyes half-closed as he covers Leo’s chest in casual kisses, “I could do it myself, but I want to watch you as you do it.”

“You perv…” Leo says in a mild protest, but still he crosses his arms over his chest and grabs his t-shirt by its hem to take it off. Once he gets rid of it, he lets it fall on the floor by the couch and then lies there on his back, feeling uncomfortable, embarrassed and horny as hell, basically not even knowing what to do with himself. “Like this?” he asks, just to give himself something to think about. Learning about the right way to get undressed in front of a man twenty years older than him and that he’s definitely supposed to hate sounds like a good way to pass time.

No, it’s not. Like, at all. And Leo wants to die. But then Blaine moistens his lips and looks at him like he could swallow him all at once, and then whispers “Yes. Exactly like this,” as he kisses him down his chest again, and Leo doesn’t want to die anymore, he just wants to feel this as long as possible, and when Blaine takes one of his nipples between his lips and teeth, and sucks and nibbles at it to make it oversensitive, something inside Leo’s brain just explodes, and he loses control over his whole body.

He closes his eyes shut, holding his breath in surprise. He didn’t even know that something, let alone some guy sucking at his nipples, could feel like that. Like electric shocks of pleasure making him shiver and moan uncontrollably. He doesn’t know much about male-on-male stuff, which – he admits – is a bit absurd considering he’s got two dads, but he really didn’t know that sex could feel like that, with another guy or at all. It’s scary, but surprising. And kind of addictive, he finds out when Blaine starts to stroke both his nipples with his fingertips, and he can’t help but let a shocked “omg” slip out of his lips.

Blaine suddenly raises his head, letting out an amused chuckle as he looks at Leo. "What did you just say?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.

Leo manages to open his eyes, looking at Blaine with a bit of confusion showing on his face. He has no idea why Blaine stopped, and he knows he could kill for way less than this. "What?" he murmurs, fidgeting under Blaine's now unnervingly still fingers, "I said OMG. Don't you use this kind of exclamations in your... whatever place you come from?"

Blaine laughs again, shifting over him to settle into a more comfortable position. Leo can feel the man's hardness against his own thigh, now, making his thoughts even more confused. He feels so dizzy he could swear he's about to faint. This can't be good for him, in any way. "You know," Blaine says, "I had a fair number of sexual encounters, but it doesn't matter what I did to my partners, none of them ever responded to something I did saying 'omg'." He pulls himself up to reach Leo's lips, kissing him again as he resumes playing with the kid's now hard nipples.

"Yeah, well..." Leo mutters, keeping his eyes half opened to look at Blaine's face as he kisses him, "Next time don't bed a teenage kid, if you don't wanna hear acronyms in response to what you do." Blaine laughs again, and Leo frowns, trying to fight the urge to arch his back to offer his own chest to Blaine's ministrations, "Would you stop laughing? You're really annoying."

"It's not my fault, I swear," Blaine keeps chuckling, and Leo keeps hating him, even if he's starting to get used to the sound of his laughter, "You are unbelievable. And I mean it," he says, looking right into Leo's eyes. Leo blushes, because he could get used to the sound of Blaine's voice, or his laughter's, but his eyes, he's never gonna get used to them. Whenever Blaine stares at him, he feels uncomfortable, naked, exposed. His gaze turns him inside out, and it's nothing like pleasant. It's just disturbing and annoying, and the fact that he himself keeps searching for it makes it even more so.

Blaine moves slowly, but firmly, and in a second Leo feels him rubbing against his thigh, and it's way more than just feeling the pressure of his hard-on against it, because in the movement Blaine's thigh rubs against his crotch, and it makes Leo instantly want more.

"Shit..." he moans, fidgeting slightly under Blaine's body when he feels Blaine starting to rub against him following a slow and regular pace. He hangs to the man's shoulders, trying to follow those movements and failing constantly. He'd like to tell Blaine to stop, to not do whatever he's doing right now, because it's too much, and he's still dressed, and he couldn't stand the thought of coming right away like a ridiculous, inexperienced kid, but he can't even manage to open his mouth for something else than moans and whining. And he feels so lost he's almost scared to open his eyes, fearing the world he would see then could be completely different than the one he knows.

"Calm down," Blaine whispers, kissing him slowly, "You don't want this to end up too soon, do you? I promise it'll be better, if you let it last longer."

"Yeah, well..." Leo breathes slowly, trying to think about something else than Blaine's body pushed right up against his. He ends up understanding that those urban legends about thinking of your granny to stop yourself from getting off too soon are just that, urban legends. When you've got somebody like this so close, touching you this way, there's no chance to let any other thought take their place. It's the first time he finds somebody so captivating, and it's scary, especially considering it's Blaine he's thinking about, and he should hate the man with a fire for a numerous variety of reasons he can't manage to recall right now. "It's not my fault, you know, I'm fifteen," he snorts, "It's kind of an issue teenagers have. Maybe you don't remember 'cause it happened to you in the past century."

"Hey," Blaine chuckles, "I'm not that old."

"Yeah, I'll let you know when I cut your arm and count the rings."

"Shut up!" Blaine laughs again, leaning in to kiss him. When the kiss breaks, Leo looks at the man and finds him smiling. That's scary too, because he finds himself to like that smile. "Now, say I wanted to touch you."

"Aren't you already?"

"You're not being serious at all," Blaine giggles, playfully slapping his hip to keep him in line, "I'm talking about under the Walls of Jericho," he clarifies, letting one of his hands travel down Leo's tummy to reach the button of his jeans to make his intentions even clearer.

Leo blushes violently, looking away. "The Walls of Jericho?" he mutters, his cheeks so flushed he's scared he'll start to glow in the dark soon, "Seriously?"

Blaine smiles again, catching the kid's chin between his fingers and making him turn his face enough to have his eyes on him once more. "I need an answer," he says in a low voice, "I need permission."

Leo blushes more, enough to start feeling a headache coming. He looks down at Blaine's fingers, so still around his jeans' button, like waiting for instructions. And he nods, biting at his lower lip.

"Fine," Blaine smiles again, unbuttoning Leo's jeans and pulling them down his thighs enough to expose him, but not enough to let him free to move. Leo fidgets uncomfortably, but it doesn't last long, and he freezes on the spot when he feels Blaine's fingertips trailing the outline of his own hard-on.

Stranger hands down there feel good enough for him to cry, but he can't make a show of himself, not now, not more than he's already doing, so he closes his eyes, breathes in and out and settles under Blaine's body, resting his hands on his shoulders as he tries to focus on the feeling alone, letting the context and what's causing it out of him, like it was just a dream that he could forget comes morning.

Blaine doesn't let him.

"Open your eyes," he says, his voice somehow stern, like he's scolding him, "Look at yourself. You're gorgeous."

Leo doesn't know why he obeys, but he does, guided by Blaine's voice and by how good it feels now that the man has closed his fist around him and is stroking him harder. He holds his breath, looking down at Blaine's hand moving slowly around his erection, and bites at his inner cheek, fidgeting under him. "That is..." he breathes out, "...wow."

"It could feel even better," Blaine whispers against Leo's skin, sliding down the kid's chest and tummy in short, barely wet kisses, "But it could also be kind of embarrassing. So I guess this calls for another question," he smiles, placing a tender kiss right under the boy's navel. "Do you want me to take it in my mouth?"

Leo's whole body starts to shake uncontrollably, unable to resist all the feelings that seem to keep him under siege. The touch of Blaine's hand, the warmth of his breath on his barely sweaty skin, the intensity of his eyes locked with his own, the deep vibration of his voice, those words echoing in the air all around him and inside his brain. "I've... I've never..." he swallows, his hips almost automatically thrusting upwards to meet Blaine's strokes better, "I mean, nobody has ever... to me, y'know..." he lets out a desperate sigh melting into a restless sob, covering his face with both his hands, "Geez, can I be any more pathetic?"

"You're not pathetic at all," Blaine says, his voice even lower, nothing but a whisper, now, but still reverberating through the room, like it was made of thunder. "You are not," he repeats, his lips brushing against the head of Leo's cock, licking it tentatively, "Do you hear me?" he says, and he looks up at Leo, locking eyes with him with no shame at all as he sucks him inside his mouth, still stroking him slowly.

Leo chokes on his own breath, eyes wide open in the darkness of the room. The warmth, the wetness, the sucking, it's all too much, and when he thinks his heart's going to fail him, Blaine stops, and still looking at him whispers a "you taste so good" that pushes a whole new series of buttons inside Leo's body, buttons he didn't even thought he had.

"Shit!" he squeals, pushing his hips up carelessly, eager to dive deeper inside Blaine's mouth, unable to stay still. Blaine lets him, stroking his hips with both his hands and moving his head up and down, following Leo's movements.

He pulls away a few seconds later, licking pre-cum away from his own lips. "Now you can choose again," he says slowly, articulating his words, "I could go on like this and make you come," he suggests, kissing the head of Leo's cock, still wet and almost hurting now that the kid's so hard he can barely stand it, "Or I could show you how grown-ups like to come," he smirks, sucking him into his mouth again.

"God..." Leo whines, throwing his head back on the couch, "Just do something, I'm going crazy."

Blaine chuckles, his lips sliding slowly up and down Leo's length. "I recognize I'm acting a little teasingly," he says, "But that's not something I can decide on my own. I need your permission. Even though, I can't lie, I want you. I really want to feel you all around me," he moves up, kissing Leo on his tummy and then staying there, drawing wet, curly lines on his skin with the tip of his tongue as he can't help letting a dirty grin crawl its way up to his lips, "I would really like to fuck you."

Leo lets out a desperate, breathless moan, hesitating before he answers. There's a part of him that wants this so much he's sure he'll regret it forever if he doesn't find the guts to say yes. Another part, though, is so terrified he could just as well jump up and run away crying. "...is it gonna be devastating like it seems it will?" he asks, whining, "Maybe I'm not drunk enough."

"You don't look drunk at all," Blaine notices with a small chuckle.

"Exactly," Leo answers, covering his face with his forearm.

Blaine smiles tenderly, climbing up his body in little dry kisses as he keeps stroking him gently. "I promise it'll be worth it," he whispers in his ear, just before sucking at the soft, sensitive skin right under his earlobe, "You'll come harder than you ever did."

Leo breathes out, terrified now, because that's a yes. Yes, it's gonna be just as devastating as it looks like. Probably even more. There's something blooming inside himself, Leo can feel it. Some sort of warm wave mounting deep inside of his body, something drawing him ruthlessly towards Blaine. Something bad, something Leo can see casting a long shadow he can't see the end of. He can't decide if it's just lust or something else. He knows he can't escape it now, not because it's been running after him and it almost reached him anyway, but because, on the contrary, he feels like he himself has been running after it for years now, and he can't wait to hold it in his hands, see what is it, if it's scary as it feels it could be, if it will burn his skin like the touch of Blaine's hands is doing right now.

"Is it normal that I want you to do it anyway?" he asks, his eyes closed as he tilts his head to make room for Blaine's lips running up and down his neck, "I mean, even if I know it's gonna hurt, and even if I'm scared... is it normal if I still want you to do me this way?"

"Totally," Blaine answers, laughing a little. Leo hates him now more than ever, because Blaine doesn't know. Blaine doesn't get it. How hard it is to even speak in his presence, how much strength Leo's needing right now just to keep himself together under the even touch of his fingertips, how frustrating always was for him to just stand right in front of Blaine and fight not to fall, fueling his rage against him with all the flaws Blaine kept throwing at him, exposing them as if he was proud of them. And it was never enough, never enough to move his eyes away from him, not really, because even in the worst days, when he just wanted him gone and as far away from him as it was possible, it was only to stop facing the fact that his body was aching for it. For this. And Blaine, he just stays there, and it's a game, for him, just something new he's playing with, and he keeps laughing like what's happening is no big deal, and Leo keeps thinking "fine, then, it's not gonna be a big deal for me either", but when Blaine's lips touch his in another kiss that quickly grows deeper and hungrier, it's impossible to keep thinking straight. It's impossible to push away the deep, instinctual knowledge of the truth his body's telling, when all he can hear is his own heartbeat roaring in his ears.

"I missed the taste," Blaine says, almost talking to himself, smiling kind of stupidly as he takes his time to play with Leo's lips, tracing their outlines with the tip of his tongue and indulging in a couple of little bites that instantly make them swollen, cherry red and incredibly sensitive.

"So..." Leo says, letting Blaine kiss him, just opening his lips to let Blaine's tongue in, "What about my first question?"

Blaine laughs again, tightening his grip around Leo's cock and stroking him harder. "That's not something you decide preemptively. You mainly go with the flow, with the inspiration of the moment. Did you know," he says, opening his eyes wide as if he was telling something completely new and uncommon, even if Leo knows he's only using this tone because he wants to mock him, "Did you know you can actually switch roles, if your partner is open-minded enough and doesn't believe homosexuals should be divided in two categories, one of which stands for the male role while the other stands for the female?"

Leo looks away, his lips curling in a pensive expression, and just by looking at that Blaine can tell that right now the kid's thinking about his own parents and the way what Blaine just described simply doesn't apply to them. "Oh, God," he chuckles, "I can read it in your eyes. Please. Just don't," he says, kissing Leo deeply again to switch the subject of his musing. Leo whines between his lips, clearly unhappy with the way he probably feels Blaine's patronizing him, but the man just ignores him and, when he parts from his lips, he's already smiling. "Let's say I'll top, for this time," he suggests, "Just because I'm actually dying to be inside of you," he adds, leaning in to kiss the kid lightly on his lips. "How about it?"

Leo blushes, embarrassed by his words, and glares at him. "You say this time like there's ever gonna be a second," he snorts, but then he sighs and nods. "Go ahead," he says, "I wouldn't know where to start anyway."

"I was saying it just in case, you know," Blaine laughs, "You seem to enjoy it."

He pulls away, standing on his knees and slowly freeing himself from the towel. The light of the moon, coming inside from the window, makes his lightly sweaty skin almost glow in the darkness of the room. And even though it's dark, and even though Leo's upset because he can't help liking Blaine despite how unpleasant he finds him as a person, he can't help but swallow whatever snarky remark he had conjured from the last rational bit of himself, and stop to stare at him. His eyes travel quickly down the man's body, falling rapidly on his cock, so big and hard to scare him.

"Now I know for sure I won't survive this night," he says in an even, frightened, shaking breath, as he tries to swallow once more and finds out his throat's completely closed.

"Why do you say so?" Blaine smiles softly, bending over the kid and rubbing against him, keeping himself up on his arms, the tense line of which Leo follows with lost eyes, moistening his lips.

"'Cause..." he starts off, quickly losing control over his own body as he feels his own cock answer to Blaine's rubbing, "'Cause clearly you're gonna break something, possibly in half. I don't know. It's in no way possible."

"I am in no way this big, kid," Blaine kisses him slowly, lightly hitting his knees with one of his own to ask him to part his legs. "Would you make some room for me?"

"You seem so, to me," Leo answers, opening his legs anyway.

"I'm going to take this as a compliment," Blaine says, laughing a little, "But you don't have to be scared. It will hurt just for a moment. And it's part of the game," he adds, speaking softly over the sensitive skin right under Leo's ear, "There's a life lesson in it too. Nothing really good can be earned without having to suffer for it a little bit before," he whispers, licking one of his own fingers and pushing the tip of it gently against Leo's opening.

Leo tenses nervously, closing his knees in a sudden reaction to the weird, surprising feeling of that slick finger against a place he never thought could be touched that way.

"Hey," Blaine speaks softly, kissing him on the tip of his nose, "...you probably don't like cuddles, do you?" he stops right after, just while Leo's body had started to tense all towards his to get some more of said cuddles, "Just try to relax," he tries, as Leo falls back down on the couch deciding that, as much of a cuddles-whore he can be, he's never gonna ask for it. Not to Blaine, anyway. "It'll feel good soon, I promise," Blaine goes on, "I know how to make it feel good."

He pushes half of his finger inside of Leo's body, moving it slowly in circles. Leo makes a face and tries to relax, holding onto Blaine's shoulders. "It's not as bad as I thought," he says, "It just feels... uncomfortable."

"Yes," Blaine chuckles, "That's why people usually don't sit on fingers." Leo glares at him and Blaine laughs again, shaking his head. "Alright, sorry, I won't try and make jokes anymore."

"You better. Your jokes are lame."

"Do you want me to stop?" Blaine asks suddenly, leaning in to kiss him. It's an open, wet kiss that moves along with his finger pushing a little bit deeper, touching some spot inside of him that makes him shiver in something that, even if it's not pleasure already, certainly reminds it greatly.

"Don't you dare, not now that it started to feel good," Leo answers to his question and to the kiss, his hips moving down to meet Blaine's finger, "Keep doing... whatever you're doing. You're..." he breathes out, letting a little moan go with it, "I don't know, it feels different, now."

Blaine kisses him hard again, his hips moving against Leo's thigh with a will of their own. "Then I'm going with another one," he says, "Be strong, kid."

Leo bites at his lips, trying to relax and to distract himself concentrating on how fucking pleasure it feels to have Blaine this close to him, to feel him hard against his body, even to know he's gonna be inside of him in a few minutes.

"Don't bite too hard," Blaine says, kissing the offended lip sweetly, sucking it inside his mouth and biting it gently, as if to show Leo how it's done, "You're too beautiful to ruin yourself like this," he adds, twitching his fingers inside the kid's body, drawing a surprised scream out of his lips.

Leo tries to cover his mouth, hoping his parents didn't hear them. "What did you just do?!" he asks, trying to recover from how breathless that sudden shock of pleasure he felt left him.

Despite how amused he is, Blaine tries not to laugh, so to not upset Leo again. "That's the part in which you admit I was right, and it was worth it," he says.

"Oh, dream, Warbler," Leo answers, frowning, "I didn't say it was good. I just asked what-- shit," Leo almost screams again, parting his legs and pushing his hips down on Blaine's fingers again when he feels the man twitch them inside his body once more, searching for the same reaction from before.

Blaine celebrates his victory with a self-satisfied grin. "You’re not calling me warbler during sex, kid," he says, pulling and pushing his fingers in and out of Leo's body.

"Is my name allowed just until sunset or something?" Leo snorts, annoyed with how easily Blaine let that nickname - kid, he's always been kid for him, since he was six - slip into what they're doing now. Just what Leo needed, some innocent, everyday word to become triggering for such a thing like sex.

Blaine smiles, kissing his pout away and smiling once more when Leo lets out the umpteenth needy moan, answering to the pressure of his fingers inside him. His smile growing wider, he leans in to whisper in Leo's ear, "Think about how much better it's going to be when I'm doing that with my cock, instead of my fingers."

"Shit," Leo breathes out, moaning shamelessly, "Don't... talk like that. I'm not used to this, it's weird."

"Oh, but what about all the other things I'd like to tell you now?" Blaine keeps going, smirking as he kisses his way down Leo's neck, "Like that I want to fuck you until you beg me to stop. Or that you're so fucking beautiful you almost make me want to come by just looking at you. Or how I like the way your cock twitches and hardens for my fingers inside of you."

"God..." Leo starts moving up and down, following Blaine's fingers and rubbing himself against the man's thigh, clearly losing himself to those words. He's never had somebody talking to him like this and somehow he had always thought he'd be squeaked out by dirty talking. Now, he doesn't understand if he likes it, or if it's just Blaine's voice that's making it work. "You won't stop, will you? How many more fingers do we need?" he asks, eagerness growing quickly in his belly.

"I think we're done with the fingers," Blaine whispers on his lips before kissing him hard, "Now on to the real thing."

Blaine settles himself better between Leo's thighs, while the kid looks down, trying to watch closely what's about to happen, secretly hoping that if he manages to keep his eyes fixed on it, it's not gonna hurt. He feels him pushing tentatively against his opening, and then entering for just a couple of inches.

"God..." Blaine says, trying his best not to move too quickly, despite how tempting the warmth of Leo's body feels, "I'm not stopping for anything in the world, kid."

Leo grimaces, biting at his own lip to try and bear the uncomfortableness. "Maybe... maybe you should've kept going with the fingers..." he breathes out, hiding his face in Blaine's neck, "Gosh, it feels even bigger than it looks."

Blaine laughs breathlessly, moving in for a couple of inches more as he wraps his fingers around Leo's cock to start stroking him. "You know, flattering's not going to get you anywhere," he says, letting out another chuckle when Leo sticks out his tongue at him. "You're unbelievable tight," he adds then, closing his eyes as he thrusts once more, finally managing to push himself entirely into the kid's body, "I am literally in love with you."

"Oh, you love me because I'm tight," Leo answers in an annoyed snort, "That's so sweet. How come you're single, with all this romance pouring out of you?"

"You really are gorgeous," Blaine laughs again, "And funny. I can't believe you are still single," he adds, resting still inside of Leo's body, to help him getting used to the new, cumbersome presence.

"Maybe I'm not and you're fucking a taken man, what about it?" Leo mocks him, and then he moans again, grimacing at the same time, fidgeting restlessly under Blaine's body to find a more comfortable position, "It's better if you move," he says in a troubled whisper, "I feel... insanely full, if you just stay still."

"And doesn't it make it more exciting?" Blaine asks, a dirty smile curling his lips as he slowly starts to rock back and forth, still stroking Leo's cock to the rhythm of his own thrusts.

"From now on," Leo says, grabbing Blaine by his shoulders and pulling him down, "You do stuff, I tell you if it's exciting. I'm the one with your cock up his ass, I've got privileges," he decides, pulling Blaine in for a kiss.

Blaine chuckles between Leo's lips, pushing a little harder inside of him. "You really are something," he says, "But you've got a point. What about this, then?" he asks, lifting himself up just a little but holding Leo's hips still to change the angle of his thrusts, getting way closer to hit with his cock that same spot he already hit repeatedly with his fingers before.

"Yes!" Leo breathes out, arching backwards in a desperate attempt to follow his body's imperative to suck Blaine in as much as he can, "You did it again..."

"I can do better," Blaine whispers, thrusting more forcefully now that Leo got used to his presence inside his body. He pushes so deep inside him that the tightness and the wet warmth start to feel overwhelming, and for a moment Blaine just forgets what he's doing and where he is, and all he can understand is how deliciously trapped inside Leo's body he feels. "Fuck," he whispers, "You're just... fuck."

"Oh, shit," Leo holds onto Blaine's shoulders, hanging to him, "God, keep doing this," he begs, searching for his lips almost desperately, his hips moving at the pace Blaine's setting with his steady, quick thrusts.

"Keep your voice down, kid," Blaine says, though he's finding hard to follow his own advice and keeps moaning loudly, squeezing Leo's cock inside his fist and stroking him hard while he pushes even deeper, "God, you're just unreal. I didn't even know something like this could be possible, I don't want to come out of you ever again."

Barely opening his eyes to watch Blaine's features and the lines of his body as he moves in the dark, Leo smiles, lost in what they're sharing. "I don't know," he says, his voice so sweet he'd be embarrassed with himself if he only could hear it from the outside, "It's just crazy that I'm doing this with you."

"Does it really sound so crazy?" Blaine says, thrusting harder inside Leo, using the armrest to point his feet against it and push deeper, "Am I not good enough for you?"

And that's when Leo would like to let himself free to speak, because right now he probably could. He could manage to gather all his courage together and just tell him that yes, he's good enough, he's too good, probably, that he can't recall a single moment of his whole life since he actually started to understand what being attracted to somebody means, that he hasn't thought about being taken like this, from him.

But he just can't say that, that'd be too much, that'd be embarrassing and stupid and he's Blaine, of course it's just a game for him, of course he's just another fuck, of course he's gonna disappear in a couple of days again as he always does. There's no reason to say anything. He'll be gone in the blink of an eye and what they're doing right now won't matter anymore, by then.

So he avoids the question, keeping Blaine in as much as he can, letting him barely free to move to put off the moment he'll pull out as long as he can. "I... I don't think I'm gonna last much longer," he says, biting at his lower lip when he feels himself tensing all around Blaine's cock, a warm wave of pleasure mounting in his underbelly.

"Then come," Blaine whispers in his ear, "Come for me," his lips curling in a tender smile, "I want to feel how much you liked it, I want to know you'll want me again, inside of you, just like that."

Blaine's words push some button inside him, something that hasn't got to do with pleasure alone, something deeper, and Leo tenses for the last time, arching beautifully on the couch and coming with a suffocated moan, as Blaine sucks the tender skin of his neck, thrusting inside of him a couple of times more and then coming hard inside him.

That's when Leo first notices. And Blaine does too, opening his eyes when he falls down, resting himself on top of Leo's body.

They didn't even use a condom. And, wrong as it is, the moment Blaine came with no barrier whatsoever between them, something lit inside of them both, some mysterious spark that, instead of fading away when the sex was over, is still tingling even now that the air starts to feel suddenly colder on their bare, sweaty skin, and the silence starts to grow awkward in the perfect calmness of the night.

Blaine lifts his head and they lock eyes. Leo holds his breath, knowing that this is the moment. He doesn't know what this moment will bring, but whatever it is, this is the moment it's decided.

Then Blaine leans in and kisses him softly on his lips, one, two, a hundred times, and Leo plays along, settling comfortably in his warm embrace. He's still moving lazily inside of him, every now and then, and even if Leo's oversensitive and starting to feel a bit of pain again this is the most pleasant feeling he ever felt in his life.

"Are you cuddling me?" he asks, a tired, almost already sleepy smile blossoming on his cherry red and puffy lips.

"Just a bit," Blaine answers, smiling against Leo's lips after another sweet kiss, "I'm finding kind of hard to, you know... let you go, at the moment." Then he opens his eyes, as if he just realized that Leo's a teenager, after all, so there's every chance he just finds cuddles stupid and annoying. "Don't you like it?"

"Mmh, maybe," Leo answers with an enigmatic smile, "But, you know..." he adds, his cheeks turning red with embarrassment, "I'll have to stand up, eventually. I mean, I can't sleep here."

"I know," Blaine nods, "But it's early. You don't have to run right away-- unless you want to, of course."

"It's just..." Leo looks away, nervously scratching his cheek, "My dads are gonna kill me, if they find out."

The thoughts of Kurt and Karofsky still asleep in the first floor bedroom crosses Blaine's mind for the first time in what feels like hours. He knows that, as much as they could be angry at Leo too, if they found out, they'd never hurt him or kick him out or anything like that. On the contrary, nothing would save him from their righteous and terrifying wrath. "We don't have to tell them, you know?" he sighs, "This could just stay between us."

"As if I ever thought about telling them," Leo blinks a couple of times, looking at Blaine as if he said the most obvious thing ever said by somebody since humanity moved its first steps on the planet.

"And, if it ever comes out, somehow," Blaine goes on, "You're not going to tell them I, like, forced you to do something you didn't want to do, are you? Because that, you see, would be very bad. And if you want to ruin me, there are less cruel ways."

Leo lets out an amused chuckle, arching an eyebrow at him. "Are you by any chance scared to death I could tell everyone you raped me?"

"With kids like you, one never knows," Blaine grins, and then kisses him on the tip of his nose. "Hold your breath, kid," he suggests as he pulls away, his now soft cock finally slipping out of the kid's body.

"Ouch!" Leo blurts out, making a face, "It's even worse when you pull out... wait, what did you mean with that? How many kids like me did you do, exactly?"

Blaine laughs, rolling on his side and resting his head on the palm of his hand, "What's that, jealousy?"

"It's not jealousy," Leo pouts, crossing his arms over his chest, "I just want to know if you're a serial underager or something."

Blaine laughs again, shaking his head. "I actually am not. I've had a couple of things with kids your age, but then I was their age too when it happened, so I guess that doesn't count. You're my first," his smile softens, as well as his eyes, "As I'm yours."

Leo blushes violently, looking away as he searches for something to say to change the subject immediately. "So... I guess it's safe to say that I'm at least bi."

"See?" Blaine chuckles, nodding, "I told you it would be a useful experience, however it went," he says, leaning in to randomly kiss the kid on his cheek.

"Yeah," Leo nods, giggling, "Grandpa's gonna freak out. You know, he always thought a kid wasn't a good idea for my dads. He loves me, of course, he's just old fashioned. So he was okay with them being gay, but a kid... he had issues. And then it turns out I'm half gay too! He's gonna say it's my dads' fault, for sure," he giggles again, as if the thought of telling his whole family, possibly during Thanksgiving or some other festivity that could be easily ruined by this confession, was the most amusing thing he ever thought about in his life.

"Let's write a note and then print a hundred posters to glue to every single door of this house," Blaine nods, "Hello, family. I accidentally found out I'm bisexual. Thanks you for your cooperation in letting me found an half-naked man on the couch right when I needed it."

"No, you idiot!" Leo laughs, slapping him on his shoulder, "But eventually, I'm gonna tell them. I always end up telling everything, anyway, so... but don't worry," he adds when he notices Blaine's eyes growing bigger and worried, "You're the only exception, I won't tell about you."

"Thanks," Blaine chuckles, and then stops to look at him for a couple of seconds. Leo can see there's a question lingering on his parted lips, and he's curious to hear it, but at the same time he'd happily kiss him right now to not let him even try and ask it. He doesn't, anyway, and eventually Blaine speaks. "Can I be the exception again," he asks, "Sometime soon?"

"...I don't know," Leo answers, looking away. They both know Blaine shouldn't have asked, and at the same time they're both glad he did. "Maybe," he tries and joke about it, "I have to think about it, you're still the man who tried to drag me out of a bush after I saw you make out with my father on his wedding day, you know?"

"I wasn't making out with your father, you stubborn kid!" Blaine laughs, "That was just a goodbye kiss," he says, leaning in to kiss Leo deeply and slowly, so passionately Leo's happy he's still lying down, or else he would have needed something to hang onto not to fall. "...as this will be," Blaine adds, "If you decide you don't want to try this ever again."

Leo slowly bats his eyelashes, trying to focus again and having a hard time doing it. "If this is the kind of kiss you gave him, then I totally hate you."

Blaine smiles against his lips, brushing the tip of his nose against the kid's. "Did anybody ever tell you you're kind of addictive?"

"Here you go, changing subject," Leo chuckles, snuggling closer, "You really are shameless, aren't you?"

"I'd say I'm good with words," Blaine laughs, "That sounds better. But, seriously," he looks at him again, "I'm going to be in New York by tomorrow evening, and after the audition I'm probably just going to go home. So... if you want to see me again, you'll have to be the one that makes the first step."

"The man asked to the fifteen years old kid who wasn't even allowed to get his driver's license," Leo answers, casting him a disapproving glare, "Let's just say that if you see me in Westerville or wherever you warblers live, then it means that I probably run away from home or I decided to be with you... at least to use you, 'cause I will be homeless and penniless and it'll be basically be all your fault, so you'll have to take responsibility."

Blaine laughs again and then sighs, looking at him with that sort of tenderness Leo's quickly growing fond of. "How am I supposed to leave your smart ass here all alone?" he asks, and then shakes his head, as if to clear it from dangerous thoughts, "Now, give me a goodbye kiss like you think a goodbye kiss should be, and then run to bed. Your bed."

Leo bites at his lower lip, looking at Blaine in silence for a long moment. Then he kisses Blaine deeply, slowly, savoring the taste of his lips. And deep inside he knows this whole thing's being too unnecessarily romantic not to hurt someway when it'll be over. But he can't bring himself to mind. Not right now.

Blaine keeps his eyes closed, dwelling on the strong emotion coming from the kiss. He answers with the same intensity, actually surprised by how quickly their level of intimacy escalated in just one night, and parting from Leo only a few moments later, their wet lips producing a soft smacking sound as they unlock. "...that was breathtaking," he admits, resting his forehead against Leo's.

"I..." Leo says, suddenly trying to pull away from Blaine's hug. For a moment, that was just too much to bear. It was unexpected and awkward and Leo just wants to go. "I have to go, now," he stands up, gathering his clothes from the floor and covering himself with them.

Blaine pulls away from him, alarmed by his sudden agitation. "Yes, sure," he nods, trying to look as calm as he possibly can.

"So... that's it, then," Leo says, hugging his clothes to his chest, "Um, goodnight, I guess."

Blaine nods slowly, trying to smile to reassure him. "Goodnight."

Leo nods and turns around, moving a couple of steps in the dark. In the deep silence of the house, his feet make the most unnerving sound tapping against the cold tiles of the floor. He suddenly turns back to face Blaine, finding him still sitting on the couch like he left him, with his eyes on him. "Listen," he starts off, "About what you said while we were... doing it... I mean..."

Blaine clears his throat and then smiles again, this time almost embarrassedly. "We were having sex, kid," he says, "You say a lot of things when you're having sex, but they're just... things. Don't worry, I won't make a big deal out of this."

Leo lowers his eyes and mutters something unintelligible as he turns around again and runs upstairs.

Because that's exactly the problem, he thinks, hiding in his room and throwing away all his clothes as he crawls in his bed, hugging himself under the sheets. It already is a big deal, and he can't help thinking that try and not make one out of it is only going to make it worse.

SEX AND VIOLENCE
Leo's first book promotion is in winter.
Blaine knows he will remember this detail forever not because this is Leo's first book and it's important, but because the curve of his husband's hips in those jeans under the sweater he's wearing is making him crazy and there's no way Blaine is going to forget the way it's making him feel as he sits down, waiting for the reading to begin. Mark – precious, know-it-all Mark, the editor – wanted Leo to look professional, so he has begged him not to wear his usual combo of teen t-shirt and sneakers. Except that Mark doesn't beg, he suggests in a way that Leo can't say no to him, which never fails to make Blaine wonder if something happens that he should be worrying about when he can't see those two.
So now, Leo is wearing a light gray shirt on his usual jeans and a black open sweater that makes him look the young writer he is without taking away years to his current age. He looks smart, fresh but not too childish, no matter how youngish is face still is. He looks exactly like Mark. As they sit next to each other behind the table, the similarity in their age, style and way to move is so painfully clear that Blaine almost growls out aloud.
“He looks gorgeous,” Sam says, joining him. She sits down next to him, bestowing effusive apologies to the people around her, who were forced to move aside to let her and her frilly skirt pass.
“That douche bag made a copy of himself out of him,” Blaine grumbles. His eyes never leave Leo, as if something inappropriate could happen in front of the hundreds of people present.
Sam smooths her skirt and places her tiny bag on her lap, smiling. “I thought we were here to support Leo and cheer for him, not to hate on Mark. I'm not properly dressed for that.”
Blaine turns to glare at her, but she's still smiling. “Come on, B. Look at him.”
“I'm looking at him,” Blaine says. “That's not him. What with the Diesel sweater? And he's wearing Armani shoes. Black, leather shoes, Sam. He has brainwashed him and Leo let him, because whatever that man says he does.”
Sam chuckles, and the curls of her lilac wig moves with her. “I think he looks gorgeous. And cute. As he always does,” she says. “He wanted to look the part, you can't blame him for that.”
“He writes YA novels, he doesn't need to look like an hipster, pseudo-intellectual idiot,” Blaine grumbles again, barely managing to keep his voice low.
Sam ignores him as she's been doing for the past few months, basically since the day Blaine found out about the promotional tour and what it implied, that is Leo being busy and traveling with Mark through the whole country for over two months. “Oh, look how nervous he is!” She squeaks. “He's doing that thing with his hair.”
When Leo is too nervous, he starts messing with the hair at the base of his neck. He wraps one single curl around his finger over and over, most of the time without even noticing it. Blaine knows that gesture comes from a very bad place in time and doesn't find it so cute, even though he knows the reason why Leo is doing that now has nothing to do with the past.
Blaine looks at him insistently, hoping for Leo to stare back but he never does. He looks down at the pages of his book or in the general direction of the crowd but never at him. Rationally, Blaine knows why. He knows Leo well enough to understand what would happen if Leo looked at him. He would freeze and get confused, and that's the last thing he needs now. Leo is aware Blaine is there, in the first row, supporting him and that's enough for him. Blaine knows that. He is there for that very reason, after all. Still, when he sees Leo searching Mark's eyes for support or approval at whatever he's saying to the crowd, Blaine's blood starts boiling and only his trained self-control and Sam's gloved hand on his thigh stops him from standing up and dragging his husband away.
Actually, he realizes he was lost in a fantasy where he was beating Mark to death for God knows how long, because Leo has stopped reading and he's now answering questions.
“What about Liam's obsession with candies and sweets?” A young girl in the third row asks, blushing furiously as she looks at him. Leo must be confusing to look at if you're thirteen, you like his book a lot and you really want to ask him a real question. “Is it metaphorical or something?”
Mark leans in on the mike and smiles. “Oh no, that's just Leo,” he answers before Leo can say anything. “He's munching candies all the time. I actually spend more for him on candies than on promotion. He just gave that trait to his main character because he couldn't help it.”
Leo looks over to him and smirks. “Now, that's not true. I'm not like that.”
“And he is a liar too,” Mark nods to the girl. Then he turns to Leo, smirking as well. “So you don't have a bowl filled with red vines on your desk in the office?”
“Yes, I do. But as much as I remember, it has never gone empty.”
“That's because you never come to the office!” Mark says.
The crowd laughs, and Blaine sulks even more. He hates the way they interact with each other or even the way they smirk like they have inside jokes to share, which they probably have since they work together and that makes him mad.
“So, what other characteristic of yourself did you give to Liam?” Someone else asks.
“Not many,” Leo shakes his head. “He doesn't look like me at all. He's friendly, very positive...”
“He wakes up way before lunch in the morning,” Mark adds. Blaine is so fed up with his stupid sense of humor, that he's hating even the way he needs to lean closer to the mike to speak or the way he sits on his chair next to Leo. Mark's very own existence bothers him.
Leo chuckles. “Excuse me if I work late at night,” he says, playing along. He surely got the hand of entertaining the crowd.
“Leo's night starts at five pm,” Mark says to the crowd. “So when you call him at seven, he's been working past his scheduled hours for ages already. Still, ten in the morning is dawn for him. I swear to God, I don't know when to call him most of the times.”
“But you call at every fucking hours nonetheless,” Blaine grumbles in a whisper. Mark has the most inappropriate timing, always calling Leo when they're having dinner, when they're playing with the twins and most of all when they're about to have sex.
“I have a perfectly working voice mail,” Leo says.
“I know. I'm on a first name basis with it,” Mark says, triggering the next roar of laughs from the crowd. “I speak with it more than I speak with you.”
By the time the interview ends and Mark lets the people stand in line to get their copy of the book signed, Blaine is beyond rage. From his point of view he was forced to witness the indisputable evidence of Mark and Leo getting too much along for their own good, which fueled Blaine jealousy to the point of madness. So, when people start standing up to go to the table, he walks in the opposite direction.
“Are you gonna sulk like that the whole evening?” Sam asks him, following him.
“I'm not sulking,” he says.
“I see. That's totally why your face doesn't look like a prune right now,” she nods. “Listen, I have to go now. I work at the Bubble Shower tonight, but if Leo tells me you threw a jealous fit at him, you're gonna answer to me. Are we clear?”
Blaine doesn't answer because a jealous fit is exactly what he wanted to throw, except for Mark out of a window.
“Are we clear?” Sam repeats, gently beating him on his head with her cherry-red fan.
“Yes, we are,” Blaine sighs in resignation.
“Good. Bye bye, sweety pie,” she trills, leaving a kiss on Blaine's cheek. “Say hi to Leo for me. I'll call him tomorrow.”
Blaine watches her leave, swinging on her 6” heels. He ponders over staying there till the end of the signing section, but when he looks over Mark is talking with some man from the publishing house, a hand resting on Leo's shoulder. So he storms out, before he can kill someone.
It takes Leo three more fucking hours to get back to the hotel room they share in New York, and Blaine makes sure to be found very well sulking on the couch in the sitting room of the suite.
“Honey, I'm home!” Leo chirps, playfully. He throws his room keys on the table, where tons of flowers with cute little notes have been waiting for him. “Are these for me?”
Blaine doesn't even bother to move. “A floor boy brought them in. I bet your editor couldn't wait to tell you how much money are you making for him.”
Leo is too happy and too excited to get mad at him right away. “Only the first two bunches are Mark's” he says, reading a note after the other. “The others are from real fans!”
Blaine didn't bother to check who sent the flowers, so knowing Mark actually sent some makes him furious. “Only two? Didn't you sell enough?” He asks.
Leo sighs and leaves the flowers. He walks to the couch and leans on it to kiss Blaine on his cheek. “Are you angry?” He asks.
“Shouldn't I?”
Leo shakes his head. “No. But you are.”
Blaine doesn't turn to him, nor he reacts to Leo's cuddling. “I think I have every reason to be,” he says, stubbornly.
Leo snorts tiredly. He lets him go and stand up again. “Can you be happy for me just once?” He asks as he opens the minibar and gets a coke. “I don't think this is too much to ask.”
“I am happy for you. This is not the point.”
Leo takes a sip and shrugs. “If you ask me, this is very much the point,” he says. “You say you are happy for me, but when I come back from my very first promotional signing session, I find you sulking on the couch, let alone that I'd have loved to come back to the hotel with you instead of looking at you go in the middle of it.”
Blaine snorts, sarcastically. “That wasn't really a signing session.”
Leo frowns at the loud volume of the TV that barely let him hear Blaine speak. “Do you mind turning it off?”
“Yes, I do.”
Leo closes his fists and counts to ten, trying to stay calm. But staying calm is not his strongest point. “Fine. So if that wasn't a signing section, what was it then?” He asks, raising his voice.
“Actually, you tell me,” Blaine turns to him and frowns. “The only thing I saw was you two laughing at each other like sweethearts. Is that how you sell a book these days? Flirting with your editor?”
Leo would gladly tell him that yes, sometimes a little flirting – however fake – takes you a long way but he doesn't. “It was not flirting, Blaine!” He says, instead. “Mark knows I get nervous when I have to talk about what I write in front of people, so we planned to have some sort of little show during the interview to make everything easier for me!”
If Leo had hoped this answer would have explained everything, he was wrong.
“So you planned it?” Blaine says, nodding as he had understood some deeper meaning in Leo's words.
“Yes!” Leo sighs, tiredly. “Yes, we did. But it was all to help me! What's wrong in that?”
Blaine stands up and turns the TV off, shrugging. “Nothing. What can be wrong in Mark's doing? He's perfect, is he not? So if he decides that you should be flirting with him, then you do it and absolutely nothing is wrong with it. You're not married after all.”
“For the last time, it wasn't flirting. We were just telling jokes.”
Blaine nods, mockingly. “Of course, those were jokes,” he says. “And looking and smiling at him that way was part of the jokes too?”
“What?” Leo frowns at him, now. He doesn't like where this discussion is going. At all. “What do you mean by that?”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don't, Blaine. You're just being silly.”
Blaine knows he can't really think straight when Mark is involved, but for once his lack of reasoning doesn't bother him at all because he believes deep inside himself that he's right, that Mark is really trying to take him away one step at a time, it is an ancient feeling. So he doesn't need real evidence. What he feels is just plain truth. “Of course I'm being silly. Is this what he tells you about me?”
“He doesn't tell me anything because we only talk about work,” Leo says. He has the feeling of telling these exact words since the first fight they had over Mark. “He is not interested in me that way and I'm not in him. Can you please put it in your mind that it's possible for me not to like him, even if he's my age?”
“How can I believe that when you behave like that?”
“Like what, Blaine? I was just answering questions.”
Blaine takes a couple of steps towards him, like he usually does when he wants to look threatening. It worked better when Leo was younger and way much smaller than him. Now that he is as tall as Blaine is, Blaine has lost part of his towering effect, but somehow his angry face is still enough to make Leo take a step back, even if he moves nonchalantly as Blaine so angry and so close to him had no effect on him at all. “I know you well enough to see when you like something or someone.”
“So you are able to see when I smile?” Leo mocks him. “That's impressive.”
“I'm able to see when you make yourself available.”
Leo eyes grow wide. “So first it was just him flirting, then I was flirting back and now I was openly inviting him to fuck me?”
Blaine shrugs. “You said that.”
“I want to believe you didn't mean that, Blaine. Not only it's madness, but it's also offensive,” Leo's face tenses.
“If there's someone who should be offended, that's me, Leo,” Blaine insists.
“By what? Me doing my job?”
“Your job is writing books!” Blaine raises his voice.
“And selling them!”
“Exactly!” Blaine says, getting closer. “You should selling your books, not yourself.”
Leo covers his eyes and just breathes for a moment, probably keeping him out of his view and outside his personal space as much as he can. “Can we not have this conversation again, please?” He says after a while.
“No, we're gonna have it because I want to,” Blaine says. He doesn't tell him to look at him, but the tone of his voice is enough to make Leo drop his arms. “You said you are not trying to please him, but look at how you dressed.”
“What about my clothes, now?”
“You look like him, Leo.” Blaine pulls violently at his sweater and t-shirt. “I tried to make you dress like that your whole life. But no, you were waiting for Mark, of course.”
Leo snorts. “Blaine, this makes no sense. He just wanted me to look professional.”
“He did?”
“I was presenting a book! I don't like this clothes but I wanted to be credible! It's not like I dressed like that to impress him.”
“So you would have dressed like this if I had told you to?”
“Yes.”
Blaine smirks, meanly. “You're lying.”
Leo blushes a little and looks away because that's probably true. He felt compelled to believe Mark when he suggested he needed to dress up differently for the promotion. Blaine's suggestion would never have had the same power over him, this time. “Are you going to do like this every time? 'Cause, you know, there are at least fifty other dates to go, some of them very far away from home.”
Blaine's expression changes. It becomes darker and angrier. Leo tries to stand still but he can't help the shiver that runs through him. “What if I don't want you to go anymore?” He says, his voice low.
“What if I tell you that you can't decide for me?”
Blaine laughs and the sound he makes is so mean and amused that Leo takes another step back, but he doesn't go too far before Blaine pushes him against a wall. “I decide for you as much as I want if you force me to,” he whispers on his lips, and then forces them open. He invades his mouth angrily, biting at his lips and sucking at his tongue, muffling Leo's protests until they become moans as he knows they would.
Blaine keeps him pinned against the wall for a long time, just kissing him and biting down his neck. He doesn't allow Leo to respond, he doesn't allow Leo to move. Every time Leo tries to free himself, Blaine pushes him harder against the wall. His grip around Leo's wrists gets stronger until he whines.
Blaine lets him go, just to start pulling at his clothes. “Take them off,” he orders. “Now.”
He stands back and watches as Leo slowly drops his arms and starts undressing himself, his eyes never leaving his husband's. No matter how rough this is now and how rougher it will be in a minute, Leo never stops daring Blaine to go on with his threat. That's why Blaine gets even madder.
“Quicker,” he says. He unceremoniously strips him of the sweater himself and pulls so strongly at his belt that Leo is forced to take a step forward, ending in his arms. The glance they share sets off the lustful, angry kiss that comes after and Blaine's hand moving along Leo's back and under his boxers, where he squeezes his butt. “I don't wanna see them on you one moment more.”
The pants are what take more time. They get stuck as Leo pulls them down. He stumbles in them when Blaine grows impatient and pushes him back against the wall, growling and grinding against him. There's a moment when Leo is still standing only because Blaine's body stops him from falling down. As he holds on to his shoulders, he tries to match Blaine's thrusts that painfully smash him into the wall behind himself. He doesn't beg him to slow down because he knows it would be useless. He feels Blaine's rage hit him like a wave and it's overwhelming. It needs to come out of Blaine's body and it seems that the only place it wants to go is his own.
Blaine licks a wet trail from his shoulder up to his ear and his voice comes out low and hoarse when he finally speaks again. “Turn around,” he orders, but he doesn't give him the time to obey. He grabs him and makes him turn, pushing him against the wall again. Leo hears him unbuckle his belt, he feels his hands brushing roughly against the naked skin of his ass. “I don't want him to touch you,” he hisses to his ear, as he lies against his back. “I don't want him to think he has the slightest right on you at all.”
“He doesn't think he--”
“Yes, he does,” Blaine cuts him off, leaving a kiss on his nape. His fingers prepare him quickly, barely teasing him and opening him up. There's no real need for it, he just wants to be as invasive as he can, as he feels that douche bag of an editor has been.
Leo places his open palms against the wall and breathes heavily, tension making his face cringe in anticipation. He feels Blaine rubbing his cock between his buttocks over and over, so there's no way for him to know when he will stop playing to plunge it in. “You're gorgeous”. The words rain down from Blaine's wet lips and along Leo's back as he kisses it. For a moment his voice is soft and loving again, like what he said wasn't planned and he just couldn't help saying it. Leo's body reacts to that voice, it relaxes under his husband's fingertips. So when Blaine pushes forward and he's inside him in one single thrust, Leo can moan in pleasure, with just the slightest trace of pain that disappears in the back of his mind the moment after.
“And you're mine,” Blaine concludes, biting Leo on his neck, so strongly that there's gonna be a mark in the morning. But Leo doesn't care. He doesn't care when Blaine thrusts faster, opening a way for himself in his body. He doesn't care as Blaine holds him by his hips and keeps him in place to thrust deeper. He doesn't care when Blaine doesn't touch him, leaving him to take care of himself.
Leo strokes himself, following the waves of pleasure as Blaine searches relief in his body, thrust after thrust, always hitting him in that spot inside that makes him scream.
Suddenly the wall is too smooth to get a hold of it. He wants to grab something, bite something, feel something under his fingers. “Let me turn,” he begs.
He feels Blaine's amused smile on his lips when the man kisses his shoulder. “No.”
Leo whines in frustration but doesn't complain anymore. He focus on Blaine's voice, now low and hoarse again, as the man grunts and growls in his ear, chasing his mounting orgasm over his body. Leo reads his tension as it was his own and he knows when Blaine's close. He closes around him, helps him out, and when Blaine comes, Leo focuses on him only and on the feeling of him dripping between his legs. That's when Blaine's hand finally covers his own and strokes him strongly, bringing him to his climax.
A few moments later, Leo collapses but Blaine is ready to catch him. “Are you okay?” He asks, rubbing his nose against his cheek and leaving a tender kiss there.
“Are you?” Leo chuckles out of breath.
Blaine scoffs and drags him into a bear hug, not even bothering to get out of him. “Yes, I think I am, now.”
Leo relaxes and rests his head against Blaine's chest. “You know, you could have asked.”
“What?”
“If you wanted to mark your territory,” Leo explains. “I can understand that. “
Blaine feels a little ashamed now that his action are so clearly exposed, but showing shame is not something he does, so he just hides his face in Leo's neck and chuckles. “I wasn't exactly thinking. I just thought I wanted you.”
“Then, you had me.”
“I have you,” he corrects.
Leo chuckles and turns his head, asking for a kiss. “You have me, yes.”
So Blaine can smile, and then relax.
Until the next time Mark will be too close.

A WELL TIED TIE IS THE FIRST SERIOUS STEP IN LIFE

"Look at you! You look gorgeous." Blaine's voice is low and filled both with pride and lust, something only he can manage. One moment he acts fatherly, the moment after he wants to eat you. Leo is so used to this that it doesn't even bother him anymore, and that says something.

"I'm not gorgeous," Leo says, trying to loosen the collar of this incredibly tight shirt he's wearing. He hates wearing suits. They're uncomfortable and he doesn't even look good in them. "I look like a penguin."

Blaine laughs and gets away from the door to join him in front of the mirror. He hugs him from behind and rests his head on Leo's shoulder. "You look like a beautiful young man. Finally, I would say. "

"You love the fact that I look younger than my age," Leo chuckles.

Blaine hugs him even closer and kisses his neck. "Yes, it's the best part, really," Blaine confesses, making a ridiculous sound of joy. "You're gonna be my personal Peter Pan forever. But that doesn't mean I don't like to look at you every once in a while and see you've grown up so beautifully. Suits suit you, if you allow me the alliteration. You were born to wear them because you're tall, slim and you have a great figure when you don't go aroun walking like a monkey."

Leo leans on him, never letting a chance to be cuddle pass by. "So you're saying that when I wear my jeans and t-shirt, I'm unbearable to look at?" He jokes.

"No, you're actually illegal to look at because you look like a kid but I know what's underneath those clothes and I want to nail you anyway," Blaine corrects him. "But you can't really wear jeans tonight."

"Why? I'm gonna stay in the backstage anyway," Leo says with a shrug. "Isn't it the place where technicians and people like that are? They don't wear suits."

Blaine lets him go and takes Leo's tie from his hands. "No, you're not gonna be in the backstage. I've had a seat reserved for you," he says. He doesn't look up at him as he puts the tie around his neck. He'd rather enjoy the feeling of Leo's surprised eyes on himself.

"In the crowd?" Leo asks as if to be sure. "Like, the real crowd?"

Blaine chuckles. "Yes, not the fake one," he mocks him. "You get to applaude winners, laugh at their bad jokes and even cry at their moving speeches if you feel like it. The whole package."

When Blaine has told him he won some minor prize and that there was going to be an award ceremony, Leo has asked him right away to be allowed to come. It's been surprising enough that Blaine has said yes, but being in the crowd? That's a huge thing.

"But... but I can't be in the crowd," he flails, panicking. "They don't know who I am and they could think things."

"Oh, I'm sure they will think things," Blaine nods, skilfully fixing the tie for him. "They always think all kind of things but they will never guess the truth, so who cares?"

Leo can't believe what he has just heard. "Aren't you afraid that something could happen and then your career... I mean," Leo blabbers. "Don't take me wrong, I wanna come. I just don't..."

Blaine helps him wear the jacket and then kisses him on his nose and then quickly on his lips. "Everything's gonna be fine and I'm allowed to bring with me whoever I want, even the son of my best friend and collegue Kurt Hummel, if I want to and the kid is interested in my job. And you are so interested in my job, especially some very specific kind of it. Am I right?"

Leo pushes him away. "You are an idiot," he chuckles.

"But you love me! And that probably makes you a little idiot too," Blaine says, gently dragging him out the room. "Now, let's be idiots together and go to this award ceremony, so I can pretend I don't know I won and you can pretend you didn't know either."

"I will pretendy very well."

"I count on you," Blaine slaps his ass. "Now get in the car."
As he closed the door he wonders if this is right. After all, Leo's presence will be looked upon and someone will wonder why he's even there. When he looks at him and he sees his happy smile, though, he doesn't care. Leo loves to be part of his real life, and tonight he's gonna be.
He just needs to make some good lies up, and that's not hard.

WHAT LOVE DIVIDES

Blaine has tried to take care of the wedding, but Kurt wouldn't let him.
And the fact that now he and Dave are both in the kitchen having a beer together shows how bad the situation is. Blaine thought nobody was ever going to see the two of them like this, unless it was before Dave killed him with kitchen knife. But here they are, both frustrated and tired, holding their bottle and staring into nothing, with no real purpose in life any more.

From the other room comes Kurt's voice, complaining non-stop with the next victim of what now looks like a very bad case of OCD. “I don't think I'm gonna last very longer,” Dave says suddenly. He's still staring at the wall without really seeing it.

“Hm?” Blaine lifts very tired eyes on him, and somehow Dave seems to feel them and turns towards him.

“I'm gonna go there and shut him up. Maybe even tie him,” Dave nods, but there's no resolution in his voice. Like he's dreaming of something he knows he will never have time or guts to do. “If I hear him say that something is wrong again, I–“

“The color of the tablecloths for the reception is wrong!” Kurt says, making Dave cringes. “No, you don't understand, sir. I said blue navy and that's indigo. What do you mean 'what's the difference?' Do you work in a fabric store or what? Maybe you want to reconsider your career there.”

Everything has started with Blaine asking Leo to marry him. The sole achievement of making him say yes has taken almost four months and a half. Leo was so against it that, if they had been a normal couple and not the crazy mess they are, they would have broken up. At least after the first twenty-two noes. But Blaine is stubborn and he literally never takes no for an answer, so he has insisted and insisted until Leo has said yes only to shut him up. But then, he has declared that he was not – under any circumstances and after any sappy or sex coated requests – going to lift a finger to make it happen.

That's when Kurt has come in. After the announcement – that he didn't actually take too well, because apparently he was still thinking that Blaine and Leo were going to break up after getting over all kind of tragedies in the past twenty years – he has let a week pass and then just stormed into the house, using the spare key his son has given him for reason still unknown to Blaine. And he was so excited about the whole wedding thing that he didn't even notice that they were making out half naked on the couch.

It has turned out that Kurt had been planning Leo's wedding day since he was three and, aside from the necessity of changing all the wedding dresses' ideas with suits' idea, everything was already very clear in his mind. Unfortunately, the whole universe is apparently working against Kurt's pedantic planning because nothing – not even the slightest thing – is okay with him. And even when it is one day, it's destined not to be any more the next.

He has rented a gorgeous house on the lake, paid for it and visited it with an interior decorator to plan the tapestry. Then he has found out the a tiny little difference in the windows disposition that wasn't on the map he has had him sent. Apparently, this was a major issue with the delicate balance of his reception ensemble, so he has called the renting agency and rented another house. Flowers should have been lilies, than petunias, then dandelions, then red roses, white roses, pink roses, until he has gone back to his first choice because lilies were pure and – Blaine never forgets to quote – at least one thing has to be pure in that church. The florist hates him and he's about to sue him.

Same goes with the decorators, the tailors, the catering crew. Each and everyone of them has been called at least three time a day for the past four weeks, and they are all more prone to kill Kurt than perform any kind of service for him. Blaine has tried to help him out – he would love to take care of his own wedding, after all – but so far he has only received insults and a not so veiled request to get the fuck away. That's how he has ended up in the kitchen, drinking beer with his father-in-law, who's also his worst enemy.

“You really don't get it, do you?” Kurt is screaming. Now, his voice is so loud that they can hear every single word he says, even if the door is closed. “I don't care if that's silk. I don't want it.”

“You know, I could call off the wedding,” Blaine says, realizing that to stop the madman in the other room there's no other way than grab Leo and marry him on a beach in Thailand, just the two of them a priest and two cupcakes as a wedding cake. He bets Leo would like that, as long as he can eat junk food on the flight there, instead of the expensive nouvelle cousine included in the tickets price.
Dave turns around so slowly that he is almost creepy, like one of those porcelain dolls in horror movies. Blaine feels his hate and will to murder creep under his skin and shivers. “Sure,” he says, absolutely calm. “And I could kill you.”

Blaine swallows. He has never feared Dave, not even when he has found him and his fifteen years old son fucking in their bathroom. But he was a sane man, worried for his son back then. Now Dave is a man whose husband is making him crazy, and you don't wanna mess with that. “I was just trying to be helpful,” he says.

“Don't. You never are,” Dave says, going to the fridge. “You put us in this misery, and you will stand the misery with us. Are we clear?” Blaine nods. Besides, he really wants to marry Leo. Is it too much asking for one single normal thing in his life? “Good. Do you want another beer?” Dave asks.

Kurt ha stopped screaming at the fabric shop's owner and started to pester the florist again because apparently they can't do without a couple of roses, anyway. “Yes, please,” Blaine says, thinking that he will need more than that if he has to stand this for another hour. Dave comes back with the beers, sit down and then both go back to stare at the wall again.

FLASHING LIGHTS

Love

Love is not a problem for Blaine, which is insane considering that everything else except sex is.
Since the beginning, when Leo is still struggling to acknowledge the fact that the feeling that warms up his belly is also warming up his heart, Blaine already knows he is in love with the kid. He has known that since the moment he has looked at him in the bathroom that first morning after and could feel the need to never leave him again. And he is totally ok with that.

It's not the strong, overwhelming feelings that scare him. Love, lust and longing for a kid twenty years younger than him, he can deal with that. But the thought to be a couple, that scares him to death. For years he won't see past the sex they can't stop having, like they could live off that alone.

Leo works exactly the other way around. The cozy, proud, heartwarming thought of them being able to be together forever in a future with no real beginning nor end is great, but to admit he is indeed in love with this man will always be too hard.

Actually, for the longest week of his life he stubbornly refuses to be in love. He plays the grown up and convinces himself that he cares for nothing but their wet, almost shameful to death encounters in a two hundreds per night hotel room. Then Blaine forces him to tell the truth, he cracks and spits it out. And after days of sex they just make love.

For years after that, Leo won't say I love you, even if Blaine wants to hear those words so badly.
For years, Blaine won't tell him when exactly they will have a life together, even if Leo is dying to know that.
That's why they stick together, in the end. To keep their promises.


Comfort

Leo doesn't know when the thought of Blaine has started to be comforting, but it probably has been since the beginning. After all, the seed of everything they are can be found on that couch in Leo's house. That very first night is the sum of all that they will ever gonna be.

Blaine has listened to him when nobody else did and even if he's always treating him like a grown up – Leo feeling ready to be one or not –, he also knows how to cuddle and reassure him when he needs it the most. So, when his father yells at him that he's like scum and that he can never come back if he leaves the house now, Blaine is the first and only thing that comes to his mind. Their hotel room's the only place he wants to be.

He slams the door of his house close, leaving a hating father behind just to knock in tears at the door of the only man in his life who apparently loves him for real. Blaine's heart just skips a beat at the sound of Leo's trembling voice, calling for him.

“He threw me out, just keep me with you.”

The thought of keeping Leo like a stray cat actually lingers on him for a moment, but as much as he wants to, he just can't. As a fifteen years old kid, Leo is allowed to be unreasonable every now and then, but Blaine must always think straight for both of them. So he welcomes him in his arms and cuddles and coos him, but never promises him what he can't give him.

“Everything's gonna be alright, kiddo. I'm going to fix this.”
And he does, when Leo's parents come. He tries and mend what's broken between Leo and his parents, even though they hate him. Even if Leo would leave it broken just to be with him.

Leo buries his face in the crook of Blaine's neck as the man strokes his hair, trying to calm him down before coming out of the bathroom where the kid's hiding and talk with Kurt and Dave. Leo's parents wait for them in the other room, both knowing that they have to let Blaine take care of Leo if they want him back. As much as they hate the thought, it doesn't matter how badly Blaine turned Leo's world upside down, he's the only one who can put it always back the way it was.


Kisses

Blaine didn't have Leo's first kiss, but he had all the ones that count.

A kiss is the first thing they've ever shared, after plain insults and witty remarks. A kiss is always the last thing Blaine gives him before leaving for weeks. Leo hangs to it and tries to keep the memory of its taste as long as he can, as if it could fill the void while Blaine is away.

In the heat of the moment, as they're making out, there's a special kiss to say to each other that they want more. And a kiss at the end lets Leo know that he is still so very safe, even if Blaine lost control for a while.

A kiss gently shuts Leo up when he talks too much. Another stops Blaine for giving lectures that he shouldn't be giving. A kiss after the other always brings them to the bed, kissing replace talking when it's needed.

Leo is leaving little kisses on Blaine's chest right now, drawing lines with his tongue at the oddest times. He dives in his navel, looking up and Blaine chuckles knowing very well he won't go any lower. “Aren't you tired, already?” He smiles, ruffling his hair as Leo comes back up for a quick kiss.

“Not at all, old man,” he says, curling up against Blaine's side. “I'm a teen, remember? I'm never tired.”

“But you are always too early,” Blaine mocks him and sticks his tongue out, barely licking Leo's lower lip.
Leo pouts just a little, but all it takes is a kiss.


Hope

Everybody says Leo shouldn't live hoping for Blaine to come back, that he shouldn't be living for him, waiting for a call or a visit, or the brief sign of attention in a spare moment. They say their relationship shouldn't be hanging on such a thread of hope on his side, that this means Leo needs Blaine more than Blaine needs him. But Leo doesn't believe that, or he doesn't care as long as Blaine comes back and shows him that he wants him more than anything else.

If he thinks about it, Leo knows he hasn't always been so insecure. There was a time when he was very little – no more than six or seven years old – that nothing scared him and he was so sure of himself, of what he was and what he was gonna be that nobody could convince him otherwise. Then, something broke.

He doesn't know the exact moment when he has started second guessing everything, it was probably a gradual change, but now nothing seems so sure anymore. It has probably something to do with his little sister and the fact that she really is Dave's daughter. Now deep inside, he wonders if adoption is a strong enough bond for him to be considered a real son or if her presence changes the perspective his parents has of him.

Every time they speak about her, every time they take care of her, Leo feels a sting of pain in his stomach that is half jealousy and half a sense of longing, as if they were being more loving to his sister than they have ever been to him. It's not true. A part of him knows that. But the other just keeps repeating that they don't need him anymore now that they have a real child they can call their own.

Especially if he goes against their every will by being with Blaine.

Somehow he just thinks they're gonna give up on him sooner or later because he is not what they want and they have a real daughter anyway. That's why he hopes for Blaine to call or to come and steal him away for one, two, three days or maybe a week.

He hopes Blaine will come back because he trusts him enough to.
Leo is sure Blaine loves him because he made it clear and as much as it pains him to know that there are other men in his man's life, he knows for sure he is still the only kid in Blaine's.


House

The house is a conquest.

It took about a year and a half of hotel rooms to finally be able to hang out with Blaine in a proper house. Leo's was out of the question, of course, because his parents would never allow them to be alone and cuddling under their roof, and even a quiet Sunday lunch of being separated by a whole table and two glaring fathers was impossible, because Dave would growl the whole time accusing Blaine of every possible crime ever conceived by human being and Kurt would stubbornly refuse to acknowledge they are together, speaking to both of them like they weren't more than just acquaintances.

Leo had to ask for months his parents to spend the week end at Blaine's before they finally gave up and agreed, understanding there was no difference between him spending two days in a hotel room or in an uptown loft in Westerville, Ohio because he and Blaine were going to have sex anyway.

They agreed on him staying from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, given that he found the time to do his homework too. Very good grades have always been mandatory for them since the beginning of the relationship, so Leo didn't even get worried. He's kind of used to take A's and B's even if he lets Blaine do the dirtiest things to him. Accepting his fathers' request was no big deal.

Blaine's house is hilarious, though.

Leo can't help but chuckle when Blaine leaves the door open for him and welcomes him inside. The house consists in one very big room, divided in three smaller spaces by a very weird and curvy bookcase, the hugest couch Leo has ever seen and a really fancy-looking wardrobe probably hiding the bedroom. The only proper room with a door is the bathroom. Overall, the house is so perfectly clean and tidy that looks like it's not even been used.

“Do you really live in here or it's just a place where you bring men to have sex with?” He mocks him as he enters and instantly leaves his precious backpack on the floor. It's such a natural action for him that Blaine doesn't even notice it anymore.

“Yes, little Lord, I live here,” Blaine mocks him. “What bothers you of my humble abode?”

Leo looks at him and then at the room again. “Minimalist furniture, all black and white, fake plants and … what's that? I don't even know what that is!” He says, pointing at some huge stone sculpture near the TV. “This house either screams gay or fake apartment for a design magazine. You don't have a single ornament on any surface!”

Blaine smirks. “That's because I like to use them all,” he says. “I'm a practical man. Why don't you go on and pick one?”

Leo shivers at the not so subtle implication of the question. He nods towards the kitchen counter and slowly takes off his jacket as Blaine gets closer. It's gonna be a long week end, Blaine's got a lot of fancy pieces of furniture.


Pleasure

Leo is pretty sure he shouldn't know what real pleasure is at his age. At seventeen you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend and you usually just fool around with them. You might even have sex, but surely you don't know very much except some basics. You haven't had the time to practice enough.

Instead, he has already had way more sex than any other kid his age and Blaine did some stuff to him that he can't even say aloud without turning a very shameful shade of purple.

Blaine never fools around with him as a teen would intend it. He never just makes out and even when he does, he makes Leo feel dizzier than he should feel after being half an hour on a couch, kissing someone. It's like Blaine presses buttons Leo didn't even know were there.

Blaine always starts teasing him way before they even touch. It's the way he speaks to him or looks at him like he is ready to eat him alive and Leo knows there's nothing he can do about it. Leo likes to be preyed on, and Blaine hunts him all the time. He dares him to do naughty stuff, knowing that Leo will be both ashamed and dying to try it.

And he teases him all the time, turning him on without Leo realizing it. So, when they come to the real thing, Leo simply slips in a blissful state, feeling nothing else and knowing nothing else but the man touching him and moving inside of him. Lately, he's not even aware of the little pain anymore, Blaine's hands are skillful enough to distract him.

With one last, strong thrust, Blaine buries himself inside Leo's body, drawing a satisfying moan from his lips. The kid throws his head back, his eyes closed as he lets the man move as much as he wants, chasing his orgasm between his own legs.

For a while, Leo just lies there in Blaine's arms, enjoying the cuddles he always needs and always gets after sex. He almost purrs as Blaine strokes his hair and kisses his temple. “You are beautiful,” Blaine says.

Leo blushes. “Do you say that to all the men you bring in your bed?”

“I don't see any man here,” Blaine smirks.

Leo glares at him. “Watch your mouth, Anderson. I'm still underage and I'm vindictive. I could call the police and report you for repeated child abuse today.”

Blaine is not worried in the slightest. “Oh, you wouldn't do that,” he smiles.

“Give me one reason why not.”

“I give you three,” Blaine keeps smiling. “One, you know that's not true and you usually don't lie like that. Two, you love me and you know very well I love you too. And three, you would have to tell the police what exactly happened between us in details and you couldn't do that for your life because you're too shy. So, as you see, I'm safe.”

Leo grumbles something that might be an offense or not, but then he hides his face in his neck and eventually leaves a tender kiss there. He can afford to be wrong for once, especially when it feels so good.


Kindness

When Cody tells him what William did to him over the years, Leo can't believe it.

He listens carefully as the other guy explains how his ex boyfriend would control his life and never lose the chance to despise him one way or the other. How Cody had to behave. How sex was both a prize and a punishment for when he did or did not do what he was asked.

He wonders how it must feel to have a person you love so much being so mean to you.
He realizes that this is what everyone was afraid of when he started seeing Blaine, that the man wasn't going to treat him right just because he was thirty-five and Leo was only fifteen. But the truth is Blaine's ways have never truly lacked in kindness, even when he mocks him or when he loses control.

Sometimes Blaine is stern with him – even too much to be his boyfriend – and he probably gave Leo habits and routines which are not totally healthy. But he never hurts him, he never purposely acts to make him feel bad. He always asks before doing, always cuddles him after being rough.

What do you do when you need to run from the arms of your boyfriend instead of hide in them?

Leo never knew the pain of being humiliated as Cody did and the dark, scared shadow that still lingers in Cody's eyes as he tells his story now makes Leo shiver in horror too. He hugs Cody and leaves a kiss on his head as they both swing a little back and forth.

He feels the need to hug Blaine too, to be reassured or at least to hear his voice.
He would call him, if Blaine answered but he never did in the past two months, so Leo just stopped calling because...

...because it hurts, yes.

Leo hides his face in Cody's hair and closes his eyes. He will not wonder anymore.
Blaine is not like that, he is not mean.
Blaine's gonna call, eventually. He just has to wait.


Together

“Open your eyes, Leo! He doesn't want to be with you.”

Adam's words sink deep into Leo's heart and find a wound that was already there. It's an open cut that he has tried to cover for years and that doesn't want to heal, no matter how much Leo tells himself that it's not as it looks like. So he just pretends it doesn't exist. But Adam has just said aloud the thought Leo has always refused to acknowledge, and the wound starts bleeding again.

He crosses his arm on his chest, almost protecting it.

“You're being mean for no reason. He wants to be with me. We're gonna be together one day. He only has problems right now,” Leo repeats what Blaine tells him, and tries to believe it this time as Adam looks at him with pity and rage at the same time.

“Yes. He wants to live his life without having to make you part of it. That's his problem!” Adam insists. “It worked fine for him as long as he could come and go when he pleased. Now you ask for more and he just disappears.”

“No, he doesn't!”

“So when was the last time he came visit?” Adam asks. There's the ghost of a mean smile on his lips because he is angry and he knows he's right. “Or better, when was the last time he called you? Wasn't it for New Year's eve.... six months ago?”

Leo has nothing to say to deny that. New Year's eve was indeed the last time he called Blaine and it didn't go straight to his voice mail. They've never talked or been together since then. And he doesn't know why.
Since his son Timmy is born, Blaine doesn't seem to remember he has Leo here in Lima.

Adam finally comes to his senses and seems to notice that he's been too harsh on him. Even if he is right, he doesn't like the sad look in Leo's eyes when he manages to corner him on the subject. “Leo, listen...” he tries to stroke his shoulder, but Leo steps back. So Adam gives up. “I'm just saying you should stick with Cody because you love each other and he is here with you all the time. You don't have to be hurt because of Blaine.”

“I don't love Cody! And I'm not hurt!”

These are two lies in a row. In his mind he goes on and makes it three, but he lacks the courage to say it aloud.


Light

Blaine slams him against the wall and he's all over him the second after. Leo hooks his leg to Blaine's hip and presses his whole body against the man's, letting him know that he doesn't want to wast one minute more. Blaine growls and fumbles with the belt of Leo's pants, almost tearing them down. Then, he takes him away from the wall just to flip him over and slam him against it one more time.

Leo moans as soon as Blaine's fingers slide along his back to dive between his buttocks and start stroking him, circling his opening to prepare him. He pushes his ass up and Blaine chuckles against his skin. “Someone is especially needy today,” he says, biting at his neck.

“Shut up.” Leo's mumbling quickly turns into another moan when one of Blaine's finger slips inside his body.

“Do you know we are in broad daylight?” Blaine mocks him as he moves his finger around, pretending not to know where Leo's special spot is.

Blaine's warm breath on his neck makes Leo shiver. He opens his eyes enough to see the bright light of the sun illuminate the living room. If he turns his head around, he knows he can see Blaine's beautiful face clearly. He blushes a little, but he doesn't ask to move somewhere else.

That was something he would do when he was a kid. Every time Blaine would ask him to have sex with the lights on or in a place where they could clearly see each other, he would get upset and sometimes even mad. He felt like he was even more naked, and that was too embarrassing for him.

The very first time Blaine asked him to keep the lights on, Leo was only fifteen, and everything else between them – their strange relationship, the sex, the fact that they were having it in hotel rooms – was already confusing and embarrassing enough. So, when he said no, Blaine didn't insist. Not that much, at least.

But he never gave up.

Now that he is twenty, Leo still doesn't like to be so exposed but at least he trusts Blaine enough to let him have it his way from time to time. Besides, he was a kid when they started, it's only fair they waited for him to be of age to do things in broad daylight.



Life

Everything happens very fast.

It's not one of those teary and horribly long break up as Leo imagined. He cries, of course, but after that he just goes out of the hotel room and it's over. Just like that. Blaine tries to stop him once, but not strongly enough, and in Blaine's lack of care in keeping him near, Leo reads all he needs to know there isn't anything to hope for anymore. And maybe there never was.

A little part of him hopes Blaine will call him, though.

He goes back home, shows up in tears and scares Adam to death, and his best friend picks up the pieces of what is left of him after the man Leo has loved since he was a kid has basically told him that he doesn't want to have a life with him. Also, Adam takes a step further and tries to fill that void for two weeks before he and Leo realize they aren't meant to be either.

Some time passes, and he pretends to forget because there is nothing else to do when everyone is telling him to get over it and go on with his life. The thought of Blaine is buried deep inside himself, locked away, somehow protected from all the people telling him he should forget.

Leo's college life gets back to normal. And Meredith happens.

When he first meets her, Leo doesn't like her that much because she's not cuddling and she doesn't go easy on him. She laughs about his mood, she calls him boring and one teasing after the other, she slowly takes him out of his funk. Eventually, Leo sees how beautiful and smart Meredith is and falls badly for her, going back to smile.

For two whole years, everything seems forgotten and well again.

That's why Leo is not expecting the warm shivers that run through his spine when he sees Blaine's face on stage. His body reacts as it has done for years to the sound of his voice, and the last two years just disappear. Unconsciously, he leans forward and lets go of his soon-to-be wife sitting next to him.

She's unaware of it yet, but it's already over.


Truth

Leo has been sick for ages, now.

In his attempt to destroy every memory of Blaine he has ever had, he destroyed himself as well. He is unhealthy skinny, raging all the time, lost in a life he doesn't really want anymore but unable to go back to what he was before, because what he was is Blaine's and Blaine doesn't want him. He is desperately asking to be saved by the same man he is so strongly trying to hurt and keep away.

Blaine can't stand to see him like that, knowing that it's his fault if Leo has let himself go, if he is hurting himself so badly. He is trying to fix him, but it looks like that the more he tries to keep him together, the more Leo falls apart.

It's a long journey the one bringing Leo back to normality, or at least what's closer to it.

Leo slowly recovers. He slowly starts to smile again. It still hurts Blaine that Leo doesn't trust him, but he tries to live with that, he tries to bear the fearful glare Leo casts toward him. And as soon as Leo opens up a little, that's when Blaine ruins everything again.

That's when he tells the truth and says he really didn't want to be with him back then, that he was so scared that he preferred to keep him away. And Leo breaks, again.

Truth always hurts but luckily it heals too.

So when he finally comes back home with nothing to break anymore, they both can only glue all the pieces back together and start again.


Peace

As he looks at all they've got now, Leo can't believe how far they've come after all they've been through. Just five years ago he was about to lose himself forever and Blaine was so distant that knowing him felt like another life. They walked in darkness, looking for each other for ages before finally finding one another again.

Now they are married with a kid and two more on the way.

Leo is scared to death by everything, but he doesn't want to run away, this time. This fear comes from love, not from sadness and pain, so he can hang on to it, knowing it will be fine in the end. They still argue, he still gets mad. But Blaine won't leave to never come back.

His therapist says peace will come, but it will take time.
Leo is so happy right now, that he doesn't mind the wait. For once.

WHIMSICAL SIDE EFFECTS OF DATING A SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD BOY
Leo has no idea how Blaine made it, but he is so happy to have him here that he won't even ask.
Or maybe he will but only when they will be so tired and satisfied that they can do nothing but talk.
Right now, he just wants to be kissed and kiss back, and possibly lose himself in the amazing sex they are about to make.

As a matter of fact, Blaine doesn't know how he managed to be in Lima right now either.
Six hours ago he was in Los Angeles and he had just finished playing Hamlet for a very sleepy audience.
He was cleaning his face from make up when Leo's text message arrived and it was one of panic and distress, the kind he always sends when something incredibly silly happens and he is too sad or too distraught to look at it with the right detachment. At first, Blaine has thought to give him a general, soothing answer but then he has read it again, counted how many weeks had passed since the last time they had seen each other and then he has decided to make something crazy.

Blaine knows Leo can be very clingy sometimes, and he also knows he shouldn't spoil him like that, but there are times when he can't help it and as much as he wishes to be strong and not give up to every request, he ends up getting into his car at any given hours to go and see him. In fact, he has driven from Westerville to Lima far more times than a man in possession of all his faculties should have done.

This time, though, he has surpassed himself because after a long day of rehearsal and a two hours long play, he has hopped on a plane and has taken a four hours long flight from Los Angeles to Cleveland and then he has driven another half a hour to Lima only to hang out with Leo for three hours top and than take a flight back, having to give a couple of interviews in Los Angeles tomorrow morning.

The thought of sleeping on a plane and being generally devastated for the rest of the week only because a seventeen years old on the other side of the country needed him should make him mad, but ultimately it's too easy and too sweet losing himself on the lips of said kid to even bother giving a shit about how his body will protest in a couple of hours.

Well, if his next audience will be sleepy as the last one, they will have what they deserve.
A sleepy Hamlet.

MY QUEST FOR FREEDOM ON THE SCHOOL GROUND
Mister Shuester is handing down papers after he has bored them all for two hours with music coming straight from his thirties' iPod, except that he probably never had one. He likes black and white old movies, drives antique cars and he's still sure they want to sing Lady Gaga at Nationals, which they definitely don't. But he doesn't want to listen to them about the set list anyway, so they probably will have to. A lot of her songs are in their repertoire and they are good for last minute changes – which happen a lot more than it would be healthy – but they would like to do something else every now and then, just not to look like they've been paid by madame Germanotta herself. The fact is, Shuester has no idea whatsoever of what's cool right now and his mind is stuck in a time when their parents where young, which is even harder for Leo since his father was actually one of his students.

“William McKinley High School,” Leo reads as soon as the paper reaches him. “Wow, that's headed.”

“Yes, the principal is going the whole hog this time, because we are going...” Shuester runs to his whiteboard of doom and writes on it as if just telling them the words weren't enough. “To Nationals!”

Actually, Nationals is in three days and they all know quiet well they're going to go to New York for that, so there is no real need for him to say it again. Mister Shuester tends to be uselessly overexcited sometimes. Luckily, they know how to bear with him.

“And what do we have to do with this?” Leo asks, running quickly through the paper. It's a form with name and address and all kind of stuff to fill, so he supposes that it must be brought back.

Mister Shuester turns towards him, still overexcited. “You bring it home and make one of your parents sign it. I need it back for tomorrow's last rehearsal. It's the permission request to take you all to New York.”

Leo frowns. Since Blaine is gonna be one of the judges at Nationals, he has invited him over in New York two days before the competition. Leo is taking the first flight after school, Blaine is picking him up at the airport and they are going to spend most of the time locked up in his apartment until Leo will have to meet his team members on Monday. Leo is really looking forward to that, so he won't give up because of a stupid permission. “I won't be there tomorrow, because I'm leaving for New York in four hours, you knew that,” he says. “Can I bring it to you there?”

“No,” mister Shuester shakes his head. “I need it before we actually leave.”

“But I'm not leaving with you!”

Harper instantly stands up and her perfectly red flats click together like Dorothy's in the Wizard of Oz. She has been beaming just one moment before because she had just received her solo and now she looks at Leo like she's ready to kill him. “Wait, you can't bail on us. You're the male lead!”

Leo rolls his eyes, she really can be overly dramatic sometimes. “I'm not bailing on you. I will be there for the competition, only I won't travel with you.”

“And what about the team spirit?”

Leo looks puzzled. “What?”

Harper sighs, in a very paternalistic way and takes a couple of steps forward. Her fair skin and perfectly combed hair make her look creepy, like one of those old porcelain dolls in an old crazy lady's house. “Experiencing everything together as a group is extremely important for a show choir, it helps coordination and gives the group a sense of unity. Do you think it's responsible of you to skip the last rehearsal and make the trip on your own?”

“I'm visiting relatives,” he lies.

“What am I gonna do tomorrow? Who's gonna practice with me for our duet, Leo?”

Leo hates her. Or at least, he hates her when she opens her mouth and speaks, which happens too often for him to say that he doesn't at least dislike her very much. According to his father Kurt, Harper Eichelbaum is a living clone of Rachel Berry, sharing with Leo's aunt a perpetual annoying behavior associated with an astonishing talent. Harper being a Jew too makes the similarity even bigger. Leo couldn't agree more and fears the moment the two women will be in the same room. For now, he has always managed to avoid Harper's entreaties to meet her idol, but he can't run forever. Someday Harper will get what she wants, because she always does.

“I'm sure one of the guys can help you with that,” Leo says, combing his curls with his fingers. “You will have to choose one of them anyway after you'll bore me to death.”

“Mister Shuester!” She squeaks, turning toward the teacher. “Did you hear that? How am I supposed to work like this? I need a strong male lead, someone I can count on. Leonard, you're really good but clearly you are not as committed as I am. No offense.”

Leo gestures at her, nonchalantly. “None taken,” he says. “Besides, almost the entirety of what you say is offensive for one reason or another, so I just ignore you anyway.”
He has never wanted to be male lead for the glee club. He likes to sing and he's pretty good at it, but it's not like he wants to be a singer when he grows up. Two great Broadway stars in the family are enough, let alone Blaine. “Now, mister Shue about my permission...”

“It's not my call Leonard. It's like this or not at all,” Shuester says. “Find another way to bring me back that permission in time. Doesn't your father work today? You can go to ask him now.”

Leo sighs and slowly gets up, taking his backpack with him. Harper follows him to the door of the choir room, begging him to come back before practice is over and he really considers the idea of spending the rest of the day on the field with his dad, just not to see her face again before Nationals.

*

Leo's dad has become coach of the McKinley Football team four or five years after he graduated, just around the time he and Kurt were adopting him. Actually that part of his parents' life has been extremely quick, as if they wanted to make up for the time they had lost, even if they were just kids back then. They has gotten together and married in a couple of years and they have decided to adopt him right after that, when Kurt was just having his moment on Broadway and was constantly going back and forth from Lima.

Having his dad working in his school is both a good thing and a damnation. It's useful when something like this happens and he really needs him, but his constant presence on school ground stops him from playing hooky because Dave would always know. Since he started high school, he has never missed a single day of school unless he was really sick. Also, his dad being able to show up anywhere and anytime has proved to be really embarrassing sometimes, let alone that Dave is a teacher, which means Leo has to bear all the bitter comments that athletes and other students say when they are upset with him. Obviously Leo doesn't get mad at those people because he says mean things about teachers too, but sometimes it just sucks.

It's almost four o'clock. At this time, the football team is practicing on the field. He knows that because his best friend Adam is the quarterback and they know each other week schedule. Adam's is really easy, though. He isn't in any club and he has football practice every day till five o'clock. That's why they always end up arranging to meet after that. Leo and Annie often go to the field to watch the team practice while they are waiting for Adam. Also, they are both into jocks, so they like the occasional eye-candy.

He takes a peek at the locker room, just standing on the doorstep. Some of the guys are inside, taking a shower or just coming out of it. One of them – Leo thinks his name is Patrick – is drying his blonde hair right in front of Leo's eyes, giving him something to look at. His intense staring section is abruptly cut off by his best friend, storming out from behind the lockers and wearing only a towel.

“What are you doing here?” He asks sternly as he stands in front of him to cover the view.

Leo happily moves his eyes on him. Adam's bare six pack is equally appealing to him. “I have to ask my father to sign some papers for Nationals,” he explains, showing him the two pages form he still has to fill in.

“Coach Karofsky is on the field,” Adam says.

“I see, and you can't call him Dave with me as you do at my house, can you?”
Adam would blush if blushing were his thing. Instead, he gets on the defensive. “Here it's different. He is my coach. That's what the team call him: coach Karofsky.”

Leo gives him the best pity look he can come up with. “I see,” he says slowly. “Anyway, it's shorter through the locker room.”

“And you expect me to believe that?” Adam asks, crossing his arms to his chest. He keeps giving Leo the eye.

“I actually wasn't expecting anything from you,” Leo smirks. “I didn't even know you were going to be here.”

“And where should I have been according to you?”

Leo shrugs, and walks around him, smiling when he finds out the cute enough Patrick has been replaced by the freaking hot whatever his name is. “I don't know, on the field with my dad. Practicing or whatever you do out there.”

“Hi Leo! What's up, man?” A guy calls, waving at him after fixing the towel around his hips. He is tall, with black hair and wide shoulders. His name is Paul and if he remembers something of the night he went out with Adam and his friends, Paul is a guard or something. And he's also really hot.

“Hi, man! I saw the match last week. Good job!” Leo smiles.

“Thanks. See you around.”

Adam literally makes him turn around, grabbing him by his shoulder. “What are you doing?”

Leo shakes his head. “Nothing. I was just talking.”

“I know you. That wasn't talking,” Adam says and then he lowers his voice. “That was trying to get in my friend's pants. You were flirting.”

“Don't say that like I was trying to smuggle human organs.”

“So you really were flirting!” Adam says outraged.

Leo rolls eyes. “No, I wasn't. I was just talking with a cute guy who happened to be half naked and thank God for that.”

Adam points at him, his mouth wide open. “I know that look, you were thinking about it. Oh my God, you were! Don't you think about anything else in the world?”

“Come on, Adam! I wasn't doing anything wrong. He was there, he is cute, I just looked at him. He didn't mind, so why do you?”

Adam dries his hair nervously with a tower. “Because this is the boys locker room.”

“Yes, so what?”

“So, it is not fair of you to sneak in here because you like boys!”

Leo looks at him with a raised eyebrow. If it were anyone else, he would get mad. But Adam's mindset is weird and he has learned to live with it through the years. “Adam, I like girls too. Does it mean I'm not allowed in any locker room?”

“I don't know how it works for you bi-people, but...” he stammers. “You know, you are my best friend and I know you and stuff. So I don't have a problem with that. But dudes are, like, you know, they like they're privacy.”

Leo sighs. “Latest news, Adam. I am a dude too. That's why I can enter in here while I get suspended if I enter the girls locker room, because we're all the same under the towel, no matter what.”

“I don't know about that,” someone says, chuckling. “Adam might have some problems down there.”

“Fuck you,” Adam says, but he chuckles. He throws the towel he used for his hair to his teammate and starts dressing, removing the towel around his hips only at the end. “Shut up!”

“I bet he knows Adam's junk by heart,” someone else says, his voice sounds mocking. When Leo turns around, he sees it's Zack. They had sex once, two years ago and it caused a lot of drama because Zack didn't use a condom and for the longest two weeks of his life, Leo has been scared to death. Apparently, the closeted jock is still closeted.

Adam steps forward, just in case. But Leo is fine. “Do you?” He asks, smirking. “'Cause it seems to me that staying here every day you see him naked more than I do. Maybe you like him.”

Zack rages and stands up quickly. Leo tenses because he knows that if Zack actually decides to hit him, he can't do much to avoid that since fighting is not his thing. Luckily for him, Adam makes him move. “Okay, that's enough,” he says, pushing him through the locker room to the field's entrance. “Zack, you can sit back down. Nobody likes homophobes, so you better stop acting like one. While you find your brain back, I take away this pain in the ass here.”

“I'm not a pain in the ass,” Leo protests.

“Consider yourself lucky, I was being polite,” Adam snorts. Then he drags him to the field. “I should have let him beat you to death.”

“He started it!”

“And you fueled it,” Adam scolds him. “You are an impossible prick, and one of this day someone will kick the living shit out of you because I won't be there to save your ass.”

Leo chuckles. “As if every time you turn your back, something bad happens.”

“It actually does!” Adam says, glaring at him. “Last time I wasn't watching, you got with that old man.”

Leo smirks. “You wanted to watch?”

Adam growls and pushes him on the field. “Go to your father, I'll wait here,” he says. “Then we're going back without passing through the locker room.”
Leo just chuckles, but he does as he says.

*

When Leo reaches his father, he is yelling at some poor jock covered in sweat who grimaces every time his father yells a word. By the look of it, it seems like the jock has killed somebody or something. Leo stands a few feet from them and waits for the storm to pass. His father never yells at them like this at home, but that's probably because they don't need to score a try. Also, Kurt screams hysterically enough for the four of them, so his father would rather stay quiet.

“Twenty laps. Now!” Dave screams, pointing in the vague direction of the field. The jock nods once and then starts to run right away. “And if I see you slacking, you do forty! Then sixty in multiply of two, so you will learn math, finally!”

Leo coughs. “What did he do? Got the head cheerleader pregnant?”

“God, I hope not. Last thing we need is...” Dave realizes he is talking to someone whom he didn't know was there and turns around. “Leo? What are you doing on the field? Who let you in?”

“Actually, dad, the field is open to everyone and I could have let myself in anytime, but for your information I've been escorted here by the quarterback himself. He's nice. We should definitely invite him over for dinner one of these days.”

“Walker spends more time with us that with his own family,” he snorts.

“Walker? Oh, I get it. We are on the field, so you both pretend you don't know each other so well, as if Adam never slept over when he was five and you got him to the bathroom 'cause he had problems with his jeans zipper.”

“I don't want the other guys to think I play favorites to him.”

“But you do. You love Adam,” Leo chuckles. “He's the son you've never had!”

Dave frowns because in seventeen years he has never learned this is a joke from Leo. “Now, what does this even mean? You know I love you and I don't care if you don't like playing football. But since he does, what's wrong in playing with him now and then when he comes visiting?”

Leo smiles. “I was messing with you, dad. Again.”

Dave blushes maybe a little and then coughs to cover it up. “Go on and make fun of your old man, kiddo. I should have spanked you when it still meant something, but your father was strongly against what he calls barbaric methods of education.”

“Now, we don't want to talk about spanking, do we?” Leo says, raising an eyebrow. “I don't know if I'm ready to tackle this argument with you.”

It takes Dave an entire minute to get the pun and then he just looks at his son with wide open eyes. “Let's pretend you never said that, okay? Let's start this over. I'm your father, you're not in class. Is someone dead?”

Leo chuckles. “Nope. I just need you to sign something.”

Dave takes the papers his son gives him, frowning. “What did you do this time?”

“Nothing! It's not a reprimand note,” he says, outraged. “It's a permission request. Mister Shuester needs that signed to get us all to Nationals. But I have to give it back to him today, because I leave in four hours.”

Dave reads it quickly. “That would be a good reason not to. I mean, you could leave with the other kids of the Glee club. It would be fun.”

“I don't doubt that. But I haven't seen Blaine in three weeks, and two days alone in New York with him are definitely more fun than a week with my glee club.”

“I bet they are,” Dave hisses.

“Dad, you can't take your promise back,” Leo says. “You told me I had to take at least two As, one of them in math, and four Bs to go. And as a matter of fact, I took three As and five Bs, so...”

“So I could still tell you I don't like that man and you shouldn't be allowed to see him in New York alone just because you can.”

Leo doesn't say anything. He just sighs. They've had this conversation countless times and he knows that if he doesn't reply at all, his father can't get really mad and ground him. So he shuts up and waits for him to finish to disparage Blaine for whatever reason he can find. His age is always a constant, but Dave always adds some other thing, like his job, his lifestyle, the way he parks his car or something. Apparently, this time is that Blaine invited Leo over for the weekend.

“He is one of the judges,” Dave is saying. “He shouldn't have contact with any of the contestants.”

“But I am his boyfriend.”

“It's even worse,” Dave frowns. “He shouldn't have accepted to be the judge in the first place.”

Leo can't help but smirk. “So he could be with me without being an inappropriate judge? I can agree with that.”

Dave glares at him. “You know what I meant.”

“Maybe,” Leo smirks again. “Can I have my signed papers, now?”

Dave can't do anything but sign. “Fine. Do you need me to take you to the airport?”

Leo shakes his head. “Adam drives me there after school.”

Dave nods. “Then take this damn permission and get out of here,” Dave growls, but he grabs him by his wrist before he can move. “But call me as soon as you land. Does he pick you up?”

“Yes. And yes.”

“Fine. Then call me when you land, when you get to his home and every day too.”

Leo chuckles. “I'll do what I can to let you know I'm alive every two seconds,” he says. Then he hugs his father and kisses him on the cheek. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye. Be a good kid. Now, get lost.”

Leo chuckles and watches his father walk to the center of the field and start yelling to the kid who has just finished running his laps. Then he turns around and leaves.

*

When Leo lands at Laguardia Airport, Blaine is already there, shining in his brand new black Armani suit. People are staring at him as he waits for Leo outside Arrivals because he probably looks familiar to a lot of them and, if not, he still looks like some famous artist's bodyguard with those sunglasses on.

Leo chuckles spotting him instantly in the crowd. He can't kiss him in front of people, so he drags his trolley with him and stop right in front of him, looking up. “Do you know you look like an hitter? I would say you probably hide a gun somewhere, but then you would say that you will show your gun to me later, so I will cut the raunchy puns here and I let you drive me to the nearest McDonald because I'm starving.”

“God, how much I'd like to kiss you so you would shut up. You just arrived and you didn't even catch your breath.”

Leo smirks. “But you can't.”

Blaine sighs but smiles. After all he brought Leo's madness on himself. “So, how come you didn't eat on the plane? You traveled in first class, all-inclusive.”

“Yes, but the all-inclusive didn't include a burger, so I passed,” Leo shrugs.

Blaine chuckles. “You are so spoiled, kid. I swear,” he says. “Anyway, it's better if nobody sees me with you, so what if we go back to my place and order from there? If they haven't already taken all possible photos of the two of us together.”

“Fine by me.”

Blaine escorts him to the car and puts his suitcase in the trunk while Leo gets in the car. “So, was it hard to get here two days before the competition?” He asks, getting in the car too and turning the engine on.

“Don't make me even start,” Leo sighs, rolling his eyes and placing his feet on the dashboard, even though he knows very well he shouldn't. “First I had to defeat the Evil Witch of the North, who wanted to chain me to herself and kept me like a little bird to sing with her forever, then I reached the forest of the young, stud centaurs. I had to pass through it but it was hard because the centaurs were distracting me with their beauty and I just wanted to lie there forever and let them take care of me. But a prince in shining armor came to save me and brought me safely out the forest. But it wasn't over! There the terrible ogre was waiting for me, but I managed to get his precious mark on my travel warrant scroll and here I am!”

Blaine chuckles. “Let me guess: Harper, the football team locker room, Adam of course and your father?”

“Bingo,” Leo says.

“God, you're good at this,” Blaine says, honestly impressed. “You should consider a career as a novelist, you know? You could write children books or something.”

Leo leans back against the headrest and looks at him, sighing languidly. He waits for Blaine to stop at a red light and then grabs him by his shirt and pulls him closer to kiss him. “We'll see,” he says eventually. “For now, my job is to bring my club to win Nationals.”

“And you are sure about that.”

Leo smirks. “Of course I am,” he says. “I know one of the judges.”

Blaine chuckles. “Dream on, kid,” he says and keeps going as the streetlight turns green.
There is no way he will let Leo's team win if they are not good, but Leo will be the death of him anyway.
By sex or everything else he doesn't really know yet.

HOLD ON TO LOVE
It has taken Leo a whole year to get used to married life, and almost another one to accept the fact that he and Blaine were now parents of three children and therefore their life was going to change completely, whether they wanted it or not. It has been tough because he was so jealous of their privacy – and with one year old twins you don't get to have any of it – and he was not ready to give it up.

Eventually, he has come around and started coping with all the responsibilities of a family, including the ones he hates the most, like taking care of hysterically crying toddlers and a teen who more often than not has some problem to discuss, despite being generally more pleasant than his younger siblings.

But there is a time when all Leo's newborn sense of responsibility vanishes and he just wants to pack and leave for Alaska, leaving all those dependent younger people behind and going back to be one himself. And this time is when Blaine is working out of town and he can't be there to avoid Leo's mental break down and the consequential triple murder.

Like today, for example.

This morning Logan has woken him up at five o'clock and refused to go back to sleep. Leo has brought him in his bed, hoping to lull him back to sleep but he was wrong. Being in his dads' bed has only boosted his excitement and he has remained awaken with the result that now he's dozing off on his high chair instead of having breakfast as he should.

“C'mon Logan, don't sleep on me now,” Leo says, stroking his face and giving him a kiss on his little rounded nose. “I know I've told you to for two hours and that's confusing, but dad really needs you to be awake because we have to go to the day-care. Don't you want to go to meet all your friends?”
Logan doesn't answer. His head dangles to the side as he holds his bottle in one hand.

“Dad, have you seen my black hat? The one Tana gave to me?” Timmy asks, entering the kitchen and stealing a cookie from the cookie jar on the table. He also has mercy on his little brother and straight his bottle for him, so he at least can drink something when he wakes up every now and then, and remembers he has to suck on it.

“No, I haven't,” Leo answers, as he gives another bottle of milk to Harper, who keeps taking off her bibs because of reasons he can't understand right now. “Harp, really, we don't have time for this. You've got your pretty dress on and we don't want to stain it, do we?”

Harper shakes her head, still holding the bib in her hand like a crumpled paper.

“So, what are we gonna wear?” Leo asks. There are no words to describe how much he hates to have to turn every sentence into a question to make them listen and understand, but it works. He can't deny that. So he needs to keep going. Harper shows him the bib. “Right, baby girl. We need to wear the bib.”

Leo puts the bib on Harper while she starts drinking from her bottle, looking at her older brother wondering about the kitchen. “Last time I saw it, it was on the couch,” Timmy says, looking under every pillow of every chair, “but it's not there anymore.”

“Why are you looking for it in the kitchen?” Leo sits next to Logan's high chair and tries to give him the bottle one more time as the kid rubs his eye furiously.

“'Cause I looked everywhere else, already,” Timmy answers, sighing. “Are you sure you didn't see it? It's a little black soft hat with Nike logo on the front.”

Leo shakes his head and then whines because Harper is shaking her bottle, dripping milk everywhere. “Harper, don't. You drink your milk or you don't. You don't get to do anything else with it,” he says sternly, glaring at her. The very first time he has done that, the twins has started crying and he has panicked. But Blaine has insisted that he has to be tough when it's needed. “Don't you want it anymore?”

Harper says yes and resumes drinking. “Then why were you shaking it like that?” Leo sighs. Sometimes the twins' actions make no sense to him.

“Maybe you washed it?” Timmy tries again.
“I didn't do any laundry, Timmy,” Leo says. “Maybe your father did before he left for New York. I don't know, right now.”

“I had it on Tuesday. I wore it to go to school,” Timmy says. “Did he do laundry after that?”

“I don't know,” Leo says again and then turns to Logan who's having a tantrum because he is hungry but he is also sleepy and he doesn't know what to do to make both needs go away. “Come on, buddy. Have some more milk. You can sleep in the car.”

“Can you try to remember? It's important,” Timmy says, right when his little sister decides to start crying too because nobody is listening to her.

“Timmy, I said I don't know! Ok?” Leo snaps. “Jeez, can't you see the mess I'm in? I don't have the time to look for it with you. Just wear another one!”

Timothy glares at him. “Fine. I'll go without,” he says, eventually. Then puts his backpack on, heading for the door. “You know, you don't need to freak out just because daddy is not around!”

Leo hears the door slam as he takes Logan from his high chair and cuddles him to make him stop crying. “Good morning, Leo,” he says sarcastically as he gives her pacifier to Harper. “It's gonna be a great day.”

*

By the time Leo is ready to take the twins and go out, they are already half an hour late. Thankfully, Timmy could get the bus and the day care has not a strict schedule, so he can take the kids there with some lateness. Otherwise, he would be screwed because when Blaine is not there to take care of one of the twins, he is always late.

The weather outside is pretty good. It has snowed in the past three days and the garden is all white and looks fluffy, but it's not cold and there's no wind, so he thinks it's safe to walk to the day care, pushing the double stroller. Also, after all the work he had to do to dress them, he doesn't want to have to undress them to put them in the car and then start all over again once he gets to the day care which is just two blocks away.

Harper is wearing her pink Versace coat her grandfather Kurt has bought to her. It's a miniaturized version of the same model for woman, long to her ankles and with round cream buttons. She looks so cute in it. Her wild curly hair that she took after one of her biological fathers can't be tamed with a hat – hats always fall off her head – so she wears pink earmuffs. They feel strange so she keeps moving her head right and left because she doesn't really understand why she can't hear properly. Her brother wears a similar coat, but black and with a hoodie. And since he is always cold and hates wind and breeze as if they did something to him, Leo has dressed him with a wool hat tied up under his chin, his tiny little ears well tucked in. Logan's head looks twice bigger but at least he doesn't complain.

In the suburbs, there's never snow on the streets. It decorates garden and swings and it makes all kind of embroideries on the roof of the pretty houses, but snowploughs always drive by to clean the streets before people can even realize it snowed. And that's wonderful because you can enjoy snow without its downsides. Leo would like to say he is not one of those spoiled rich people you always see in the movies, but as it turns out he actually is. He likes comforts more than money, and it was Blaine more than his parents the one who has spoiled him through the years by giving him only the best things and making his life pretty comfortable, especially in the little details. He has never been in a less than four stars hotel, he has always traveled in first class – unless it was him paying – and he has always been able to afford all the little luxuries he wanted, which doesn't mean they have a golden pool inside the house or a theater room, but Blaine let him have whatever new device he sets his eyes on. In fact, he keeps spoiling him like he doesn't spoil even his children.

This thought always manages to make Leo happy, especially when he's pushing down the road a double stroller that weighs a ton and basically forces him to work out, having to smile to every single woman in her forty who lives in the neighborhood and casually pops up in her garden when he passes by her house. Leo swears they can smells his babies or hear from a very long distance the soft creaking the stroll makes every now and then, because he can't reach the end of the street without greeting at least ten of them.
They don't want to see him, obviously. They are hunting for Blaine. He is the only available man of their age in the street and the fact that he is openly gay, married and with three children doesn't affect this women at all. They still consider him available because, all being desperate housewives, they think they can change him back to normal. When they first moved in, some of them even showed up at the door wearing only their underwear under their coats. They would open the coat as soon as Blaine opened the door, hoping he would jump on them or something. Blaine is always very charming with them and they always wet their panties when he is around and smiles at them, which is why they are so very disappointed this morning.
Apparently, Leo's smile has not the same effect on them. And even the twins – to whom every woman in the neighborhood feels compelled to coo ridiculously when Blaine's pushing the stroller – stop being interesting the moment he is not there.

He pushes the stroll as fast as he can to avoid speaking to anyone and when he reaches the end of the street, he sighs in relief. The babies are giggling because apparently he was going fast enough to make them happy. Logan ha had some problems with wind but since his sister smiles, he smiles too.

The day care is inside a colorful building with the name written in big red letters on the facade. Blaine has chosen it because it is funny to look at and he always says that if his kids have to stay away from him for six hours a day, they should be in a cute place. He personally spoke to all the teachers and made a tour of the whole school before deciding it was good enough, and at that time Michelle was still pregnant and they didn't know they were two babies yet.

Blaine is always very thoughtful and precise when it's about his kids. Even though he is picky and demanding and he's there for every teachers-parents meeting wanting to know everything about programs and educational methods employed for every class, he is also the most charming creature who ever walked the face of Earth, so obviously all the female teachers love him anyway and they add to the the long list of women Leo started hating because they hit on his obviously gay husband. One of them pops out of a class as soon as Leo parks the stroller inside the building and starts to free a bouncing Logan from his seat.

“Look who's here!” The woman greets them with an high-pitched voice that makes both twins turn at the same time. “We were waiting for you two.”

Leo gives the woman a polite little smile. “We're a little late,” he says apologetically. “We didn't sleep too much last night, so this morning we're a little grumpy. Actually, I think Logan will want to sleep.”

She grabs the little boy's hand as he rubs at his eyes. “What happened? Did you have a bad dream?”
Logan shakes his head. But he shakes his head to everything, so it's not really an answer.

Leo undresses Harper too and sticks the babies' coats and hats in the now empty stroller. “I guess he misses his father,” he explains. “He doesn't really like not having him around too much.”

“Oh, and where is mister Anderson?” She asks, predictably. “Everything is fine, I hope.”

Leo almost wants to laugh at her sorry face. “He's in New York,” he explains. “Working.”

The teacher's face lights up. “Oh, a new play? I saw him a couple of years ago on Broadway, at the Winter Garden Theater. My brother bought me the tickets for my birthday! I can't wait to see him performing again. He was just brilliant!”

That's what she always says every time she sees him. “Right now he's being one of the judges at a show choir invitational. But he's been auditioning for the past two months, and he is going to star in a new project starting in March, so...”

“That's amazing. And is he going to be in New York, then?”

God, he hopes not. “We don't know yet,” he smiles, nodding as he wishes she would take his twins and leave him alone, already. He sighs and then bends down to hug his kids. “Don't you wanna kiss me before I go? I'll pick you up at five, after your nap. Okay?”

They both nod and kiss him. Leo waits for them to be inside their class because he knows Logan will turn around when they reach the door because he needs to know he is still there to feel that it's safe to enter. Leo waves at him and smiles.
At least now he can go back home and get to work.

*

At the end of the day, Leo always feels tired, no matter how much time he has spent sitting.

People who thinks you don't really work when you stay home without being an housewife, don't really know what they are talking about. With Blaine gone and the kids to take care of, Leo has dropped behind with the book he is writing. His editor Mark has left him messages after messages wherever it was possible and Leo has purposely avoided every and each one of them, until the amount of pages he had to write was way too huge for the amount of time he had got left.

Today he has managed to write and do everything he had to and he feels pretty happy with himself. He has worked seven hours straight, picked up the kids from the day care, gave them their snack and played with them. Now, when he hits the send button, sending Mark the new material, he knows the day has finally ended. From now to the moment he will go to sleep, he can do whatever he wants and not feel guilty about it.

He feels like he needs some kind of reward and since the twins are playing quietly in their playpen for once, he thinks he can let himself have one. He takes his phone and dials Blaine's number, tapping on the changing table in the twins' room while he waits for Blaine to pick up the phone.

“I was wondering why you hadn't called me yet,” Blaine chuckles. “I was going to worry in a minute or so.”

“Why in a minute?” Leo sits on the floor. The twins comes to the playpen's fence and grabs the bars like a couple of monkeys, so he starts to push their noses to entertain them.

“Because it's 7.59 in the evening. You have usually already called by eight o'clock because the kids needs to have their dinner but you don't want to feed them unless I boost you up a little bit. So, if you don't call by eight o'clock, I start worrying whether you're dead or you ran away with your eighteen years old lover, leaving them to starve.”

“I didn't know I had an eighteen years old lover. What does he looks like?”

“He is tall, blond with beautiful aquamarine eyes and a perfect body. There is an athletic scholarship waiting for him at the end of his senior year,” Blaine answers right away, as if he had been going over this story in his head for the past three hours, which is kind of what he did actually.

Leo chuckles. “You know Adam is not eighteen anymore, right?” He says. “That scholarship did really get him through college, but that's it. Now he is working and married with a beautiful woman called Annie.”

“The mere fact that you instantly thought about Adam after hearing just the words tall, blond and aquamarine eyes should make both of us thinking. I could have been talking about anyone in the world.”

“But you weren't,” Leo says, smiling. Harper gives him one of her little toy animal. He takes it, thanks her and playfully bites at her chubby hand. She starts bouncing enthusiastically and takes back her hand to hide it behind her back, giggling.

“Was that Harper?” Blaine asks.

“Yes, she does that every time I kiss her hand or bite at it,” Leo says. “She's such a princess.”

Blaine makes a little delightful sound. “I miss them so much! What are they doing right now?”

“Logan is playing with his building blocks and Harper's speaking with her plastic animals. She's having a speech or something, but she's very into it. Like, maybe it's election day in her mind's kingdom and she is about to be elected queen of animals land for want of herself.”

Blaine chuckles with affection. “Oh God, how much I miss you too.”
“Because apparently I've just found the plot of my new children book by looking at our daughter just being a one year old baby girl?” He asks.

“Yes, that and the fact that I can picture your face while you are looking at her and you are beautiful,” Blaine answers.

Leo smiles at himself, happy beyond measure. “Listen to yourself being all emotional after five years of marriage and more than twenty of being together. You should have got bored of me already.”

“I can't do that. The more I grow old, the more I cling to my things and you are one of them, so I'll go on being very emotional and sappy for a little longer, if you don't mind,” Blaine says, playfully serious.

“I don't. Please, go ahead.”

“I might have called just for that, actually.”

Leo looks over to the twins who got bored of listening to him speaking nonsense to the phone and are now playing together, stealing things from each other and being mad for that. “I don't think we have time to cuddle right now. The babies haven't eaten yet and soon they will be asking for food from me. As much as I'd like to be nasty with you over the phone, I have some pap to make.”

“I don't know how you and pap in the same sentence can be so sexy,” Blaine comments. “Maybe because I could lick it off from you? I don't know, anyway unfortunately I called for something else.”

“You did? What's up?”

“I don't know if you saw the news on TV but I guess you didn't. There's a freaking snowstorm here in New York. They're shutting down the airports one by one. JFK closed one hour ago and my flight got canceled. I'm calling you from the taxi, I'm heading to Long Island to see if I can catch I flight there but I don't really think I will be able to. Everybody is doing the same thing right now.”

“So you won't be home tonight?”

“I'm sorry kid. There's not much I can do,” Blaine says. “I'd take the train but railroads are in even worse conditions.”

Leo stays silent for the longest moment. He knows it's not Blaine's fault if it's snowing in New York and he can't really blame him for that, but he has been alone for a week now and he knew Blaine was coming home today, so now he's bummed out. “Kid?” Blaine calls.

“Yes, I am here.”

“Listen, it's probably just this one night,” Blaine says, trying to reassure him and most of all to distract him from the fact he won't be there. “There's nothing to worry about. The storm will be over soon. I expect to be able to take the first flight tomorrow morning. I could even be home by breakfast time.”

Leo sighs. “Alright. Where are you staying tonight?”

“I'll sleep at the airport, if it stays open or I'll take a room somewhere nearby,” he answers. “You're in charge of the house and the herd for one more night.”

“You know I'd rather not.”

Blaine chuckles. “I know, but you'll be fine and I'll see you tomorrow. I love you.”

Leo smiles and kisses him through the phone. “I love you too.”

As he closes the phone call, Timmy enters the room, munching to some chips. The kid is always eating something. “I just saw the news,” he says, while his little brother's eyes light up seeing crunchy food. “New York's under a storm or something. Wait. Did you speak with dad and he's not coming back tonight?”
Leo raises an eyebrow. “How did you know? I thought you were downstairs.”

“I was. But you've got your oh-no-Blaine-is-not-home-I'm-gonna-run-out-of-breath-if-I-don't-draw-air-from-his-lips-in-the-next-couple-of-minutes tragic face, so it's easy to make out what happened.”

Leo blushes and throws a pillow at him. “Shut up and show a little respect. We're your fathers!” He says, while the twins laugh excited because suddenly everybody is in their room.

“And you are sappier than two seventeen years old kids!” Timmy answers. He is pretending to be still mad because of this morning's almost argument but he's not. Unlike Leo, Timmy can't hold grudges, especially for stupid things. “So, when is he coming back?”

Leo shrugs. “He doesn't know. He hopes to take a flight tomorrow morning.”

“I see,” Timmy nods. He falls silent for a moment and then coughs. “I know I've already asked this to you a bunch of time but didn't you find by any chance–“ His hat hits him in the face.

“It was in your room, on your desk behind a pile of books,” Leo explains, standing up and cleaning his hands on his pants. “My sister would have killed you if it had gone lost, right?”

It's Timmy's turn to blush. “She can be pretty mean about things like that, yes.”

Leo picks Logan from the playpen. “C'mon, get your sister out of there. I'll make them dinner and we can order pizza for us.”

Timmy shamelessly cheers and picks up Harper who instantly hugs him and starts telling him her day in her strange incomprehensible language.

*

Blaine tries to drag his suitcase inside the house as quietly as he can. Lights are off and he's having problems locating pieces of furniture around the living room. He's pretty sure he knocked out a vase somewhere in the hall. What he's not sure about is why they had it in the first place.

The snowstorm has subsided around two o'clock in the morning and the cutest Irish flight attendant behind the desk of the domestic flights has managed to find a first-class seat for him on the New York – Cleveland flight leaving ten minutes later. Only when he has reached Cleveland at 3:30 he has realized Leo had driven him to the airport and therefore there was no car waiting for him in the Cleveland Airport's parking lot. Luckily, the car rental was still open and he has managed to get a BMW to get back to Lima. He has probably risked a car accident or two because he can't keep his eyes open, but at least he is at home now.

After a ten minute struggle with his suitcase stuck between the couch and the stupid coffee table, he decides to leave it there and go upstairs. Every damn step of the stairs has a squeaky toy left on it and every time he steps on one of them, it seems like he's playing the drums or something. Luckily, in this house everybody but him is a sound sleeper. He doesn't want to know how messy the house is right now, given that he left it in Leo's hands.

He opens the door of their room with a sigh of relief. The past three hours of the trip have compensated the absolute slacking of this whole week. Being a judge has been fun but not demanding at all. He has been there a week and only worked during evening shows, while he was free to do whatever he wanted during the day, which he has used to rehearse and buy presents for his family. Deciding the winners on the final night has been hard because there were a lot of good choirs, but in the end they have chosen one from Iowa that had really nailed it every single night. The other judges were nice too, except for an awfully prejudiced woman who basically was against everything and everyone from black singers to gay performers to skirts too short.

Blaine has ended up calling her a frigid uptight hag, and that was it. Luckily a decision had been already taken at that point.

He starts to undress and looks blindly for a chair to put his jacket on. He can barely see the bed and Leo's sleeping form in it. He sleeps on one side, his hand under his head as he faces the bathroom's door, snoring softly. He can't really make out Leo's outline, but he doesn't need to. He knows his body by heart and he can fill in what shadow hides with his memory. It's when he gets closer that he notices Leo is not alone in their bed.

Two little bundles, lovingly hugging each other, are sleeping right next to him. Logan holds his teddy bear and Harper is holding her father by his t-shirt. Leo has an arm on both of them and lies still as he only does when the twins are in there with him. Apparently, since he is supposed to be in New York right now, there is no place for him in this bed. So typical of Leo sleeping with boys and girls while he's not around! He chuckles and then bends to leave a kiss on his husband's forehead before heading to the guest room which luckily is big and accessorized well enough to be highly comfortable almost as much as his own.

*

What happens the morning after is that the door bursts open and Leo comes running in. He jumps on the bed, screaming in happiness. Blaine wakes up at the sound of him asking questions one after the other without even waiting for an answer. To give himself a little time to wake up properly, he hugs Leo and rolls, trapping him between his body and the mattress. Then he shuts him up with a kiss.

Leo instantly loses himself in it and relaxes in his arms, forgetting all the things he wanted to know one minute before.

They never talk much when Blaine comes back after being away for more than one day. Whatever thing they'd like to know from each other is put aside to kiss, touch and look one another in the eyes to make sure what they remembered was real and accurate. They fool around for a while, the need for real cuddles even stronger than the one for sex. Blaine's hand slips under Leo's t-shirt once or twice, teasing his navel and promising there will be more later but never really touching under the belt. Leo moans into his kisses, happy with just them right now because doing without them for a week has been particularly hard.

By the time they are ready to talk and Leo's brain is clear and content enough to repeat every single question he has just asked entering, the rest of their family comes by and the peace is over.
“Is it safe to come in?” Timmy asks, knocking. “I bear minors with me.”

Blaine chuckles. “We are snuggling but fully dressed. You can come in.”

Timmy opens the door and tentatively looks inside. His parents are hugging on the bed and Leo has his face buried in his dad's neck as per usual, but luckily they can be looked at. Logan comes running into the room, screaming and making a mess as he tries to climb the bed. Timmy helps him out and then leaves Harper on the bed too, sitting down himself.

The twins crawls over their parents and basically assault them both, trying to get their attention. Blaine takes one in his arms and lets the other walk all over him. He is never happy as he is when everybody he loves is in the same room. Harper starts calling him “Daddy, daddy, daddy” until he stops showering Logan with kisses and looks at her. “What is it, princess?” and then she hugs him and kisses him first, so he lets out a blissful noise. That's when he rolls over and hugs them both, making them laugh crazily.

“If you weren't so tall already, I would snuggle you like this too,” Blaine says, looking at his older son with affection. He really would, actually. He reaches out and pulls him to himself, leaving a kiss on his head. “Come here. How did things go while I was away?”

Timmy shrugs. “Fine. I mean, dad was lost without you but...”

“Shut up,” Leo smiles against his husband's neck and covers Timmy's mouth with one hand, playfully.

“Did he listen to all those old sad songs?”

“Of course he did,” Timmy nods.

“Shut up!” Leo yells again, hiding his face even more.

“And he watched The time traveler’s wife,” Timmy says as Leo whines in shame. “Twice.”

“Leo, that's really bad. But I know you can't live without me so that doesn't even come as a surprise,” he kisses his forehead chuckling. “So, now that I'm here, how can I make up for my absence?”

“I can't answer. Your kids are here,” Leo says.

“Too much information,” Timmy snorts. And Blaine chuckles.

“Okay, something else? Something we can actually do all together without being arrested or something?” He asks again. But he is already standing, toddlers clinging to him like little koalas. He looks at the garden through the window. It's all white, completely untouched.

“I think I remember we had a snowballs fight on before you left,” Timmy says, joining him.

Blaine smiles. “You're right.”

Blaine manages to get the twins ready in ten minutes and after five more he is already out, throwing snowballs at his older son as he teaches the twins how to make a snowman. Logan keeps slipping and falling head on in the snow but he doesn't cry because, every time it happens, his father starts laughing as it were something funny before Logan can't even realize what happened, so he ends up finding it funny too.

Leo watches the four of them through the window as he slowly gets ready too.
He used to get so annoyed when someone didn't let them have their privacy, but now he sees Blaine playing in the snow with their children and can't help but smile.
A snowball hits the window and he sighs. “I'm coming,” he says.

“You will in due time,” Blaine smirks.

It's just good to know that as much as everything else has changed, the important things are still the same.

WHEN ALL IT'S SAID AND DONE
Leo thinks that deep inside himself, a tiny part of him had hoped for things to turn out differently.
Maybe he hadn't consciously believed they would fix everything, but he hadn't thought they would be apart for good either. Instead, as he looks at the documents on the desk now, everything feels suddenly real and he doesn't know how to cope with that.

The house is quiet. The four of them seem to make no sound at all, when just one year ago two of them where enough to turn the two stories house into hell. One person down and nobody wants to make noise anymore and this place feels empty and preposterously huge.

The twins are sleeping in their room, using each other as stuffed animals to comfort one another. This is the first time in six months that they actually fall asleep in there alone, like they used to do before all this. Somehow they feel it's over too. Leo guesses they stopped fighting like he did.

Timmy is downstairs, watching TV. Leo has noticed he doesn't really watch it, he just wants to hear noise and pretend to look at the screen so he doesn't have to talk with anybody. Leo remembers how it had felt when he was a teen and he had all this rage inside, and he couldn't let it out. Back then, Blaine had helped him through it.

Leo can't even think his name. He knows he should, but it became a trigger for all his sadness and he can't afford to say it aloud or in his mind anymore. It's like pulling a cork. He says it and tears fall down. After a whole year of fighting and lawyers he should be able to deal with the fact that he and Blaine are no longer together and they will never be again, but he can't. Maybe because by the time he came around his rage and sense of betrayal, Blaine had already got over it. Blaine had tried and tried and tried to reach out for him, but Leo had been too hurt to let him. And when he was finally ready to sort things out, Blaine wasn't interested anymore. Leo has lost his chance and he remembers very clearly the moment he has realized that, because his recovered heart has broken again. It's still in pieces.

Sometimes he thinks about what happened and he can't believe it.

Millions of couples break up everyday because one person cheats on the other. There is nothing strange in that, but what happened to them was just so stupid. And Leo kinda knows it now. His therapist keeps saying to him that maybe – just maybe – things went exactly like they were supposed to. He and Blaine have a twenty years long history of break ups and make ups, so it was probably bound to happen. Still, they had fixed much worse things so many times before, that he has no clue how to live a life where this isn't possible anymore.

He pushes the papers aside. He needs more time, just a little bit. The agreement for the kids custody is not due before Monday. He still has the whole week end to pretend Blaine is just out of town for work and not living in another apartment with another man, waiting for a document that states his rights to see his children.

At least, they didn't fight over them. They both agreed that whatever problem they had was theirs only and children shouldn't have been affected by it more than it was necessary. They both agreed on joint custody, but since Blaine travels a lot and he spends a lot of time away from home, Leo is the one who's got physical custody of the twins. Timmy was a different matter. He turned sixteen before the document was written, so he had the chance to choose where he wanted to live, but even though he and his father are on the right path to reconciliation, he still hates Cody and blames his presence for everything. So he chose to stay with his siblings and with Leo.

Leo knew that would have broken Blaine's heart, so he agreed on letting him see the kids and take them for weeks at a time whenever he wants. He will not stop him from being with his own children as long as the two of them can still be civil deciding for them together. And despite what happened between them, he is sure they won't fail on that.

Not wanting to rob the kids of their home, Blaine has left him the house, but Leo will have to take care of the bills alone from next month on. Since they are both wealthy enough to cover the kids' every need, it seemed fair that Blaine would pay just half the maintenance he should, but he and Leo will share all the kids' expenses from school to medical care. This will probably be the sole collaboration with Blaine Leo can hope for, and he clings to it desperately.

While he and the kids remain in the old colonial house, Blaine has bought a huge apartment for him and Cody in the same neighborhood but not in the same street. Leo sees the building every time he brings the kids to the nursery school and he has run into Cody at the supermarket a couple of times. The awkward greetings and random conversation about the price of tomatoes nowadays have given him an idea of what their Christmas and kids' birthdays will be. He hasn't liked the feeling at all, but at least he has realized that he doesn't hate Cody anymore. Of course he'd rather not see him at all and he doesn't have contact with him, unless it's strictly necessary – when he calls Blaine to let him know about something regarding the kids and he is not home, for example – but after realizing that he would probably have Blaine back by now if he hadn't been so stubborn, he doesn't see the point in blaming Cody anymore.

The first mistake was Blaine's, the second one was yours. The sooner you take responsibility for the things you have consciously decided, the quicker you'll heal. That's what his therapist says. And he is trying his hardest. He just hopes that someday, as a reward for him not being too bitchy toward his ex's boyfriend, he will be able to fall asleep without crying his eyes out.

He has no idea how to live without Blaine. Since he was fifteen, Blaine has been at this side. Leo has grown up with him. Now when he wakes up in the morning and realizes that whatever the day brings, he is going to have to deal with it alone, he panics. His therapist says that this should give him the measure of how wrong their relationship was on certain levels, because Blaine was for him more a fatherly figure than he should have been and that Leo has never really learned how to be independent. But he doesn't care. He just feels lost and lonely, he doesn't want to hear any of that. There are times when he just wants Blaine back and knowing that he can't makes him feel so bad that he is afraid his heart is going to stop or something.

He senses that feeling coming back again in this very moment. He stands up and takes a deep breath, trying to look straight at the floor, so his eyes won't see anything that can bring back memories. In that bedroom, almost anything does. When he feels his sadness is under control again, he just leaves the room and doesn't look back. He will sleep in the guest room tonight, hoping the twins won't come to look for him.

He goes to check on the twins. Their room is just across the hall. It used to be Timmy's, but then he asked for a bigger one and Blaine let him move to the one on the back of the house that has a balcony and it's almost as big as the master bedroom. The twins sleep in a bed that's basically a huge nest and it also looks like one. It consists in a rounded mattress set on a wooden structure and decorated with colorful felt leaves. Blaine found it on the internet and went crazy over it. Despite Leo's doubts on having a huge eagle's nest in the center of the room, he wanted it for his little birds. That thing arrived two weeks after and Blaine went head over heels at the idea of assemble it all by himself. The new bed made the twins really happy because it was so big they could roll around in it as much as they wanted without any real danger. Blaine would tell him that it was so huge there would have been room for other two or three kids in it. And Leo would chuckle and tell him not to even think about it.

He didn't know back then that the family was going to shrink instead of expanding.

The twins are sound asleep and their little star-shaped light on the wall casts a soft blue light over the room. They stopped using their pacifier a few months ago but Logan still sucks on his thumb sometimes, especially when he's troubled and he doesn't feel at ease. Leo cringes, seeing him doing that in his sleep right now, as if even his dreams weren't happy. Leo gently strokes his son's hair and daughter's cheek, then he tucks both of them in and leaves their room, leaving the door ajar.

He can still hear the soft noise of the TV coming from downstairs and he hesitates on top of the stairs, wondering if he really wants to face Timmy right now but, when he enters the living room heading for the kitchen, Timmy turns around and smiles sweetly at him. Leo asks him if he has eaten something and when Timmy says no, he heads to the kitchen to fix something up for him. Cooking is becoming more and more Leo's way to distract himself, much as it has always been for Kurt. Another perfect example of the fact that what genetics can't provide, closeness and love can. He really hopes to develop with his three children the same connection he has with his own fathers.

Timmy joins him in the kitchen, as he warms over some chicken leftovers. He wanders about for a while, doing nothing in particular and gathers the courage to say something. “Did you sign it?” He asks, eventually.

Leo tenses and he looks down in the sink. “Not yet,” he manages to say.
He feels it, the wave of hope that irradiates from Timmy's body at his answer and it breaks his heart. He closes his eyes, waiting for the question he know is going to come.

“So you are... reconsidering?”

Leo leaves the knife on the counter and goes to sit with him. He takes Timmy's hands in his and only looks up when he thinks he has found the right words, even though he knows really well they don't really exist and anything he's going to say won't never be right for the kid in front of him. “Timmy, I can't reconsider.”

“Yes, you can!” Timmy says right away. “I know that guy is living with him, but I bet daddy would get back with you. You just have to say it.”

“I don't.” Leo's eyes fill with tears again as he slowly shakes his head. The fact that Timmy doesn't get it makes it more painful because he has to say it loud and clear. “It's not my call anymore, honey. I just get to sign, now.”

That's when it dawns on Timmy what the situation really is. “Then it's really over,” he says, and his voice breaks. The sadness in it is so deep that Leo's heart just cracks. He tries to hold back the tears but it's useless when Timmy starts crying too, feeling as hopeless as he does. Leo just opens his arms and hugs him, hoping it will be enough for both of them and knowing very well it won't.

A LITTLE CHOCOLATE NOW AND THEN NEVER HURT ANYONE
When Adam and Leo started living together at the beginning of the year, they set a few rules. The most important of all is that they are bound to leave the house to each other for at least a couple of hours when they bring someone home. If they both bring someone home at the same time, they have to obligingly ignore any possible noise coming from the other's room.

Usually, this works just fine for both of them.

Boys and girls come over and stay for the night and partially the morning after all the time and the two of them always manage to deal with each other's need to get laid. Adam always finds something to do when Leo comes back home glued to the six pack of some random guy or to the boobs of some random girl he met along the way. And Leo is almost never home during week ends, so Adam can bring some hot chick and do it in the living room if he wants to, and be sure nobody will walk in on him before the afternoon of the next day.

But the same rule can't be applied when Blaine is around.

Blaine is not one of Leo's usual one-night stands. Leo doesn't bring him home right before fucking him and throws him out right after. When Blaine comes – in each and every sense this word can be intended – he stays for days. Sometimes it's just a week end, sometimes it's a whole week and some other horrible times it's even three. He lives in the house, and he and Leo can fuck for hours and hours with just one break for a snack before starting again, stronger and louder than before.

Adam bets that man is not human. He is almost forty but he has more stamina than he has.

Leo and Blaine spend all the time locked up together in Leo's room. So, unless Adam can sleep at Annie's, it doesn't matter if he stays out for three hours or the whole day, because when he comes back, whatever the hour, he will always have to hear them fucking for hours anyway.

That's why today, when Blaine showed up at the door with a bunch of stunning red roses for Leo, he wisely decided to go to the library to finish studying for next week's test. Then he had lunch with Annie and when she mercilessly left him to go hang out with her super-rich Arab boyfriend, he was so desperate that he went straight to the gym and worked out for the second time in twenty-four hours.

He has been out for the most part of the day, giving Leo his two hours of empty house plus and extra twelve, so he thinks it's safe for him to come back home, now. He is so wrong.

The house is silent, and that can mean two things. One, they went out for dinner. Sometimes they actually do normal things, like hanging out, going to the movies or have dinner with friends – except that they don't have common friends, so they basically just go to the Prince of Persia in Westerville, which is where some of the people Blaine knows hang out and they spend some time there and that counts as being sociable. Two, they are asleep. That happens a lot. They fuck like animals several, absolutely not normal times and then just collapse. One moment Leo is asking for more, the moment after he's snoring. Adam would say that nobody believes him when he tells this story, but half the campus has slept with Leo and the other half has heard about it, so everybody actually believes him.

Anyway, he hopes they are out because he wants to have the time to eat something quickly and then go to bed, fall asleep and pretend they don't exist. If he's lucky enough, tomorrow morning he will wake up and they will be asleep, so he will be able to leave the house without having to speak with them at all.

He leaves the keys in the tray next to the door. Leo's keys with their panda shaped key-ring are there too, but it doesn't mean anything. Blaine has a copy of the keys, so they can still be out. Adam sighs and takes the panda thing in his hand, carefully screwing back on the head that is loosening. It's just some silly trinket Blaine brought Leo from China years ago, but Leo cherishes it to the point that he completely freaked out two months ago when the panda lost his head and it was nowhere to be found. Annie and him had spent a whole afternoon tracking back Leo's movements to find that damn head, while Leo was cursing and already on the verge of tears like a girl or something.

Eventually, the cute girl from the school library found it on the bench Leo had been setting on that morning and brought it back to him. He was so happy that he was ready to marry her right on the spot, but he settled for a date. They went out twice, then Blaine came back from wherever he was in the world, and the girl was instantly discarded, her good deed in rescuing the precious panda head forgotten. Not that Adam wants for Leo to be with someone just because he is grateful to them but still, that is a better reason to be with someone than because he is having good sex, which is the only freaking reason he is with Blaine in Adam's opinion.

He takes off his jacket and looks around.

Of course, Leo hasn't bothered to tidy up a little. Adam swears Leo can live like an animal sometimes, which is weird since he comes from the squeaky clean house of Kurt Hummel where every mirroring surface shines. Though, if he thinks about it, Leo's room was the only messy one of the house even then. Leo is the equivalent of a human hurricane: wherever he goes, he leaves a trail of things he has picked up somewhere else and forgotten around, because he never puts things back where he has found them. His room looks like the site of a nuclear disaster. According to him, every surface he can put things on can be used as a storage facility. Tables, chairs, his bed, everything is buried under tons of other things and you always have to move them around before you can sit anywhere. And he never put his dirty clothes in the laundry basket, but he leaves them on the floor until when he has to put them in the washing machine, and he never puts them back in the drawers once they are clean, leaving them on furniture, ready to be wear again. So, basically his whole room is a giant wardrobe.

The only room really clean and always tidy is the kitchen. He doesn't even start to make a sandwich if the counter is not sparkling and the last plate in the sink has been washed, dried and put back in the cabinet. That's because he is obsessed with dirty on things he has to eat. So Adam is not surprised when he leaves behind a messy living room and enters a sparkling kitchen that looks and smells like if it's brand new. The only thing that is out of place is a chocolate cream jar on the kitchen's counter, which gives him an idea of what to have for dinner.

Leo is the one who can cook in the house. Without him or fast foods, Adam would not survive a week.
So, since he is too tired to go out and get food, tonight chocolate will have to suffice.

He has never seen this brand of chocolate before, but the jar is rounded and it has a cute little pink heart with horns on the lid, so he can see why Leo has bought it. It makes him smile too. These are the times when he wonders if living with a half-gay friend doesn't really make him half-gay too. He is pretty sure he didn't like cute things when he lived with his parents.

The cream is soft with a weird translucent look to it, and it's way more spreadable than any other cream Adam has ever tried. It just melts with the bread as soon as he starts spreading it and he has to coat the bread with it three times to give it some color. The result looks pretty yummy though, so he shrugs and takes a huge bite at it.

The taste is weird like the look of it, but it's not bad. He checks the jar one more time to see if he can find out what is this vaguely salt hint he tastes but there's no list of ingredients, so it must be homemade or something. Maybe Leo tried one of his strange new receipts or he bought it from one of those pro third world countries stands you can see on campus every now and then. Since Leo is too squeamish to do voluntary work in old people's homes like he and Annie do sometimes, buying fair trade items is the only form of charity work he can afford to do.

He is about to take another bite when Leo storms in the kitchen, screaming like a banshee and flailing his arms above his head like a madman, with the result that Adam doesn't understand a single word he is saying. That's why he looks really confused when Leo takes the slice of bread away from him.

“What are you even doing?” Leo screams.

“Whoa,” Adam raises both his hands. “Calm down, man. It's just chocolate!”

“No, it's not just chocolate!” Leo is that kind of hysterical he always gets when something really upsetting happens to him. His voice squeaks suddenly and he can't talk properly. “God! Why do you always do things without thinking?”

Adam has never seen him acting like this for food. They've always shared everything, so he doesn't understand why Leo is so angry at him for stealing some chocolate. “Listen, I don't know what's wrong with you, if you are on your period or what, but I think you're overreacting.”
Leo shakes his head, closing his eyes. “You have no idea what you did, do you?” He asks, closing the jar. He gives it to Blaine who's right behind him. Adam notices him now and he instantly frowns.

“I ate some fucking chocolate,” he replies, grumpily. He crosses his arms on his chest and keeps talking to Leo while glaring at Blaine all the time. “But I get it. That was yours, fine. You know, next time put a label on it so I know you bought for you and that's it.”

Blaine is laughing so hard he can't even stand properly. He bends in half, holding the jar safely in his hand as he rolls left and right against a wall, hiding his face every now and then because, apparently, whatever it's happening is too funny to bear.

“What is he laughing at?” Adam asks angrily, following Leo around the kitchen as he throws the bread away in disgust and put the knife in the dishwasher, holding it as it's infected or something.

“You might as well tell him, kid. He's gonna find out sooner or later,” Blaine says when he manages to stop snickering like the 10 years old boy he is.

“Leo, what the fuck is going on here?” Adam nails him to the counter and stares at him, seriously. Blaine has to do his best not to drool over it. He actually does a little, but he manages to keep himself under control.

Leo sighs. “It wasn't chocolate. Just chocolate flavored.”

“Yes, you've already told me that. So what is it?” Leo hesitates only when he knows he has done something really stupid. And he turns purple when something embarrasses him. Now he's blushing so hard that he could light up the whole house and his mouth is open but no words come out of it, so Adam is really scared. “Leo?”

Leo looks down with a sigh. “It's lube,” he says, torturing his hands.

For one, long moment Adam doesn't understand. That word makes no sense in his head, it's just a random word Leo said. It could have been any other word and it would be the same. “What?”

“Lube, you know?” Leo says again. “I forgot it on the kitchen's counter. Adam, I'm so sorry–“

“Lube as in oil for engines?” He asks hysterically. He is giving Leo a chance to tell him he is misunderstanding everything and he has ingested grease. That would be okay. He would be probably sick, but that's fine.

“Nope,” Leo says slowly. And then whines because he is mortified. “Why didn't you read the label?”

“There was no label!” Adam freaks out. “How could I have known you are so inconsiderate and disrespectful to leave your sex toys around the house? You two are gross!”

Leo flinches and passes a hand over his face. “We didn't do that on purpose.”

“I bet you didn't!”

“I'm sorry, Adam,” he says again.

“I bet you are!”

Blaine doesn't feel guilty at all, in fact he is actually enjoying Adam freaking out. It's his fourth favorite sight, the first three being Leo at different stages of nudity and shamelessness. “Do you at least like it? 'Cause we do. It is very sweet at first, but then it becomes salty, right? Or at least I think it's the lube that is salty. I don't really know, actually. Because I've never eaten it with bread, you know?”

“Blaine!” Leo whines, facepalming.

“I'm out of here!” Adam pushes Leo away but he doesn't have to do the same with Blaine because the man just moves away on his own accord, with a little bow and gesturing him the door. “Fuck you, Anderson.”
Leo runs after him. “Adam, wait!”

“Don't!” Adam turns around to shove a finger in his face. “Just don't, Leo. Ok? Leave me alone because this time I could even hit you.”

“But–“

“Shut up. Now I'm going to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth until they're brand new again and you are not going to come after me. You will leave me alone. You won't speak to me. You will lock yourself up in your room with that disgusting boyfriend of yours and you will pray that in ten or twenty years I can forgive you. Until that moment, I don't wanna see you.”

That said, Adam enters the bathroom and slams the door behind himself.

Blaine joins Leo in the hall and hugs him from behind. “He will get over it. He loves you more than he hates your disgusting man, so don't worry,” he says, kissing his cheek. “In the meanwhile, since we apparently have a twenty years long wait ahead of us, let's see if there's something left in this jar.”

Blaine moves the rounded jar in the air and Leo can't help but bursts into laughter.
He will make sure to make Adam a cake for when he comes out of the bathroom.
With real chocolate this time.

WRAPPED AROUND YOUR FINGER
Leo watches the whole play and he is stupidly proud of his man, bowing for the crowd under the spotlights. As Blaine waves at the people and introduces the other actors at the end of the show, Leo turns around and would like to tell everybody that that man over there is his boyfriend.
He waits in line with all the fans to meet Blaine in his green room and he should feel a little guilty knowing that the moment he will knock at the door, the meet and greet will be over, but he's been waiting for this night for three weeks now, so he can't really feel sorry for anyone. Everything is forgotten, though, as soon as Blaine opens the door and smiles at him, dismissing everyone else.
“You remembered!” Leo says, looking inside the room. There is a table for two with its own fine tablecloth and a cart with food from the very best restaurant in New York.
“No chance I could forget,” Blaine chuckles. “Only yesterday, you sent me three messages about this, not mentioning the twenty before those.”
Leo blushes. “I just wanted to make sure-”
“We were going to celebrate our first year, I know.” Blaine's smile becomes sweeter as he takes Leo by the hand and brings him to the table, uncovering the plates one after the other. “We've got aniseed chicken, avocado salad, oysters of course, banana split and my favorite: almond cookies.”
Leo looks puzzled, staring at the food's display. "I know you're trying to tell me something but I don't get it."
“They're all aphrodisiacs,” Blaine explains. “Not that we need them, but they seemed appropriate.”
“I see,” Leo says. Then he smirks, picking up a jar hidden between the trays of food. “Lube?” He asks.
Blaine never blushes, nor feels ashamed for anything. “That's chocolate flavored. It's good for sex too.”
Leo chuckles, putting the jar back down. “I bet it is.”
“Look,” Blaine smiles fondly and nods to the ice bucket. “I even chilled a fine bottle of coke.”
Leo laughed. “What?”
“Even though you can't drink yet, I don't see why we can't be a little fancy with the beverages,” Blaine smirks and then uncaps the bottle, pouring coke into two flutes. “A toast?”
Leo takes his flute, his cheeks flushed. “To what?”
“To you being here with me, tonight.”
Leo lifts his glass. “To us being together after this horribly long tour,” he says. “I'm so glad it's over!”
Blaine takes a long sip. “About that, kid...”
“What?” Leo sounds disappointed already, and that makes everything worse.
Blaine sighs. “Since the last five shows were sold out, we set up another extra week around the country. We're leaving tonight.”
“This mean you won't have any free time before the next show starts,” Leo states angrily as he puts down his glass. “Fuck, I knew it couldn't be true.”
“It's not my fault, kid. It's job.”
Leo is already putting his jacket back on. “It's always job! Or your fucking life!” He screams. “I come after everything else. Truth is you don't give a shit about me unless you can fuck me!”
“Don't use that tone with me, kid.”
“Or what?” Leo keeps shouting, opening the door. “Will you ground me? As far as you'd like to be, you don't get to be my father when you don't sleep with me.”
He heads toward the hall where probably everyone has stopped and listen, and Blaine is so furious, he just doesn't think about what's coming out of his mouth. “If you walk out that door now, don't bother coming back!”
When he leaves, Leo slams the door closed on purpose.
Half an hour later, he storms back in. Blaine doesn't have the time to say a word as the kid hugs him tightly and refuses to let him go. “I'm sorry,” he says. “You didn't mean it, did you?”
“What?” Blaine asks, passing his fingers through Leo's hair.
“That I can't come back.”
Blaine smiles. “The door was open, am I right?”
Leo nods, but clings to him all the way to the airport.
And Blaine lets him, because that's what he always does.

VENGEANCE IS A DISH BEST EATEN...
Leo has never been so mad at Blaine like he is now, and with their back history that says something.

A very important day of two years ago, after a very embarrassing chat with his then four years old son, Blaine decided Leo was going to be the one making meals for the family. Leo doesn't mind it at all, really. He likes to cook and actually prefers doing it himself instead of leaving Blaine alone in the kitchen, since the man can't cook an egg if his life depends on it.

But, there are limits and they have been widely passed by the call he's just received.

It's half past four in the afternoon – a time when all decisions for dinner must have been taken already – and Blaine calls him, casually informing him that they are going to have guests for dinner that same night. And not some old friend for whom he could have fixed something with leftovers, but a producer who wants to give Blaine the main role in this new Broadway production. Dorothy has sent him to Blaine, Blaine has invited him to dinner.

And guess who has to cook when the fridge is empty?

He is really good in the kitchen – you don't take cooking lessons from Kurt Hummel for nothing – but even he can't do wonders with nothing to work with. And Blaine should have known that he couldn't go to the shops when Timmy is sick. And as Leo is cutting onions to make a mirepoix for the veal chops, said feverish boy enters the kitchen, holding his plastic t-rex to his chest and forcefully rubbing his eye with the heel of his hand.

“Daddy?” He calls.

“He's not here, honey,” Leo says sweetly, cleaning his hands on his apron. When Timmy decided to start calling him dad too, Blaine immediately became daddy and everything fell into place inside the kid's head. “What are you doing up? You should be sleeping.”

The boy coughs badly, clumsily covering his mouth with his free hand. “I don't wanna be alone upstairs.”

Leo lets out a shameful sappy moan for which his friends would mock him forever. “How's the fever?” He asks, as he presses his hand against the child's forehead.

“My brain's boiling. I'm gonna die,” he answers, his voice expressionless like he's talking bout the weather or something.

Leo chuckles as he retrieves the thermometer from the kitchen drawers. “I don't think so. And you really should stop listening to your grandfather Kurt. You're too young to be overly dramatic.”

“What does it mean overl... ov-” He can't finish the sentence because he ends up sneezing and coughing at the same time, swinging back and fort like he's about to lose his balance.

Leo laughs a little and then picks him up. “Listen, why don't you go sit on the couch, so we can take your temperature?” He says.

“Can I watch a DVD?”

“Of course you can,” Leo agrees, leaving him on the couch with the thermometer under his arm. “Which one?”

“Kung Fu Panda!” The kid says, quite obviously since he hasn't watched anything else in the past two weeks and doesn't seem to be willing to watch anything else ever. Leo puts the DVD in the DVD player for him and then gives him the remote control and a blanket.

“I'll be in the kitchen if you need something.”

“I need something,” Timmy says, staring intently at the big remote in his tiny hands, looking for the triangle button his father taught him is the play button.

Leo stops mid-step and sighs, patiently. “What do you want?”

“Can I have apple juice and a muffin?”

“What do we say?”

Timmy presses the play button. “Please.”

“Right. I'll be right back.”

*

Almost four hours later, Leo can rightfully says he has superpowers. Or, more probably, he is slowly turning in one of those working mothers who can have a job, govern the house and have friends over, all that while having four or five children to take care of. That's why he really should check if he can fly or something. Superpowers are way cooler than motherhood.

After apple juice and a muffin, Timmy wanted some cookies, a banana, another DVD, to go to the bathroom, and he almost vomited on Blaine's 100.000 dollars Indian carpet that is now safe only because Leo had been more willing to take the vomit on himself than Blaine's complains later. Actually, he didn't really throw himself between the vomit and the carpet. He just screamed “Tim, don't!” and the kid turned towards him, that's all. But he prefers to think of himself as a hero.

Now, Timmy is soundly asleep, so Leo can finally tend to the dinner he has miraculously managed to make, despite hell breaking loose on him. And when the main door opens and Blaine calls out for him, he can come out of the kitchen knowing he has done enough to justify the high price his husband is going to pay for all this.

The producer's name is mister Bryant and he is way younger than Leo thought. He can't be more than forty and he has gorgeous blue eyes. That is probably why Blaine casts Leo a precautionary glance to which he just smirks.

The three men sit at the table which is already set with the finest tablecloth they own, that is the only one Timmy has not colored with pencils yet. Blaine is so surprised by Leo's hard work on this dinner that he is actually quite proud of him and he lets him know that by squeezing his hand, under the table. He asks about his son too and then explains to their guest that they have a son and that he has been sick for a week now, making the newlywed couple's picture even sappier.

Leo has made pasta, which mister Bryant highly appreciate because, as it turns out, he is remotely related to Italian people. The main course goes smoothly and, speaking about the upcoming play, the producer tells them that Blaine's audition will be a mere formality. Then he excuses himself to the bathroom and gives Leo the perfect moment he was waiting for.

As soon as mister Bryant is gone, Blaine turns to Leo and smiles. “Thank you. You are being wonderful, tonight.”

Leo smiles back. “Are you nervous? Mister Bryant is an important guest, isn't he?”

“Yes, he is.” Blaine leans in to kiss him sweetly. “But I think he is enjoying himself and so do I.”

“So, this means you don't want to feel awkward at all around him, am I right?”

Blaine frowns. “Am I missing something, kid?”

Leo smirks. “Oh yes, you are.”

Blaine frowns again, curiously. Leo doesn't use this tone of voice often, and surely never out of the bedroom. So he is quite amused when he feels his husband's naked foot moving against his leg. “Oh, are you kidding me?” He chuckles.

“Not even in the slightest,” Leo says ominously, as he slowly slips under the table.

“You are not doing this,” Blaine shakes his head, still smiling. “You are bluffing.”
But he is not. And Blaine understands that when mister Bryant comes back and Leo is still under the table, kneeling between his legs.

“Where is your lovely husband?” The producer says, sitting down again and placing his napkin over his legs.

Blaine clears his throat as Leo opens the zip of his pants and takes hold of his cock, freeing it from his underwear. “He is... in the bathroom,” he coughs again as he moves closer to the table.

“But I come from there.”

“We have two,” Blaine nods quickly and quite ridiculously. Leo is stroking him slowly from the base to the head. The kid knows him well enough to know that this is the best way to make him last longer, so Blaine doesn't even dare to hope that it's gonna be quick. He gulps and tries to control himself, pointing one of the trays to mister Bryant. “Please, help yourself.”

“Aren't we waiting for Leonard?” The man asks, surprised.

Blaine moves his hand nonchalantly. “Don't worry, my husband doesn't eat meat,” he says, loud and clear, and his tone is so menacing that mister Bryant feels compelled to comply. “It disgusts him.”

Under the table, Leo smiles and brushes his lips over the head of Blaine's cock.
Blaine has barely the time to get used to the unusual feeling of Leo's mouth between his legs that it closes around the head, sucking slightly. Blaine's hips jerk forward and he almost slams against the table, making the glasses tinkle.

“Is everything alright, Blaine?” Mister Bryant asks, worried.

“Yes!” Blaine shouts, maybe too loud as Leo decides he has teased him enough and can now take it deeper in his mouth, showing skills he has never ever wanted to reveal before.

The producer looks at him suspiciously. Also, Blaine is bending over the table and looks like he has stomachache or something, except that his moans now and then don't sound of pain at all. “Are you sure? You look flushed and... awkward.”

“I'm fine, really. Don't worry.” Blaine closes his eyes and holds his head in his hands for a moment, pretending Leo is not taking it in to the base. He tries hard not to acknowledge the fact that his cock is currently disappearing in his husband's mouth like it has rarely done in the past and fails, whining miserably.

Mister Bryant is really worried for him now. “Is it the head?”

“It's everything,” Blaine sighs, desperately. Keeping his eyes closed, he gives up and moves his hips a little to get what little relief he can have in this situation. Another moan escapes his lips as he feels himself sliding over Leo's wet tongue.

“Oh, come on, now!” Bryant says as he would to a child who's being excessively whiny over nothing. He chuckles and cleans his hands on a napkin. “It can't be that bad.”

“You have no idea,” Blaine rasps out. Leo's head is moving faster and faster on him and whatever control Blaine still has on himself is about to vanish over his husband's tongue working his length, so precisely to be a new kind of torture.

He knows why Leo is doing this and he must admit the kid is smart. And also, really evil. Whatever triggered this need for revenge – and Blaine can just assume it has been him not forewarning his lovely husband early enough about this dinner – Leo is finally paying him back for what he did to him in that restaurant in Italy.

It was more than five years ago. Surely the kid can bear a grudge.

Leo withdraws from a moment to catch his breath and gives Blaine four long strokes. He knows his husband is close to his climax by the way he's shivering under his hands. So, when he takes Blaine's cock in his mouth again, he knows it won't take him much longer.

“Although I must say I surely appreciate your ability to be so overly dramatic,” Bryant says laughing a little nervously at what's clearly an excessive display of pain for an headache or a stomachache by Blaine's side, “is there something I can do for you? Maybe some medication I can retrieve?”

This is the chance Blaine was waiting for.

“I don't want to... “ He cringes, jerking forward again as Leo uses his tongue and hands together. “...bother you.”

“Not at all. It makes me feel bad seeing you in such pain,” the producer says. “Just tell me what you need and where to find it.”

Blaine tries to focus enough to speak to the man, instead of giving up and just thrust in Leo's mouth as he is so eager to do. “My head's pills. In the bathroom's drawer,” he whines. There are no head's pill in the bathroom, nor any other pills for that matter. Bryant can search forever. This should give Blaine enough time to get himself together again, with or without doing what Leo hates the most, he still has to decided.

It seems to take mister Bryant ages to stand up and head to the bathroom but eventually he disappears around the corner and as soon as he does, Blaine just reaches down to pass his fingers through Leo's hair as he thrusts a couple of times more, this time free to move as he pleases.

Leo was expecting that, so he doesn't freak out at all. In fact, he welcomes his thrusts as best as he can and, surprisingly enough for Blaine who was ready to feel him withdraw eventually and wasn't going to let him, he doesn't move.

The sound of him swallowing manages to make Blaine blush as he hasn't done in ages.

Blaine allows him just the time to catch his breath and then gets himself ready to let him know how mad he is at him for jeopardizing his business relationship with mister Bryant, but when he lifts the tablecloth to scream at him, Leo is there, ready to lick him clean in front of his eyes. And Blaine just melts.

“You're evil,” he says, unable to look away.

Leo looks up and licks the corner of his mouth like a cat. “I know,” he smirks. He keeps cleaning both of them until he's satisfied enough. “Have you learned to advise me appropriately early enough when you have guests over?”

Blaine smirks. “I don't know. I probably loved the punishment more than the lesson,” he says, thrusting his hips forward to bump it on Leo's lips.

Leo makes a face and moves it away with his hand, but he chuckles. “Idiot. Put the thing away.”

“It's your fault, not mine,” Blaine smirks, then he offers his hand to help him out from under the table. “Now, come out from there, he's gonna be back soon.”

When mister Bryant comes back, he looks mortified. “I'm sorry Blaine, I couldn't find your pills.”

Blaine turns to Leo, now sitting composedly next to him. “Don't worry Clarence, it's okay. Leo took care of it and I'm sure I'll find a way to thank him later.”

That sounds dangerous, but Leo shivers.
He has never been more excited to be threatened like that.

POUTING IS NOT ALLOWED (IT'S TOO CUTE)
Leo is sitting on one of the leather armchairs in Blaine's hotel room in Lima and he is pouting. It's easy to say when he is because he sits with his legs and arms crossed instead of slouching on it upside down or worse. His lips are curled and he strongly breathes from his nose every now and then, pretending he doesn't care about anyone around him while waiting to be asked what's wrong. Also, he is actually studying on his math book instead of looking at the same page over and over without even knowing what's on it.

Blaine let him come early today, but he had to rehearse. So, he hasn't had the time to take care of him, yet. After greeting him on the door with the most passionate and risky kiss a man of his age could give a boy Leo's age, he left him alone to his derivatives finding. Therefore, the pouting.

Leo doesn't like to be ignored in general, let alone by him. As soon as Blaine turns his attention to something else even for a second, something switches in the kid's mind. He turns moody and gets offended, and it takes a lot of cooing and sweets to get him to smile again. Since it is a waste of quality time together, Blaine usually tries to give him all the attention he needs and even more, but sometimes he has to work too. And today he is one of those times.

Leo snorts again and goes to the end of his book to check the results. He ticks off the exercise on his notebook and then casts a glance in Blaine's direction. The man sees him in the mirror and smiles at him, even though he knows Leo is still angry and will look away stubbornly, which he does.

“I know you are bored,” Blaine says. “I'm almost done.”

“I'm not bored, I'm pissed.”

Blaine smiles, but he tries to hide it. “My bad, sometimes I can't tell the difference. So, can I treat you with Swiss chocolate? There's a shop around the corner that sells it, I can have it brought to you here right away. I just have to make a call.”

Leo is still frowning, but at least he smirks. “It won't be so easy, Anderson,” he says. “And for your information, that's called bribing.”

“Bribing is such a bad word! I would say paying homage,” Blaine says. “Don't you like chocolate? I just want to make you happy.”

“No, you just want me to stop pouting.”

Blaine nods. “True, I do. But I also want to make you happy.”

Leo puts his books and notebooks back in his backpack and stares at him. “With chocolate? It's never gonna happen.”

Apparently, the kid decided the time for rehearsal is over, so Blaine can only close his script too. “Actually, I remember you were quite happy that night in Westerville with... what was it? Mint Chocolate? Or Coconut?”

Leo blushes and looks away. “That was different!” He screams. “And it won't work now, anyway.”

“Too bad. I would have loved to french kiss you sharing a piece of chocolate,” he pretends to sigh sadly. “So, what's the price for your smile today?”

Leo has evidently been thinking about it for the past three hours because he doesn't even let him finish. “I want a date,” he says and the smile he gives to Blaine is so full of pride and expectation that brights up his whole face.

“A date?”

“Yes, a date,” Leo nods. “A real one, though. Don't even think of taking me to McDonalds. I don't wanna end up surrounded by screaming kids and depressed mothers!”

“I thought you liked junk food.”

Leo nods as he carefully turns around each one of the hundreds rubbers bracelets he wears today so that it faces upward. “I love junk food. I could live on it,” he agrees. “But not today. These three hours of ignoring me call for something better.”

Blaine looks at him like he is an alien or something. A morning of some months ago Leo asked him cheeseburgers and fries for breakfast and he is notoriously allergic to maître d’hôtel and such so this request is very unusual coming from him. “Who are you and what did you do to my underage boyfriend?”

Leo chuckles. “He is here and wants to be taken in a fancy place.”

Blaine sighs, looking at him with maybe a little guilt in his eyes. “You know I can't take you to a restaurant,” he reminds him. Lima is a very small town. When it comes to fancy places, there is only one that can be really called so. If they go there, they will never go unnoticed, and that could be really bad for a lot of reasons. Even if they don't act like a couple, people will talk and stick their noses. Blaine doesn't want that kind of publicity and most of all he doesn't want to put Leo in that kind of situation, even though the kid doesn't understand what it would really mean. He just wants to be with him, after all. “But we can order and have dinner in here.”

Leo looks annoyed and disappointed. “We never go out of this room,” he says, looking away. “It's like coming to visit you in prison or something.”

“Which is exactly what you will do if someone understands what's going on here,” Blaine chuckles but Leo doesn't seem amused at all. So, Blaine squats by his armchair and passes his fingers through the boy's wild and curly hair. Every now and then Leo is up for a joke or two about their need to be secretive, but most of the times this makes him so utterly unhappy. “You know, things will change in a couple of years.”

Leo looks away and starts playing with the strings of his hoodie, which is the ultimate sign of him being sad and disappointed at the same time. A very bad combination that usually breaks Blaine's heart perfectly in half. Blaine can stand him being a little whiny, because Leo is like that. And he can stand him being disappointed, because he is a teen and that's what they are all the time. But when Leo is both, it means Blaine has really screwed it up, so he feels the need to do something and make it better.

“Alright, put on your jacket,” he nods to the coat rack, where Leo's black coat is hanging. “We are going out.”

The kid springs on his feet before he has even finished. “Where are we going?”

Blaine smiles. “It's a surprise.”

*

Blaine knows this place because he came here with Leo's father when they were younger, which is kind of upsetting now that he thinks about it. So he simply decides not to. He smiles at the maître who greets them politely. Blaine loves elegant, expensive restaurants because people who work there are specifically paid not to show how bad they judge their clients. Too bad clients judge each other enough to make everything uncomfortable.

Leo doesn't even notice that every single person in the room is staring at them, though. He is too busy taking in the shiny decorations of the room filled with tables for two people only.

The maître leads them to a table in the corner so they will have some privacy, but close enough to the big window so they can still see the breathtaking view of the city. Leo doesn't even know where they are, exactly. He lost track of the streets ten minutes after they left the hotel room, when Blaine got the highway heading out of town.

“Is this restaurant fancy enough?” Blaine smirks as he takes a look at the wine list.

Leo has not finished looking at everything. “Yes, it is. Dressed up people everywhere, a penguin looking waiter who doesn't chew chewing gum and a priceless menu. This place has everything it needs to be called fancy.”

Leo doesn't sit properly, he has the tendency to speak too loud especially when he talks about people in the room and he is not dressed properly for the place, but he is so damn cute as he tries to understand what a filet mignon really is that Blaine can't help but smile fondly at him. “Do you need help with your order?” Blaine asks, gently.

Leo looks up, blue eyes peeking from behind the menu. “No, thanks. I am old enough to order by myself,” he sticks his tongue out.

“Can I at least pick the dessert?” Blaine hints with a smirk.

Leo blushes and looks away. “We'll see. If you behave.”
They both chuckle as the waiter comes to take their orders.

Blaine knows there is something wrong in making that kind of jokes when he needs to take him out of town to make them, but as long as Leo looks at him and smiles, nothing can matter. And nothing does.

LOVE IS GROWING UP
As they lie on the bed in Blaine's loft in New York, Leo looks up and pretends to brush the dots of light on the ceiling with his fingertips. In his own room in Lima, he's got fake stars on the wall and Blaine has noticed he likes to touch them too as they cuddle each other, before falling asleep.

"I don't care if you're so much older than me," Leo says. "In fact, I like it."

Blaine puts a hand over Leo's and together they connect the dots writing their names. "And why is that so?"

"Because while we grow up together, I get to be the kid a bit longer," he says, casually.

Blaine's heart skips a beat but Leo doesn't even notice. Sometimes he says words without realizing what they really mean. For him, everything is important and nothing is really serious as it should be.

As chasing the stars, while he says I love you.

DON'T STOP CALLING, YOU'RE THE REASON I LOVE LOSING SLEEP

When the phone rings, Leo just turns around and hides his face under the pillow, as he usually does whenever something disturbs him in his sleep. He doesn't even wake up, whatever part of his brain that is aware of the noise just makes sure he can't be annoyed by it anymore. Or at least it tries.

The phone keeps ringing, though. So he is forced to reach out and fumble about to find the phone, which is lost in the chaos of his sheets, together with all the stuff he leaves on the bed even when he goes to sleep.
Once he has fetched it, he brings it back with him under the comfortable warmth of his pillow.

“Hello?” He murmurs, not even completely aware of answering.

Someone on the other end just chuckles. “Look like someone is sleeping.”

Leo knows that voice. It actually reverberates at some deep level of his consciousness so that he can recognize it even when he is not completely awake. And tonight, it comes straight out of his dreams too, because he was just dreaming about its owner – this is something he often does. That's why it takes him some time to actually understand this is not a dream at all. “Blaine, is that you?”

Blaine chuckles again. “I don't know. If you happen to have another boyfriend, than no. Maybe I'm not.”

Leo moans something and crawls out of his nest to sit up and confusedly look around the room, which is still completely dark. From the moon light coming from outside, it can't be more than two or three o'clock in the morning, but he can't say it for sure, because his alarm clock is lost somewhere around. “Hi,” he just says, very meaningfully. “Why am I awake?”

“Because I missed you and you love me so much to answer whenever I call you.”

“Unfortunately, that's true,” Leo sighs but then chuckles as he strongly rubs one eye with the heel of his hand. Blaine can hear him breathe through the phone and smiles with affection. “Do you even know what time is it?”

“As a matter of fact, I don't,” Blaine says, shamelessly proud of it. “I've never been good with time zones.”

Leo stretches out on the bed to reach a pile of papers and leaflets on his desk, half of which falls on the ground while he retrieves one. “Where are you?” He asks, as he looks at the piece of paper. It's got a map of the world on it with time zones, all marked in different colors.

“London,” Blaine says. He's actually playing with an horrible portrait of the Queen he found on his nightstand when he entered the hotel room this morning. He quickly put it down so he didn't have to see her face. Now he's struggling with the oh so pleasant idea of drawing mustache and beard on it. “I've been here for a couple of days, now. I had an interview and a panel, already.”

Leo's voice saddens almost instantly. “I thought you were supposed to be here this week end.”

“Don't worry, kid.” Blaine smiles to himself, because he knows what's crossing his boy's mind right now. Leo is already picturing himself alone for their one year-ish anniversary and his imagination can be so vivid sometimes that Blaine doesn't doubt for a minute that the vision in his head is the most dreadful ever. He bets there's rain in it too. But leaving him alone on a day like that is out of the question. He would never give up the chance to celebrate their first encounter. If there's a way to be as unethical as he was the first time, he is up for it. “I'm hopping on a plane after the last show and pick you up with my shiny black car, as the prince charming that I am.”

“I would not call you that,” Leo chuckles as he curls in a ball, now completely awake. “So what's with the phone call tonight?”

“I just wanted to hear your voice,” Blaine admits and he doesn't feel ashamed. He rarely does. “Why don't you tell me your day?”

He can feel Leo melting on the other end of the line. “Do you really want to hear that? It's not very exciting.”

“Just tell me.”
“Okay, then. I went to school, got bored to death, had lunch with Annie, who says hi to you by the way, and went to see Adam's match.”

Blaine laughs, happily. Leo could tell him everything he wants, he just loves the sound of his voice. “So, tell Annie I say hi too and I hope to see her again soon. I didn't know you like football.”

“Football is okay,” Leo says, which Blaine has learned it is Leo's way to say that something is good but not exciting enough for him to go crazy over it. Otherwise it would be cool, or freaking awesome. Sometimes he just has to translate what the boy says to fully understand him. It's kinda of becoming a real job.

“So you go because you like Adam,” he teases.

“I go because he is my best friend,” Leo states.

“Yeah, keep calling him so,” he laughs. “Now, are you sleepy?”

Leo would like to reply to that, because Adam really is only his best friend and nothing more – actually, Adam is also straight, so there is no way the two of them can be together if they wanted to, which they don't – but the tone in Blaine's voice just distracts him completely and he soon forgets about the whole Adam thing. “No, I am not.”

“But you should be probably sleeping. Do you have school tomorrow?”

“You like to ask me that, don't you?” Leo's smirk can be physically heard through the phone.

“Can't deny that. But I do worry about your well being,” Blaine says. “Should I call you back tomorrow, whatever will be the time here?”

Leo chuckles and automatically lies back down on the bed, as if unconsciously knowing what's coming next. “No,” he whispers. Even his voice lowers with him. “Would you stay with me until I fell asleep, again?”

“Do you want me to sing a lullaby for you?”

“And then again, no,” Leo laughs again and his laugh is so heart-warming, Blaine is really considering taking that plane right away. He can take his phone with him. “I want you to cuddle me, though.”

“I'm too far away for that, kiddo,” he plays along.

Leo slowly unties the pants he wears to sleep and slips his free hand in it. “I bet you're not.”
Blaine smiles, fondly. No, he never is.