Takumi shows up wearing skinny jeans, which surprises Elise. She never thought that he was the type.
"Leo! Your boyfriends here!" she shouts up the stairs.
"Not my boyfriend!" Leo shouts back.
Elise turns to Takumi.
"Come in," she says. Takumi nods and follows her into the small house.
"He does like you, you know."
"Um, I don't think so," Takumi replies.
"Why else would he talk about you so much though?" Elise giggles knowingly.
Takumi doesn't respondand takes out his phone, doing literally nothing on it. Leo walks down the stairs, Takumi turns his head and meets his eyes.
God, Leo was good looking.
"Hey," Takumi mumbles.
"Hey."
This was awkward?
The two may have been friends now but it didn't stop the tension from leaving.
"Shall we get going?" Leo asks.
"Uh, yeah," Takumi replies and they set off down Leo's road.
It's freezing outside and the sky is overcast, so Leo wears a huge coat and Takumi shivers.
"How are you?" Takumi asks.
"I'm okay. My dad visited yesterday though," Leo replies.
"Shit, are you okay?"
"Yeah…I doubt i'll see him for a while at least," Leo laughs dryly.
Takumi looks at Leo's hands for a minute before thinking 'why the fuck not?' and taking one in his own. He gives it a squeeze.
"I'm always here for you, you know?"
Leo looks a bit taken aback but he quickly regains his composure.
He squeezes Takumi's hand back and leans against him slightly.
"Unfortunately," Leo says, smirking.
"Look I know you can't go two minutes without being a dick but I'm trying here," Takumi laughs.
It starts to snow a bit.
"You love it though."
Well, he's not wrong, Takumi thinks.
The pair cross the road and walk through the small rusted gates leading to the park.
The trees are huge and their branches spread so far that barely any snow gets through them.
A river runs next to the footpath, and it's lined with a few benches.
The two come here regularly, because both their families have a tendency of embarrassing them in front of their friends.
"Well, how are you?"
"Im… tired," Takumi responds. They're still holding hands, he realises, and suddenly jolts up. Leo gives him a weird look.
"You're always tired."
Takumi yawns loudly
"I know."
Leo laughs and Takumi stares, because leo looks so cute when he laughs, with his eyes all scrunched up and a huge smile on his face and oh my god
"Do you want to stay over maybe?" Takumi asks without thinking. Shit shit shit, wasn't that kind of a weird thing to ask your barely-friend out of the blue?
"Well- I mean… I just thought you might not want to go back to your house what with your dad visiting yesterday and-"
Leo pokes him on the cheek.
"No, i want to," he says. Takumi blushes and he's not sure why. He opens his mouth, closes it and opens it again before finally saying something.
"Thats cool."
Leo laughs at him again.
"How profound!"
Takumi laughs too because he's the most awkward person alive sometimes.
"Leave me alone!" he protests.
The conversation goes easy after that, the awkwardness disappearing into the air.
The two run to the bus stop with their jackets draped over their heads as the snow quite suddenly becomes heavy downpour.
The sky's grey now. They wait at the bus stop, both looking as gloomy as ever.
Takumi rests his head on Leo's shoulder in an out of character burst of confidence.
Leo's breathing goes shaky and the heat rises up his face.
"I wish I had a scarf," he mumbles.
"Me too."
The bus shows up and the two stay downstairs.
Takumi looks out the window at the dreary landscape and eavesdrops as Leo calls home.
"Hello, Elise? Can you put Camilla on the phone?
Hi Camilla-
Yes I'm ok-
No, I'm fine-
LISTEN FOR A SECOND!
I'm with Takumi.
Do you ever drop that?
Okay well I just called to say that I'm staying at his house tonight.
Yes, he's allowed-
Okay fine, I'll text you if I need to.
Bye Camilla," Leo hangs up the phone and lets out a shaky sigh.
"Shes so overprotective," he groans.
"I think it's nice. No one in my family really cares that much," Takumi says.
"Sakura cares," Leo protests.
"Sakura cares about everyone so she doesnt count," Takumi replies.
"I don't care about everyone," Leo says. Takumi doesn't process it for a second.
He blushes.
"Thanks, Leo," he says.
"What? I didn't say anything," Leo jokes.
The two sit in silence for a minute before Takumi rather suddenly slams his hand onto the stop button exclaiming "Cmon! We'll miss our stop!"
They run to Takumi's house through the slightly worn down estates. The place seems deserted since you'd be insane to go out in this awful weather.
The lights are on in Takumi's sitting room and he sees Ryouma watching tv as they approach. He smiles a bit, it's nice to see Ryouma not working for once.
"I'm home!" Takumi exclaims as he walks in the door, Leo following cautiously behind.
"Welcome back, b-big brother," Sakura stutters from the kitchen. Takumi can barely hear her.
"Also, Le o's staying over," he says. He hears a small high pitched 'eep!' through the kitchen door.
"Is he allowed!?" Ryouma shouts from the sitting room.
"Yes!" Takumi shouts back.
He turns to Leo who looks slightly nervous. Not that Takumi can blame him, Leo's never stayed over before. Or been to his house, even.
"My room?" Takumi offers. Leo can only nod as Takumi's already leading him there.
Takumi leads him into a room with cream walls covered in photos and weird postcards, and what looked to be some of Takumi's artwork. Leo knew Takumi was talented, but damn.
The postcards, on closer inspection, are of different paintings, and some are of Hoshido, Takumi's hometown in Japan.
Leo smiles as he sees a photo of Takumi and Sakura from years ago.
"Oh yeah, that's when Ryouma brought us fishing," Takumi laughs.
"We didn't catch a thing all day. Except, Hinoka managed to catch one with her hands. It was so weird, Ryouma nagged her about salmonella for ages after."
Leo chuckles, looking at more photos and hoping he's not being intrusive. He spots something familiar under a stack of papers on Takumi's desk.
"Do you play chess?" Leo asks, his eyes lighting up. That's right, Leo was a huge chess nerd, wasn't he?
"Nah, it's a shogi board. They're kind of similar though," Takumi replies.
"I could teach you though?"
And that's how Takumi and Leo ended up playing shogi until midnight.
"I'm kind of hungry," Leo states. Takumi nods.
"Lets go downstairs and see whats there."
The two try to be as quiet as possible as they sneak downstairs. Sakura's asleep in her room and Ryouma's probably working as usual.
They finally reach the bottom step of the stairs and giggle a bit, feeling like little kids as they tiptoe into the kitchen.
Takumi switches on the light. Leo looks around and is not at all surprised to see a small kitchen with green counters and shelves and a whole shelf of recipe books.
"Do you like ice cream?" Takumi seriously asks, holding a ben and jerries tub in his hands.
"Of course," Leo responds, eyes sparkling.
One of the joys of the world, how could someone not like it?
"Okay good."
Takumi gets two tablespoons then gestures to Leo to lead the way back upstairs.
The two manage to be quiet until-
Leo puts one foot on the first step and an extremely loud alarm goes off, pounding throughout the whole house. Takumi yelps and drops the ice cream, Leo looks like he might sink through the floorboards and Ryouma stands at the top of the stairs with a baseball bat.
"WHO'S THERE?!" he bellows.
"Uh, it's just us!" Takumi shouts, trying to disable the alarm.
"R-ryouma, whats going on?" Leo hears Sakura ask softly.
"Sakura, quick, go call the police, then wake up your brother and Leo!" Ryouma orders. Sakura nods, flustered, and scurries back to her room.
"I'm coming down now!" Ryouma warns, walking slowly down the stairs, gripping the baseball so hard his knuckles turn white.
"Ryouma! It's me!" Takumi exclaims in desperation. Leo stands there shivering.
Takumi finally manages to switch off the alarm.
He switches on the lights.
The three go silent.
"O-okay, please come as quickly as possible," a quiet voice says from upstairs, followed by the sounds of muffled loudspeaker.
"Oh god," Takumi groans.
"What are you two doing?" Ryouma asks, more surprised than angry.
"We just went downstairs to get some food!" Takumi explains.
"We're really sorry!" Leo mumbles, feeling like he's about to cry.
"...Go back to bed. Well talk about this tomorrow," Ryouma says out of pity.
Leo and Takumi nod furiously before retreating to Takumi's room as fast as possible.
"Jesus christ," is the first thing to be said, by Takumi.
"What the fuck," Leo agrees. Takumi hands him a spoon. Leo gives him a weird look before Takumi hands him the tub of ice cream.
Leo grins, then laughs, then cackles, Takumi joining in- the two roll around on the floor howling with laughter, tears in their eyes trying desperately to calm down.
They eventually do.
"Do you want clothes?"Takumi asks.
"Well if they're yours, i'm not so sure," Leo replies, only half joking.
He ends up with pokemon pyjamas. Leo giggles when he sees them.
"I can't believe you own those!"
But the tables are flipped when he actually changes into them in the corner and takumi can not stop laughing. Leo is only mildly embarrassed until Takumi takes a picture for his snapchat story.
"Don't post that!" Leo lunges for the phone.
"Okay, okay, I won't!" Takumi exclaims after Leo continues to wrestle him for the phone. Leo smirks as he watches Takumi press the delete button.
Takumi grins. Little did Leo know, he saved it on his phone.
They talk for a while about random shit, bitching about people in school and debating until they hear sirens outside the house.
Takumi groans, Leo sighs. Why oh why did Sakura have to call the police?
Takumi stands up from where he was lying on the floor and switches off the light, opening the curtains so at least the moon will light up the place.
"Best to pretend we're asleep," he explains.
Takumi somehow manages to find a sleeping bag in his very full, very messy and pitch black closet. He sets it out on the floor next to his bed.
"You can have the bed," he offers.
Leo shakes his head, then says
"I do not want to be pitied."
"I insist," Takumi replies.
And when Takumi insists, there's not much you can do but go along with whatever he wants.
"I'm not tired," Leo says, sitting up in Takumi's bed(which smells of the grey haired boy).
"Me neither."
Leo hauls himself up and sits on the floor, leaning against the bed frame, long legs pulled up to his chest.
Takumi rolls out of his sleeping bag and sits next to him.
"Its freezing," Takumi groans, and leo pulls the quilt off the bed, putting it over the two of them.
There's a silence as Takumi gradually leans further and further onto Leo, ending with his head pressed up against Leo's cold neck.
"Let's have a dmc," he suggests.
"A dmc?"
"A deep meaningful conversation," Takumi explains.
"Oh, I see. Well, i don't really know what to talk about then," Leo says.
Takumi knows very well what Leo could talk about(his father) but does not force it.
"Well, do you have any problems?" Takumi asks. Leo sighs.
"Of course I do."
"Like what?"
There's a pause before Leo speaks.
"Takumi, have you ever had a crush?"
Takumi's slightly taken aback but he thinks of his crush on Hinata in the 6th grade.
"Yeah," Takumi replies.
"Why do you ask?"
"...because I think I have one," leo says.
"Oh," Takumi breathes. He's not sure how he feels about Leo liking someone that's not him. Then he's very sure. He feels upset.
"I just don't know what to do," Leo mumbles..
"Niles is no help when it comes to romance and Owain only gives the cheesiest advice."
"Well, I don't know what to say to you as i've never gone out with anyone," Takumi laughs dryly.
"Neither have I. My dad would be so angry," Leo replies. Fear runs up Takumi's spine on mention of Leo's father.
"Why would he be angry?" Takumi asks but there's no response.
"Leo? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Leo replies, though he seems so far away.
Takumi decides to keep talking, maybe Leo just doesn't want to talk?
"Yeah, i've never had a boyfriend before but I've always wanted one. Once Oboro asked me out, but that's really all that's happened," Takumi rambles, not sure what he's saying.
"She and Kaden are dating now so it all worked out but i really didn't know how to turn her down at the time. Hinata had a crush on her too, so that was hard to deal with but it's all behind us now. And proms coming up isn't it? I have no idea what to do-"
"What did you just say?" Leo interrupts takumi's rambling.
"Oboro asked me out-"
"No, not that. Something about a boyfriend?" Leo asks. Takumi cringes when he realises he just accidentally outed himself.
"Yeah,I did say that," is all takumi can think to say.
"Are you gay?"
"...yes," Takumi replies.
"Um, that's good," Leo mumbles.
"What do you mean?" Takumi asks.
"Its nice that I have a friend I can relate with like this," leo says.
"So youre gay too?"
Leo nods. Takumi feels a new hope inside of him. Maybe he has a chance?
But wait, Leo likes someone.
"Who do you like anyway?" Takumi asks.
"Whydyou want to know?" leo retorts with a lopsided grin. Takumi scowls.
"You're so arrogant."
"Its charming, don't you think?"
Takumi elbows him in the ribs.