He honestly doesn't know when it started but it was getting on his damn nerves. Yes, he loves Jim, he really does, but not like that. The man is his annoying chipper best friend but they weren't a couple. Leonard had no idea that that was the way they appeared to people until the rumors reached his ears. First, it was Chapel.
"He's cute," she had said. "When did you meet?"
Then it was his mother when she came to visit him for Christmas. "I don't condone that sort of thing but if you're happy…"
The one that pissed him off was Jocelyn. "Keep your fuck buddy away from my baby."
Leonard had to do a double take at that because he wasn't seeing anyone. She thought he was lying when he pointed it out but she never listened to him much anyway. Nobody listened to him. Hell, Jim thought the whole thing was hilarious. Then, one day, it wasn't funny at all.
He was halfway into a night shift when a patient wheeled by with a familiar head of blonde hair. "Bones. I want Bones."
"Sir, we don't know who that is," one of the interns said.
"Me," Leonard told her. "That's me. What'd you do this time, Jimmy?"
"Andrei," his friend groaned. Pavel's dad was like the gift that keeps giving. "Cops got him for assault. Won't mess with Pasha for a while."
"The kid…"
"He's safe. With Gai," Jim muttered.
"You don't know when to quit, do ya?"
"Not my style."
"How's your boyfriend?" Chapel asked when Leonard walked out of the attendings' locker room.
"He's not… He's fine," Leonard smiled. There wasn't much point in trying to tell her that they were just friends. "You think you and the other nurses can keep an eye on him while I get some sleep?"
"Of course we can. He's your family, we got your back."
"Just wait until he asks for a sponge bath."
Chapel smiled, "He's cute, I doubt anyone would mind."