Cheap Sunglasses

by JayoftheSea

Because OF COURSE Leon would end up being interested in the one chick in the city who doesn't trip over her own panties for the guys on the team.

A/N: This is one of several in-progress fics that I have going. I decided to post what I have so far of all of them, mostly to gauge if there's even any interest in them before writing more. No promises on if or when I will continue any of them, but drop a review to let me know if you'd be interested in more.

_p_a_g_e_b_r_e_a_k_

Leon herds the last couple people out of the house and into a cab after another of their periodic ragers after races. There's a half dozen or so prominent teams on the scene, of which they are one, and they have a loose system of who hosts the afterparty based on what night of the week it is. Team Toretto, one of the ones that's based residential, takes either Friday or Saturday every second or third weekend, swapping around with the other teams that just have houses. Weekday races see them scattering from the cops and coalescing back at Hector's bar or Edwin's club, where they're less likely to see the cops for a second time that night for a noise complaint, plus it boosts the weeknight business for those places.

As the cab takes off to wherever, Leon surveys the extra tuner cars lining their street for the night, shaking his head a little. He knows, logically, that everyone feels safe leaving their cars basically in the care of the team long enough for them to sleep off their party and come back for it, but he could never do it. Maybe because he use to be a boost, maybe because his car in particular is so rare.

Turning, he heads back in, picking up a few beer bottles that had found their way into the front yard throughout the night as he goes, heading straight for the kitchen and pulling out one of the thick black garbage bags and unhurriedly beginning to clean up the aftermath. By the time one bag is full of bottles and tied shut, sitting by the back door to be taken out, Mia still isn't back and he wonders if it's gonna be one of the nights she stays out.

Not that anyone on the team but him will ever know, regardless.

This is their little secret, see. He covers for her being more of a party girl than Dom would ever allow if he realized, and she doesn't let slip to the guys or Letty that he isn't exactly the manwhore they expect him to be.

Not that he thinks there's anything wrong with Vince and Jesse having different girls over a few nights a week. More power to 'em. Whatever floats their boats.

Casual sex has just never really been Leon's thing. He has a rep for being a ladies man, and that ain't all wrong. He LOVES women. Talkin' to 'em, flirting. Yeah, and having sex. Just not that last part until he actually has some kind of connection with them. But, when he's told other dudes about that before, all he'd ever caught is shit, so he keeps that on the downlow these days.

He has a few girls around races that he's become pretty good friends with, and he'll hookup with them occasionally, mostly for the sake of Vince and Jesse not asking questions, but, most race nights, he offers to be one of the responsible ones, letting everyone else getting shitfaced, or otherwise be free to have fun while he makes sure the house doesn't get completely trashed, alongside Mia. Then, as soon as things start winding down a little - Dom's off to bed with Letty or otherwise distracted, and Vince is half shithoused or occupied with a girl - he'll give Mia a little shove and she'll quietly leave, heading out to a club or bar or other house party to have her own fun.

It's as he's hauling the two stuffed trash bags out to the cans that the car pulls up to the end of the drive, and he recognizes two of Mia's friends in the front. The one in the passenger seat gets out to help Mia out of the back and Leon quickly puts the lid back on the garbage can and jogs down the driveway to help.

The girl, Mandy, smiles at him tiredly as she sees him coming. "Thanks, I wasn't sure how I was going to get her inside without waking someone."

He grins back at her, knowing full well it's the one girls universally find sexy, and watching her shift slightly to show off the skimpy outfit she's in. "No sweat, babe. I got 'er." he says before moving past her, brushing closer than he really needs to, and leaning down into the car, carefully maneuvering the clearly passed-out Mia from the back of the sedan. Once he's standing with Mia in his arms, he says a quick goodbye to Mandy and nods into the car at the other friend, Sarah, before turning to walk back up the drive. He'd left the kitchen door open when he'd taken the trash out, so that'll be the easiest way in carrying an armload of unconscious girl.

The half bath downstairs is too small for him to get her into, and the bathroom upstairs is right next to Dom's room, so he carefully gets her upright next to the sink in the kitchen, holding her that way and shaking her, saying her name and telling her he needs her to wake up until she begins to rouse.

"Le?" she slurs confusedly.

"Yeah, sweetie. Mandy and Sarah brought you home." he tells her even as he turns them so she's standing in front of the sink, facing it.

"Why di'n't yo' pu' me ta bed?" she asks, blinking slowly at him.

"Cuz if I don't make you do this, you're gonna be extra miserable in the morning." he tells her.

"Do wha?" she asks just before he gives a sharp jab of his fingers inward over her stomach, just under her sternum. Mia goes ashen, and he does it again, making her double over and start retching into the deep sink, arms bracing herself on the edges instinctively.

As she empties her stomach of all contents, Leon, reaches over her and starts running the water to wash it all down the drain and cover the sound of her puking a little, knowing that Vince, Jesse, and the girls they have over might still up right below them. Once Mia is done and goes limp, though thankfully stays awake, he moves her into a chair at the little kitchen table. Family meals are at the dining room table, and this table only seats 2, so it's only used if one of them happens to be eating by themselves for some reason or another.

Once Mia's settled, Leon quickly gets her a glass of water, making her drink half of it right away and watching to make sure he doesn't need to get her back to the sink to throw up again before he leaves her to sip the rest of it. He finishes cleaning out the sink and refills her water before turning the tap off, then pops two pieces of bread into the toaster and grabbing the butter and her favorite apricot jam out of the fridge. Once the toast is made and speadson, he sets the plate down in front of her.

Mia makes a face at it. " 'mn't 'ungry."

"Well," Le says reasonably, "I'm gonna make you take some painkillers, and they're gonna make your tummy hurt if you don't take 'em with some food, so it least try to eat a little bit." Her intoxicated brain must remember the times she's refused to eat with painkillers in the past and she reluctantly picks up one of the pieces of toast. As he expected, once she has nibbled down a few bites, she realizes that she really is hungry, and starts eating more enthusiastically. Once the toast is gone, he sets two ibuprofen in front of her along with a freshly refilled glass of water, and she swallows the pills and drains the water quickly and without instruction, though some of the liquid does dribble out the side of her mouth and down her neck since she's less than coordinated at the moment.

"Bed now?" Mia asks once she's done.

"Yeah, sweetie, you can go to bed now. Think you can make it by yourself without waking up Dom, or you want me to carry you?" Leon asks fondly.

Mia's response is to throw her hands up like a toddler demanding to be picked up, and he chuckles, bending to put one arm behind her back, and the other under her knees, then lifting her easily and carrying her up to her bedroom. Once she's laying in bed, having already fallen asleep again by the time he'd gotten her upstairs, he gets to work gently taking her big hoop earrings out, slipping the bracelets and rings off her, and stowing all of it on her dresser, where she keeps her jewelry, before moving to take her strappy high heels off her feet, cursing the tiny buckles silently as he fumbles slightly with them before they will come undone. Those get dropped into the pile of shoes at the bottom of her closet, then he covers her with the quilt that's folded over the foot of the bed, not wanting to wake her trying to get her under her regular covers, and he's moving quietly back out to the hall, shutting her door, and is back downstairs, utterly unaware that he'd had an audience.

A few weeks later, on some random Tuesday, the shop is slow, and Leon gets the okay from Dom to take off for the afternoon instead of hanging around waiting for oil changes to roll in. Dom and Jesse are working on a full engine rebuild on a Toyota, while Letty is chasing some electrical issue on a Lincoln that the owner just won't give up on, and Vince had taken off to fuck knows where hours ago, not that he works in the garage full time anyway.

Unsure what to do with his unexpected afternoon free, Leon runs some errands he's been meaning to for awhile - getting new jeans that don't have grease stains and holes in them, stopping at the barber for a haircut, that type of shit - then realizes Jess's birthday is coming up and decides to hit up an electronics store. He knows for a fact no one except maybe Mia had even thought of getting Jesse anything yet. Mia will get him new clothes, because Jesse would otherwise not bother until his literally fell apart, and the rest will wait until the last moment then get him something car related, so Leon isn't worried about competition.

Leon stays well away from the main computer stuff, knowing that Jesse's franken-computers at both home and the shop are just as well-built as his franken-cars are, and there's no point in him even trying. Instead, he wanders toward the accessories. In all cases, this is where Jesse just doesn't give a crap. He'll build the best engine in the world, drop it in a car optimized to perfection mechanically, then leave a stock steering wheel and sound system in the thing. He doesn't consider those things important; so long as they do their job, he doesn't see the point in getting a better model.

Leon's looking at a high-end keyboard that lights up and shit when the voice sounds off from his left. "If that's what you're after, you're better off having one made custom." He looks over at the girl, his hand still on the display model. She's short, coming in somewhere around his lower chest, and on the bigger side. Enough that, in *this* city, a lot of people would probably call her fat, but most of the world would consider it the curvy side of average. The girl is pale for LA, and her hair is unnaturally black with thick chunks of red streaking it as it falls to her shoulders, with bangs cutting straight across just over her eyebrows. He sees her eyes are green, though much paler than his, and she appears to be studying him as much as he is her. Her black cargo shorts and tank top, and hightop Chuck Taylors, mark her as a fellow customer rather than an employee.

"I don't know much about this stuff. I'm birthday shopping for my best friend. He built a kick ass computer, but never bothered with a nice keyboard or mouse or anything." Leon says, interested in how the girl is reacting to him. Or, more to the point, not reacting. He knows it sounds conceited, but he's aware that he's a good-looking guy, and he's made a point to learn how to charm the ladies. Are there plenty out there who don't fall all over him? Sure. But they usually at least check him out a little. Not this girl. The way she had looked him over had been different. Almost… clinical.

"Well, those tend to short out after a few months. They're pretty up until that point, but not really worth throwing away $115." She explains, pointing at the keyboard he'd been examining. "If you're looking for flashy," she starts, pointing at a different one on the other side of aisle and a little further down, "you can have the store order that one in like six different colors, and the brand also makes matching mice, speakers, mouse pads, pretty much everything."

Turning to the one she indicated, Leon finds one that looks nicer than the basic, with a split down the middle that's supposed to be better for your hands or some shit and a bunch of extra keys. As she'd said, there's a little sign behind it that he probably wouldn't have noticed otherwise proclaiming "Available by special order in these colors!" above a handful of color blocks. Looking back to her, he says, "Thanks, I never woulda saw that."

"No problem." she replies simply before continuing on her journey down the aisle, passing behind him.

She's several feet past him when he finds himself speaking up again. "Hey!" he calls after her, prompting her to stop and turn back. "I been thinkin' about gettin' one o' those laptop things. Nothin' fancy, just somethin' I can use for writin' and maybe goin' on the internet, then put away without it takin' up a buncha room…. But I don't even know where to start. Think I could bribe some advice outta you with coffee?"

The girl looks at the thick canvas band on her wrist that he realizes is a watch and seems to evaluate something before looking back at him and answering, "Yeah, alright." and flagging down a store clerk that happens to be walking by an adjacent aisle at that moment, allowing Leon to quickly put in the special order for a full setup of that keyboard and the matching mouse and speakers in electric blue.

Soon, she's leading him over to the section dedicated to laptops. "So, why not ask your friend to help you?" she questions.

Leon laughs lightly. "If I told Jesse I was thinking about getting a computer, he'd build me one that could hack government shit. I just wanna use it for writin' and emailin' my mom. Surfing the net a little, without goin' to the library."

She laughs too. "Ah, yeah, I know plenty of THOSE computer geeks." Then, they're in the appropriate space, this time a little square of open space with ten or so different displays set up around the outside on long, high tables. There's a few other shoppers here, and the store clerk that must be stationed here specifically greets them before going back to helping a couple who seem to have a lot of questions.

Leon is led around to a few models, and she explains the differences between them in terms he is somewhat surprised he understands. He's not stupid, but computers aren't his thing. He supposes it's a combination of her realizing that and using fairly simple terms, and him having simply picked up more than he realized from being around Jess. Soon, Leon is taking her recommendation and asking the now-free clerk for one of the Sony Vaios that she says will fit his needs best and be a decent value.

Once he's carrying the big box, she leads him back to accessories, telling him that the touch-pad can be a pain in the ass and that he'll want a mouse to use when he feels like it, and asking if he wants to listen to music on it. When he responds that he has a pretty good stereo setup, she bypasses speakers, but picks him up a pack of blank cd's that she explains he should use for storing his word documents. "As a backup. You'll have plenty of memory for what you're doing, but if your hard drive ever crashes, you could lose all of it."

Much quicker than he'd thought, Leon is throwing down cash and ignoring the questioning looks from both the girl - whose name he really should ask for - and the cashier, and loading his haul out to the Skyline. He's closing the trunk as he realizes they'd walked out without her carrying anything for herself. "Did you need to go back in and get whatever you were here for? Sorry, I didn't mean to totally hijack your shopping trip."

She shrugs. "It's cool. I'm here all the time, and it wasn't important. I'll get it later." she tells him before turning to the coffee shop in the little strip mall off to the side of the parking lot.

As they walk he says, "So, you probably caught that my name's Leon from when I put in that order. Do I get to know your's?"

She snorts. "Only if you don't laugh at it."

"No promises." he says, already smirking.

"Blossom." There's a small amount of disdain in her voice, and he glances over as they walk to see her nose slightly scrunched up. He chokes back the laugh. "Told you." she says, pulling open the door and waiting for him to grab it before preceding him inside.

The place is somewhat busy, and they get in the short line to order. "You go by a middle name or somethin'?" he asks, trying to be diplomatic.

"My hippie mom decided I didn't need one." she explains. "I'm plenty old enough to change it, but I've never been able to decide what to change it to." They move forward and order quickly, and he's surprised and a little disappointed when she orders a simple black coffee instead of the stereotypical girly froufrou shit that his female friends generally get. While he can't get through a whole order of the overly sweet drinks himself, he likes taking sips off his friends' drinks between his regular coffee. As they sit at an empty table to with their paper cups and he stirs in a couple packets of sugar, Blossom continues their previous conversation. "My last name's not much better. MacDonald."

Leon smiles behind his cup. "Yeah, I can imagine some of the crap you probably got growing up with a name like that."

Blossom sighs. "Yeah, but I suppose it's better than it could've been. Plenty of hippies in LA, so it's not like weird names are all that uncommon." She pauses to take a large gulp of her coffee. "Anyway, you can call me Blossom, or Mac."

"Think I'll wait til I know you a little better and find a nickname that fits ya." Leon says decisively.

He watches her eyebrow go up. "What makes you think you're going to get to know me any better?" she questions.

"You're here, having coffee with me and talking, when you coulda easily told me to fuck off and ask a store clerk, or even helped me and taken your coffee to go. We just had a conversation about your name, and you told me your full name. When I ask for your number in case I have any questions about the laptop, you're gonna give me that too. You're as curious about me as I am about you." his tone is surprisingly matter of fact.

She studies him for a moment before shrugging one shoulder and saying,"Yeah, fair enough." and reaching into one of the pockets of her long cargo shorts and fishing around for a moment before pulling out a cell phone. It's a cheaper model than his flip-phone, and he thinks it's one of the pay-and-go options, but can hardly judge. The only reason he can afford his is because he is on an illegal street racing team and the team's collective earnings pay for all their cell phones. "Number." she demands after pressing a few keys, he assumes to pull up her address book. He gives it to her and, a moment later, his own phone is chirping. He hits the button to silence it and she hangs up as he saves her number in his own address book.

"So, Leon, obviously you're a tuner with a car like that. You've already admitted to being a writer. What else do you do with your time?" and so they spend an hour and a second cup of coffee getting to know each other a bit. He tells her he's a mechanic, and, when she flat out asks, quietly admits that he's on a street racing team. She informs him that she knows only the basics about cars, relatively speaking. She can drive and do maintenance and repairs on her own, and obviously spot nice ones, but is otherwise only really interested in them insomuch as she needs to be to go about her life. He finds out she's a bartender three nights a week at one of the tourist traps on Sunset strip and works a couple days a week at a computer repair shop, and she eventually admits that she occasionally does a some hacking for the sake of keeping her skills sharp, "but I'm no pro or anything - just little stuff."

It's nearly 5 when she points out the time, saying she should get going because she had promised a friend she'd have dinner with her that evening, and they throw their paper cups in the trash can by the door as they walk out. She stops in the parking lot by an older model S10 Blazer, and he thinks that the small SUV suits her. Leon pulls her in for a friendly hug without thinking and is glad when she returns it briefly before thanking him for the coffee and turning to unlock the door as he moves to continue toward his own car.

In his car, Leon pulls out his phone and calls Mia, warning her he won't be home for dinner. He's halfway across town and it's rush hour, no way is he making it home in time. She offers to save him a plate, and he insists he'll just stop somewhere and eat while he waits out the traffic a little.

That done, he pulls out and finds a nearby diner that isn't too busy and doesn't look like it'll give him food poisoning, parking again and going in, posting up at an empty stool at the counter instead of a table. As he slowly eats through the club sandwich and fries, he thinks about the afternoon and tries to figure out why he is so drawn to Blossom.

Several more weeks roll by, and they talk on the phone a couple times a week, meeting up once or twice a week for dinner, or breakfast, or coffee depending on when both of them are open.

Initially, the team don't notice much. They all have other friends, after all. No one can work with, live with, AND socialize with the same 5 people 24/7 without wanting to kill each other. But, generally, most of their friends are at least somewhat involved in the racing scene, so they are all at least passingly familiar with each other, so, eventually, they begin to realize they don't know who he's spending so much time with.

"Ain't none o' yer business." Leon grumbles around a toothpick as he and Letty work on a transmission one day.

Letty's expression stays carefully neutral as she quietly says, "Well, I just think you gotta be careful spending so much time with other chicks and also whatever this thing you got goin' with Mia is."

Leon turns to stare hard at her. "What exactly do you think is going on between me and Mia?" he questions.

She rolls her eyes a little. "C'mon, bro, me and Dom are right across the hall. One of was bound to catch you comin' outta her room eventually. You're lucky it was me."

Leon laughs, low and dark. "Girl, you got no damn idea what you're talkin' about."

"Why don't you enlighten me then?" her tone is disbelieving.

Still working, Leon glances around, making sure Dom is still in the office and Vince hasn't left the far bay where he's on a creeper under a beat up hatchback. "Mia parties a lot harder than you guys realize. I don't party nearly as hard as you think. I just make sure she gets to bed." Letty's expression is still skeptical, so he continues. "Seriously, Let, she's like my baby sister too. I'm just the cool older brother who lets her have fun and takes care of her after instead of the one who treats her like she's still 6."

Something in his expression must be sincere enough for her satisfaction, and she nods before they both turn back to their work. The conversation is over, but it has started him thinking about things he'd rather not.

That night, he pushes food around his plate more than he eats, and he begs off watching a movie to instead go down to his room. Everyone gives him weird looks and Mia asks if he's alright, to which he replies that he's just tired before he retreats down to the basement. He tries to sit down and write a little on the story he's working on, but ends up staring at the cursor for a hour before he gives up and sets the laptop aside, and leaning over to pull out the bottom drawer of the night stand instead.

Pulling out the box there, he hesitates briefly before opening it. Inside is all he has left of Laurie, his little sister, who had died… fuck, nearly 6 years ago.

He pulls out the stack of mixed paper and photos, going through them slowly. Pictures of her and them as kids mingle with handmade birthday cards and saved dance recital programs. She'd been on the tall side of average, like him, and willowy from ballet, with long, dark blonde hair, and a constant tan from their home town of Miami. She'd be a few months younger than Mia.

He just keeps looking at the photos and remembering her, listening as Vince and Jesse eventually come down and go to bed. Around 1, Leon gives up on sleeping, slipping his shoes back on and creeping out of the house, glad his car isn't blocked in as he pulls out slowly, not wanting to gun it and wake half the block.

There's no traffic at this time of night, so it's only 1:30 when he pulls into the parking lot next to the bar on Sunset that Blossom works at. It's Thursday, so she's working. The bouncer doesn't charge him a cover when he walks in, only warning him that last call is in 15 minutes and they close in 45, and he simply nods, walking through the thinning crowd toward the section of bar where he sees the familiar hair.

That's pretty much all about her that's familiar. In this setting, she's dressed to impress, which makes sense, since most of her take-home is tips. Used to seeing her in loose, casual clothes with little or no makeup on, he doesn't know what he thinks of the painted-on leather pants, chunky high-heeled boots, corset top that shows off plenty of cleavage, and face full of makeup that exaggerates her already pretty features to a point just shy of obscene.

"Hey you!" she says over the music, surprised to see him, but leaning over the bar to plant a kiss on his cheek with her red-painted lips. "Can I getcha a drink?" she asks, collecting a couple signed receipts and pens that have been left from people paying their tabs.

"Nah, doll, just came to see if you're busy after work?" he says, crossing his arms and leaning on them on the bartop.

She looks him over, raising an eyebrow as she senses something is obviously off. "Nah. Hang out while I finish up." Blossom says before moving to have a conversation he can't hear with the other woman behind the bar. The other woman looks at him and grins, saying something back to Blossom, who rolls her eyes before coming back to her section and moving to the computerized till to begin entering tips from the credit card receipts she'd collected throughout the night. She chats lightly at him about her night at work between handing people their tabs and cleaning and starting to close down her till. Eventually, the bouncers start moving around to escort the last stragglers out, and, as one gets to him, Blossom turns and says, "He's with me, Joey." causing the other man to nod and bypass him, walking instead to another guy further down the bar who didn't seem to want to relinquish his drink.

As soon as her till is done and he sees her stuff a wad of cash in a pocket, she yells a thanks down the bar, and the other bartender waves her away. Blossom comes around the end of the bar to join him and they exit, one of the bouncers unlocking the door to let them out and locking it again behind them. "I don't have you owing her for life or somethin', do I?" Leon asks as they make their way to the parking lot.

Blossom laughs. "Nah, I let her go early and handle cleanup by myself all the time. It's about damn time she repaid the favor. Now, what's up? Don't you have to work tomorrow?"

Leon shrugs. "Yeah… couldn't sleep."

As if she can sense his reluctance to talk out in the open, Blossom says, "Ok, well, follow me back to my place, then. We can hang out." and they split for their separate cars.

He doesn't know where he'd expected her to live, but, somehow, Los Feliz wasn't it. Nestled at the base of the hills, the moderately sized house looks older, but well-taken-care-of, much like her car.

Once they are parked in the driveway, she leads him in the front door, which opens into the living room. Blossom unzips her boots and kicks them off carelessly under a small bench next to the door. "I'm gonna go hop in the shower real quick, get the smell of booze off me." She points through a wide doorway, where he can see a table and chairs on a tile floor. "Kitchen's through there, plenty of beer and soda and snacks, help yourself. Remote's on the coffee table, or feel free to have a go at the record collection if you prefer music." waving at the electronics on the far side of the living room.

"A'ight." he says, already moving to inspect the records as she turns to go up the half-stairway on the other side of the door that leads to the 'back' of the house that is on the uphill side. The record collection is eclectic, and he picks a Motown record that reminds him of his childhood and settles it on the turntable before taking a look around the room. There's an odd mix of stuff. The comfy-looking, tan, sectional couch is obviously new in the last few years, but the tv and stereo both look straight outta 1993, and the coffee and end tables look like they coulda been from his grandma's house in the '70s. Moving to the wall with several pictures hung up in mismatched frames, he sees a girl that can only be Blossom at varying ages, often with an older boy that he assumes must be the older brother she's mentioned in passing a couple times, and her mother, who she looks quite like.

True to her word, it's barely 5 minutes before she reappears, this time from the direction of the kitchen, once again looking as he knows her, fresh-faced and casual, with two bottles of water in one hand, and a bag of what he thinks is cut-up veggies in the other, and a bowl with a bottle of ranch dressing in it. "Sorry, I always need to snack after work."

"It's cool." Leon says, joining her as she sits on the cushy couch. He cracks open both waters, taking a couple gulps off one as she squirts a bunch of ranch into the bowl and open the ziplock bag of carrot and celery sticks, settling both easily on the cushion between them. "So, I saw you make decent money at the bar, but how the hell do you afford this place?" he asks.

Blossom smiles somewhat sadly between bites off a celery stick. "It's the family home. Well, what's left of the family, anyway, which means it's mine." When that doesn't seem to clear it up, she nods over at the pictures he'd been looking at a minute before. "Dad was some producer. Not big name, but did well enough to buy this place. Left us when mom was pregnant with me, she got it in the divorce. Mom died when I was 12. My brother, Noah, was 19, so he got the house, used mom's life insurance to pay what was left of the mortgage and set up a small trust fund for me - supposed to be for college, but I never went-, and took custody of me. He became a firefighter, and was killed in the line of duty, trying to save a little boy, when I was 16." She meets Leon's eyes again, and he knows he must look like he regrets asking. "It's okay. I'm… not over it, exactly, but it doesn't hurt so much to talk about it anymore. It's been almost 8 years since Naoh died, and about 12 now, since mom."

"Maybe I'll get to that point one day." Leon says without thinking. Blossom stops chewing for a split second as she realizes what he means before she continues, and he's beyond glad she isn't making a thing of it. Maybe…. She's lost a sibling. Maybe he can talk to her about it. "Letty confronted me today, thought I had a thing goin' on with Mia." He'd told her plenty about his team before, so he doesn't have to explain who either woman is. "I had to explain that I see Mia like my little sister, and that I'm just the cool big brother that actually lets her live her life and just makes sure she's okay when she comes home from a party totally shithoused, y'know?" It's not really a question, but she nods as she picks up a carrots stick and swipes it through the dressing. "But it got me thinking about my actual little sister, Laurie." at this Leon slumps back against the couch, tipping his head back and running a hand through his hair. "I was absolutely NOT the cool older brother with her. I was the hard ass. Just like Dom and Vince are with Mia."

He pauses long enough here that Blossom wonders if he'll keep going. "What happened?" she prompts softly.

Leon shifts so he's leaning forward, elbows propping him up on his knees. "Dad worked nights, so I still stayed at home a lot to keep her company. One night in her Junior year, she snuck out to a party on the other side of town. I was pissed, didn't know where she was, couldn't find any o' her friends. Then…. Then I get a call from the police at like 3 o'clock in the morning. She's on her way to the ER. Car crash. She was…. gone before I got there." he stops and has to take several deep breaths. He hasn't really thought about this in a long time, much less told anyone. "One of her friends that was with her was fine though. Bumps and bruises…. Said that they didn't know the kid whose car it was, that was driving. Their ride ditched them, and Laurie was too scared to call me to come pick 'em up, so they'd just got in the car with the first person they could find who was heading back to our part of town. Had no idea he was high as a fuckin' kite. He wrapped 'em around a telephone pole."

Blossom silently moves her food to the coffee table and scoots closer, wrapping an arm around him and rubbing his shoulder. "So, now you're the cool brother so Mia is never scared to call you if she needs you."

"Yeah." his voice is rough, and she's sure he's trying not to cry, if the slight shaking is any indication. "It's so hard not to forget sometimes…. They're so much alike, it's almost scary. Same age, all kindsa sweet and caring but with this wild streak…. They even kinda look alike."

"You ever told them all this?"

A slow head shake. "Nah. Only Jess knows about Laurie, and even then, just…. Just that she died." Blossom refrains from pointing out that if Jesse is half the hacker she suspects, he has probably read, at the very least, the police reports.

Deciding to close the subject for now, she looks at the clock on the wall to find it's after 3:30. "What time you gotta be at work tomorrow, hun?"

"9:30 or 10. Dom's not real strict about start time, long as it ain't too late." He responds, not particularly wanting to go home, and hoping she isn't about to kick him out.

His prayers are answered as she instead gives his back a final rub and stands, taking her snack back into the kitchen, returning empty-handed a minute later, moving to lock the door. "Come on, you're staying here tonight." He gets up to follow her up the stairs, pausing only to kick off his sneakers at the door, where there's a small pile of her shoes.

At the top of the short staircase, it's a turn into a hall, which has three doors on one side and two on the other, and at the opposite end of the hall it looks like another staircase going down, which he assumes leads to the kitchen side of the house. The first door is right at the top of the stairs they'd come up and is standing open to show a half-bath as they walk past it to the second and only other door on that side.

Stopping outside the open door, Blossom turns to him. "You can sleep in one of the spare rooms if you want," she gesture to two of the doors on the other side of the hall, "or you can come in and snuggle with me. Either way, I'll set an alarm and make sure you're up in time to have breakfast and get to work."

Leon actually considers it for a half second before he realizes there's no choice and follows her into her bedroom, which he realizes must be the master. It's roomy. The bed is a queen, with twisted, wrought-iron head- and footboards, and the dressers, bedside tables, and her vanity table are a matching dark wood. Off to one side is a massive bookcase, with a small sofa and table, and he spots both a walk-in closet and a bathroom. It's somehow much more 'her' than the living room.

His attention is recaptured as she pulls the blankets on the bed down on sits to set her alarm clock. While he'd been looking around, she'd stripped off the sweats she'd come down in after her shower, leaving her in panties and a tank top, and he checks out her bare legs briefly before moving to the other side of the bed and stripping down to his boxers, crawling in at the same time she moves to lay down, and Leon pulls the blankets over both of them as she turns off the bedside lamp.

They've known each other for a couple months now, and had determined quickly that they are both very physically affectionate people, so there's no awkwardness as they settle on their sides facing each other. Blossom simply wraps a leg over his, pulling his thigh between hers, adjusting until their legs are tangled together, and snuggles into his chest while his arms wrap around her back.

As they relax against each other, the emotions of the day and night creep over Leon, and his arms tighten around his friend as he feels tears leaking. Having expected this, Blossom moves one of her own arms around his waist, rubbing his back gently as he starts shaking, finally giving in to the emotional release that he's probably needed for awhile.

When the alarm goes off at 8:30, Blossom rolls over just long enough to silence it before resuming her position laying half on top of Leon. She knows from the outside they must be a slightly comedic sight; him on his back barely awake, with her splayed out across his chest while he glares very confusedly at the cat that is perched on his stomach, disturbingly close to the morning wood he's sporting, watching them.

"The fuck?" Leon grumbles, making her giggle. Knowing they need to get up, she pulls back from him again, slower this time with an alarm blaring that needs to be shut up, copping a feel on the way, which pulls Leon's attention from the cat to her. She knows she must look a mess, her tank top twisted halfway around her torso and hair mussed and probably sticking up in different directions, but he doesn't seem to care. He just checks her out as he sees her in this new way, same as he had been for weeks, and she feels weirdly confident for not being out of bed yet.

Grabbing the cat as she climbs out of bed, she talks to it. "Come on, Potato, let's let Leon take a shower and we'll go work on breakfast." Cat securely under one arm, she grabs her sweats with her free hand and saunters out of the room. Brain beginning to function, Leon realizes that the cat, a mottled brown and tan in color and on the round side, does look rather like a potato, and smirks at the name before getting up and moving toward the bathroom he'd spotted last night.

In there, he finds a delectable looking, deep old-style claw-foot tub, and suddenly knows he'll be around here more. Baths have always been his secret guilty pleasure, and the only bathtub in the Toretto house can barely fit one of the girls in it, forget him. He has a sudden flash of him and Blossom snuggling in the bath and pushes away both it and the thought that he's in deeper than he realized, instead turning on the taps to get the water warm before pulling the tab to reroute the water up to the shower head, stepping out of his boxers, climbing in, and pulling the curtain. The image, however, persists, and he is forced to handle his morning wood the long way before turning to the shelves mounted to the wall, filled with various bottles. There's a surprisingly large variety there, even for a chick's bathroom, and he sorts through them until he finds shampoo that smells like mint and herbs and nothing girly so he doesn't catch shit from the guys all day.

Once he's done, he regretfully turns off the water and opens the curtain, stepping out onto the cushy bath mat and grabbing a towel from the stack on the shelves over the toilet and drying off quickly. Within a few minutes, he's redressed in yesterday's clothes and heading out, the opposite direction from the one they'd come up last night, finding he'd been correct, the other stairs do lead down to the kitchen, though they also double back on themselves and keep going down to somewhere else as well.

'More to explore later,' he thinks, glancing down the continuing stairs even as he moves into the open kitchen and dining area, where Blossom has a couple pans on the stove, and Potato and another cat are over by the fridge eating their breakfast. Before he can say anything, the coffee maker sputters that it's done, and he moves over to it before Blossom can. The cabinet doors are all glass fronted, so it's easy to find mugs, and he pours each of them one, leaving hers black and plain until she says, "There's some creamer in the fridge, can you put some in mine? Help yourself if you want it."

The bottle he finds proclaims it to be hazelnut mocha, and he decides it sounds good, pouring a dollop in both their cups before setting one by the stove for her and asking if he can help with anything.

"Nah, it's almost done. Grab two plates?" he does so, leaving them in a spot she can easily grab to plate them up when she's ready. "Sorry about this morning, I know I'm a troll when I first wake up."

As a dude with a lot of female friends, he knows it's hard for them to feel pretty in their society anyway, but she had spent her whole life to date in the epicenter of the mainstream media storm that drives the impossible standard, and doesn't conform. He'd be amazed if she wasn't at least somewhat insecure. She's stirring the scrambled eggs, and he says, "Eh, you looked like a cute, sleepy kitten." lightly, causing her to pause briefly before smiling and continuing.

The comparison had been made offhandedly, but he thinks about it as they eat and realizes it's more than accurate. She's semi-nocturnal, prone to random bursts of energy around whatever happens to catch her attention, followed by So Many Naps. While she is very affectionate, she's rather picky about who she likes and is affectionate with. They'd become close fast, but her group of friends is very select. And, while he'd yet to see her lose her temper, there is something in the way she carries herself that makes him think that this little kitty has some claws.

By the time breakfast is done, it's almost 9, and Blossom rinses the dishes and pans quickly before loading them into the dishwasher, then joining him by the front door, where he's sitting in the bench and pulling on his sneaks. Once he's done, she pulls him up and into a hug, tighter than normal, which he returns. When they pull apart, it's only partway. Her arms are still loosely around his neck, and one of his still loops around her waist, while the other hand comes up to cup her face, thumb running across the soft skin near her mouth. He knows what they both want to happen right now, but he doesn't think he'll be able to stop at a kiss, and he really does need to get to work.

So, instead, Leon asks, "What're you doin' Monday night, kitten?"

Blossom's brow furrows, but he doesn't know if it's because of the question or her new nickname. "Um, probably just hangin' out here?"

Smirking down at her, he asks, "Let me take you out to dinner?"

It takes her a moment before comprehension dawns and she actually blushes. There's a nod, and her mouth forms the word 'yeah', but no sound comes out. He takes it, brushing a kiss on her forehead before pulling away and opening the door. She stands in the open doorway, waving as he pulls out.

He gets to the garage half an hour later, having taken surface streets and avoid the worst of the morning rush hour. Being Friday, Vince is there. It's one of the days he typically is, to help them crank out the day's work so they can all have to to prep their cars for races that night. Jesse is folded in half and waist-deep in an engine compartment and doesn't hear Leon come in, so it's Vince that asks, "Where the fuck did you disappear to?"

"Gosh, mom, I'm 25 now, do I really still need to ask permission before I go out?" is Leon's sarcastic non-response. In the next bay over, Letty laughs, while Dom shakes his head ruefully as he walks by carrying two cases of oil in from the store room in back.

That night, races are broken up after only one heat, and Leon's glad it's an off week for them to host the afterparty, knowing that they will be on again in a different part of the city the next night. Tonight's party is at the Tran compound, and tensions between Team Tran and Team Toretto are high, so Dom orders everyone to be on their best behavior and stay sober. Be social, but make sure they're good to drive if they need to. Letty seems the most tense about it, as she always is when dealing with the Trans. It's no secret that, during one of her and Dom's semi-regular 'off again' stints, Dom has had a fling with Tran's sister, and turned down what could have been a lucrative business deal in the same time frame. She was glad about him turning down the deal, not so much that he'd fucked the sister, who she now had to put up with on a somewhat regular basis.

Normally, they don't go to the Tran parties, and the Trans don't come to theirs, but there are appearances to be kept up, so each team makes a periodic and calculated exception.

They stay and mingle for an hour before piling back into the Maxima and the Jetta - the two cars with the most room - which they had ridden over in as a group, and heading home to call it a night fairly early. Once he's holed up in his room, Leon pulls out his laptop and plugs in the cable he'd asked Jesse to run into his room. Jess had freaked to find out Le had gotten a computer without consulting him, and Leon had had to edit the truth slightly, saying he'd been shopping for Jess's birthday present and it had been a whim thing. When Jesse had started talking about modding it, he'd gently, but also firmly, said that it has everything he needs, and just asked the younger man to get him internet access in his room. Jesse had looked like a kicked puppy, but, the next day, a long cable had appeared, running from the modem in Jesse's room tucked between the carpet and the wall out of his room, into Leon's and over to the bed, with several feet of slack to allow for Le to switch up where exactly he's sitting.

Uninspired to write at the moment, he writes an email to his mom, who still lives in Miami with her third husband, then surfs the net for awhile. He's man enough to admit that he's waiting for it when it happens, and as soon as the little ding sounds and the Yahoo! Messenger program sends a little bubble popup in the corner of the screen informing him that Blossom is online, he grins to himself and clicks it, IMing her.

skyleon95: Hey Kitten. How was ur day?

macblossom: Not bad. Urs?

Her reply is uncharacteristically short.

skyleon95: Wuts wrong?

macblossom: Just sum asshole wrk. nbd.

She's in the customer service industry, and has been for years. Whatever this dude had said must've been pretty bad to get under her skin.

skyleon95: nbd my ass. Wut he say?

macblossom: Nothing new. Lose 40lbs or ill die alone. Get a nose job and an eye lift. Gave me a card 4 his wifes plastic surgeon.

Leon has to take a moment to force himself to calm down. He doesn't know who the dude is, and, even if he did, Leon tracking him down and beating the shit out of him would only make more trouble and upset her more.

skyleon95: All bullshit, babe. You're fucking gorgeous.

When a reply doesn't seen to be forthcoming, he keeps typing.

skyleon95: i cant wait 4 monday. have the perfect restaurant picked out. u like seafood right? i remember u eating fish so i assumed. dont wear heels. its on the beach so i thought we could find somewhere quiet and sit after. i kno sand & heels dont mix.

This time, she does respond.

macblossom: how dressed up shld i get?

skyleon95: /shrug not black tie but not jeans. basically w/e you wld wear 4 a 1st date 2 a nice restaurant & a walk on the beach ;-p

macblossom: ok. gtg 2 bed now. some1 had 2 get up early this mrng & i only got 4 hrs of sleep ;-)

Satisfied he's at least cheered her up, Leon realizes he's fucking tired, too.

skyleon95: ok. sweet dreams, kitten.

macblossom: idk abt sweet. prbly more like hot & spicy. u 2 tho.

And she logs off before he can formulate a comeback. Great. Now he's exhausted and sporting a halfy thinking about her having sexy dreams, presumably about him. Disconnecting himself, he shuts his laptop and slides it under his bed, where it lives when he's not using it. Now that the thoughts are there, he can't kick them, and he stares down at his now fully-hard dick in slight annoyance. Pushing down his boxers, he reaches into the drawer of his night stand for his lube, resigned that sleep's going to have to wait a few more minutes, and that those minutes aren't going to be nearly as satisfying as he wants them to be.

5:30 Monday evening finally rolls around, and when Dom calls quittin' time, Leon's the first one to his car, aware that the Jesse, Letty and Dom are all staring after him wondering what the fuck is going on. He parks on the street outside the house so he doesn't get blocked in and jogs inside, blowing straight past Vince, who's sitting in the living room, without so much as a 'hey', simply going down to their 'cave' and stripping to hop straight into the shower. Once all the grease and sweat is gone, he gets out, combs his hair back, and carefully shaves his scruff back into a goatee before moving back to his room and rubbing some aftershave on before pulling out his seldom-used-anymore black slacks and a simple, blue, button-down shirt. Once he's dressed, shirt tucked in and all, he rolls the sleeves up just past his elbows, both to make it look less formal and because he knows he'll get too hot and uncomfortable with them down around his wrists.

After pulling his dress shoes on, he's on his way backup the stairs by a few minutes to 6. The reservation isn't until 7:30, and he's not due to pick up Blossom until 6:45, but you can never predict traffic in LA, and he doesn't want to be late.

Mia is already cooking dinner as he emerges from the basement, and she catches sight of him, saying, "Whoa, Le, hot date?" teasingly, prompting Dom and Letty, who are there talking to her while she cooks, to turn and look at him as well.

Leon grins. "Yeah. Took me months to work up the balls to ask her out. Don't wait up." he registers the slight shock on all their faces as he turns to head back out the front door he'd just blasted in through barely more than 20 minutes previously, not even acknowledging Vince and Jesse, who are sucked into some shoot-em-up game on the PlayStation, knowing he won't get a response.

Back in the kitchen, Letty points after him, asking, "Was he serious?"

Dom raises an eyebrow and says "He was wearing slacks and loafers. I'm pretty sure he was serious."

Mia gets over the shock first. "Well, it's about damn time." she states as she goes back to chopping up potatoes and throwing them in the pot of water.

"Whatya mean?" Dom questions. "You knew he was into someone? Since when are you two that close?"

Mia rolls her eyes. "Well, he's pretty much the only one of you that bothers to talk about anything except cars, so yeah, we talk. And I didn't exactly KNOW he was into someone. I mean, he's always had a lot of female friends, but, lately, it seems like he's only really been talking to one a lot, but he hasn't really told me much about her. So, it's more like I SUSPECTED he was into her."

"Well, what do you know? Give us the scoop." Letty demands.

"She has some hippie name. Flower or Petal or something like that. He mentioned that she hates it, but can't decide what to change it to. She's a bartender. I don't know where." When they both make noises for her to go on, she says, "Seriously, guys, that's all I got. And that's only because I happened to catch him drunk at a party staring at his phone, waiting until it was late enough to call her so she'd be off work."

The couple absorbs the minimal intel for a moment before Dom sums up their reaction. "Well, damn."

Leon arrives at her house in Los Feliz 5 minutes early, and jumps out of his car excitedly to go kock on the door. It's opened surprisingly fast, and he's smiling down at her, silently vowing to take her out to do stuff that has her in dresses more often.

"Hey, beautiful," he greets her as she lets him in.

"Perfect timing. There's two little clasps at the top of the zipper of this thing that I can never get- do you mind?" Blossom asks, turning her back to him in the entryway. The dress, like most of her clothing, is black. The dark cotton is held up by two thick straps, and hugs deliciously around her fantastic tits, then there's another strip of fabric that cinches in just under them, making them look even bigger than they are anyway, and making the skirt just float gently around her down to her knees. It's simple and very fucking hot, and Leon takes his time running his fingers under the hem of the dress in back as he slowly hooks the clasps she'd asked him to. She's not wearing a bra, and he restrains himself from saying 'fuck the reservations' and hauling her upstairs.

"All done, kitten," he says lowly once the task is complete, smirking as he sees the slight shiver go down her. Her hair is pulled back in some twist he doesn't know the name of and she has on makeup, but thankfully it is much less than she wears for work. This close to her, he can smell perfume, too, which he knows she doesn't wear much, and the dark, musky, slightly flowery scent melds perfectly with the smell of *her* that has haunted his fantasies the last few nights since spending the night in her bed.

Leon watches Blossom step into some sandals that he thinks look like very well-disguised flipflops - they're leather and have a bunch of straps and she pulls a couple to hook behind her heel, but they're still basically flipflops. His next little shock comes as she leans over to the bench next to the door and picks up a handbag. She had never carried one in front of him before, simply having her wallet and cell in her pockets. But, then, her dress doesn't appear to have pockets, so the bag makes sense.

"Ready?" she asks, prompting him to step out the door he'd come in a minute earlier, and he waits for her to close up before taking her hand for the short walk to his car. She smiles and blushes prettily.

He has a moment of self-consciousness on the ride over when he glances her direction and sees her inspecting the interior of the car with a critical eye. "So, whatya think?" he asks in what he hopes is a casual way.

"It's very… you." she says with a half-smile. "How'd you get a Skyline, anyway? I know fuck all about imports, but even I know they're rare stateside."

Leon chuckles. "Back in Miami… actually just a few weeks before Laurie… died… there was this rich little daddies boy who thought he was a racer, paid a kuckton of money to get this thing imported. Dumbass thought he could just show up to a race with everything on it stock and win, just because it's a Skyline." She joins him in laughing. "Anyway, he has the cash to put up for the race, but I know, I can see it, if I can push the right buttons, he'll throw down his slip. So I do, and he does, and, of course, I beat the shit outta him, because my 240sx was most definitely NOT stock and I'm pretty sure he'd never really raced before. They do it different in Miami - courses, instead of straightaways, lots more room for fucking up. Anyway, I broke down my 240, used all the parts I could for this to get me started, sold what I couldn't. Then Laurie was gone, and I couldn't stay there. Raced my way across the south, eventually landed in Santa Fe. Took Jesse all of 3 hours to hear there was a Skyline in town, track me down, and convince me he could build me a better engine than anyone else. He was right, but before he could get started on it, his pops got busted for corporate espionage and sent to prison, so me and Jesse took off together, landed here. I started out in small races to get the cash we needed for parts, built up a rep, eventually caught Dom's attention. Nearly 5 years later, Team Toretto is dominating, and here we are."

They drive in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Blossom speaks again. "I suppose I should really start fixing up grandpa's GTO like Noah wanted. It's just been sitting in the garage wasting away since Naoh died. I just…. Every time I went out there, it's like I could see Noah tinkering with something on it, and it just hurt too much, so I just closed everything up."

"GTO? What year?" Leon asks. By her own admission, she is not terribly interested in cars, so this is a rare conversation for them. If he starts rambling about them, she'll keep it up, but she has never initiated it before.

"1970." There's a pause and she laughs slightly. "Mom always called it grandpa's 'Mid-Life Crisis Car'." Leon joins her laughter. "I never knew him, he died when Noah was little, but Grandma kept it in storage, thinking that Noah might want it someday if he was interested in cars. And boy was he. I was actually really surprised when he became a firefighter instead of a mechanic. I never really knew grandma either, she died when I was a baby, but Noah was 10 by then and had already decided he wanted the car, and mom and dad were divorced, so mom brought the GTO to the house for him to start fixing up when he got old enough."

"How far'd he get?" Leon asks when she trails off.

Blossom gets a little more subdued. "Not very. By the time he was old enough for a job to pay for parts and was in shop class to get some of the skills, mom was sick, and he was taking care of us, then, when she was gone, he had to fight really hard to keep custody of me. He never said, but I think the firefighter thing had to do with that- civil servant looks better to a judge than blue collar laborer when you're trying to keep custody of your pre-teen sister instead of her going to live with the father she's never even met." They're pulling into the parking lot now, and he's glad for it as he whips into the first open spot somewhat near the doors and throws the brake before grabbing her hand and giving it a squeeze. She squeezes back and gives him a smile that is somewhat dim, but genuine. "But, I shouldn't be bringing the mood down like this. Jeez. No wonder I've never managed to have a real relationship."

They get out of the car and he clicks the alarm system even as he takes her hand again. "What does that mean?"

Blossom shrugs. "I mean, I've dated before, here and there, but no one has ever stuck around for more than a few months."

"Hey, their stupidity is working out pretty good for me," Leon says, pulling the door open as they reach it and ushering her in. They're a little early, but the place isn't too busy and their table is ready, so they get seated right away.

Once they have water and menus, she asks, "What about you?" Leon looks up from his menu in question. "Any crazy ex wives I should be concerned about popping up?" she jokes.

He snorts, looking back down, but answers. "Nah. Was with my high school sweetheart for almost 3 years, had another girlfriend for about a year and a half after high school, but, since I've been in LA, pretty much the same as you. Few people have stuck around for a few months here and there, nothing serious."

They order, and Leon surprises her by ordering wine with his food. "What, I do drink things other than beer and coffee. Especially with swordfish." his response makes her giggle.

Through the meal, they make an effort to keep conversation lighter; movies, funny personal stories, music. As dessert is ordered, Blossom makes a slight face at the dessert menu and asks if there's an option for a cheese plate or something, and the waiter says he can do a half portion of the appetizer charcuterie, and she orders that.

"Really?" Leon says in slight disbelief as the waiter walks off.

She shrugs. "I don't have much of a sweet tooth. I like a cold Coke on a hot afternoon by the pool, but, mostly, I'll take savory or salty any day of the week. I blame my hippie mom for not allowing any processed sugar in the house when I was little. Junk food treats were always things like pretzels or crackers and Cheez Whiz."

Later, they're wandering down the beach hand-in-hand, shoes left in the car. "Sorry it ain't more exciting, but with both of us workin' tomorrow…" Tuesday and Wednesday are her regular days at the computer repair shop.

"It's perfect. Besides, I believe we have already established that I'm a pretty big fan of cheese." They grin at each other as they stop at one of the picnic tables dotted around the beach in Santa Monica and sit down. Leon settles his arm around her shoulders, happy when she snuggles into his side and puts her arms around his waist, and they are quiet for a few minutes looking out at the ocean. The sun had mostly set while they were eating, but the final rays are still peeking dark orange streaks up into the distant purple horizon.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to the beaches here." Leon eventually says.

"How so?" she asks.

"They're so… rough. I mean, I took middle school geology, I get that it's because continental drift or whatever, but the beaches back home were are all soft sand gently leading you down into the ocean. Here, it's beautiful, but it's just like this little strip of sand that's kinda rocky and a little room for kids to play in the surf and then, outta nowhere, blam! nothing under you but a thousand feet of Pacific."

Blossom shifts slightly and says, "It seems like there's a metaphor for life in Hollywood in there somewhere, but I'm not gonna bother digging it up."

"I get it," he agrees with her.

Eventually, they get up and he drives her home, both kicking himself and knowing it's for the best he hadn't planned on staying tonight. When he tells her he wants to take her up on the invite inside, but doesn't want to rush into things, she seems to have the same mixed feelings, and he does at least pull her in for a kiss. He isn't incredibly tall, but she's still a solid 10 or so inches shorter than him, so he's nearly picking her up around the waist even as he bends down, and he really has a thing for tiny, curvy women that he had apparently forgotten about since moving here. But then, they lock lips, and all of those thoughts get violently thrown from his head by the rushing in his ears and the thudding in his chest as their lips move over each other, and tongues tangle for first tastes. It seems like both seconds and hours before the thudding is joined by a burning and he's forced to pull back to gasp in the warm night air, and she's in the same state he is if the dazed look on her face is any indication. Leon doesn't know where he pulls the willpower from, but he eventually manages to stop swooping back in for another kiss and instead pushes her gently towards her front door, waiting for her to be safely inside before he gets back in his car and takes a few seconds to get his head cleared enough to drive before heading home.

He'd told them not to wait up, but it's only a little after 11 when he gets home, so they're still up anyway. The boys immediately make fun of him for being home so early, not being able to 'close the deal', but he only laughs with them on his way through the living room before he heads downstairs. He calls her on lunch the next day to ask if he can take her out for a late breakfast on Saturday, and she agrees, if he'll have lunch with her on Thursday. Of course he will.

At races that Friday night, Leon's challenged, which is kinda nice. Most people don't bother anymore, a mix of too scared to take on the Skyline and thinking that Dom's the one to beat on the team. He doesn't see much action outside of RaceWars these days. The rest of the night is spent talking to people and wondering if all the girls he thinks of as friends have always flirted this much or if they can, like, smell that he's seeing someone new. Blossom doesn't strike him as the jealous type, but he tones down his normal flirting a lot anyway out of respect, even if she ain't there, and he sees a look on Mia's face as she watches him a few times that it takes him a bit to place - like she's proud of him for it or some shit, as if it isn't just the decent thing to do. Then, he catches sight of Letty watching him before turning to glare at Dom, who is openly flirting with other girls 10 feet away from her, and he realizes that maybe this is another one of those ways that he's weird among his friends.

They regroup at the house to drop off extra cars before heading to the party up in the hills, but Dom and Letty are fighting and decide not to go. The remaining 4 of them can fit in the Jetta easily, and Jesse happily hands Mia the keys, but Leon tells them he's not really feelin' it and he's gonna just go for a drive and wait out the screaming match, telling them to have fun and waving them off as he climbs back into the Skyline, instead taking off for Los Feliz, knowing Blossom will be getting off work soon and it would be pointless to try and meet her there.

After parking to one side of the driveway, he moves to sit on one of the wide, wooden chairs on the front porch that have sun-bleached canvas cushions on them. He's only waiting for 15 minutes before she pulls in, and he's happy to see she's smiling when she hops down from her Blazer. It's not like this was planned. She wasn't expecting him for like 6 more hours.

"Hey. How were races?" Blossom asks as she comes up the front walk, veering off toward him instead of straight to the door.

He spreads his knees further apart and she stops between them. Leon's hands plant on her hips as he looks up slightly at her, while her hand that doesn't have keys in it moves to stroke the back of his neck and play with the short hairs there. "Pretty good. I got to race. Cops didn't show, so we got a lot of runs in; probably won't go tomorrow."

She smiles down at him. "So why aren't you out partying to celebrate?" she asks, not even questioning if he won.

Leon's smile turns lecherous. "Only victory party I want involves you and that massive bathtub you got upstairs."

Blossom chuckles lowly. "That can be arranged." she says before leaning down and kissing him, deep and slow. After a moment, she pulls back, finally moving towards the door and unlocking it to lead him inside. Shoes are kicked off, and Blossom moves towards the kitchen. "I'm gonna grab us some snacks, you wanna go start the water? There's bubbles and stuff under the sink if you want."

"A'ight." Leon responds, heading up the stairs and navigating into her room easily. By the time she comes into the bathroom, he's in the half-full tub of vanilla-scented bubbles, and he's found the candles she keeps in there and lit a few, turning the main light off. She sets her haul down on the closed toilet lid - a bowl of what looks like berries and grapes, an open bottle of wine, and two glasses, then turns to the sink and begins removing her work makeup.

Leon pops a couple grapes in his mouth and pours the wine while he watches the process with some fascination. Having had a couple long-term girlfriends, he's seen it many times before, of course, but he'd always found the whole concept of makeup a little weird, and he enjoys watching all that hard work and money getting just wiped away, leaving the girl underneath looking perfectly beautiful without it. He turns the water off before it gets too high to allow for another body in the tub, and gets a little show as Blossom starts stripping off the halter top and tight jeans she'd worn to work.

She's just thankful he doesn't seem to notice how nervous she is with him watching her. Try as she might to play confident, she's keenly aware that she doesn't fit the mold for the average LA Pretty Girl. Though, the hungry look on his face as he watches does help a little. Once her hair is pulled up in a messy bun, she climbs in with him, settling easily between his slightly bent knees and reclining against his firm chest.

Strong arms immediately wrap around her stomach, holding her tight to him for a moment before relaxing somewhat, and she feels him nuzzle behind her ear briefly before he places a few soft kisses down her neck, causing Blossom to let out a happy sigh and relax further into him. Soon, they both have a glass of wine in hand and the plastic bowl of fruit is floating in the water in front of them - "that's what it's for!" - and snack and sip and they chat about the last couple days.

"It'll be a few weeks before he starts insisting, but Dom wants you to come over for Sunday dinner with the team soon." Leon tells her at one point, not sure how she'll react. She works in a touristy bar, so obviously she can deal with people, but meeting his closest friends is different. It's, like, one step shy of taking her back to Miami to meet his folks, and they've only been dating officially for less than a week.

Blossom accepts it surprisingly easily, though. "Alright. My friends are gonna want to meet you, too. It's my turn to host our next pool party, they'll probably pester me to make sure you are there." Her group of friends has a grill out and pool party every couple weeks, taking turns hosting.

"Just tell me when." Leon responds, though he's suddenly nervous. Blossom's only remaining family is her father, who she isn't, and never has been, in contact with, having petitioned for and been granted emancipation after her brother died when she was 16, so her friends pretty much ARE her family.

Eventually, the bubbles, fruit, and wine are all gone, and the water is lukewarm, so they climb out and dry off with her fluffy towels, blow out the candles, and pull the plug on the drain.

In the bedroom, Leon gets comfy on the same side of the bed as last time, not bothering with his boxers when Blossom doesn't move to put any clothes on, only setting the dishes and empty bottle on her dresser to be taken downstairs in the morning.

"You have anything you need to be up for tomorrow?" she asks as she takes her hair down and works the tangles out quickly with a brush.

Watching and smiling, Leon answers, "Nah, I'm all yours 'til you gotta go to work."

The smile on her face is wicked as she moves toward the bed. "Good." is her only reply before she pulls the blanket back off of him and lays half on top of him, kissing him roughly. Leon moans as her tongue strokes his and her nails traillightly down his stomach, and he responds eagerly, squeezing one hand over one side of her ass and the other moving up to tangle hard in her hair, holding her to him.

After a few minutes of hard kisses and roaming hands, he abruptly flips their positions, keeping hold of her hair and bracing himself on that elbow, moving to lick and nip and suck down the soft column of her throat while his free hand moves up to play with a nipple.

Blossom lets out a sharp gasp of "fuck!" as he gently pinches and twists the nipple between his fingers and her hips buck up against him, making him grin against her neck. Shifting doward, Leon keeps hold on her hair and sucks the other nipple into his mouth, still carefully twisting at the first one, and looking up at her, as she whimpers slightly and squirms, her own fingers digging into his scalp and shoulders.

He teases her for another minute before releasing hair and nipples alike, placing a gentle kiss between her breasts and mumbling "God you are so gorgeous…" before starting to kiss his way down her stomach. Leon's just past her bellybutton when Blossom's brain catches up to what they are doing, and he feels her tense up. Pausing, he picks his head up to catch her eye. "You okay with this, hun?"

Blossom licks her licks, somewhat nervously. "Yeah…."

"You don't sound very convincing." he tells her frankly, propping himself up further on his elbows.

The motion she makes is some combination of shrug and full-body-eye-roll as she looks up to the ceiling and tries to explain. "It's just… I'm not a virgin, but… no one's ever…"

As Leon realizes what she's saying, he grins and shoots back up to kiss her again, stopping only once they're both breathless and resting his forehead against hers to make her look him in the eye. "Whatever jackasses you been with before got a lot to answer for, but you have no idea how fucking hot it is that I get to be the first person to eat you out." he tells her before moving back to his previous position, then lower, wasting no time before using his fingers to spread open her outer pussy lips and dragging the flat of his tongue up her slit. Feeling her shudder a little at the sensation, he takes his time, doing that a few more times until he feels her relax, more use to it. Then, on the next pass, he swirls the tip of his tongue around her clit, forcing a little moan out of her that promises much bigger moans once she's relaxed and he really starts having fun.

It doesn't take much longer. Within a few minutes, he's shifting one arm under her thigh to lay his forearm down over her lower belly to keep her from bucking up into his mouth as he sucks on her clit. She's moaning, loudly and breathlessly in turns, around jumbled cuss words and his name, and Leon eventually replaces his mouth with his thumb, making her whimper at the shift until he's tongue fucking her and GOD she's so wet and so, SO sweet.

His scalp stings slightly as she tugs on his hair, though it's most definitely to keep him in place as he switches between eating her out and sucking hard on her clit, and, at one point he looks up to find her watching him through glazed eyes as her free hand plays with one of her tits and he almost embarrasses himself by cumming right there without her getting anywhere near his dick. Going back to his fun, he starts sucking and licking, slipping two fingers into her hot channel and holding her down as she makes an involuntary movement.

"Oh god! Yes! Le! More!" comes the demand, and he obliges, adding a third finger and crooking them, adjusting his angle until- "AAAAHHHHHOOOHH FUUUUUCCKKKK AAAHHHH!" The hand comes out of his hair and Leon picks his head up to find that it's now fisted in the sheets at Blossom's side and she looks absolutely delectable, still pinching her own nipple with one hand and squirming and bucking. Wanting to watch her, he replaces his mouth with his thumb on her clit.

"Yeah, baby, it's okay, just let go." he says, and his response is a wordless whimper. He circles his thumb hard on her clit, finger fucking her in short but deep strokes, hitting her G-spot. "Come on, kitten, cum for me." a few more strokes and she does, arching her back sharply and clamping down hard around his fingers as her pussy pulses out enough of her sweet juices that he knows there's going to be a wet spot. "Oh, yeah, that's a good girl…" he says in a low voice, still stroking gently with his hand to bring her down even as he moves himself back up the bed to capture her mouth in a slow, deep kiss.

Blossom is shivering, giving the occasional hard shudder as another wave crashes down her nerves, and she doesn't know how she likes the taste of herself on his kiss, but she's too distracted to really care. Once she's more aware, he's holding her, giving her soft kisses, running his hands slowly over her torso, and she can feel him hard against her thigh. Amazed, both that he seemed to enjoy going down on her and that he doesn't seem too concerned about immediately getting his, she grabs one deeper kiss before pushing him onto his back and declaring "My turn!" cheerfully.

Leon chuckles. "Well, it probably won't take too much, watching you was damn near enough."

She's glad they hadn't turned lights on and the only illumination is coming through the blinds from a nearby street light, because she's blushing hardcore even as she takes him in hand. He's bigger than she'd thought from him being half-hard in the bath earlier, and she has a moment of wondering if her very dull gag reflex is up for this challenge. 'Oh well, here goes nothing.' she thinks, laying a long, wet lick up the seam on the underside of his cock, hearing him let out a groan and a dull sound that she's pretty sure is his head slamming back into the pillows.

Blossom wraps her lips around the head, sucking and tonguing hard at the underside of the tip. The groan is more strangled this time, and she looks up to see him staring up at the ceiling and clenching his jaw. Reaching out, she grabs ahold of his nearest hand and guides it to her hair. He immediately winds his fingers through and mumbles a low "fuck" as he looks down and catches her eye.

Attention now where she wants it, Blossom starts working more of him into her mouth, pulling back every so often to lick and suck and make sure she's getting enough moisture all the way down. When the tip hits the back of her throat, he clearly expects her to stop and work from that point, and when she instead adjusts her angle and takes more of him down her throat, he has to look away again, asking "Jesus fucking Christ, is there anything about you that's not perfect?" Mouth occupied, her reply is to roll his balls gently in one hand and start working her throat muscles around his cock. He doesn't last long. "Fuck, kitten, I'm gonna cum!" he tells her, voice hoarse, making a vain attempt to pull her head away. When she doesn't move, he looks back down again, catching her eye even as the lightning shoots down his spine and her hand strokes the couple inches of him that aren't inside her, and she just keeps swallowing until he's a shivering puddle on the bed.

She pulls away, taking a few deep breaths, and his hand untangles itself from her hair as she moves up to lay on his chest, throwing her leg over his thigh and softly running her hand over his torso as his arm wraps around her back to pull her into his side.

At some point, blankets are retrieved, and they drift off to sleep tangled up in each other.

When Leon wakes up, he's on his side and spooned up against Blossom's back, with the curious sensation of something fuzzy and vibrating draped over the top half of his head, blocking his eyes. When he shifts his head slightly, the vibration is interrupted as it lets out a friendly little squeak, and his still-mostly-asleep brain eventually supplies that it's one of the cats- probably Potato, since Blossom had said that the other one, Mimzy, is very skittish with new people and would take awhile to warm up to him.

The squeak had apparently penetrated Blossom's sleep, as she mumbles "Shuddup 'Tato, you can 'ave breakfast 'n'a bit." Leon chuckles and tightens his hold around her as she snuggles back into him. Potato squeaks more insistently and shifts, and Leon cracks his eyes open to see that the cat is batting gently at a few pieces of her loose hair with it's front paws without moving from it's spot on Leon's head. He's never considered himself a cat person, but he thinks he likes this one. It's funny.

"You can shove him off your head if you want. He's used to it." Blossom tell him, and Leon shrugs.

"He's keeping the light outta my eyes."

Potato moves on his own after a couple minutes, during which Leon is slowly running his hands over every bit of Blossom he can reach. It's not really his intention to start anything, but he's not upset when she pulls away to rummage in her nightstand drawer for a few seconds before pulling out a box and tossing it over her shoulder at him saying "Pretty sure you'll be able to pick better than I will."

Looking down at it, Leon sees a Trojan sampler box that has a strip each of their 5 most popular sizes and varieties. It does, in fact, include the one he usually gets, so he quickly tears open the box and finds those ones, tearing one off before handing the box back to her. Blossom simply drops it back in the drawer without closing it and rolls back quickly, pushing Leon over onto his back and straddling his waist and leaning down to kiss him quickly as she takes the foil packet out of his hand. She makes short work of moving down, tearing it open and rolling the condom onto him. Leon watches, smiling lazily, and runs his hands up her thighs as she again adjusts her position, gripping his cock rubbing the tip up and down her slit a few times to collect the moisture there before lining up and sinking down onto him without ceremony. She has to back up a couple times and let herself adjust before continuing, and they both let out satisfied groans when she finally takes him in completely.

Blossom's leaning forward slightly, bracing herself on his chest as she slowly grinds on him, and Leon uses one hand to reach down and rub hard on her clit, while the other goes straight to a tit, squeezing softly before pinching hard at her nipple. The soft, satisfied mewling sounds she'd been letting out turn quickly to desperate whimpers of "Oh fuck yes Leon god yes ah…" and she starts bouncing up and down on his dick instead of grinding against him. Leon's surprised - pleasantly so- when she's arching her back and letting out a wordless cry as she cums around him inside a couple minutes. He takes over as it happens, thrusting up into her to draw it out as much as he can.

When she's done, her legs are shaking, and he doesn't hesitate to flip them around to settle her on her back, kissing her and sliding back into her hot, slick pussy as she starts running her hands over him. Blossom discovers quickly that his nipples are sensitive too and leans up to suck one of the little nubs into her mouth, making him thrust hard into her and moan loudly. They explore each other for several more minutes as breathing becomes more and more erratic, and when Blossom cums again, Leon tips over the edge right after her.

Eventually, they clean up and climb out of bed. Blossom snatches up the jersey he'd worn over here last night, pulling it over her head. Grinning, Leon asks, "What am I s'posed to wear?"

She smirks over her shoulder at him as he pulls on his boxers and jeans. "Oh, damn, didn't think about that. Guess you'll just have to be shirtless." Gathering last nights' dishes, they head down to the kitchen to find the cats both lounging in the general vicinity of their food dishes. The fluffy orange one, Mimzy, looks panicked as if it can't decide to stick around and demand food or hide from Leon. It seems to settle for staying but keeping a wary eye on him, as well as keeping Potato between them.

The can of coffee grounds and fresh filters are right next to the machine, so Leon starts coffee after setting the wine glasses he's carrying in the sink, watching her leave the fruit bowl in the sink and carelessly drop the wine bottle in the blue recycle bin next to the garbage can before moving towards the cats. They get excited and wind around her feet as she opens the low cupboard next to the fridge and their bowls, pulling out a bag of kibble to fill up said bowls, cats immediately chowing down before she's even done pouring.

After filling their water dish, she asks Leon what he wants for their human breakfast. He shrugs. "Whatever. I'm not picky about food." Soon enough, they're sitting down with plates of eggs, hash browns, sausages, and toast.

"Much as I'd love to stay in bed all day, my body is going to start protesting if I am laying down much more today." Blossom says as they discuss what to do after breakfast.

"What would you normally do with your Saturday before work?" Leon asks curiously. They'd hung out a couple times before on Sunday afternoon, but never for the whole day, and usually doing something like grabbing lunch or an early movie.

Blossom shrugs. "Spend a couple hours on the computer, see who's available to hang out, do some chores, sometimes our group pool parties end up being Saturday instead of Sunday for some reason."

Looking at the clock on the wall and seeing that it's now officially early afternoon, knowing they have like 6 hours before she needs to get ready for work, he suggests, "Wanna go grab a matinee then see what trouble we can find after that?"

"Sure." Blossom agrees after looking at the clock herself. Leon offers to do their breakfast dishes since she cooked, but she points out that it's just putting them in the dishwasher and rinsing out the wine glasses and refuses to let him. Once she's done, she takes off his jersey in the middle of the kitchen and throws it at his grinning face before calmly walking up the stairs to get dressed to go out.

After 2 movies and some Thai food, Leon drops Blossom off at home to get ready for work, joking that he can help her shower if she wants and watching her smile and shake her head as she waves him back to his car.

He walks into the Fort to find that the rest of the team is still eating dinner.

"There's loverboy!" Letty exclaims as he comes in.

Mia moves to get up and fetch him a plate, but Leon waves for her to sit back down, flipping the empty chair around and straddling it to join them. "Thanks Mi, but I ate dinner with Blossom."

"Blossom?" Jesse asks incredulously between bites of pasta.

"She hates it." Leon says, and they spend the next 20 minutes ribbing him while they finish eating.

Leon helps Mia clear the table, if not wash up, and she waits until they are alone in the kitchen to smile softly up at him and say, "You look really happy, Le." He just smiles a little wider before veering off down to the basement to wash up and get changed into chill-out clothes, the team having decided not to go to races again tonight since several of them had cleaned up last night.

Two Saturdays later, Leon is in the kitchen at the Fort, dicing up peppers, garlic, and onions before dumping it all into a hot pan with some oil and the andouille sausage slices he'd already fried. After a quick stir, he leaves them to cook and quickly washes the cutting board and knife before putting them away. He's dumping rice in the pan to fry a little before he adds the stock when Mia's voice speaks up somewhat shrilly from the doorway.

"You've known how to cook this whole time?!"

He looks at her briefly before going back to his stirring. "I was almost 21 before I moved to LA, Mia, I was perfectly capable of feeding myself." He doesn't add that his ex girlfriend from after high school hadn't been able to boil water without lighting something on fire, so cooking had fallen to him once they'd moved in together after dating for 7 months.

"Then why don't you ever do it?" She asks, moving into the kitchen to get something to drink.

Leon shrugs. "You always just cook for everyone. Never needed to."

Mia evaluates that before replying. "I guess that's fair. What's this for then?"

Leon has started pouring the boxed chicken stock in in small portions. "Meetin' Blossom's friends today. They do a potluck pool party thing every few weeks."

"And who doesn't like homemade dirty rice?" Mia says, eyeing the cans of beans sitting off to one side.

Seeing her eyeing the cans, he says, "I know, I know, I should've got dried beans and let 'em sit in stock overnight, but I didn't have time yesterday, and it ain't like anyone this far west is really gonna care."

She shrugs slightly, "True enough. Smells good enough that it may not matter anyway. Damn, Le, I might have to take a night off and make you cook occasionally!"

"A'ight." he agrees easily, surprising her again. "Fair warning though, I ain't THAT good. I just know a few recipes really well, the rest is all the basics."

"Still more than everyone else in this house." she tells him. "Dom can't do anything more than grill meat and scramble some eggs, and last time Letty tried to make her own toast, we had to buy a new toaster." The other two are left unmentioned, both of them knowing without saying that Jesse doesn't have the attention span and do little more than create a mess, and, well… Vince can't even make microwave popcorn, so there's little hope for anything involving the stove.

Mia watches him simmering the liquid to cook the rice for several minutes before declaring. "Thursday."

"Huh?" his concentration had reverted back to the task at hand.

"I want Thursdays off from cooking dinner." She elaborates.

"Okay." Leon agrees before reaching into a drawer next to the stove and pulling out a can opener. Handing it to Mia, he says, "If you're gonna stand here and stare, make yourself useful. Keep about a can and a half of liquid." The girl laughs and takes the opener, moving around him to grab the first can of beans.

Once his rice is made and packed into a tupperware dish that Mia pulls down from a back corner of the pantry, insisting he can't show up with it in the foil pans he'd bought, he helps her with breakfast for the team, the smell of which lures everyone out of their hangover-caves. If anyone notices or thinks it's weird that they get a bigger spread than usual, they don't comment.

Leon rolls up to Blossom's house around noon, as instructed, and parks next to her Blazer, as usual. There's a Jeep parked behind her, and a Camry on the street blocking the Jeep in. Hearing voices around the back, he heads that direction instead of going to the front door.

The "back yard" is an oblong sort of triangle shape that is the mostly-tiled space between the house, the disconnected garage, and the slope of the hill the house is built against. He goes through the gate that's in the small section of fence between the corner of the house and the garage to find Blossom and three other people lounging and laughing.

"Hey!" she greets brightly from her spot on one of the cushioned deck chairs, hopping up to take the tupperware and give him a kiss. Two men occupy another, and they are quickly introduced as Andrew, a slightly scrawny dude that immediately reminds Leon of Jesse, but black, and his boyfriend, Jake, who looks every bit the California Surfer Dude. The other occupant of the yard is a girl called Amy who is as opposite from Blossom physically as could be - tall, rail thin, tan, long blonde hair. "We don't usually fire up the grill until 2:30-3," Blossom says as she moves to take the dirty rice inside. Pointing to a cooler next to the door, she says, "Help yourself for drinks. You brought trunks, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," he drawls, as if it's some inconvenience for him to wear swim trunk under his jeans to a pool party. She'd joked about him never wearing anything other than long pants once, so it's the running gag now that he won't show his knees outside the bedroom.

Leon sits down on the chair she'd been occupying and her friends immediately include him in the conversation. Blossom comes back out and sits between his legs, leaning back on him, chatting with Jake animatedly as they swap recent horrible drunk customer stories - he's a bartender as well - while Leon, Amy, and Andrew talk about cartoons and it reminds Leon of a conversation he'd have with Jesse. After awhile, another girl comes bounding in through the gate apologizing for being late and loudly complaining about traffic as she walks straight into the kitchen to drop off whatever she brought. She's small, though not as short as Blossom, and Latina. Blossom mutters "That's Chris" and once she's there, it's apparently some signal for them to strip down to suits and get in the smallish, oblong pool that takes up a decent portion of the space in back.

It's a little chaotic and cramped as they teach them their regular pool games of chicken and one they made up called 'armageddon', apparently so-called because half the time in their play to wrestle each other into submission, the girls' bikinis get caught and come untied, and the two gay boys call it the end of the world if they accidentally see a vagina. A couple hours goes by faster than he expected, and they are soon climbing back out and Jake moves to light the grill while Andrew retrieves their contribution of kebabs to go on it and Leon helps Blossom set a few other dishes on the table in back with a stack of plates and utensils.

As they're chowing down, Leon's embarrassed to find out he already knew Amy, kinda.

"You really don't recognize me, do you?" she asks him, laughing.

Leon freezes and immediately starts racking his brain.

She laughs harder. "It's ok. We've only met, like, a few times when my friends have dragged me to races. The bikini covers about as much as the clothes girls wear to those things, but I think you can be forgiven for not remembering a girl you met a few times when it's daylight and I don't have all the hair and makeup crap done."

"Sorry hon, there's so many people that roll through there…" he says as he goes back to his food.

"And the girls aren't exactly shy about hangin' all over you and ya boys," this comes from Chris. When he looks over at her, she keeps talking. "Yeah, I've been a few times. Never wrangled an intro to Team Toretto, though." The last part is teasing and she elbows Amy, who rolls her eyes.

"Oh, God, are we going to start talking… ugh… CARS?" Andrews voice has a tinge of disgust.

"Just for that, I should." is Chris's response. Leon must look curious, because she tells him, "I'm a mechanic at a dealership, but the boys only care about clothes, Amy just thinks cars are pretty, and I'm sure you know Bloss's stance."

There's a cacophony as everyone else speaks out to defend their varied interests that simply don't include going very fast for 10-12 seconds at a time, and Leon laughs.

Once the food has been decimated, and the back cleaned up, they troop downstairs, where Leon's only been a few times. The basement is mostly open plan, with the far end being sectioned off into a small bathroom/laundry room, and the rest is Blossom's 'office' with all her computer equipment. The rest of the space is effectively a party room. There's a bar set up in the corner next to the stairs, and some tables and cushy chairs in the corners, while the main floor space is taken up with pool, foosball, and ping pong tables. There's a couple dart boards on one wall, and a bookshelf full of board games next to a CD player.

Drinks get mixed for whoever wants them, and Leon's surprised when Andrew picks out some hard rock and puts it on the CD player before he pulls Leon into a game of foosball. Blossom and Amy have immediately picked up an apparently ongoing game of ping pong, and Chris is racking pool balls while Jake chalks two cues.

"Doesn't seem very like her, does it?" Andrew says kinda outta the blue. When Leon only grunts confusedly as he furiously adjusts and spins a couple rods on his side, Andrew continues. "Having a full on party room in her basement."

Leon shrugs, watching the ball as the other man tries to move it back down to the other end. "There's a lot to her. Figured it was probably her mom or brother that started it, and she just rolled with it for when you guys come over."

Leon is reminded further of Jesse as Andrew looks at him in some form of awkward approval. "Oh. I'm glad she told you."

Andrew puts up a decent fight, but Leon eventually wins, and Andrew spins around to face Blossom, declaring, "I participated, can I play now?"

She rolls her eyes before saying, "Yeah, fine." and the man almost runs into the room with her computer setup.

"Lemme guess, there's a reason he reminds me so much of Jesse?" Leon asks casually, watching the girls volley the little plastic ball back and forth for a moment.

"Oh yeah, total brain. Computer nerd extreme." Amy says, and Leon has to remind himself that she's actually met Jesse.

"Guess I'll find out tomorrow." Blossom says.

"What's tomorrow?" Amy questions in confusion. Races are tonight.

"The team has Sunday dinner together every week. Dom has… requested… that I bring Blossom to get to know everyone." Leon explains.

"Oooohh." the girl says, shooting a mischievous look at Blossom that he can't decipher, to which Blossom rolls her eyes.

Deciding to leave the girls to their indecipherable girl conversation, Leon turns to join the others where they're now playing darts. Jake is apparently more open to car convo than had been let on earlier, as that's what they end up talking about, and he's actually an active participant, if not incredibly enthusiastic. After the game of darts is over, they move back to pool and play cutthroat with the three of them until Blossom announces loudy that it's time for everyone to get the fuck out so she can get ready for work, and Leon's surprised to find that the afternoon has flown by and it's now after 6.

The group seems to accept Leon, as he gets hugs from everyone as they leave, and he lingers for a private goodbye with Blossom, kissing her until she pushes him out towards his car insisting that she really does need to hurry up and get ready for work, and she'll see him tomorrow.

At races that night, now that he knows who they are and is aware they go sometimes, Leon spots Amy and Chris watching him as he interacts with people. Having been seeing Blossom for a few weeks now, he's decided that the girls must be able to smell the lack of availability, because he can't believe they'd ever flirted quite so hard when he was single and he hadn't noticed. Regardless, he sticks with what he's been doing for weeks and being politely friendly, eventually slipping away and somehow managing to sneak up on Amy and Chris where they're standing by Chris's Civic. They'd been watching him earlier, presumably to see if he was running around on Blossom already or something.

"So, did I pass?" He asks, making Amy jump a little and Chris look slightly guilty.

Her guilt doesn't stop her from saying, "So far." in a way that indicates she's not done keeping an eye out.

"Look," Leon sighs, moving closer to them, "I know I got a rep around here," indicating around them, "But…. a lot of it's for show." They exchange an incredulous look. "I'm not gonna deny I've hooked up, but who hasn't had a few hookups ever? And, really, it's only been a few, with girls that I'm actually pretty good friends with, who know the score. For real, I'm a flirt, and I know that, but that's as far as it goes, ESPECIALLY when I'm seeing someone. I ain't ever cheated before, and I ain't ever gunna. Shit broke my parents up. I don't mess like that."

"Why bother with the show then?" Amy asks, crossing her arms over herself.

Leon sighs. "Man, do you have any idea the shit I'd get from every dude here if word got around that I don't wanna fuck every chick that looks at me?" he says it quietly, making sure no one around hears him say it. "I'm a relationship dude, I've known that for a long time, but these guys," he points over his shoulder "I mean, now that I'm seein' Bloss and word is getting around about it, they'll lay off on expectations, but, if you're single, they think you gotta fuck your way through half o' the city, or at least try, or you ain't really a man. And when THAT starts getting questioned, it's a mark against the whole team. An' when Dom thinks that respect for him is startin' to shake, shit around here… gets reeeaalll shook."

Amy doesn't look convinced, but Chris seems to understand. Probably she already had an idea before, and just needed confirmation. They exchange another look and do that girl telepathy thing, and Amy visibly backs down.

Before anything else can be said, Vince appears, slapping Leon lightly on the shoulder. "Hey, man, Hector's lookin' for ya, got a challenge."

Leon raises an eyebrow. "Twice in a month?" he questions.

"You're off the market," Vince shrugs, "Punks wanna impress girls." before walking away, illustrating Leon's point perfectly.

Hugging the girls quickly, he says, "I gotta git. You two be safe." before he moves back towards the center of the action, handing Hector his buy-in and pulling out to the line.

The next day, he ends up talking Blossom to the house turn-by-turn on his cell phone, meeting her in front as she parks. She seems tense, but there's not really time to ask her about it, and he assumes she's just nervous about meeting the team, and tries to assure her they'll like her as he takes the dish she'd brought and wraps an arm around her waist to lead her around back. She'd gotten lost enough that Mia is already bringing food out, so he sets the pasta salad on the table with the other sides and pulls out the chair next to his usual seat for Blossom to sit in, asking what she wants to drink and grabbing a bottle of water from the cooler before joining her as everyone settles down.

Introductions are made, and she doesn't seem to relax at all as Jesse, excited to have someone around that knows something about computers, forgets the Grace rule and reaches for the potato salad in front of him.

Most of the team makes an effort to engage Blossom in conversation, but Leon notices Vince just observing her. It's odd, but not entirely unusual for V, so he tries to let it go. At least, he does until near the end of the meal when Vince suddenly speaks up, directing a question at Blossom.

"How'd you get that scar on your arm?"

Blossom had only fractionally relaxed, and this completely undoes that tiny bit of progress, worrying Leon. Her answer confuses him. And everyone, really. "You should know, Martelli."

Leon had referenced Team Toretto, so she may have put together that that is Dom's last name, and Mia's since she's his sister, but everyone else had been introduced with just their first names. And why is Vince asking about the scar on her arm? It's not big, barely visible, really, and old burn scar on the outside of her bicep.

Dom's eyebrow goes up. "You two know each other?"

Vince looks at his long-time friend and says, "You know her too, bro. She was the only chick other than Letty in shop class."

Letty twists to take a better look, squinting, like she's trying to imagine her differently, then exclaims. "Oh yeah. Holy shit. Hey, BigMac."

"And that's my cue. Thanks for dinner, Mia, Dom, it was delicious. Jesse, I'll see you online. Le, we still on for Tuesday?" All of this flows too smoothly out of Blossom's mouth as she stands, grabbing her now-empty tupperware. Without waiting for a response, she takes off out of the back yard, Leon shooting after her a few seconds later.

He catches her up just before she reaches the sidewalk next to where she's parked, hooking an arm around her waist to pull her up. "Hey. What's goin' on?" he questions, taking the dish that she's clutching and setting it on the hood of her car as he maneuvers them so they are face-to-face.

"I was hoping none of them would recognize me." she sighs out, not looking at him.

"From…?"

"High school."

"There's no way Los Feliz and Echo park are in the same school district." Leon states disbelievingly, despite already getting confirmation they'd gone to school together.

A shrug from Blossom. "Noah's home firestation was in Silver Lake, and he wanted me nearby. I don't know why they were there."

It's Leon's turn to sigh. "And I'm guessing you guys didn't get along too great?"

"You could say that." She still hasn't looked at him.

"Hey," Leon says softly, moving to cup her cheek and gently lift her face up until she meets his eyes. "Only thing this is gonna change is that I'm not gonna pressure you to come over when you obviously aren't comfortable being here. Okay?"

Blossom finally relaxes a little, nodding and leaning into him, hugging him around the waist as he wraps his arms around her back, holding her tight.

"Want me to come over tonight?" he asks, knowing she's still tense.

She pulls back, grabbing the dish off her hood and shaking her head. "Nah, I'll probably just lock myself in the basement and kill some pixels to let off some steam."

"A'ight. Call if you change your mind." he tells her before leaning down for a kiss before letting her climb into her car to take off. He waits until she's disappeared around the corner before turning and heading back to the group, running a hand tiredly over his face and hair. That certainly hadn't gone as well as he'd hoped.

He doesn't know what has been said since he and Blossom had gotten up, but the group is quiet when he gets back, which is odd, because he expected to catch some shit about Blossom not being able to take a little teasing. A look at Jesse promises he'll get downloaded later, though, so he just joins in clearing the table and watches as Dom goes out to the shed to work on his dad's car.

Dom, for his part, can't believe that, outta all the chicks in LA that Leon coulda brought home to 'meet the family', he'd brought her.

Teenagers can be cruel, and he, Vince, and Letty weren't exceptions. The other girl in their shop class hadn't been fat, she just hadn't been skinny, and most of the class had called her BigMac, on account of that and her last name being MacDonald, since she'd started. On top of it, she wasn't really in any single group, socially, was a bit of a loner, which had made her an easy target to make fun of.

He gathers what he needs to take apart and put back together the carburetor as he recalls the incident that had left her with the nasty-looking burn on her arm. Well, he says incident… they'd been in shop, and her and Letty got stuck doing welding stuff a lot, because they were smaller and could get into places that the guys' arms couldn't reach. She'd been paired with Vince for this project, and, when she was done, she'd handed the torch out to him then stood up, and pulled off the thick protective jacket to crawl out of the engine compartment she'd been crouched in. Vince decided to "help" her get out by grabbing her arm, but he'd still been holding the hot torch. It barely brushed against her, but the white-hot tip of the torch had seared straight through the sleeve of her cotton work shirt and burned into her skin.

Vince had sworn up and down it was an accident, but Dom had never been 100% convinced. He'd always had some weird extra vendetta against the tiny girl. Hell, at one point, Dom was convinced V had a crush on her and she'd turned him down or something, but Vince had never fessed up.

After that, Dom had actually made an effort to be nicer to her, but even dumbass teenage him knew it was too little, too late. He'd been a total dick to her for more than 2 years by that point, and his small effort had only seemed to make Letty and Vince both more hell-bent on making her miserable. She'd disappeared a couple months before the end of their Junior year. The rumor was that she'd dropped out, every possible reason more outlandish than the last, but he'd overheard a couple school administrators talking about how her brother, who had custody of her, had died in a fire.

More than 8 years later, here Dom is, feeling like an asshole because he'd never once thought about that girl whose life they'd made a living hell ever again.

Inside the house, Vince had sequestered himself down in his room while Letty had taken off for a drive, and Mia is slowly working on dishes, so Leon and Jesse settled into the living room to play video games.

"I don't even know what really happened. Like, Vince and Letty started to say shit about Blossom taking off as soon as they said anything to tease her and Dom just went fuckin' ape on them. Was all like 'You jackasses aren't in high school anymore stop this bullshit' and they just looked at him like he was a different person they didn't know or something. It was weird, man." Jesse explains quietly what happened while Leon had been in front with Blossom.

Leon shakes his head ruefully. "Well, I sure as fuck ain't bringing her back here anytime soon."

"Don't really blame you. At least I got her deets so I can talk to her online, get to know my best friend's chick a little." Jesse says sincerely, and Leon feels a little bad for not introducing them sooner.

"I'm sure she'd be down to hang out, too, man, just not with the group. The three of us can go do shit." Leon says, making a mental note to talk to her about it.

In Los Feliz, Blossom is not killing pixels. She is, in fact, in her garage, the same place she's been a couple nights a week for the past few weeks since she'd mentioned to Leon that she should start fixing the GTO up. She'd said then that every time she'd come out here, it's like she could still see Noah, and that hasn't changed. She feels closer to him out here, and, after the afternoon she'd had, flashing back the the time they'd been closest, the months before he'd died, it's what she needs.

Other nights had been spent slowly dismantling everything to check if it needs replacing. Since it's been sitting in storage for the better part of 20 years, the answer has been pretty universally 'yes'. The frame and body are in good condition, but that's solely down to a good original paint job and the fact that LA isn't very humid. Almost everything else will need to go, and she'd made the hard decision to upgrade instead of doing a straight restoration. It's what Noah would've done.

But that's for another night. Tonight, she just lays down on the old couch that's out here from when she bought a new one a few years ago, and pretends she's not crying over some bullshit a few assholes said to her in high school, and missing her big brother.