(A/Ns: is this incredibly self-indulgent because the entire pretext was getting to write smoker Elliot again? absolutely. am i still gonna write it? absolutely. ok so basically i'm posting this in October for 'Stoptober', this thing where people basically quit smoking and uh. yeah. I've had this planned a bazillion years but had to split it up into 3 parts, so this is part 1. updates will be every 10 days.

content warnings: smoking, swearing, leo being excessively crude, some wholesome Elleo content

disclaimer: i do not own pandora hearts, or Elliot and leo)

Part I

It had already passed 10pm, and Leo had only just finished working.

He finished his job at 7:30pm, fortunately, meaning any assignments could easily be finished by the time they usually went shopping in the evening. And thankfully, he'd finished his current assignment, and was now briefly proof-reading. The content would be no doubt flawless, however, so all he was really doing was ensuring his handwriting was actually legible; usually it wasn't.

Elliot, on the other hand, had only returned from work at 9:15pm, and was still nose-deep in a textbook.

"Hey," Leo said, snapping the other from his work-induced trance. "Do you have anything you need to get when we go shopping later?"

His line of focus instinctively flitted to the pack of cigarettes across from him, slightly to the left. Wordlessly, he picked it up, and counted the individual cancer sticks in the pack, screwing his face up.

It was a habit he'd unfortunately been trapped in for 5 years now, after being stupid enough to accept the offer of a single cigarette from a random aristocrat when he was only 16. Leo had, undoubtably, caught onto it much faster than his family. It was obvious he wasn't particularly approving, but he'd never tried to convince him to stop. Because, ultimately, both of them knew full well that Elliot was incredibly weak-willed.

It wasn't like he was proud of it or anything though.

"I'm gonna do it."

Leo, dropping the pen, froze instantly, blinked three times, and stared at the other in utter silence for at least six seconds. And then, with a derisive snort, he picked up the pen, closed the textbook, and said, "Ha, no you won't."

The other pinched his eyebrows together, a slight pout tugging at his lips. "Hey! What happened to being supportive?" he whined, sounding more disappointed than annoyed.

"You've tried before several times, and failed miserably each time."

"Y-Yeah, but…" Elliot found himself frowning. "I'm really gonna do it this time!"

Another derisive, sarcastic snort. "Sure."

Marginally, Elliot's frown deepened. He seemed genuinely upset, the silence amplifying that.

"Alright, alright," Leo chuckled, putting the pen down again and folding his arms over his chest, lending Elliot his full attention. (Probably). "I'll play the supportive boyfriend for once. When are you going to start?"

Once again, Elliot's eyes fell on the cigarettes.

As said previously, he'd only returned from work less than an hour ago. And this essay was something he needed to finish for tomorrow, regardless of his own needs. He hadn't even eaten dinner, let alone touched the cigarettes or that goddamn lighter which his hand was practically itching towards.

It might have been a good idea to start now, but Elliot didn't particularly want to go the rest of the night without his usual nicotine fix. Especially since he hadn't smoked in 4 hours.

"I don't know…" he shrugged, pretending he hadn't been thinking about it in any detail. "Maybe tomorrow?"

Leo, however, saw it, grinning caustically to himself. "Alright. Your call. Are you done yet so we can go shopping?"

"Hm… no…" A dissatisfied frown tugged at his face, as he roughly sorted through the pile of papers in front of him. "Give me half an hour."

"Sure," Leo stood up, stretching. He yawned, pinned an arm behind his back, and then hunched over the chair. "I'll get in the shower now."

Elliot was already too deeply engrossed into the essay to hear him.

But the moment Leo left, he halted, dropping the pen and picking up the pack of cigarettes again. The fact that he craved one so badly infuriated him.

"Tch, stupid…"

In the heat of the moment, he closed the pack, threw it across the room, and tried to distract himself from how badly he needed one.

It took about 20 minutes for Leo to return from the shower, but when he did, it came in the form of sneaking into the living room, and instantly laying eyes on the pack of cigarettes in the centre of the room.

Grinning to himself, Leo crept over, picking them up and examining them for a moment.

"Give me two more sentences!" Elliot called from the kitchen, hastily scribbling down the last few lines of the essay.

Then, with a visible stretch, he stood up, and locked eyes on Leo.

Well, more importantly, the cigarettes.

His blood ran cold at the thought of Leo having control over his habit. He internally facepalmed, but tried not to stress; he did not need any more incentive to want to light up right now.

"Why don't we try a new tactic?" Leo said, chuckling to himself as he counted the cigarettes left and then proceeded to place them in his back pocket. "I'll keep hold of these, and if you want one, you beg."

"Jeez, keep your kinks in the bedroom…" Elliot muttered, but was quite grateful, really. Leo might be merciless, and borderline sadistic, but at least it might help to keep him in control.

Leo grinned, and chuckled. Sadistically – as expected. "Do you want one now?"

Elliot so desperately wanted to say yes. But ultimately, if he was expecting to be able to just go cold turkey tomorrow, he would need to get used to this: this incessant craving in the pit of his stomach which screamed his need to smoke. "Tch, no…"

"Good." Leo's smile turned sinister, as he turned towards the door and grabbed his keys from the mantlepiece. "You weren't getting one anyway."

Figures.

The two walked out of their apartment block in total silence, Elliot padding along at least two metres behind Leo. Of course, the noirette noticed, but chose to preserve the silence as they climbed into the car, Leo opting to drive despite being beyond exhausted.

Elliot, on the other hand, was on edge, to say the least. And Leo's dodgy driving of speeding over speed bumps and constantly overtaking other cars wasn't the most settling thing ever.

"Stop tapping your foot," Leo said, swerving slightly as they reached the roundabout.

Subconsciously, Elliot's grip around the door handle tightened. Oh, and he hadn't even realised he was tapping his foot. "Oh, s-sorry…"

Leo scanned the other up and down for a few moments. "When was you last cigarette?"

"Like… in my break, just before 6?" Elliot answered, uneasily. That thought alone put him even more on edge.

"Okay, so… four and a half hours," Leo mentally calculated, and then shrugged. "So you're not doing that badly then."

Needless to say, Elliot wasn't too convinced.

The drive to the supermarket from where their apartment block was took no longer than 15 minutes. They started shopping at about 10:40pm, in the end, but because Leo spent most of the time intentionally teasing Elliot, they weren't finished until about quarter past 11.

… at which point it had been 5 hours since his last cigarette, and he was really, really starting to feel it.

By the time they'd loaded the car up with all the groceries, Leo was more or less nodding off against Elliot's shoulder, yawning every ten seconds.

"There's no way in hell you're driving home like that," Elliot said bluntly, promptly plucking the car keys from the noirette's palm. "I'll drive."

"No," Leo protested weakly, but even in his sleep-deprived state, he successfully grabbed the keys back. "Just let me get coffee."

Elliot sighed internally at the memories of every goddamn time Leo consumed anything caffeinated. But before he could stop him, the other had already started making his way to the Starbucks attached to the supermarket, gesturing for Elliot to follow once he got halfway there.

Fortunately, it was still spring, so it was just about warm enough for them to sit outside. A slightly disappointed expression morphed onto Elliot's face as he sat down opposite Leo, and glanced down at the tea he'd bought. Whilst Leo was busy getting hyper off coffee, he was stuck with the one drink which wouldn't make him want to light up.

Leo seemed to catch on, and spent a good few seconds staring blankly at Elliot. Then, he narrowed his eyes suspiciously, and – simultaneously – reached into his pocket, and pulled out the pack of cigarettes. Leisurely, he placed them in the centre of the table, grinning discreetly but mischievously at Elliot.

"What the hell are you trying to do?" Elliot scoffed.

"Nothing in particular," Leo said idly. "Just watching what you do."

Elliot snarled under his breath, hesitated for a moment, and then – tentatively – leaned forward to pick up the pack of cigarettes. Slowly, he slid one out of the pack, placing it back in the centre of the table. Then, he began to search his pockets for a lighter, but halted halfway when he spotted Leo snickering oh-so-innocently to himself in his peripheral vision.

"Dammit Leo, did you take my lighter again?"

"Maybe," Leo chuckled, flashing the other a rather amused grin. Elliot, on the other hand, responded with an annoyed glare, at which point he threw his arms up, and handed Elliot the lighter.

With ease, Elliot lifted a hand to shield the flame from the wind as he lit the cigarette. And once it was lit, he drew in a deep breath, the rush of nicotine to his brain instantly lessening the craving. He spun around, the other now to the left of him. He very rarely smoked around Leo, let alone directly in front of him. So, although he appeared unfazed, Elliot didn't particularly fancy the idea of giving his boyfriend lung cancer.

When he exhaled the smoke the second time, with a sigh of relief, Leo spoke once again. "Hm, yep. You're gonna struggle."

"Thanks for the support, asshole."

"Fine, fine. I'll play along seriously now," Leo rolled his eyes, picking up the cigarettes again. "How many do you smoke at the moment, in a day?"

"Tch, I don't count…" Elliot scoffed, dragging on the cigarette before tapping the ash off the side of the bench. "Maybe… six?"

Leo snorted caustically. "Higher."

"Like, sev-"

"Nope, still higher."

"N-"

"Hm, no," Leo cut him off again. He was clearly enjoying this more. "A little higher~"

"Alright, fine! Ten!" Elliot blurted out, and then shrank back into a defensive hunch over.

"That's more like it." Bitterly, Leo smiled at him. Then, he pulled another cigarette out of the pack, and placed it in front of Elliot. "That's your last one of today. I don't care when you smoke it, as long as it's before you sleep. Because I know what you're like. If you've gone five hours without, you're gonna want it."

Wordlessly, Elliot nodded, albeit reluctantly, and pocketed his last cigarette of the day.

"Alright. Now, there's…" Leo paused to count them, yet again, "five left. Tomorrow, you get two. The day after, one. And then none."

"I wanted to go cold turkey…" Elliot countered weakly under his breath, staring down in contemplation at the cigarette. He was bored of this now. He wanted to quit. And he would sure as hell do it this time.

"Fufu, you'll thank me later." Leo's laugh was evil.

"Wait," Elliot interjected, along with a quick drag on the cigarette. "What about the… the other two?"

"Hm… let's say… one of them you can have if you absolutely have to; that one, you do beg for. A back up, shall we say? And the other one is your sign of giving up."

"Alright," Elliot sucked the life out of the cigarette and snuffed it out in the ashtray. "Deal."

"Good," Leo downed the rest of the coffee. A bad idea, Elliot thought. "Shall we go now?"

Briefly – only briefly – Elliot considered lighting the second cigarette. But that would just be poor preparation for tomorrow. So instead, he simply followed Leo back to the car.

Shit. How the hell was he going to cut down from ten to two?!

Elliot was so distracted by that one, single thought that he didn't get the chance to pay attention to Leo's manic, caffeine-fuelled drive home.

Eventually, they made it back to their apartment in one piece, the two carrying the shopping up the stairs in a thick silence. It was obvious that Leo knew something was up with Elliot, but strangely, he didn't speak up.

Was he worried too?

To lengthen the silence, Elliot and Leo began unpacked shopping without saying a word to each other. Right up until they were finished at least, when Leo broke that silence. "Oh my god, there's no chance I'm going to be able to sleep."

"I told you coffee at midnight was a dumb idea…"

"Oh well. You can stay up with me?" Leo chuckled, dragging a finger down Elliot's arm and wiggling his eyebrows at him.

"I want to sleep," Elliot deadpanned, as he threw aside the shopping bags and pulled the last cigarette out from his pocket. "Go and get ready for bed. And give me the lighter."

"And what do I get for that?" Leo held it out to him nonetheless.

"Wait and see, dumbass," Elliot grunted, nudging him towards their bedroom as he stepped out onto the balcony, stuck the cigarette between his lips, and lit it. The night breeze made him shiver, the smoke rising from the cigarette hardly comforting him all that much.

Yes, he really was bored of this process at this point. There was nothing enticing about it, nor was there ever anything new about it.

Once the cigarette had burnt away, Elliot snuffed it out in the ashtray, turned on his heel, and went back inside without looking back at it.

He would get through this. He had backup, anyway. And – though possibly not a good thing – he had Leo on his side, as well.

Speaking of Leo, the noirette was already in bed reading by the time Elliot returned from the bathroom. And when Elliot caught a glimpse of the book cover as he clambered into bed, it became inherently obvious what Leo wanted.

"Stop reading erotica whenever you want sex," Elliot said bluntly, his eyebrows furrowing further when Leo just laughed.

"Get the hint, then," Leo smirked, placed the book down, and shuffled closer to the other.

"Fine," Elliot sighed, and the moment Leo's lips were on his, he immediately felt himself grow aroused, melting into the embrace and wanting this more than Leo.

With the hand not preoccupied, Elliot scrambled for the light switch, plunging them into darkness and pulling the covers over the two of them. Then, Leo pulled away, leaning his head on Elliot's chest as his hand crept down to his crotch. In a whisper, he said, "I hope you succeed this time."

"Me too," Elliot answered back, trying to focus on where Leo's hand was rather than the problem at hand. (No pun intended). "I'm… bored of smoking now. It's a stupid habit."

"I was more thinking about the fact you taste like an ashtray, but sure," Leo chuckled.

"Well… I'm doing it for you, dumbass." Then, slightly put-off, Elliot frowned. "You think I'll get through it, right?"

"Elliot your sex talk is getting worse. Just… don't talk," Leo interjected bluntly, keeping his hand right where it was in Elliot's pants and placing his lips back on the other's. "Let me help."

Once again, Elliot directed all his attention to Leo, and eventually began to find that his thoughts of doubt gradually dissipated. That, and Leo was clearly quite horny right now.

Well, at least if had Leo in this with him, he might just about be okay.