They're sitting at the table the next morning, Brian in his usual baggy shorts sans a t-shirt and Leon in cut-off sweats. They're deciding on their strategy as they eat breakfast they've cooked together. Leon is trying to convince Brian to start by keeping his nipple rings in saying it's going to get Dom's attention like nothing else. "But how will he see them man? I don't exactly walk around with my shirt off you know?" He sips some juice as he talks.

"That's because you don't know that we're going to the beach today man. You won't be wearing your shirt there." Brian blinks.

"Guess I could forego surfing for a day and keep them in." He stops to look at Leon, considering before he speaks again. "You know you should get yours done." Leon purses his lips as he thinks about it. He certainly appreciated the response Brian had when he'd played with them last night.

'I'll think about it, come with if I do man?" He asks Brian as they clear the table in concert with each other.

"Sure will, gonna take a shower now, then I'll have to head home so I can grab a towel and stuff." He heads to the bathroom and Leon does the dishes. He feels his heart break a little wishing it this was Vince he was with. Brian is certainly companionable, but he's not Vince. He's glad that Brian is wishing he was Dom that made it easier somehow. Leon is glad he has someone to go through this day with. Vince in a swimsuit was sin embodied.

Sliding into the passenger seat of Brian's car Leon tosses his stuff in the back. The drive to Harry's is companionable and he heads inside with Brian as he changes and grabs a board. His phone buzzes as he sits on the bed. A text from Vince saying 'Where F R U? D wants to go to Busters to get him.' "Vince just texted, Dom wants to come find you for the beach." Leon texts back 'Found Brian, we'll meet you there.' "Just texted back that I'd found you and we'd meet 'em there." He finds himself pushed back on Brian's single bed as Brian straddles his lap.

"It occurs to me that we should make a late entrance, you got a problem with that?" His smile says he knows Leon doesn't as he's already got his hands on his cock.

"No," Leon manages, "I got no problem with that." He falls back and Brian leans over him licking and kissing down his neck. When he's on Leon's chest he hums a little before Leon jerks in shock as Brian bites down on his chest beside a nipple and sucks. "Fuck, Brian!" He can't help saying "A little warning next time man." Then he is moaning as Brian's hands push his board shorts down his legs.

Their late entrance turns into a two-hour late entrance. Leon's phone was practically exploding from the texts Vince had sent him which gave him a warm feeling in his chest. And Brian was feeling good as he'd had one very pithy one from Dom. Getting out of Brian's car they take a deep breath and look at each other. They're both topless wearing only their board shorts, thongs and hickeys. Leon is carrying their towels and a bag with sunscreen and shit. Brian is carrying their boards. Brian had decided he wanted to surf so had taken out his piercings which disappointed Leon. Though he'd promised that he'd put them back in afterward.

Then Leon had the idea that he should bring them so he could put them back in after Brian had finished surfing in front of everyone. So of course they'd had to practice him doing that which had led to other things. Leon could still taste Brian on his tongue, which he liked.

"Sure about this man?" Brian asks

"I am if you are." Leon answers. Brian nods and Leon nods back and they head down to the beach looking for their friends. They have a usual place they tend to hang out so they weren't hard to find. And taking a deep breath Leon and Brian walk up to them.

Vince is reclining on his towel and looking at his phone. Why the fuck hadn't Leon answered him? He always answered him. Always. Leon has never ignored him before. He'd sent a bazillion texts and apart from the first one saying he was with the Buster he hadn't answered anymore. Vince ignores the churning in his gut at the thought of Leon being with Brian. He wasn't that way, and if he was he'd be with someone else. He puts his gaze on Dom ignoring the fact that he's mind is envisioning a leaner, tattooed physique, with brown hair and eyes so deep he could drown in them. Fuck, he smacks himself on the side of the head.

It's a testament to how often he does this that no one comments. He watches Dom and Letty, they're together but not. He watches the way Letty surreptitiously watches the girls walking past and an inkling of something flits through his brain. But before he can chase it away Jesse speaks and the sight that meets his eyes obliterates it like a hurricane. "Dudes, like hours late, what the fucking you been doing?" He is stoned, more so than usual as it's Sunday so he can barely string the two sentences together. Vince looks over and finds his mouth dry as he looks at Leon. Man he is gorgeous. And why the fuck is he noticing that shit now? He didn't do that anymore He nearly smacks himself again but manages to stop in time. Leon was the only one who'd call him on it he knew.

He nearly swallows his tongue as he sees a fucking hickey on Leon's pec, right next to his nipple which was erect and brown, Vince found saliva pooling in his mouth that dried like the Sahara when Leon ran a hand down Brian's back as they set up their towels in front of the group where there was some space. They set them up together, side-by-side with no space between them. Then without any more than a greeting to everyone in general and without answering Jesse's question Vince realises they're taking their boards and heading to the surf. Dom had said how glad he was that Brian surfed as it mean Leon wasn't alone in the water anymore but Vince remembered the growl in his voice as he'd said it. Something bothered Dom about it. And something was bothering Vince now. Something like the two towels spread on the sand so close they're overlapping.

A couple of hour's later two very wet and happy men are dumping their boards on the sand and lying down laughing together. Vince finds himself grinding his teeth again as he watches them. Jesse is up and taking lunch orders and Vince gives his along with his money absently. Jesse walks down the beach, he'll be gone for a while but that's okay, they'd brought snacks anyway.

"Need sunscreen guys?" Mia asks them as she takes it out of her bag to put on her legs.

"Nah Mia, we're good" Brian answers. He takes out a bottle himself and in doing so he exposes his flank to Vince, he's sporting a hickey himself, low down on it. It looks fresh, exactly like Leon's. The churning is back in Vince's gut. He looks away only to have his eyes light on Dom and see his eyes are caught by the hickey on Brian's skin as well. And there is another too, also down low, half hidden by his board shorts it's so close to his cock. And why the fuck was he thinking of Brian's cock? Fuck. In the next second Vince's heart stops in his chest. Because Brian takes his sunscreen and starts to spread it over Leon's back, slow and steady. It wasn't anything they hadn't done for anyone else before but now, now Vince knew it was heralding something different. He is proven right when Brian straddles Leon and keeps rubbing it in. Then he lifts up and Leon turns over and lets him rub more into his chest and down his arms. All the while their cocks are rubbing together. Vince knows it, he fucking knows it.

Then it's Brian's turn. Leon rubs it into Brian's back first, straddling him as Brian did. And when he kneels up Vince is sure he sees a hard on under his baggy shorts. Then when he sits down on Brian and they both groan quietly he knows he'd seen a hard on. But he doesn't say anything though he grinds his teeth. "Want me to put them in for you?" Leon asks Brian. What? Vince thinks, put in what? Brian nods and Leon brushes his hands down Brian's side slowly down past his own leg to the side pocket of his shorts where he undoes the zip. He fishes around and comes out with two rings. And then with the utmost concentration he pokes and latches first one then the other through Brian's nipples. Fuck, is all Vince can think as he watches, fuck. His own hard on is raging now and there is no way he can stand to move away without them seeing it. And there is no way he can tear his eyes away from them.

"Oh sexy, how long have you had them done?" Mia asks as she leans forward for a look.

"Couple of years." Brian answers her and rests his hands on Leon's thighs where he still sits on him. "I'm trying to talk my honey pie here into getting his done too." Mia's eyes light in laughter at the pet name and Leon sighs as he looks down at Brian and shakes his head.

"You should so do that Leon, you'd look even sexier." Mia answers as she looks at Leon, "Say you will." Rolling his eyes Leon moves off Brian to lie down beside him instead.

"Fuck, okay then I'll get them done, happy now?" he asks Brian. Brian grins at him and nods.

Their mood is broken by Dom however. Vince had forgotten he was even there he'd been so focused on Leon and Brian. "Guess you two are fuckin' then?" His words are soft but harsh and they break the light-hearted mood that had been among the group. Shattering it like glass and replacing it with a highly strung tension.

Even Vince is shocked by his tone of voice. Letty looks at Dom and then at Leon and Brian. "So what if they are? They deserve happiness, same as us don't they?" Vince looks at her like she's crazy. No one challenged Dom when he used that voice, no one.

Dom looked at her evenly as he answered, "I didn't say they couldn't Leticia, but I have the right to be pissed off that they haven't told us before now don't I? We're family, or supposed to be." Mia snorts at this but before Dom can call her on it she is up and off walking down the beach looking for Jesse.

But Brian is no pussy and if Vince hadn't exactly registered that fact before he does now. "I don't," He stops and sits up, twisting around to face Dom and takes Leon's hand from where it's clenched on his thigh, "We don't need anyone's permission to fuck, if I wanna fuck Leon here and now, not even you are gonna stop me Dominic." Vince watches Leon's hand unclench on his thigh and then turn and grasp Brian's, their fingers twining together. And as much as Vince is gnashing his teeth at them being together even though he's not like that he finds himself doing something he's never done before. He criticises Dom.

"They're right man, they don't need your permission to screw, you need to apologise." Letty looks at him and a glimmer of a smile crosses her face before she shuts it down. Dom however looks at him like he's going to strangle him. And Vince finds himself preparing to fight him. Then Brian diffuses the tension.

"Anyone would think you were jealous Dom." Brian speaks again, going where no one else would dare tread. He challenges Dom with his words. Dom looks at him for the longest time, he and Leon were both standing now as they gather their things together. He grins briefly at Letty as she laughs outright this time and gets up herself asking for a ride home. Brian says yes and they're gone in a swirl of towels and sand leaving Vince and Dom on the beach, alone like Vince always thought he'd wanted. So why did he feel so fucking lonely suddenly?

At work the next day Dom is a bear. He's usually laid back and easy-going except leading up to Race Wars. But today everyone is avoiding him like the plague. Brian only work's mornings Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The rest of the time he works for Harry. Leon is humming and ignoring everyone while Vince tries to figure out if this is a good thing or a bad thing. One the one hand Dom is ignoring Letty who seems happy with this turn of events. He hears her on her phone talking to someone and it sounds like she's flirting. Vince is anxious to find out what she'd talked about with Leon and Brian yesterday afternoon but isn't game enough to ask. Jesse is closeted in his cubby hole doing some design specs for customers.

Vince would normally be hanging out with Leon but he and Brian had worked together in the morning and now Brian had gone Vince felt awkward. Which was stupid, this was Leon for fuck's sake. So he goes up to him without any idea of what he's going to say. And what comes out of his mouth is the last thing he expected "So how come you never answered any of my texts yesterday?" Fuck, he sounds like a whining woman.

Leon raises an eyebrow at him from under the hood of the vehicle he was working on. "Was busy man."

"Busy doing what exactly? Brian?" Vince wants to call the words back as soon as he speaks them but can't, they're out in the atmosphere and he feels them drop like a rock in a pond and cause a never-ending ripple.

"Yeah man I was, you got a problem with me fucking him?" He is standing now with one hip cocked against the vehicle and a socket twirling in his hand casually.

"He mightn't but I do, he's just a kid." Dom's voice growls behind Vince, neither of them had seen him come out of his office.

Leon looks at Dom and Vince sees him swallow. "He's twenty-six man, he's not a freaking kid."

Vince is shocked, he'd thought Brian was no older than twenty-one if that. He looks in time to see Dom's eyebrows raise and lower. Dom hadn't known how old he was either he thinks. He's only five years younger than them and older than Letty and Mia and Jesse.

"Are you shitting me?" Vince asks before Dom can say anything. But it's not Leon who answers.

"No, he's not. I've got Brian's employee records, he's twenty-six." Mia says as she walks past heading into the back office. Vince doesn't look after as he normally would. He hasn't given anyone a thought except Leon since he'd stopped attending to his every need and hanging on every word yesterday.

"How long you been doing him?" Dom asks Leon. His voice is lower and deeper than usual.

"Don't see where that's any of your business Dom, unless you're jealous like Brian said." Leon is nervous, Vince knows his one tell that gives it away but despite that he turns his back on Dom making like it's no big deal. Vince holds his breath fully expecting to have to hold Dom back from attacking him. No one turned their back on Dom, no one. Several tense moments pass and Dom turns on his heel and walks out of the garage.

Sighing Vince goes back to his work. But he spends the rest of the day looking at Leon as he works. Looking and wondering. He sees Mia joke with him a little before she leaves for the day and then they're alone. Vince is nervous all of a sudden. He has no idea why, they're usually the last two people to leave for the day. Before he realises it Leon is standing in front of him. "You okay to lock up on your own man?" He is wiping his hands on a rag as he speaks obviously expecting Vince to say he can go.

"No, need your help with this transmission, you know they're not my favourite thing to do, wanna order in?" Vince has no idea what the fuck he just said, the transmission wasn't urgent. And even if it was order in? What the fuck was wrong with him? He was acting like a freaking girl, all het up and shit over Leon having a boyfriend.

"Uh, okay. I just need to make a call man, one sec." He moves away from Vince which pisses him off and causes him to follow as unobtrusively as possible. Or so he thinks. "Hey baby, I'm gonna be stuck here for a bit, you okay to get a late dinner maybe instead?" 'Baby?' Fuck. He listens as Leon laughs a couple of times and then hangs up.

"Okay V, I'm all yours man." Leon says as he looks at him expectantly with a smile before he sticks his head under the hood.

Vince stands there for some time before he follows suit but he mutters to himself before he does so. "Should fucking well be mine." He is not sure, but he thinks he sees Leon shiver. He hesitates before continuing work on the engine. Did Leon hear him just then? And if he did, does he want to be his?

Unbidden, memories come back to Vince, memories of he and Leon lying tangled together in the backseat of a car after they'd worked each other into a frenzy and come everywhere. They'd had a hell of a job cleaning that mess up. Memories of them in Vince's old room going down on each other. Memories of them at the beach, embracing and jerking each other off at night in the ocean. And memories of the first time he'd fucked Leon and the first time Leon had fucked him. And finally the last time, the time he'd told Leon what they felt for each other was unnatural and that he Vince, well he wasn't like that. He remembers the look on Leon's face. The look that said he'd cut out his heart and shredded it under the tires of the mustang he'd been driving at the time.

Vince feels his own heart break now. Because its only now, years later he's realising what he'd lost. He'd lost the other half of his soul. The better half of his soul. He'd lost years of waking up beside Leon, years of intimacy, breakfasts, fights, make-up sex and nights of going to sleep together. He'd pushed away the best thing that had ever happened to him for an ideal that never existed.

The tool clatters as Vince doubles over with a moan of anguish. Why, why the fuck was he realising this now? When it was too late? Why? Because Leon has finally moved on his fucking inner voice answers back. Because he's found someone else who values him like you never did. Someone who will put him first. Like you never did. Vince is only vaguely aware of Leon leading him back to the office and sitting him down.

He feels the cold bottle press against his forehead and takes it automatically as he tries to get his breath. He hears the door shut and he is left alone. And that somehow makes it worse. Because Leon would have never left him alone once. Vince closes his eyes and slowly sips his water until it's gone. When he's finished he continues to sit on the lounge. Laying his head back he allows the brief time he'd been with Leon to reply like a movie in his mind. Time passes and he slowly starts to replay the time since then too.

Leon looking at him, looking after him. Being there for him always. But now Vince see's the looks on Leon's face when he turns from him every time for Dom, to Dom. He sees the hurt Leon had managed to hide from everyone until he Vince, had decided to look beyond his surface. He sees Leon never ever bringing someone by. Never talking about another person he was seeing. Suddenly the lights in the garage flick off and he's left with only the light on in the office. Vince stands and calls out to Leon wondering where he is. There is no answer. And suddenly Vince realises that Leon had left him, without saying goodnight. Without checking on him.