(A/N): The group hug continues!

Leo

It was very, very clear to me that Lisbet was feeling a certain type of way, but as I tried to worm my way out from between them so I could let them have their space, they both tugged me back into place- as if they couldn't do this without me in between them. Or at least, I suspected that was more Jerremyah's motivation, than Lisbet's- she just seemed to want to keep me close.

"Mm!" I squeaked as they pulled me back, and if it was possible, they squeezed me tighter between them- but nowhere near tight enough to risk hurting me. "I'm trying to-" Lisbet scratched the scalp at the back of my head with her nails, and I was interrupted by the force of my own purr.

It took me a few seconds but I managed to regain my composure, and shook my head- effectively shaking her off. "Lis- I'm trying to- I want to give you-" She pulled back slightly, to be able to meet my eyes. "-space." She flashed me an almost reproachful look before once again, she leaned back in. "Lis-"

"No." She said, instantly cutting me off. "Don't want space- want my boys." She sounded quite petulant, but neither Jerremyah nor I were willing deny her that.

"Your boys are here." I felt my cheeks flush slightly as I said it, and when Jerremyah was quiet for a second after that, I elbowed him in the ribs.

He grunted into my ear, but it was clearly more an expulsion of air than a sound of pain. "Yep. Here." I moved to elbow him again, but I felt one of his hands grip said elbow in order to prevent me from making contact. "Stop elbowing me- I get it." Did he? I didn't think he did- and Lisbet's frown weighed heavy on my mind.

"If you don't want to say it, you don't have to." Jerremyah was silent for a second, and I had enough time to begin to panic that he really wasn't going to say it, before he finally spoke up.

"We're yours." His voice was incredibly quiet, almost too quiet for me to hear- and then I realised... the blood! I had recently drank human blood- a lot more than I usually would- and I was reminded of the fight I had with Greygorry during one of our training sessions at school, about the fact that I was much stronger after drinking human blood- because I had been able to feel him roll his eyes, when I definitely shouldn't have been able to. I don't think I was supposed to be able to hear Jerremyah right now, but he hadn't factored in the human blood- I don't think he knew to factor that in. "He's yours, and I'm yours, and you're ours. I'm not fighting that. Not... questioning it." Then why the delay?

I pretended like I couldn't hear him, twisting my head around as if I was fruitlessly trying to hear what I couldn't. "What, so you can't hide things by talking in French, so you start bloody whispering? Unfair." I huffed, and even if I couldn't see her face, I could tell that Lisbet was clearly quite amused by my apparent frustration.

"Calm, Little One." She murmured, and despite the fact that I was only pretending to be exasperated, I did feel myself being soothed by that- if only because she had called me 'Little One'. "Jer, anything else?" He hesitated.

"It's not... to you." I didn't understand what that meant, but I purposefully kept my face as blank as possible, since I wasn't meant to be able to hear him. "I want to try to... interrogate intentions." I think Lisbet was just as confused by what that meant as I was, but she shrugged nonetheless.

"Okay?" After this, the volume of her voice dropped until it was similar to the level of Jerremyah's. "Be nice. Gentle. He's not... he takes things personally. Just... think things through, before you say them." 'He'...? Oh. Oh. They were talking about me. Wait... did she just say that I 'take things personally'? That was- well, actually, that was kind of fair.

"I'll do my best, but I'm not.. y'know I'm not... good at 'gentle'." She flashed him a look that I specifically tried to avoid deciphering, but knew that I wasn't entirely keen on being in the middle of.

"You just have to be in the right mindset... I'm sure I can help you get there." I made a choked noise in the back of my throat, and Lisbet's eyes snapped to me, then blew wide.

"Wait... can you-?" Thinking fast, I rolled my eyes at her and shook my head.

"I can't hear you when you're whispering-" Hopefully, the fact that I had rationalised this by thinking that they weren't technically whispering, but in fact just 'speaking quietly', would make my body not signal that I was lying- I doubted it was the most convincing thing, but maybe my already notoriously irregular heartbeat would muddy the waters a bit. "I can just tell by that look on your face that you're getting a bit frisky." She blinked, then squawked in outrage.

"Oi!" She barked, and I failed to stifle my snort of laughter- but even as she continued to narrow her eyes at me, the corner of them crinkled with amusement. "I am not... 'frisky'." She said, sounding like she would rather call it just about anything else. "You're... misinterpreting the situation." I arched an eyebrow at her.

"You've given me very little to go on, but I do know what you're randy face looks like... unfortunately." She practically flinched, and then gaped at me.

"You- I'm not- Jerremyah, tell him!" He shrugged from behind me.

"She was teasing me, but it was only about a three." She blinked again, before her expression changed and she looked almost offended.

"Oh, come on! That- a three? A three?!" He shrugged again, seemingly rather nonchalant.

"Not your best work, I'm just being honest. You would think that the time apart would have made me more desperate and therefore an easier target, but I think I've just gotten more discerning, if anything." She pinned him with her eyes in a way that I really didn't like the look of.

"You were a pretty easy target, earlier." She said, and as Jerremyah's cheeks flushed, I wiggled my way out from between them while they were distracted. Well, I almost got away- they both snagged one of my arms each, but I think they were too worried that they would accidentally wrench my arms to try to yank me back into the hold.

"New rule," I started, and they both perked up, clearly straining to pay attention to what I wanted. "No flirting when I'm between you." They blinked, then shared a slightly sheepish look.

"I... I suppose that's fair." Lisbet acknowledged, and Jerremyah nodded before he crossed his free arm over his chest.

"I'd say that's pretty generous of you, kiddo." He said, and I watched Lisbet's eyes widen- I think it was at his use of 'kiddo', in relation to me. "Hey Leo, by the way," I could already tell that this wasn't going to be subtle- but honestly, that was probably for the best. "Why were you trying to leave the huddle, earlier? Before we started flirting, that is. Just-out of curiosity." Lisbet shot him a look that told me she knew he was being rather obvious, but either Jerremyah was ignoring it, or he was completely oblivious.

I gave him a long, considering look- mostly just to make them sweat, as an attempt to get back at them for talking about me behind my back- before I finally spoke up. "I wanted to give you two space." Jerremyah nodded slowly. "You said the romantic thing and Lisbet started giving you the eyes, so I wanted to let you two experience that moment more naturally- without me getting in the way." Lisbet glanced at Jerremyah pointedly, and while he didn't return the look, I could see that his expression had tightened slightly.

"Why do you think you were in the way? What makes you say that?" I intentionally scrunched my face up, and gestured at them both- Jerremyah glanced down at himself, like he thought I might be pointing something out on his clothing, before he realised that there was nothing there.

"I mean, I was literally between you. I couldn't really be more in the way if I tried- which, I have to point out, was exactly what I was trying to do just two days ago." Lisbet shrugged, even as Jerremyah flushed- clearly, she was pleased that the tables had apparently turned.

"And is that... the only reason?" He asked, seemingly ignoring the way his cheeks had pinked, and I shrugged.

"I don't know. I didn't really think about it that in depth, I just don't want... I don't want you to... be discouraged, by the fact that I was here. I want you two to be happy, and I don't want to delay that at all." Jerremyah looked oddly touched- so did Lisbet, but she seemed a little more... not skeptical, but certainly a little more like she wasn't willing to completely lose herself to believing me at my word.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but you are kind of the only reason we're here right now." She said, and I blinked. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have invited Jerremyah here, and even if I had, I wouldn't have allowed him to join- that was all you, Nounours." Well... she wasn't wrong. "I told Jerremyah that I never wanted to talk to him again-" He winced. "And while I do think that I would have gone back on that eventually, by my choice or otherwise, I do think that you are... well, I don't want to say, 'a good mediator', but you certainly encourage us to keep our tempers in check." I wasn't sure what to say about that- whether I should be moved by that or not. "Because as much as you don't want to disappoint me, I don't want to disappoint you, either."

It took me a second to realise exactly why that tickled the back of my mind in a way that I didn't like the taste of- but when I did, I spun on Jerremyah, outraged.

"You told her?!" He blinked, looking both stunned and confused. "You told her that I didn't want to disappoint her?!" He winced, and rubbed the back of his neck rather sheepishly.

"Look, I- I didn't really have a choice- I had to tell her, in order to explain things properly." I stared at him, and then- I shut down.

(A/N): Jerremyah: *starts whispering*

Leo: 'It was almost too quiet for me to hear- ALMOST. The blood- it must be because of the human blood!'

Jerremyah: *continues whispering*

Lisbet: *flirts with Jerremyah quietly enough that Leo shouldn't be able to hear her*

Leo: *nearly gives himself away because he's so offended by them flirting with him in between them*

also

Lisbet: 'Calm, Little One.'

Leo: 'Okay first of all, I AM calm. Second of all- that was surprisingly soothing, thank you.'

also

Lisbet: 'He (Leo) takes things personally.'

Leo: 'Who does?'

Leo: *realises that she's talking about HIM*

Leo: 'HEY! That's- fair, actually. That's fair.'

also

Lisbet: *calls Leo 'Little One'*

Jerremyah: *calls Leo 'Kiddo'*

Lisbet: * 0.0 *

Lisbet: 'Well, that struck a chord within me that I didn't know existed.'

Leo: 'Y'all need to stop being so weird about terms of endearment and pet names, I swear to god.'

Translations (French):

Nounours = Teddy Bear