(A/N): Leo's POV. Leo and Jerremyah cryptically explain what caused his wound- well, Jerremyah is cryptic, and Leo... isn't. Woo! We're at 500k words, total! That's INSANE!

Leo

An empty threat.

If Lisbet hadn't grounded me for all the stupid shit I'd done before now, I doubted that this was going to be the thing that finally pushed her over the edge. Not that 'grounding' me would actually have much of an impact- the only way they would actually be able to keep me from leaving the house, would be to physically restrain me... and I knew they weren't willing to do that. Still, I thought it was smarter to just let her have this one.

I mimicked zipping my lips closed, and that seemed to satisfy her- at least for now. As I watched, Jerremyah leaned back on his elbows, lounging in a manner that I thought was meant to be seductive- it looked to be working on Lisbet, anyway. She seemed to take offence to her own blush, though, because she grabbed the underside of his calf, just below his knee, and yanked his leg upwards. If he hadn't already been braced on his elbows, it likely would have toppled him.

"Woah, careful- I know it's been a while, but-" She cut him off with a huff.

"Don't start." Rather than being discouraged, his face lit up- like this was the response he had been expecting... had been eager for. She pulled up the leg of his trousers, and as I watched, I saw her face drop at the sight of his wound- the wound that I had inflicted. I had to keep reminding myself that it had been at his request, and that the alternatives were worse, but still... I felt kind of bad. For him to admit that he was in too much pain to continue, he must really be in agony. I remembered how much Lisbet's venom had hurt when she had bitten me, so I had an idea of what he was enduring, right now. "What-?" Jerremyah flexed his ankle, winced, then shrugged.

"I told you- he's resourceful." Lisbet's gaze snapped to me, and I grimaced.

"I did what I had to do. What you told me to do- both of you." Her eyebrows furrowed, but she seemed conflicted as to whether she should be disturbed, or... proud? She reached out a hand and rested it on my shoulder, right at the point where it curved to meet my neck.

"Well, it looks like you did some good work. Efficient. Five tiny holes-" She froze, her eyes darting down to where my hand rested at my side- the fingertips still stained with Jerremyah- her mate's- blood. "...minimal... damage..." She said haltingly, and Jerremyah leaned forward so that he could put his hand over hers, on his own leg. She glanced down at him, then met his eyes- saw the expression on his face- and seemed to shake off her shock.

"What he did was smart," Jerremyah told her softly, and I did my best not to preen under his praise, but it was harder than I liked to admit. "Could even be applied by other people- not you, though." Her eyebrows furrowed again, this time solely from confusion, rather than concern as well. Jerremyah's attempt at not stating what I had done bluntly, clearly wasn't working.

"I put some of my venom on my claws, and stuck him with them- that's why it won't work for you." She blinked- then, she turned her attention away from Jerremyah, to focus on me. Her hand left my shoulder- I had the distinct feeling that she didn't want to take her other hand off of him, until it was absolutely necessary- sliding down my arm to my bloodied hand. She lifted it towards her face, so she could inspect it more closely.

"And you're okay? No side effects? Don't bother trying to lie to me- I can hear your heartbeat, remember?" I shot Jerremyah a look over her shoulder, and saw the corner of his lips quirk up.

"I'm fine. I promise. He took a few swings but they didn't land- I would say he needs to work on his accuracy, but since it worked out in my favor..." Jerremyah gave me a sharp look, that had me fighting to keep from laughing. Lisbet stared at me a second longer, taking in my barely restrained smile, and her own lips curved upwards as well. She released my hand, and quickly patted my cheek.

"Go wash your hands, Bud- and bring me a blood bag from the fridge while you're at it. Please." I wasn't sure that was such a good idea, but I figured that Lisbet knew better than I did, so I did as asked. When I returned, I saw that Jerremyah must have toed off his shoe, and had the foot attached to the wounded ankle braced against her shoulder. She looked like she was trying to hide her fondness with exasperation, but wasn't quite pulling it off.

As I stepped up to her side, she turned her head to meet me, glancing down at the blood bag in my hands before meeting my eyes again. "Good. Now, would you mind bringing me a glass of water? A big one, if you can." A... glass of water? I- uh, okay. I mean, I guess. When I came back once again, glass in hand, Lisbet flashed me a grateful smile. "Thank you, Sweetheart."

She had called me 'Sweetheart' before- most notably, when she had been trying to reassure me after I had punched Greygorry- it was rare, but not unheard of. I quite liked it, but thought that it didn't really fit me.

If 'Sweetheart' gave me a glimpse of what she really thought of me... well, then I would accept that inaccuracy happily.

"Um... can I ask...?" Lisbet raised an eyebrow at me.

"Go ahead." I hesitated, glancing at Jerremyah's wounds.

"I mean, it's not like you guys need to drink water- or anything else- so why-?" Lisbet cut me off with a smile, shaking her head.

"It's not for drinking- well, maybe afterwards, but not right off the bat. I'm going to dilute some blood into it, and use that dilution to rinse the wound. We need to get your venom out, and some blood into his system, but I don't think having him drink it- straight, anyway- is a good idea right now." I nodded.

"And we can't administer it to his wounds undiluted, because injecting blood into yourself directly has unpleasant side effects." Lisbet blinked, looking surprised by my apparent knowledge on the subject. Jerremyah shot me a sharp look, and then immediately schooled his features, before Lisbet could glance back at him to try to glean some sort of idea about how I knew that.

"I... suppose that's true." She sounded suspicious, and Jerremyah had seemed unhappy that I had brought it up- it made sense to me, that maybe he had only started experimenting with direct transfusions after they had parted, in order to combat his stronger impulses. Therefore, she didn't know about it, and he likely wanted to keep it that way. I decided to do my best to balance alleviating her suspicions, while also trying to keep his experiments secret.

"We were talking about tattoos- I was curious as to how vampires, a species with such an advance healing factor, could possibly manage to get them." Her eyebrows shot up, and when she glanced back at Jerremyah, he wasn't quite quick enough this time to hide the surprised- and slightly confused- look on his face. As I watched, I saw her eyes drop from his face to the low neckline of his shirt, where the barest hint of ink poked out- currently partially obscured with rapidly drying blood- before she turned back to me.

"When you said that you two had been talking about things, I'll admit, I didn't think that body modification was going to be one of those things." I winced and shrugged.

"It wasn't my first choice, but after Jerremyah stonewalled me and told me to direct my questions to you, I turned to my next greatest curiosity." She blinked, and spared the briefest second to flash him a look that was somehow both grateful, and disapproving, in equal parts.

"It's... good that you're trying to satisfy your curiosity." Even though the, 'but I wish I wasn't the one that had to answer your questions' was unspoken, I still heard it loud and clear.

"You don't have to answer me either, if you don't want to." Her eyebrows furrowed once more.

"I never said that." You didn't have to. 'Wagging tongues get cut off', and all that.

"...we should get to healing Jerremyah- wouldn't want to keep your mate waiting in pain any longer than necessary."

(A/N): Leo: 'I have questions.'

Lisbet: 'Oh god, please no.'

Lisbet: 'That's good, being curious is healthy!'

Leo: 'It's alright, you don't have to answer me.'

Leo: 'At least I know you probably won't punish me for asking questions- like I'm used to.'

also

Jerremyah: 'What Leo did is smart.'

Leo: * :D *

Leo: 'Uh, I mean...'

Leo: * :) *

Leo: 'No, that's still not quite-'