Chapter Text
Diavolo had few meaningful relationships. And he preferred it that way, it was easier to manage that way. As such he never had a friend before Leone. And he wasn’t even sure why he stuck around. If Diavolo was being cautious he should have abandoned Leone at the first chance he had. But he didn’t and now they had something that could be called friendship.
The problem lay in the fact that their friendship didn’t feel entirely platonic. Leone occupied an unreasonable amount of his mind. He found himself actively wanting to be around him. Diavolo liked to think it was because Leone would make a great human shield. But deep down he knew that wasn’t it. He liked him, liked being around him, liked seeing him and hearing him. But that was an aspect of friendship, nobody stayed friends with somebody they hated. But every now and then he caught himself staring at him, something that felt beyond friendship. For Christ’s sake, He had Leone’s picture in his wallet.
There was evidence that he liked Leone but given his lack of experience, Diavolo didn’t want to make an assumption. Assumptions got people killed. No, he needed to test this theory.
Unfortunately, now was not the best time for these thoughts. He and Leone were sitting on the hood of his truck, stargazing. But one look at Leone and all Diavolo could think about was what it be like to kiss him.
“Can I kiss you?”
Leone fell off the truck, which was not the reaction Diavolo was expecting. Then again he wasn’t expecting to ask the cursed question. Impulse would be the death of him.
“Is the idea of kissing me that bad?”
“I’m just surprised, it’s a weird thing to ask,” said Leone getting back on the truck.
“Well, in truth I want to avoid kissing at all costs but I could get in a situation where I have to kiss somebody, and I need to be prepared.” Diavolo mentally padded himself on the back for that one. A perfectly reasonable excuse to kiss a friend, now he no longer came off as weird.
“The point of kissing is because you like the person not preparing for a hypothetical situation.”
“You don’t want to kiss?” If he said no Diavolo wouldn’t pushed it.
“I never said that.”
“Are you alright with me kissing you?”
“I mean sure but are you alright with me kissing you?”
“That’s a stupid question.” Diavolo was an opportunist, Leone knew that.
“I’m just saying you should kiss someone you like-”
Diavolo wrapped his hand around Leone’s head pulling him in. It was softer than Diavolo was expecting. His hair was soft, his lips were soft, contrasting the harsh exterior that was Leone. Then again Leone always been a contrast of harsh and soft edges. Kissing him was a basic human name.
With that thought Diavolo pulled away.
“How normal was that?” Were all kissed like this or was it just them?
“It was good.”
“How does it compare to other people you kissed?” Diavolo prayed there wasn’t an ounce of jealousy in his tone.
“You’re one of the better people I’ve kissed.”
As much as it made his heart flutter to hear that Diavolo needed to think of a way to hide any trace of his feelings. God, he wanted to shoot himself for asking the previous question.
“Am I above average?”
“Sure.”
“God damn it.”
“You can’t seriously want to be a bad kisser.”
“If the average person is a bad kisser, I want to be a bad kisser.”
“Nobody is going to kiss you and think damn that was good, I’m now going to stalk this guy.”
“You never know what will cause somebody to stalk you.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
They went back to stargazing. Diavolo evaluated the situation, he liked that kiss too much for it to be platonic. Which meant he liked Leone romantically. He had firmly established that they were kissing for survival purposes, meaning Leone didn’t know. Meaning, all that Diavolo had to do was get rid of his feelings before Leone found out.
One glance at his friend and knew that wouldn’t be easy.