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Leon was incredibly nervous as he was standing in front of Sasha’s door. He should be used to it by now, but his heart refused to go back to a normal, steady beat. It wasn’t the bad kind of nervous though. Tonight was different, too...
It was Sasha’s birthday and Leon had come to surprise him, had even managed to successfully lie about being busy today. It wasn’t easy for him - almost impossible - to lie to Sasha but in this case it was just a little white one in order for this to work. He still couldn’t help but feel guilty about it.
He just hoped Sasha wouldn’t be mad at him.
Leon took a deep breath and rung the doorbell, fingers nervously squeezing the handle of the bag he was holding. The door opened, Sasha was looking up at him.
“Кто…”, Sasha’s confusion quickly made way for his famous grin. “Leon!”
Leon’s smile on the other hand dropped as he saw the small group of people standing behind Sasha in the apartment.
He was an idiot. The biggest idiot ever.
Of course he wasn’t alone on his birthday. He had a life, friends, they talked about it all the time, what was he thinking just showing up like this… expecting things to just go his way.
Leon felt himself being pulled down by his leather jacket into a long kiss. His ears started to burn, but he also couldn’t bring himself to pull away before Sasha did.
“They can see us...”, he mumbled against Sasha’s lips.
“So?”, Sasha asked, already moving backwards and dragging Leon with him. “Everyone… this is Leon…”
Two people standing together to the left, a man and a woman, exchanged knowing glances. Leon’s face turned even redder. He tried to hide it by casually putting his bag down in the corner to his right. It dropped to the floor with a loud “thud”, anything but casual.
“Leon, this is everyone.”
“Uh”, Leon managed out get out. “Surprise?”
“That part of the party happened about two hours ago”, a black haired man sitting on the couch said, but he was smiling at him as well.
“Oh shut up, Boris, this surprise is better than yours. At least it did not scare the living daylights out of me.”
Sasha’s smile didn’t falter, and only got wider as he looked up at Leon. At least part of his plan had worked.
“Scared?”, Leon asked. “You? After… You know…”
“Yes… even after that.” An awkward silence settled in the room, the music that was playing now seemed mocking. How long had he been here? Thirty seconds and he already reminded everyone of the civil war.
“Wow”, Leon hid his face in his hands. “Foot… Mouth. Good job, Leon.”
Sasha laughed, and the room’s tension evaporated.
“That is why I am so fond of you. Come on, take off your jacket and grab a beer!”
Already the woman who had been standing to the left walked up to him, handing him said beer.
“He did not exaggerate when he talked about your hair”, she said. “I’m Vera by the way and this is my husband Robert.”
“Thanks”, Leon said. “Your English is really good.”
“Thank you. I teach English. The three of us work at the same school. And I studied in the New York for a while.”
“How come you never compliment me on my English?”, Sasha looked appalled.
“I did notice that when we met, but then I was too busy being distracted by the knife you put to my throat”, Leon replied, earning a shocked look from Sasha before he started to laugh.
“Touché, Leon!”
“He is sassier than you led us to believe”, the man, Robert, said. “You might need some ice for that burn.”
“Speaking of which… why don’t you take off your jacket, Leon. It is really warm in here.”
“How is that speaking of- I mean…”, Leon hesitated. It was incredibly warm. “Can I uh… talk to you for a moment. In the kitchen?”
“Okay?”, Sasha frowned, but led the way, gesturing for Leon to close the door behind them. “What is it?”
Leon leaned against the now closed door. He was already nervous, and his face red, partially from the heat of the apartment and partially from his nervousness.
“I uh… I’m kind of not wearing anything beneath this…”
Silence. Only the music, muffled by the door, was between them.
“Let me see”, Sasha finally said.
“What? No, I mean”, Leon watched Sasha come closer to him. “I was kind of hoping you’d subtly organize a shirt for me?”
“Hm... “, Sasha was right in front of Leon now. “I will… maybe. If you let me see first. You were planning on showing me anyway, yes?”
“O-okay…” He leaned down a little, letting Sasha reach the zipper of his jacket, which he pulled down… ever so slowly. Leon swallowed, hard. It had been almost two months since they had last seen each other, and he had missed Sasha’s touch. And now they were so close… Leon was very much inclined to tell everyone to get the hell out of here, but he reminded himself that what he had planned, they could still do later. Sasha should enjoy his birthday in whatever way he wanted.
“There we go…”, Sasha mumbled almost to himself, letting his hands brush over Leon’s chest, pushing his jacket open like that. He softly traced his abs, and Leon had to close his eyes for a moment. This was agony. Sweet, sweet agony.
Suddenly he felt Sasha’s hands on his jeans, he started to undo the buttons there.
“What the-? Sasha!” He fumbled to take the other man’s hands in his, making him stop. There was no way he could do this while there were still people - his friends - out there.
“Wow you are not even wearing any underwear.”
“Well I was kind of thinking… you know…”, he shrugged and let go of Sasha’s hands. “It was stupid to think you’d be alone tonight.”
“The night is still young…”, Sasha gently tugged on his jeans, and this time Leon couldn’t stop him. Just watched as he exposed his hips to press a few feather light kisses there. “I better get you that shirt now.”
“Oh god, Sasha…”, Leon was gasping. “You’re a fucking tease.”
“I know”, Sasha watched as Leon got properly dressed again. “You love it.”
“Dammit”, he mumbled as he let Sasha pass him. He did love it. Loved the build up Sasha could create, and when he finally, really touched him, it felt incredible. The orgasms that man could induce…
He tried to busy himself as he waited for Sasha to return, inspecting the insides of the refrigerator just in case someone decided to come in. The cold radiating from it helping in calming him down again after Sasha’s touch. The beer certainly helped calm his nerves too, at least a little.
“Shh”, he heard a voice from the doorway. It was Sasha, peeking inside in a conspiratory way. “Dorothy to Tin Man, I have retrieved the package.”
“What…?”, Leon couldn’t hold back his smile and it just dawned on him that Sasha was probably a little drunk. He had no idea for how long this party had been going on for. “Doro… Roger that, Dorothy.”
Sasha came in and pulled out a - thankfully - plain black dress shirt. Leon closed the door once more, quickly shrugging out of his jacket to put on the shirt. He noticed with satisfaction that Sasha was watching him intently as he buttoned it up, licking over his lips once.
“You’re a little drunk, aren’t you… Dorothy”, Leon said as he leaned down, letting his hands rest on the wheelchair’s armrests.
“Maybe a little bit. Tipsy, really”, Sasha said, wrapping his arms around Leon’s neck to pull him into another kiss.
“Well don’t get too drunk. Still need you fully… functional.”
“Leon?”, Sasha asked, smirking. “Was that innuendo? I am so proud of you... ”
“Shut up”, Leon was laughing. “Let’s get back to everyone else.”
“We have been in here for so long they will most likely think we have been doing dirty things already”, Sasha didn’t seem too worried about that.
Leon decided to ignore that and simply started pushing Sasha out of the kitchen and back into the living room. Here they joined everyone else who were by now sitting around the coffee table, Boris still on the couch, along with the woman whose name Leon hadn’t found out yet. Vera and Robert sat on the floor on the opposite side. Leon joined them there, Sasha stopping next to him.
“I’m Diana by the way”, the red head on the couch introduced herself, giving him a little wave. Leon was painfully reminded of a terrible night out with Sasha a while ago. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too”, Leon was hit by his nervousness again. It was very important to him to leave a good impression. These were people Sasha cared about, people from his new life and he wanted to be a part of it, at least as much as he could. He knew he could never be there for Sasha completely but these people would.
He pushed these thoughts from his mind. Tonight was a happy occasion, he wouldn’t be the one to ruin it. At least not further than he already had with his big mouth.
“So Leon, how was your flight?”, Vera, and Leon silently thanked her, broke the silence that had settled again. He felt like he was intruding and his beer bottle was already almost empty.
“Uh, good. I travel a lot, I’m used to long flights.”
“Hey, are we still going to play?”, Boris asked, holding up a white box.
“Play what?”
“Oh it is like... “, Robert hesitated for a moment. “Cards against humanity?”
“Oh I know that.” Leon had played it once with Chris, Claire and Jill. It had involved a lot of blushing on his side. And of course he lost, as he could never bring himself to make the really dirty choices, and those always won.
“But it’s the Eastern Slav version, I mean, do you understand that, Leon?”, Diana asked.
“Well Leon and I can be a team and I will translate, if that is alright?” Sasha looked down at him and looking at that smile made Leon a lot less nervous.
“Sounds like fun.”
As they needed to be close in order to coordinate and for the others not to hear, Sasha convinced Leon to sit in his lap. He complied, though his ears turned red again. But he soon noticed that no one cared, he was the only one worrying how it might seem, and after he started his second beer, he felt at home.
Of course it helped that Sasha had his arm around his waist, that they were so close, and kept leaning in to whisper into each other’s ear, planning their next moves. Leon hardly even noticed what happened in the game, and he didn’t really care if they lost or not. He was lost in Sasha’s eyes, his laugh, his touch.
He’d keep asking Sasha to repeat his translations, even if he understood the first time he said it. He just pretended that the conversation and music was too loud for him to understand it. Leon could tell Sasha knew he was bullshitting, but he went along with it anyway, just leaning in closer to whisper into Leon’s ear, putting more pressure on his waist to pull him closer.
“I SAID”, Vera was almost shouting at them before Sasha and Leon finally turned to look at her. “It’s your turn, lovebirds.”
She was trying very hard to contain the grin on her face. Leon looked around to see everyone else doing the same, except Diana, who failed completely, beaming at him. When she noticed him looking she pressed a hand to her mouth in an attempt to hide it.
“Again?”, Sasha asked, looking at their cards for the first time.
“Yeah, everyone else’s turn is over”, Boris said. “But perhaps we should leave you two to it?”
“No!”, Leon interrupted. “I’m sorry, I mean… let’s keep playing.”
They kept playing for another hour, and Leon tried really hard to actually concentrate on it now, but Sasha had slipped his hand under his shirt, and started to trace random patterns on his back. It really wasn’t fair.
Eventually the others started to leave though, and Leon wasn’t entirely convinced they did so because they had planned to leave at 1 am. Especially Diana gave him a very meaningful smile as she hugged him goodbye.
At least he had made a somewhat good impression on them. He hoped.
“Should I clean up a little?”, Leon asked, now standing alone in the living room and feeling awkward as usual. Sasha had just closed the door, but quickly closed the distance between them again.
“Do not dare. There is time tomorrow…”, he hesitated. “Is there?”
The sadness in Sasha’s eyes almost broke his heart.
“I have a week”, he said quickly. “If… I mean if I can stay.”
“Leon you idiot”, Sasha smiled. “You can always stay.”
He returned the smile and started to undo the buttons of his - Sasha’s - shirt. Very, very slowly.
“Oh…”, Sasha leaned back to watch him. “I like what is happening right now.”
“It might not technically be your birthday anymore but… I… I’m your gift. I’m at your service…Happy Birthday.”
“Fuck…”, Sasha’s gaze followed Leon’s hands as he revealed his torso and he stared for a while. Perhaps it was the alcohol but by now… Leon almost felt brave and he let his shirt drop to the floor before starting on his jeans.
“I have some very good ideas right now, Leon…” Sasha tore his gaze away from his abs for a moment. “Best birthday ever.”
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Leon had the week off. Sasha, however, did not.
The day after the party they spent entirely in bed, by now so used and comfortable with each other, it just came naturally.
After that however, Leon woke up in an empty bed. How Sasha had managed to sneak out of it without waking him up was a mystery. Normally he was a light sleeper, years of missions and training keeping him on his toes, but whenever he was here… He felt safe.
Sasha had left a little handwritten note, which Leon picked up as he stumbled out of the bedroom, just in his boxers.
Meet me at school at 1 pm, lunch at Dominik’s?
Miss you,
Sasha
There was a little doodle of Sasha hugging him, and Leon grinned as he put the note away for safekeeping. The art was good, he told himself.
He busied himself until it was time for him to leave, though his thoughts never wandered far from Sasha, and he ended up going earlier than planned. On his way he couldn’t resist buying some chocolate, remembering how much he liked it. It almost felt like they were in a real relationship, like they were a real couple.
You’ll be gone again in a few days.
He shook his head as he put away the chocolate bar.
Leon was wondering how on earth he’d find Sasha in the large brick building that was the school, when he noticed him through a window front to the left of its entrance.
The classroom was relatively small, Leon counted 16 students, all actually paying attention to what Sasha was saying. He didn’t know a lot about children but he had been in school once too, and he didn’t remember it like this. But he could see why.
Sasha was so passionate about what he was saying, judging by his gestures, the fire in his eyes. Though he couldn’t read what was on the board, there was a picture of Liberty Leading the People projected onto the wall. History, then? He had never asked before… But it fit.
Leon contented himself with watching Sasha for a while, who knew when he’d ever have this opportunity again, but the lesson was over all too soon, and he noticed it was already time for them to meet. Before he’d go inside and get lost, Leon decided to wait for him out here, guessing that it would still take a while, post-school organization and all that.
He was surprised to see Sasha coming out of the front door along with the students just about a minute later.
“Miss me that much?”, he called after him, as Sasha had passed him, now looking around to look for Leon.
“Maybe”, Sasha replied when he had turned around and Leon had walked up to him.
Leon resisted the urge to lean down and kiss him. It was one thing to do it in front of his friends, but here, in school, where everyone could see? It would just raise awkward questions.
“You uh… You looked really cute in there”, Leon said quietly, not sure how much English the teenagers around him knew.
“You were watching?”, Sasha raised an eyebrow, barely containing his smile.
“For about twenty minutes. You didn’t even notice.”
“Well the French Revolution is just so exciting!” He said it with such… honesty, and there it was again, that spark in his eyes. Leon wanted him to talk about it more, just so he could watch him like this.
“I think I might be highly undereducated on that subject. You should tell me about it over lunch.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah”, Leon was smiling as he started pushing Sasha’s wheelchair towards the café. By now he knew the way there.
“Hm where to start… probably with Charles the tenth’s ascend to the throne in 1824…”
Leon almost wished he could record this.
He would miss it once he was gone. He always did.