Work Text:
leo’s finishing up an assignment for his criticism class, his attention span slowly dwindling as he powers through. he loves being a lit major, but the coarse load is something he wasn’t expecting, especially when he has to cut his time equally with basketball. besides growing up a bookworm, he was drawn to literature more or less because he thought he was good at reading people, diverse characters were a cinch for the way he grew up listening instead of speaking. but as he’s learned, all it takes is some accidental miscommunication and a whole lot of emotions to cloud judgement.
the subject of his thoughts must be getting better at reading him, because the door is being thrown open and his boyfriend comes in. fiat’s such a strong force of energy, it’s like he brings a wildfire with him wherever he goes. the crackling flames easily making their way in through the ajar door and engulfing the room in heat and gorgeous orange colors. leo wouldn’t be a lit major if he couldn’t wax poetic about his boyfriend at just his very presence.
“leo,” fiat whines, coming up behind his chair with a prominent pout on his lips.
“fiat?” he questions, looking from his work to glance at him.
“leo,” he whines again, elongating the o as he throws his hands around leo’s shoulders and shoves his face into his neck. “m’ have a headache.”
the left side of leo’s lips curl up into a slight smirk. “a headache?”
“mnh.” fiat hums and he can feel the vibration. “head hurts, no thoughts.”
leo stifles a laugh. “since when?”
there’s a pause. “just now.”
“have you taken advil?” he asks, erasing a stray comma as he reads over his assignment. fiat shakes his head.
he sighs, unattaching fiat’s arms as carefully as he can before he spins around to face his boyfriend. “come ‘ere.” he prompts, pulling him sideways onto his lap. fiat goes with ease.
they situate themselves until they’re comfortable, as they do. leo adjusts so fiat can mold to him as he pleases and fiat burrows his face back into the crook of his neck.
“you’d think you would’ve stopped using this trick on me years ago with how well i know you,”
“how’d you know?” leo’s kind of surprised his boyfriend would give in so quickly. normally he’d make him work for it, dancing around the subject until there were no more avoidance tactics to use.
abandoning the word document for now and abstaining himself from questioning further, he moves one hand to rub absentmindedly on fiat’s thigh. “how could i not when you’ve been using it for years, princess?”
fiat giggles, and a whisp of a smile graces his own face. “unfortunately it wasn’t just with me.”
he feels more than hears a few laboured breaths from fiat, and he sees him start to fidget with his hands. “my brain doesn’t know how to explain what i’m feeling so it’s just making me uncomfy and wants me to leave and pretend this situation never happened.”
leo moves his head so he can look down at his boyfriend. he doesn’t make a move to force him to look back, but he wants him to know he has his full attention.
“i don’t think my therapist would be too happy if i did that though,”
“why?”
fiat huffs and rolls his eyes. “because then the weeks and weeks of us talking about how to have these conversations would be for nothing, fucking jerk.”
leo can’t help but to chuckle, but he makes a point to slip right back into supportive boyfriend mode.
supportive boyfriend mode was originally supportive best friend mode, but the 2.0 version involves a lot more than just listening and giving hugs or holding fiat as he cried. he still does that, but now he adapts. if he needs to say more or do more, now they talk about it.
“i don’t really have a headache,,,” his boyfriend trails off, and leo squeezes his thigh. “it’s just become a habit, i guess. i’m not used to- this. yet. i’m not used to us.”
leo watches the gears turn in the shorters head and when he sees the slight furrow of brow, an indication that fiat’s struggling, he takes the opportunity to help the way his therapist recommended.
“what parts of your feelings about this are more helpful, hm?” he asks, taking the hand that’s not gripping fiat’s thigh and using it to brush the hair from his forehead.
“why i’m feeling this way.”
“what way?”
“scared.”
“keep going.”
“i’m scared to ask for your attention, or rather, i don’t know how? and that makes me scared. both.” fiat grabs the hand thats on his thigh and instead starts to play with leo’s fingers. “it’s new, our relationship. a big change. and the only sure way i’ve known to ask for your attention, or anyone’s else’s, is to, well, lie. because if not i’m ya know, annoying or in the way.”
leo’s heart clenches. he has a lot of regrets about their miscommunication, ones he’s working to amend, but it never hurts less to hear more about what not speaking his mind had done to the most important person in his life.
fiat picks that moment to lift his head from leo’s chest and look at him.
he plants soft kisses on every one of fiat’s pretty features, if not to just make him squirm and smile, take away the pain in his eyes, if not just for tonight.
“well first of all, i’m going to do better at giving you more without you having to ask for it.”
“leo-“
“fiat,” he counters. “this is going to sound dumb, and i know you’re going to cringe-“
fiat’s already groaning. “LEO-“
“fiat,” they chuckle together for a second as leo collects himself. “i think i’ve grown accustomed to being content with just having you next to me, because that’s all i felt like i could have for so long. i caught myself the other day, ya know. wanting to kiss you and forgetting that i could.”
the shorter pouts. “how often do i miss out on kisses?”
leo smiles fondly, crowding into the little space between them to kiss the pout away. “well now you’re gunna get every single one.”
“i want every single one!”
“and i want to give you as much attention as you want from me,” fiat smiles again, and leo notes that he’d die again and again to make it come back. “but you have to tell me.”
the goofiness dissipates into a quiet familiarity as they drift back into seriousness. “how do i ask? will i not be annoying?”
“i’m sure you won’t have any problem asking now that you have my full permission. and you act like i don’t annoy you sometimes but no, you asking for attention is not annoying.”
“you have no idea what you’re asking for.”
“trust me, i absolutely do.” leo smirks again.
“leo,” fiat whines again with more vigor, wiggling around and causing the taller to be jerked around haphazardly. “i need attention!”
clearly, leo thinks.
he sighs, turning the two of them around in his chair so he can save his document and swiftly exit out of word, closing his laptop.
“let’s go then, princess.”
fiat quickly gets up from his spot on his boyfriend's lap and grabs his hand again, pulling him out of his chair and into leo’s bedroom. fiat let’s go of his hand so he can climb into bed, jeans and all, to get comfortable. after he’s starfished in the middle like he usually is, fiat snuggles into his left side and throws his arms around leo’s middle. his place,,, his person.
his boyfriend's fingers immediately find his matching necklace and starts to play with it. he makes a mental note to talk about getting a fidget toy, though he can’t say he minds fiat’s new habits of playing with his fingers or necklace when he needs to occupy his hands to form proper thoughts.
they both pull out their phones, a comfortable silence falling over them. if there’s one aspect of their relationship that hasn’t changed, leo’s glad it’s this one. he likes being able to coexist despite how clingy his boyfriend may be. he glances over to see that fiat has settled into scrolling instagram, probably not far off from switching to tiktok, while he goes through his youtube subscriptions in search of a new video from one of his favorite booktubers. maybe he’ll switch to good reads when his boyfriend inevitably switches to tiktok, but for right now they’re content.
there’s a calmness to having fiat in his arms, to having tamed the wildfire. it’s still there, a dim flame burning lowly in wait to roar back up again when fiat’s energy is regained. but for now it warms him up in the best possible way, surrounding him in a cozy feeling that’s much less overwhelming than what he’s gotten used to. after all, he’s the only one capable of tending to the amiable blaze he is.
but in turn, he balances leo out. whereas fiat is a wildfire, leo is a strong foundation, ready to take on anything the shorter throws. he can’t stop him from trying to destroy everything in his path, but he can certainly take measures to prevent it. and when all else fails, a board gets cinched. they rebuild. he gives leo an entirely new perspective every day, and if he weren’t around he would be stuck in such monotony.
fiat proves just that when he switches from instagram to tiktok just like leo had predicted, but pauses the first one and instead wriggles around to look up at him. leo had followed suit and navigates his way to good reads, but when he notices he’s being looked at and assumedly waited for, he locks his phone and lets it drop to the bed.
the shorter cups his face with both hands. “you know you’re the only one i’ve ever wanted attention from, right? because if not, this is your daily reminder that i am in fact very in love with you and only you.”
leo knows what he’s doing, and he appreciates it. because in all the effort to take care of fiat, leo loses sight of himself and his own feelings. he always has. but fiat knows exactly how to reciprocate, exactly how to rebuild. so instead of one of their usual remarks to fuel the banter, he just takes the words in and let’s his boyfriend kiss him to his hearts content.
when he finally lets the taller get back to good reads it’s been at least a few minutes because leo lets himself indulge on those pretty lips, basking in the fact that he can and that fiat is his and only wants to be his.
“i love you too.” he says, before unlocking his phone, dropping one last kiss onto his forehead.
“because we’re best friends?” fiat teases, practically choking on his own laughter when leo’s face falls into a grimace at the words.
“no because we’re boyfriends, i love you as in i’m very very gay for you, brat. you did NOT have to remind me of how fucking stupid we used to sound.”
fiat buries his face into leo’s neck in attempt to stop giggling. “fuck- sorry, babe. didn’t realize that would give you ptsd!”