Work Text:
Living at the office isn’t so bad, Leo thinks.
That is until the first night that one of his bosses pulls a solo all-nighter.
Watching Steven sweat and slave over an amount of paperwork that would even make Gilbert squirm has Leo’s stomach knotted with guilt. With Anila, Steven’s assistant and secretary, on leave because of the whole lock-down and insect incident, Steven has had difficulty coping lately.
“Goodnight,” Klaus whispers as he passes Steven’s desk, clapping him on the shoulder. “Are you certain that you won’t reconsider my offer?”
Steven yawns and stretches, shaking his head simultaneously. “Absolutely not. We need our headman in top form each and every day, Klaus. Get some rest.”
Klaus’s shoulders droop a little. “As you wish, then.”
Leo peers over the back of the sofa with a rough swallow as he watches Klaus walk over.
“Keep a close eye on him, Leonardo,” his boss murmurs to him with a frown, still looking at Steven from across the room. “I can tell that you’re as worried as I am.”
“Yeah,” Leo mutters and fakes a smile when he spots Steven glance back at them. “You can count on me.”
Heaving a sigh, Steven interrupts them, “Klaus, go home.”
Klaus slings his coat over his arm and nods, bidding them both goodnight before heading out.
Sliding down into the cushions once more, Leo mulls over his next move to aid Steven in any way he can without offending the man or making his worry known. Sonic sits in his lap with a banana chip in hand, nibbling on it, and that’s when Leo gets his first bright idea.
“So,” he pipes up at last and peers over the back of the sofa again. “Are you hungry? ‘Cause I know I am.”
Steven looks up from his work with one eye half-closed and an eyebrow raised. “A little, why?”
Leo puts on a brave face in an attempt to guard his true intent. “Just thought I’d ask ‘cause I was thinking of going out for a bit. There’s that coffee shop just down the street that’s open all night. Do you want something?”
“Should you really be gallivanting about this time of night alone, though?” Steven asks with a frown. “Zed is out on patrol with Zapp until dawn and you’ll have no escort. I’m not sure I like that idea much.”
He’s worried about me, Leo thinks with a little gasp. “Um, it’ll just be for a few minutes. I’ll come straight back, I swear.”
Steven leans on his fist and muses for a moment. “All right, but only if you leave your phone’s GPS on while you’re out. I have to keep an eye on you; if anything were to happen to you – “
His sentence dies midway through.
“Ahem.” He coughs into his fist. “I mean, you know, if Klaus were to discover then he’d never let me hear the end of it. I have an obligation to protect you as your superior.”
After the initial alarm that Steven displayed when he first proposed the idea of going out, Leo calls bullshit on the excuse offered in turn to explain Steven’s worry away. It brings a half-smile to his lips and he grabs his yellow backpack from the floor with Sonic in tow, perched upon his shoulder.
“So, what do you want?” he asks.
“The largest size and darkest cold brew that they have,” Steven says as he fishes around his desk for his suit jacket, retrieving it from beneath a pile of papers and pulling his credit card from within. “Five shots of espresso and nothing else. You can get whatever you’d like.”
Leo glances between Steve and the credit card. “You don’t have to – “
“You’re as bad as Klaus,” Steven jokes and smiles a little. “Take it.”
That smile warms Leo from the inside-out and he accepts the card with a laugh. “Fine, you win. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
As Steven pretends to continue with his work and not follow Leo out the door with his eyes, he starts to wonder: just when did he start dropping his guard so easily and engage in chipper, idle banter with someone in spite of sleep deprivation?
Leo makes his trip fast as promised, not wanting to add worry over his safety to the long list of Steven’s stressors. He adds a few doughnuts and some jalapeno-cilantro poppers to his order as well, recalling how Klaus told him once that Steven was fond of them. Sonic practically begs for a slice of banana bread, but Leo pays for that separately with his own money and after he passes the treat to his friend, the warm chirp he receives in turn makes his purchase worthwhile.
“Back!” Leo announces as he walks through the double doors. “Are you…Steven!”
Dropping the bag, Leo rushes over to the desk and shakes his boss gently by the shoulders. Panic sets in when Steven doesn’t answer him and he places his fingers over a pulse point, checking for any signs of life.
“God,” he breathes at last. “Scared the shit out of me.”
Steven’s sits up groggily and with a groan. “What? Who?”
“You fell asleep while I was out,” Leo explains and helps him lean back against his chair. “When I came in, I thought you’d keeled over or something with the way you were slumped over.”
With a snort and a chuckle, Steven pats his shoulder apologetically. “Well, as you can see, I’m fine. Take it easy.”
“Makes me wonder how many scares you’ve given poor Klaus,” Leo mutters disapprovingly and crosses the room to retrieve the bag he left by the door. He also grabs the cardboard tray with drinks from the entryway table. “Crisis averted, I guess. Here’s your coffee.”
Sonic climbs to the surface of Steven’s desk and eyes him warily, scampering around the man as if searching for signs of distress. Steven catches him out of the corner of his eye and chuckles, reaching over to give him an affectionate scratch behind the ear.
“I’m all right,” he reassures the monkey. “Sorry to worry you.”
Leo frowns deeper. “Oh, sure. Apologize to him and not me.”
“You’re awfully cheeky lately,” Steven notes with a half-grin. “Life in the city has changed you, kiddo, and for the better.”
“Think so?” Leo asks and pulls up Klaus’s chair to sit at the desk with Steven. “Ooh! That reminds me. Here.”
Steven is far too exhausted to realize that’s he’s drooling when Leo produces a bag of his favorite poppers from the bag. After a harsh gulp, he points to them and then to himself. “How did you…?”
“Klaus,” Leo says with a chirp and pulls a doughnut out for himself. “Mentioned that you liked them when we visited the place once for lunch. I figured that you’d need more than coffee to pull you through the night, so I went ahead and got ‘em.”
Realizing how Leo has grown into a more assertive member of the team, Steven takes a moment to marvel at all the progress he’s made. How well he recalls the self-loathing youth who first came to them with nothing but questionable motives and a blessed curse; Leo used to cower at the sight of Steven, shrink away with Zapp when he smiled that certain way.
Things have changed so much since then.
In the time he has known Leo, Steven has seen him stand up for himself and those weaker than him, even in the face of improbable danger. Proud doesn’t begin to describe the warmth swelling within his breast.
“Eat,” Leo scolds him gently and pushes the bag of poppers towards him. “I can’t have Klaus finding you all skin and bones tomorrow morning.”
Steven makes the connection then. “Ah, so you made a promise to Klaus. Look after me or some such?”
Dropping his facade of bravado, Leo sighs. “Klaus isn’t the only friend you have here, you know. Watching you suffer like that, I was worried too.”
Taken aback by his sudden honesty, Steven just sits there with a popper in hand.
“You’re not alone, Steven. You have plenty of people here willing to help you,” Leo continues and lifts his head hesitantly to look him in the eyes. “Sometimes I think you just forget.”
Steven avoids his gaze and crams a couple of poppers into his mouth to get out of giving him a straight answer.
“Or you think everyone is scared of you?” Leo pursues it further, leaning over the desk a little. “Is that it?”
“Everyone is afraid of me,” Steven answers at length and flicks another popper into his mouth. “I prefer it that way.”
Sure, Leo thinks with a snort. “So, what are we doing after we eat?”
Steven almost chokes on his coffee. “You’re off the clock, kiddo. You don’t have to help me.”
“Look, we both know that you’re in desperate need of a secretary right now and Anila isn’t here,” Leo calls his bluff while averting his own gaze this time. “Just tell me what you need done. I literally have nothing better to do and I am living here rent-free, so…”
That hardly justifies it, Steven thinks with a frown. He takes another swig of coffee and feels his sense of clarity slowly returning. If he wants to help, though, who am I to refuse? Hell, it may even give him a little thrill so I’ll indulge him this once.
“These need to be filed,” Steven starts by pushing a stack of manila folders towards Leo. “After that, you can start sorting the police reports by severity of the incident and the most recent dates to the least.”
Leo takes another sip of his hot chocolate before hopping out of his seat and mock-saluting Steven. “Yessir.”
As it turns out, Leo is a very capable secretary and assistant. He also has far fewer personal barbs to launch at Steven than Anila which Steven appreciates above all else. Whenever the coffee runs low, Leo is there with a fresh pot and a spare treat from the refrigerator.
“Huh. This is good,” Steven says with mild surprise as he takes a sip of his coffee. “When did you learn to brew it this well? I recall your past attempts tasting like mud.”
“Hey!” Leo snaps and huffs. “I’ve changed, remember?”
Steven chuckles. “Gilbert taught you, didn’t he?”
“He did,” Leo retorts and sets the pot down on the table near the sofa. “Also said that I’ve improved greatly, too! Thank you very much.”
“My error,” Steven apologizes and presses a hand to his chest for good measure. “I should be grateful and not poking fun at you.”
Leo waves his hand dismissively. “It’s fine. I was kinda half-teasing anyways.”
“I’m not used to people freely jesting with me,” Steven admits after a few more sips of coffee. “Most people I meet either fear me or want to kill me. Their intentions aren’t always clear, though, so I have a hard time letting my hair down if you know what I mean.”
Frowning, Leo pulls up Klaus’s chair again and climbs into it. “You trust Klaus, right?” he asks and ducks his head down a little to catch Steven’s attention, drawing his eyes away from the paperwork he’s working on. “I’m not much, I know, but you can always count on me, too. Oh, and everyone else! We’re always pulling for you.”
Steven laughs softly. “It is nice to feel like I’m part of a family when I come into work.”
“Right?” Leo says excitedly, sitting up in the chair. “That’s exactly how I felt when I first started here!”
“You’re a people-person, though. Others are naturally drawn to you because of your demeanor and capacity to care,” Steven laments with a frown. “Sometimes I wish I could be as honest and open as you are with everyone else.”
Leo smiles and points out, “You’re pretty talkative tonight if that helps any.”
“I blame sleep deprivation and your company for that,” Steven says with a chuckle afterwards. “Speaking of sleep, do you plan to go to bed once we finish here?”
“Ugh. Absolutely,” Leo groans and lays back in his chair. “I don’t know how you do this shit on a weekly basis; I’d be dead by now.”
Steven signs the last contract and sets it aside, sighing with another smile. “Well, I can’t take all the credit. I had some great help tonight.”
Something about the way he speaks fondly has Leo swooning before he even realizes. Couple that with the fact that Steven must have been born with literal bedroom eyes and Leo feels like melting into a steaming puddle of goo right about now. No matter how hard Steven tries, though, Leo is determined to keep all these reasons behind motivation for tonight’s charity work to himself. The last thing he needs is for his crush on his boss to go public.
“I’ll get the blankets and stuff if you wanna lay down!” Leo excuses himself for a moment, running out from beneath that ardent gaze and into the backroom.
Cute, Steven muses with a chuckle and finally stands from his seat with a crack of his back. With a few grunts and stretches, he relieves the burden on his limbs and strides over to the chair.
“What are you doing?” Leo calls to him as soon as he returns with a pile of blankets and pillows that eh can’t even see over so he has to peer around them. “I want the chair.”
Steven pauses while taking one of his shoes off. “Why? You can’t sleep well if you’re all cramped – “
“I like curling into a ball when I sleep. Besides, you have way longer legs than me, so you’re taking the couch.” Leo marches over and throws his bundle to the carpet. “Come on, get up.”
“Leo – “
“Move,” insists Leo as he pulls on Steven’s hand and pushes him towards the couch. He stops mid-stride and guffaws, “Wait. Did you just call me by my first name?”
“Well, you’ve outgrown the whole ‘kiddo’ shtick, so yeah. I did address you by your given name.” Steven glances over his shoulder with a knowing smile. “Would you rather I didn’t?”
Leo waves his hands around in a panic. “What? No! It’s fine.”
Nodding, Steven takes his place on the couch and stretches out like a cat. “Are you sure about these arrangements?”
“Go to sleep,” Leo grunts and crawls into the chair, trying to change the subject. “You know as well as I do that this makes the most sense.”
“Thank you, then,” Steven says softly and lays down at last. “For the food, your help, and some much needed companionship. I appreciate it.”
Leo’s face burns hot as Sonic tries to snuggle in between the pillow and his cheek. “Of course.”
“Goodnight.”
Peeking over the hem of his blanket, Leo comes face-to-face with Steven’s gaze and it lights a fire in his belly. He audibly chokes and manages to croak, “G-G’night.”
Steven tries not to chuckle for Leo’s sake, but he doesn’t take his eyes off him, either. He watches the younger man until he finally succumbs to sleep and then deems it time for himself to sleep as well. In fact, this is probably the first time in a long time that he’s fallen asleep so quickly and soundly.
Morning dawns upon Hellsalem’s Lot with the promise of a bright, sunny day in spite of the thick fog, and Klaus is the first to arrive with Gilbert on his heels. The office is in a state of disarray from the all-nighter that Steven pulled, but Gilbert goes about the clean-up happily.
“Hmm?” Steven rouses from sleep with a hum as Klaus pulls the curtain open a little. “Oh, hey.”
“Good morning,” Klaus says quietly so as not to wake Leo or Sonic. He walks over to the couch and stands behind it as Steven stretches his arms overhead. “For someone who stayed up half the night, you look well-rested.”
Steven runs a hand through his messy hair and laughs. “I had a very reliable helper. What can I say?”
Klaus looks across the table to the chair where Leo sits curled up with Sonic and smiles. “He is quite diligent, yes.”
“How about some coffee?” Steven suggests. “I could use a cup.”
“A moment while I prepare it,” Klaus acquiesces with a nod, taking the hint and leaving the room to assist Gilbert.
Staggering to his feet, Steven neglects his morning routine entirely in favor of crossing the carpet to stand at Leo’s side and pull the drooping blanket up to his chin once more. He takes another quick look around before pushing some of Leo’s unruly bangs back for a kiss to his forehead.
A chirp alerts him to Sonic’s sudden awakening and he puts a finger to his lips, winking.
“Shh…” he says and laughs. “It’s our secret, okay?”
Sonic yawns and pats around the pillow, curling up again to fall back asleep.
Steven pats Leo’s head and ambles over to the couch to retrieve his shoes and suit jacket. As he dresses, he can’t help glancing back at Leo every couple of minutes to be sure that this is all real and not some sleep-deprived illusion. He can’t recall the last time he dropped his defenses completely and allowed someone other than Klaus this close to him.
Then again, he thinks with a smile that rivals the rising sun in its brilliance, Leonardo Watch has never been just someone else to him, either.