Chapter Text
"Hey, petal!" he greeted you like he would everyday but this one time it felt odd. Maybe it was just you. Maybe it was your own discomfort that was making you hear things. Maybe he was onto you.
"Leo?" you entered his room quietly, stepping softly as if literally walking on thin ice.
Your silence, your lack of response or your usual greeting, probably clued him into the grim mood you were in.
How do you bring this up? Is it even appropriate? No, no, it's not... But you have to say something!
"What's wrong?" he knew.
"We gotta talk." every step you took towards the bed felt heavier and heavier. The weight in your chest grew, while your lungs felt like they were shrinking.
In the brief moment you managed to look up at him, you could see him visibly shrink. Though he was usually amazing at maintaining his composure, being with him for years and knowing him intimately helped you pick up on the subtle ques that revealed his true state of mind.
Like the minute lowering of his chin and shoulders, the miniature downward pull of the covers of his mouth, and the barely-visible convergence of his brows. He was tense. And, frankly, so were you.
"What's up?" another one of his tells - he'd sometimes try to sound overly-casual when he was tense. In what other scenario would this man say 'What's up'? None, that's what.
How do you word this? It's a serious accusation, especially for him and you would have to handle this conversation with a level of maturity and levelheadedness that you simply did not possess.
"It has..." Be vague, try to sound like a politician, "...come to my attention that you've been doing something..." something what? Weird? You can't say that! "...unusual."
His silence was deadly.
It felt like walking through a war-zone - the risk of stepping on a landmine was perhaps worse than actually triggering one.
"So..." deep breath in, "...my lingerie has been steadily disappearing and -"
"You have no proof." his voice was so steady that if you didn't know any better you'd have believed him.
It truly infuriated you.
So you pull your trump card out.
"Baby, I found this in your pocket." the moment his eyes land on the pair of blue panties, his face blanks. The facade has dropped, he's been caught, the jig was UP!
But, to be fair, you had to hear him out. It was only fair.
"So, what I wanna know... is why."
Coz it's a fetish, that's why. That may become a problem at some point.
It seemed to dawn on him that he had no way out. His eyes, that had been hyperfocused on you, now landed into the concrete plates of the floor.
"Because..." omg, omg, omg, please don't be weird... "I just wanted to prove to myself you were real." what the genuine fuck?
"What?"
"Yeah."
Silence.
"Pffff... Ha ha ha!" the immediate relief of his response fell onto you like cool refreshing air, and that developed into fits of laughter.
What a sweet way to realize your man cherishes you, when you thought he was a fetishist.
"Oh, my! THANK GOD!" when the giggles finally settled, and you wiped your eyes free of tears, you noticed that his face didn't hold the relief and joy that yours did - he just looked confused.
"You seem shocked." he was so adorably confused. He didn't know that underwear fetish was a thing?
"Baby, I thought you were a fetishist! I thought we're gonna have to have a conversation about trophies!"
"Ha!" and there it was! The laughter returning back to his face, in that wide charming smile you fell in love with!
"But seriously though, gimmie back my lingerie, this shit is expensive."