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Leo’s life was going to shit. Or, maybe after rising so high so fast, falling back down to the same plane as everyone else just felt like he’d crashed and burned.
He was having a pretty hard time explaining it to Nico - probably because Nico didn’t give a fuck, and was in the middle of, like, eighteen things. As he usually was, so, in Leo’s defense, it wasn’t like that was any different than normal.
“I don’t give a fuck about your personal problems,” Nico told him, and-- Wow, okay, it was one thing for Leo to suspect that that was how Nico felt, but to hear it outright stung. “Unless you’re going to tell me that whatever drama you’re stirring up is going to affect your next album for the worse, then I don’t--”
“But it is!” Leo cut in, waving his hands wildly and shouting for everyone in the studio lobby to hear. He made sure to lower his voice before he spoke again, since he didn’t want nosy Lou - the new receptionist - to overhear. “Jason and Piper broke up. I don’t know how the band is supposed to survive this, Nico! It’s-- It’s different now, and--” He groaned in frustration, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Can’t we talk about this somewhere else? Like, don’t you have an office?”
Nico’s glare hardened. “I don’t need that fucking office. I hate it in there - it’s like a cave.”
Leo held back from pointing out that he would’ve thought a vampire bat like Nico would thrive in that kind of environment, and instead asked, “Well, can I have it, then? Because I’m going to start needing a place to cry in peace, so I don’t scare off the ladies.”
He scoffed at himself internally. There were no ladies - there never had been, and there were never going to be any ladies, and he didn’t even have anyone to talk to about his recent self-discovery, because his two best friends were making his life a living hell!
Nico rolled his eyes, slamming his laptop shut and gathering up any miscellaneous papers he had lying around. He heaved himself to his feet and nodded his head for Leo to follow. He started walking toward where Leo knew his new office was, though he paused at the reception desk and told Lou to block off practice room three for the next hour, before leading Leo in that direction.
As soon as the door was shut behind him, Nico said, “Talk. And get it all out now so I don’t have to deal with this again later.”
And Leo tried. He really did try to get it all out - all of his fears and frustrations and anxieties - but it wasn’t easy when he knew the ear he was talking to barely listened. And besides, Nico had a lot of work to do, and if Leo hung around for any longer, then Jason and Piper were probably going to come looking for him. And he certainly didn’t need them to know that he’d spent the last half hour or so complaining about them behind their backs.
Really, it was a surprise to neither of them when Leo kept showing up wherever Nico was - in a practice room as he worked on some individual writing, outside an executive conference room that Nico couldn’t seem to get out of fast enough, or in one of the recording studios, waiting patiently for Nico’s session to be finished so that Leo could jump into the next bout of complaints.
The fifth time that Nico caught Leo outside a conference room - on a floor that he wasn’t even technically allowed on, not that Leo cared in the slightest - Nico sighed, hanging his head for a second before he said, “I’d kick you in the balls and run while you’re down if I didn’t think HR would have my ass over it. What do you want this time, Valdez?”
And, strange as it was, that actually gave Leo an idea.
“How the fuck did you figure out where I live?” Nico demanded from the doorway as Leo grinned proudly, a case of beer in hand. “Actually, no, I don’t think I want to--”
“You know Malcolm, in HR?” Leo cut in as he let himself inside, toeing off his shoes by the door and making himself at home. “I told him I’d find a way to get the air conditioning vent in his office to stop squeaking if he gave me your address. And when he said that was considered a gross misuse of his confidentiality privileges or something like that, and that he could get fired for giving it to me, I told him I wasn’t doing it to be gross, and he kicked me out. And then I waited until he went on his lunch break, broke into his office, and found it myself. I didn’t know your middle name was Vincenzo!”
Nico sighed, dropping onto a tiny loveseat with the heels of his palms pressed into his eyes. “What do I have to do to get you out of here as fast as possible?”
Leo held up the beer, his smile turning a bit crazed. “Drink with me!”
He joined Nico on the couch, probably a bit too close, but there wasn’t a lot of other furniture in Nico’s living room, and he would be drunk soon, anyway. He popped open the case and produced a bottle opener from his pocket, cracking into two bottles and passing one to Nico.
Nico took a sip and frowned. “This tastes like shit.”
Leo shrugged. “But it’s cheap, and I’ve gotta start saving money, if I’m gonna be out of a job, soon.” He slammed almost half of the bottle in his first go.
Nico turned, resting back against the arm of the couch and crossing his legs underneath himself - probably both to put some distance between them, and so he wouldn’t have to keep craning his neck. “Why the fuck would you be out of a job soon? You have another album due in two months.”
“But it’s not going to get finished when every band meeting, writer’s room, and rehearsal is just Jason and Piper arguing all the time!” Leo exclaimed. “Don’t get me wrong, it sucked when they were still together and we all knew the breakup was coming, but this is worse! I think-- If they keep this up, not only are we going to lose the band, but we’re going to lose each other. Jason and Piper are going to totally hate each other, and won’t want anything to do with the other for the rest of their lives, and I’m just-- I’m the odd man out, you know? I always have been, but-- I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“You’re not going to lose the band,” Nico tried to tell him.
“But we are!”
“You were all friends before the band. The band continued after they got together, and so did your friendship with both of them,” Nico pointed out. “And it will continue after this. Bands break up for a lot of stupid reasons, but-- Look at Fleetwood Mac, right? If anybody’s been through some shit, it’s them. And I’m sure it sucked, but we got fucking Rumours out of it.”
“You think I could write the next Rumours?”
Nico scoffed. “Fuck, no. You’re not part of the breakup, you’re just the guy that has to sit in the background and watch it happen.”
Leo lifted his bottle to his lips and grumbled, “Doesn’t mean I’m not getting my own heart broken.”
“Why’s that?” Nico asked with a laugh. “Gonna tell me you’ve been crushing on Piper since middle school?”
Leo slouched, downing the last of his bottle before reaching for a new one.
“No way,” Nico exclaimed, starting to smile, and Leo was starting to think that this was all a horrible idea. “You’re fucking kidding me, Valdez. How long have you been sitting on this? Does she know? Does Jason?”
“No!” Leo exclaimed. “No, not-- It’s not Piper--” His voice died in his throat, realizing he’d already said too much.
Nico’s eyes widened, lowering his beer to his lap before he could take a swig. He was nearly frozen for more than a few seconds, aside from breathing and blinking, and just before Leo could snap at him to fucking react already, Nico’s surprised expression broke back into neutrality as he lifted the bottle once more. “Shit,” he said before taking a drink. “I’m gonna guess by the look on your face that neither of them know. I bet they don’t even know the whole ladies man thing is a joke.”
Leo shook his head. “No, and if they found out-- It’d probably just tear the band apart even faster. I mean, could you imagine how pissed they’d both be if they found out how long I kept that a secret? Or-- What would Piper think, if I tried to steal Jason as soon as she was done with him?”
“He’s not just some piece of meat for you to fight over,” Nico pointed out with a roll of his eyes, and Leo winced. Jason might be Leo’s best friend, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t Nico’s, too. “Although,” Nico added, trailing off, gazing off toward the kitchen as he took another swig. “He is a good looking piece of meat.”
“Holy shit,” Leo breathed in realization. “You want to fuck him.”
Nico’s glare hardened again, locking on Leo once more. “Of course not,” he snapped, though he squirmed in his seat.
“Oh, sure, of course,” Leo replied with a grin, “you want him to fuck you.”
“We’re not in the office, which means there’s nothing stopping me from causing you physical harm,” Nico threatened. “I will kick you in the balls.”
Leo hummed. “You know, you keep talking about my balls. Any reason for that? Maybe Jason isn’t the only Lost Hero you want to--”
“If you’re done,” Nico cut in, gesturing harshly with his mostly-empty beer bottle, “maybe you should leave. You’ve got a lot of writing to do, or else you’d better figure out your next career path. You’re good at fixing things, aren’t you? Maybe you can get a job at a garage, or find a Geek Squad that will take you on.”
“Fuck you,” Leo grumbled, slouching back and kicking at Nico’s shin. “You know I’m too hyperactive to do anything but drum.” He took another sip of his beer, suddenly feeling glum. “You know, I came here for a distraction, not for you to crush my dreams.”
“You did the rockstar thing,” Nico told him, “you lived the dream. Maybe it’s time for you to find a new one.”
Leo glared. “Maybe it’s time for you to shut up.”
“Maybe you should make me,” Nico shot back, paired by another roll of his eyes, “or you could fucking leave--”
That was as far as he got before Leo’s mouth was on his.
Leo was thoroughly… distracted for the next two weeks.
He stopped bothering Nico at work, which he was sure Nico appreciated. Though he was showing up at Nico’s house almost every night. Sometimes they both got work done - together or separate, in Nico’s living room or in his basement studio, for the next Lost Heroes album or one of Nico’s other projects.
Sometimes…they didn’t get any work done at all.
They weren’t fucking dating, and Nico made that abundantly clear every time Leo brought takeout with him and pretended to try to greet Nico with a kiss. Leo’s balls were still ripe for a kicking, and he made sure to stand with his feet together whenever he said anything that might even remotely piss Nico off.
Leo didn’t consider that his sudden attitude change might’ve been noticed by his bandmates - that they would realize he’d been absent and yet somehow still managing to get writing done without them, and that he no longer stormed out whenever they started fighting but just…ignored them, instead.
Piper probably thought he was giving up - on the band, maybe even their friendship - and she probably figured that if he was willing to throw in the towel so easily, then she wasn’t going to waste any time on trying to drag him back.
Jason, though, wasn’t about to let any of them go down without a fight.
But Leo had been disappearing. He barely answered his phone anymore, like he was busy with other things, and Jason felt like he was losing his best friend. And maybe - just maybe - if he fixed the band, then he could repair his friendships. And if anybody knew how to fix the damaged inner workings of a band - if anybody was the expert on all things rock band related - it was Nico.
Jason had been trusted with Nico’s home address, only because he and Nico had gone out drinking once, and Reyna had threatened Jason’s life if he didn’t get Nico home safely when he was wasted. He was pretty sure that Nico didn’t even remember that Jason knew where he lived, but he didn’t have time to dwell on that when he was already walking up to Nico’s door and raising his fist to knock.
The door opened quickly, if only far enough for Nico to stick his head out and see who was on the other side. Jason was surprised by the speed of his response, considering it was relatively early on a Sunday, and he knew that Nico liked to catch up on sleep whenever he could.
Nico aimed his glare up at Jason. “Why the fuck do you people keep showing up here?”
Jason frowned. “What do you-- Never mind.” He shook his head, and held his hands out, as though showing he meant no harm. “Listen, can I come in? There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
“Can it wait until tomorrow?”
“I’d really rather not,” Jason said, inching forward in the hopes that Nico would move back and let him in, though he didn’t budge. However, the proximity did give Jason a new angle on a tattoo that trailed across Nico’s collarbone - an interesting shade of purple, in a pattern almost like a watercolor tattoo-- “It’s about Leo. I’m worried about him, and-- Have you heard from him?”
Nico’s expression changed minutely - a barely there widening of his eyes, and the slightest intake of breath - but Jason could read it perfectly. There was something Nico wasn’t telling him. “Listen, Jay, now is so not a good time, but give me, like, an hour, and I can meet you for coffee, or-- That bagel shop by the studio - you like that place, don’t you? So, I’ll text you, and--”
Some little pieces were falling slowly into place, one by one - the strangely colored tattoos on his neck weren’t inked on at all, and his mussed up hair and the fact that he was answering the door without a shirt on, and his continuous urging for Jason to leave--
“I don’t want to talk about this later,” Jason insisted, putting a hand on the door and applying pressure, though just FROG enough for Nico to feel it, not for him to be pushed back by it. “And I don’t care about whatever Tinder date you have in there - I need your help!”
“Jason--” Nico tried to argue as he shifted his weight, likely to hold more firmly against the door, but his grip on the door faltered and it swung open.
Just in time for Jason to watch as Leo, dressed only in a pair of boxers, to march out of Nico’s bedroom, unaware.
Jason’s jaw dropped, his eyes wide and… horrified as they drifted back toward Nico, something… snapping inside of him and causing him to slam the side of his fist against the open door. Nico flinched at the sound, and across the house, Leo’s head turned toward him - but Jason’s eyes stayed locked on Nico’s as they narrowed into a glare. “Fuck you,” Jason spat before he turned and walked off the porch.
Studio lobby screaming matches seemed to happen about once a month, from what Lou Ellen could tell after having worked there for only three months, though this one in particular seemed worse than most.
“It’s not nothing,” Piper shouted across the room, “you’re fucking Nico, and hid it from us!”
Lou wished she’d come prepared - she was going to have to start keeping popcorn in her desk for occasions like this.
“We all promised each other, Leo,” Jason said, sounding more relaxed than Piper, though the booming sound of his voice made it clear that he only appeared calm on the outside. “We said we would never keep secrets from each other. And this-- He’s practically our boss, Leo! He’s our friend! What could have possibly made you think that this was a good idea? What happens when you break up? Is he going to cut us from the label?”
“I told you, we’re not dating!” Leo exclaimed. “It was just a-- A temporary thing-- A distraction!”
“A distraction from what?” Piper demanded.
“From you! From your constant fighting! How could you think that me sleeping with Nico would be the thing that breaks up the band, when the two of you can’t stand to be in the same room for more than two minutes without ripping out each others’ throats!”
Jason and Piper exchanged a glance, almost as though they were… offended that Leo would even imply that something like that was true.
“We’re fine, Leo,” Jason told him. “We’re just…trying to agree on what’s best for the band. We always argue - it’s nothing new! We’re still friends, right, Piper?”
Lou felt like she was living out her parents’ divorce all over again.
“Oh, we’re still friends,” Piper said to Jason, “but I’m not sure how I’m going to forgive Leo for keeping something as big as this from us!”
Before things could get worse - or better? Jason almost seemed like he might be ready to get things cooling down, though Lou was thinking about calling in a reality camera crew, because the ratings would be stellar - the lobby doors swung open as Nico returned from whatever meeting he’d been forced to attend upstairs, and--
Froze.
Four pairs of eyes locked on him, and he looked like he might puke.
He took a step forward, and so did Piper, her hands balled into fists at her sides, and Jason threw out an arm to stop her. Lou thought Nico might piss his pants out of fear, but he rushed forward, around her desk, as he caught his opening. “I’ll be in my office,” he announced as he made his escape, and as he passed, he hissed to Lou, “If things get physical, call security.”
He took off at a run, slamming the door behind him.
The sound seemed to break whatever spell had been put over the room. Piper released a loud groan of frustration before grasping at Jason’s arm and ripping it away from herself. She stormed out of the lobby, Jason hot on her heels, while Leo sunk into one of the couches back against the wall, head in hands.
“I don’t know what to do,” Nico groaned, crossing his arms over the edge of Reyna’s desk and resting his forehead on them.
He never could have imagined that, after everything Leo had complained about, he would be the reason for the breakup of DOA’s biggest band. As much as Leo had annoyed him in the past, Nico really did hate to see him hurt, and after the temporary distraction, Leo looked even more hurt than before. Not to mention how Piper and Jason must have felt - Nico never could have thought that sleeping with Leo would have hurt his best friend as much as it did.
“I never thought that--”
“That fucking someone would fuck you over as much as it did?” Reyna cut in without an ounce of sympathy in her voice.
Nico let out another groan. “They have an album due next month! And if they break their contract-- Fuck, Reyna, I can’t be responsible for such a huge loss to the company. Lost Heroes-- They’re our number one, and losing them--”
“Would mean losing your friends,” she said, and he hated how much her words felt like a stab through the chest. “Nobody has publicly quit yet. And even if somebody does in the next twelve hours, bands can always reform. You’re acting like this is completely hopeless, when there is, in fact, hope.”
Nico lifted his head. “How can you be so sure?”
Reyna shrugged. “I know a guy.” She cocked an eyebrow, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms over her chest. “Do you want me to call that guy?”
Nico sagged in relief. “Please.”
A company-wide meeting, allegedly. But, of course, Piper didn’t believe that for a second. Still, she let Jason drag her there because he would probably bust out the puppy dog eyes if she didn’t, out to the back parking lot because it was the only space inside or out that would fit the full staff.
But when she and Jason arrived, the parking lot was empty, save for an old van and two familiar faces.
Leo had been happily chatting away, though he fell silent at the appearance of his bandmates, leaving Piper’s eyes to drift toward--
“Took you long enough, cupcakes!” Hedge, their tour manager, called out to them as they approached. Once the three of them had gathered in front of him, Hedge told them, “A little birdy told me the three of you have been having some bandmate spats. And the doctor - that would be me - has prescribed a weekend away with no phones, no instruments, and no outside interference to help you sort out your problems. So, who’s ready to go camping?”
Piper could tell that the fear was already starting to bond them together once more.