Chapter Text
Jason once again checked his watch and grit his teeth with frustration thinking about the meeting he’d just left. A meeting that could have very easily been an email. A meeting that could have very easily been an email Jason didn’t even need to be CC’d on.
Normally, Jason didn’t mind department meetings, at the very least, he minded them less than most of his other coworkers. He got paid by the minute, and if his boss wanted to waste company money by making Jason sit in a room and zone out for an hour and a half instead of letting him do actual work, well, that was just fine. He clocked out at five o’clock and got paid at the end of the week, regardless of how much was left on his to-do list. This meeting, however, was a different story. He’d specifically asked for this day off weeks in advance, only to have it denied at the last minute because of this dumb meeting. Still, he told himself it would be fine, especially when his boss had told him, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that said meeting would be over right on time and he could head out early to start his extended weekend as soon as they were done. But it hadn’t ended right on time, it had gone over by an hour, and Jason had been forced to keep desperately checking his phone to make sure Piper hadn’t texted him that he was now a widower.
Not that Leo was undergoing any kind of dangerous surgery. The dentist had been sure to inform Jason that thousands of people got their wisdom teeth removed every day. To which Jason immediately replied that hundreds of those people then turned around and sued their dentists for medical malpractice, which made Leo laugh at the time, even though Jason hadn’t been joking in the slightest. It’ll be fine, Superman, Leo had beamed at him, eyes sparkling playfully. You’ll be there to hold my hand the whole way through it, yeah?
Only Jason wasn’t holding Leo’s hand the whole way through it, Piper was, because Jason had been stuck at work at a stupid meeting that should have ended an hour before it did and could have been a stupid email in the first place. A stupid email Jason wouldn’t have even read.
His phone chimed with a text from Piper, informing him that Leo was finally starting to wake up after his (complication-free) surgery, and Jason considered asking his Uber driver if maybe they could go a bit faster, but he figured that asking more than three times in a ten minute car ride would probably get him banned from the app somehow or another.
When he finally made it to the dentist’s office, he stumbled through the front door, looking around the waiting room wildly. “Uh, where–”
“Let me guess: Jason?” Jason whipped his head around to see a man behind the reception counter giving him a sharp, playful grin. “I was told to keep an eye out for a blond guy on the verge of a panic attack. You want me to show you back now?”
Jason somewhat sheepishly followed him down the hall, and he gave him an awkward smile when he gestured him into the recovery room. “Uh, thanks.”
“My pleasure,” he laughed at him before he turned and walked back down the hall.
Jason could only assume that the recovery room he’d been shown to was designed with children in mind. At the very least, he had a hard time imagining that the giant smiling sea creatures plastered on the walls were for the adults’ benefit. It made the room a little claustrophobic, but it was bright and welcoming and likely kept children calm as they worked through whatever drugs the dentist had pumped them full of, so Jason figured it was doing its job.
“Jace! Over here!”
Jason nodded at Piper who was waving at him from Leo’s bedside and trotted over to join them. He smiled down at Leo and laced their fingers together. Leo just blinked up at him, eyes cloudy. “Hey. How are you feeling?”
“Mah mouhph huwts,” Leo slurred thickly. He furrowed his brow. “Gha cah-on in mah mouhph.” He opened his mouth a little wider and made some quiet but incredibly gross gagging sounds.
“Quit trying to spit the gauze out,” Piper chided, flicking him on the nose. “You’re still bleeding, and if you swallow too much blood, you’re going to get sick.”
“Ah’m blee’in’?” Leo asked, startled. “Whyamy blee’in’?”
“The dentist took your teeth, remember?”
Leo’s face screwed up in an adorable, incredibly indignant scowl. “Som a bith.”
Piper just snickered at him. “Yeah. You paid him to do it, too.”
“Whuh teh fuck?”
“Tell me about it,” Jason huffed.
“The greatest tragedy of our time, truly,” Piper sighed sympathetically. “Unfortunately, the doctor said all your teeth would fall out if you didn’t get rid of these.”
“Whuh?”
“She did not say that,” Jason corrected, rolling his eyes. He looked at Leo and squeezed his fingers. “But she did say they would eventually cause problems, so they had to go.”
“Huh?”
Piper laughed at them and got to her feet, giving Leo one last kiss on the forehead. “Alright. I’ve got to head out. You got this under control, Jace?”
“You know I do,” Jason grinned at her. “I’ll take care of him.”
She smiled and waved. “Bye, Leo! Don’t let anyone else take your teeth!”
“Bah, Pipes,” Leo said, waving at her, even after the door shut.
Now that they were alone, Jason let his smile go toffee-soft, and he carded his free hand through Leo’s curls, though the action made Leo’s face pucker a bit. “I’m really glad you’re okay, Leo.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Jason leaned forward to kiss Leo on the cheek, but he was met with a very weak, but very furious smack to the face. He pulled back to see Leo scowling death at him and raised his eyebrows. “What–”
“No!” Leo said firmly. “No kithin! ‘m nah kithin you!”
Jason felt the briefest flash of hurt before it was replaced with amusement. “Oh? Why not? What if I wanna kiss you?”
“‘m mawwied,” Leo snapped, shoving his right hand under Jason’s nose. Jason raised an eyebrow and looked at the ringless finger, and Leo blinked at it in hurt confusion. “Whew is it?”
“Try your other hand.”
“Huh? Oh! Thith one!” He shoved that one in Jason’s face as well.
Jason took Leo’s left hand and pressed a kiss to the gold band wrapped neatly around Leo’s ring finger, delighting in Leo’s scandalized shouts of protest. “What if I told you I was the one you were married to?”
“Nuh-uh!”
“Oh? You’re not married to me?”
“No.”
“Then who are you married to?”
“Teh motht booiful man in da worhl,” Leo sighed happily. “I lohf ‘im.”
Jason felt his cheeks flush, and he was really glad Piper wasn’t here to see this. She always liked to make fun of the fact that Leo could make Jason blush without trying even after all these years. He did his best to ignore that, though. “Oh? Do you not think I’m the most beautiful man in the world?”
“No,” Leo said with blatant honesty. “You ah secon’ place, though. You ah vewy pweddy.”
“Thanks,” Jason grinned, suppressing the urge to kiss Leo’s hand again, just to see him whine about it more. “What’s his name?”
“Huh?” Leo yawned, staring at Jason with a crease between his eyebrows. “Who name?”
“Your husband’s. What’s your husband’s name?”
“Huh? Oh.” Leo stared down at his hands hard like he did every time he was solving a really tricky puzzle, then he beamed up at Jason with giddy joy. “Supewman!”
It took all Jason’s willpower to not either burst out into hysterical laughter or kiss his husband absolutely senseless right there in front of the big anthropomorphic octopus. Instead he just squeezed Leo’s fingers. “Superman, huh?” That’s neat. What’s he like?”
Leo sighed, a wide, sappy smile curling over his mouth. “He blon an tall and vewy nith. I lohf him thooooooo much.”
“It sure seems like you love him lots,” Jason agreed. Leo nodded, and it was once again very difficult to not kiss him. “He sounds like a pretty understanding guy. I bet he wouldn’t be mad at you if you let me kiss you.”
Leo’s face puckered up and he furiously shook his head. “No! No kithin!”
“Why not? I promise your husband won’t be mad at you.”
“Make ‘im thad,” Leo said miserably. “Kithin wiw make ‘im thad. No kithin.”
Jason felt his heart absolutely melt into a puddle of goo. He held out his arms, looking at Leo with every ounce of adoration he’d ever felt for the man. “Okay. No kissing. Hug?” Leo still looked at him suspiciously, so Jason offered him an outstretched pinky. “I pinky promise. No kissing.”
“No kithin,” Leo agreed, locking their pinkies with a solemn nod. “Hug.”
With that, Jason leaned forward and wrapped his arms as tight around Leo as he could with Leo still laying in the bed. Leo immediately burrowed down into his chest, tucking his nose in a little divot he was more than familiar with, a satisfied sigh puffing past his lips. Just like always, they fit together like two puzzle pieces, and Jason pressed his smile into Leo’s curls, careful to not kiss him. He had pinky promised after all.
“Yur goo ah huggin,” Leo hummed. “Almotht ah goo ah Supewman.”
“Thanks,” Jason chuckled, squeezing him a little tighter. “Hey, Leo?”
“Uh-huh?”
“You wanna go home?”
Leo pulled back just enough so that he could thunk his cheek on Jason’s shoulder, and he frowned softly at him. “You know whew I lif?”
“I do,” Jason confirmed. “You and I actually live together.”
Leo blinked, trying to connect the dots before he gasped and sat up, staring at Jason in unmasked wonder. “Do you know Supewman? My huband?”
“I do,” Jason grinned. “I know him super well.”
“Can you tell me bouh im?” Leo asked. He looked almost heartbroken for a second before he said, “Can’ member im well, I jus lohf im.”
“Yeah, Leo,” Jason promised with a gentle smile, tucking Leo back under his chin. “I’ll tell you anything you want about him.”
Leo wound his fingers in Jason’s shirt and settled right back into the spot in Jason’s arms he’d carved out for himself years ago. “I lohf im. Duh e lohf me?”
Jason laughed, and he could feel the soul-deep sound reverberating in his bones. “Of course he does. He loves you more than anything. How could he possibly do anything else?”
When Leo woke up, only three things made sense. First, he was exhausted, even more so than he was after a day in the shop. To make matters worse, his mouth hurt really, really bad, which made sense but still sucked. But by far the most egregious crime was the fact that he was not currently being kissed. He blinked a couple times and came to the realization that he was in the living room, spread out over the couch and tucked under the fluffiest blanket they owned. That was nice and all, but he wasn’t sure why he was on the couch instead of their expensive ass bed. And where the hell was his husband? Why was he being left to suffer on his own?
Leo huffed and tipped his head back and let his voice venture fully into the realm of a whine when he called out, “Jaaaaassssooooooonnnnnn.”
Jason immediately stuck his head through the door like the sound of Leo being pathetic had some sort of magic ability to summon him. Maybe it did. Leo would have to test that later. Jason gave him that soft, sappy smile that still managed to make Leo’s heart thump painfully as he made his way over to the couch. He sat down next to Leo’s chest and laced their fingers together, which was nice, but most definitely not the kiss Leo was after. “Hey. How are you feeling? Do you need anything? Do you want some juice? Are your pain meds still working?”
Leo blinked at him for a moment. His brain was too fuzzy for that many words to make much sense all at once, so he focused on the only words he could string together. He stuck his free arm up and huffed, “Gimme kisses. I wanna be kissed.”
Jason gasped in mock shock and clutched at his imaginary pearls. “Leo! I can’t kiss you! What would your poor husband think?”
Leo stared up at him, baffled. “I dunno. What would my husband think about you kissing me?”
“Well,” Jason said, drawing out the word and grinning like a Cheshire cat, “last time I tried to kiss you, you smacked me in the face and told me I was
not
allowed to kiss you because it would make him sad.”
“What?”
“You made it very clear to me that you love your husband very much,” Jason told him seriously. “He’s apparently blond and tall and very nice. Oh, and the most beautiful man in the world. Sounds like a real catch.”
Leo scoffed. “And who is this mystery man?”
Jason grinned impossibly wider and leaned over so that their noses brushed. “Superman.”
“Shut up!” Leo laughed, and he reached up again to loop his arms around Jason’s neck. “I’m unwell. I am suffering , Jason. You shouldn’t be mean to me. Making fun of me when I'm like this is abuse. You're abusing me.”
“Hmm, well I suppose if not kissing you is abuse, I can make an exception,” Jason teased. “But only if you’re sure your husband won’t be sad. I’d hate to break his poor little heart. Apparently, he's madly in love with you.”
“He fucking better be,” Leo scoffed. ”It's the only excuse he has for being a dick right now.”
Jason brushed their noses again, and he was still grinning, but now It was just that impossibly fond mushy smile he liked to direct at Leo when he was thinking about how much he loved him. “Trust me. I have it on very good authority that he is.”
“Shut your stupid mouth and kiss me, Superman,” Leo ordered with a smile that was just as mushy and love-struck as Jason’s, pressing their foreheads together.
Jason giggled and did as he was told.