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Simon's never been good at 'I love you's. Too fast, too late, too raw, whatever it might be. And with Johnny, damnit, he just wants the words to finally leave his mouth. It shouldn't be so hard when it feels like he's going to explode every time Johnny utters his name.
He takes to leaving small things for Johnny instead. Pebbling, he thinks it's called. Giving someone trinkets or whatnot of whatever he's found that day. Rocks, sticks, coins, lighters, pens, whatever he thinks Johnny would like. It's only appropriate to add festive things for whatever holiday was coming up.
For the longest time he turned his back on any kind of celebration. No decoration, no music, no lights. But he's started leaving the smallest things he's seen Johnny decorate with. How the hell did Johnny manage to get him to start leaving these little things for him?
He'll find the prettiest leaf, or the best pinecone and leave it for Johnny wherever he predicts he'll find the man that day, knowing it'll make a good addition for his autumnal decor. He picks out candies that he knows Johnny likes just to see him do that stupid little gremlin smile as he picks them up off the table.
When it gets closer and closer to Halloween, and colder weather, Simon gives Johnny some of the crunchiest looking leaves he can find out on the base. It's his way of showing that he's thinking of Johnny, thinking about them—giving little gifts whenever he can, just because he can.
He knows Johnny finds whatever he sets on the desk, but he doesn't know, or really ever thought, that Johnny collected each and every thing. Pretty leaves preserved in books and binders, candies in a bowl on his nightstand, pinecones painted and used as seasonal decor. But, of course, he always crunches the leaves in Simon's vicinity—how else was Ghost supposed to know that the leaves had absolute perfect crunches? (His smile always makes Simon blush.)