Chapter 1 – Leon #2
It wasn’t until he shoved his feet into his boots that he realized he didn’t have any drinks in the house. He made a shopping list in his head as he walked the few blocks to the store, trying not to get distracted by all the twinkling lights and tinsel.
Leon was never one to decorate for the holidays.
He left that sort of thing up to mensches like James–and his mom.
They’d apparently spent the previous evening decorating their house for the holidays, which was cute and all, but it meant Leon hadn’t seen him outside of work since lunch on Wednesday, and he was a bit grumpy about it.
As if to mock him, there were even more decorations in the grocery store.
At least the tinny carols blasting over the loudspeaker encouraged Leon to shop quickly.
That, and the fact that he was still wearing the ratty grey sweatpants and college T-shirt he usually wore to clean the house.
Paired with his leather jacket, it sure was a look.
Unfortunately, the holiday crowds had descended, and it took longer than expected. He managed to get home with enough time to do a quick sweep and mop. Dusting would have to wait, though, because he had only just finished putting away the mop when a knock sounded on his door.
“Shit,” he muttered, and Yarmen meowed at him from the top of the couch, where he’d come to supervise Leon’s cleaning. The floor was still wet, and Leon was definitely not dressed for company. “One second!” he shouted through the door as he raced into his bedroom and shucked off his clothes.
Which is, of course, when he remembered he had a load of laundry in the washer.
He growled to himself, something both Hailey and James made fun of him for, and dug down to the bottom of his dresser drawer.
The first shirt he could get his hands on would have to do, along with a pair of slightly snug joggers that often made an appearance on laundry day when he ran out of anything else to wear.
He yanked the pants on and pulled the shirt over his head as he walked back into the kitchen.
A slight breeze on his stomach brought him up short, and he peered down to see he had somehow grabbed an old band shirt he’d cut into a crop top…
for some reason he absolutely could not remember right now.
Maybe for a concert his ex had forced him to go to?
Regardless of its origin, it did a good job of showing off his black crystal belly button ring, which matched the black bars in his nipples. He suspected James had seen his nipple piercings through the holes in his punk rocker Halloween costume, but the belly button ring was going to be a surprise.
Leon caught his reflection in the mirror hanging by the door. He cackled at his appearance, and his wicked grin only added to the aesthetic. He opened the door without even trying to wipe the smile off his face.
James was dressed in his usual weekend uniform of a T-shirt and jeans, with his pea coat draped over his arm. This particular T-shirt had a snowman on the front and looked buttery soft from use. His jeans fit him like sin, and goosebumps broke out along Leon’s stomach at James’ expression.
His cornflower blue eyes were half-lidded as he bit his bottom lip.
This revealed his slightly crooked canine tooth, which Leon liked to trace with his tongue when they were kissing.
James liked–or, actually, he most likely hated it, but his body liked–to show his emotions on his skin.
A gorgeous flush was spreading across his face, turning the apples of his cheeks a dusty pink that Leon wanted to kiss.
“H-hi,” James said, his eyes straying down and locking onto Leon’s belly button piercing. “Are we…” James trailed off, and his cheeks continued to heat until they were streaked red.
“Are we what, darlin’?” Leon drawled, enjoying the way his tongue got to curl around his favorite endearment. It had been years since he’d called a man “darlin’.” Little had he known, he’d been saving it for someone special.
Someone like his poor, sweet boyfriend, who looked like he was about to spontaneously combust.
When James finally looked back up, his eyes were dark, his pupils blown wide as he ran his front teeth slowly over his bottom lip. “Are we going out? I thought we were going to watch the drag competition.”
Leon was tempted to lean his arm against the door frame and let his shirt lift to show off the physique he’d gained from years of physical labor and maintained through regular trips to the gym.
To be fair, he didn’t go to the gym for his physique; he went so that as he got older, he could continue taking on physical jobs without getting hurt.
It did have the added bonus of keeping his abs and pecs defined, a fact James was clearly appreciating right now.
If they’d already had sex, he might tease James and even try to tempt him to drag Leon into his own bedroom, but since they hadn’t explicitly talked about it or set any sort of timeline, he didn’t want to be pushy or insensitive.
“We’re staying in,” Leon said, opting to cross his arms loosely over his chest instead. “It’s laundry day, though, so you’re getting the selection from the bottom of my drawer.”
James’ eyes dropped back down to his belly, and he sucked his bottom lip between his teeth again.
Leon was glad James seemed to like his body and his jewelry.
Some guys could be weird about it. As far as Leon was concerned, clothing and jewelry didn’t have gender, and folks should be able to dress up their glorified meat suits however they damn well pleased.
He liked to pierce, tattoo, and deck his body out in black, but that didn’t make him more feminine, masculine, good, bad, or anything else.
He was thankful James liked it, because he liked it, too, and it made him feel sexy, which was fun to tease James with.
“My laundry day outfit is an oversized t-shirt I won at a fair in college and a pair of ratty boxers. Why am I not surprised that yours is really hot?” James grumbled as he followed Leon into his apartment.
Leon took his jacket and hung it in the front hall closet before walking over to switch his load of laundry. “I don’t know, darlin’, that’s giving me Risky Business vibes and sounds like it could be hot as fuck.”
“It really isn’t, I promise. It’s more like how I looked before T, when I’d wear oversized men’s shirts because I thought it would make me look more masculine. In reality, all it did was hide my tits,” James said.
Leon raised an eyebrow at his washing machine as he bent down to grab the damp clothes.
Ever since they'd started dating, James had begun slipping in more comments and little glimpses into his transness. That had been one thing they’d never really talked about when they were just friends.
James had opened up about a lot of other things, but maybe he hadn’t thought his “buddy” would want to talk about his gender.
The thing was, Leon wanted to talk about everything to do with James.
Each new detail he learned and kernel of wisdom he gained made him feel closer to the man.
At least, now it did. The first few times James randomly dropped a bit of trans trivia on Leon, he’d wondered if it was some kind of test. As he continued doing it over the past few weeks, Leon realized it was James opening up to him as a partner, not just as a friend.
He supposed partners should care a little more about gender, sexuality, and body parts than friends did. They were beginning to talk more about gender but hadn’t really touched the other two yet.
There was a soft thud behind him, and James began to coo. “Oh, hi, sweet boy! How are you doing?”
Leon scoffed as he manhandled his laundry from the washer into the dryer stacked above it. “Thought I was your only sweet boy,” he said, just loud enough he knew James would hear it.
“You’re my baby,” James said, and the way he said it—all smooth and confident—had Leon’s skin pebbling again.
Interesting. It seemed like he had another tell.
Maybe it was tied to that balloon of affection in his chest. It inflated once again as he finished the laundry and turned to see James holding Yarmen against his shoulder, gently stroking his fur while the cat made biscuits in the back of James’ shirt.
“Good,” Leon said as he walked over and planted a quick kiss on James’ lips. “And you’re my only darlin’.”
“Good,” James parroted back.
He smiled until his dimples appeared, and Leon was forced to grab him by the hips and pull him in for a more thorough kiss. Yarmen yowled in displeasure that his James snuggles were being interrupted.
Too bad. Leon wanted some James snuggles, too.
“Did you eat?” Leon asked. “I was going to order something small from that Greek place I’ve been wanting to try.”
“That sounds great. Mom is having Howard and Linda over to admire our decorations, and she didn’t want me making a mess of ‘her kitchen,’ so I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
Leon had just pulled out his phone to place the order, but he stopped with his phone halfway in the air.
He slowly narrowed his eyes at James. “Why didn’t you order something?
Or you could have come over here. After therapy, I was just cleaning and running errands—oh, I got this gingerbread stout if you want to try it.
And if you don’t want to drink, I got some cranberry seasonal soda as well,” Leon said as he abandoned his phone on the counter to walk over to the fridge.
“Both of those sound great, but I shouldn’t drink until I eat,” James said, still standing in the middle of the kitchen holding Yarmen.
Leon pulled out the soda and turned around to grab glasses out of the cabinet. James gave an exasperated huff, and Leon grinned to himself. Perhaps he was stretching a bit more than necessary to reach the cups, and if he added a little arch to his back, who could blame him?