Chapter 2 – Leon #2
Yeah, that was pretty much what Leon had pictured: James, all warm and snuggly, curled up on his couch with the light of the television reflecting in his big, cornflower blue eyes.
Leon had been over to his house only once.
It had been one of their usual Friday nights, but his mom had taken the car to go to a dinner theater show with someone from her support group.
Before Leon could offer to pick him up, James had invited him over to watch the NBA finals game they had been intending to watch at a queer bar across town.
Leon had appreciated the chance to get a closer glimpse into James’ life, but what he hadn’t appreciated—or more accurately, needed—was to have the image of James curled up in the corner of his couch carved into his memory.
To make matters worse, James had spent the entire night grinning over at Leon as his team got absolutely trounced. After one too many taunts, Leon had shoved him, and James had tilted to the side, laughing all the way, and then tilted back, right up against Leon.
He hadn’t put his arm around James, even though maybe he should have.
Maybe he should have done a lot of things over the past few months, but he was afraid, because, yeah, bad boy Leon got afraid sometimes, too.
He didn’t want to risk their friendship, and no matter how hard he tried to read James, he couldn’t figure out if his best friend felt anything more for him than?—
Leon hit enter one letter too soon, and his computer loudly declared, “Access Denied.”
“Stupid…fucking…” he muttered, quickly typing in his credentials before hitting enter again. This time, he was able to get into the backend, and he navigated around until he could find the moron’s login information.
“Uhm…what about you?” James asked.
Leon couldn’t help but smirk at his computer screen. “There aren’t really a lot of trick-or-treating-aged kids in my building, so I usually hang out with Yarmen and watch a movie or go to a bar. The last few years, I’ve worked a late-night shift ’cause no one else wanted it.”
“Ah, that makes sense,” James said.
Leon didn’t need to turn around to know he was probably sagging even harder against the door.
Leon wasn’t going to spoon-feed him the question.
To be honest, he didn’t care about Halloween.
He’d be fine spending the day running errands and going to the gym like he usually did.
After that, maybe he’d order one of those funny pumpkin-shaped pizzas and crack open a pumpkin beer and call it a successful night.
If James wanted to hang out, he’d also be fine doing that.
But it was good for James to ask for what he wanted.
It was also good for Leon to know he wasn’t the only one invested in their friendship.
Leon had been the one to establish Friday night as their hangout night.
He’d also moved his Saturday night shifts to Sunday nights so he and James could attend more events that only happened on Saturdays.
Sometimes, Leon wondered if he was pushing James too hard, trying to get him out of the house to meet new people and form community.
Leon had community; he just didn’t access it very often because he didn’t feel like he needed to. He liked his quiet life. For the most part.
“Do you…have any set plans for this Halloween in particular?” James asked.
Leon typed in the final keystroke and waited for the successful ding before quickly forwarding the new credentials and marking the ticket as complete. It was best for him to do these stupid little tasks as quickly as possible, lest he forget or they become too boring for him to want to do.
He swiveled around in his chair, clearly catching James by surprise.
He was bending the fingers of his right hand backwards with the palm of his left hand, which Leon always made fun of him for.
Why didn’t he just crack his knuckles the normal way?
He didn’t seem to mind it when Leon did it.
He’d often catch James staring at his fingers when he cracked his knuckles or played with one of his many rings.
Leon watched in amusement as James quickly dropped his hands to his sides.
“I don’t have any plans,” Leon said.
He brought his hands together in front of his chest to crack his knuckles— the right way .
James’ eyes tracked the movement, and he pulled the side of his lip between his front teeth.
If Leon squinted, which he wasn’t going to do because that would be weird, he would be able to see James’ crooked canine tooth.
Leon had first noticed the small imperfection during their conflict mediation session, and for some reason, it still tugged at his heart.
Perfectly-put-together—on the outside at least—James was fallible. Just like the rest of them.
“Oh, okay then… Maybe we could move our plans from tonight to tomorrow?”
Leon raised an eyebrow. “Our plans to go to a Halloween event at Rainbow Bean that is only being held tonight?”
James’ cheeks flushed, starting at the peak of his cheekbone and slashing down towards his nose. “I know we only had plans one day this weekend, so I just meant we could hang out tomorrow instead of tonight.”
Leon grabbed his favorite stress ball, which was shaped like a penguin, and tossed it in the air as he tipped back in his seat.
The other week, one of James’ little minions had asked him if he had ADHD, and Leon had scoffed.
That wasn’t the sort of thing his teachers had known to look for when he was a kid, and his mam sure as hell wouldn’t have noticed or thought to get him assessed for it.
He could talk to his therapist, Caden, about it, but right now they were “unpacking Leon’s need for independence,” and he didn’t think Caden would appreciate the diversion.
“Why not both?” Leon asked as he caught the stress ball, gave it a few good squeezes, and then tossed it to James.
James fumbled to catch it, his cheeks flushing even darker as he dropped the thing and had to chase it around the side of Leon’s filing cabinet. He actually got down on his knees to reach around the metal contraption.
Sadly, today’s dress pants weren’t doing James’ ass any favors. He had a grey pair that were really flattering, as well as a pair of jeans he sometimes wore on the weekends that looked practically painted on.
Just another reason Leon wasn’t impressed with this costume.
“You can’t wear the same costume both days, though,” Leon added.
James huffed. “I only have this one, so I guess I’ll save it for the actual holiday?”
James finally managed to grab the stress ball, and he pulled it out to reveal it was now covered in decades' worth of dust and grime. Leon wheeled himself the two feet between them until he was positioned directly in front of James.
James looked up at him through his lashes and hesitantly held up the now disgusting penguin. Leon raised an eyebrow, which was quickly joined by a second as James went to wipe the ball off on his suit pants.
“Don’t be such a mensch,” Leon said, snatching the ball out of his hands and pushing his chair back. “I’ll wash it off in the bathroom.”
He walked over to his door and threw it open, turning to look back over his shoulder to see James still kneeling on the ground. “We’re going straight to the Rainbow Bean, so you should stay in this for tonight.”
“And tomorrow?” James asked.
Leon smirked. “Guess you’ll have to get creative.”
“This is not what I meant,” Leon practically growled.
James was standing in front of Leon’s front door in yet another suit.
If Leon was feeling generous, which he wasn’t, he would admit it appeared to be a blazer, dress shirt, and slacks, so not an actual suit. But still.
“It’s a different Halloween costume!” James said, a mix of petulance and something else in his voice. James quickly undid the top three buttons on his dress shirt to reveal a red t-shirt with spiderwebs across it. “Spiderman always wore his costume under his clothes, too!”
“Okay, but did Peter Parker even wear suits?” Leon asked as he gestured for James to come inside.
“When he was working at the Daily Bugle, I’m sure he did,” James said, taking off his shoes at the door and leaving them next to Leon’s combat boots and Doc Martens.
Leon pulled out his phone and googled “Spiderman” and “suits,” trying to ignore how adorable it was that James was also wearing Spiderman socks.
“All the results I’m seeing are for his actual superhero suit…
oh, no… wait…” Leon glanced back up at James, then down at the photo.
There were two pictures of the different Spiderman actors wearing suits in a similar color and style as James', with an entire fan theory page about something called the Spider-Verse.
“You little mensch,” Leon muttered as he shoved his phone back in his pocket. “You googled it to make sure, didn’t you?”
James crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, I did, because I knew you’d Google it to try and give me grief.” They stared at each other until finally James dropped his arms and looked away. “It was all I could come up with at the last minute.”
Yarmen took that moment to make an appearance, and Leon scooped him up, rubbing his soft, grey fur before stepping forward to deposit him in James’ arms. James had apparently never owned a pet, but he loved Yarmen. That, too, was annoyingly adorable.
“You’re just lucky you look good in suits,” Leon said, turning to head into the kitchen before he had a chance to see if James was going to blush or not.
“Uh…thank you. You look good…too?” James said, staying planted in the doorway with Yarmen in his arms.