warnings: nudity, nonsexual intimacy (bathing together), fem!reader pretending to be a man for the steel ball run
Your life is simple. Quiet. You work on your familyâs farm, the only child to two loving parents. You take on a lot, both emotionally and physically, familial burdens becoming your own to bear as soon as you could help on the property.Â
The burden gets heavier the winter before the Steel Ball Run. Your back bows and threatens to crack and splinter when your mother falls ill and the responsibility of both mother and daughter comes to rest on your shoulders. You tend to the animals when you can, clean the house, cook the food. All the while, your aunt and uncle who have come to stay in the wake of your motherâs illness to care for her and assist you and your father, talk in hushed tones, blaming you for your familyâs misfortune. Youâre not doing enough. Well, maybe if they had a son or more money things would be different.
Your father can only tell them off so many times before their words start to seep through your skin, covering your bones in a dark, cloudy haze. You take on more responsibility, eager to prove yourself. To do something.
Months later, a newspaper you find in the corner store changes everything. A horse race with a generous cash prize is set to be held in September â The Steel Ball Run. Your father taught you to ride when you were just a kid. Hours of your youth spent in the warm summer sun working with your horse before your mother rang the dinner bell. You know it wonât be easy, but you know you have to try, even if your family wonât approve.
â watching johnny and gyro put their lipstick on â
You just canât seem to look away when JOHNNY puts his lipstick on in the morning. Itâs like youâre hypnotized, eyes stuck on the motion of deft fingers opening the tube and the ex-jockeyâs practiced poise as he swipes it across his lips. He doesnât have a mirror in his bag, but he uses a well-polished silver cup and dappled sunlight to guide his hand. Sometimes, when he misses the mark, lipstick not quite staying in the line of his plump bottom lip, you wonder what it would be like to reach out and swipe it away. And on days like today, where his hand is steady and his lipstick perfect, you fantasize about smudging it yourself.
Sensing your gaze, Johnnyâs eyes dart to yours, his eyes turning to saucers and his cheeks a pretty, rosy pink. âWhatâre you lookinâ at?â He holds the cup up to his face again, tipping his chin side to side. âDo I have somethinâ on my face?â
You stammer, mind rendered blank now that youâve been caught staring. âN-no. No! You look-â You think of a few different words before you finally land on, âFine.â
âFine?â Johnnyâs confusion morphs into amusement as he watches you flounder.
âWell, I mean more than fine. You look nice. Pretty.â You snap your mouth shut before you can dig yourself a deeper hole. Itâs too early for this shit.
Johnny hums to himself, almost thoughtful. Pleased. âPretty.â
âItâs not- I didnât mean-â You desperately try to pick up the pieces of your shattered pride, but you canât. Any excuse you conjure falls flat, disproven by the simple fact that you had been meaning to stare and youâve always found him beautiful.
A large palm thunks against the top of your head and makes a mess of your hair. âDonât sweat it, really,â Gyro finally chimes in, all too smug to have overheard the whole exchange. âYouâre not the first to find our dear Johnny pretty,â his mouth curves into a smirk, âand you certainly wonât be the last.â
Johnny rips the beanie from his head and chucks it at the taller blond. âGod, shut up. Itâs none of your business anyway. We werenât talkinâ to you.â
The comment sends the two spiraling, bickering about what Gyro does and doesnât have a right to have any sort of say in, all while you sit with your skin blazing and your heart hammering in your chest.
â
Youâre not even entirely sure how GYRO manages to put his lipstick on as perfectly as he does. You watched him throw away his little compact mirror at the start of the race. Hell, heâd even thrown out his toothbrush, so youâre surprised heâd even hung onto his signature green lip shade for as long as he has. But every morning, without fail, he blearily fumbles for the little tube, hair mussed and eyes heavy.
You observe the routine, rapt by the way he pouts and, without so much as a reflective surface to work off of, swipes the lipstick over his lips once, twice before heâs rubbing them together to spread the color across the surface of his lips. And then, he plops his hat on his head as though nothing happened. Effortless bastard.
Gyroâs voice yanks you from your thoughts of smudged lipstick and green kisses, and you feel yourself freeze. âItâs rude to stare, you know.â
âI wasnât staring.â
âYou were,â he replies pointedly. âLike a fish.â He crudely mimics the expression and you feel your skin warm beneath his gaze. âIt was cute though.â
Your eyes roll before you can stop yourself. âYouâre impossible.â
He grins, exposing the gold of his teeth. âDoesnât change the fact that you,â he lands a poke right to the middle of your forehead, âwere watching me, gawking.â
You donât have much room to argue, you were staring after all, but you swat his hand away with a scowl nonetheless, and just as your mouth opens to snap back, Johnny beats you to it, looking sour as ever. âCan I just have one morninâ of peace? Is that too much to ask?â
âBut Johnny you saw.â
âI did and I donât really want to think about it anymore.â
The bickering takes the attention off of you, if only for a moment, and you relish the distraction, using it to rid your mind of smug, golden smiles and lipstick as green as spring.
Osamu starts calling you sweetheart well before the two of you get together. The endearment is never patronizing, sometimes teasing, and always affectionate.
Itâs âSweetheart, âm so glad yer here!â when you stop by Onigiri Miya, spoken like just the sight of you crossing the threshold is enough to ease the tension in his shoulders and soften the furrow of his brow.
Itâs âYou alright, sweetheart?â when youâve had one too many drinks on a night out. Youâre wobbly on your feet, a little doe-eyed as your hand rests in the crook of his elbow to steady yourself. Itâs so cute Osamu canât help but flush, the heat creeping up to the very tips of his ears.
It's "C'mon, sweetheart, ya know 'm right!" when the twins put you in the middle of another one of their arguments, Osamu cajoling you into see things his way.
And when he finally decides to confess, to cross that line from friends into something more, the endearment is as smooth as butter, dripping with years of love gone unspoken. âI wanna be yours, sweetheart.â
Leon S. Kennedy, ornery and stubborn and an enigma you long stopped trying to make sense of, never goes home after grueling missions. He comes to youâbattered and bruised, with stitches coming out and blood dripping from his wounds, seeking⊠something. You still haven't figured out what; whether it's comfort, a small handful of little deaths before the morning light, or a gentler hand than his own to rub antiseptic into his cuts.
Whatever it is, you know he finds something in you that he cannot get anywhere else.
tags: angst (?), descriptions of wound care, implied/reference sexual content, hair washing as a form of intimacy, post re4r leon, unspecified reader age and gender, mentions of blood and open wounds. lmk if i miss anything! (cross posted to ao3)
an: spent half my day writing this instead of doing anything semi productive. leon needs someone to take care of him. and yes, i do strongly believe he likes to listen to classical music after god awful missions
Heâs a lot like a wild animal, you thinkâshowing up at strange hours of the night, skulking around your front porch just out of sight while you laze about in your home with a book in hand and classical music softly playing from a worn down speaker you never got around to replacing, blood dripping from the leg he nearly bit off himself to escape the trap he found himself ensnared in.
(When it really comes down to it, he's hardwired to sacrifice.)
He thinks you don't know heâs there, thinks you can't smell iron and gun oil and gasoline drifting in through open windows. Youâll let him believe it, so long as it keeps him from running off.
It's a sort of routine you've fallen into.
Leon S. Kennedy, ornery and stubborn and an enigma you long stopped trying to make sense of, never goes home after grueling missions. He comes to youâbattered and bruised, with stitches coming out and blood dripping from his wounds, seeking⊠something. You still haven't figured out what; whether it's comfort, a small handful of little deaths before the morning light, or a gentler hand than his own to rub antiseptic into his cuts.
Whatever it is, you know he finds something in you that he cannot get anywhere else. Something unspoken, too big for him to say aloud.
(You find something in him too, however little of it he has to give.)
Tonight, it's raining when he comes to you.
He's soakedâdrenched down to the boneâand shivering. His hair is plastered to his forehead, rainwater dripping down his prominent cheekbones and even farther down his neck, disappearing at his shirt collar. His skin is smooth, though beginning to crease under the weight of time and stress. You notice another fine line or two, a new gray hair since you last saw him. His clothes are sopping wet as well, dripping onto your welcome mat, showing off the hard lines of lithe muscle wound tightly through his arms, clinging to a defined abdomen and inhumanly strong legs. You forget how strong he is, in the times that he's goneâhe's never seemed to feel the need to show you his strength either, only ever touching you as though you were holy, but Leon carries himself in such a way that he cannot hide it.
He looks haunted, more so than usual.
You don't know muchâyou can't know much, but he was gone for a long time, and his eyes look heavy.
And heâs bleeding.
It's not bad. Far from the worst you've seen, but there's still blood beading up from a laceration on his forehead and dripping down to his eyebrow.
His hair is oily too, evident even with the rainwater clinging to the strands and dripping down his face.Â
You know he doesn't have the chance to care for himself on his missions (hardwired to sacrifice, when it comes down to it), nor would he think to, even with the time.
âThat bad?â You ask, opening your door to let him in.
You watch as he takes in his surroundings, like he expected something to be different from the last time. What you donât tell him is that you always keep your home the same so he always has something consistent to come back to. You just let him observe, watch the calculated movements of his eyes, like he still isn't sure whether this is safeâlike he's expecting to need to flee at any moment. The scent of petrichor and pine trees waft in through open windows, mixing with his cologne and rusty iron. Rain beats against your roof, mixing with the music still playing in the living room.
You picked a song you know he likes, picked it as soon as you heard his bike blazing down the roadâsomething soft, one of the rare few classical pieces he enjoys.
Something familiar. Soothing.
âYou could say that.â His voice is hoarse, like he's using it for the first time again. âNever going to Spain again.â
You say nothingâyou don't need to. You just give him a small laugh and usher him to the bathroom. He knows the routine by now, knows how you fret over him at the smallest drop of blood. He used to fight you over it, batting your hands away when you inspected the cuts and scrapes, but you wore him down over time; kept your hand stuck out and eyes turned down long enough for him to come to you himself.
You sit him down on the edge of your bathtub and push his soaked bangs away from his eyes.
He looks so tired.
(He always does, these days.)
You closely inspect the cutâfour butterfly strips struggle to hold the lacerated skin in place, but held up poorly against the rain and Leonâs speeding. You know he has a habit of picking at his skin too, but exchanges flesh for bandages when available. He doesn't realize he's doing it, you know that, so you change the dressings instead of reprimanding him.
As you gather your first aid kit, the one you never kept until he started coming around, you feel Leonâs eyes burning into the back of your skull.
âDo you need to talk?â You ask, ignoring the feeling of being watched.
It's an olive branch you always extend.
âNot really.â
One that is never accepted.
âI guess I can cross off Spain as a vacation spot, then?â
He smiles at thatâcharming and boyish, a small glimpse into the man he used to be, the one you met all those years ago in a shitty dive bar before the world had its way with him.
You wonder what could've come of him had it been a bit kinder.
No matter.
You focus instead on the way his eyes crease at the corners and his eyebrows minutely rise, making him look happier for that moment in time.Â
âYouâll have to check that one off your bucket list without me.â
âItâs not worth it if you're not there.â You don't mean to say it and you know he doesn't mean to freeze when you do.
You both ignore it.
(There's a lot you ignore. Like the way he watches you when he thinks you don't notice and the way you do the same to him; the way you cried yourself to sleep the first night he showed up at your door with a black eye, split knuckles and a limp after going MIA for over a year. The way he always, always comes here instead of home after missions and what that might mean to him and the way you hope this feels more like home.
The way you know you're hopelessly, helplessly in love with Leon Kennedy, who is hopelessly and helplessly stuck behind a wall built from government contracts and emotional detachmentâa fact that reigns true no matter how hard you fight to ignore it.)
âLet me see,â you say, brushing away the slip like it meant nothing.
For a moment, the only sound is that of rain pattering on your roof and your intermixed breaths, the music long forgotten. You brush back Leonâs hair again, threading your fingers through the damp strands with your non-dominant hand while your other works an alcohol soaked q-tip under the butterfly strips to loosen the adhesive.
âYou can just rip them off,â he offers impassively, noticeable bracing himself like he expects you to accept.
âThatâll hurt.â
âI'm used to it.â
âThat's exactly why Iâm not doing it.â You continue soaking the q-tip, wiggling it under the adhesive and repeating until the first strip pulls away without resistance. Leon watches you the whole time, eyes flicking back and forth across your face, down the expanse of your chest, even further to the curve of your hips and waist. There's something more than lust, deeper than hunger in his eyes and your stomach twists at what it may be.
âYou're too good to me sometimes.â He doesn't look away from you when he says it. His hands, previously balled up into loose fists on his legs, come up and gently skim the back of your thighs, his touch leaving gooseflesh behind.
âI'm only as good as you deserve,â you mutter. You remove the second strip, the laceration now in better view.
It's not too deep, but probably called for stitches over steri-strips. You know Leon well enough at this point to know he refused, and likely put up enough fight to make the medical examiner compromise on the dressing.
He winces when a drop of alcohol makes its way into the cut as you go for the third strip. âSorry,â you whisper.
âIt's okay.â
His fingertips trace small patterns on the back of your thighs, so subtly you think he may not realize he's doing it. Leon never seems to show physical affection consciouslyânot when you're outside of the bedroom and your clothes are on. Even then, he's distant. Never lays himself bare in any way other than physical.
âHow long do you get to stay this time?â You ask as you peel away the third strip. Another drop of alcohol trickles into the cut, but he hides his reaction this time.
âNot sure.â He tilts his head, chasing the sensation of your other hand still laced through his bangs, holding them out of your way. He nuzzles his head into your hand, so subtly you almost missed it. You run your fingers through his hair in response, gently scratching at his scalp and you see gooseflesh break out across his skin, concentrated on his neck and feel a deep groan reverberating through his body more than you hear it.
âThinking about going on leave. Staying here for a bit. I have a few strings I can pull after this.â
This must have been a bad one.
You want to ask. âYou deserve a break,â is what you settle on. The last butterfly strip is stubborn to peel away, the adhesive unaffected by Leonâs picking habits and the rain beating on his face. He flinches when you tug at it.
âI wouldn't go that far.â
âI would.â
âYou worry too much.â
âSomebody has to.â He shakes his head, but leaves it at that. You ready an alcohol soaked pad and apologize for how itâll burn.
He claims he's used to it and it's fine, but you both know he hates it.
His fingertips dig lightly into the backs of your thighs at the first sting of disinfectant, then disappear altogether when he finally seems to realize they sought your skin for comfort in the first place. In an uncharacteristically bold move, you grab his hands on their retreat and place them back where they were.
He looks at you like you're some kind of goddessâawestruck, reverent, baptized in rubbing alcohol atop linoleum flooring and yellow lighting.
Under the weight of that stare, you work a q-tip around the remaining adhesive stuck to his skin, thoroughly cleansing him before reapplying the dressings.
âYou need a shower,â you say absentmindedly, readying the strips beside you. âYour hair is dirty.â
âCan'tâshoulders took a beating from the recoil. Can barely get my arms above my head.â He demonstrates his range of motion for you. True to his word, his arms barely clear his chest before visible pain spreads across his face.
You scoff. âAnd you say you don't need a break.â
He says nothing.
âIâll help you when we're done with this.â
Leon looks mildly distressed at your offer. âYou don't have to do that.â
âI know,â is all you have to say, because that's what thisâwhatever this isâboils down to, isn't it? Small acts of care and compassion that are never owed, never expected, but still freely given without the promise of repayment. A little reality the two of you have built in your home, separate from the rest of the world; something only the two of you know about. You tend to his wounds and make him dinner when he shows up unannounced in the small hours of the night, he cleans up the mess he tracks in and washes the dishes when you're done cooking and traces patterns into the small of your back until you fall asleep.
A routine that you both have fallen into without ever having to write it out.
You're both silent while you dress his wound, rain and distant melodies filling the air around you. The strips apply easily, the skin not so separated that it's a fruitless task but enough that you can't engage in small talk for the sake of focusing. Leon stares straight ahead, no longer watching you; you find that you miss his eyes being on you, but he still touches the backs of your legs.Â
You're fine settling with that.
When you finish, Leon picks up the bloody cotton balls and q-tips and bandages, carefully disposing of them while you clean your hands.
âCan you take your shirt off?â You ask, beginning to run a bath for him.
You know he is feeling worse than he lets on because there's no ridiculous joke, no knowing look. Just quiet. Just compliance.Â
You watch pain flash across his face as he lifts his arms. âLet me help,â you offer. He accepts without complaint, and the two of you begin stripping off his shirt while the tub fills. It takes longer than what might be necessary, but you refuse to move him in a way that will cause him more pain. Youâd rather cut the shirt off of him than do that.
But, eventually, Leonâs shirt is stripped away and the tub fills with warm water and heat sits heavy in the air, damp on your skin. You try to stop your wandering eyes, but the bruises and cuts littering his tanned skin steal your attention. He looks like he's been through hell and back. You add a healthy scoop of epsom salt and eucalyptus scented soap to the bathwater at the sight of himâthe salts to soothe his aching muscles, the soap to preserve his modesty in the water, should he desire it.
Leon tends to be protective of his body. You suspect the scars have something to do with it.
(You tell him they're beautiful, he tells you you're lying.)
âLet me know when you're ready,â you say, leaving him to finish undressing in private. You grab a plastic cup while you wait.
It's only a handful of moments before he calls you back into the bathroom. His clothes are neatly folded on the counter, belt coiled on top and boots on the floor, caked in mud. He sits in the tub with his back hunched and hands clasped together around his curled legs.
He looks smallâafraid, like heâs ready to flee from this moment of vulnerability.
You've never helped Leon wash himself before.
You've bought his favorite soap for him to use. Youâve asked him what detergent he prefers (all he would say is yours) and keep it stocked so you can wash his clothes. You have spare clothes for him. You've cleaned and bandaged his wounds more times than you can countâyou even took a couple volunteer classes to better learn how to care for him like this. You learned how to cook his favorite meals. You learned what textures he gravitates towards for his bedding and made sure his favorites are always clean.
But never thisâthis, somehow, is far more intimate than anything you have done for him.Â
(More intimate than even sex.)
You sit on the edge of the tub, paying no mind to the water splashes soaking your thin shorts.Â
âIs this okay?â You ask, giving him the opportunity to stop this, to tell you he doesn't want your help and heâll just properly wash himself when the soreness has subsided. While you wait for his reply, your eyes trace along more bruises. You see a large bruise along his right shoulder and peck, likely from the recoil of his rifle; you see another one, deep purple and green and angry, blossoming on his back amidst a nasty scrape as though he were thrown. His torso is covered in other smaller cuts and scrapes, and there are stitches along his upper left bicep.
(Who did he sacrifice his body for this time?)
âYeah,â he whispers. âThank you.â
You fill your cup with water, gently tilt his head back and slowly pour it along his hair line. Leonâs eyes are squeezed shut, brows knitted together like he still hasn't actually decided that this is okay. The only sounds between you are Leonâs deep breaths and trickling water.
It's peaceful.
On the fourth cup of water, Leonâs shoulder visibly loosen, seeming to disappear with every stream of water down his back, but it's replaced with small tremorsâlike he is holding something back.
âI almost died over there.â
You pause. Frozen for just a second, living in a moment that feels like a lifetime, in a reality where Leon isn't here with you.
You don't want to be there.
You want to be here, in this bubble you've created for yourselves, where he's decided it's safe enough to tell you this.
âDon't think I've ever been that close to it. IâŠâ He hesitates, shoulders locking again as you pour more water. âI was afraid. I thought I wouldn't get toââ You don't get to know what he wants to say. He cuts himself off with a sharp inhale and minusculely turns his head from you.
âIs it over now?â
âI think so.â
âGood.â You pause. âYou don't get to skip out that easy.â His laugh is softer than you wanted, but at least it's there.
Heâs there.
Hair properly saturated, you reach for the bottle of two-in-one shampoo (which you repeatedly tried getting him to change, but to no availâheâs nothing if not stuck in his ways) you keep in the bathroom for him, always ready for when he may show.
You squeeze a generous amount in your palms. âWhy do you always do this?â He asks quietly as you begin lathering his hair.
You hesitate to answer for a moment, but continue to scrub at his scalp and admire the way his eyes drift closed at the sensation.
âWhy do I do what?â
âThis,â he emphasizes, gesturing to the room. âLet me show up out of the blue, beaten half to death, and just⊠take care of me? Why do you care?â
It's a good question. One you ponder while you lather and scrub his hair, watching how, despite himself, Leon sinks a little deeper into the water, relaxing more with each passing moment.
Why do you care so much?
You met Leon a small handful of times before Raccoon City, no more than thriceâback when his cheeks were rounder, his hopes were higher, and he always wore that charmingly sly grin. Nothing serious, nothing romantic even, just a budding friendship that was ripped out root and stem far too soon. You thought he was dead until he turned up at your front door (you're still not even sure how he found you) beaten and battered, saying he had nowhere else to stay that night. He never stopped coming back after. You don't really know why, and you aren't sure he does either, but there seems to be something for him here he can't find anywhere else.Â
Against your better judgement, it blossomed into something you had no control over.
It was impossible not to.
So, why do you care?
Because itâs as natural to you as breathing, molded by hand from the space he fills in your kitchen at midnight and your lips slotted against his.Â
âProbably for the same reason you keep letting me.â
And it seems there's nothing else to say as you rinse the shampoo from his hair, he just gives you that look againâthe one that stops your heart and tricks you into thinking there's more he's able to give you.
You leave Leon to dry himself off, deciding he doesn't need your help with that part.
When he meets you in the living room, his hair is sopping wet, dripping down his bare torso and sweatpants are draped low across his hips.
You go to chastise him, tell him he's not sitting on your couch when he's still wet as a dog, but he makes himself as small as he can manage and lays his head in your lapâhow could you stop him? How could you ruin a moment so vulnerable, so human from a man who has been conditioned to be anything but? He lays next to you, beaten down and exhausted beyond comprehension, and he looks content, more than you've ever seen from him so you think a bit of water is more than worth the trade.
âI thought I wasn't coming back,â he says softly as you card your fingers through his dripping hair.
Your heart stops. You suspected that was the case. âI'm happy you did.â
âI don't want to leave again.â
âDo you have to?â
âI will.â He's shaking like a leaf, like it's causing him physical pain to say his next words âBut I want to stay. I don't want to go back. Not yet.â
You don't want him to either.
You tell him as much.
He sits up, moving awkwardly around his pain and looks at you with terrifying intensity. âIfâ if I do take a break⊠can I stay with you?â
You don't have to think about your answer. âAlways.â
Leonâs eyes flick back and forth between your own. His are glassy, threatening to spill over with unspoken emotion, and lined with a bright red that shows the exhaustion heâs fighting with himself to hide.
âI don't know what I would do without you.â
You feel overcome with your own emotion. Leon doesn't talk like this. Ever. Your heart swells, chills break out across your skin despite the scorching heat his body sears into you.
âYou donât have to figure that out. I'm here with youâalways.â
He leans forward gently, slow like he's scared you'll run away from him, or maybe scared that heâll be the one to run. Large, calloused hands come up and cradle the sides of your face, thumbs brushing back and forth along your jaw, at the place it meets your neckâa spot he's kissed and bitten and nipped more times than you can recall, now the subject of divine devotion. And softly, like it was a declaration of so many years of unspoken feelings, he kisses you. It's not heated, it's not passionate, nothing like the fire you normally burn up in; it's rawâvulnerable and tender and so fragile, the only sound it could survive is rainwater and violin.
âIâm bad at this,â he begins with a shaking breath. âI don't know if I can give you more than thisâbut I⊠I don't want you to go anywhere. And I don't want to show up to another manâs car in your driveway.â
As if you could ever accept another manâs touch.
âGod, I'd probably kill the son of a bitch,â he says with a wry laugh. âWhen I collapsed, you were all I sawâthe only thing I could think about was not getting to see you again and it felt more terrifying than death.â
You can't stop yourself from asking. âCollapsed?â
The idea of Leon in such a miserable state is enough to nearly choke you. To think, while you were curled up in bed or bored and miserable at work, Leon almost died.
You've never heard him make such a claim before.
You watch as he parses through what he can and cannot tell you. âThere was some kind of diseaseâ a parasite. It nearly took me over. I collapsed right in the damn lab that held the cureâif it weren't for Ashââ he cuts himself off. âBaby Eagle, I wouldn't be here.â
âLeonâŠâ
âGetting back here was the only thing that kept me goingâ back to you.â
You cup his face, your hands so much smaller than his, barely covering half the area of his own.
âYou can stay as long as you want, as long as you keep coming back to me.â He smiles, yet another glimpse of that fresh-faced rookie sneaking between fine lines and creased brows.
Leon captures you in a crushing hug, head tucked beneath yours and body scrunched in on itself.
âI don't know what I did to deserve you.â
âYou didn't have to do anything, Leon,â you say, as you card your hands through his hair again. âYou being here is enough.â
He grumbles something into your skin as his head slowly drifts toward your stomach and his arms loosen. It's well past one in the morning by nowâhe must have been exhausted. You are as well, you realize, as Leonâs soft snores (that he claims don't exist) intermingle in the soft sounds of your living room. Music still drifts in the air, mixing with petrichor and eucalyptus as you drift off to sleep.
You know your neck and hips will be sore in the morning.
You know Leon will be closed off againâdespite his confession. Not because he's been disingenuous but because he knows nothing else.
You know the air will feel damp and coffee wonât be made until he wakes.
It's all okayâit's perfect, so long as you get to stay in this little reality you've crafted together a moment longer.
no, tumblr, definitely put a mature content label on a drabble from at least three years ago đââïž for sure đââïž and definitely make sure itâs one that has legitimately no reason to be flagged and definitely make sure I have constant âconnectionâ issues so I canât submit my claim for a second review đââïž
hello beloved maeve!! itâs been such a while, i hope youâre doing well đ„ș just wanted to pop in with a lil sel question and ask how youâd rate last year + what youâre looking forward to this year? đ„ș i miss you loads! đ
hiiiiii beautiful !!!! đ so nice to hear from you!! i hope youâre doing well too! last year got off to a rough start with some of the family things I had going on, but by the end it turned into something really great! My nephew was born in October, i went to Ireland for the first time, AND i met Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor at a con with one of my friends! Overall a verryy solid 6/10! đ
Iâm not doing anything overseas this year, but Iâm going to a convention again this summer with an even bigger group of friends than in the past so Iâm suuppeerr excited for that!
I have never seen someone write about abbacchio as well as you have. Please write for him again I'm in love with your old works
AH thank you so much :(( this means a lot! <3 abbacchio is a special character to me so im glad you think i've captured him well! i'm gonna do a jojo's rewatch now that steel ball run is confirmed, so definitely keep an eye out for a little bit of a jojo's revival sometime soon! <3
youâre eating watermelon slices off of shoyoâs kitchen counter in his hoodie while he fixes a broken fan. itâs the middle of summer, and you canât stop ogling him.
his hairâs grown, messy from humidity. a little darker too, with sun bleached tips soaked up on all the courts heâs played on. thereâs a sliver of gauze still taped over his left pinky from yesterdayâs serve-receive drills, and the hoodie hanging from your frame smells like that eucalyptus soap he found in a corner store and got obsessed with. says it soothes his sunburns.
speaking of, your eyes trail his shoulders - all freckled and golden from training in the heat, to the lines of his neck, where sweat gathers in hollow places and dips under his collar. heâs got his tongue tucked into the corner of his mouth while he concentrates, hands quick but gentle, almost like heâs afraid of hurting the fan more than it already is.
âyouâre gonna fry,â you say, voice dry from the fruit, âif you keep sitting that close to the window.â
âcanât hear you. think the heat melted my ears.â
you toss a rind at him.
he dodges it easily and grins, wide and sleepy eyed. thereâs a tan line on the back of his neck in the exact shape of the necklace he wears to practice. you only know because you helped him peel it off last night when he came home sore and stupid.
you take another bite. the watermelonâs from a street vendor down the block who sells it in hacked-up wedges, ice cold from a blue cooler. youâd walked back barefoot, because your sandals snapped and sho offered to carry them, but ended up forgetting them halfway through a story about some new blocking form heâs trying. the apology came in sugary form.
he grunts when the screw wonât budge, that tendon running down the side of his throat pulling taut. the new mole you didnât notice until two nights ago, when heâd passed out on your chest after a beach run and a long shower, dances around on his chin.
âfanâs a lost cause,â he mutters, pulling the tool from between his teeth. âmight throw it off the balcony.â
âyou wonât,â you pop a seedless piece of watermelon into your mouth. âyou love that stupid fan.â
ââs not stupid,â he pouts, âitâs from kageyama.â
you blink. of course it is. a gift from his old partner, lugged across an ocean because it reminded them of a joke only the four of you would still remember.
(them including tsukishima kei, another old teammate, who somehow got dragged into both the trip to brazil, and the mess, completely against his will.)
you swallow your laughter, nudging a sweaty curl off his forehead with your pinky. âyou know weâre gonna die in this kitchen, right?â
the cracked plastic base even has a sharpie doodle on it: a lopsided smiley and a thumbs up drawn onto the compartment you open to replace the batteries.
âever the romantic,â he deadpans, but he leans into your touch anyway, eyes fluttering closed for a second. âat least youâll be wearing my clothes.â
you grin. âburied in them, actually. put it in my will.â
he snorts, tossing the screwdriver onto the counter beside you and stretching out his arms. big baby. âmaybe we should go swimming.â
âafter you fix the fan.â
âfanâs dead too, baby.â
you suck the juice off your thumb and look at him, really look at him, bare feet blackened a little at the soles from the tile, right hand smudged with grease from the inside of the motor. thereâs a healing blister on his palm. a faint shadow under his eye from waking up too early for runs on the beach.
you lean forward and kiss the corner of his jaw, slow and quiet. âthen letâs go die in the ocean instead.â
he smiles like itâs the best idea youâve ever had.
âThis canât be real.â You whine, your face suddenly feeling hot, the collar of your costume tightening around your throat. Had the elastic strap of your stupid squirt bottle cap hat always been this uncomfortable under your chin? âThis is a nightmare. Pinch me. Please, put me out of my misery.â
âA nightmare!?â Your friend whispers incredulously. âThis is a dream. Look at him! His friends look hot, too.â
You take a big gulp of your tequila. âI canât talk to him like this. Itâs humiliating.â You gesture to the cheap, ill-fitting ketchup bottle costume youâd adorned for this night out, your life choices coming into sharp, dizzying focus. Why couldnât you have just worn a revealing costume like a normal person? Itâs times like these where committing to the bit isnât always a good thing.
âHey,â she scolds, clicking her tongue at you, âketchup can be beautiful!â
âNot enough to talk to- to that!â
Across the room, in all his beefy, athletic glory is Bokuto Koutarou â your calculus deskmate and occasional study buddy. Someone youâve had a crush on all semester. Your eyes scan his figure and you realize that no amount of tequila or cheap beer could give you the confidence to go say hi to him. Not like this.
Heâs wearing a baby blue crop top, one thatâs a size too small and tugs across the broad expanse of his chest and shoulders, squeezing at his massive biceps. Drawstring shorts in the same color expose the meat of his thick thighs and for a moment, the breath catches in your throat. What the fuck is in the water for these volleyball guys?
His two friends are in much the same state, red and green get-ups matching Bokutoâs own. The Powerpuff Girls. Bubbles has never looked so intimidating.
atsumu who has experience dating and flirting and being physically intimate, but still gets really bashful and blushy when people start returning those advances vs. osamu who has less experience, but brings so much confidence to those situations that people think he has more experience than he does
atsumu is trapped in his head when he goes to initiate his first kiss with you. he's done this before, done more than this before, but something about the smell of your perfume and the feeling of your lips just barely ghosting over his makes his heart flutter and his stomach flip. his hands hover, unsure of where to rest. sensing his hesitation, you pull away. he almost whines.
"everything okay?" you ask, voice a syrupy sweet whisper.
"yer so pretty," he says without thinking, "makin' me nervous."