A Cape, a Mask, and a Sheet
Guess who’s back with a vengeance when it comes to Fitzward fics (for approximately one day before I start Nanowrimo)! That’s right, it’s me, ya girl. It’s Halloween, and @fitzwards and I have been watching a whole lot of a certain BBC drama that fits nicely with this particular holiday. I figured, before I jump into working on Nano, what better way to wrap up, then with a little bit of an AU fic?
Without further a-boo (I’m hilarious), here it is...
Happy Halloween!
“Are you going to tell him, or am I going to tell him?”
Leo sat up in his seat at the kitchen table, turning around to stare at his flatmate. He wasn’t sure, exactly, when Jemma had gotten there, but she had a habit of sneaking up on people. She could be eerily silent when she wanted to, and it had made for more than one near heart attack in the last year that they’d all been living together in Bristol.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Leo lied, squinting at her. She had that look about her, the one that said she was up to no good, and wasn’t going to be dissuaded from that. It had been done, before, but Leo was fairly sure that he hadn’t been the reason she’d been swayed from her path.
The issue was, here, he did know what she was talking about, and the very last thing he wanted was for her to go opening her mouth to anyone about it. They both knew that, too. Pulling her grey cardigan around herself better, like she may be cold, Jemma huffed, and rolled her eyes ceilingward, in an explanation she knew she needn’t give.
“It’s starting to be, frankly, ridiculous.” She said, leaning back against the counter. Behind her, cups of cold tea waited to be dumped into the sink and washed out, a job that neither she, nor Leo, nor the person they were not naming, had gotten around to, yet. Jemma, though she could be said to be responsible for all the tea, had a good reason for not really doing the washing up. Sort of. Leo, well, he’d been busy with work, and with the fact that tonight was a night that he rather dreaded, and the week leading up to it was never a party.
Their unnamed third flatmate?
He claimed that people like him didn’t do dishes.
Which was infuriating, really, so Leo didn’t know why he had the issues that he did, when it came to him. He didn’t do the dishes – regularly enough – and he could be mood swing-y and a little too macabre at times. Yes, that had to do with how his life had been, before they’d come together, the three of them, but it really should have been more annoying than it was.
“It’s not being ridiculous. You’re reading too much into things, Jemma. As usual.” Leo pointed out, going back to his phone and his bagel.
Jemma, apparently, wasn’t going to be put off so easily, and before Leo had even taken his next bite, she was sitting down in the chair next to him with a gesture that made it look like she had a lot more weight than she did.
“I don’t know why you’re being so difficult about this. What’s the harm? Grant isn’t going to – ”
Leo made a hissing noise, dropping his bagel and reaching across the table with his hand out, like the mere action would keep her words from drifting up the stairs to Grant’s room. It wasn’t going to do that, they both knew it, but it did make Jemma’s look of exasperation turn into one of smugness.
“Why are you shushing me?” She asked, propping her chin on her hand, her eyes glinting with amusement. “If you don’t know what I’m talking about, and I’m just reading too much into things?”
“Because.” Leo hissed, leaning across the table and keeping his voice low. “I don’t want Grant thinking – ”
“ – Why are you whispering? You’re the one with the freakish superhearing that picks up on everything going on in this house.”
Leo’s flat look didn’t so much as budge the smile on Jemma’s face. When she got like this – chipper, knowing she had an edge and she had the upper hand – there was next to no way to dislodge that smug look.
“I don’t want Grant thinking that I fancy him.”
“Why not? You do fancy him.”
Another wave of his hand, paired with frantic shushing, and Leo glancing over his shoulder, towards the staircase, like he expected their flatmate to come barreling down and start interrogating Leo. When no sounds came, Leo turned back around, narrowing his eyes once more.
“I don’t.”
Jemma scoffed, leaning back in her seat with a grand eye roll. “Oh, that’s rich. Maybe you didn’t back when you two met. Not right away. But it’s been getting worse since you moved in here. There’s nothing wrong with that. I think it’s cute.” She smiled at Leo, losing the smug edge, clearly wanting to come across as encouraging rather than teasing. “Puppy love.”
“Don’t call it that.” Leo pushed his plate to the side, pressing his forehead to the kitchen table. If he focused, he was sure he could hear Grant moving around in his room. He was getting up, and he would be coming downstairs, soon, and Leo needed to put Jemma off of this, or there would be no choice but to tell Grant that, yes, maybe he had a wee bit of a crush on him, but it was nothing to get weird about.
“Well, I didn’t think you would appreciate me outright saying ‘you’re in love with him’, but, have it your way.”
No, this wasn’t getting any better.
“Why are you bringing this up, now?”
Jemma’s eyebrows shot up, and for a second, Leo was seriously considering jumping across the table to cover her mouth. She had that look about her, like she was about to launch into a loud tirade about how she couldn’t have picked a better time to bring this up, for whatever reason, and Grant may be upstairs now, but his natural curiosity would have him downstairs in a second if Jemma started out on that.
“Because I’ve been watching you pine after him for the last few months, and, frankly, I don’t know if I can watch the two of you be all sad-eyes over each other under my roof for much longer. It’s cute, but it’s frustrating. I know you’re both men, but, my god, if you would just – ”
“ – The two of us?”
Leo was supposed to be annoyed. He was supposed to be trying to shut Jemma up, to dispel whatever idea she’d gotten into her head about playing matchmaker. Instead, he was listening to a voice in his head gleefully saying ‘see? See? It wasn’t crazy, she’s seen it, too!’
Which was equally as dangerous as not shutting her up, right now.
“What? Well, yes. Oh, come on, Leo. I know you’re not that dense. You may be working as a hospital porter, but we’ve all seen the University of Edinburgh diploma on your wall, Mr. Engineer.” Jemma pointed upwards. “He’s just as goo-goo eyes over you as you are over him, but I thought you would be the easier target to discuss this with, since… You know how he gets.” Jemma turned her face into her closest approximation of Grant, lowering her eyebrows and scowling. “Side effect of his condition, I’m sure.”
Leo grinned, unable to stop himself. That voice in his head was getting louder. “Which condition? Being American, or being a vampire?”
“Oh, definitely the first one.” Jemma said, laughing. Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and she reached forward, putting her cool hand over Leo’s. “Tell him soon, yeah?”
“Not tonight.” Leo said, quickly, and then made a ‘zip it’ motion with his fingers over his lips, as Grant’s booted footsteps came down the last set of stairs, and hit the black-and-white checkered entranceway floor.
“Morning.”
“Morning.” Both Leo and Jemma greeted, Leo going back to his bagel so he could keep an eye on Jemma, who was beaming at Grant.
“So, what’s the plan for tonight, then?” Grant asked, lifting the coffee pot off up and pouring himself a mug of black coffee. “Not exactly your every-day, run of the mill Change, I don’t think.”
Leo nodded, steeling himself to look over at the other, standing against the counter where Jemma had just been standing. “Not exactly, but it’s much less of a thing, here, you know. At least, not the way Americans do it.”
Grant rolled his eyes and joined them at the table, reaching over to nudge Leo with a grin. “I’m 115 years old, Leo, you think I don’t know that? Kids here are probably a lot smarter than in the U.S., anyway. Fewer of them running around in the woods, though, I still don’t think that’s the best place for you to be changing...” His brown eyes searched Leo’s, clearly trying to work him out. This was always such a delicate subject, but Grant had been pushing him, for the last year and a bit, to get more comfortable with it. “You want me to come with you? We can go down to the hospital basement, I’ll stand guard all night...”
Jemma huffed, and both men looked her way. Though that had clearly been her intention, she glanced between them both, and asked, “what?”
“Something to add, I assume?” Leo deadpanned, tapping the last piece of his bagel on his plate. These conversations always made him lose his appetite. Given how considerate it was, that was always a shock, even now, two years down the road from the scratch.
“Well… Well, it’s Halloween, and I’m going to be alone, in the house.”
“You can come along, Jem, I wouldn’t mind the company.” Grant said, sipping his coffee and pulling the morning post towards himself.
“I know that but… We’re a werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost. Living together. Seems cruel that we don’t get to have our first Halloween together in our actual house.” She looked between them again, clearly not taking in the incredulous looks on their faces the way they thought she should. “You know?”
“I...”
Leo laughed. He couldn’t help it. This was his life, now, and Grant was clearly thinking the same thing.
“What, were you thinking we would dress up – me in a cape, Leo in a mask, you in a sheet – and hand out candy to kids?”
Jemma gave him a flat look. “Well… No. But it might have been fun.”
“It might have been,” Leo agreed. “If there wasn’t a full moon, tonight. And uh, yeah, Grant. If you’d come with me? That’d be appreciated.”
Grant nodded, looking Jemma’s way. “You coming?”
“Well, I’m certainly not going to sit here on my own all night, while you two have all the fun.” She paused, then met Leo’s eyes. He felt a spike of dread, but it was too late, her mouth was already opening. “Not that I would be opposed to that. Or jealous. If that ever were to, uh...” Her eyes slid from Leo to Grant, and was Leo imagining it, or did Grant actually tense up, there, for a second? “Happen.”
The silence that stretched between the three of them was heavy, and almost painful, and it felt like hours passed before Leo stood up and said, “right. Well, I’m going to go pack a bag for tonight and then head off to work. Uh. Grant. See you later?”
“Yeah, yeah, at the, uh, the hospital.” He turned, smiling at Leo. “And then here, of course, before we go back to the hospital.”
Leo nodded, and then smiled at Jemma, a little tighter than usual, before dashing up the stairs, taking the sets two by two, until he was in the safety of his own room, and could breathe out without worrying one of Grant’s abilities may be to read the mind of the person – werewolf – sitting next to him.
He really did need to pack a bag, so he would be ready for tonight. A change of clothes was necessary, and maybe a towel. He could probably slip into the employee bathroom in the morning, after his change, rinse off, feel human again.
As he did, he didn’t deny himself the chance at listening in on the conversation downstairs. They were both being much quieter than he and Jemma had been, before, but there was no mistaking what they were discussing, and the frantic tone in Grant’s voice when he told Jemma, ‘not today, he’s got enough on his plate, with the full moon.’
No, not today. Not tonight, either.
But maybe Leo should sit down and have a chat with Grant, soon.
Before Jemma really and truly did it for him.