“Dude, this is great. We haven’t hung out together in ages,” Lando said, flipping the pizza box open and grabbing a slice. “Plates are in the cupboard, by the way. Just ignore all the chips and cracks in ‘em, yeah?”
He sent Théo a grin across the kitchen, hoping his best friend was as enthused about the night as he was. He really hadn’t seen all that much of the blonde lately. He figured that was normal when your friend got a girlfriend and then started spending most of his time with her, but now that Ophelia was back letting herself get sweet-talked by Luke and MK was usually attached at the hip with Glenn (who Lando did not like, thanks very much), he’d been feeling more than a little put-out. As soon as he heard talk that Elodie had dibsed Keeley for a girls’ night, whatever that entailed, he made sure to nab Théo for the night.
“Hey, Podunk! Leave him alone!” Lando squawked when he saw his cat swiping a paw out at Théo. Given all the bruises on his best friend most of the time, he was clumsy enough - nearly as accident prone as Lando himself - and didn’t need some dumb tabby hissing at him.
“I said, leave him alone, dude!” he groaned, moving over to the counter and reaching a hand across Théo’s shoulder to gently swat at his cat. His other hand rested on Théo’s hip as he shooed Podunk away, awkwardly plastered to the other man’s back.
Eventually, Podunk let out a spiteful little mewl before slipping out to the fire escape and Lando rocked back on his heels, shaking his head.
“Sorry about him,” he apologised, giving Théo a sheepish smile when he turned around. Their close proximity brought them nose to nose and Lando felt that familiar little reaction-to-a-crush-you-shouldn’t-have skip of his heart.
Playing it off, he clacked his teeth together, pretending to bite a chunk out of Théo’s nose without actually touching him.
“You let me know if that guy bothers you again,” he said, adopting a voice that was ten octaves deeper than how he usually spoke.