my brain: brilliant
you’re writing: more brilliant
Just got a thought HEAR ME OUT write me in!au x jazz playing leo from the bridgerton!au.
write me in universe but it’s finnlo finding out that Leo used to play jazz music with his friends in Nola but was too bashful to tell them because duh his boyfriends are crazy talented world famous musicians
Oh, I LOVE a Write Me In AU, I gotta say. You can find the first one I did here !!
Cue FinnLo being in AWE of their sunshine's jazzy fingers at family Christmas!
Character credits to @lumosinlove !!
“Oh my Lord, this is a lovely home!”
“Mama,” Leo laughed, removing the meat thermometer from the chuck roast and shutting the oven. “You’ve been saying that for the last four hours.”
“And I will keep saying it, baby. I mean, just look at this kitchen.”
Leo smiled satisfactorily to himself. “It is pretty nice.”
“Those boys of yours sure knew how to pick an apartment.”
“Oh, they had no idea,” Leo said, slicing into some focaccia to refill the appetizer basket in the living room. “I think Finn just liked the study for all his books, and Logan likes how close it is to his gym.”
“Well,” Eloise replied, looking at him playfully. “Then I guess they must have known someone would be coming along eventually to use the kitchen.”
Leo flushed, but he was pleased. “Maybe.”
“Sunshine!” Finn’s voice sing-songed. He appeared next to Eloise then slid around the kitchen island. His ears were red from the wine and he was smiling widely. “Sunshine, come out and relax, baby.”
“Hold on, honey, let me just-”
“No, no, no, you’ve done enough.” Finn wrapped strong arms around Leo’s waist and tugged, bringing him away from the counter. “Come back to the party, my love.”
“I’ll bring the bread out,” Eloise offered. “You’ve done nothing but cook for days, sweetheart, go relax.”
Leo narrowed his eyes at his mother. “I feel like this is the pot calling the kettle black.”
Eloise waved her hand. “Well, I’m not hosting this year, am I? Go, baby, I’ll be right there.”
“Are you sure-”
“Leo,” Finn sighed. He grunted and wrapped his arms tighter around Leo’s waist to lift him up. “Let’s go.”
Leo laughed as he was carried to the other side of the counter, then set down to be gently nudged in the direction of the living room. His dad was busy chatting in rapid-fire French with Logan’s sisters, Noelle and Aubrey, near the fireplace. Logan’s other sister, Sydney, seemed to be catching up with her and Finn’s moms, Iva and Hayley, while Finn’s brother, Alex, his partners, Kasey and Natalie, and Noelle’s boyfriend, Thomas, were in the middle of what looked like an intense game of Scrabble on the floor. Logan, his father Marius, and Finn’s father Ramsey were watching amusedly from respective armchairs, the latter two with what looked like whiskey tumblers in their hands. Soft Christmas jazz was playing from the speakers and the tree in the corner cast a warm light. Leo himself felt warm, too, with Finn’s capable hands guiding him by his hips to where Logan was sitting in his chair.
“Lolo,” Finn said. “I bring a gift.”
Logan smiled up at them and set his glass of wine down on the table beside him, opening his arms. “Salut, mon coeur.”
“Hi,” Leo said, allowing himself to be gently tugged down to sit across Logan’s thighs. He glanced over at his mother, who had brought the bread in and settled herself into Wyatt’s lap across the room, then back down at Logan. His green eyes matched the Christmas tree in the corner. “Ça va?”
Logan hummed affirmatively and ran a hand up and down Leo’s thigh. “How’s the roast, mon soleil?”
“Good. Another half an hour or so, then it should be done.”
“And until then, he will be relaxing,” Finn insisted, settling himself down on the chair’s arm and wrapping one arm around Logan’s shoulders. He settled his other hand on the small of Leo’s back with raised eyebrows. “Right?”
Leo touched his tongue to the back of his teeth. “Yes,” he replied teasingly.
“Good boy.” Finn kissed Leo’s cheek, then Logan’s. “Merry Christmas, lovers.”
“Ouais, it is.” Logan bounced Leo on his leg a couple of times. “I’m glad your parents came.”
“Me, too,” Leo said. “Thanks for inviting them.”
Finn scoffed. “You don’t have to thank us.” He tugged on Leo’s curls. “They’re your family, sunshine, and you’re our family. So of course they’re invited.”
Leo still didn’t know what to do with the heat that pooled in his chest and belly every single time Finn or Logan said something like that. He felt warm and fuzzy- and kind of like he wanted to sneak away together to their bedroom for a few minutes. “I love you.”
“We love you so much, mon coeur,” Logan murmured, pursing his lips for a kiss. “So much.”
Leo was about to reply when his mother let out a noise from behind them. They all turned to find her looking at Finn’s piano, tucked away and covered in a corner of the room to make way for the tree and gifts. “Oh, look at that piano.”
Finn laughed and nodded. “Yeah. One of my first big boy purchases.”
“Leo, baby, why don’t you play something?”
Finn and Logan whipped their heads around to look at Leo with confused expressions. Leo felt his cheeks heat up.
“Quoi?” Logan asked. “What does she mean?”
To her credit, Eloise looked slightly embarrassed and confused. Leo sent her a smile and a slight wave of his hand before turning back to his boys. “I, um… I play. A bit.”
“Really?” Finn looked absolutely delighted. “You’ve never said before!”
“It was a long time ago,” Leo said. “And it wasn’t much.”
Wyatt let out a snort. “You’re too modest, Le.”
“Yeah, baby, you’re good,” Eloise said. She stood and came over to kiss Leo’s forehead. “Your daddy and I used to love and go watch you play.”
“What did you play, soleil?” Logan asked eagerly.
Leo took a deep breath. “Jazz. I was a jazz pianist.”
“Fucking hell,” Alex said from the ground. He and the others were listening intently to the conversation. “That’s not easy.”
“Why don’t you play?” Noelle suggested.
“Oh no,” Leo insisted. “I don’t want to disturb anything or-”
But he was interrupted by everyone else insisting that he play, much to Finn and Logan’s obvious delight. Finn took him by the hands and began to tug. “None of that, Le, baby, c’mon, c’mon!” He grunted against Leo’s resistance and pulled him up and into his arms. “I want to hear you play.”
“I’m really not that good, and it’s been so long-”
“I don’t care.” Finn interrupted. His smile was mischievous. “Please, please, please, baby, I wanna hear you play.”
“Okay, okay.” Leo took Finn’s face in his hands to settle his sparking energy. “But you- you can’t laugh if I, like, mess up, okay?”
“Swear on my life, peanut butter.” Finn sealed the promise with a sound kiss to Leo’s mouth, then gestured towards where Logan was already taking the cover off the piano. “C’mon, sunshine.”
“Ici, soleil,” Logan said, grunting a bit to move the instrument and then patting the stool he placed in front of it. “We want to hear you play, mon amour.”
“Alright.” Leo stared at the keys a moment before letting out a deep sigh. He cracked his knuckles and rolled out his neck as he sat down. “Alright, I’ll play.”
Finn and Logan stepped aside, but stayed close. Leo could feel the eyes of everyone in the room on him as he tapped his toe silently, trying to get the rhythm in his head. He imagined the notes of the song transferring from his brain to the tips of his fingers and set them to play.
At the first notes of Linus and Lucy, Finn barked out a laugh, loud against the backdrop of the music. Leo smiled to himself as he played through the main riff as written a few times before an idea popped into his head. He slid his left hand further down the keys to add some depth, and transposed into the jazz scale in his head, and- there.
Leo smiled to himself once again. He’d almost forgotten the big band swing version they’d arranged for his jazz band in college. If he thought hard enough, he could hear the tenor sax and trumpet riff. He gave it his best shot with his right hand, his fingers flying over the keys, and he let the sound of the notes permeating around the room fill him up. He improvised over the bridge’s main theme for a final time before settling once again into the straight rhythm of the song. When Leo plunked the last note he let his hands fall into his lap before turning around.
“Um,” he said, sheepishly glancing at his fingers twisting around one another. “So, yeah. Yeah.”
“Oh. My. God!” Finn was suddenly there, taking Leo’s face in his hands and peppering kisses all over his cheeks and forehead. “Baby.”
“Soleil.” Logan sat beside Leo on the bench and squeezed his thigh excitedly. “Mon amour, I didn’t know you could play like that.”
“Where have you been hiding those brilliant piano playing fingers all this time, sunshine?”
From behind Finn, Alex snorted. “From his professional musician boyfriends, you dummy.”
Finn turned around briefly to stick his tongue out at his brother before bringing his attention back to Leo. “Le,” he breathed. “Baby, you’re so talented.”
“Ouais,” Logan agreed. He kissed Leo’s cheek. “I mean, soleil, the way you improvised, it was…”
“Awesome,” Noelle supplied. Leo finally looked over Finn’s shoulder to get a good look at her and the others, who were all standing or sitting around with wide smiles. “That was freaking awesome.”
“I told you,” Eloise said. She was once again perched in Wyatt’s lap on a chair. “My baby has talent.”
“He sure as hell does.” Finn rubbed his thumbs over Leo’s cheeks and kissed him softly. The rest of their family members, it seemed, had decided to leave them to their own conversation, and were back to chatting amongst themselves. Finn’s eyes were warm as they gazed into Leo’s. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Leo shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s been a while, I mean- music was always something I did for fun. But when I started my job, I got too busy, and I struggled to find just normal community bands, so… yeah.”
“But do you love it, mon coeur?” Logan asked. He rested his chin on Leo’s shoulder, slightly wine-sleepy green eyes, framed by the longest eyelashes Leo had ever seen, looking at him gently.
Leo bit his lip around a smile. “I do, yeah. I’d never want to do what you two do, but… I don’t know, it’d be nice to play again.”
Finn nodded with a soft smile. “Then we’ll find you something, baby.”
“No, you don’t have to-”
“Ouais, we do. We want to.” Logan reached up to tilt Leo’s jaw with his fingers and kiss him softly on the mouth. “We love you.”
“So much, baby. We want you to do the things that make you happy.” Finn rested one knee on the piano bench to bring himself closer, the other leg standing straight in between Leo’s legs. He ran a hand through Logan’s hair, then Leo’s. “It’ll be your thing, peanut, of course. But expect us to be the loudest in the audience at any of your shows.”
Leo felt his blush deepen. “Thank you. I love you.”
Logan pressed his forehead to Leo’s shoulder. “Je t’aime.”
They sat for a moment, just the three of them, listening to the chatter of their families around them. Finn kept himself busy with his hands in their hair. Leo leaned into the gentle scratches against his scalp, his own fingers busy playing with Logan’s, who was resting his head heavily on Leo’s shoulder. All three of them jumped when Leo’s phone timer on his watch went off. He blinked and sat up straighter as he turned it off, putting his hands on Finn’s hips to gently move him backwards. “S’cuse me, honey, I gotta check on the roast.”
Finn took Leo’s hands and helped him stand up. He planted a firm kiss on his mouth. “Do you need help, baby?”
“Maybe,” Leo answered. “Come here.”
He began to walk towards the kitchen, Logan and Finn on his heels. The smell wafting from the oven was heavenly. He nodded approvingly as he opened the oven. The roasted root vegetables were soft, but not soggy, and the meat thermometer he poked into the chuck roast indicated it was perfectly medium rare.
“Smells good, soleil,” Logan commented. He opened the fridge to pull out the big salad bowl, all the vegetables chopped and ready to be tossed. “What do you need?”
“Can one of you get the dinner rolls, please?” Leo asked, carefully removing the meat and vegetables from the oven. “I want to heat them up real quick.”
“On it, butter.” Finn reached around Logan to grab the plastic bag of rolls Leo had made fresh that morning. “Here, baby.”
“Thank you, sweetheart.” Leo took the bag and dumped the rolls onto another sheet pan before tossing them into the oven next. He stood straight and clapped his hands. “All right. Your sisters set the table, right, Lo?”
“Ouais, mon amour.” Logan came up behind Leo to cup his hips and kiss his shoulder. “It’s all set.”
“Perfect.” Leo let out a huff and ran hands through his hair, turning to stare at the pans on the counter. “Okay, meat, vegetables, salad. Wine’s on the table, Aubrey put it out. Rolls should be out in a few… I think that’s everything.”
“And if it isn’t, we’ll get stuff for you,” Finn said. He kissed Leo’s cheek and wrapped his arms around him. “Thank you for doing dinner, you sexy piano playing peanut butter cup.”
Leo felt himself flush and laugh. “You’re never letting that go, are you?”
“Non,” Logan murmured, standing on his toes and kissing Leo softly. “You’re the sexiest piano player.”
Leo hummed happily and rested his forehead against Finn’s. “Merry Christmas, sweethearts.”
“Merry Christmas, my loves,” Finn whispered. “And here’s to many more with sexy piano playing.”
