Work Text:
Leo gets off work early for the first time in over a month so he can take his man out for Valentines Day. It's their first Valentines together, and for once in a long time Leo is kinda excited about the holiday? Not so much because he's into this kind of thing, but because his boyfriend is
Jason is a romantic at heart; his bookshelves are packed with paperbacks and he cries during Bridgerton. He loves being sweet on Leo and the second Leo turns it back on him he becomes the most adorable blushing goo puddle, Leo can't get enough. So he's bribed Georgie to get Festus tonight and tomorrow, giving them lots of wiggle room to explore an outdoor market he knows of that will have every opportunity to buy his man flowers and treats and hold his hand as he parades him about for the world to see
Then they have a reservation at this little hole in the wall Hmong place near the moms he used to go to with Cal and Lit as kids that Leo has been dying to take him, followed up by crashing at his boyfriend's place with breakfast in bed and walking Snowball over to Leo’s in the morning where they will spend the rest of the weekend cuddling hopefully making out
It's a rock-solid plan, one that Leo has been rotating in his head and daydreaming about all week and is derailed as soon as he turns the key to Jason’s apartment
Jason is splayed out on the couch, arm over his eyes with his glasses pushed into his hair and his noise canceling headphone on. The lights are off, the living room is dimly lit from the balcony’s closed curtains, and Snowball the fluffy white pomeranian is stretched out across his chest looking worried.
The dog jumps a bit at Leo’s appearance with a bark, then she's racing across Jason’s body and down her little padded steps to tell him off for surprising her and sniff vigorously at his shoes. Snowball's departure alerts his boyfriend to him as she snarfs and arfs and demands retribution that Leo gladly gives in the form of attention
“Leo?”
“Yeah baby, you okay?”
Jason sits up on the couch, groaning and rubbing his eyes like he's trying to starve off a headache. He can get migraines from time to time, something about a head injury from being in the back seat when his mom drove drunk into an early grave. Leo has seen his set up for when they happen, and it looks a lot like this
“Is your head hurting?” he asks, rising from the floor where he is scratching Snowball behind the ear
“Not anymore, ‘meds kicked in.” Jason stands, a little wobbly as he situates himself, “Im sorry I'm not even ready”
He's still in his work clothes; comfortable, easy to move in slacks and a light-pink t-shirt with otters holding hands and some daycare pun Leo can’t read with the angle. There is even a little headband tossed on the coffee table with sparkly hearts on springs, cute.
What isn't so cute is the stressed pinch of his boyfriend's brow line and the dark circles under his eyes. There is also something sparkling in his hair that is sticking up in the front from Jason running his hands through it over and over to self-soothe.
“What happened Cielo?” Leo asks as he toes off his boots so he can meet his man in the middle
“Sorry, I'm just - overstimulated, dysregulated," his boyfriend is using ‘Daycare Assessment’ words to describe himself and that's never good, “The Valentines party was a blood bath”
“Oh?”
“Axel’s mom sent glitter”
“Is that what’s in your hair?”
“Who fills a three-year-old’s class valentines with glitter?” Jason groans as he rubs his eyes under his glasses, “Who does that!?”
“Oh Mi Cielo,” Leo reaches up and holds his man gently by the neck and face, “I thought that mom liked you”
“I did too!”Jason whines, still hiding behind his hands, “And then they were so sugared up, but it's still too cold for the playground, and Oliver elbowed Lila in the eye during the dance off and her dad was so mad at me”
“Oh baby, I'm sorry,” Leo softly tempts his boyfriend's hands away from where he's smashing the heel of his palm into his eyes, “What do you need, how can I help?”
“I need - it's -” and then Jason starts putting on The Brave Face, taking a deep breath and swallowing down all of the negative feelings so he can be palatable on habit, “Its fine, we can - we can still go do stuff”
“It's not fine, you're crumbling Cielo,” Leo thumbs over his boyfriend's cheekbone, “Please let me help”
Jason sighs dejectedly, but he stops trying to perform okayness for him. “Unless you can turn my brain off I don't know how much help you can be,” he relents, looking anywhere but his eyes
“Is that all?” Leo brightens, “I can definitely turn your brain off”
“Leo”
“Trust me okay,” Leo grins as he leads Jason to his bedroom by the hand, Snowball at their ankles, “I know exactly what you need”
Snowball must have already guessed the plan because she noses the bedroom door open for them and heads straight to her new fancy little steps attached to the footboard that Leo built so she's not hopping on storage bins anymore. She then trampses her way across the mattress to her own fluffy powder pink dog bed by the pillows, doing about twenty-thousand rotations before settling down with a huff. Leo follows the little dog's lead with getting comfy, stripping out of his nice button-up leaving him in his sleeveless undershirt, flinging it to the side before taking off his belt
“Um,” his boyfriend starts, apprehensive and shifting his weight from foot to foot, “I don't wanna-”
“I know,” Leo stops him before his man can start to worry, climbing in the bed, kicking the neatly made covers off and getting comfortable on his back, “C’mmer were gonna cuddle”
“Cuddle?”
“Yeah,” Leo reaches for him, grabby hands and all, “Come lay on me I'm gonna play with your hair”
“Oh!”
“Is that okay?”
“God yes,” Jason agrees like Leo just told him he knows the only place in the world with pool on a sweltering day, quickly following his lead with his own shirt and glasses, “Yes please yes”
Jason groans with relief once he settles into Leo, nuzzling his nose into Leo’s collarbone as his fingers thread into fluffy blond hair. It takes nothing to get his man all melted; running his hands through his hair and rubbing his neck and shoulders while picking out little pieces of heart-shaped glitter and dropping them into an abandoned coffee mug he snipped from the bedside table and stuck between Snowball’s bed and the headboard. The dog hasn't even noticed, as dead to the world as Jason is about to be even as he runs his hands up and down Leo’s sides
Jason is tactile, touch love language to the nines, and it makes Leo feel so wanted. If they are in arms-length of each other Jason is going to be pulling him in; holding his hand, an arm around his waist, his face in his hair. He's like that with his students too, hugs and affection freely given. Leo loves this about his boyfriend; it makes his adoration so obvious, he never has to guess if Jason is happy being with him when he holds him like this
He's like that now; nosing his way into the dip under his collarbone and breathing deep, arms bracketing either side of Leo’s rib cage squeezing him close, then hands smoothing heavy down his sides until he reaches the bottom of his undershirt where he plays with the hem
“Leo?”
“Hm?”
“Touch you?” Jason asks softly, accompanied with more fidgeting with the hem
“Yeah,” Leo agrees, “You wanna take it off?”
Jason’s fingers just dig under the cotton to find one of Leo’s many burn scars that creep around his ribcage from his back, gently stimming on the texture. It's become one of Jason’s favorite fidgets, the feeling of Leo’s skin and the scars that decorate it, especially when he gets like this
“Jase?”
“Hm?”
“Do you want me to take my shirt off?”
“Mmm.” Leo gives him a moment, letting Jason run his thumb over and over the edge between a scar and unblemished skin; he has been melting his brain with scratchies. “Mm yeah,” Jason agrees. “Can I?”
Leo helps him get the fabric off over his head, and Jason is curled back into his chest before it even meets the floor. His boyfriend kisses one of his top surgery scars, a soft hello to Leo’s skin, before pillowing his ear over his heart beat with a deep content sigh like a dog who has never paid taxes. Leo weaves his hands back into his man’s hair and fights down the cuteness aggression
Jason floats for at least an hour, stimming on Leo’s skin as he plays a math game on his phone with one hand and Jason’s hair with the other. His boyfriend falls asleep soon after that, completely boneless to the combination of hair scratchies and cuddling bare-chested against each other. The poor thing has to be exhausted; it's been months of no playground this winter and he's been prepping like crazy for the Valentine's party on top of last week's deep clean. He has a habit of going all out for the kids with every holiday. It's cute, but it can burn him out sometimes
Leo scrolls his phone one-handed for a few hours, playing TikToks on low volume and picking his way through his puzzle games. It's a nice decompression from the day, his sweet man all cuddly on him giving that deep pressure that calms the constant running of his adhd brain. He gets to stim on his hair and listen to his breathing, watch his boyfriend’s face become unguarded and relaxed in a way it never does when he's awake
Leo is starting to doze off himself when his man stirs again, it's adorable to watch. Usually when one of them sleeps over Jason is the first awake, either from the Snowball Alarm or his own inner clock. He has a strict routine which the little white dog enforces religiously that includes a four-mile run and a visit with Miss. Lupa the pom’s original owner. Leo tends to sleep through all of it, waking up to the smell of coffee long after his boyfriend has come back home.
But now he gets to watch him. The way his breathing changes, the little hum he makes as he nuzzles into Leo underneath him, the fluttering of his eyelids before they open. It's cute, he's cute, Leo kisses his forehead a few times to starve off the cuteness aggression that makes him want to chew this man
“Buenas, Mi Cielito,” Leo greets as blue eyes come into focus, “Soñaste con los angelitos?”
Jason just hums in reply, trying to burrow his face into Leo beneath him as his ears turn red. He's still half asleep, and his hair is going every which way from being played with for hours. The cuteness aggression finally starts to win, Leo just having to smear affection into his man with kisses until it draws Jason out with a giggle
Cute, he's so freaking cute it should be illegal. Leo tells him so, it makes his boyfriend beam as he hides his face in Leo’s neck all blushing and grinning.
“You feeling better?” Leo asks when he has loved his man out of hiding again
“Yeah,” Jason sighs, still smiling all sweet and relaxed, “Sorry I messed up our date”
“You didn't mess anything up,” Leo insistsm, “I'm enjoying the cuddles”
“Yeah but you had like, plans”
“The only plan-plans I have are dinner, and we still have like,” he peeks at the time on his phone, “An hour and a half before that. Everything else was just showing you off, and I can do that whenever”
“Oh?”
“Yeah,” Leo smacks a kiss into his boyfriend's forehead, “‘Sides the cuddles were a better choice, you're cute and I think I needed the rest”
“You have been working too hard”
“You’re one to talk”
“Oh?” Jason hooks one of Leo's dark curls around his pointer finger to pull it straight and then let it spring back again, “And how much over time have you clocked this month?”
“Oh shush, ice and salt wrecks cars ya’ know”
“Uh-huh”
“‘Sides, I want that check so I can spoil my Valentine”
Jason goes red at the mention of him being Leo’s Valentine, at him wanting to take care of him like that, all down his neck and chest as his eyes fill with hearts. It sparks the cuteness aggression again, Leo rolling them to the side so he can better hold his boyfriend still while he kisses his whole stupid handsome face, completely giving into his instinct to smother every inch of his man in affection. He might need to use his legs to keep him where he wants him with their size difference, and Snowball audibly complains when they knock into her and her fluffy dog bed, but it just makes the blond laugh more and catch his lips in a proper kiss. Jason tastes like cheap confectionery full of food coloring and sleep, Leo licks into his mouth a few times because he can
“You still wanna go out?” he asks against his boyfriend's lips as he kisses him the last few times, “I'm kinda digging cuddling in bed ‘til dinner”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Leo smooths some of the wild blond hair out of his boyfriend’s face, “We can just hang here if you want, I'll show you the animal TikToks I saved for you this week?”
“And you’ll play with my hair?” Jason asks all small and hopeful
“And I'll play with your hair”
“Yeah,” Jason gets comfortable again tucked into the crook of Leo’s arm, “Yeah that sounds nice”