What? Leo can be poetic. He writes lyrics—and damn good ones.
“S’fucking weird.” Leo inhales through his nose. “But it smells really good.”
Nix flushes, shivering.
Grayson has slipped away to stand once more in front of the painting he’d started earlier. Leo can only roll his eyes. Whatever distraction they’d provided with the mystical glowing bites had disappeared, and Grayson was once again hyper-fixated on his newest piece.
“Yeah, it’s weird, but not the weirdest. Know what I mean? I’m trying to keep it in perspective. I mean, I’m a whole new species, right?” Nix grabs a flowy shirt-robe-thingy from the paint table before pulling it over his shoulders. He steps into the sweetest pair of white panties, which also smell divine.
“Does he always do that?”
“What? Just zone in on his art? Yes. Every time. You get used to it. But you don’t have to stay here while he does. Do you want to get some breakfast with me?”
Leo pulls out his phone to see if anyone has texted the group chat since he’d last checked, and…nada. It’ll be just the two of them. Sweet!
“Everyone else has gone to work or has mysterious plans. Come here. Let me tie those for you. It’s cold.”
Leo lays his phone on the paint bench and ties the last of the white robe’s ties before pulling off his hoodie and slipping it on over Nix’s head. It’s so big that it falls to hisknees.
Leo pulls the hood up over Nix’s fluffy brown hair and tightens the strings so only his nose is visible.
“Hey!”
Leo laughs and helps him loosen the ties. “Sorry! But you’re so freaking cute. I can’t help it.”
“Come on, you, I’m hungry. Let me tell Grayson I’m going with you.”
Leo watches Nix whisper in Grayson’s ear and kiss his cheek.
“I’m ready.”
“Bye, pretty. Don’t spend all day in here!”
Leo doesn’t expect a reply, and he doesn’t get one.
They’re running through the light fall rain, and by the time they’re standing in the living room, Nix is shivering.
“You should go shower, and I’ll meet you back here in fifteen, okay?”
Leo does the same and dresses in his nicest jeans and a different black t-shirt, throwing his black leather jacket over a kitchen stool. Nix is back in the kitchen in his own blue jeans and a pale, silvery, fuzzy cardigan over a white t-shirt withVERDEin green letters on the front. Nix’s double-sided bond bites are just visible above the neckline, and Grayson’s is still glowing seashell pink.
Nix is so pretty that Leo might expire—or at least write a song about it.
What rhymes with gorgeous?
“Leo?”
Oh shit, he’d been staring.
“Shit. You are stunning. Took my breath away. Give us a kiss.”
Nix throws his arms around his neck and smooches him hard.
“Ready to go?”
Leo puts him back on his feet and grabs the keys to the Lexus.
Nix comes to an abrupt and complete stop.
