One Summer's Day

One Summer’s Day

Summary:

Something’s are better left under the night sky, but not everything goes according to plan. With long-silenced feelings emerging because someone forgot to close their door, these two have the entire night to figure out what they are to each other.

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Story:

The warm cover of night can cover many, many things. Like the wheat that blew in the summer breeze under the stars of the flat fields around the modest house; or even how its onyx gaze concealed the mindless droning of the television that had a loose grip on Leon’s attention. Who knew late night television was all so….boring. Lifting his hips for a moment before he sunk deeper into the sofa, the press of leather against his clothed back, he dug around in his pocket before pulling out his phone. The cheap flip-phone’s screen flashed on as Leon opened it, him squinting as his eyes took a minute to adjust. As he relaxed once more he finally read the time, sighing as he dropped the phone onto the couch.

“3 A.M…..” He grumbled, brow furrowed as he shifted where he sat once more. Sitting up from a moment, he peeled the thin gray shirt off his body, sweat sticking to his skin with a sheen as the summer heat gnawed away at him. Frankly, he had no idea how Luis could ever sleep through this kind of hellish season, wondering if they were in some kind of giant, house-shaped oven instead of the place Leon had picked out himself as a ‘fresh start’. 

Letting mindless thoughts like that wash away, he briefly let his mind wander to the man who slept so peacefully down the hall, trying to remember what the inside of his room looked like right about now. There would be some kind of ambient menu music playing on the screen of the small personal tv he kept of a movie that had long been finished as Luis slept; blissfully unaware of the grating thirty-second tune. Then came the clothes from earlier that day, strewn out near one of the legs of his bed as Luis snored under satin sheets.

A warm flush came to Leon’s cheeks as he lingered on that mental image: Luis sleeping on his stomach, the side of his head pressed into his mountain of pillows he kept as his hair, now with tuffs of gray strewn in, lay splayed out stop his slowly rising and falling shoulders. Ten years they had been living together, roommates being hard to come by for an ex-cop turned ex-special forces and a biochemist that had a hand in multiple biology-based war crimes. But still, even if Leon had his pick of the whole city, he knew he had the one he wanted under his roof.

That pink dusting on the crests of his cheeks only spread when a loud advertisement snapped him out of his daydreaming, not realizing he had spent the past five minutes just staring off into space. Still, Leon’s thoughts were swirling around Luis, him giving a frustrated sigh. Peeling himself off the couch, he pulled his worn in gray sweatpants up a bit; the blue print of ‘R.C.P.D.’ written down the left pant leg now faded to a muted shade of its former self. 

“Might as well try and get some sleep,” he mumbled with a half-feigned yawn. Reaching for the remote, he turned the tv off, standing in the quiet, calm darkness that was their living room. Relaxing for a moment, he stuck his hands in his pockets as he strolled down the hall to his room, the hardwood floors creaking under his bare feet.

A crack of light caught his eye, escaping out from under Luis’s door. Standing there for a solid minute, he huffed when he thought Luis just fell asleep with the light on. They didn’t even go anywhere today—what could’ve tired him out so much that he didn’t even get a chance to turn his light off. Noticing the door was left half-way open, his brow furrowed. Strange, it wasn’t like him to leave his door open.

Reaching towards the doorknob to try and close his door, Leon froze in place as he finally heard Luis. It wasn’t his peaceful snoring, nor was it an exhausted and half-awake ‘good night’. No, this was different.