Sray Cat Chronicles (Novella)

The Stray Hearts

"You don't need to go through all that trouble. It's just Valentine's Day," Leslie said as he clutched his books to his chest. Valentine's day was the day after tomorrow.

"But it's our first Valentine's Day! Don't ya think we should do something?" Aaron asked, resisting the urge to reach out and grab Leslie's ass right then. It was a terribly strong urge because he was in a new pair of jeans that were kind of tight on him.

Leslie sighed, looking at Aaron with an exasperated expression. "Alright, alright. We can do something, I guess, if it'll make you happy."

"That's more like it!" Aaron said as they came into the building.

As usual, since they'd come "out" as a couple, things had gotten interesting. There were whispered conversations that they would catch snippets of now and then, and people would sometimes look at them strangely. Leslie always felt like he was on display or something, where Aaron would just grin and grab Leslie to him even tighter as if to show off for them.

Aaron didn't seem to mind those things in the least. When they were alone, Leslie would voice his concerns over the whole situation, and Aaron would find every way to minimize Leslie's fears on the issue. Especially since they now lived together. Of course, it made explaining the one bedroom place a little bit easier now that people knew they were a couple.

"We should go out for a nice dinner and a movie?" Aaron queried as they came into the main building on campus.

Leslie hesitated a tad too long before he answered. "Ah, all the places are going to be full of people. After all, it's Valentine's day, so dinner probably wouldn't be the best idea..."

Aaron arched a brow at him. "Why don't ya wanna go out to eat?"

Leslie stopped and looked at him. "We've got plenty to eat at home. And I know what I'm eating there," he said the last a little lower than the first.

"But it's a special night. We should do something special for it!" he said, and Leslie looked around to see that people were looking at them.

"We'll talk about it after class, okay?" Leslie sighed and turned around to go to his class.

Aaron watched him go and wondered what that was all about. He shook it away and headed off to his own class and didn't think about it much more. He had his classes to worry about. Today he had one of his more interesting professors, so it made it easy to get lost in his classwork for the day. After his last class, he headed over to the student center to pick Leslie up so they could head home. He found him, as usual, sitting in the far corner at a table with his head buried in a book.

"Heya," Aaron said as he sat down across from him.

Leslie looked up, and once again, Aaron thought his face looked thinner. He frowned and noticed that there were no food wrappers on the table.

"Hey there. How was class?" Leslie asked, putting his legs down and closing his book.

"Good, good. Want me to grab you something from the food court? I'm starving," he said.

"Nah, I'm good. I'm not hungry," he said, smiling a little. "You go ahead, though."

Aaron frowned and stood up, heading over to the food area. He found himself a sub sandwich and chips with a soda. He saw they had those big cookies that were freshly baked, so he picked up a chocolate chip one, knowing they were Leslie's favorite. It was big enough to split between them even if he wasn't hungry. He left with the tray and sat back down, seeing Leslie had returned to reading while he waited.

"Look what I got," he said and slid the wrapped cookie across the table. "They're just made today. Thought we could split it."

Leslie stared at it for a second then looked at Aaron. "I don't know. I've been trying to cut down on sweets lately."