Neon Gods

Chapter Five

Leo looked out the window of the hotel room and sighed. It was a good thing he'd called in sick. His lips pressed into a thin line, as he watched the rain fall in thick sheets and lightning flash. There would be no way he and Zakari would make it back by that night if the rain kept up. He sighed again, and turned to look at the alarm clock on the nightstand. 10:31 flashed on the display. He walked from the window, to the other bed in the room, grabbed a pillow and smacked the face of the person cocooned in the blankets.
"Hey. Hey Fucknut, wake up," Leo delivered several more harsh smacks with the pillow. A low groan was the only response as the person slowly shifted to cover their face. "Are you hungry or not? Damn it Zaki get up already."
A soft sigh, then a grumble followed Leo's words as Zakari rolled over. "No," was all he answered. Leo huffed and poked his shoulder. "No? No what?"
"Stop patting my face with that, it makes my nose burn." Leo poked his cheek and Zakari grunted. Eventually, he set the pillow down and settled himself on the edge of the bed, leaned slightly against Zakari"s back, and played with the curls that peeked out of the nest of blankets. "The hell? Whatever... Well, we missed breakfast, so what do you want to do?"
Zakari hummed slightly and leaned into Leo. "Sleep," was Zakari's groggy response. Leo continued to stroke the other man's hair, then stood up. "Fine you sleep then. I'm not tired, and I'm hungry so I'm going to go look for food. I'm not bringing you anything back though."
"Why not?" Zakari rolled over and looked up at Leo. "That's the way it works, if you want something you come. Understand?" Leo demanded. Zakari nodded, and stood up from the bed. He walked over to a duffel bag, and grabbed a pair of black sweats. Then he grabbed a Gray T-shirt, and slipped that on as well. He grabbed a pair of black tennis shoes, walked over to the bed and put them on. He started to mess with the laces, then turned to Leo. "How do you do this? Why is it so hard?"
Leo walked to Zakari, and knelt in front of him. Normally he would have made some sort of rude comment, but strangely he felt too tired and hungry to care at that moment." You do it like this. Here, just watch me." As he shifted his weight slightly, Leo carefully tied the laces. Once he stood up, he tossed a gray hoodie to Zakari, then adjusted his own Blue U of A hoodie. He finished fixing his red sweats, and laced his tennis shoes. He turned to Zakari, "Aren't you going to at least going to try to comb your hair a little bit? You literally look like you just got out of bed five minutes ago."
"But I did, is that bad?" Leo shrugged, "no. It just makes you look sloppy. I mean you are just wearing sweats, but at least go comb it out or something." Zakari frowned and rolled his green eyes slightly but turned towards the bathroom anyway. "Don't slick you're hair back," Leo called after him. "You make yourself look like a 40 year old man when you do that. How old are you anyway?"
"Twenty two," came Zakari's reply, " if you don't like the way I comb my hair, how should I do it then? Why does my appearance matter so much to you anyway?" Leo groaned and walked into the bathroom, "just fucking give me the stupid thing." Taking the comb from his fingers, he began to run it through his soft brown curls. As Leo moved the comb through his hair and removed all the knots, the curls became more loose, falling neatly across Zakari's forehead and standing in contrast against his creamy skin. Leo wet his hands, and ran them through the other man's hair one last time. Once he was finished, he gestured for Zakari to look in the mirror. "See? That's all it takes. Now you don't look like you're forty, or like you just got out of bed."
Walking out of the bathroom, Leo grabbed a key card off of the dresser next to the TV and slipped it into the pocket of his hoodie. "Come on Zaki, I think I know of a place that would be crazy enough to stay open in this weather." Zakari trailed after Leo, almost like a lost puppy. He was careful to watch what Leo did, taking note of the button Leo pressed to open the elevator, noted what button needed to be pressed to go to a certain floor—even how far back in the elevator Leo stood. Once they reached the lobby, they walked to Leo's car. Once they were strapped in, Leo started the car and reversed out of the parking lot. "You don't have to use the computer again, do you?" Leo glanced at him for a second, then continued driving. "What computer? Do you mean the GPS?"
A small flicker of amusement glinted in Leo's eyes. "No. Not this time." Zakari relaxed slightly. "Good, I don't like it."
Leo's lips twitched slightly. "Why not? It's helpful." Zakari found, " it scared me, that's why I don't like it."
Leo laughed at the memory. "Well, I like it and that's all that matters." Zakari grimaced but didn't say anything else about the subject. "So where are we going?" Zakari asked. "To get food. Plus, we need to buy you more clothes, shoes: and you still need a phone."
An odd expression crossed Zakari's face at that and he shifted in his seat. "Why are you doing this? I thought you didn't like me."
Leo shrugged as he turned into the parking lot of the mall. "I don't, not yet anyway,just don't piss me off again and you'll be fine." Zakari nodded and the two slid from the car once they had found a parking. Once they were inside, they began to decide where they should go first. Well they did that, they decided to stop at a coffee stand to get drinks. It was while they were waiting to pay for the Green tea and Chai, that Leo realized he was going to have to pay for everything. Like a date? The thought made his heart skip a beat. A muscle in Leo's jaw twitched. No. Not like a date. Leo scolded himself. It's just helping a friend.
Leo had no problem admitting to himself that he was attracted to a person, when he realized that he was attracted to them. He didn't like to label it as any type of sexuality, he simply dated whomever he was attracted to. So far, he'd had two boyfriends and three girlfriends. Unsurprisingly, and to Leo's frustration, most of his partners could not stand his personality. He often came off as blunt or rude, but most of the time, he didn't like to feel that he was not in control.
The vibe that he got from Zakari was weird. He seemed like someone who would listen to Leo, if only because he didn't quite know what he was doing yet. Once Zakari figured out how to live on his own, and Leo gave him everything he needed to do so: what would he do then? The fact was, Zakari only had the clothes that he had been wearing when Leo found him yesterday. He didn't have a phone, money, any sort of keys, and no form of identification whatsoever.
Leo began to wonder what exactly he had been thinking yesterday, when he had agreed to allow this man to stay with him. For all he knew, he could have been some sort of convict or escapee. Leo was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of his name being called by the employee waiting for Leo to pay for and get their teas. He walked to the counter, and handed over the appropriate amount of money to pay for their drinks.
Once he had them, Leo walked back to the table where Zakari sat, and gave him the green tea. "So," Zakari started once Leo had sat down and started blowing on his Chai to help it cool down. "Where should we go first?" Leo stared down at his cup, then looked up at Zakari, taking note of the way his hair looked shiny under the mall's lights, the way his porcelain skin was clear: how his full pink lips seemed to be—"Hey," Zakari leaned across the table slamming his hand down and startling Leo as he did so. "Did you hear me? I said, where should we go first?"
Leo shook his head slightly, then snapped out of his thoughts again. "You still need clothes, so maybe we could start there?" Zakari agreed and the two stood up from the table.
Two hours later, Leo and Zakari walked back to Leo's car Wade down with bags. They each carried at least four bags between them. There were bags from Hot Topic, Verizon and several other stores. Once they put the bags in the car, they decided to go find something to eat. They ended up eating at a restaurant in the mall. When they were done, they spent another half hour in the gift shop looking around. When they left the gift shop, they had several different coffee mugs, T-shirts, and sweaters. They put the last bags into the trunk of Leo's car and before Leo could move to the driver's side Zakari hugged him. He was startled slightly, but eventually hugged him back. "Thank you Leo." Zakari smiled and shifted closer to Leo. "You're welcome Zaki." Leo let Zakari hug him for a minute longer, then pulled away. "Come on, it's freezing. Let's go back, that way I can show you how to work your phone." Zakari nodded in acceptance, and slid into the passenger seat with the box containing his phone in his hands. On the ride back to the hotel, Zakari was quiet. Oddly, Leo found that he did not enjoy it as much as he thought he would.