Terms and Conditions (valdangelo)

Resolution

So, we've gotten here, let's try this one last time.

Is this ok?

Nico wouldn't know what reaction exactly he had expected Leo to make, but it most definitely fell short to the way the mechanic's face shifted as his eyes lit up just so that Nico could tell he was already piecing the mechanism in his head.

Leo smiles like the pause between setting up a prank and its execution, uncontrollable and electric with anticipation, like trouble; and Nico kind of really wanted to kiss that smile, which was, an entire concept, because he's slowly realizing it's not the first time he's had that thought.

Nico's been doing some remembering, for the sake of making sense of the amount of emotion that rises in him now, whenever he's close to Leo. He remembers back in school everyone said Leo looked impish, Nico half-disagreed, sure he was on the short side, and trouble followed where he went, but he only thought Leo to be fae-like; like, put a pair of wings on him, and clean his face, you get yourself something out of a folk book.

Point is, Nico has thought Leo pretty practically since day one, but it takes nearly 20 years and one single snow fight for that to register; which is, an entire thought process. Because it makes a thousand and one 'what-ifs' pop out in his head; but then, it's probably for the best that it's taken this long.

It's not a new feeling though, he's always cared about Leo to some extent, but the sheer strength of it now lingers in that fine line between wonderful and dangerous; and if Nico's honest with himself, something he has not felt since the Percy ordeal.

Nico sort of hated thinking about that time period, or talking about it for that matter, but he recognizes the intensity of his feelings, and he's... surprisingly ok with it, with feeling so much, if only because it's Leo. Leo who never pushes him, who got into the habit of asking softly if Nico wanted silence, and upon hearing a no would ramble about nothing for hours until he felt human enough to answer, or who would resume his work quietly and carefully until Nico's ears stopped ringing and words left his mouth.

So maybe his heart staggers and beats slightly faster when Leo asks him to go to the lake, and maybe there's color in his face that has nothing to do with the room's temperature, and maybe he stutters his way through an affirmative; he feels strangely happy, strangely accomplished, and strangely hopeful.

.. / .... --- .--. . / -.-- --- ..- / .-.. .. -.- . -.. / - .... .- -

Leo may or may not be reeling, his brain hasn't really decided yet, which is an entire experience; and he's not sure if the familiarity of it is good. The last thing this happened was with her, and Leo had been trying to make sense of that since first realizing for just how long he's liked Nico.

Leo thinks he loved her, or at least felt something akin to what others describe as love; a description that would make Pipper proud where she to hear him. But then it felt of, like a cold feeling in the low of his back that overtook his whole body, he tried to ignore it, ignore how his feelings seemed to just fade, but then there was the fight.

Blaming Nico for his last breakup would be stupid, it wasn't his fault that Leo decided to spend countless hours in the shop, he just happened to choose that same place as his safe heaven, and it wasn't his fault that Leo had a loose tongue and ended up talking about their little meetings of sorts. Maybe Leo was bad at being subtle, maybe she had noticed from the start and panicked when he started talking a little too fondly of someone else, maybe she had been right to accuse him of choosing Nico over her; because in a way he had.

Leo didn't know why he stopped loving Calypso, couldn't pin point anything to be the cause, and that was scary, because what did it say about him? And he's terrified that it'll happen again with Nico, but he's still doing this, because it feels like he'll implode if he doesn't.

Maybe it'll be different, because now that he's accepted his feelings, he can't remember a time where he hadn't been... focused on Nico. He doesn't know, and he should be scared, and he is, but he's also burning with a sort of resolve that won't break.

There's no green in the lake, overtaken by the whites and grey-ish blues of winter, the water frozen still, and their breaths coming in clouds; yet he feels impossibly hot. Brown meets onyx, and for that instant, the world slows down to a kinder pacing.

-.-. --- ..- .-.. -.. -. .----. - / -.-. .... .- -. --. . / .. -

"I need to say a lot, so uhm... if you could just-"

He makes a gesture with his hand, Nico nods but his hands tremble they're hidden in his pockets.

"I don't know how to start, or how you'll take this, or even if I can declare something when the last time fell the way it did, and really-"

Leo starts actually moving as he speaks, under Nico's confused and worried gaze.

"It sucks, because I've been holding it for so long, just ignored it, like an absolute fool, and I don't even have a good excuse, or even a bad excuse; there's literally no excuse!"

It feels as though the world comes into focus with each word, like untangling a particularly tight knot, and then.

"I'm not making sense, am I?"

Nico smiles, because in a weird way he is, but at the same time...

"Not really no"

Leo chuckles.

"Figures, I had a plan too, you know, but no; I had to go for the long winded rant instead of just telling you what I really meant, or at least complimenting you, or..."

He doesn't stop, spilling all that had built inside him like a broken dam; and Nico's expression shifts as he does, until he's breaching the space between them and Leo stops and breaks.

"I just want it to be real, I want us to be real, I-"

Nico cups Leo's face in his hands, causing the brunet's breath to hitch.

"Wha-"

Nico brushes his thumb across Leo's cheek.

"I really want to kiss you"

Leo blushes, a small smile forming tentatively on his lips.

"Oh... I'd like that"

Nico laughs and Leo preens at the sound, and then the little distance still between them disappears. And the world goes back to normal speed, while their hearts seem to beat in tandem.

- ... . / . -. -..