Care For Me ✔️

E I G H T Y - O N E

t h i r d — p e r s o n — p o v

Leo stood frozen he didn't know how to respond to Zac, what could he say? Sorry Zac I went out and slept with the boy all my brothers seem to hate, but if it makes you feel any better, I didn't want to. Leo didn't think that would go down to well.

"Is there cake?" Leo blurted, trying his best to calm the tremors in his hands.

"Leo, where the hell did you get that mark on your neck?" Grey asked, his voice calm, though Leo could see the rage in his eyes.

"Has our little Leo got himself a girlfriend?" Matteo grinned, patting Leo's shoulder as though he were congratulating the boy.

"Yeah, sneaking off to see a girl." Damon chuckled, "I'm proud of you fratello."

Leo's breath caught in his throat at that, Damon was proud? It was working, maybe Marco was right.

Leo smiled at Damon's words, the action not going unnoticed by anyone in the room. All of the brothers shared a look, it had been a long time since any of them had seen such a genuine smile on the young boys face.

"Leo," Zac began, trying to remove the anger from his voice. He didn't want Leo's smile to fade. As much as he didn't condone such behaviour so young, he couldn't help but feel a small spread of warmth as he took in his brothers innocent grin. It was only a hickey, that didn't mean things had escalated, Zac was sure Leo didn't even know what intimacy was.

If only he'd known the way Leo had gotten that hickey was anything but innocent. If only he'd known his brother knew exactly what intimacy was...

"Who is this girl? Why did you run off, you could've invited her here."

Leo frowned slightly at the word girl. The action, once again, didn't go unnoticed by a few of his brothers, though none chose to comment. Marco was not a girl... was Leo gay? He didn't like Marco in a romantic way, but he did kiss him back... does that make him gay? Maybe bi? Leo doesn't care for labels, to him, gender didn't matter. Leo had always known he wasn't fully straight, he did have a crush on Emilio when he was younger... but he couldn't recall ever having a crush on anyone else.

Gay, straight, Bi, pan... Leo simply didn't care, he was just Leo. Whom he was attracted to didn't matter to him.

"Leave him alone Zac," Damon huffed, "my baby brother is all grown up!" He squealed.

"Damon, shut up." Elijah scowled at his cousin.

"I just want to know where he's been," Zac told Damon.

"You didn't even know he was gone until like half an hour ago! Let him be happy!" came Damon's response. His words cutting Leo like a knife, causing his smile to fade almost immediately.

"You didn't know I was gone?" Leo mumbled, his voice void of all emotion.

"No Le, I.. I did, it's just I was with Lily and Rafe..." Zac stammered over his words, his heart crumbling as he took in the emptiness in Leo's gaze.

Fake it, Leo smiled, "it's okay." It's not, "I didn't think any of you would notice anyway." He shrugged.

All the boys sucked in a breath at that.