Leon MacArthur (unquiet_truth) wrote in darker_london, @ 2020-02-16 00:14:00 |
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Entry tags: | carly malec, joss macarthur, leon macarthur |
Explosive cyclogenesis (Leon, Joss, Carly)
Leon's mulled wine was coming along beautifully. He'd been working on this new recipe all winter and wasn't too modest to admit that tonight's batch might just be his greatest yet. Half moons of orange floated in a sea of star anise. He was tempted, briefly, to add to the space vibe with a little glitter; he was sure there was some food grade gold flakes left over from their midwinter celebrations.
Leon busied himself with his dinner preparations and next time he turned around, Joss was looking into the cauldron of wine (the cauldron itself a gift from Serenity's mums). "Divining anything good?" Leon asked, and Joss looked up and gave him a half shrug, but a half smile, too. This had been a pretty good winter for Joss; he was still a moody bastard some of the time, but he grinned a whole lot easier.
"Divining that Hope's gonna stay for dinner," Joss said. Hope was the best part of his winter, hands down. Or up. Or anywhere she wanted to put them. "She just sent me down to get a snack." He took two large snifters from the cupboard and filled them both with the mulled wine.
"There's fruit in that, but I'm not sure it counts as a snack," Leon said, amused. Joss grinned at him and tasted the wine, giving Leon a nod of approval. "You want to take something more substantial up as well? Dinner's a roast and it's going to be a while away yet."
Leon wasn't even sure those two were going to make it down for dinner, so he was pleased when Joss put the glasses down to make up a plate of homemade bread (herby and cheesy) and hummus and celery sticks. "Did you remember that I've invited Carly as well?" Leon asked, and couldn't read the expression that crossed Joss's face.
Yeah, Joss had remembered. And he hadn't invited Hope back to their house with the explicit intention of making sure that nothing would get weird between him and Carly if they ended up alone together, but it wouldn't be a push to say that his subconscious had a very large part in it. But he'd convinced himself that he probably would have asked Hope over even if Carly hadn't been coming anyway, and was able to use this to pretend that all of his behaviour was totally normal.
Besides, he adored Hope. Hope was perfect. Hope was pure happiness in the form of a really gorgeous woman. Hope was a goddess. He never wanted to do anything to screw things up with Hope and he was a little convinced and a lot scared that one day he was going to.
And being alone with Carly in this big, ridiculous house while twin bomb cyclones merged in the Atlantic and sent wild, dramatic weather their way sounded like a recipe for disaster.
"Uh huh," he said, to Leon. Leon was giving him a long look and Joss looked up and out the nearest window, taking another thoughtful sip of wine so he didn't have to meet Leon's eye. The tree outside the window lashed its branches against the old glass, the wind whipping it up into a frenzy. "It's looking wild out there already," Leon commented. "I'm glad you're not out there on your bike. The forecast said the winds could get up to 50 miles an hour tonight."
"Yeah, I think I'll stay in bed with Hope all evening," Joss said. "Hard choice though."
"You're very wise," Leon said, and Joss graced him with a laugh.
"Yeah right," he said, setting the plate he'd made on top of the two glasses and picking them up by their stems. "I'ma keep being wise and not keep her waiting. Thanks for the wine," he said, with a nod.
"Dinner's about six thirty," Leon told him before he left, then went through to check on Serenity, who'd fallen asleep as he was making the bread, and was having what looked like a pretty serious nap. He smiled warmly at her, watching her sleep for a moment, feeling content and very, very lucky.