O'Brien returned Leah's smile and actually had to fight to keep his eyes open, what with her fingers running through his hair like that. He probably looked somewhere between a person with something in their eye, or possibly drunk. Maybe drunk. "W--yes?" Rodeo maybe had grey hairs. Yes. That would have made him happy. He shook his head with a bit of an overdramatic frown, "No. No, it doesn't bother me. He bothered me when he started taking bets on it." She shouldn't stop that. Ever. The thing with the fingers and in the hair. And what were they talking about?
His brows arched upward, and he nodded, "fair enough. But I think.. maybe-- eventually you'll trust me enough to admit stuff like that to me. All it takes is a bit of annoying, right?" He teased, of course. "I'm good at that."
He bit at the inside of his cheek, considering her words, "Hm." He shrugged a bit, "I guess. I mean.. Yeah. You'--" He let her turn his face toward hers, and allowed his eyes to fall shut when she pressed her lips against his forehead, "-re probably right." He smiled, letting his eyes find hers once she pulled back again. "Me too. Thank you," he nodded, "I'll figure something out. People look up to their uncles every day, right? I mean.. I can do this." He gave another nod. He still felt like he wouldn't ever be a very good 'father figure'. That was beside the point, though.
"Well, yeah. But you planned it. You went up there to kiss me," his smile spread more into an amused grin. "Or asked me up there so you could kiss me." He liked that. He shrugged, "So maybe I did. You liked it. Don't even try to deny it." He shook his head, looking down, "you could have-- but you waited, and then stopped. At least you let me get to first base," he smiled back up at her. "Wasn't a complete strike out."
He dropped his gaze again, just in time to miss her smile fade; His own softened and he nodded, "apart from wanting to tear off your clothing, yeah," He looked back up at her with an amused smirk. He didn't care if she wasn't very good at serious romantic conversations. He wasn't the greatest at them or anything. He was just fairly decent at explaining how he felt. In any situation. He was glad that Leah might've felt something too. But he wasn't going to say anything else about that. Not tonight. He was content enough to be sitting here, holding Leah, and letting her do that thing with his hair, and the occasional kiss to his forehead, yeah. He could do this all night long.
His smile spread again when she snorted. "Well you did. You hated the intranet, and I was pissed off at you for hating it and the only thing keeping me sane in quarantine."
He shook his head, "I didn't. I mean, I wouldn't have thought to use the roofs. I didn't. And.. there was a time or two, I felt like I might. And I wouldn't've blamed you. It would have been my own damn fault. But i'm glad you were there."
He shrugged, making a face, "I can't help it. But I do feel a lot better when I've got my good pillow," he tightened his arms around her in another hug. "And what's that supposed to mean?" he chuckled softly, "I'm not that great at talking about my feelings. Don't be ridiculous." He leaned in to brush his lips against her cheek, "Me too." Leah made him happy. He couldn't deny that.
"You're sure...?" His brows pushed together with focus, "I can text Luke and Alana.. let them know. If you need me. Or, you know, want to pretend and act like you don't, when you actually do. I can wait here, with you, for a bit?"