Leon Orcot (under_arrest) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-08-15 17:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, leon orcot, sharon carter |
Who: Sharon and Leon
When: Soon after Leon comes home from New York (Early August)
Where: Leon’s place
What: Sharon has big news!
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete when posted
Now that Leon was back from his trip to New York, Sharon wanted to swing by and make sure everything was all right. She had to drop off his key, too. So she texted him to make sure he was home and that he wouldn’t mind if she swung by. She wanted to see him in person to explain about his cactus, and to give him a hard copy of the best photo she’d taken of it in full bloom. She’d had it printed and bought a little frame and everything.
Sharon’s mother was watching Viv, so Sharon was free to come over and see Leon. She picked up a pizza on the way, telling herself she wouldn’t stay that long. She just wanted to check in. Give him an update and get one in return. She knocked hard on the front door and called through it. “You home?”
It was good to be home. Honestly, after everything that happened in New York, Leon wasn’t sure if he ever wanted to leave home again. He certainly didn’t want to go back to work. There was something about being complicit in helping the Triad hide a body that made wearing his badge feel like a lie.
The bright side was, he could be on desk duty for the next little while while he stewed about it. He’d told his boss he’d pulled a muscle playing basketball, and that was the excuse he was going to stick with. After all, he didn’t have any excuse for why he wouldn’t see a doctor about a bullet in the chest that didn’t involve being neck deep in a murder. Unfortunately, the pulled muscle excuse wouldn’t hold up if anyone happened to notice the bandage on his chest. Which is why he threw on a shirt when he went to answer the door.
“Hey,” he said, opening the door, hoping he didn’t look nearly as defeated as he felt.
“Hey,” Sharon said. She was smiling more brightly than she should have been, walking pretty much on air, though she still felt the weight of what happened to Gattolotto on her shoulders. She held out the frame that she’d been holding--the picture of the plant she’d taken only moments before its demise. (Hyperbole. It probably took longer than a few moments, but to Sharon the guilt skewed her vision of the events.)
“How was your flight home?” She asked, stepping into the place and not commenting on how haggard he looked. After all, jet lag was a bitch, right?
“Drunk,” Leon stated, neither proud nor ashamed of the fact. “I think Revy and I must’ve drank half the on-flight booze.” He closed the door behind her. His travelling bag was lying in the middle of the living room, though that was hardly different than his usual housekeeping habits, though he hadn’t had the heart to move Gattolotto yet. He’d get to it sooner or later.
He flopped down onto the couch with a groan, and reached for his cigarette pack. “How’ve you been?”
Well, Sharon hadn’t been nesting this time, but she’d still cleaned the place up. The kitchen was pretty much spotless, as it was the only part of his home she felt comfortable completely taking over. Everything else was neat, and she’d vacuumed and dusted. Hopefully it was comfortable for him after his long flight.
“Wow, expensive.” Sharon said, unable to kick how happy she felt. Even though she knew she was supposed to be contrite. She sat down on the sofa next to him. “Hopefully that made time go fast.” She said, crinkling her nose at the cigarettes, but not saying anything.
“Good. Pretty good. Bucky’s going to ask me to marry him.”
Bucky was going to what?! Leon choked on his cigarette, then quickly eased the coughing fit with the bottle of whiskey that had a perpetual home next to his couch. “Sorry, what?” he asked.
Hey, at least Sharon hadn’t cleaned up the bottle of whiskey. She felt a little bad at the coughing and spluttering, and reached over to pat him on the back. Or shoulder. Or whatever she could reach.
“Bucky’s going to ask me to marry him. He practically already did.” She repeated. Saying the words aloud made her freak out just a little. Her heart raced in her chest.
Leon still wasn’t sure he heard right, but he had to have because he just heard the exact same thing twice in a row. She was going to marry Bucky? Steve Rogers’s best friend Bucky? He actually had kind of liked the guy when they met, but now she was going to join the ranks of married couples, who only did things with other couples, and drunk single (single?) Leon would be left in the dust.
This was good news, he forcefully reminded himself. At least, he assumed it was. Sharon seemed happy enough about it. He smiled, and it almost looked genuine. “Really? That’s great! What do you mean by practically?”
“Well, it came along as something like… We’ll have to get married, then, take off your shirt.” Sharon could tell that his smile wasn’t quite all the way. She assumed where that was coming from. She and Leon had been single together. They’d comforted each other through bad dates and whatever else. And now that was going to change. If Sharon and Bucky were getting married it would change things. It would negate their pact to get married when they were forty, right?
Sharon stood from the sofa and wandered into the kitchen. She opened the fridge to dig in there and pull out a beer.
Leon snorted. As far as proposals went, it wasn’t a bad one. “Thanks,” he said, when he saw Sharon going for the beers. He took another drag of his cigarette and leaned back onto the couch to get into a more comfortable position, grunting a little. “You don’t think it’s a little soon?” he asked casually.
Sharon came back in with cold beers in each hand. She’d opened them in the kitchen and tossed the caps into the trash. “I don’t know. How soon is too soon?” She asked, slipping onto the sofa beside him. She held out his beer so he could take it. “I told him when this all started that I was looking for something serious. I wasn’t looking to date and have fun. I want… I want forever.” She gulped from the bottle to shut herself up.
Leon took the beer. “And you see forever with him?”
“I do.” Sharon spoke without hesitation. Then she took a moment to think about it. She saw forever with Bucky. She felt it when he kissed her, and her heart knew it when he held Viv in his arms. They’d become a family over the last six months, without Sharon becoming aware of it. And now…?
Sharon had been wrong before. She thought she’d seen forever with her last boyfriend… but when she found out she was pregnant with Aramis’s baby, he’d left. She couldn’t see Bucky leaving.
Well, there was nothing Leon could really complain about then. Sharon deserved to be happy. Apparently this Bucky guy was good with Viv, and Sharon was obviously happy. Bucky wasn’t a bad guy. And hey, hadn’t Leon always kind of known that he and Sharon wouldn’t hang around forever?
“Well congratulations then,” Leon said, grinning again. “To you and Bucky,” he said, lifting his beer bottle for a toast.
“Thanks.” Sharon couldn’t help the happy grin that crossed her lips. “Thanks, Leon.” She said, and clinked her bottle against his. Then she gulped from it again and set it down. “I told him he couldn’t propose to me like that, that he had to get me a proper ring and go down on one knee. So. Unless he changes his mind… I guess I know it’s coming.”
Leon took a sip from his beer as well. He did actually laugh at that. “Well, I thought it was a good proposal,” he said. “I can’t see him changing his mind though. He seemed to really into you when I was over.”
Sharon blushed a little. “It’s… it’s nice.” She said, almost sheepishly, smiling. “It’s nice to be looked at that way. Nice to feel like that.” This was one of those moments when Sharon felt embarrassingly girly. But who didn’t want to be looked at the way Bucky looked at her? Who didn’t want to feel the love that he showed her?
“I didn’t know if it would ever happen for me.” She confessed, picking up the bottle again. “Y’know, with Viv around, I’m not exactly prized goods.”
Leon smiled softly to himself, thinking of Revy. Maybe they didn’t have forever; he wasn’t even sure where they were at now that they were home. But sometimes when he looked at her, the idea of forever wasn’t horrifying. “I bet it is,” he said. “You’re lucky to have it.”
He snorted loudly, then moved to gently kick her shin. “Oh shut up. Anyone who wants to be with you enough isn’t going to give a fuck about Viv. Besides, Bucky’s not so bad.”
“Thanks.” Sharon said, smiling into her beer. She gulped again from the bottle, then snorted a little as she lowered it into her lap. She started to fiddle with the label, peeling it back with her thumbnail. “Bucky’s amazing. And it’s lucky we found one another. Not every guy wants to be with a woman who’s caring for an infant, Leon. I mean… you wouldn’t. Would you?”
“Not any time soon,” Leon scoffed. “I mean, not until I’m ready to settle down to have a family. That’s still a long ways away though.” If it ever happened. Leon was starting to wonder if the white picket fence and 2.5 kids thing was really what he wanted after all.
“See what I mean?” Sharon said. Leon was typical. At least, that’d been her experience. She wanted something forever and something real--at least, that was what she told herself. She didn’t want to be the kind of mom who paraded countless boyfriends in front of her daughter, searching for the one. That wasn’t fair to anyone. She wanted someone all-in, or not at all. And then Bucky came along, and he seemed to want what she did. Sharon was head over heels for him, seemingly right away.
“You’ve got plenty of time to make up your mind about all that stuff. I don’t. I needed someone who’s ready to make that decision now. They don’t come along every day.”
“I don’t know if I’m the best guy to use as your baseline,” Leon muttered. It felt like he was moving further away from typical with every passing day. He hadn’t thought he was so different than the average red-blooded American man a year ago, but now, well, everything was muddled.
“I guess not,” he said, shrugging. “I just don’t want you rushing into this ‘cause you think he’s your last shot or something though, you know?”
“What?” Sharon frowned, turning to look at him. It didn’t feel like rushing to Sharon. It’d been… eight months? Wasn’t that long enough? Of course, she would never consider her an expert in these things, but... What if he was right?
Leon pinched the bridge of his nose, frowning to himself. “Sorry Sharon, ignore me. I don’t mean to be all negative nancy about this. This is great news, and you guys seem good for each other. I’ve just had a long week is all.”
“No, it’s… it’s my fault. I should have asked how you were, how New York was. I didn’t mean to make this all about me.” Sharon frowned, too, setting her beer down. “You’ve had a long trip, and I’m sure you just want to rest, so… Should I let you get back to it? Or, I can make you something to eat if you’re hungry.”
“It’s fine,” Leon said. “I’m happy for you, really I am.” The part of him that wasn’t sure that Sharon would be spending all her time from now on with her fiance and his friends was genuinely happy that she’d managed to find someone she was happy with. That voice was just quieted right now by everything else that was going on. “If I got almost engaged, I’m sure I’d want to talk about it too.”
Food though. He really hadn’t eaten yet that day, and while he wasn’t that hungry he knew he probably should be. “Food would be okay, if you want to cook.”
“I’ll cook.” Sharon broke into a relieved smile. Though, she knew she was going to have to prove this to him. He wasn’t going to lose her because of Bucky. And … well, that Bucky was perfect for her. She wasn’t settling on him because she was worried she wouldn’t get anyone better. Bucky was the best.
She stood from the sofa and headed into the kitchen to dig around and make him something easy. Pasta and jarred sauce. She even had some cheese in the fridge. Yummo.
Leon watched Sharon prepare the food and finished his cigarette, butting it out in the ashtray that wasn’t nearly as full as when he’d left for New York. “You guys planning on living with one another?” he asked.
“Well, yeah...” Sharon replied, putting water on to boil. She grabbed a jar of sauce, and tried opening it, but her hands weren’t strong enough. She just kept trying, though, even as they talked. “I mean, isn’t that what married people do? Move into the same place? It’d be weird not to. Right?”
Frustration sank in, and she brought the jar out to Leon to open.
“Yeah, it really would be,” Leon agreed. The idea of marrying anyone without first living with them seemed a little weird to him, all things said and done. He took the jar without thinking, grabbed the lid firmly, and went to twist the top off, but winced instead. He decided to try with much less force, just using his forearm muscles instead of adding his pecs to help, and frowned a little at the jar.
“I think I got a pair of rubber gloves under the sink if you wanted to grab those for me,” he said.
“Okay.” Sharon moved back into the kitchen to grab rubber gloves from under the sink. She also grabbed a teaspoon from his silverware drawer, and came back out with both. She could wedge the spoon under the lid a little to try and relieve the pressure. That would make it easier to open, right?
She held out the rubber gloves to him, frowning. Had he just winced at opening a jar?
Leon took the glove and gave the jar another try, again tentatively, not putting his whole strength into it. After a moment and a couple of readjusted grips, he managed to get it open with a pop, not bothering with the spoon. He’d be damned if he was going to resort to some stupid spoon to open his jars.
“Why the fuck do those assholes need to screw those on so tight?” he grumbled, handing the jar back to Sharon.
She took the jar back, and the gloves, and moved back into the kitchen, frowning. “That’s why they call it an airtight seal.” She called back to him. She poured them each a tall glass of water and had hers half finished by the time she delivered his. “Are you okay?”
Leon frowned, mulling over his answer for a couple of moments before he finally answered. “Yeah,” he said after a moment. “I just pulled a muscle when I was in New York. Playing basketball. It’ll be fine in a week or two. In the meantime it’s a fucking pain in the ass.”
“Oh. Okay.” Sharon sipped again from her glass of water, watching him carefully, scrutinizing him over the rim of the glass. “Bummer about that. Did you get to see Chris?” She asked.
Leon grimaced to himself. “No, we didn’t get the chance in the end. It was kind of a hectic trip.” They had some free time after Leon had been shot, but he hadn’t wanted to see Chris he’d helped cover up a murder, and most of the rest of the trip had been spent in their hotel room or getting drunk. “Don’t mention I was there if you guys chat though.”
“That’s a shame.” Sharon finished her water and headed back into the kitchen. “I won’t say anything. I’m sure he’d be disappointed if he knew you were out there and didn’t have the chance to see him.” In the kitchen she tossed the pasta into the boiling water, chewing over the conversation. It really was a shame that Leon hadn’t been to see Chris. And she felt guilty that she’d spent so much time talking about Bucky and not asking him about his trip. “I was thinking… my dad used to subscribe to this meat delivery service thing,” she called to him from her spot at the stove. “I’m thinking about signing up. Would you be interested? Steaks? My place? Once a month or so?”
“Kid’d be crushed,” Leon affirmed. He still felt a little guilty that he hadn’t had the chance to see him. They should have paid him a visit before they’d gone to Revy’s father’s place. He glanced up at Sharon, a little surprised by her offer, though he couldn’t stop from smiling. He rubbed the bottom of his nose with his index finger. “You know I can’t say no to a good steak,” he said. His smile faded a little. “But I wouldn’t want to intrude, you know. If you and Bucky wanted to hang out with Peggy and Steve insead.” There. Toootaally casual.
Sharon’s suspicions were confirmed. Things were bound to change--that was inevitable--but she would never give up Leon. Not for a million bucks. “I wasn’t really planning on inviting Bucky, Peggy, or Steve,” she shrugged her shoulders. “Just you and me. And maybe my mom every once in a while, since I’m sure she’d like to share in the tradition.”
Leon smiled in earnest then, the haunted, tired look in his eyes nearly completely disappearing with it. “Deal,” he said, grinning at her. “Just make sure they’re bloody.”