Entry tags:

bedrooms and hallways, brendan/leo, yuletide

FIC: In Every Sense (Brendan/Leo, R)
Title: In Every Sense
Author: Tarie
Fandom: Bedrooms and Hallways
Summary: In which Darren cries hetty, Sally lets the wine flow freely, Leo is turned on, and Brendan is (predictably) sexy as hell.
Pairing: Brendan and Leo
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Bedrooms and Hallways universe and characters are property of Robert Farrar. I make no money from this.
Author Notes: Written for sarren for 2008 Yuletide. Thanks so much to my beta!


"And where do you think you're going, hetty?" Darren demanded the moment he sashayed into the kitchen, all bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and, Leo presumed, freshly blown by Jeremy the Sex Maniac. Yes, that deserved uppercase, it certainly did. Honestly, he really was going to need another estate agent, post haste.

"I," Leo announced, deftly plucking browned bread out of the toaster, "am going round to Sally's."

Darren made a noise that could only be described as A Screech to End All Others.

"Please form words that human ears can hear, will you?" Rolling his eyes, Leo began to spread a bit of butter on his toast, the day's plans rattling about in his head.

"You're a bloody traitor to the hom-o-seshual race!" Darren announced once he had regained the power of speech, clutching at his chest dramatically.

"Really, Darren, you're acting as though I've offended your delicate senses."

"You have! I knew you shouldn't have gone to that daft men's group with all those…those…" After sputtering for a few moments, Darren's mouth twisted sourly. "…those straighties. Well, I'm on to you, Leo – and I'll be watching. The moment you try to infiltrate my closet with flannel and Doc Martens is the moment I queer out on you."

Leo laughed because he had no idea what else to do. "'Queer out'?" he asked, munching on a bit of toast. "You make it sound like an intervention or something."

"No," Darren said with a slight huff, pulling his tiger-striped beret slightly to the left, "it's not. You're too far gone for that."

"I suppose I'm too far gone for a lot of things," Leo said thoughtfully, tossing the remains of brekkie into the rubbish bin and hoisting a rucksack over his shoulder. "Tell Ang I won't be home for porno night."

As Leo walked to the door, swinging his keys, Darren watched with glittering, narrowed eyes. "Right. I'll tell her you're too busy investigating natty carpets!"

Hand on the doorjamb, Leo gave Darren a pointed look. "Oh, do go have some sex in a stranger's house, won't you? It'll cheer you up."

Darren's mouth froze mid-retort as he thought that one over. Then his lips curved almost lecherously. "Yes, I do believe it will."

**********

It wasn't as though he was with Sally, Leo reasoned as he took the Tube to her flat. Just because a bloke took up spending time with the woman who had been his teen sweetheart didn't mean a thing. Right?

While Leo had become maybe attracted to her once again, there was still all that Brendan business and how Leo actually wasn't quite over him. Then add in the bit where Leo was gay and you had a pear-shaped situation.

Leo preferred not to think on it too much; it made his brain hurt. Besides, what was the harm in spending an evening alone with Sally in her flat? It wasn't as though Brendan lived there anymore, now was it? He'd buggered off to Thailand a month ago, which Leo hadn't even known until Keith brought it up at the men's group. In light of Leo's surprise, Keith then went on about how the male ego occasionally needed to feel bruised and neglected from time to time. Leo didn't entirely agree, though he kept that opinion to himself. At any rate, even Sally had been somewhat surprised when Leo had told her of Brendan's whereabouts. He'd apparently told her his da needed him in Dublin for some family emergency or another.

"'lo," Leo said with a small smile as Sally opened the door. "I've come to ravish you."

"Ooooh," Sally laughed, giving Leo a peck on the cheek as she ushered him inside, "you're a dirty tart, you are."

"Right I am." Grinning now, he let the rucksack fall to the floor, shrugged out of his coat and flung it on the back of the settee. "So, what's the plan, then?"

"Glad you asked." Waggling her brows, Sally settled down on the settee, tucking her stockinged feet beneath her. "A bit of telly, a bit of nibbles, and a whole lot of wine. What do you think?"

"Hmmmm." Adopting a serious expression, Leo sank onto the cushion beside her and feigned mulling things over. "Telly, yes. Nibbles, right-o. But wine? What do you take me for, some sort of knackered layabout?"

"That's precisely what I take you for," Sally said solemnly, bumping Leo's shoulder with her own.

"Well, then, I wouldn't want to disappoint. Bring on the wine, wench!"

That earned Leo a well-aimed pillow, which he then clutched to his chest as he watched Sally bustle about to the kitchen.

"Leo," she called, "could you—"

Just then came a knock at the door.

"I'll get it," Leo said, crossing to said door as Sally reemerged from the kitchen with two glasses of wine.

"Hul—"

The greeting died on Leo's lips as he saw just who was at Sally's door.

"Brendan!" Sally exclaimed, momentarily rooted to her spot.

"Sorry," Brendan said haltingly, looking from Leo to Sally and back again. "I've come at a bad time."

"No," Leo said quickly. Too quickly. "No, you've not. Has he, Sally?"

"No," Sally said, moving to where both men stood, pressing a wine glass into each of their hands. "No, you've not. Why don't you come in, Brendan?"

"Yes, all right."

Leo stepped back, giving Brendan space. This had once been his flat; he'd shared it with Sally for some seven years. Suddenly, Leo felt as though he were intruding. Awkwardly, he shuffled his feet and attempted to pawn off his glass of wine on Sally. "I…ought to be off. Ang and Darren are expecting me and—"

"Please stay, Leo." Brendan's voice was so low and imploring that Leo was powerless to resist.

"Yes, stay," Sally seconded.

"Well…" He held up a hand almost placatingly. "If you insist."

Sally and Brendan shared a look. "We insist."

"Right, then." One Leo reclaimed his seat on the settee, Sally gave him the glass again.

A beat, and then she and Brendan sat on either side of Leo.

An uncomfortable silence began to permeate the room.

Clearing his throat, Leo took a small sip of wine. And then a rather large one.

Brendan followed suit.

Sally sighed a world-weary sigh.

The silence remained.

"Soooooo." Sally bounced up and down on the cushion a bit, then reached across Leo to flick Brendan's ear. "Are we to hear about Thailand or must we guess what you did on your travels? Proposition underage boys, perhaps? Snort a bowlful of cocaine? Snort a bowl of cocaine off an underage boy?"

"It wasn't so much as all that," Brendan demurred, taking a long pull of the rest of his wine.

"Then what was it, eh?" Leo asked, unable to help himself from doing so.

"I went there to…."

"Yes?" Sally prompted, nearly shouting over her shoulder as she ran to the kitchen. Before Brendan could reply, she had skidded out of the kitchen entryway, glass in one hand and the bottle of wine in the other. "Well? Don't keep us waiting, Brendan. It's only fair you share now, since you were quite the shit and lied to us about where you were going."

"Does it really matter why I went?"

Brendan looked so strangely forlorn that Leo wanted to hug him and shag him all at once.

Topping off both Leo and Brendan's glass, Sally gave her ex a long, exasperated look. "I suppose it doesn't, as long as you're here and you're well."

"I am," Brendan said, taking a healthy sip, "and I am."

Right. This wasn't awkward at all.

Only it very much was.

"I'll go pick up some takeaway," Leo announced suddenly. He rose so quickly to his feet that wine began to slosh over the sides of his glass. "Chinese, anyone?"

"Leo." Sally's fingers tugged at the sleeve of his shirt. "If you'd really like something, I'll pick it up for you."

He frowned and Brendan stood as well. "Or I could go."

"No," Sally said firmly, pushing herself off the settee. "You two stay. Get caught up a bit, yeah? I'll pop down the street; it won't be long. Then we'll drink our wine, watch our telly, and have an exceedingly exciting evening being staunchly British while Brendan finally comes round to regale us with tales of his Great Thailand Adventures."

Before either of them could truly put up a fuss, Sally pressed a kiss to each of their cheeks and was out the door.

Smiling wanly, Leo took his seat again. He fiddled with the stem of the glass. "So."

Brendan cleared his throat. "So."

"How was Thailand?"

"I don't want to talk about Thailand, Leo."

Springs in the settee's support groaned a little as Brendan scooted closer.

"Wh-what do you want to talk about, then?" Leo concentrated very hard on the rim of his glass, watching how the light played off it.

"I'd like to talk about us." A hand cupped Leo's chin, turning his face toward Brendan's. "Leo."

"What us?" Leo asked, inwardly cursing his groin for tightening at the way Brendan had said his name.

"I know things are—"

"A bleeding mess?" Leo suggested.

Brendan's hand dropped to his lap. "Yes, that. I won't pretend that things are normal, nor that they've ever been, between us."

"Right," Leo said thoughtfully, depositing his glass on Sally's sidetable. "There was that whole bit about you being straight and dating Sally and then me being gay and seeing Sally and then--"

"And then I fucked off to Thailand after your birthday," Brendan finished ruefully. "I was a bit of a prick, wasn't I?"

Holding up his thumb and index finger, Leo demonstrated. "Just a bit."

One corner of Brendan's mouth quirked. "I deserve that. I've been thinking, Leo. I've been doing a lot of thinking while I've been gone."

"What about?"

"About what I said to you, about relationships and commitment."

"Oh, right." Leo nodded, remembering the conversation they'd had late one night in his bed. "You're not looking for anything serious, which likely, maybe, unless I'm being immodest, is why you flitted off to Thailand with not so much as a 'Bob's your uncle.'"

"Leo," Brendan said quietly, closing the distance between them even more. "I've a confession to make."

Leo could scarcely breathe; he was so close. "You're here to move back in with Sally?"

"What?" Brendan blanched, pulling back the minutest of degrees. "No, no, no. I came to pick up the last of my things. But that's not my confession."

"But I'm not a priest. Sodomite, remember?"

Brendan chuckled. "Oh, yes, I remember."

Heat rose to Leo's cheeks. He remembered, too. Quite well, in fact. "What is it, then?"

"I was an ass. I miss you."

A smile began to spread on Leo's face. "What was that? Can you—repeat that, please?" He tapped an ear. "I didn't quite hear…"

"I miss you," Brendan repeated, reaching across Leo to set his glass down as well. "In every sense of the word."

"Ooooh." Nearly beside himself, Leo squirmed in his seat and waggled his brows. "Including the naughty sense?"

"I said 'every sense', didn't I?"

"Yes, yes, you did."

"Then there," Brendan breathed, brushing his lips gently across Leo's, "is your answer."

"Good fucking answer," Leo murmured, and then proceeded to crush his mouth to Brendan's.

It had been ages since the two of them had snogged. Leo hadn't realised how much he'd missed it until this very moment. The scruff of Brendan's stubble scratched about his cheek but Leo didn't care; he was too caught up in the way Brendan's teeth scraped over his tongue to think about much of anything. Then there were the sounds Brendan made, all gruff and keening at once. It was enough to turn a bloke into a steaming puddle of goo!

Somehow, someway, Leo did not turn into a steaming puddle of good. Rather, he managed to shove a hand down the front of Brendan's trousers, palming the hardness just beneath thin cotton pants. He could feel Brendan's cock twitch in response, something that elicited a low moan from Leo himself.

"God, that's good," Brendan gasped, wrenching his mouth apart from Leo's to suck in a deep breath.

"Oh, there's more where that comes from," Leo promised. Feeling rather impish, he dug the heel of his palm against Brendan's cock.

"Christ!" Brendan hissed, hips arching to push himself more fully against Leo's hand.

"So," Leo said conversationally, withdrawing his hand. "Would you like me to continue?"

"Yes, please!"

"What was that? Maybe?"

"Yes, please!"

"Hmmmm." Tilting his head to one side, Leo beamed down at Brendan, who was half-sprawled out on the settee cushions. "Perhaps we ought to continue this elsewhere? I don't think Sally would appreciate walking in on the two of us having a shag."

"There's a guest room. Upstairs," Brendan nearly choked, reaching to pull Leo's hand to his groin again.

"Maybe Darren was wrong. I've got the sex maniac, not him," Leo said, stalling simply because he could.

Clearly growing tired of waiting, Brendan propped himself up and tweaked one of Leo's nipples through the fabric of his shirt. Eyes nearly rolling to the back of his head, Leo grabbed hold of Brendan's hand and pulled him off the settee. "Lead the way, ass."

Leo had never run up a set of stairs so quickly in his life. However, it had been worth it.

Feeling Brendan hot around his cock, watching the muscles twitch in Brendan's face with each and every thrust, hearing the sounds of skin slapping against skin along with the grunts and cries they both made…there wasn't anything else in the world that could top it.

Then again, perhaps he and Brendan would have fun trying to make it even better than it already was.

What's more, Leo figured, they had a lot of lost time to make up for.

After sharing Chinese takeaway with Sally, of course.