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Leo is actually super jazzed to have Jason as a boyfriend
They nixed going slow about a month in. There was no way they could keep it up with how they were texting constantly and seeing each other every chance they could get. And after Leo spent the night and that sweet first kiss things started to snowball into physical intimacy fast. Not so much crazy amounts of sex or anything, Jason shyly opening up over time about being on the ace spectrum. His boyfriend is physical with him in other ways, Leo has never had his hand held so much, the cuddling is next level
They have only been official for a little over a year, and Jason has met the moms and everyone who works at the shop and lives at home by now, stopping by to bring Leo drinkie treats or to pick him up after work. Leo doesn't mind the teasing and cat calls they get when Festus is doing his figure eights through his man's legs as Jason looks at him with those pretty blue eyes and his soft smile, like Leo covered in car grime is the best thing he's seen all day
Waystation Auto and Body Shop is on one of the main thoroughfares and their three-story craftsman is on the residential street directly behind it. The moms took down the fence between the back yards, and the kids have free run from the Shop’s office to the big treehouse to the back porch all day and night. Jo has the best commute in town because of it, just trotting down the long stone driveway every morning, coffee in hand.
Emmi used to run most of the back end and the office, but that was before Georgina started to take over. She is the first kid the Brito-Martis’s have ever legally adopted, and the only one they have had from infancy, focusing mostly on teens and older grade schoolers. That's how the moms ended up with Leo after he was shuffled from the girls' reform school where he met Piper to a distant uncle in town that didn’t really want him but was hopeful about the government money and gave him back to the system two weeks after he arrived.
Probably the best thing that dumb old drunk ever did was put Leo in the space to be fostered by the Brito-Martis’s; they really are his forever family. Them and the long mess of kids they have fostered. There's something special about the Waystation and the moms; the way they open their home so fully, the way once you stay for a little you have a place there for life, the way they never ever give up on a kid no matter how hard they bite
It's shown best in their winter holiday celebration. Held during the purgatory week between Christmas and New Year's, the Brito-Martis house fills and fills with every kid they ever fostered and any of those kids' families that they want to bring.
Dates on the other hand are a little different; partners don't tend to come unless it’s serious, only coming around when people start to move in together. But things are different this time, Jason is different this time
Also, this year’s celebration is also a little different; this year Deacon and his husband Mark welcomed their son Westly into the world. It's the first Brito-Martis grandkid, so everyone is making sure to make an appearance, some people even coming in from out of state, and Leo really wants Jason to meet everyone
It took Leo so long to find family again after his mom died in that house fire when he was little, and with how his boyfriend is still searching for what family even means, it just makes him want to bring him more. No one does family like his moms; they have already taken one look at those sad blue eyes and absorbed him into the fold.
It's a pet-free celebration, except for the mom's ancient basset hound Abelard who is half-blind and only wakes up for more than five minutes at a time to follow Georgina around so he can lay on her feet and fart a bunch. But Abbs lives there, and also needs to be doted on after their other dog Helios passed last year, so it's whatever. But it doesn’t give Jason the space to bring Snowball who takes about 85% of his anxiety off of him, good thing there is a baby
A baby that somehow his boyfriend is holding before they are all the way through the door. Westly is notoriously fussy, colicky with food and sleep issues, but the second he's in Jason’s arms he's content
“How did you do that?” Mark wheezes, “All he does is cry; neither of us have slept since he was born”
“Baby whisperer,” Leo teases as Jason shrugs, neck turning red and bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet
“Is that Leo!?” Nyssa calls from the livingroom “Pequeño imbécil, get in here!”
Then it's a whirlwind of introduction and greetings; Nyssa Barrera and her girlfriend Drew, Deacon’s brother Stan, Sarah Dracaena with her heavy lisp, Livia Phant back in town from her first semester of college, Hunter Kowalski who half-lives here even after being reunited with her bio mom. Lityerses Midas and Calypso Ogygia who were in the house when Leo lived here. The newest foster kid Jake Mason trying to wrestle their youngest Harley Smith away from the Christmas tree where he's messing with the lights
“Fuera del camino,” Emmi shoos everyone off so she can give them both a hug, “Let me at your boy”
“Mom!” Leo protests, protective of his man and how overwhelming he knows his whole family can be
“Oh shush,” Jo scolds, smiling as she wipes flower off her hands so she can greet them too. “I can see Westly has already christened him”
It's true, the five-month-old has drooled all over Jason’s dressy button-up that Leo told him he didn't need to wear as he tracks everyone bustling around them on a wobbly neck. The approval is apparent
It's then that the oldest of them, Olujime Shango, gets in from his delayed flight, a much-welcomed distraction. There's another round of introductions as Leo is shuffled off to help in the kitchen, Liv and Cal wanting his opinion on the spiced cider they are working on and then getting roped into bringing out a cheese plate. By the time he sees Jason again he's buried under a baby between Lityerses and Calypso on the couch, Abelard snoring under the coffee table and Lit talking his ear off about some workout thing or another.
Leo starts to panic for a second, but Jason leans in to his brother to share his own story and he realizes they are just being meat heads together (thank god). Leo worms his way into the hubbub and sits at his boyfriend's feet, leaning his back against his legs and asking Jimmy what's new in the Actuary world
Then it's the overlapping chatter of catching up. Livia gushing about her new boyfriend back at school, praising the dress designs Cally’s boss approved and are going to be in the spring line at the boutique in Chicago, passing around Westly’s photos on Deacon’s phone, sharing stories from the shop with Nyssa and Jo, prodding Hunter for how she's doing with cross country
It's loud and warm and full, just like how the Brito-Martis home has always been. Leo revels in it, all of his foster family in one place, with his boyfriend smack dab in the middle of it. This is what family is supposed to be he thinks, crowded in the living room on top of each other at peace in the chaos
“Leo, help me with the pots!” Georgie whines from the kitchen door “It's your turn with kitchen duty!”
“You gonna be okay?” Leo checks with his boyfriend, worried about abandoning him
“I'm good,” Jason says, honesty in his eyes and a cooing baby on his lap
“Leooo~oo~o!”
“I'm coming!” he presses a quick kiss to Jason's cheek as he stands. “Feel free to come find me if it gets too much, only Harley bites I promise”
“I don't bite,” Harley protests to the chorus of everyone calling bullshit
“Good job not bringing home a dipshit this time,” Georgie compliments as Leo takes his place by her at the sink
“They weren't all dipshits,” Leo mutters as he rolls up his sleeves
“Right right,” Georgie nods along sarcastically, “Sometimes they were bastards, or assholes-”
“Georgie-” Leo groans
“-There have been a few low lifes too”
Leo sighs, “‘Low life’ is a good one,” he admits
“This ones good though,” his sister steams on, scrubbing the last of the cider gunk that's stuck to the bottom of the pot. “I know the moms and I already like him and all, but he fits in”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she grins at the soap suds, “I'm glad you're like, letting yourself be with someone who’s actually nice”
“I like it too,” Leo confesses in a small voice, “He calls me pretty”
Georgie stops scrubbing the pot altogether to turn and gape at him. “But you hate when guys call you ‘pretty,’” she reminds, “You said it makes you feel like a girl”
“Its, diffrent, with him,” Leo chokes out, eyes on the suds
“How so?”
“It's how he says it,” The words tumble out, pebbles gaining steam down a hill until it's an avalanche. “Like it’s punched out of him, like it hurts not to say, like he-”
“Like he loves you?”
“Like he means it when he-” Leo presses on, staring down his reflection in the soap, “He's already said he-”
His sister sighs to the ceiling in remorse, whether it's at his stupidity or her having to deal with it Leo cant tell. “Did you say it back?”
“No. I couldn't, I choked and he said it's okay but-”
“But you do,” Georgie interrupts what is definitely becoming a spiral. “I can tell by how you look at him, you wouldn't have brought him otherwise”
“Hes different," is all Leo can get out, turning to her, “It's different this time, he's different”
“You're impossible,” Georgina groans, going back to the dishes. “Just freaking tell him”
“Its not that easy”
“Yes it is!” Georgie gripes, “Just go and swoon into his arms and be all like ‘Mr.Grace-!”
Leo can feel himself go red. “Shut up!” he snaps
Georgie throws a wet arm over her forehead and pretends to go weak in the knees, gripping the edge of the skin for balance to exaggerate the dip. “‘Oh Mr. Grace, how I think of you when you are not here-!’”
“I will drown you in this sink Georgie don't test me”
“Coward,” his sister scoffs, turning back to the dishes, “It's not like you have to worry about him saying it back or something”
Leo has nothing to say to that, so he splashes her with suds. Emmi pokes her head in from the dining room before it can turn into a proper water fight. All it takes is a quirked gray eyebrow and the two of them are falling in line, then they're snickering at how their mom always knows and elbowing each other good-naturedly
Eventually, Hunter and Sarah come in to trade out, taking the clean cookware to heat up the next dish and needling Leo good-naturedly about “Tall blond and handsome” that he brought to meet the family, he flees before the two of them can get into more theatrics. Drama Club has done wonders for Sarah’s lisp and confidence, but not for the teasing she can dish out when she wants to. She makes Leo regret all of the speech therapy he's helped with as she clearly pronounces her taunts
“What did you do with my man?” Leo demands as he returns to the living room to see no Jason
“It's snowing,” Cal grins like the Cheshire Cat around her mug of spiced cider, “The kids dragged him out for a snowball fight, something about even teams. I think they're in the tree house”
“Please tell me you didn't tar and feather him while I was gone”
“Not this time, you found a good one, I like him”
“I like him too,” Jo says to her, reaching across the armchair where she's bouncing Westly on her knee to squeeze Calypso’s hand, “He's so sweet on him”
“Ma!” Leo complains as he starts tugging back on his coat and boots by the front door
“Oh shush.” Jo waves him off without looking at him, “Did Leo tell you about Jason’s dog?”
“Ma!”
“Wear a hat!” Emmi calls after him as Leo races past for the back door as Jo recounts to the girls about the first time Snowball came to The Waystation and got so loved on by the team she left gray from all the oily scratches. Nyssa then launching into her own story about Jason bringing the shop coffee with Snowball in her backpack.
Leo pulls his beanie from his jacket pocket over his ears as he surveys the backyard. It would have been a big yard before the expansion, but after taking down the fences between the House and the Shop the space is huge. They have a good-sized play structure with a slide and swings, a shed that holds yard equipment and toys, but the real highlight is the treehouse in the massive oak right on the original property line.
The yard is currently set up in a classic Brito-Martis snowball battle arena. It's been snowing off and on for months now, so it's not a surprise that the kids have constructed multiple forts out of snow and ice and scrap wood. Harley has always been quite the little builder, ‘engineering brain’ the moms call it, just like they did with Leo. All of the forts are showing battle damage, the kind only Lit can create when he gets really into it, snowballs splattered from his incredible aim. There's a reason he got that baseball scholarship; it was a godsend helping out him through agricultural college
The lights are on in the tree house, after all these years the place is practically climate-controlled with lines going to and from the house for things like the dinnerbell, electrical cables, and the pulley systems to the third floor where the kids' bedrooms are. There are multiple ways up and down, rope ladders and slides and the zipline to the swings and the spiral stairs wrapped around the trunk from when Sarah joined them and she was still struggling with her walking.
The tree house has part of the shop's original hand-painted sign nailed over the door, ‘Waystation’ in big bold blue letters with a trail of Georgie’s baby footprints smack dab in the middle from when she toddled over the ‘W’ while the paint was wet. It's from before Nyssa got into blowing neon at the hot shop Emmi has been slowly building for the last few decades, but too sentimental to get rid of. The rest of the sign makes up part of the roof, cut up into boards and drawn on by all the kids over the years. Leo runs his hand over his own (frankly sick) paint pen dragon as he steadies himself on the railing, hunching a little to get under a tree branch and knocking on the door
“Password!” comes multiple voices
“Shit,” Leo mutters under his breath, “Uh - uh - McShizzle?”
There's a collection of manic giggling and “Noooo!”s from within. Drat, that was always his go-to as a kid, but Harley seems to change the password every other week.
“Commander Tool Belt?”
“NO!!!” Leo can hear Lit and his boyfriend trying not to laugh inside
“C’mon!” he complains, rapping on the door again, “Y'all change it too much, give me a hint!”
There is some heated whispering going on inside, then they are all shushing each other until Livia pipes up with “It's a dog's name!”
“Abelard?”
“Noooo!!!”
Leo gets an idea, grinning to himself, “Snowball?”
There's a cheer as someone undoes the hook to unlock the little wooden door, then Leo’s ducking into the inside of the treehouse. The place is as cozy as always, string lights crisscrossing the ceiling with toys and tools and art supplies scattered from the shelves to the floor. Everyone is sitting on the rescued couch cushions around the table that's been dragged into the middle of the room for an Uno game. Lit looks to be holding half the deck.
“Deal me in,” Leo demands, squeezing between his boyfriend and Jake on the floor, “House rules?”
It's always house rules, complex stacking and large turns as long as the cards are in numerical order, good thing they play with a triple deck. They get through two games (one of which Jason wins) before the dinner bell rings; hand-made copper cow bells from scrap metal tied to a long wire that leads from the treehouse’s railing to the kitchen window accompanied by Abelard’s big basset borks, a racket that can be heard across the whole backyard
“I like how good Jason plays,” Harley chirps as he goes for the slide, “He should come over more”
“I like him too,” Liv comments softly as she follows Harley down, patting Leo on the shoulder as she passes, dead grass still in her twin hair poofs from the snowball fight. Lit even gives his own approval with a rough ruffle of Leo’s hair before he takes the knotted rope first so he can spot Jake on his own way down, the thirteen-year-old still being monitored after healing from the multiple broken bones that got him taken into the system in the first place
“Hey,” Leo stops his boyfriend on his way towards the stairs, as there is no way he is going to fit in the slide
“Hm?”
“You doing okay?” he checks, still worried about him getting overwhelmed by everyone and dipping like guys have before
“I know you warned me about the shovel talk from Calypso,” Jason tells him through his smile, cheeks rosie from the cold, “But that was genuinely kinda scary”
“Well you're in one piece,” Leo brushes the snow off his man's shoulder as an excuse to touch him, Jason’s hands coming to hold him by the hips, “So I think you're in the clear”
“Really!?” Jason beams, elated to pass the unspoken test that he's been aceing all night
“Really,” Leo grins back, taking his hand, “Let's go inside, food's ready and it's freezing”
The dining room is truly the heart of the Brito-Martis home. It is smack dab in the middle of the house, one wall mostly glass with the doors to the back porch where other walls have open arched entrances to the kitchen and living room. Every inch of wall space is plastered with framed photographs and children's drawings, a collage of the ever-growing family lovingly preserved behind glass
At the center of the room is the cherry dining table. Usually one end houses a collection of half finished art projects or homework with everyone crammed in at the clean end for meals. But today the moms have put all three leaves in and pulled any and all chairs they could find around it.
They all immediately get swept into helping. Finding the good water pitcher, taking food from the kitchen to the table, dragging in the last few chairs. It's a happy bustle, chatting and teasing as people wash hands and get ready to sit. Leo is bringing in Georgie’s old highchair from the garage when he spots Jason staring at the photo wall, shoulders drooped with his ears and neck red and looking like he's about to drop the green beans he's holding
“Cielo?” Leo checks on him, taking the Pyrex from his hands and setting it safely on the table
“I-I didn't know they added me”
Leo peers around his boyfriend to try and figure out what he's talking about. There are a few new additions to the wall since the last time he really studied it: Livia in front of her dorm building at orientation, baby Westly with his birth mother and his dads and his footprints, Sarah holding flowers on stage in her Lady Capulet costume, a drawing Harley did of Abelard. But Leo quickly finds what his man is talking about, off to the left in one of the multi-picture picture frames. It's Leo and Jason together at the park with Festus and Snowball. Leo remembers taking it; a quick selfie sent to the family group chat with a message about how much he loves that they both carry their pets like they do, how fun their adventures are because of it, Festus lying across his neck and Snowball in her backpack. Both he and his boyfriend are smiling, wrapped in light scarves against the early spring chill; he didn't know the moms printed it out
It's not the first time they've done it; they did it with Mark and Deacon as well as Drew and Nyssa. There was even a time when Georgie had a serious girlfriend in college who was displayed for a while. It's the first time Leo’s had a partner added though
“Is it okay?” Leo asks, putting an arm around the blonde's waist, unsure of where his boyfriend's head is at about it
“It's okay,” Jason sounds more than a little choked up, “It’s just never happened before, not even with-” and then he breaks off to rub at his eyes
“Oh baby,” Leo squeezes him tight and kisses him on the cheek, “I got you, we got you”
“I know,” Jason leans into him heavily, sniffing away any tears that are trying to well up, “It’s just really nice is all”
“What did you do to Jason!?” Georgie barks as she comes in from the kitchen, balancing some roasted veggie something, “Why is he upset?”
“Why do I have to be the one doing something?" Leo gripes, arms still protectively around his man
“Wait, what's wrong with Jason?” Deacon asks as he carries Westly to the highchair
“I'm fine,” Leo’s boyfriend waves them off, “Just touched by the picture is all”
There is a collection of “Aww”s from the people gathering, most knowing exactly how it feels the first time their photo makes the wall. Emmi even gives Jason a big hug that he has to stoop down for, Leo pretending not to hear her tell his man how he’s family now and smiling to himself. He has known that for a while, the moms collect people like it's going out of style
Dinner is chaos as usual, everyone back to talking over each other and passing food around with Abalard lying across multiple feet under the long table. Chattering about how Emmi’s Hot Shop is doing now that they added the new kiln, Stan and Deacon telling everyone about how they are looking to expand the booth from the Farmers Market to a brick and mortar, Drew recounting a tale from falling off the stage at the last Aglaia’s Crown show and how no one has let her live it down yet
“Leo said you work at a daycare,” Mark asks Jason as he catches the teething ring Westly is intent on launching into his husband’s plate for the umpteenth time since they sat down, “Which one was it again?”
“Leagonair Day Care,” Jason says around his carrots
“Leagonair?!” Jo perks up from across the table, “That's where Georgie went!”
“Small world,” Georgie laughs
“We've been looking for a preschool for Westly,” Deacon says, “Mark needs to go back to work soon and we just don't know where to start”
“If you're okay with it, I can put in a word,” Jason tries, “I get a family discount”
“Really!” Mark perks up, “We would love that!”
“I'll check on Monday,” Jason smiles, neck going red, Leo squeezing his knee with pride under the table, “It would be nice to have him there.” Westly promptly tries to launch the teething ring again
Leo is not sure how long they are at the table; hours and minutes are the same when everyone is crowded around like this. Good food and good people will do that he thinks, and he loves sharing it with his boyfriend
Then it's dessert in the form of a giant homemade yule log courtesy of Hunter and her bio mom, which is divine, then it's helping take turns clearing the table and packing away the leftovers for everyone as they cycle back into the living room to talk over each other some more and pull out another Uno deck. Somehow Jason ends up with baby Westly again, who promptly passes out in the middle of all the commotion and drools all over his shoulder.
It's games and chatter and the big tray of leftover Christmas cookies, laughing with Leo’s family as Lit loses just about every game. Eventually Mark and Deacon need to call it, worried about driving home with the baby in the snow. Leo offers to help them pack up the playpen and the diaper bag, his boyfriend still trapped under said baby
There is a parade of goodbyes, hugs and kisses to the new dads as they go out the front door into the cold. Jason helps Mark get the baby in his car seat, chatting about how expensive they are and the proper configuration for safety. It's an easy transfer of Westly from Jason’s shoulder to the seat, then a complicated buckle and a quick tuck back under his blanket; the baby doesn’t ever stir
“I like this one,” Deacon tells Leo as they load the trunk, “I hope you keep him”
Leo knocks their shoulders together, Deacon presses back just as hard
When Leo turns back from waving them off Jason is looking at him. But it's in that special way he does that he saves just for Leo where his grin is so soft he looks like he wants to melt but also so big that it fills his whole body. His eyes scrunch and his shoulders relax and his ears go red and he always always calls Leo pretty after
“What?” Leo asks, sure of the answer
“Nothing,” Jason beams down at him as he wraps his arms around Leo’s waist, pulling him into a warm embrace against the frigid Indiana winter, “You're just pretty in the snow is all”
And Leo looks up at him as he winds his arms around Jason’s neck. Jason who has snow in his hair and his breath steaming up his glasses. Who is looking at Leo like he personally makes the tides turn and Leo loves him. It's bigger, fuller, than it's ever been before. It's different this time, he's different this time. Like the rom-coms and the love songs and the paperbacks got it right for once
“Hey,” Leo prompts, plucking up a hopeful courage with both hands
“Hm?”
“I love you”
If it was possible for a person to emit light, the smile that splits Jason's face would have him physically glowing. “Yeah!?” he laughs, practically vibrating with joy
“Yeah,” Leo swears, and it's as easy as Georgie said it would be, “I love you”
“I love you too”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” and then Jason kisses him, out in the snow and the night of his mom’s front yard with the holiday lights twinkling and the glow from the windows and the laughter of his family inside.
Leo is definitely keeping this one