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"I’m actually really liking this class," Nico said excitedly. "The professor is the perfect mixture of caring enough to teach and do it well, but he’s also relaxed and everything. And even though I’m obviously fluent, he’s really good at helping the kids who just took, like, Italian 101 or something, and need help understanding everything."
Leo grinned. Neither of them had been sure if Nico would be able to like community college at all, but the deciding factor had been that he could be in a computer design class with Leo. His other classes - Italian Literature, Pre-World War II History, and Greek Mythology - had been more up in the air, but Nico had decided to take them in the end. And apparently, Greek Mythology was the only class that was a total joke.
"So I just have to get this essay done soon - I swear, you need to learn more Italian so you can help me with it, Leo - and then I’ll be free for the entire weekend!" Nico continued. "Oh - except for the design project. But we can work on that together, so it doesn’t even count as real work. And Professor Montalbano wants me to consider tutoring some other kids. He’d actually be able to pay me as a TA, so I’m thinking about it. I’d like to bring in some money."
"If you want to, do it," Leo insisted. "But don’t worry about money, Nico. We’re fine."
"We’re living off your part-time job at the mechanic shop and what my brother-in-law insists on giving us," Nico pointed out. "We’d both like to be more financially independent, so even if it’s just making a little bit of money each week from tutoring, it’s a start."
"Fine," agreed Leo. "But you’d better save time for me!" He grinned cheekily and ran the back of his hand along his boyfriend’s cheek.
"Of course," Nico agreed.
—-
"Date night this evening!" Leo shouted happily. "I’m making the popcorn, you can do the soup. National Treasure II or Kickass?"
"Leo, I told you like three days ago - wait, what the hell do those movies have to do with each other?" Nico asked, brows furrowed.
"Nic Cage! Duh! That’s enough to make them valid choices. So now you pick." Leo leaned forward to give Nico a peck, but he pulled away slightly.
"Leo, I can’t. I told you before that Morgan had to switch to tonight and you agreed," Nico said, his brown eyes both apologetic and slightly accusatory.
"I would agree to no such thing! Who the fuck is Morgan and what are you two doing that’s worth missing our date night?" Leo demanded.
"My tutee," Nico said, now rolling his eyes. "I told you this. Honestly, were you listening at all or - oh. Damn, I made a mistake of talking to you about this during The Sing-off. I though you’d pay attention since it was a commercial, but-“
"Dude! Sing-off Hour is off-limits to anything I need to pay attention to! I totally wouldn’t have said yes to you ditching, for tutoring or anything." Leo crossed his arms.
"Leo, I’m sorry, but I made a commitment. Let’s just make it up tomorrow night, okay?" Nico rested a hand on his elbow.
Leo wrenched his arm away. “Hell no! I’m working late at the shop tomorrow and you know that! Don’t my commitments matter? Or Morgan’s, for that matter? If she says she can’t do when she was supposed to, then just tell her-“
"Him," Nico corrected.
Leo’s eyes widened. “Him? That’s a guy’s name? You’re-“
"Yes, Leo," he interrupted. "Morgan is a guy, and he desperately needs help in Italian, and he’s actually paying me in addition to what I’m getting from Professor Montalbano. That’s why my commitment matters so much and his schedule gets to be flexible."
"Well, this isn’t fair!" Leo yelled. "I told you when you signed up for this that I wanted you to save time for me and you promised you would! Am I just not important enough to you or-“
He was cut off by Nico's finger gently placed against his lips. He wanted to move the hand away, but the idea struck him that if Nico was trying to quiet him, maybe he was being unreasonable. Maybe… no! Of course he wasn’t! It was Nico with the problem!
"I love you," Nico said softly. "Okay? Get that into your thick skull. I’m not doing this because you don’t matter to me, but because you matter enough to me that I want to build our own life together. I’m really sorry, and I’ll make it up to you, I promise."
What could Leo really say to that? He leaned forward slightly and brushed his lips against Nico’s forehead. “You’d better make it up to me right now.” He pressed several firm kisses along Nico’s ear, neck, and collarbone.
Nico let out a slight shudder and laughed. “Am I supposed to be making it up to you or letting you make me feel like I’m in fucking Elysium?”
"They’re the same thing," Leo mumbled, now fixed on undoing Nico’s buttons with his teeth.
"I can deal with this sort of making up, then," he said with a gasp and buried his fingers in Leo’s hair. "Love you."
"Love you too," Leo whispered, already feeling much better.
—-
He wasn’t jealous.
Of course he wasn’t jealous. Nico loved him and he didn’t doubt it, not for a moment.
But he fucking hated every time Nico went to Italian Literature class because then he’d be seeing Morgan. He hated it even more when Nico went out specially for tutoring, even though it was only Morgan half the time. And he hated it the most when Nico asked him to check something on his phone and he saw several calls from “Morgan Dawson”.
He had to restrain himself from asking Nico about each and every one of the calls, or snooping around his inbox to see if they’d texted, or following Nico around, or planting a camera in the coffee shop where Nico did his tutoring, or…
But he wasn’t jealous.
Nope.
Not at all.
Jealous? Not him. No way. Not one bit.
Fuck, he was jealous.
—-
The absolute worst was when he came home one evening from the shop, sore and greasy and hoping to squeeze in a quickie before dinner, only to find Nico standing and laughing with some tall stranger.
His immediate realization was oh shit this is Morgan. Shit he looks like a fucking male model. Shitshitshit.
Calm down, Leo, he told himself. He has weird reddish-blond hair. Nico likes dark-haired guys. Who cares that dude’s probably a foot taller than me and a face like fucking Michelangelo carved him out of marble and… shit.
"Leo!" Nico exclaimed with a bright smile. "I didn’t expect you home so soon!"
"The bike was way easier to fix than I’d thought," he muttered. Cynically, he wondered whether Nico’s smile was genuine or he wasn’t wanted back early.
"Well, great!" Nico said, getting up to hug him. Leo felt bad for doubting him even a little, but couldn’t shake all of his worries, even with Nico’s arms around him. "Oh! Leo, this is Morgan. Morgan, Leo."
"So you’re Leo," Morgan said, smiling. "Pleasure."
"Uh huh," Leo nodded curtly. "Heard a lot about me, huh?"
"Of course! Nico doesn’t shut up about you!" Morgan laughed. "He always tells me if he could teach you some Italian, I can manage it!"
Leo raised an eyebrow. He was dancing inwardly about the first part, but what the fuck did Morgan mean? Did Nico really think he was that bad at learning Italian?
Nico seemed to have caught sight of his expression. “He’s exaggerating,” he said reassuringly. “Neither of you are that bad. Considering you aren’t even in the class and you know several other languages, you’re much better than he is, even,” he added teasingly.
Leo couldn’t help but grin a little.
"Well, he has a leg up on me," Morgan said with an annoying little pout. "You two met in Italy, for Christ’s sake!"
Leo actually jerked back a little. What was this kid talking about? “What doyou know about how Nico and I met?”
"Oh, the whole story," Morgan said with a slight laugh.
"No he doesn’t," Nico said with an eyeroll. "Just the brief version, about how you were already friends with my sister and she was already coming to help me out."
Nodding like he understood perfectly, Leo tried to make sense of it. Coming to help him out? How much did Morgan know about what had happened before Leo and Nico met in Rome? How could he know about it?
Leo suddenly had an idea. What if Morgan was a demigod? Then things would make a lot more sense, why Nico was spending so much time with him (well, it seemed like he was at least). Or… he could be a monster.
That was it! He - it - was some filthy monster Tartarus himself spat out willingly because who would want a shitstain like that around, enticing people away from their loving boyfriends and… and… anyway.
Easy way to find out.
Leo reached into his toolbelt and pulled out his hammer. To any mortal, it’d look like the tiny kind of hammer you used on a watch or something else delicate. To a monster - like Morgan - it’d be a massive sledgehammer. Perfect.
He whipped it out with a little grin. “Check this out!” he cried. Nico started a little beside him, but Morgan didn’t react.
"Huh? Is that something you use for… mechanic stuff? Cool, I guess…" Morgan said, looking confused.
Leo felt extremely disappointed. Maybe he was faking it? “Yeah, well watch close,” Leo said, wiggling the hammer in front of Morgan’s eyes. The blond boy’s eyes flicked back and forth like they would only while following a small item. Either this monster was a brilliant actor or he was just a fucking annoying guy after all.
Leo was sorely tempted to swing the hammer at Morgan anyway. If he were mortal, he wouldn’t react, of course. Smashing the guy to dust would be really nice if he were a monster. And of course, even if the hammer just passed right through him like it probably possibly would, Leo would see it as a huge sledgehammer going towards his face, which would be extremely satisfying.
"Umm, Leo…" Nico was looking at him very strangely. "Do you need to have some water or something? I think you might have been around gas fumes for too long."
Leo felt a little insulted, but slunk off to the kitchen. How to get this guy out of here? To his relief, he heard the front door open and close after just a few moments.
"Good, he’s gone!" he exclaimed as he came out of the kitchen.
"He went to pick up something for dinner," Nico told him. "We still have studying to do. But what the hell was that?"
"Argh! No! Why, Nico?" Leo complained. "He’s a complete dick! And he seemed monster-ish, okay? I wanted to find out!"
"Oh my gods," Nico groaned. "Seriously? Don’t you think I could tell if he were a monster? And he’s not a dick, okay?!"
"Yes he is!" insisted Leo. "Can we just lock the door and keep him out?"
"What’s your problem, Leo?" Nico exploded. "Am I not allowed to have friends?"
Leo wanted to yell back, but he then realized how strained Nico’s voice was, and how his eyes seemed to flash not just with anger, but with tears. “I-I-I, oh Nico, I- fuck. Fuck this, fuck him - just - don’t fuck him! Gods, I’m not making any sense…” he ran a hair through his hair, effectively making it even messier.
Nico’s mouth hung slightly open. “Leo… are you… jealous?”
"Yes!" he cried. "Gods, Nico, yes. I hate it because I should love you and know you enough to not be jealous, but I can’t stand that guy’s guts! I want to punch him and kiss you except you probably wouldn’t let me kiss you if I punched your - your friend… Nico, I want you to have friends, but I… I can’t think of a friend of yours replacing me.” His voice cracked.
Nico stared at him and then just shook his head slightly. “Leo, honestly! You think anyone could replace you? Much less someone who’s clearly trying to too hard to be cool, for fuck’s sake! Leo, I love you.”
"I know," Leo sobbed, shocked to realize he was crying. "I know, and that’s why I’m so awful. Why am I not trusting you enough to not care about this?"
"Hey," Nico said softly, pulling Leo into a hug. "Hey. Do you really not trust me, or is this just you being a sweet dork? I mean, I’d be pissed if you really thought I’d cheat on you or something, but it’s okay for you to worry a little. It’s okay to want to know you’re the most important person in my life."
Leo peeked up. “Really? I mean, don’t they say not to make your significant other the most important thing in your life?”
"Like I care what ‘they’ say," Nico scoffed. "I mean, sure, it might not be healthy for you to be the only important thing in my life, in case…” his fingers tightened around Leo’s. “Well, in case I lose you.”
"Never gonna happen," he said firmly.
Nico chuckled. “I’ll hold you to that, okay? But I have no problem in saying you come first. Before tutoring, before money, and before Morgan. I love you, dork.”
Leo grinned and wiped away the remaining tears on his face. “Can we lock the door, though? I don’t want Morgan walking in on us.”
Nico burst out laughing. “You horny little fucker.”
"Yep," he cheerily answered. "Though to my defense, I was horny before I even got back."
"No wonder you got into a bad mood when you saw he was over, then," Nico murmured. "That just compounded on the jealousy, huh?"
"Yeah," Leo said with a nod. "Hey, wait a sec. The other thing that made me jealous-slash-suspicious was him saying you told him about how we met. You didn’t actually tell him about demigod stuff, did you?"
"Gods no!" Nico exclaimed. "No, he thinks I just had passport problems in Rome, not being-stuck-in-a-jar-by-giants problem."
"Right," Leo laughed. "Why bring it up at all though?"
"The book in class was talking about relationships and how future lovers meet and all, so I had to talk about you." Nico placed a kiss on Leo’s neck. Then he pulled away. "Oh, by the way? He talked about his girlfriend. You really don’t have to worry."
"Um, I’m kinda proof a guy can be into both girls and other guys, Nico," Leo pointed out.
"I just mean he’s in a relationship at all," Nico said with a little laugh. "I know, don’t worry. But just because he could be attracted to both doesn’t mean he’d cheat or anything - just like you wouldn’t cheat on me, or I wouldn’t cheat with another guy."
"Preaching to choir, dude. Or insert some other more applicable phrase. You’re no pastor and I’d break eardrums if I sang, so, hmm…"
"You don’t need to come up with a new phrase, Leo," Nico interrupted. "You’re ridiculous, you know that?"
"Why else would you love me?" Leo grinned.
Nico answered with a kiss, and then said “Oh, just because everything.”