Page 63 of Static/Cling

“I’m timing you.”

“Fair enough.”

There was a click and Leif knew, beyond doubt, that for the next two minutes, he and Bjorn were alone.

“Babe.”

Bjorn glanced up at him.

“You good?”

Bjorn nodded, but his cheeks were pale, his lips white where he had them pursed tight together, his eyes a little bit hollow.

“You don’t have to go down there.”

“Like hell.” His voice was as gruff and gravelly with nerves as Leif had ever heard it. “Not letting you go alone.”

“We don’t have to do this. We could just?—”

Bjorn’s head snapped up. “Leave them?”

“No judgement,” Leif said. “You and me. It’s always been you and me, right?”

“You want to bail?”

“I want to keep you is all. Where you go, I go.”

“We aren’t guys who ditch our friends.”

Leif tried to smile, but it was crooked, he knew. Unstable. “We”—he waved a hand between their chests—“are the only friends we have.”

“Had, right?” Bjorn’s eyebrows drew down. “Kassian…” He pulled in a breath and searched Leif’s face.

Leif’s smile firmed up all on its own, and he stepped into Bjorn’s personal space. “Babe.” He took Bjorn’s face between his palms, knowing this was not something they ever did outside of their apartment, or Bjorn’s need to discharge his overflow of power.

“Been using that word a lot lately.”

“We both have.”

“Yeah.”

Leif pulled Bjorn’s face down so he could touch their foreheads together. He needed to say a thing and maybe he had to not see Bjorn’s reaction to it until it was fully out there. “You’re my best friend.”

“Yeah. ’Course.”

“But we’re more than just best friends, right?”

“’Course,” Bjorn said again, then paused. “Like… brothers?”

“Fuck no!” Leif chuckled and put all the things into it he couldn’t seem to find the words for.

Bjorn’s finger under his chin surprised him, because there was no spark. Just skin and tenderness, and next to no pressure, but he lifted his gaze to Bjorn’s anyway.

“Thank fuck,” Bjorn whispered, “because that would be weird.” And he kissed Leif, making him very glad they were so close, because his knees wobbled and his spine melted, and for a minute, there was nothing in the world, not even air.

Only Bjorn.

They broke apart, eventually, and Bjorn studied him some more. “But we are going to have to talk about Kassian.”

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