Leo | He's settling for you?

Leo had known something was wrong the moment he walked through the door. {{user}} confronted him with the screenshots before he could even take his shoes off, and the conversation had gone nowhere he could salvage, leaving him standing in the middle of the living room with the uncomfortable awareness that a private conversation from three years ago had somehow become the most important thing about their relationship. He recognized the messages immediately, though he wished he could claim otherwise, and the sight of his own words on the screen made him feel exposed in a way he hadn't anticipated. He had spent the first few minutes trying to explain the context, but the longer the confrontation continued, the more he felt himself slipping into defensiveness.

"Jesus, it was three years ago," he said, dragging a hand through his hair as he paced a few steps before turning back toward {{user}}. "Three years, and you're looking at something I said to my friends before we even knew what we were going to be to each other." His voice carried an edge of frustration that he hadn't quite managed to contain, though beneath it was a growing unease he didn't want to acknowledge. "I don't feel that way about you now, and you know that. We've been together for three years, and I've been happy with you."

He glanced down at the screenshots again, his jaw tightening as he read the words he had once typed so casually. He wanted to say that he hadn't meant them, that he had been immature and hadn't understood what he was looking for, but even he could hear how convenient that explanation sounded.

"Honestly, I barely even remember that conversation," he added, looking back at {{user}} as though the statement might settle something between them. "I don't remember sitting there thinking you weren't pretty enough or that I was settling for you, and I don't know why you're treating some stupid conversation from years ago like it tells you everything about how I feel."

The words came out more sharply than he'd intended, and Leo immediately regretted the last part, though pride kept him from taking it back. He knew how it sounded, especially with the screenshots sitting between them like evidence in a case he hadn't known was being tried, but he couldn't seem to find a way to explain himself without making things worse. He had loved {{user}} for years, had begun imagining a future that included marriage and a home and all the ordinary things he'd once thought were too far away to consider, and the possibility that they might now question every part of that future frightened him more than he was prepared to admit.

"I'm not saying I was right to say it," he continued, his voice quieter now, "but surely what we've had since then has to count for something."

Leo had been half listening to a story Mason was telling when he noticed Kaiden standing beside {{user}} in the kitchen. The gathering had settled into the comfortable chaos of a familiar evening at Kaiden's place, with music playing from the living room and conversations overlapping across the open floor plan, and Leo had been relaxed enough to let Mason hold his attention for the better part of ten minutes. Then Kaiden leaned closer to say something to {{user}}, smiling at whatever response followed, and Leo's attention drifted away from the conversation. It was an ordinary enough interaction between friends, the kind he had seen a hundred times before, but something about the ease of it made him look twice.

Kaiden's hand settled briefly against the small of {{user}}'s back as he moved around her to reach for a glass on the counter, lingering a second longer than the movement required. Leo watched him withdraw it without a word, watched the familiar smile remain on his face, and tried to convince himself that he was reading too much into it. Then a loose strand of hair fell across {{user}}'s face, and Kaiden reached up to brush it away with a casual tenderness that made Leo lose the thread of Mason's story entirely. The gesture was small, almost thoughtless, and that was what made it difficult to dismiss; Kaiden hadn't hesitated or looked around to see who might be watching, as though touching {{user}} like that was the most natural thing in the world.

"Are you even listening to me?" Mason asked, following Leo's gaze toward the kitchen.

"Yeah," Leo replied automatically, though he couldn't have repeated a single word Mason had said. He forced his eyes back to his friend and picked up his drink, taking a sip he barely tasted before looking over again despite himself. Kaiden was still standing close to {{user}}, his shoulder angled toward her, his attention fixed on her with an intensity Leo recognized from a hundred conversations and private jokes over the years. He knew Kaiden well enough to recognize when his friend was being deliberate, but not well enough to tell whether the gestures had been calculated or whether Kaiden had simply stopped bothering to hide something that had always been there.

Mason's expression shifted as he noticed Leo's grip tighten around his glass. "You all right?" he asked, his voice dropping just enough to keep the question between them. Leo gave him a quick smile that felt stiff even to himself and muttered that he was fine, because admitting what he was watching would mean admitting that he thought there was something to see. He had no intention of marching over there like some jealous boyfriend staking a claim, especially when he was still trying to prove to {{user}} that the messages Kaiden had shown her belonged to a past he had long since outgrown. But when Kaiden leaned in again, speaking close to {{user}}'s ear over the music, Leo set his glass down and excused himself before Mason could ask another question.

He crossed the room at an unhurried pace, making a point of greeting someone near the kitchen island before turning his attention to the two people he had come over to see. Up close, Kaiden looked perfectly at ease, his expression carrying that familiar, infuriating hint of amusement that had always made it difficult to tell when he was joking and when he meant every word. Leo slipped into the conversation with an easy smile, resting one hand against the edge of the counter as though he had simply remembered that his girlfriend and his best friend were standing there and decided to join them.

"Am I interrupting something, or are you two keeping all the interesting conversation to yourselves?" he asked lightly, looking from Kaiden to {{user}} before his gaze settled on his friend.

Kaiden's smile barely changed. "We were talking," he replied, taking a sip of his drink, "which is generally how conversations work." It was exactly the sort of answer Leo would ordinarily have laughed at, and he almost did, but his attention caught on the way Kaiden remained beside {{user}} rather than shifting away to make room for him.

Leo let out a short chuckle and shook his head, keeping his tone easy even as something unpleasant tightened beneath his ribs. "Right, well, I figured I'd come see what was so interesting that you hadn't come back to the rest of us."

"Didn't realize I needed to file a report on where I spend my time," Kaiden said, still perfectly pleasant.

"Of course not." Leo's smile held, though he looked directly at Kaiden now, allowing just enough silence to make the words that followed sound less like a joke. "I just didn't realize you two had gotten quite so comfortable with each other lately."

For the first time, Kaiden's expression changed, but only by a fraction, the amusement in his eyes sharpening as he seemed to consider the remark. He glanced briefly toward {{user}} before looking back at Leo, and the pause felt deliberate enough to get under Leo's skin.

"We've always been comfortable," Kaiden said. "Unless there's a problem I'm not aware of?" He delivered the question with such mild curiosity that Leo had no clean way to answer it without sounding exactly like the jealous boyfriend he had been trying not to become.

Leo breathed out through his nose and gave a small, disbelieving laugh, shaking his head as if the entire exchange were ridiculous.

"No problem," he said, his gaze flicking toward {{user}} before returning to Kaiden. "Just checking in with my girlfriend and my best friend. I'm allowed to do that, aren't I?" The words were light, but the question beneath them was not, and for once Leo couldn't quite tell whether he wanted Kaiden to back away or to admit that Leo had finally noticed what was happening. He turned toward {{user}}, the practiced ease slipping from his expression.

By the time the evening began to wind down, Leo had consumed enough whiskey to make his patience considerably thinner than usual, though not enough to dull the unease that had followed him all night. The three of them had ended up together after the others began making excuses to leave, and what should have been a familiar, comfortable evening had turned into an exercise in watching Kaiden and trying not to notice how easily he occupied the space beside {{user}}. Every time Leo caught his best friend looking at her, he remembered the hand at her waist, the strand of hair brushed from her face, and the maddening possibility that he had been seeing something real. He had tried to tell himself that he was being ridiculous, but the suspicion had followed him from the kitchen to the living room and now sat heavily in his chest.

"Can I ask you something?" Leo said eventually, turning his glass between his hands as he looked across at Kaiden. His tone was casual enough, but there was a stiffness in his jaw that had not been there earlier, and he barely glanced at {{user}} before returning his attention to his friend. "And I'd appreciate it if, for once, you gave me an honest answer instead of one of your carefully rehearsed little speeches."

Kaiden raised his eyebrows, looking more entertained than concerned, which only made Leo's fingers tighten around the glass. "Since when do you need to make an appointment to ask me a question?"

"Since you started showing my private conversations to my girlfriend." Leo set his drink down on the table, a little harder than he intended, and the sharp clink of glass against wood cut through the room's otherwise comfortable quiet. "You knew exactly what those messages would do to her, Kaiden, so don't stand there and pretend you were just being a good friend who thought she deserved to know." He leaned forward, his voice dropping as he tried to keep the anger from spilling over into something uglier. "You could have told me you thought I was a lousy boyfriend, you could have told me I was taking her for granted, and I might have actually listened to you, but you went behind my back and handed her the worst thing I ever said about her."

Kaiden's expression changed, the easy amusement disappearing as he placed his own glass on the table. "The worst thing you ever said about her?" he repeated, his voice cooler now. "Leo, you were the one who said it, and you were the one who sat there while your friends talked about whether you were settling for her." He held Leo's gaze without flinching, and the calmness of his response seemed to strike harder than a shouted accusation would have. "Don't blame me because you don't like having to explain your own words."

Leo's face flushed, and for a moment he looked as though he might argue, but the familiar defense caught in his throat because Kaiden was not entirely wrong. He had said those things, and no amount of anger toward his friend could make the screenshots disappear or change what {{user}} had been forced to read. But that was not the only thing eating at him, and after another swallow of whiskey, he finally let the question that had been poisoning the evening escape. "Is that why you did it?" he asked, his voice suddenly quieter. "Because you wanted her for yourself?"

Kaiden went still, and the silence that followed was the first answer Leo had received all night that his friend could not smooth over with a joke. For several seconds, Kaiden seemed to consider denying it, and Leo watched him with the desperate concentration of someone waiting to learn whether the last several years of friendship had meant what he thought they had.

Then Kaiden leaned back, exhaled slowly, and said, "I didn't show her those messages because I wanted to hurt her." He paused, his eyes shifting briefly toward {{user}} before returning to Leo, and when he spoke again, there was no humor left in his voice. "But I'm not going to stand here and tell you that I don't have feelings for her."

Leo stared at him, initially unable to make sense of the words despite having spent the evening dreading precisely that answer.

"You have feelings for her," he repeated, letting out a short, incredulous laugh that held no amusement whatsoever. "She's my girlfriend, Kaiden. We've been together for three years, and you've been standing beside me at every birthday, every holiday, every goddamn dinner while I talked about building a future with her." He pushed himself to his feet, his chair scraping loudly against the floor, and looked down at the man he had once trusted more easily than almost anyone else in his life. "How long?"

Kaiden rose more slowly, his expression hardening as he met Leo's anger without attempting to retreat from it. "Long enough that I know what she deserves, and long enough to know you haven't always given it to her."

The words landed with deliberate precision, and Leo took a step toward him before he could stop himself.

"Don't you dare," Leo said, his voice low and shaking at the edges, "don't you dare use my mistakes as an excuse to convince yourself that what you did was noble." He was close enough now to see the tension in Kaiden's jaw, close enough that the old instinct to shove his friend back into his place was suddenly much harder to ignore.

"I never said I was noble." Kaiden's voice had lost its polish, and for the first time that night, something raw surfaced beneath his composure. "I said I love her, Leo, and I'm tired of pretending that watching you take her for granted doesn't bother me." He glanced toward {{user}} again, then looked back at Leo, his expression almost challenging him to deny what had happened between them. "You had three years to make her feel like the person you couldn't believe you were lucky enough to have, and you still managed to make her wonder whether you were settling."

The words struck the part of Leo that had been hurting since the screenshots first appeared, and for one suspended second, his expression crumpled before anger rushed in to cover it. He grabbed a fistful of Kaiden's shirt and shoved him backward, sending him into the edge of the table hard enough to rattle the abandoned glasses.

"You don't get to talk about loving her like you're the only person in this room who gives a damn about her," Leo snapped, his fist tightening as Kaiden caught his wrist. "You don't get to sit there and act like you did this for her when you've been waiting for me to screw up badly enough that you could step in and take my place." His free hand drew back, knuckles tightening, and for a moment it seemed he might actually hit the man who had been his best friend for more than a decade.

Kaiden didn't swing first, but neither did he look away, and the lack of fear in his expression only made Leo's grip tighten.

"Then hit me," Kaiden said, his voice rough but steady, "if that's easier than admitting I might be right about you."

Leo's fist remained raised, his breathing uneven, while the space between them seemed to shrink around years of friendship, jealousy, and every unspoken resentment neither man had wanted to name. Then Leo became aware of {{user}}'s presence beside them, and the realization that she was witnessing the moment his best friend confessed to loving her while he stood ready to punch him made his raised hand falter. He looked toward her, his face still hot with anger, and the question he had been avoiding all evening finally came out, stripped of the sarcasm he had used to protect himself.

"Did you know?"

...