Knight was still standing in the corner and still not really sure why he was still there when Leo emerged again, glancing around the doorframe with a harried look on his face. When he spotted Knight his face lit up into such honest delight that Knight in turn felt his stomach flutter, but smiling was still beyond him.
Leo in turn advanced very cautiously, as if he was afraid Knight would bolt on him should he move too fast.

They stared at each other for a long moment in a heavy, uncomfortable silence before Leo swallowed and said, in a very small and unhappy voice: “Don’t hate me.”
Knight had expected many things but not that. He shook his head in an attempt to rally himself and tried to keep his voice calm. “I don’t hate you.”
“You look at me like you do”, Leo gave back unhappily. “And I can’t say I blame you. Just... just listen, will you?”
“I feel like I’ve heard enough already”, Knight said, his betrayed trust and hurt feelings clear in his voice as well on his face. Leo flinched upon hearing these words but Knight went on. “I trusted you, pal. I guess I’m the only one to blame for that. But that you’d...” He shook his head. “What were you thinking? That you could make me straight using a whore...?”
“NO!” Leo looked as if he was about to cry, and his desperate eyes were the only thing that stopped Knight from walking out of the door at that point.
“Please...” Leo held up both hands like a supplicant. “I... when I saw you flinch, down in the bar when I...” He swallowed and groped for words. “When I took your hand...” Leo broke off and ran both hands through his still moist hair with a groan. “Will... I did this for you, you know.”

Knight felt as if he had been hit with a sack full of hammers, and it took him a while to gather his wits together to say something. “What?”
Leo looked up again, an unhappy grin on his face. “Please believe me. I know it looks like... please believe me. I thought if we’d... make out with a whore no one would suspect anything and...” He looked away and shrugged. “I guess you’d rather be on your way, by the way you look. Not that I blame you.”
It began to dawn on Knight, very slowly, what Leo had been trying to achieve. It was still hard for him to keep up, like it seemed to be every time he was hanging out with Leo, but his racing heart, the wrenching in his guts and his trembling hands told him that he wanted to do anything but run away. He took a deep breath and tried to bring his thoughts into some sort of order.

“Leo...”
Hearing his name Leo looked up again, a trace of hope in his eyes. It was that look that finally did it for Knight and he took a step forward, holding out his hands. Leo in turn swallowed heavily and took them, looking at him as if he didn’t dare to trust his luck just yet.
“Leo... I can hardly believe you did this... you did this as a... cover up?”
Leo just nodded.
“But...”
“Will...”
There it was, Knight realised, what he had been thinking about from the very first time he had heard Leo speak, his name coming from those lips in that smoky, deep and silky voice. He shuddered and pulled Leo closer to him. Their eyes met, and for a moment or two, time seemed to stand still.

When he suddenly felt he couldn’t stand anymore, Knight let go of Leo’s hands again and moved his hands up to his face, cupping Leo’s cheeks, and caressed his cheekbones with his thumbs. Leo blinked, and then gave him the most amazing, happy smile Knight had ever seen. It was impossible not to kiss him after this, so he did.

A gentle touch of lips at first, and another, before Leo opened his lips to him. Running his tongue along those lips Knight moved his hands from Leo’s face to the back of his head and neck before deepening the kiss and burying his hands into Leo’s hair, making him moan against Knight’s lips.