TEMPTATION

Leonard looks carefully around himself, and only when he’s sure he’s alone in the room he dares to sit on the bed.

The bathrobe is there, abandoned on the coverlet. It’s not really wet, but then it’s not really dry either. It’s been used. Not right now, but not hours ago either. Anyway, Blaine’s nowhere to be seen, so Leo takes for granted he took a shower, then dressed up and then walked out, maybe to take a walk down the promenade, wearing his best outfit. Oh, how he loves to show himself off to the tourists crowding the little Italian village on the sea where they rented this huge house near the seaside for the summer break. That’s why he didn’t want to come. He’s already bored out of his mind just thinking he’s got to spend the entire summer with his parents instead then with his friends, but if Blaine’s here too, then how is he supposed to have fun? He just can’t. Blaine is so annoying, Leonard can hardly stand him. He’s everything he dislikes in a man. It’s unbelievable how whatever Blaine does can make Leo feel. So annoyed and tense and— he definitely shouldn’t be here, now.

Not in this room, not near this bathrobe.

But he is. And the bathrobe is so very close. He holds out a hand and touches it lightly. He can feel it’s still warm under his fingertips. Warm and damp. And so unbearably close.

Leonard can’t help it. He holds the bathrobe in his hand and drags him closer to his face, inhaling the smell that comes out of it. Warm water, fruity bath foam, delicate shampoo. Some other things that Leo can’t identify clearly, but it’s what makes it all spicy and interesting, that different thing that nothing else smells like to. That thing that’s only Blaine’s, that Leonard always smells when he happens to be close to him, the same thing he smelled the first time he saw him, and talked to him, and danced with him. He was only six years old and this smell got stuck in his head, and he couldn’t get rid of it for days.

Now he’s fourteen, he’s been trying to get what it is for years, and he never managed to. He tries hard even now, but he can’t. It’s nothing he’s smelled before, on anything else. It’s just Blaine’s.

“Here you are,” Blaine says, opening the door and staring at him from where he is. Leo throws away the bathrobe so violently and suddenly it flies through all the room and hits the luckily closed window, falling on the ground right after. “What was that for?” Blaine asks, genuinely curious.

Leo frowns, blushing furiously and crossing his arms over his chest. “Nothing,” he answers, “Vandalism, I think.”

Blaine snorts a laugh, looking at him like he can’t even believe what he just heard. “You’re the strangest kid I ever met, I swear to God,” he chuckles. “Anyway, what are you doing here? Dinner’s ready. We’ve been searching for you for half an hour, already.”

Leo opens his eyes wide, tilting his head on a side. “What do you mean we?” he asks, “I thought you were out searching for the next guy you could invite over for the night without even knowing his name, or something,” he adds with a sassy smile.

“Instead, guess what?” Blaine mocks him, sticking his tongue out at him. Sometimes Leo just can’t believe this man’s almost thirty-five. He’s so ridiculous. “I was searching for you,” he says, and whatever he said before instantly doesn’t matter anymore.

Leo blushes and jumps down of the bed, unable to control himself anymore. He runs out of the room, brushing Blaine’s side with his own as he walks past him to go downstairs for dinner. “Whatever,” he says. But he knows it’s a lie.

The smell is still haunting him hours later, when he finally goes to bed. And as he closes his eyes, he lets it take over his senses, and lull him to sleep.