"What do you mean you are going out for drinks? I promised I was making dinner." Leon's voice rang in his ears from his phone.

Stuart rolled his eyes. "I promise I'll make it back for dinner."

"Really? God, Stuart. Don't stay out too late."

Those words stop him from getting into Michaela's car. Who did he think he was? Telling him when to be back home? "I'm not your wife, Leon. Bloody leave me alone!" Then he hung up before Leon could come at him again or before he could start feeling bad about bringing up his wife.

    Getting into Michaela's car, he pretended not to notice her stare and kept quiet. She played along as they drove off and Stuart was glad about that. But that small joy didn't last forever when she said, "Are you being mean to lil o' Leon again?"

"Again?"

"Oh come on. You're the mean one in the family. If I married you, I'll ask for a divorce the second you start coming home late. It raises questions you know." She rolled her eyes at him.

"It's not like we are goin' out to do somethin' bad or I'm cheatin'. I'm just havin' a drink with a friend. He should bloody calm his tits, I don't even fuckin' know him." He huffed, staring out the window in annoyance.

"'Don't fucking know him?' I'm lost. Are you both seriously fighting? 'Cause you both are my OTP." Michaela glanced quickly at him before focusing back on the road.

    Stuart refused to answer that because he could already feel the guilt eating at him. He shouldn't have snapped at Leon. Leon was only being protective because he once had a family or at least a wife.

    Groaning mentally from Michaela's unnecessary attempt at changing the topic, he tried to focus on other things. It was still a bit bright but was getting darker by the minute since it looked like it was about to rain. Compared to Sydney, San Francisco was pretty cold. Sure, there wasn't snow but it was colder than where he had been from. And that just made him angry.

Stuart had always wanted to travel to a country that snowed during the winter. Finding out he was in the part of America that snowed rarely just made him hate The Gay Project more. If they were going to take him away, at least they should have dumped him in a country he would love.

"We are here." Michaela's voice echoed in the quiet car.

He turned to her and smiled. "Sorry for my attitude before." 

"Oh sugar cakes, I'm used to your unnecessary outburst." She chuckled, turning off the ignition. "What you need is a good o' spanking from Leon now." She then turned to give Stuart a look that had the hair on his skin raising.

Michaela chuckled at that before getting out of he car and going to stand in front of the bar that said, TIMMY'S PLACE in cursive italics. She quickly motioned for him to get out of the car and he did with a sigh. He was the one who suggested so he had to follow through.

"I hate this joint so much." Michaela continued babbling as they walked into the place together.

    The bar was pretty cool. There was a dance floor, nice amount of space to move around. Decent bar, filled booth. The place had money. Not like the rackety old bar down the road back at his home town.

"If I could pay Timmy to shut it down, I'll burn it to the ground."  Stuart finally caught on to the words she was saying as they squeezed through the crowd to find a seat by the bar. "Two tequilas please." She yelled at the young bartender who nodded at her.

Rubbing his hands together, he smiled as his hands warmed then he said, "What happened in here that made you hate it so much?"

Michaela's eyes widened. "Didn't I tell you? This was where I found out my buffoon of a husband was cheating on me. And yeah, you'd think a strip club but no. Just a rusty old bar."

Rust old bar? Stuart almost laughed at that. If only she knew of the bar down the road. She'd call where they were a casino.

"Why don't you just divorce him? You said you would me back in the car."

She pouted then rolled her eyes skywards. She was definitely annoyed by that response but she seemed to brighten up when the bartender finally brought their drinks. She smiled at the kid then pointed at Stuart. "Put it on his tab."

"What?" But before Stuart could change it, the boy was called by someone else. "What? Why did you do that?"

"Next time, don't suggest something so stupid," She said then took a good gulp from her drink. She screwed her face at it but sighed with a big smile on her face. "I needed that."

"Sure you did." He scoffed then copied her, taking a big gulp then screwing his face up from the burning at his throat. He released a deep sigh then turned to her. "So, why is divorcing him a problem?"

"Because I'm still in love with him doofus. If Leon was cheating on you, how would you handle that? Divorce him or make it work?" Stuart was so close to saying 'divorce him' but then he remembered he was playing the part of a man who was madly in love with another man even though they had occasional quarrels. Leon might not be the best person to use because he once had an ex that cheated on him. If they were married, he probably would have made it work even when he knew it was never going to.

"I wouldn't divorce him," Stuart said. His voice came out low and that irritated him. Clearing his throat, he added, "I'd wait for him to throw the papers at my face and say it's over because I'm stupid like that. I would probably love him even after. Make sure the person he moves on to treats him better than I did."

Michaela fell silent and just gapped at Stuart. Suddenly, she dropped her glass on the table and smacked her hand to her forehead. "Gosh, you're right. And for a second, I thought you would say divorce so I wouldn't feel like a bad person. Maybe it's my fault. Maybe it's 'cause I haven't been giving him the right amount of attention. I mean, I spend my days in school and when I'm back, I'm drinking out with friends. He's a scientist so he spends forever in his lab. It's like we never see each other. It's awful."

Stuart never expected all that to be her result from hearing him rumble about that. Shrugging, he smiled at her and said, "Do that thing when you pop up in his office and say hi. He's going to be surprised."

She blushed lightly. "I did it once. It was quite fun." She shrugged then finished her drink.

Silently, Stuart bumped his shoulders with hers gently then finished his drink. With another round coming, Michaela dove into school talk. From swimming pools to Christmas festival for the school.

"And the school music club are planning on a huge acapella. I have a feeling it's going to be fun. What do you think?" She said with a pitch of excitement in her voice.

"Well, what I zink is zat it will be awesome. Voices of kids are awesome."

     No one had to tell him before he knew who that was. If it wasn't the Russian he wasn't exactly fond of, then he didn't know who.

     Vlad threw his arms around Stuart as if they were besties and said so softly as if he were trying to tease him, "Allo, you."

Stuart felt a chill rise in him and he stood up abruptly from his seat to glare at the man. "Hey, watch it."

     Vlad chuckled as he leaned on bar table. He winked at Stuart who felt that same familiar chill again. "What? Leon is not here."

Michaela seemed to have noticed the situation because she was on her feet in a second. "Hey! Dude, he's married which means look for another man to paw at. He and his husband are mine. Got that?" She narrowed her eyes threateningly at him.

With widened eyes, Vlad quickly rose his hands in the air. "Sure. It was just teasing." He frowned at her but when he glanced at Stuart, he smiled. "See you later, minion."

"Wha-"

"Let's go, sugar cakes." Quickly, she took his hands before he could strangle him for the nickname. "Hey, put it on his tab instead." Michaela shouted at the bartender, pointing at Vlad before pulling Stuart out of the bar along with her.

"What? What the hell was that?" She asked quickly as she got around the car to enter it. She unlocked the door and Stuart quickly entered.

"Let's just say he's an acquaintance I don't like very much." He groaned, running his hand through his short hair.

Michaela nodded then turned on the car. "Well, I see why. Let me take you back to Leon before he murders me for keeping you out this late."

"It's just seven pm., Michaela."

"And what do you think time for dinner is?" She scoffed. "Boy, you can be oblivious."

  The traffic back home was terrible and it had already gotten dark, quickly nearing 9pm. Stuart was relieved to finally see his house because for a minute there, he almost thought they were lost. Michaela came to a stop in front of his house and said, "Is he going to be mad?"

"I'll just work it out. See you tomorrow." He nodded quickly then jumped out of the car. Stuart dashed quickly to his front porch before turning to wave at his new friend. When she waved back, he quickly entered the house before he froze to death.

     As he hung his coat on the coat rack and pulled his shoes, he heard Leon with the kids.

     "But she's very mean to me." Stuart could hear Mariam's voice from the dinning. "I tried being her friend but she is still mean to me."

"Then she is not a good friend, Mary." Leon replied. "You shouldn't be friends with mean people. They'll only make you mean and you won't have good friends anymore."

"But I like her. She talks and everyone listens to her. When I talk, they throw paper at me." She whined again.

Stuart stepped into the dinning just when Faun was coming out. Faun frowned at him but didn't say anything as he walked passed him to the stairs. Stuart hated the look the kid gave him because of how familiar it was to the one he always gave his dad. He hated it.

"Daddy!" Mariam chirped, jumping down from her seat to come and hug him around his waist. She pulled away and smiled up at him, making him feel a lot guiltier than he already was.

Trying to be nice, he managed a smile for her. "Hey Mariam. How was your day?"

She grinned brightly at him. "Was okay but Sophia was being mean to me." She glanced at Leon who smiled at her before looking back at Stuart. "Leon told me not to be friends with her because she's a mean person."

Stuart tried not look at Leon as he said, "Yes. Mean people are not good people okay? You're a good girl." When Mariam smiled at him, he added, "Now go up to your room. I'll come check up on you later okay?"

"Okay." She nodded at him before skipping past him to the stair.

     A deep breath escaped Stuart and he finally glanced at Leon. He noticed the dining was already cleared and that just made the situation worse. Trying not to think much about it, he came up to the man and sighed. "Hey."

"You missed dinner."

"I can see that."

Leon's brows shot up and Stuart felt like he was waiting an explanation. "Leon-"

"You know what?" He groaned as he stood, towering over Stuart who felt suddenly speechless. "Whatever. I saved you Chinese in case you didn't come early."

"I thought you were making dinner."

"Lost interest." He said dryly as he walked past him.

Stuart didn't know what he was doing wrong but he knew he was seriously fucking up somewhere. Mariam was apparently the only one happy to have him home at this point. And he didn't like that.

"Hey Leon, can you... Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?" He didn't care if Leon had left the room, he just needed answers and he knew he wasn't going to find it within himself. Nothing felt right to him anymore.

"How about we start from how your day went?" Leon was back in the room and that was when Stuart noticed he went into the kitchen instead. He watched Leon walk back to him then handed him the warmed up noodles. "So, how was it?"

"Uh," Stuart didn't know what to say. He had thought Leon was mad but now he wasn't so sure. Sliding into the seat, he pulled off his gloves to pick up the chop sticks. "It was okay. Sent couple kids to detention, decline petitions and made a few kids feel bad about themselves."

Leon smiled at that and that made his stomach twist. "Seems like fun. Mine wasn't. They aren't giving me my two days off and they instead gave me a work load to be done before the deadline which, I hope I make." He said as he sat beside him. He ran a hand through his brown hair that looked so soft and endearing. "Grocery shopping was a bust. Not enough money for it and gas, so I had to cut the list short. That's actually why I ordered Chinese. It was cheaper."

Stuart didn't know what to say to him at first which made him eat his noodles awkwardly. He could say he was sorry but then what would that do? Instead, he decided to apologize for what was making him feel guilty. "About what I said on the phone-"

He shook his head quickly and said, "No. Please what you said actually knocked some senses into me. For a second there, I almost thought you were my wife. It made me feel responsible for you and..." He trailed off but completed it with a smile.

"So, how's it–the noodles?" Leon asked as Stuart tried to finish it. He had hated the silence that overcame them and to not make it any weirder, he tried to finish the spicy treat before him.

"Great, but I'll need water." Stuart sighed after slurping on his noodles sauce.

"Right." Leon got to that, quickly moving into the kitchen to get him something to drink.

Ignoring the vibration from his phone in his pocket, he smiled when Leon handed him the glass. "Thanks."

"Welcome." He replied as he watched Stuart finish the water. When he was all done, he took the glass from him and Stuart stood up from his seat.

"Thanks for the food and everything."

"It's fine. By the way, a package came from The Gay Project today. I was thinking we open it tomorrow."

Groaning, Stuart looked away from him in annoyance. He couldn't even image what could be in that box. This was what? Just the second day?

"Please." He agreed. "I don't think I'm in any mood to hear something awful."

"I thought so." Leon smiled at him and the fact that he wasn't angry at Stuart made him feel somewhat free. Then he slowly glanced down at those lips that captured his only hours ago. Stuart could still remember how amazing they felt on his.

"As usual, you can stay up in the room. I'll just start working on my project." Instead of giving Stuart the kiss he was surprisingly craving for, he gave him a short nod before disappearing into the kitchen.

Quickly using that chance, Stuart ran up to the room before Leon could come out because lord knew the pretty man was making his heart race.

_______________________
A/n
So it's Christmas (I checked the calendar). I hope its going to be a good one for y'all. Mine started terribly so I've given up on it. Well my birthday is coming anyway (last day on the year). Yay!

I hope y'all like my present. Don't forget to vote or comment.