meretricula | oh hey remember when I was procrastinating on an AU and wrote an AU of it?

and then I said I wasn't going to continue with it? um, well, I was procrastinating again, so... (I'm still not going to finish this! and it is still AU of what properly happens in the soulbonding 'verse! and someday, god willing, I may finish that damn fic and the thing I was supposed to write for Hanukkah and the Baby Dream Team soulbonding thing I really wanted to write for

stickmarionette for yuletide before being made of fail stymied me! but today is not that day.)

the initial bits are here. tl;dr version is that Villa and Leo accidentally bonded and nobody is taking it well.

Leo's brothers left the house eventually, and that was all Gerard wanted to remember about the afternoon. At least their dad was still in Argentina. At least they'd had the sense not to bring the kids, so Leo didn't have to hide the fact that he was in the process of a hysterical nervous breakdown. It was a pretty awful day when the absence of Leo's nephews counted as a highlight.

Leo had sacked out on the couch almost as soon as they were alone, half flopped over Gerard's lap. Gerard just watched him twitch for a while, but it made him feel like a creep, even more than the way Leo's older brothers stared when he held Leo's hand. He couldn't get up and find something else to do, either; he'd left Leo with his brothers so he could take a piss and came back five minutes later to find him with his head in his arms on the kitchen table, breathing in short gasps while he tried not to cry. He wanted to kill Villa for doing this to Leo but it wouldn't even do any good.

He was not cut out for this.

can u talk now he texted, after a very long five minutes trying to dig his phone out of his pocket without disturbing Leo.

sure whats up?

Gerard looked down at Leo, ran his free hand over his hair. Tried not to feel selfish for what he was about to do. u have 2 come home

There was a very long pause before the next text; Gerard waited it out, still stroking Leo's hair. r u drunk? we talked abt this. I cant just leave, ppl need me here

leo needs u

He was expecting the phone call, so he managed to answer before it even rang. "What's wrong with Leo?" Cesc demanded.

"If you tried to feel him you'd know," Gerard said, careful to be quiet. Leo stirred a little anyway, but he subsided under the weight of Gerard's hand on the back of his head.

Cesc made a frustrated noise. "You know it's not like that anymore, don't try to be cute. Is he okay? What happened?"

"I don't know," Gerard said. "He--I think he bonded with Villa. It was an accident, Guaje doesn't want it. Doesn't want him. I don't know."

"Is he rejecting it?" Cesc's voice went high and sharp. He could always tell what was important, right off, even if you didn't say it; Gerard missed that about him when he was gone. "Gerard, is he going to reject him."

"I don't know," he repeated helplessly. "I don't--he's hurting Leo. I don't know what to do."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Cesc said, and hung up. Gerard lowered the phone, feeling more relief than the situation strictly called for; Cesc wouldn't know what to do any more than he did. Still, at least he wouldn't be the only one anymore. He texted leos place not mine before he forgot, and put his phone back into his pocket.

Leo started squirming again and muttered something incoherent. "Go back to sleep, baby," Gerard said.

"Cesc," Leo mumbled. "Where's--"

"He's coming. Go back to sleep."

Leo made a tiny, grumpy noise--like a kitten, Gerard thought; under almost any other circumstances he would have laughed--snuggled closer and almost immediately dozed off. Gerard tried and failed to follow suit.