Leo and Zed arrived at the party just a little earlier than everyone else, which worked out to their advantage. A few of the other Klaus family butlers were there, along with other trusted catering staff, helping set up the venue for the influx of guests.
They both dropped off their presents at the table designated for the Secret Santa, before wandering about the hall. It was decorated tastefully with gold and red decorations, and with flourishes of green holly and colorful wreaths on the walls. Gilbert and K.K. honestly did a great job this year, Leo thought. Zed and Leo sat down at one of the open tables, waiting for the others to finally arrive.
Patrick and Neyka arrived just a little while afterwards, chattering about a new technology for the weapons. They had clearly just come from work, dressed to the nines but carrying bags containing their regular clothes. Leo waved them both over, and the two joined them at their table after depositing their own presents.
“Hey Leo! How are the weapons I gave you? Did you get a chance to use them on the way here? There was a mugging a couple blocks down.” said Patrick.
Leo shook his head vigorously. “Not at all!! I took a taxi with Zed today. Plus, I’m glad I didn’t need to use them!”
A huge belly laugh burst out from Patrick, with Neyka grinning behind him. “Oh that K.K., messing with our plans. Oh well, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
Leo’s eyebrows furrowed at that last sentence, but he chose to just ignore it and let the conversation move on. Neyka started chatting with Zed about book reviews for a book she had just read.
Not long after the two had arrived, a large influx of Libra members started arriving at the party. Chain arrived (but nobody had seen her walk in or drop off her present) and just appeared, sitting at the same table as Leo and Zed. She was wearing a cute red dress with heels, and already had a bottle of wine and a glass in her hands.
K.K. arrived with her husband, talking to other members along the way, and taking compliments for her party planning. The last members to arrive were Klaus and Gilbert, Steven, and Zapp in that order.
Leo heard Klaus’ unmistakable voice talking to another Libra member further away, but he felt his heart start to race. Instead of turning and saying hello, he wormed his way into a conversation with Chain and Zed in order to appear busy.
The drink bar and buffet table opened up, and with it, a large line formed for the booze. Zapp went straight to the drink bar, grabbed his drink, then plopped down in the open seat next to Zed. He was wearing an all-white tuxedo that matched Zed’s own, which was in black. Leo waved at him as he sat down, beaming at their fashion coordination. It was almost certainly Zed’s idea, but it was nice to see that Zapp had played along.
“What the heck fishface, you left for the party without me!” Zapp drank a swig of champagne. Zed rolled his eyes.
“I already told you that I was picking up Leo-kun for his safety. This is what you get for not listening.” Zed snarked back.
Zapp pouted and looked over at Leo. He gave him a once-over. “Yo Leo, nice tux! I’m surprised your broke ass could afford it!” He said, cackling. Chain stepped on Zapp’s foot with as much casual force she could muster. “That hurt you bitch!”
+++
Everyone enjoyed themselves with the food and booze selection, and after a good hour and a half, K.K. appeared next to the dance floor, with a microphone in hand.
“Alright everyone, gather around! We’re going to be handing out everyone’s presents! Let’s all open them at the same time~” She announced in a sing-song voice. Everyone cheered and clapped.
The staff helped hand out presents to everyone, and soon everyone had one in hand, including K.K; She picked up the microphone again.
“You guys better have gotten me something good this year okay! Let’s open them on 3~, 2~, 1~, GO!”
As is Libra yearly tradition, every member ripped open their presents with aggressive flair. Notably, Chain reached into her fairly large gift-wrapped present and pulled out the present in question, which was wrapped in several more layers of gift wrap. She grinned and performed the trick several more times, leaving a matryoshka procession of empty wrapped packages.
Leo was a little surprised at first, but then began tearing into his. Inside, he found an x-station elite controller, a voucher for the console, and a copy of Hard Dive 4 to replace the one he had lost. Leo’s jaw dropped, and he started glancing around, wondering who would drop so much money on a present, and who would even know this was the game he had wanted to play most?
He noticed everyone also admiring and/or showing their disgust at the presents they had received. In the meanwhile, K.K. announced “Go ahead and look for your secret santas!” over the commotion. Zed was holding a DVD copy of “The Little Mermaid”, and immediately went to smack Zapp.
“Hey hey hey it wasn’t me!” Zapp exclaimed.
“I really don’t believe you” Zed said, sighing but inspecting the summary on the back.
Leo looked at all the Libra members, trying to guess who would give him such an extravagant gift. It probably wasn’t Steven or K.K., since they didn’t know about his love for the game series. It couldn’t be Zapp, because it was actually a thoughtful gift. He didn’t think Zed or Chain would spend so much on a Christmas present. He thought it could be Klaus or Gilbert, so he chanced a look at Klaus’ reaction to Leo’s gift.
Klaus was standing next to the gift table, with his gift in hand. It was clear that it was hand-knit, with a few looser areas that Leo had really tried to pull together. Leo had made Klaus an infinity scarf out of the failed sweater with small gauge maroon yarn, and did his best to keep the ribbed pattern even though it was unusually horizontal rather than vertical.
Klaus had on a soft smile as he admired the handiwork, and Leo’s face ignited into red. He didn’t think he could deal with that right now, so he walked over to Gilbert instead.
“Mr. Gilbert, were you my secret santa?”
Gilbert gave a small knowing smile for before shaking his head. “It’s not me, of course you know that Mr. Leonardo?”
Their conversation was interrupted by Chain who was enthusiastically waving a jewelry box. “Thank you for the earrings Gilbert!”
“You’re quite welcome Ms. Chain”.
Chain pumped her arm in a victory pose. “I figured it out first!”
Leo giggled at Chain’s buzzed behavior, and turned around to search for Klaus.
He found him chatting with Steven, and approached their group.
“Klaus, you’re definitely not the one who got me this right?” Steven was frowning, holding a tie with a very cute dark green Christmas design with tiny reindeer.
“No, it wasn’t me” Klaus said, with beginnings of a laugh that he was clearly trying to tamp down. Steven grumbled as Leo joined them.
“Young man, it wasn’t you either right?”
“Nope.” Leo grinned. Whoever it was had excellent taste though, he was looking forward to Steven wearing that particular tie.
Steven gave the both of them a very pointed look, before shoving them towards a less populated alcove in the hall. He then walked off, cursing that it was probably K.K.
+++
Klaus had a sheepish look on his face, clutching his scarf. Leo tried really hard not to run away.
“Leonardo, I don’t think we’ve had much of a chance to talk recently, have we?”
Leo nodded.
“You’re my secret santa right?”
Leo nodded even harder, about as red as a tomato.
“Um… and you’re the one who got me the game right? How did you know?”
“I saw it in the official report about your lost items in your previous apartment. I hope that wasn’t too forward of me to presume you didn’t replace those yet…” said Klaus.
Leo shook his head.
A short silence fell over them until Leo slapped the both of his cheeks with his hand.
“Klaus, I’m so sorry about my present! I really meant to knit you a sweater but it took a lot longer than I thought! Your present is super amazing, I love it!!” Leo said really quickly. “I promise I’ll make it up to you!”
Klaus shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re apologizing for, it’s quite wonderful! I’m really happy to receive this.” He put it on, on top of his probably expensive suit. Leonardo was worried about the size, but it draped over Klaus’ neck perfectly, keeping him warm.
Klaus had on a goofy smile, like he was incapable of turning it off right now. Leonardo couldn’t help but feel proud of his creation, and a comfortable warm feeling spread through his chest. All of the sudden, he didn’t know what he was so scared about. This was the man he loved. There was nothing to be worried about.
Even if Klaus didn’t like him back.
“Mr. Klaus, I actually have something I’ve been meaning to ask you. Could you lean down a bit so I could tell you quietly?”
Klaus, instead of leaning over, got down on one knee. Leo blushed even harder before going to whisper in his ear.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while, but… I really admire you. I can’t say when it started exactly… but I think have feelings for you. More than as a boss or a friend. Would you consider going out with me?”
Leo backed up, putting distance between them again. “I’ll give you time to think about, you don’t have to answer me right away!” He said in his normal voice. He turned around to try and escape again, but he only made it 5 feet before Klaus stood up and grabbed his arm.
“Leonardo, wait!”
There’s no way Leo would be able to muscle his way out of Klaus’ grip, but he knew that if he really tried, Klaus would let go. He felt his heart drop, but he turned around anyways. He put on a brave smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
Leo was used to seeing kindness in Klaus’ eyes, but he didn’t think he had ever seen this other expression in addition to it. He could almost see Klaus’ pupils dilate, filled with desire.
“I don’t think I’ll need any time to think about my answer. I feel the same way too. I have, for a long time.”
Leo is almost certain his brain just shut off; he couldn’t believe what Klaus just said. But his body acted on its own, reaching for the other man’s lapels and dragging him down for a kiss. Klaus relaxed and responded in kind.
In the background, lots of people started noticing the two lovebirds and cheered. Patrick whistled.
K.K. walked up to Steven with a smug look on her face. “I believe I’ve won; I’ll be taking that extra two weeks of paid vacation starting tomorrow.”
Steven sighed.
On the other side of the room, Zapp started cursing. “Dammit Leo!! You couldn’t have waited one week! My 100%-foolproof plan would have worked you idiot!”
Klaus and Leo finished their kiss only to notice the commotion and attention of everyone around them. The bigger man had the decency to look a little embarrassed, but Leo was downright confused.
“You guys were betting on us??!” Leo shouted.
Zed, K.K., Chain, Steven, and Patrick all broke eye contact suspiciously.
Zapp approached the two and messed up Leo’s hair, putting him in a headlock. “Yeah, because you two are super annoying when you’re beating around the bush!!”
Chain intervened with a dropkick against Zapp, standing on top of his head. Leo almost fell back along with Zapp due to the force of the kick, but Klaus quickly scooped him up before his tuxedo got ruined.
“Yeah, as if you and Zed weren’t 10x as annoying due to your stupid tsundere personality!”
Leo burst into laughter, certain that everything was going to be just fine.
End Notes:
Thank you for reading! I love this show and this pairing, so I wanted to write something cute for it. Hopefully you got some joy of this too :)
A little bit of Zed/Zapp snuck in too, but sorry/not sorry ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿