Page 39 of Conflict Conclusion

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” Katherine said, her smile warm if a little thin. “I had an online appointment run long. A bit of an emergency, but we got it all sorted out.”

“Online was an option?” Leon muttered.

James shushed him as he stood up, offering him a hand even though Leon was already halfway out of his seat.

He took the hand, obviously, because he would hold James’ hand until his dying breath.

Unlike the last time they were here, when James’ smaller body had nearly crashed into Leon’s in the doorway, Leon pressed himself up against James’ back as they followed Katherine into her office.

“Good to see some things never change,” James said with a soft laugh as he led Leon over to the blue loveseat.

“Some things don’t, but obviously others do,” she said, taking her seat with a wide smile. “I was so excited to hear from Leon again, especially given that congratulations are in order.”

Leon sat down first, making sure to place his ass as close to the center of the couch as possible. James, still smiling at Katherine, didn’t look where he was sitting and ended up half on Leon’s lap.

“Thanks, doc. It’s good to see you again,” Leon said, wrapping his arms around his spluttering fiancé.

He was going to miss getting to call him that, especially since it always made his cheeks turn the most endearing shade of pink.

Although, getting to call James his husband would probably be just as sweet. They had been reviewing the officiant’s remarks earlier that week, and James had blushed all the way down his bare chest—because yes, they had been reviewing them cuddled up in bed, where else would they review them?—when they got to the line pronouncing them “Husband and Husband.”

They hadn’t had time to jot down any notes or feedback, because Leon just had to remind himself how his soon-to-be-husband’s skin tasted when it was so deliciously flushed. James had ended up sending back a few items the next morning, all the while grumbling about Leon “The Irresistible Distraction” Rabinowicz.

Leon would take that, just like he would take “baby,” “love,” and “my everything.” He only got that last one when he did something particularly impressive in bed or said something nice about their friends or their wonderful life together. Actually, come to think of it, he’d gotten that in the car on the way here, too.

He kept his arm wrapped around James’ waist as he maneuvered himself more fully onto the couch seat, putting an absolutely unacceptable two inches between them. Thankfully, the couch was still fully on Leon’s side, and a moment later James was sliding across the cushion as the springs groaned and then gave out.

“It’s good to see you both, too. You know, you’re the reason I haven’t gotten rid of that couch yet. It seemed to work wonders on you and has done some great things for other couples throughout the years.”

“It is pretty hard to stay angry at each other when you’re struggling just to remain upright,” James said, attempting to right himself only for the couch to push him more thoroughly into Leon’s side.

“A good snuggle can also solve a lot of problems,” Leon said, thinking back on all those sleepless nights after Hailey’s accident and the few nightmares he still had, usually after Hailey went back to school after a long break.

“That’s actually a great place to start. We’re going to have three sessions together, which is less than some of my other clients, but also more than most people have, so, given that, here’s what I propose we do.”

Katherine went on to explain how they were going to use today’s session to identify three areas they would like to focus on: one area where they were struggling, one where they were doing okay but could use some feedback, and one area they were knocking out of the park and wanted to keep being fucking amazing at.

Obviously, those were Leon’s words, not Katherine’s.

Leon already suspected what the three areas would be, which is why he wasn’t surprised when James brought up wanting to find a way to better support Leon with his ADHD at home.

“James is being hard on himself. He’s been amazing, I’m just switching meds and having a bit of a rough patch,” Leon said.

“Tell me a little more about that,” Katherine said, her pen flying across her paper at a speed even Aspen would be jealous of.

Leon explained that the meds he’d been taking weren’t working as well as they once had, and with a promotion at work and all the wedding planning going on, he was beginning to struggle with some day-to-day tasks, and a lot of it was falling on James.

“It makes me feel guilty and puts me in a sort of shit mood, which then makes James want to help, but he doesn’t know how, which makes me feel even worse and has led to some of our worst arguments as a couple. I’m trying to work on it with my therapist, but we thought maybe that was something we could discuss here?” Leon finished.

“Wonderful,” Katherine said, nodding her head like a therapeutic bobble head. “What else?”

“I want to be better prepared for supporting James through his mom and her partners getting older, but I think that means James needs to figure out what kind of support he wants from me, too,” Leon said, which was not something they’d discussed in advance, but something that had been weighing on him ever since Howard’s health scare.

James shifted, resting a hand on Leon’s leg, and the couch pushed them somehow even closer together.

“Aging parents and relatives are a very common point of stress in a marriage,” Katherine said, flipping a page in her notebook, somehow seeming to continue writing even as the page turned.

“That’s…a little hard for me to talk about,” James said, his thumb absently rubbing over the seam in Leon’s jeans.