Home Is Where The Heart Is

"Do you want me to be honest with you?" He whispered, unable to keep back his own worry as well. Pursing his lips, he focused on the bullet hole instead while neatly sewing it shut. It didn't take long and while it still looked like a scar, it wasn't a gaping hole anymore.

"I can order you some turtlenecks, that might be better," he offered with pursed lips. "You'll look fashionable and people won't see your... uh... problem."
 
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"Turtlenecks? Oh come on, do I strike you as the sort of guy to wear a turtleneck, Leo? I'd look stupid; I feel like I'm suffocating in those things. I can't pull that off, I'm not a model. I'd look pretentious," he groaned quietly, his wide smile indicative of some playfulness. As tense as the situation was, he was trying to bring in some lightness, to act as though the fact half of his neck was missing wasn't a huge deal. He eventually let the laughter die down, realising that the shock to the others wasn't going to disappear anytime soon, so acting as though everything was fine was a waste of time and energy.

"I'll see you Friday, yeah? FaceTime me or something," he eagerly smiled, leaning to place a kiss on Leo's lips, smiling again within it at the normality it brought him. "And... And we can hang out if that couple allows it. Watch those shows you like, scour through Instagram-- you can take some cute pics of me again, yeah? Zombie or not, I'm still photogenic-- I can still lie back and show off my abs, Leo. It'll be fun; it'll be normal again. Promise, hm? It'll all be fine real soon."
 
"Normal, yeah," he agreed in a whisper, though did smile at the kiss and seemingly how excited the other suddenly was, oblivious to the fact that it was forced. Giving Nyle's hand a squeeze, Leo let his eyes drift to Oliver. After a quiet 'I love you', he waved goodbye only to disappear, hoping Oliver would do the same.

"What does he mean, 'normal'?" Leo immediately asked once back in their home in the attic, his eyes staring off distantly. "It... it isn't normal for me. I can't feel him anyone, a-and...,8,2-'r to be snuggled up to my boyfriend and feel it all. We didn't even get to have sea wndche was gone."
 
"...I think he's delusional. Maybe he can put it down to his ordeal, and I feel bad for him, but he's mad if he thinks this is going to end up being some happy ever after. It's... dumb. It's all fucking dumb. A-And I'm... I'm so mad at you. I'm furious," he seethed as he settled down opposite him in the attic, turning to glare at the floorboards. He didn't want to cause an argument, not when Leo had been through so much, but surely he was allowed to communicate how he felt? It wasn't fair for Oliver to just shut up ad hold back how he felt just because it might make Leo a little confused or upset.

"You know I... I like you," he began slowly, his lips pursed into a frown. "You know I want to... to be with you. And you couldn't have j-just been a little more... aware that I was stood watching as you fucking fell into his a-arms? Like... I-I get it, you love him, but it... hurt, and... he doesn't... you can't be with him! He's not the same, it's... dumb!"
 
Growing silent in response, Leo tugged his knees to his chest and rested his head on them to comfort himself. Avoiding Oliver's eyes, he simply let the other speak before offering an awkward smile, unable to really know how to react at first.

"I'm sorry," he eventually whispered once enough silence had followed. "I don't... know why I still love him. He's so... dumb, yeah. I guess I just feel awkward not being with him, plus... p-plus... I don't know, I'm sorry. Im sorry," he quickly apologized, once again not quite sure what to say.
 
"...So that's how it is, huh? God, I'm an idiot," he groaned, lamenting the fact he blurted out his feelings to ultimately get rejected. He also hated the fact he was admitting his feelings for his best friend's boyfriend, knowing that the mere kiss he had planted on Leo, despite it being similarly rejected, was the ultimate betrayal. He felt horrendous for it, of course, even if, in his defence, he assumed that Nyle was gone, never to return.

His reappearance back into their lives ought to have come as a huge surprise, and a welcome one, but it only made that guilt hit that he had made a move on Leo.

"...Let's forget it, I... I was dumb, you know? You and Nyle are made for one another. He's my best mate. I don't want to... ruin that. I'll be fine! I have Bitters, I'm not a third wheel," he shrugged with a wide grin, perhaps a tad too wide and too forced, but it was the best he could do given the circumstances. "And... And hey, we're not really... couple material, are we? We're better off as friends."
 
"It's not like you're a third wheel when he's barely ever here," he murmured bitterly while pressing even tighter into himself, sudden anger rising... though it fell when his own self-loathing hit. He kept his internal stress to himself though.

"Why do you even like me?" He asked, genuinely confused after a moment. "There's nothing to me, I'm.... I-I'm a bad person, I'm selfish, I'm... awkward, I'm an idiot. This is why I don't understand why you dumped May. She was smart, nice, talented, a-and... I'm not even good enough to keep my boyfriend around."
 
"...He can't stay here, you know that. It's not like it's your fault that he has to head over to your neighbour's place, Leo. He can't stay in a house that's no longer his," the other ghost began, moving to sit beside Leo with a faint smile, doing his best to break the obvious tension. Bringing May up didn't help with that, admittedly, but he also chose to pretend he hadn't heard her name. He felt horrible enough effectively cutting her out of their lives, so being reminded of how shitty he had been didn't make him feel all that good.

"I like you for a ton of reasons. I... Can we not go over it? It'll just depress me because you love Nyle and-- god, I get why. He's great. Nyle's a fucking catch, isn't he? He's handsome, even like this, and he's so kind and funny. I totally get why you're head over heels for him, so let's not... pretend I have a chance. Just forget I said anything, dude."
 
Once Oliver sat beside him, Leo dared to rest his head on the other's shoulder. He knew it was affectionate and that might cause some drama but he wanted that closeness desperately. Grabbing his laptop, he slid it towards them and started up Netflix like always. If he wanted to help break the tension, he wanted to at least do something they enjoyed together.

"Let's not talk about it," whispered Leo, his eyes locked on the screen despite more anger beginning to fester. "I don't want to think about Nyle and... h-how dumb he's being. Why would he prefer to be in that awful zombie mode? 'Being normal'. That's f-fucking dumb and infuriating, is all. Like... I don't know. it's like he's rubbing it in our faces, right?"
 
"I don't know, I mean... I'm fine with this, Leo. Being dead. I'm fine with it. I never had family to visit or anything, so... I'm cool with being like this. It doesn't mean I like being stuck in a house. I... used to go clubbing and go to sports games and hang with friends. I-It fucking upsets me that he's showing off how wonderful his l-life is - especially when it can't be that wonderful looking l-like a corpse," he snapped, taking himself by surprise by the anger in his own voice. He wanted desperately to act like everything could go back to normal, and he wanted to have Nyle back in his life like old times, but it was hardly that easy when just looking at Nyle annoyed him.

"It's selfish, r-right? I think it's selfish," he declared openly, adjusting his position a little to be able to glance at the other ghost. "...I don't know, he's your boyfriend, so... so it's good for you that he's back, but... whatever, I'm being stupid. I don't like what he's doing and I think it's selfish, but that's just... my opinion."
 
"I don't know if it's selfish, I guess that's a bad way to phrase it. I don't think he wanted this, it's just... I do feel like he's shoving it in our faces a bit. I don't know, I can't stop him if this makes him happy but, like.... I don't know, I'm babbling," he grumbled, growing antsy that the cat was downstairs.

"There's no need feeling like a third wheel when it's only us, yeah?@ he reassured wirgbwvsnilr as he looked up at the older ghost.
 
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"It is selfish, course it's selfish. There's no other word for it," he grumbled beneath his breath, determined to have the last word on that. He could have continued by stating that he would always be a third wheel whenever Nyle was around and that there was no avoiding that predicament, but clearly, Leo was just as eager to move on from the tension as he was. He offered a smile, therefore, and rested an arm around him, knowing that it might be affectionate but, equally, he could claim it was platonic and casual. He obviously felt a lot more strongly about the action, but he could pretend it meant nothing if he had to.

The fact Nyle wasn't in the house and could only make visits for now was an obvious relief to Oliver. Sure, he wanted his best friend around and had genuinely missed him... but he had also grown to like being alone with Leo, as though that would give him ample chance to build up a romantic connection. Nyle being around full stop would ruin that, but he took comfort in his limited presence, knowing that the less time he spent with Leo gave Oliver more of a chance to build something romantic up, however hard a task it seemed to be.

And Oliver did have plenty of time to devote to the task because, over the few weeks, Nyle's visits weren't at all frequent;, managing to come around just 5 times. It wasn't his fault, given he couldn't just burst into a house that was no longer his, but he made up for it through calls, social media messages and video calls, doing a culmination of all of those every day to make up for the lacking physical presence. He still harboured a great deal of anger towards his boyfriend and Oliver for their reaction to him upon the reunion, but he could push that aside, knowing that building his relationships back up was far more important than perpetuating tension.

He was trying to get his life back together, after all; he was trying to be as normal as possible, which, to create that illusion, needed a lot of work put into it, starting with his appearance. Handling it all by himself was nigh-on impossible, which made Gigi's assistance all the more of a relief... even if he had no intention to let her know what had happened to him. When he was living with her, it was only a matter of time before she found out, and it took a long week before he could even convince her that she wasn't crazy. He explained -reluctantly- the entire situation, everything about Leo and Oliver, and what had happened to him, from his initial death and his reanimation. To his surprise, he wasn't met with horror or disgust. He seemed to receive nothing but incredible sympathy and it was everything he needed. He didn't get that from Leo or Oliver, after all, so if he wasn't close to Gigi before, her reaction only made him gravitate more to her.

It was, of course, a relief not to hide in front of her or her husband. It was also handy to have her assistance in looking more normal, which he chose to embark on before dealing with anything else like the problem about his hunger. Currently, he had tanned himself to get a little colour back onto his ghostly pale skin and had used some makeup to cover up the appearance of stitches, just so he could wear a t-shirt and not walk around in the hooded sweatshirt constantly - and the effects were, frankly, perfect. He felt he looked normal, at least back to how he used to look, and that only made him happy, a feeling he hadn't had with himself for months.

"Your son's coming today, yeah? That's nice-- that he visits, I mean. My Dad's probably annoyed I haven't gone home yet. I kinda just... escaped in the night and he's probably pissed," he murmured to Gigi as he sipped at the wine he was given, smiling at her through the mirror as she dyed his hair for him. It was, he felt, the final thing he needed to really look like himself again; to be back to his natural blonde colour. Once that was done, he knew nobody on the street would even double glance at him, and that was all he needed to really live normally again. It was a lot of effort, but it was worth it to be happy again. "What's he do again? Physics? He's gonna think I'm such a loser, Gigi. I don't know shit about science."
 
"Neither do I but I'm pretty sure he still loves me," the woman teased as she ran the bleach through the other's hair, coughing at the fumes. "This was how my mother used to dye my hair, always saying that it was better than the salon. Unfortunately, I can't afford to get you a spa day but I'm sure this will work just as well. Might lose a few brain cells along the way but alas," she explained, massaging it all in with a soft hum. Despite her calm composure, she was ecstatic. Her son was coming home to visit, mostly to celebrate both the holidays and the fact that he had gotten a surprisingly great job. He was the most successful thing to come out of their shitty small town and Gigi wanted everyone to know that, fully intending to head to dinner with all of them - including Nyle.

As she spoke, it was just on time did the bell ring, Collin patiently waiting on the other side with the suitcases in tow. Waiting at the door, he peeked into the window and offered a wide smile and a wave to his mother who received an eager squeal in return. Finishing up the hair quickly, she wrapped the hair up in a shower cap before hurrying to the door, a grin on her lips. The minute Collin stepped in did Gigi tackle her son in a hug, holding back her tears as Collin awkwardly laughed

"Relax, Ma! Don't cry, you're going to make me cry too," he urged as he gently eased her off so he could set his many bags down. Only then did he pull his mother into a tight hug. "Oh, and this is Nyle, right? I've... heard quite a lot about you," he greeted. "Nice to meet you finally."

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This wasn't the impression he really wanted to give to the man he had heard so much about in all the months he had known and been close to Gigi. She had always proudly boasted about her son, and he had no doubt that every word of it had been true... so meeting the man in a shower cap and a towel wrapped around his bare upper-half was far from the desired effect he had wanted to achieve. He never normally cared about what people thought of him, the only recent exception being his appearance to the public, but at least that was valid. He never cared about judgement otherwise, but he wanted to in this instance. Gigi meant a lot to him and, as a result, he was desperate to have her son like him.

"Ah, all good things, I hope? Your Mom's been a saint to me, she's a good friend," the man grinned, awkwardly reaching for his shirt which he then held in his hands, deciding it would only make things more weird if he stopped everything to tug it back on. Thankfully he had managed to apply the makeup to the stitches across his stomach to make himself look normal or the meeting would have been far more difficult than it currently was.

"Yeah, I'm Nyle-- used to live next door, actually. Kinda went through this ordeal- I'm sure your Mom told you, yeah? About how she went to my funeral which wasn't really my funeral. It's bonkers, really," he continued with an easy smile, retrieving the hot cup of coffee Gigi had made for him. "She's told me a lot about you too, it's all... fucking impressive, though I'm sure everyone says that to 'ya."
 
"Yeah, I went to your funeral," he admitted, still holding a smile as he offered a hang shake. "A wild time you must have had, huh? Plus it looks like you still had a bit of trouble," he commented, pointing to the few faint scars on the other's chest. He was well-known for his observation skills and while the scars were incredibly faint, nothing really passed Collin.

"Ah, it doesn't matter. Granted, I would love to learn about your story. It's fascinating," he admitted before pushing through the house, taking in his childhood home. "You didn't need to do all this cleaning, ma. Oh! I bought some pasta from the Italian restaurant down the road, I know you and dad like it."
 
"I'm not fascinating, god. I work at the pub and I don't even have a home to stay at, that's not that interesting, dude. Your Mom's nice enough to let me stay for a while until I get on my feet, but that's not fascinating, is it? It's kinda... rude of me, really. I'll be out of your hair soon, Gigi, yeah? I can't keep sponging off you," the man smiled quietly. As often as the woman had sternly told him he was welcome as long as he needed, especially after he told her the truth about his ordeal, the last thing he wanted to do was stay. He felt as though he was in the way somehow and, obviously, he wanted nothing more than to return to his house... however difficult that was to achieve.

"So, uh... you think it's interesting? I think it's a bit sad, kinda depressing, really. But hey, this is a bullet wound-- from the party. That scar's from some accident I had when I was younger; fell out of a tree, it's not worth going over. This one's... I don't even know. I lose track of 'em. I'm a mess," he explained as he absently pointed out the scars, deliberately avoiding mentioning the ones that were stitched up as a result of decomposition, exchanging a quick glance at Gigi for support.

"But I'm a cute mess if anything, 'specially with my new blonde hair your Mom's dyed for me. It'll look great, Gigi," promised Nyle to the woman, admiring himself in the mirror as he observed the brief glance at the dyed roots from underneath the cap. "Blonde's totally my colour. They have more fun, right?"
 
"I'm inclined to believe you," he replied before hurrying to the kitchen table, setting the dish down to Gigi's delight. "Do you want me to put it in the fridge? I know dad should be coming by in a few hours and I want him to eat too, but I'm pretty hungry now... nah, we'll put it in the fridge," he declared.

"Oh, you survived a bullet wound? That's just flat-out a miracle, ain't it?" He notes casually before finally tossing off his shoes and flopping down on the couch once setting the large dish in the fridge, taking in the worn-in couch happily. "My close friend - she's working on a degree in mortuary and forensic science - would love to meet you."
 
For a brief moment, Nyle's expression dropped, eyeing the other with a sudden sense of suspicion. He trusted Gigi and her husband completely to guard the secret he had told them, about everything that had happened and about Leo, but he did doubt that she could withhold that information. It made sense that she would tell her son about it, considering she seemed to tell him quite a lot - and understandably to, given he was her son and she was clearly proud of him. It didn't mean he was happy about it if she had indeed spouted out everything Nyle had trusted her with... but he at least wanted to know.

Yet, if he outright asked the other man if he knew, it would only arise suspicion in him, and that was drama he didn't want to unnecessarily cause.

"...Yeah, surviving a bullet to the chest is mad, huh? But I'm kinda invincible," he beamed, deciding to act oblivious. If Colin did know, then Nyle would wait for him to approach the subject himself; it was a much wiser way of dealing with the situation. "It'd take much more than a bullet to take me down."
 
"I like that determination," he replied, offering a casual smile before turning on the television, seemingly completely oblivious. It was possible he knew, sure, but the simple possibility that he was simply observant could always be the case. Turning on the television, Gigi seemed to immediately work towards making her son a coffee.

"Come on, sir with me," Collin urged, motioning the other over. "I mean, I want to learn more about my ma's new friend. I'm glad you're close to her, by the way."
 
"...Well, she's been a real help to me. From the day I moved in next door, she's been a godsend, you know? My family's back in Philadelphia and I'm broke, so... she's basically helped me not be homeless. I'm gonna pay her back for everything, obviously," he pointed out as he awkwardly moved to take a seat on the couch, adjusting his shirt once carelessly throwing it on. A part of him felt awkward about sitting beside Colin, his observational skills inevitably causing Nyle to be wary. Gigi had done a good job with the makeup and the tan, and he knew the stitches wouldn't come undone easily, but there was always the possibility that they might... and he didn't want a limb to just drop off in front of the other.

Especially if Colin had no idea about what Nyle was. It would be a horrible way to discover the truth.

"I don't live next door anymore obviously. Everyone thought I'd died, so I kinda... lost everything I had. Which wasn't fun, but oh well. Can't be helped," he shrugged with a feigned smile, focusing his attention on the TV. "So, how long you in town for?"
 
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