#it’s also like. leo doesn’t call jed by his first name until later in the season

[callixton]

i do fully understand the other layers to this but leo losing his marriage bc. simply put. he is more loyal to bartlet than his wife. will Never cease to make me insane. their dynamic is so….

[tinykings]

song prompts: leo/marbury, "willow" by taylor swift :')

ohhhhhh my weakness, Taylor Swift and two terrible old white men in love ;) thanks friend!

for context's sake, they've slept together before this little fic. if it was much longer (AND WHO KNOWS), i would have included that.

Leo McGarry is tired of waiting.

Well, he’s tired of waiting for a lot of things, but in this case, it’s waiting for Marbury to get off his fucking yacht. Marbury had invited Leo and Jed on a sightseeing trip of the Currituck Sound off the shore of North Carolina. Marbury wouldn’t shut up about it, and Jed likes Marbury more than he hates nature, so he agreed to it. Why he forced Leo to go along with it…okay, Jed doesn’t force Leo to do anything, because that’s impossible: Leo will follow Jed into hell or high water.

Turns out this time it was high water.

They’ve finally docked, and Leo’s the first off of the boat; he hates water and ships more than he hates the air and planes, which is saying something. But Marbury, already more than enough tipsy, is taking his time leaving his prize. Jed looks at Leo with a glance that seems to say “Sorry, but you agreed to this,” and Leo shoots back a glare that says “Only because you’re you, Mr. President” but the glare lands on Marbury, not Jed. Marbury cocks his head at Leo.

“Why Gerald, what’s wrong?” That just sets Leo’s teeth on edge, because if Marbury could just fucking call him Leo it would make things so much easier. Leo hates boats, and right now, he’s starting to hate Marbury. But he responds as kindly as he can.

“Just glad to be on dry land again.”

Marbury’s eyes darken with concern. “Jed, you should’ve told me he hates boats.”

Jed laughs a little nervously: “It never came up.”

“I could take you up on my 2-seater next. Maybe you’d prefer that--”

“Hell no,” Leo growls, pushing past the two men as he hurries down the dock towards the SUV waiting for them.

On the way to the train that will take them back to DC, Leo mostly just looks out the window, while Jed and Marbury discuss important matters of state in between bites of gossip. Leo knows Marbury keeps looking over at him, and he wishes he would stop.

On the yacht, Marbury had chattered Leo’s ear off about something which Leo couldn’t really focus on, trying not to get sick off the mild waves and the smell of alcohol on Marbury’s breath. Leo really wishes John would stop drinking.

And he also really wishes he would stop calling Marbury “John” in his head when he’s fretting about him. He feels Marbury staring at him again, so he stares right back. This seems to awaken something heated in Marbury, from the look in his dark, brown, bottomless eyes.

Leo starts to feel sick again.

At the train station, Jed boards the train, but Marbury tugs on Leo’s sleeve and stops him from following.

“Leo, I feel like we keep getting off on the wrong foot, ever since--”

“Maybe if you called me Leo instead of Gerald…”

“Right, right. All in good fun.”

Leo just grunts at that.

“You didn’t have to come, but you did. The invitation was to Jed and Abbey. But he brought you along instead.”

“Abbey was busy.”

“Right. Of course.”

“She was.”

“You didn’t have to come. You’re more than Jed’s whipping boy,” and Leo takes offense to that, as well as the hand that’s come to rest on his arm. He shakes off Marbury’s gesture.

“I serve at the pleasure of the President.”

“But not any President.”

“I was Secretary of Labor once upon a time, you know.” The train’s whistle blows, and Leo can hear Jed yelling his name over it.

“Leo--”

“I’ve got to go, John,” he says, and turns to go, but Marbury grabs his hand for a moment and doesn’t let go. Leo really hopes Jed isn’t watching this. But he doesn’t yank his hand away, either. The two men just share the moment together, and Leo, for a moment, considers leaving with John on his 2-seater to anywhere that Jed Bartlet isn’t.

The train’s whistle blows more urgently this time, and Leo detaches his hand from Marbury’s. “When I’m in DC next, let’s talk?” Marbury puts this as a question rather than a statement, and it’s almost a concession of weakness coming from him.

“I’ll almost certainly have plans,” Leo says, hoarsely.

“And I won’t mind wrecking them. Gerald.” Leo scoffs a little and even rolls his eyes, before boarding the train.

He finds Jed sitting in his seat embroidered with the seal of the President, just another reminder of the awesome power his friend embodies.

“What the hell was that all about?” Jed says, not looking up from his pile of papers. Leo just shrugs.

Leo looks out the window at the train platform, all concrete and metal. And there’s Marbury, willowy as ever, lifting a hand in a gesture that says “See you later,” as opposed to merely “Goodbye”.

And then the British man does something utterly ridiculous, which makes Leo smile in spite of himself. Marbury puts his hand to his heart.

Leo copies the gesture. He’s just full of surprises today, he guesses.

This time, Jed is looking at the two of them. He goes back to looking at his papers, glasses on the tip of his nose. “You and John, huh? God, what’s next?”

But Leo doesn’t respond. He just looks out the window until the platform and the other man vanish from view. You and John, Jed had said. It doesn’t have a terrible ring to it.

[smallblueandloud]

hi!! cj/toby or cj/toby/andy + love confessor and first kiss😊 thanks so much ily!! i’m really annoying so i’m going to send another request with these ships so you can do both, neither, or whichever one strikes inspiration

i cheated a little on this one, oops! also i just wrote a full-out fic for it because i wanted to. for this ask meme, which will be open until tomorrow. sorry about the angst?

but i could only look down (1.3k, toby/cj/andy and toby/cj)

They go up to him after his speech. The crowds are still small, now, easy to push through. Toby knows they’ll get bigger. Leo McGarry turns, notices them at his elbow, and pokes Josiah Bartlet on the shoulder.

“Yes, I’d be happy to discuss that with you later, but right now my jerk best friend is tearing me away. What is it, Leo?”

“Jed,” says Leo, gesturing at Toby and CJ. “This is CJ Cregg. She’s going to be doing our press for us, I hope?”

CJ has stars in her eyes. Toby knows the feeling. It’s hard to listen to a speech by Josiah Bartlet without feeling optimistic, even stump speeches in tiny crowds. He can’t wait to hear him speak on the national stage.

“Nice to meet you, Governor Bartlet,” says CJ, shaking his hand. “I can definitely help with some of the more urgent business, but I still haven’t figured out my long-term plans yet. I’m here as a favor to Toby.”

“Toby?” asks Bartlet, narrowing his eyes. CJ gestures vaguely to her left, where Toby’s been standing this whole time, and he smiles. “Right. Of course. Toby.”

“Jed,” says Leo, at Bartlet’s elbow, and Bartlet’s smile turns apologetic.

“Sorry, kids, but duty calls. Nice to meet you, Ms. Cregg. I hope you can help us out!”

With that, he’s gone.

“Not great with names, is he?”

“No, not really,” says Toby. “He’s not a perfect politician.”

“But he’s a good man, huh?” asks CJ, and doesn’t wait for his answer. She knows him better than that. “Certainly an amazing speaker.”

“Yeah,” says Toby, and clears his throat. “You don’t have a room, do you?”

“You’ve been with me since we got off the plane,” she says. “No, I don’t.”

“You can- you can sleep on my couch, if you want.”

“Just like old times, huh?” asks CJ. She’s watching him carefully.

“Something like that.”

-

“No, no- no, shut up,” says CJ, laughing. “It’s not my fault that all the candidates you ever picked were losers.”

“I didn’t- they weren’t all losers!” protests Toby. “We won a few elections!”

“Mm hmm,” says CJ. “So few elections.”

They’re not drunk, but Toby feels like it, exhausted after two cross-country flights in two days. CJ isn’t tired enough to be as giggly as she is, but he thinks she’s just letting herself relax after a long, long time. They haven’t seen each other for a year, since she visited them for a weekend at their new apartment in DC after Andy was elected, and he knows she doesn’t have any close friends in California. Somehow they’re just as comfortable with each other as they’ve always been.

“What does Leo need me to do?” asks CJ. They’re sitting on the floor up against the bed, and her head slowly tilts to lean on his shoulder. He freezes.

“We need someone to talk to the press, basically,” he says, trying not to move too much. “Figure out which issues we should bring up, and when. Get the major news groups interested in us.”

“Oh, so nothing much,” drawls CJ. “Just everything.”

“Yeah, just everything.”

They sit there in silence for a few minutes. Toby works up his nerve. “CJ-”

CJ must recognize his tone, because she lifts her head up and turns to face him. “No.”

“CJ-”

“Toby, no.”

“Before I say anything else, I’m specifying that that Andy is-”

“We stopped this, Toby,” says CJ, looking at him like she’s begging him to understand. “We can’t do this. You two are married. I moved away. Andy’s in Congress, for god’s sake, and you’re working on a national campaign-”

“It’s tiny!” he says, throwing his hands up. “No one’s paying attention to us. We can do whatever we want, and no one will care, because no one’s even heard of the governor of New Hampshire.”

“They will,” says CJ. “God, Toby, you’re a writer, you know it. This one’s different. You heard him talk tonight.”

Toby doesn’t say anything.

“Besides, Leo McGarry’s on this campaign, and people pay attention to that. Josh Lyman jumped ship from the Russell campaign to be here, and that’s not nothing. You’re here, Toby, and you might be a goddamned fool but people know that you pick good people as candidates. They’ll pay attention to that.”

He stares at her. “New Hampshire. That’s what’s stopping us, huh. Fucking New Hampshire?”

“Toby, even without that, Andy’s been elected. You two are married. You can’t keep- she can’t be seen-”

“Don’t give me that bullshit,” says Toby. “We know how to hide this.”

“Not forever,” says CJ. “Not for long, even, not in Washington. Not when Andy’s going to be making noise. And you know she will. She won’t hold herself back, not for you, not for me, not for a thing that ended years ago.”

“It only ended because you wanted it to,” he says. “You know that. Andy and I-”

“You two went and got married!” explodes CJ.

“You told me to propose!”

“Yeah, because you two living together in sin wouldn’t look good! Especially with how much older you are.”

Toby looks up at the ceiling. “Is everything about politics with you?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees CJ put her back to the bed again. “Yes. While Andy’s a politician, yes. While you guys are married, yes.”

He closes his eyes. “You keep bringing up the marriage. You know we have a CJ clause, right?”

CJ exhales. “This isn’t last time. I know what’s on the table. I’m not saying no because I’m worried about Andy.”

“I would hope not,” says Toby. “Because she misses you. We both do.”

She doesn’t say anything.

“I love you, you know,” he says, and opens his eyes, turns towards her again. “I never stopped loving you.”

She kisses him. It feels like a first kiss, despite the thousands of times they must have kissed in Boston. They haven’t kissed in years. CJ stayed in a hotel when she took that trip to DC, planned things so she wasn’t alone with them for more than twenty minutes at a time, didn’t allowed any emotional talk, and went to the airport alone.

He’s missed her, missed this, missed being close to her. He loves Andy more than breathing, but CJ feels like his equal in every way. He doesn’t want to do this without either of them.

CJ pulls back suddenly. “No,” she says, and stands up. “We’re not doing this.”

“You’re the one who kissed me,” he says, spreading his hands and laughing a little. “This is all you.”

“No,” she says, “it’s your fault, saying- oh, come on, Toby, don’t look at me like that. This can’t happen.”

“Why not?” asks Toby, standing to face her. “Give me your reason, CJ, and I’ll stop asking.”

CJ closes her eyes. “The American public.”

“Stop- CJ, come on, why are you so obsessed with what the press will think?”

“It’s my whole job!” she shouts. “That’s my thing! I obsess over what the press will think! Andy-”

“Andy forbade either of us from getting involved in her career,” interrupts Toby. “Stop trying to micromanage this for her.”

“This will ruin her,” says CJ, quietly. “I’m not doing that to her. I’m not doing that to either of you. I want to work on this campaign, Toby, and I want to work with you again, and I want to get Josiah Bartlet elected president, because I think he’s a good man and he’ll be a better president. But if you won’t stop asking me for- for this, I’m going back to California.”

Toby stares at her. Finally, he says, “Fine.”

“Fine?”

“Fine,” he repeats. “You’re my best friend, CJ. Nothing else. As long as that’s what you want.”

“It is,” she says, and sounds like she’s trying to convince herself just as much as him. “I’m going to bed.”

“Goodnight, CJ.”

“Goodnight, Toby.”