#quick someone send me a captcha to make sure i haven’t been replaced by a robot

[frankchurchillsaysrelax]

I was hoping to get this up tonight so it is very hastily edited. 

open your eyes then you will see

Being a surgical intern at Grey-Sloane Memorial Hospital meant hating your life 75% of the time. The other 25% was full of groundbreaking surgeries and frustratingly hot ortho fellows. Levi was currently deep in that 75% trying to catch up on his charts without any distractions.

“There you are!”

He should have known better. The tunnels only provided a temporary reprieve before one of the other interns inevitably finds their way down there.

“Can’t talk right now Taryn, little busy at the moment.” He glances up briefly before going back to his notes. She’s smiling which probably means he’s not in trouble although knowing Helm she could find his latest screw up amusing.

“This won’t take long, I’m scrubbing in on a craniotomy in ten.” Levi tries not to feel jealous. He fails. “Anyway, you still want to move out of your mom’s place right?”

Not at all what he was expecting from this conversation, Levi turns his full attention to his friend. “Um. Yes?”

“Great!” She slaps her hands together hard enough that the noise echoes in the empty stretch of hallway. “You move in Saturday. Casey already agreed to help so between the three of us it shouldn’t take long. You’re buying dinner.”

Levi blinks rapidly, his brain unable to process this new information as quickly as Taryn delivers it. By the time his vision refocuses she’s already halfway to the elevator but still within hearing distance.

“Thank you?”

——

He has trouble concentrating after that and half an hour later when he is paged to the on call room on third by that certain ortho fellow he gives up on his charting entirely.

He’s barely managed to turn the lock before he’s being pressed against the door and Nico’s face is less than a inch away.

“Hi,” he whispers, his lips brushing briefly against Levi’s. He flashes that small half smirk that still manages to turn Levi’s knees into jelly before leaning in for a slow lingering kiss.

Levi tries to reciprocate the greeting though he thinks it comes out as more of a grunt.

“What are you doing Saturday? My shift just got changed and I was thinking we could do something.” His lips have migrated down to his throat and his fingers are deftly untying the drawstrings on Levi’s pants. They’ve really mastered the art of multitasking.

Levi’s head is nodding slowly before his brain remembers Helm’s ambush from earlier.  He starts to pull Nico’s shirt off while unsubtly nudging him towards one of the beds.

“I can’t babe.” He trips while toeing off his shoes and Nico manages to gracefully roll them onto the mattress, because of course he does. “I’m moving.”

Nico pulls back abruptly and stares down with that adorably blank face before it morphs into a confused frown.

Levi slides a hand into his hair and drags him back down for another heated kiss. He explains Taryn’s earlier declaration while Nico works on getting him out of his shirt.

“Well that was efficient of he— shit Levi.”

Levi rolls his hips upwards again. All other thoughts escape them for the next few minutes.

“I can help,” Nico offers suddenly. “We can use my car and probably only need one trip.”

It takes a minute for Levi to understand what he’s talking about. His brain is hazy in the best way. He stops Nico from dragging his pants down and lovingly trails his fingers along his biceps where they are bracketing his head.

“I think that might get a little distracting, don’t you think?”

Nico snorts softly and nips at the underside of his jaw, sucking lightly at the skin.

Their bubble is popped by the piercing sound of their phones both going off. They separate quickly and redress silently, each thinking about the incoming trauma to help redirect blood flow.

Once they’re in the elevator, Levi pushes up onto his toes to press a final chaste kiss to Nico’s mouth. “I would love your help. Thank you.”

Nico smiles fondly and lightly traces his pinky finger along the edge of Levi’s as the doors open.

——

Five hours and over two hundred sutures later, Levi is sprawled across the bench in the locker room waiting for Taryn.

She strolls in after a little while and Levi waits until she’s at her locker before starting his interrogation.

“Look it’s really not that difficult.” She pauses as she changes her shirt. “My roommate is breaking her lease, I need to find someone to take it over, you need an apartment, we’re friends. It’s a win win.”

“Isn’t it customary to ask about these things first? Discuss rent at least?” Levi stands and grabs his bag when she shuts her locker.

“Fine.” She tilts her head back and releases a long suffering sigh that Levi doesn’t really appreciate. “We can talk, but at Joe’s. I need a drink.”

He listens to her explain her surgery as they walk, “Koracyk let me use the drill!”, but as soon as they have their drinks and are sitting in a booth he redirects the conversation.

The rent isn’t bad, and definitely doable, and they agree on all of the basic house rules. By the time Casey and Dahlia join them he is much more excited about the whole thing.

“Oh, and Nico said he’d help so you guys can stay back at the apartment.” Levi is not expecting the catcalls this statement elicits. “What now?”

“Nico is going to be at your house,” Dahlia explains as if he’s a child. She pats his hand mockingly but there is an excited grin on her face. “Your mom’s house. Where your mom will be. This is a big step Levvy!”

Levi stares back at her with wide eyes. This amount of short circuiting in one day cannot be good for his brain. His voice squeaks when he finally finds it. “No it’s not.”

His friends laugh and he takes a moment to silently hate them.

“Parker, back me up. This doesn’t mean anything right?”

Casey gives him a look of sympathy while he takes a sip of his beer. “Meeting Alison’s parents was the most terrifying experience of my life.”

“You’ve been to war!”

Casey shrugs and Levi’s eyes flit between his friends looking for an ally. He quickly drains the rest of his beer.

——

The next morning Levi makes his way up the stairs into his mother’s kitchen rather than using his separate entrance. He is in need of some strong coffee and a full breakfast after last night.

Taryn had kindly supplied him with copious amounts of alcohol for the rest of the evening as he sat there in full panic mode, and he may or may not have still been a little drunk when he woke up this morning.

“Good morning, Matoki,” his mom calls out as he emerges. “This is a nice surprise.”

Levi shuffles over to where she is pouring coffee into her travel mug. He kisses her cheek and mumbles a greeting. She turns and holds her hands on either side of his face, shaking her head affectionately at his glassy eyes and generally rumpled appearance.

“You need a haircut,” is all she says.

Levi brushes her hands away before going to sit at the kitchen table. His mom keeps talking while grabbing a tall mug for him. She has to stretch up on her tiptoes to reach it but he doesn’t have the energy to get up and offer help.

“So what’s new with you these days? I feel like I haven’t seen you around here in weeks.”

Levi thinks of all the nights he’s spent at Nico’s and a blush rises on his cheeks. “Work’s been busy lately. Exams are coming up soon and all.”

Lydia eyes him like she knows that isn’t the whole story, she always knows, but blessedly doesn’t say anything.

“Just don’t overdo it. Now, I have to get to work but I just did the shopping so help yourself.” She presses a kiss to his forehead as she passes.

“Thanks mom.” She has grabbed her bag and has one hand on the doorknob before he remembers the other reason he had come upstairs. “Wait!” He scurries to the front door. “I have to tell you something.”

His mom turns to look at him expectantly with just a hint of concern at his outburst.

“Taryn’s roommate is leaving and she wants me to take the room. I’m moving in on Saturday.”

If she’s surprised, she doesn’t show it. Instead she just grins and steps forward to give him a quick squeeze. “That’s wonderful, Levi. I know how much you’ve been wanting your own place. I won’t lie though, I’ll miss having you around here.”

Levi tries not to roll his eyes. They both know he’ll be over here at least once a week for dinner, the same way he was all through college.

“Well, Saturday, that is soon. Do you need me to call up your cousins? I won’t be able to help you lug everything out to the car by myself,” she laughs, gesturing down to her small frame. It’s deceptive. Lydia Schmitt is scarily strong.

“No it’s fine,” he assures her.” “My friends are going to help.” And my boyfriend is coming over to load the car. You won’t have to do anything except maybe mop me up off the floor.

The words almost pop out of his mouth and he has to bite his lip to keep them inside.

“I’m glad you have such caring friends, Matoki.” Her eyes go wide as she glances down at her watch. “I really need to go now but we can talk more later.”

She’s out the door in an instant, calling out a love you over her shoulder. Levi waves from the door before returning to the kitchen to raid her fridge.

——

After sleeping nine hours followed by back to back shifts, Saturday arrives quickly. There is surprisingly little to pack. The apartment is furnished and most of his clothes can just be shoved into a duffle. The rest of his belongings go into some boxes he picked up on the way home from work. When he’s done it’s a little strange to see just how little he actually owns.  

There are more pressing matters at hand though. Nico is on his way and he still has yet to tell his mom about him. He feels terrible, this shouldn’t be such a big deal really. But the couple of chances he’s had were interrupted by his friend’s words from the other night.

What if this was too soon? What if he was putting too much pressure on their still relatively new relationship?

He hadn’t had a chance to talk to Nico properly in the last few days which was only adding to his anxiety. For all he knew Nico hadn’t realized this would be happening either and now he’s just springing this apparently massive step in their relationship on him.

The sound of a car pulling into the driveway breaks the endless spiral of panic Levi had found himself in. He grabs the nearest box and starts up the stairs to the back entrance.

The sun is shining, a rarity for Seattle, and the light hits Nico in a way that honestly leaves Levi a little breathless. It could also be the stairs.

Nico jogs over, taking the box and gives him a perfunctory kiss before carrying it effortlessly back to his car. The henley he’s wearing clings nicely to his arms and Levi licks his lips as he watches unashamed. Nico walks back to him and Levi reaches up to pull him in for a proper kiss.

“Mmhmm, I was right,” he whispers against his lips. “Distracting.” He gives Nico’s arm a playful squeeze before drawing back.

Nico looks down with a wide grin on his face and Levi feels more at ease than he has in days. Things seem less scary when he has Nico Kim by his side.

“Listen, um….” His whole demeanor turns serious and Nico’s grin shrinks a little, his eyebrows scrunching together. “I don’t know if this is weird, or if it’s completely not weird, and I’m sorry to just kind of spring it on you but it didn’t seem like the kind of thing you text, which is ridiculous, especially if it isn’t weird at all, and—”

Nico clears his throat and wraps a soothing hand at the back of Levi’s neck. His thumb rubs gently at his scalp and it has the intended effect of both shutting Levi up and calming him down considerably.

“I want to introduce you to my mom,” he says in one breath. “Is that—is that ok?”

Nico’s smile is back tenfold and he nods his head. “I’d love that.” He sounds so genuinely sincere that all of the remaining worry in Levi washes away.

He leads him around the side of the house to the front door and they find his mom at the computer in the living room.

“Hey, mom?”

Lydia looks up and her eyes widen a little at the sight of the man beside her son. She takes off her glasses and crosses the room, extending her hand in greeting. “You must be one of Levi’s friends, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Actually, mom.” Levi glances at Nico and grabs his hand. Nico holds his hand a little tighter as a sign of  support. “This is my boyfriend, Nico.”

She looks surprised for only a second before a smile radiating pure joy lights up her face. “Oh, well in that case, it is very nice to meet you, Nico. I take it you’re one of the reasons my son has been so happy recently?”

Nico shakes her hand, his other one still firmly clasped in Levi’s. “It’s a pleasure to meet you too ma’am, and I definitely hope so.”

Lydia observes the two of them for a moment, filled with so much pride and happiness for her boy. “You two should get going, you have a long day ahead of you. Let me know if you need any help, otherwise come say goodbye when you’re done.”

Levi doesn’t let go of Nico’s hand until they are in the basement. They work in a comfortable silence and have the car loaded in under thirty minutes.

After Levi closes the back he turns to see Nico talking with his mom. He watches as his two favorite people interact. The height difference is almost comical but everything else about this moment is perfect.

“You should come over for dinner sometime soon,” he hears his mom say.

“I’d love that, thank you.” Nico smiles as Levi joins them before excusing himself to give mother and son a moment alone.

“That’s a wonderful man you have there, you should keep him.” She smiles up at her son even as her eyes start to water.

“I plan to,” he assures her as he wraps his arms around her shoulders. Lydia holds on tight. “I just wanted to say thank you. For letting me come home after med school, and just for everything really.”

She retreats from their embrace and rests a hand on his cheek.

“You’re a good boy Levi.” With a final kiss to her cheek he walks over to Nico’s car and gets in.

Once they’re on the street, he sinks low into his seat and exhales dramatically.

“How did that go? I think I blacked out.”