The ride wasn't too long, but it certainly was awkward. And not the kind of awkward they'd been experiencing lately; the sort of awkward that meant losing something, something you weren't even sure you'd actually gained. It made Grayson uneasy, made his stomach shift in ways that had nothing to do with proximity and everything to do with the slow-building distance between them. He'd liked Jude, had always liked Jude. Of all the Zodiacs, he could count on one hand the number he really wanted to get to know well, and Jude was one of them. First, because of the type of person he was. Second, because he'd saved Grayson's brother.

But that was slipping away fast, and he didn't have it in him to stop it. Never would, really. Grayson was the type of man who would calmly accept what he was given, even when it hurt, if it was what the other person wanted. He was this way with friends, lovers, family. It took an incredibly rare instance for him to put his own feelings first, and this was not that time. Not when he never knew exactly where he stood with Jude, anyway.

And even when he thought he did, it seemed like he was off base.

He got out of the truck, violet eyes unusually solemn, not that it mattered; Jude wasn't looking at him. Well, he should have expected that. Being called "Leo" hurt a little, too, and simply reinforced that aside from being Zodiac, they really had nothing.

Nothing but the Zodiac and a football team. How naive had he been, to think they could actually be friends?

So he hesitated only a moment, and then took off the hat. At first, he'd accepted it without even thinking whether it was in the temporary or the permanent; he assumed that if Jude wanted it back, he'd ask for it. That was how Grayson handled most things. It had really made him happy, too. But looking down at it, turning it over in his hands, he didn't think it had been meant as a gift.

Who gave a gift to someone they didn't consider a friend, anyway?

So he placed it on the seat, and his voice was quiet when he said, "Good night, Jude."

Not Sagittarius, but Jude. Jude was always Jude first, even if Grayson was always Leo first to him.

It hurt a little, but he was good at hiding hurt when he turned, stuffed his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt, and walked inside.

He didn't look back, either.