Tseng very nearly asks. The temptation is very sweet, too sweet to hold in his mouth and not let go, to ask who it was that told Rufus anything he did not command them to.

But he doesn't have to ask. He does not even have to think for very long on who it might have been. There is only one logical option.

A trifle that can be dealt with later. He meets that blue-eyed stare with a dark and impassive one. His fingers work tirelessly through it all.

"I was under the impression that I would not disappear," he tells Rufus, cupping water in his hands to carefully wash the soap away. "There is at least two of me in this place, is there not? And so I never truly left you..."

He breaks from their mingling look first, but only to bow his head and press a kiss that drips hot and toxic like poison against Rufus's shoulder. "I would never leave you."