[ Sorry, baby, no time to show off the goods today. Maybe when they aren't in-between infohacks and knee deep in a foreign base full of people that will probably shoot first and ask questions later (if only, as it turns out, because they're too stupid to ask questions, evidently). For whatever reason or another, Tseng taking to heart what he says and looking at him like that makes Reno smile, fond, kind of amused. They really aren't so different, sometimes. They may act it out in different ways, but their hearts are so similar it freaks him out sometimes. The more these things go on, utterly and completely changing the landscape of his mind and how it's functioned for the last nearly thirty years, the more he thinks he might be starting to understand. Starting, because he probably never will fully. Not like a normal person. Whatever a normal person is supposed to be. ]

Yeah. It's so fucking good to see you. The wait's kinda nice, like savin' dessert for last. And you are a treat, that's for damn sure.

[ Isn't that what you're supposed to do? Eat dessert last? Fuck you don't tell him how to live his life. His fingertips snake down the scant space between them, pressing his thumbs into and around the swell of Tseng's pecs, becoming distracted by branching scars and beauty-spots and returning to center. He rests their foreheads together. ]

But not knowing how long it's gonna be makes me wanna throw you over my shoulder and squirrel you away somewhere for later. I really gotta make the most of it. But I guess it's always been that way, huh? It's all in my head.