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[onlythans]

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[onlythans]

[Ah.

He's sifting through the collection of photo attachments with a growing sense of amusement — not necessarily the intended reaction when someone spontaneously messages over nudes, he's certain, but alongside the obvious arousal they're intended to stir, there's a sort of charm about the act of receiving them at all, like Reno's found yet another way to demand his attention and wait to see what he does about it. He likes that about him, the brash and laughing arrogance. Likes the sight of his body, too; those will get saved to look at again and again later, for certain.

It's the third picture that makes his stomach twist, an initial little jolt of instinctive alarm. He's never seen himself sleeping before, for obvious reasons, and the novelty means it's his training that rises to the surface first, reading threat in the image before anything else. He didn't know this picture was taken, until it crossed his phone like this. He was asleep, unawares, anything could have happened, anything while he lay there unsuspecting, it could've been worse than just a picture and mayhap that's precisely what the picture was meant to imply —

It's an impulse he actively has to quiet. This isn't a threat. It doesn't have to be assessed like one. And surely Reno wanted him to see it, so the fact that he'd leapt to such an extreme (however natural) threat assessment from it is...he can let it go. Let it go, and look again.

The second time he looks, the self-deprecating jokes are already coalescing in his mind. Who's this ugly mug alongside all the other pretty pictures, he could say, by way of deflection. It's not until the fourth or fifth time he looks that it occurs to him, like a dim ember on the very verge of burning out, that maybe Reno took the picture for himself. To preserve the sight of it. To preserve the sight of him, looking like...this.

He didn't know he looked so at ease when he slept. That his expression reflected the way he feels when he's on the verge of falling asleep around Reno no matter the circumstance, warm and unguarded and unwound.]

this last fellow is rather cute i'll admit
but my taste in men is still far superior to yours ;)

[astraphilia]

[ it isn't surprising that it takes a while to get a reply—he did send the text the middle of the goddamn night, after all. afterward he had poured himself a drink (and then another, and another) and smoked on the fire escape and eventually dragged himself to bed in a haze, so it's late morning by the time he wakes up to see Thancred's response.

Reno rubs his eyes to clear the blurriness from them and grins at the phone. ]

damn! sorry about your flawed taste, but it's okay, I guess you're allowed to be wrong

[ he flicks open the photo of Thancred, feels it burn a warm hole right through him. not that he'd expect Thancred to know, but Reno had taken this photo the night after their first movie night, with the invisible alien; he's been holding onto it all this time, for no other reason than to preserve a glimpse of how lovely and at ease Thancred is when he's asleep at Reno's side. ]

[onlythans]

is it strange that i think i can pinpoint when precisely you took this

on the sheer basis of the placement and age of the visible marks you left on me

[astraphilia]

you guess, I'll confirm

[onlythans]

well let's see
given the fading of the bite over my archon mark and the newer ones lower

and the nail marks in my shoulders
and i think i see the hint of a split lip in the low light

looks to be about a sennight ago, wasn't it?

[astraphilia]

you're dead on, holy fuck. you spend that much time memorizing the marks I leave on you, huh? ;) it was the night after the alien movie

[onlythans]

and you don't?

making me promise to give you more before the old ones have the chance to fade away, wasn't it?

[astraphilia]

yeah but it's different when I do it

[ #shameless ]

[onlythans]

you'd be memorable even if i didn't keep track

now then
might i claim a prize in exchange for my remarkable guess?
i've something in mind that i'd like, if you're wondering

[astraphilia]

yes yes if you insist, name your price, my good man

[astraphilia]

prize*

but price worked too

[onlythans]

tell me something about rude
something you like about him

you called him your business partner but i gather he's your friend too, isn't he?
i'd like to know more about him

about any of the people who are important to you really

[astraphilia]

[ it's a topic change that nearly gives him whiplash, but sure, Reno's game. ]

he bought me a lot of beers and never complained about it. what a guy, really

[ actually, it's for the best that they're texting. makes it a little easier to be honest, even though putting this shit in writing goes against every day of Reno's thirteen years of training. still, he thinks Thancred might understand better than most. ]

when you join the Turks the first things you learn are that you're probably gonna die before you hit 35 and that the job always, ALWAYS comes first. it's hard to make real friends when any day could be the day you bite it for the bossman y'know? hard to feel like anything is permanent. so we don't call each other friends, it just makes it harder when we die

but sure, Rude's the closest thing I have to a friend, probably. he's a good guy, loyal. kinda a romantic. real quiet type. people always thought that was funny 'cause he was my partner and you know I never shut the fuck up

[onlythans]

i know
the occupational hazards and the potential conflicts of interest

i've been thinking about my friends more and more lately
it's been six moons now since i turned up here
half a year

it made me realize that most all we've ever said of home was training and apocalypses

[And guilt, let's not forget guilt. But shhhh.]

does it bother you?
that i asked

[astraphilia]

it doesn't bother me. nobody's ever asked before, it's kinda nice to talk about something besides all the worst parts

[ lol jokes Thancred doesn't even know the worst parts yet. ]

what about you? tell me about someone from home too

[onlythans]

well
there's quite a few i could name i suppose

but if rude is the closest thing you have to a friend
then here's the closest thing i have to family

ATT: IMG0013.jpg

[astraphilia]

[ oh, it's stupid the thing Reno's chest does when he reads that message. for a man who he knows to be an orphan to talk about his family—

he opens up the photo and studies it. Thancred looks happy. so does the girl—she also looks vaguely familiar, although Reno can't quite put a finger on why. ]

this is cute as hell, look how happy you are. who is she? tell me about her

[onlythans]

her name is ryne
she's my

[un: archon is typing...]

to hear her tell it, she'd say i'm her knight in shining armor
but it's closer to father and daughter i suppose
i gave her both the names she uses

it's funny, really
waters is the name one gives a bastard with no father of his own
but that's the one she took to be hers

ryne waters

so i suppose it's worked out to a family name after all

[astraphilia]

[ his daughter. Reno wishes he could kiss him. he doesn't know what it's like to be someone's child and even less what it's like to be someone's father, but he knows without even seeing it that Thancred would inhabit that role beautifully. ]

well, you are pretty knightly... and your armor does shine...

I think she got lucky meeting a father like you.

she's here, isn't she? that's why she looks familiar?

[onlythans]

she wasn't lucky to have me at first
and not for far too long a time, really

i wasn't
i made mistakes and she bore the brunt of them

but she's strong
she found her own footing and won't let anyone take it from her
not me and not anyone else

...
she was at the gala, aye
in a white dress

[astraphilia]

hmm

[ there are some things Reno wants to say: that it's not always obvious, at the beginning, what shape something will take once it's grown into itself. that perfect is the enemy of good, and that while Thancred might have his flaws as a parent Reno isn't convinced those flaws are enough to make him worse than a lifetime alone.

but what does he know about family? he can't even remember his father's name, nor his mother's face. he barely remembers the name he had before he became Reno. what right does he have to speak on this at all? ]

I think I saw her. is it weird for you, her being here?

[onlythans]

[Again, he's quiet for what feels like a long time — not from lack of knowing what to say, but lack of certainty that words will even express the gravity of it.

In the end, all he can do is try. Which is...more than he did for Ryne, sometimes, back when it all first began.]

i didn't think i was ever going to see her again

i told you about the shards, aye
reflections of the shattered star that are each their own worlds themselves

travel between the shards isn't possible save in one very unusual case
and she was born on the first
and i was born on the source

i'd not seen her in a year or mayhap a few moons more before this
i shouldn't want her in a place this perilous but i can't regret it
not for a single moment

[astraphilia]

[ no one has ever mattered enough to Reno that to lose them would hurt him. still, through Thancred's messages he thinks he understands a little of the weight of it. ]

then I'm glad she's here, even if this place is fucked up. better here with you than somewhere else alone, no?

[onlythans]

well
mayhap not alone

she's a fair few cities' worth of friends
and the makings of a girlfriend unless i miss my guess

something about sharing lipsticks and going out for coffee biscuits, i've heard

[astraphilia]

[ come oooon my guy Reno is trying to be sweet and reassuring here ]

does sharing lipstick and going out for coffee biscuits make you girlfriends? I never knew, maybe cause the last time I wore lipstick was when I was like nineteen