"Ooh, 's perfect. I was getting hungry." The half grin is at full force, and Leon's biting his own cheek to keep from beaming himself. This wasn't a terrible idea. It's fine, it's fine. "Thanks, Leon."

"-- Happy Birthday, Sabin."

Leon still wants to run especially at the (friendly,) jab, but he's already out here. And announced himself. And, and-- "Breadrolls, the uhh, the good shit?" Please accept it. "One of the women in town found white flour and I paid her off for portion. It's no cake, but it's better than nothing and-"

& there's a pause, waiting for a reaction, until Sabin cracks an eye open to stare at him. Somber, not frowning, but it's enough Leon's about to dump his armload and bail--
until it breaks into a grin. Crooked, but there.
"Can't get anything by you, huh, Figaro-fanatic? Whatcha got there?"

there's a moment when he wakes up, scrounges together what he can from town, and goes to hunt down the monk (off meditating, on the edge of town; close enough to jump back in of something needs him,)

"--I'm sure you don't want to celebrate it, with everything going down, but its..."

chain of sales down, because haha Oh No."

ok brain calm it down
lets focus back in canon timeline please--

(I love 9 I’m not truly bitter. I’m feasting on new Steiner and Beatrix merch alongside everyone else.
But I AM laughing at the difference in marketing these annis got)

( Leon's not getting out of this un-teased. He's got a single band around One Elbow and only half his fingers )

Celes has latticework on her thigh
Gau's got like, half his chest covered
Locke's bracelet/arm-wrap game has got to leave some marks (same with Sabin, who also has way more chest/arms shown than most save Gau)
a LOT have knuckle/finger tans

like Gau leaps+glides a cliff edge on his bird, cackling, cheering
Cyan yells at him to be careful and mind the birds' safety, they're (probably) more delicate than he is

but Leon's laughing, awkwardness totally gone cause this is his element, "No worries, sir, they're trained for it," LEAPS TOO.

Leon's house would have a pilot-light style stovetop oven and Edgar will take one look at it and "oh absolutely not," tidy that right up for him.
"I have well-tapped water but it takes a bit for the fires to heat it up if you want to wash up--."
"Not anymore."
"?? SIR ??"

There's a crinkle hitting his eyes, and Leon can feel him vibrating under his thighs. Laughing.
There's teeth against his palm when his grin splits, and Then the gross palm lick he'd worried about. His hand snapped off with his own alarmed yelp.
"Ohh, Leon."
"Ew-- what?"
"Wrong kind of Monk."

flipped off with a flick of his wrist. Shit--
"Aren't you a MONK?"
Silence
Way too many beats of a silence. Leon's going to flip Himself off his perch and figure out how to make Edgar's fancy security doors crush him.
But Sabin's scrunched, soured face is lighting up under his palm.

There's a sharp, soured look across his partner's face. A bark of 'hey--!' and before he can go further, Leon's slapping his hand over Sabin's mouth in a panic.
"Nooononononono not like that like--" Shit shit shit. Sabin's nose is scrunching. T-minus 5 seconds before his palm his licked and he's

--!" he's rambling, he know he is.
Thankfully Sabin is beyond patient. More patient than Leon could be in this scenario.
(Legs astride his lap, pressed chest to chest. Hands buried in the beard fluff Sabin had let grow free in prep for the temperature.)
"--am I even suppose to be here?"

side.
Zoning out? "--Sorry, I was... Uh, thinking about how I got here?" Leon gave a wiggle, swatting the encroaching hand away from Another Pinch. "I kinda zipped through the steps. Breeder, smuggler, roommate, smuggler again. And now I got a house your brother threw fancy gears in as a Gift and