— least, but that isn’t about to stop him. biting his thumb sharply, but not with any real malice or intent to cause harm.

a little warning not to put words in his mouth.

— knowledge, reno doesn’t care. his tongue curls around the digit, pulling him deeper into his mouth to muffle the groan bubbling its way up through his chest as the heat of his hand slides beneath the last of his clothing.

despite how keenly he disagrees, there is no arguing, not with words at —

— grin that’s all teeth, he arches under him only a moment later, gasping around the thumb sliding effortlessly between his teeth.

he knows what he’s doing. shutting him up so that he can no longer argue or make his snippy little comments, but as much as he would like to be nettled by that —

— built his life with, and who he can’t let go of. eyelashes fluttering, his eyes close at the last possible moment, drinking in every dark thrill that runs along his spine like a man starved. “..and we both know that taming me doesn’t stick. though I do always enjoy an attempt,” flashing him a —

— the feeling is sweet in its own way, and despite all that has transpired between them and the wider world, it is still just as addicting as it ever has been to feel and know implicitly that he is the one that sephiroth wants. it is him who he seeks out time and time again. him he had —

“I choose you every time I welcome you home,” he points out quietly, carefully adjusting the way his thigh curls around sephiroth’s hip to better encourage him to sink his weight into him. the hand around his wrists is already beginning to frustrate him, but reno doesn’t fight him. not yet. —

— and reno doesn’t want to belong to anyone else. “—there is always a choice.” he whispers, baring his teeth to nip the side of the man’s hand. “pull the trigger or don’t. but deciding there is no choice is a choice too.”

— breaths that leave his nose are shallow and affected, turning pliant as he’s pulled further against him.

“I never claimed to be anything else.” nor would he. sephiroth’s hold over him had been secured the moment he’d kissed him against the door of his office so many years ago, —

— he knows this is not about using him to an end; it is mutually assured destruction rolled into one neat little desirous package.

the solitude has been crippling, and he needs this now. the connection. the warmth of his body, and him. turning his head to press into sephiroth’s palm, the —

— it.

“it would have been easier that way, wouldn’t it?” despite the painful bite of his fingers and the soft, mocking lilt of sephiroth’s tone, reno finds himself feeling reassured by it all the same. sacrificing himself a little further to the growing heat now that —

— of violence and espionage still sitting with him like a ghost in the back seat of the car. but he’s used to ghosts. become good at dialling it all out.

compared to the life he had known prior to shinra, this is the lesser of two evils, and he has chosen to live with —

loyalty has become a dirty word in his lexicon. the meaning is blurred and fogged, much like his thoughts, and no matter what sephiroth may believe now, reno’s mind has never been so easily washed clean of the blood he’s spilled. it all still lingers in the cracks and crevices; years —

⟢ / me at my game when he turned up for 5s and fucked off again

— you want.” he whispers, “don’t do this because you think it will convince me.”

— I thought I knew back then, but I don’t,” he admits, flexing his fingers against the sheets and drawing in a soft breath as sephiroth rocks between his thighs, warming his blood with little sun bright shocks of pleasure. “—I love you. but sex won’t give you what —

— and flushing indignantly when sephiroth acknowledges the hollowness of his existence without him, reno busies himself with returning each of those firm kisses rather than answer, drawing out each one, unknowing when the next opportunity will come.

“I haven’t an adequate answer why. —

— his brother. of the state, and his family.

if they came for him, could he kill them? could he watch the light leave elena’s eyes at it had her sister’s all those years ago? and what of rude? his friend, shadow and opposite in every respect. the thought turns his stomach, —