12. FRENCH KISS.
( SNEAKING COMES SECOND NATURE out on the job, but not so much on gibraltar during downtime, when there’s no food in the mess hall and half the force is out on private affairs. incommunicado.
jesse never announces his visits to the training area, but he doesn’t bother to hide them either, no attempts made to stifle the clicking of his boots or the quiet ringing of his spurs when he drops in for his favorite scheduled programming — or the closest thing to it, at least.
genji is dependable in the way that jesse knows he’ll find him making scrap heaps out of the target dummies put-putting around the range for a few hours out of any given day. sometimes jesse is a quiet audience, not staying overlong, attention as heavy as expectation as he follows the streamlined locomotions of a finesse artist at work. other nights he cracks a bottle, smiling toothily when he lands a shot out of nowhere, just so that genji can’t have it. and just so he knows the rough-talking man in his midst isn’t a tactical naif, lest genji forget amidst the slips of the tongue and other faux pas.
tonight, he nurses what is perhaps his third beer as genji cuts down metal bots with consummate ease, but jesse does so without comment, silent, save for the soft pop of his mouth detaching from the bottle. his drink is long since gone when genji finishes up, and whether that says something about jesse’s thirst or the other’s work ethic, he’s unsure.
what jesse is certain of, however, is that he feels something stir in his gut whenever genji removes his mask after hitting the course hard. he makes no secret of it, stared to the point of comedy the first time. it’s nothing he’ll admit, but more than the technical showcase itself, it’s the chance he’ll get another glimpse that keeps him coming back.
he’s barely buzzed — so he knows he can’t blame it on the alcohol when his hands find their places along the smooth curve of genji’s shoulders, a gloved palm sliding slowly up to fit around the flesh and metal swell of his cheek. but jesse supposes he doesn’t mind taking full responsibility for the way he nudges genji’s lips loose with his own, tongue slipping tentatively past. genji’s mouth is warm and slick, with a heady quality that jesse hates being teased with, seeking it out deep and long and greedy.
he comes on strong, genji must think, but the record shows subtle has never been jesse’s style during downtime on gibraltar. )