“It sounds like you have a mouthful of water in there,warsher.”
“Stop that," Reno said, “I will kick you harder.”
“I’ll kick back, bitch," Sage threatened, but Reno found her completely harmless. She dropped the bravado to continue her interview. “Luka, next question: What’s your favorite dessert?”
“Chocolate chip cookies.”
“That’s so basic it's actually adorable," Sage said, then asked the next: “Have any siblings?”
“No.”
Sage hummed. “Parents?”
Reno interrupted, “Ask something else.”
“Thank you," Luka said, then finished his drink and finally picked up his fork to start eating. Reno slipped his hand around Luka’s waist to squeeze him gently and Luka leaned against him.
The door to the pub opened and two girls that Reno vaguely knew through Sage walked in. “My group’s here, thanks for the drink, Reno. Luka, I’m sorry for being a menace; you’re a fucking delight. I’m so happy you’refinallyhere.”
Luka opened his mouth to respond, but she was gone already, bouncing away to her friends. Reno gave him another tight squeeze around the waist.
“Sorry," he apologized, “She is also a lot to handle.”
“Figures the people around you would be.” Luka shrugged, then leaned against Reno and the feeling of him in Reno’sembrace made his heart jump a few times before settling again. “Do y’all have a weird name for this dish, too?”
“No, it's just salmon.” Reno huffed a laugh. “Salad. Chips. Nothing crazy so you don’t get sick. After travel I feel bad for a few days and don’t like anything too heavy. Sorry for assuming you’d be the same.”
“No, it’s good.” Luka turned to face Reno and kissed his jaw, feather-light. “The new drink was, too. What did she mean byfinally?”
“Ah.” Reno looked across the pub to avoid seeing Luka’s waiting expression. “I may have gotten wasted one too many times around Sage and talked about you.”
“But you’ve only been off tour for a few weeks.” Luka nudged him, and Reno shrank into himself.
He admitted, “Yeah, this wasn’t in the last few weeks.”
Luka paused his eating and turned to look at Reno a bit closer.
“It was over years.” Reno propped his chin on his hand, leaning onto the table. “You know how I said I couldn’t forget you?”
Luka nodded, taking a measured bite, his expression attentive.
“So, I did this thing.” Reno pinched a bit of his hair between his fingers and started playing with it. “Did you ever watch interview of mine?”
“Which ones?”
“Oh, any of them. I guess?” Reno pursed his lips, trying to think of specifics. “The ones where they ask about relationship or preferences or whatever.”
“No, not really. I didn’t really make it my business to watch interviews much, especially not gossip ones like that.”
“You don’t have to pretend you weren’t interested.” Reno nudged Luka’s foot with his own and got a glare in response.“It’s okay. I’ll pretend you don’t know. Whenever someone asked if I was in relationship I’d say I was waiting for someone, the right person. And, when they would bug me for more answers I’d play coy and just wink or wave them off like ‘oh someone, you know?’.It helped a lot because Kandi always said I talk too much in interview and when I could play it off like this then I would stop talking.”
Reno pulled his glass to him and played with the straw for a moment before taking an unhurried drink, feeling the gin warm his chest.
“It was a fantasy, but I’d always pretend it was you waiting for me. That I was waiting for you.” Reno watched Luka freeze and turn a deeper shade of red around the ears and throat. “Please don’t mistake, I did not actually expect you to wait for me, or to even find you again, or if I found you I did not expect for you to come see me. But, it was fun to think about. It gets lonely on tour. Here, too.”
“I’m sorry, that’s a lot to take in.” Luka looked dazed, his fork hanging from his fingers loosely like it might fall. “I’m not?—”
“Don’t start that, please.” Reno reached out and brushed the back of his fingers against Luka’s cheek. “You are not the person I dreamt up in my head. I know. But, you are worthy of my affection because you are perfectly yourself; don’t diminish that just because I had fantasy Lukas swimming in my head for a decade.”
