Disclaimer that I usually forget: I own nothing.

Taste

I don't know how it happened
It all took place so quick
But all I can do is hand it to you
And your latest trick—Dire Straits, Your Latest Trick

The crispy ones were the best.

Reno watched his quarry with great interest as it neared the table. Timing was a precious thing. In assassination, in surveillance, and most of all, in french fries. He and Cloud had decided to take in the rare and beautiful weather with a late lunch on the patio of Wing Mac, and Cloud had dashed off to the Men's room to "let out some beer" at the exact moment the food had arrived.

Leaving the fries unguarded.

True and undying love was one thing, but fries were totally more important. Reno shamelessly rooted through his plate and Clouds to get the skinniest, crunchiest fries before his lover returned from his bathroom break, knowing there would be hell to pay for it. They burned his fingers, and Cloud would be righteously pissed, but he didn't care. It would be worth it in the end because a perfect fry was well…fucking perfect. He had just crunched down on the last salty bit of goodness when Cloud sat down and looked at his plate.

"You ate the crunchy ones, didn't you?"

"How can you tell? It's a plate of fries, yo!"

"One, you always do that and two, your fingers are burned and three, there is salt on your lips." He flagged down the waitress and ordered an extra side of fries, well done, on Reno's tab. He sighed. Cloud had sighing down to an art form. He had Sulk Sigh, Annoyed Sigh, Disappointed Sigh, Tired Sigh, and Horny Sigh. Reno was a little disappointed that this wasn't Horny Sigh. He guessed it was because of the fries.

"Uh, I'm sorry?" Except, he wasn't. Wing Mac made awesome fries. Deciding not to lie any more that afternoon, mostly for karma purposes, he started on the wings.

The fries came and Cloud pulled them to his side of the table until he'd located all the crispy ones, then let Reno have the plate. Reno looked at them and did a good impression of Disappointed Sigh. Cloud glared; he was pretty good at that too.

This fry thing, well, it was important. But not important enough to distract Cloud from a drop of wing sauce at the corner of Reno's mouth. He stared at it as long as he could, which meant that he stared at Reno's mouth as long as he could. Reno had a nice mouth, even when he was stealing crispy fries. It was thin, but soft, and the things he could do with it in bed would drive a man to distraction.

Looking at it was driving Cloud to distraction now. He ordered more beer. They were in public, after all, and it wouldn't do to just lean over the table and…

Lick it off. He blamed it on the beer, which was local microbrew stuff and far over the alcohol content of mass market swill. Because it was a very un-Cloud thing to do. But he did it. He leaned over the table and licked that very sexy expressive mouth because he couldn't stand it anymore and then he gave a nice Horny Sigh and sat down and finished his beer.

And then Reno did something very out of character, which was, to shut up. They sat silently for a while over the carnage of their wing platters and non-crispy fries for a bit.

"You had some sauce on your mouth. On the corner there."

"And you couldn't just say hey Reno, wipe your mouth…"

"Would you rather I did?"

"….no." Reno leaned over the table and tongued ever inch of Cloud's lips. "I think I saw a grain of salt somewhere."

"Ass."

"I can lick that too but it might get us some attention."

"Gods, Reno. We have to get home. Can you stop talking?"

"You started it. You and your damn sauce." Reno looked distinctly unrepentant. "Worse, we took the train here, and now we have to take it all the way back."

It would go down in history as the longest train ride from downtown to the station near their loft in human history. Trying to keep the nips and bites and kisses to a socially acceptable, or at least technically legal, level nearly killed them both. They had no sooner gotten the front door shut that Reno backed Cloud into the door and gave him a single, unbroken lick from his collarbone to his eyebrow. It earned him a roll of the hips and a noise that was not quite a sigh of any variety, not quite a groan, and not quite a word in any language but he understood completely.

"So, you forgive me for the fries?"

"No." But he began to undress them, or at least got as far as their shirts while Reno managed to pull down his pants for him. He toed off his shoes and kicked them off, unbuttoning Reno's jeans and slipping in his hand to stroke him in that light, soft way that he knew would drive him insane. It worked. Soon they were kissing and grinding into each other like kids on a date who didn't have a perfectly functional king size bed in the next room.

It didn't escape Cloud that he was naked and Reno was still half dressed, and he was rubbing for all he was worth against Reno's jean-clad leg, in very real danger of coming all over both of them from the friction of the denim on his overheated flesh. Fuck it, that's what washing machines were for.

But then Reno was lifting him, apparently too damn impatient to wait for him to walk. His hands were around Cloud's waist and they were doing some kind of clumsy crab-walk toward the bed, laughing. But when they fell onto the mattress, Reno's face was serious, wistful, gazing at him with a near reverence. "Gods, I want…"

"Me too." Reno slid quickly out of his own jeans and retrieved the lube from the nightstand drawer. When he leaned back over Cloud, his kisses were gentle, slow, and he stroked long and soft down his arms and sides. One hand trailed down his leg and lifted it gently; Cloud opened himself further to give him more access, his breath coming in gasps now and his body absolutely aching to be filled. "Reno…"

"I know, babe. I know." Cloud hissed in pleasure as he felt first one, then two fingers pushing rhythmically against his entrance. He loved Reno's fingers as much as he did his mouth; long, supple and sexy. Then again, there was no part of Reno that wasn't sexy. But those fingers. Gods. Then Reno pulled both Cloud's thighs up to his chest and entered him, hard, in one stroke.

It was so fast it hurt but the hurt soon gave way to mindless pleasure, and it wasn't long before Cloud was thrusting his hips up; he was never able to keep still it seemed. It always felt so good and he always ached for more. For Reno's part, he was damn near losing his mind. Cock buried in his lover to the hilt, hot and endlessly tight around him, and looking down on a man so beautiful he could overwhelmed by the sight of it all. Cloud's hand began moving over his own erection, his head thrown back and eyes squeezed shut.

It was all Reno could take. He put his hand over Cloud's. "Do it. Come for me. Let me watch you." But his own control shattered like glass along with Cloud's and they came together in frantic, jagged thrusts. Spent, Reno fell to the bed in exhaustion while Cloud struggled for breath.

"Holy hell, babe. I should make a mess when I eat more often."

"Just leave my fries alone."

"Not a chance. Not a chance in hell."