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"What if I love you?" He says, hastily licking his lips before continuing on. "How- how would that work? What would that look like?"
Quinlan blinks.
"I mean, biologically, it would obviously work, on my end anyway, you are very attractive and we're compatible species. And then personally - no one counters my banthashit better - but - but socially - legally - what if -" He continues. "What if I love you?"
There it is again.
Quinlan blinks.
"What the actual kriff, Fox?"
Fox suddenly goes quite pale, "Oh- if I misread - gods, I didn't think I was - I - I mean I just assumed."
"No no no," Quin replies quickly, "you didn't misread I just - Wow. You've shown literally no signs you were receptive and I - forgive me for being a bit blindsided, you just dropped a load of karking kyber on me. I need a second to process."
Fox's eyebrows run together in confusion, "Of course I didn't, if we'd been seen I would have been reconditioned at best, possibly even decommed - That's why I'm asking how this would work. Because obviously you've got some sort of plan otherwise you wouldn't have been so blatant."
Quin blinks, yet again.
After a long moment, Fox rubs his eyes. "Gods, you're every bit the di'kut I know you are. Of course you hadn't thought that far," Fox slides in alongside Quin on the ratty old couch. "Do you know how much karking planning went into even being able to go on those missions with you? How many cam feeds I had to sweep? It was so much effort to keep away footage from mission reports. You kept karking touching me and I kept forgetting to shrug you off because it was nice and I liked it. But I'm also a big fan of not being dead. So splicing it was."
The room goes silent. Fox has run out of words now that everything is out in the open.
Quin, it seems, has a lot to consider. While he had known, abstractly, that he'd never seen a clone/natborn relationship other than Obi-Wan and Cody (which was kept very private for the most part, but Obi never could hide anything from him), it had never occurred to him why. Things are beginning to make a lot more sense. Because he knows that Aayla's commander has been simping over her for the better part of two years but has yet to make a single move, much to her dismay. He imagines that there are a lot more potential relationships, given the sheer number of vode there are. He also knows, abstractly, what reconditioning is. He's put a stop to plenty of them, but never witnessed any, or even the after effects. He's heard about how terrible it is, but the fact that it could scare an entire army, soldiers since birth, out of ever forming a relationship with someone they think they may love makes the threat take on a fierce new meaning. But reconditioning is over now. Fox will never have need to fear it again - though Quin suspects he will anyway. That's ok. He's got Quin to comfort him now.
"Is the room bugged?"
"No, I check it daily," Fox shakes his head. "No camera feeds, no listening devices."
Quinlan nods, before taking Fox's hand into his own.
Watches the hesitation as Fox allows him to. That subtle twitch of the fingers.
"I think," Quin begins, gently tugging Fox closer. Fox is stiff, but he goes. It's not long at all before he melts against Quin's chest.
"I think," Quin says slowly, quietly. "That it might look something like this."
Quin presses his lips to Fox's forehead. When he pulls back, there's a soft, teasing grin on Fox's face.
"What?" Quin asks, when the look only grows.
"You did it wrong."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, pretty sure that was supposed to be a couple inches lower."
Quin grins back, "Guess I'll have to try again, huh?"
He lowers his head and lips press up to meet his own.
It's a long, leisurely type of kiss. Such a contradiction from their usual lives.
And then they break apart and Fox is looking at him again, harder this time.
Quin is just about to ask what this look means when -
"I am serious though, we really do need a plan about what this is going to look like, who's going to know and - I know prune face is gone, but unfortunately the rest of the galaxy is not and - "
Quinlan sighs and bonks his forehead against Fox's and leaves it there, reducing Fox's tirade to a fit of anxious twitching.
"I love you to death, Fox, but you really know how to kill the mood."
"Yeah, well... the mood almost killed me on multiple occasions, so fair's fair."
Quinlan blinks again.
"That doesn't even make sense, cyare - "
"It does so. Do you know how much camera feed I had to erase because you were off gallivanting on roof tops looking really - well - stealth armor doesn't have a karking cod piece - "
Quinlan grins, "Force, I love you."