He stared up for a while, moving between his mind almost being an empty fog and trying to think. With one leg resting on his other knee, arms behind his head, he seemed completely at ease by sight. But really, he was trying to work out what to do.

"Don't know why you would think you don't make me happy. I always end up home, don't I?"

It was the biggest difference between them. Rude placed more importance on these things than Reno did. Reno went. He played around. It meant little to him and he would come home. He was more sociable in general, outgoing, generally affable and liking to talk to new people. He never considered any of it a commentary on how happy Rude made him.

But that was the sticking point. Where their perceptions differed, and where he didn't want to fuck things up by going beyond Rude's limits, because he didn't see them. A fling was a fling to him, and nothing more.

Finally he raised a finger. "I'll make you a deal. I'll try to just sleep with you, but, then you have to take care of me when I need it. And, the weird stuff that happens around here doesn't count. 'Cause... it's been kind of unpredictable."

It probably didn't reach everything Rude would've wanted, but he was willing to try something.