#reysidy

Considering how many years it'd been since he’d walked through the door, it was surprising how little this backwater safe house had been touched by the passage of time. Cassidy ran a hand over the countertop; the drag marks left on the counter made the layer of dust over every surface in the room even more striking. From the tops of the cabinets bolted higglety-pigglety to the wall, to the linens left wrinkled on the beds. Just moving through the room alone had kicked up a not-insubstantial amount into the air; not for the first time tonight he was thankful for the serape around his face.

The other was right in front of him - for a man dressed in leathers slinking about like a harbinger of death, it was some sort of whiplash to see Reaper- No, Reyes leaning over one of the beds to push open the window. Realising that was the connection he’d been missing all these years was still taking it’s sweet time to sink in.

He'd thought the man dead, for fuck's sake- (-no. No he didn't. Some sorry part of him had always stuck on the missing body after the Zurich explosion. Worried at the way things didn't add up like a hangnail as he sought out the answer in the bottom of his glass. Gabriel fucking Reyes didn't just disappear, there had to be something he was missing, there had to be, there had to be-) "Can you think any louder, Cassidy?" Cassidy was pretty sure he could hear the snap in the air as he came back to himself - if the tilt of Reyes head in return was anything to go by, he wasn't the only one aware of it. He shrugged it off, offering a winning grin in return.

"What can I say, boss? Thought you were dead - and gotta say, you got some real pep for a corpse." A beat of silence passed between them, ringing with all the volume of a gunshot. For anybody else it'd be understandable - for Gabe Reyes? A man who could volley banter whether it was on base on Christmas, under fire in Venice, on stakeout in the deep South? The silence now spoke volumes by comparison.

"I'm not your boss anymore, Cassidy." He said, eventually.

“Sure you are. What’s a few years, a faked death, a lost arm-“ he flopped onto one of the cots, hold up his prosthetic and wiggling his fingers to make a point “-and you tryin’ to kill me, all between pals?”

“I wasn’t trying to kill you.”

“Could’ve fooled me, partner. Or did you forget the whole point of spread shots are that they spread?-”

“Cass.” The bite of his name on Reyes’ tongue is sharp, cutting through the rest of his train of thought. Cassidy fell silent in an instant – how could he not? Years of falling into line at his commander’s word didn’t just evaporate. Unlike then, though, Cassidy’s eyes caught more. Like how it seemed to pain the other man to raise his voice like that; how pain in general seemed to rest in his joints. Cassidy knew the feeling – whiskey was a medicine as much as an indulgence, these days – but it was more acute in Reyes body.  

….Christ, he needed to change this line of thought before he got called out for thinking too damn loud again. And fast. Not like Reyes was helping with that – with that overdramatic skull-owl mask on, he could read the man even less than before. …Though.

"Well, do I at least get to see your face?" Cassidy said, changing the angle of attack instead as Reyes settled on the other cot. “Y’know, that’s the whole thing about masks. Could be talkin’ to just about anybody right now. And I mean, it’d take a whole lotta dedication to get down the voice, and the talk about you do, and Christ, don’t get me started on the whole everything you’re wearing. But got no proof to the contrary right now. “

The way that Reyes looked him up, down, and then sighed said everything he needed to know. If he was a wise man, Cassidy would of left it there… But god, he had so many questions. And if there was any time to poke the sleeping bear, it’d be now right?

“What’re you huffing for? I’m right, ain’t I? Hell, if I remember right, that’s something you had stamped into the ol’ brain matter before I even came outta basic. Don’t trust nobody at face value – and well, if I can’t see your face? Well, that speaks for itself.”

He could see the way Reyes hissed in a breath, like he was resisting the urge to snap back. (Good.) What he wasn’t expecting though was the almost too-calm way that the man gathered himself together. “….Fine.”

And before Cassidy could consider what the fuck this meant, Reyes was reaching up to his face. Broad fingers felt back under the hood with the dexterity of a motion done a thousand times. The hiss is more startling - was that thing mechanical? He’d hear the sound a hundred times working alongside Genji, but in the same breath as Reyes was altogether more strange. Stranger too was the there-and-gone scent of something saccharine sweet.

But everything about where they are, what’s going on? All momentarily forgotten as finally the mask is lifted up and away - and oh. Oh. Cassidy’s heart stuttered in his chest, forgetting it's job for a moment as he looked upon the unfamiliar, achingly knowable face of a man who’d haunted him for years. There were differences now – god, were there differences - skin gone pallid, the muscle around his mouth scarred in a Glasgow upturn. His eyes were particularly striking; gone were the warm browns like freshly made coffee, instead struck through with a red like blood. There was familiarity to be found too, though – the same cut of his jaw, the cut of his goatee. And of course because it was Gabriel Reyes, who never did anything clearcut, there was something that felt both old and new as well. Long curls fell past his face as Gabriel pulled his hood back, fingers ran carefully through them as they settled on his shoulders. They suited him, Cassidy thought, a quiet little remark to himself alone.

"Surprise." Gabriel said, through slightly too-sharp teeth.

Now Cassidy could see his face, it was easier to see how much this affected Gabriel – the little crease in his brow, the way his gaze into Cassidy’s own was just a little too even. Gabriel didn’t do nervous – nerves got a man killed. There were few other words, though, for the emotion that twitched at the corners of the older man’s mouth. Time to break the ice, then.

"Shit, Moira really did a number on you, huh?" Cassidy cracked, eyes glinting. As he’d hoped, Gabriel snorted, shaking his head in disbelief.

"This isn't all her fault." A pointed raise of the eyebrow from Cassidy made Gabriel's lip quirk. "Alright, smart ass. More than you'd like it to be. But I'm alive."

"That you are," Cassidy replied. “It’s a good look on you.” That gets a smile that crinkles the corner of Gabriel’s eyes – and makes Cassidy’s own heart go double step.

“First time I’ve heard that one in a while.”

“Good to know the folk around you don’t have eyes. Or taste.” It’s something dangerously close to flirtation, spilling from his lips unbidden. For this, Gabriel kept a frustratingly good poker face. (Of course.)

Tearing his eyes away from Gabriel's face for the moment, his eyes settled on the damn mask instead – first as a curiosity, but then closer. From the outside it was easy to dismiss the piece as a fashion statement - this was Gabriel Reyes he was considering after all, the man who saw Halloween as a competitive sport. But being able to see the inside of the mask? It revealed the complex snaking of metal and tubes that coated the inside.

"All that ain't just for show, then?" He asked, gesturing at it. Gabriel's eyes follow Cassidy's hand, flicking over the internal components in the same way he'd once poured over mission plans. Dangerously quick, even now – he wouldn’t expect anything less from the commander.

"Well, like you said cowboy - Moira did 'a number' on me.” Gabriel made lazy bunny ears with one hand, before letting it flop to the bed again. “There's better and worse ways to deal with the pain of all this - don't get the fun side effects of these drugs, but it keeps me on my feet."

"Side effects, you say?"

He's been got hook, line and sinker, Cassidy can already tell - when Gabe's eyes flick to his they seem almost luminous in the low light, the red gleaming with a flash of teeth. Suddenly he feels ten years younger – back at a time where all it’d take was a look to have him raring to go. Even now he can feel the heat flaring in his gut like a match against a strike board.

Gabriel always was his weakness. What’s new?

"Sure. If you haven't got my metabolism, it'd only take a puff or two to get you high, guapo. Better than any weed you could get your hands on." There’re insinuations there - Cassidy knows they remember as well as each other the way work would give way to the ease of each other’s company in the wee hours of the night. A joint passed between them, the thrill of playing chicken with touches and looks. And oh, when it turned to petting? Turned to rutting slow and easy? It was electric to chase the taste of smoke on Gabriel's tongue, not being sure if it was the drugs or the other man's touch that was making his skin prickle more.

He knows he shouldn't follow this thought - he had too many questions, too much unjust anger for the disappearance of this man who was never his - and yet skin hunger has haunted him almost as long as Gabriel has. (Cassidy is many things – but above all, he is only human.)

"That a theory, or an offer?" Cassidy drawled, eyes flicking up and down Gabriel's body in a way he never would of chanced back in Blackwatch. Instead of a reply, Gabriel picked up the mask, holding it out in front of him like a golden ticket. The way his eyes darked while doing it though? It perhaps betrayed how benevolent Gabriel was really being with all of this.

"Hold it to your face. I think you can figure it out from there, pup." Gabriel's voice was already dipping lower, scratching rough around the edges in a way that sent heat down Cassidy’s spine. He knew he should think this through more – for fuck’s sake, he didn’t know what the drug inside those pipes would do to him. It didn’t stop him though from lifting the mask to his face, peripherals going dark as it enclosed his sightlines. Quickly he felt the mask's edges conforming to his face - nanites? Bio responsive rubber? He couldn't find it in himself to care - especially as he realised how intensely Gabriel was watching him at this moment. Red eyes, bright and so vividly hungry. It was more than enough inspiration to lock eyes with Gabriel through the mask - and take one long, deep breath.

He could hear it happen; some unseen catch clicking open, gas hissing through the pipes he’d seen only moments before, and the smoke flooding into his mouth, sweet and damning. It was quickly drawn over his tongue, down into his throat like the most wicked of nicotine – the taste of it is something he ants to chase on its’ own. There's a sweetness to it, saccharine and inviting, but something else to it too. A crispness bordering on the medicinal without going too far, almost mint-like in flavor.

It’s distracting enough he doesn’t notice the first effects straight away - his shoulders catching from around his ears, him sinking just a bit into the cot underneath him. The tension of the reunion seemed to seep out with each passing moment of this drug seeping into his veins. And oh, wasn’t this all dangerous?

Without realising it, Cassidy found himself breathing deeper, deeper, like he could get the smoke to curl around the depths of his lungs and live there. It’d be worth it to see that look perpetually live on Gabriel’s face – mouth slightly open, eyes laser focused. Gabe had always had a look that felt like it stripped him back and lay him bare. Once it'd made Cassidy nervous in a way few things could. Now it just made his legs fall open as he finally exhaled, drawing the mask off to breathe out the plume towards the ceiling.

When he tried to hand back the mask though, Gabriel's eyes seemed to pin him where he sat..

"Actually, I think you can do that again. Can't you, Cass?"

Suddenly he's oh so aware of the weight of the mask in his hand, the weight of the gaze that sat on him like it'd never left, the weight of his hardening cock against his thigh. With a mouth gone dry he couldn't help but nod.

"...Yes, sir."

"Good boy."

And oh, the praise hit him like a shot of liquor – and he could see Gabriel knew it. Cassidy couldn’t bring himself to care though - not when his world has narrowed to him, Gabe and the mask in his hand weighed like a promise. With anticipation as potent of a drug as whatever the hell Gabe was having him breathe, Cassidy lifted the mask to his face again. Once again, the rubber latched to his face, once again he breathed deep of the sweet smoke. This time, he could almost feel the way that the smoke seeped in between his muscle fibers, how it curled in his temples to make his vision swim. His exhale came alongside a soft groan, teeth dragging over his lower lip as he tried to center himself within this heady, sudden high.

"Good?" Cassidy goaded after a few moments, smile wide and cheeky. The high was intense, but pleasant. If this was any other time, any other situation, this is when he would have put down the blunt and sunk into the couch for a while to contemplate his thoughts and how they flickered individually by. Gabriel didn’t look even close to finished with him, though.

"Not yet," the older man replied - Cassidy realised with a start that Gabriel's fingers were flexing in and out of the blanket on the cot he say on, the claws of his gloves have cut neat little holes into the wool. It was as if he’d needed to cut into the blanket to stop doing the same to Cassidy – and oh, wasn’t that an intoxicating thought all on its own? He couldn't help but imagine feel the cool metal along his skin, thumbing at his lips to part them, curling around his neck to squeeze. "Go on. Another one."

Cassidy couldn't help it - he whimpered as he brought the mask up to his face once more. It felt like it wasn't even his hand moving it, anymore - like he couldn't stop himself if he tried, like it wasn’t really him who had decided to flood his lungs once more with smoke. And oh, this time he could feel how it all went straight to his cock, making it flex and ache against his zipper as the drug dragged him down, down, down. His mouth felt so unfairly empty, his pants too tight-

-Which was a problem only made worse as he felt another hand on top of his, holding the mask to his face with force. Cassidy’s sharp inhale from shock was done straight into the mask too, making his head spin all the more as time seemed to stretch and twist out before him. When had he been pushed back onto the cot? When had his shoulders hit the blankets? All that he knew for sure was that the look on Gabe's face was positively predatory.

He knew there was no way for the other man to see that shock scrawled onto his face, how it melted into helpless arousal as Gabe straddled his hips. The triumphant grin on the other man’s face though as their hard cocks pressed together through leather and denim though? Oh, that made Cassidy more than convinced that Gabriel knew exactly the effect he was having.

"Again."

With his limbs like rubber Cassidy couldn't help but obey, pulling the smoke into his lungs like it was a lifeline. The way he rutted up against Gabriel was purely instinctual at this point - though trying to stop himself from rolling his hips up over and over was as futile as trying to stop the ocean's tides. Each moan came easier than the one before as his finger buried themselves into Gabriel’s thighs. With each breath the world became a bit more liquid, time seeming to stretch and twist like taffy as his arousal swallowed any higher brain function he had left.

Cassidy wasn't sure when his pants came off. He'd felt the scratch of Gabriel's claws against his thighs - he'd taken his gloves off, right? Maybe it was the drugs, but the face in front of him seem to warp - when the mask was lifted off Cassidy's face he swore Gabriel’s had shifted, the scarring at the other man’s mouth splitting open to reveal teeth stretching impossibly back. And was that one pair of eyes or two? Maybe even three, splitting the skin of his face and nestling in his hairline?

He should have cared more, should have forced himself to care more - but all he could bring himself to care about was if Gabriel wanted this. Wanted him with all the force that Cassidy wanted him in return. And oh, did the intensity of that gaze, the hands across his body speak to that desperately. When finally those fingers wrapped around his cock he couldn’t help but keen at the sensation of it all – god, was he already that close to the edge? The strokes were slow and steady, eased by his pre-come alone. Any attempt to look at the sight for himself though failed – his eyes were too hazy to focus on anything else but the glowing red of the gaze above him.

"There you go, Cassidy," and oh, Gabriel’s voice was wrecked – low and husky, scraped through in a way that made him throb. Lisped slightly as well – in his fucked-out state Cassidy couldn’t figure out if that was because of the jagged mess of teeth, or the long tongue he could see flicking out of the other man’s mouth. Whichever it was, it wasn’t stopping the filth that tumbled out of Gabriel’s mouth unbidden, thoughts that were only drilled further into his mind by the slow rock of Gabriel’s hips against his own.

“Been waiting such a long time to see you like this again. You look so good wrecked – I wish you could see yourself. Would keep you like this for days if I could – fuck your mouth until you craved it, made sure you never forgot the shape of me inside you. Fuck. Such a good fucking boy."