Reno holds out a bottle of water for you.

“Thanks,” he says, “for staying up this late with me.”

He settles beside you, winded from the spar. Nobody else on base is awake. They’re not supposed to be awake, either, but Reno had sought you out. He feels bad for keeping you up.

“You’ve gotten better.” His jaw’s still sore from where you’d managed to punch him. For some reason, your face had distracted him, and then the next thing he knows he’s sprawled over the floor. Huh. Must’ve been the lighting in here.

Reno looks at you and it happens again. He can’t bring himself to look away from your face. Have you done something different? Maybe you got a haircut, or the lack of sleep has finally caught up to him.

You’re his friend, like Kafka and Iharu are. He only asked you to spar with him this late because he knew you were still awake. Right?

You only agreed because you’re a hard worker. Right?

He comes to three sudden realizations in the span of a minute.

One, you’ve been saying something to him and he hasn’t been listening at all.

Two, the reason he’s been staring at your face is because he thinks you’re pretty.

And three, he doesn’t like Kafka or Iharu the way he likes you.