[ rufus says one of us, and tseng already knows it won't be him. that's preferable by far, in fact; he has no interest in becoming king or queen of anything, not when his rightful place is and has always been behind rufus and at his side. tseng's purpose is to be a tool, a weapon, to melt into the shadows and find the things that rufus himself cannot seek out for being too visible, the fulcrum to rufus' lever. even being one rank higher than him now is enough to rankle.

the prospect of setting that to rights, of putting rufus in the king position he deserves, is enough to soothe some of it. ]

Yes, sir.

[ he stabs his fork into one of the potatoes to let out the steam and just barely manages not to clatter his cutlery against the side of the dish when rufus asks that question. the money deposited into his account—it wasn't tseng, but if it happened right after the beach he thinks he knows what it would have been. ]

—No, sir. That was... [ he's really going to have to say it, huh. ] The resort will make a deposit into your account in that amount every time you... engage in sexual activity to completion.

[ wow, these potatoes are so interesting. ]