[he pauses while Ryuji moves, watching, not quite tensing, exactly, but just trying to figure out what he’s doing. and ... oh. it takes him a minute to deduce from this vantage point that that’s his bad leg, and maybe it says something about how far they’ve come at this point, that Dave cares more about making sure he doesn’t hurt it than shuffling through the ways he might feel awkward, or worrying about the things he definitely could say to make this awkward.]

[or suddenly be hit with the thought of how barely even five months ago, being warmly and comfortably ensconced in another guy’s arms was ... not even a ghost of a blip on his radar. and maybe there’s a split second where he wonders if it would have been a blip much earlier, if he had been brave enough to let it.]

[that’s not really here or there, though. Dave (usually) can tell when a timeline is doomed, and when it’s chugging forward in the correct order of events. and since they’ve both lived to try something new and awfully intimate together? still sounds like the right timeline to him.]

[but he finds a sort of half smile at that remark.]

Yeah. Kinda defeats the purpose of the monkey pajamas, though. [Dave, apparently, is just going to ruin every tender moment they have by bringing up those goddamn pajamas.]

[he lowers his head, though, so he doesn’t just straight up yawn in Ryuji’s face.]

Hey ... can I ask you something? About the jar on your desk.