[Okay, he walked into that one. He knows he did. He'd known it even as he said it, but he'd said it anyway, because he couldn't help it, his impulse control has never been good at the best of times, but shit.
Shit, he thinks, because it's entirely unfair, Bruno saying that after Polnareff's realized what he did; it's unfair when Bruno has his hair in his eyes and Polnareff's present in his hair, when his voice is laughing and teasing and god damn it, this is unfair.]
[Not that he allows any of that to register on his face. There's half a second of a caught breath, maybe, a moment where he just lets those words settle in-- and then it's off to the races once more, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all.]
It's option number three on my seduction technique. Although I really sound good with the Stones, that's where my true talent lies. If I ever get Beggars Banquet, watch out.
[Just because he knows this is a bad idea doesn't mean he's going to stop.]
[Once again, that brief hesitation goes with very little notice from Bruno. Polnareff's recovery is too swift for Bruno to think that it was anything other than just a moment of surprise that his humor often inspires.]
In the event that happens, I'll keep a close watch on my heart. [Bruno pats his chest just above his heart lightly with a hand.] But if you do manage to steal it, you have to promise not to break it.
[Bad idea. Definitely a bad idea. Absolutely, definitely a bad idea, he should beat a tactical retreat, he definitely should switch the topic, they're on his bed and he's two feet from Bruno and--]
You think I'm that callous? Believe me, you give me your heart, I'll be the best boyfriend you ever had. Flowers, chocolates, all that crap. You'll be so romanced you'll forget your own name.
Not the point. [He jabs a finger over at Bruno, mouth pursed in false indignance.] Whether it's one or a hundred, it's still true. I'm amazing at romance-- you oughta ask Jotaro, I'm his sherpa up sex mountain-- the one who guides him through all the weird questions sex brings up.
[--oh, shit, he probably shouldn't have said that. Not even because of crush-related reasons; it just seems like something not cool to talk about when it's someone not in your core bro circle.]
You're joking, right? Those boys would rather pretend like they know exactly what they're doing and fumble their way through it than ask anyone questions.
You'd know that if you'd seen the way they were falling all over themselves around Trish.
[Because you know, just because Bruno ignored it doesn't mean he didn't notice it. It'd be like failing to notice two trains colliding as it was happening three feet in front of you.]
[He laughs-- not cruelly, exactly, but definitely amused.]
Ahh, and here I thought they'd be comfortable asking their mama anything. Did they all try to flirt with Trish, then? At least Jotaro's confident enough to ask.
[A beat, and then he meets Bruno's eyes.]
Thank god we're not teenagers anymore.
[That might be the most honest thing he's said all night.]
[Who can say why it is this time, but this time, Bruno doesn't look away when he chuckles quietly.]
Calling what they were doing flirting would be an abuse of the word. [He tips his head a little.] I'd like to imagine either one of us would have managed better than that at their age.
[He was about to say girls. That much is completely obvious even if the word barely started to come out before he changed it to people. He lifts his chin some, tilting his head just a little more. Normally, he might not have thought much of it. Polnareff's from a few decades back and things have progressed a long ways since then. But at the same time, it wasn't that long ago he was talking about a pretty French girl and granddaughters, and only a pretty French girl and granddaughters.]
It wasn't constantly, but it's not like being a gangster meant I took a vow of celibacy.
[Bro, come on. They're not two glasses into wine, but they're friends now; that means you get interesting gossip. Polnareff leans back on his elbows as he regards Bruno with an expectant expression.]
Gossip's always interesting! Especially if you're gonna defend yourself as more romantically competent than your team.
[He really does mean that, too; he likes hearing gossip, because who doesn't? But it'd be a lie to say there's no ulterior motive as well-- ie, are there any male names in that list of previous paramours.]
I mean, you can say you were better at seventeen, Bruno, but I dunno if I believe it.
[Bruno rolls his eyes a little. There's two ways that he could go about this. The first way is that he could point out the flawed logic behind that argument and he could make up anything he wanted with no way to prove it true or false. The other is that he could not bother with debating it and just go ahead and tell Polnareff something. As he weighs his options, he eventually sighs.]
Alright, alright, I'll tell you one story, but that's all you're getting. You have your choice between... [Bruno draws a slow breath, his gaze moving up as he considers.] Renato, Alessandra, or Sofia.
[It's not surprising that's the name Polnareff chose as one of these things is very blatantly not like the others. But Bruno also suspects that it's generally uncharted territory for Polnareff.]
I actually met Renato during the tail-end of the summer before my fifteenth birthday. But he didn't want to talk to me then. His mother and father had just separated, and he was moving into the apartment next to mine with his mother. Since we were around the same age, I think she was hoping that he could make a friend before school started. She made him introduce himself to me, but after that we didn't speak.
We hardly saw each other anyway since my father was still in and out of the hospital a lot and I had business to take care of for Passione while Renato had school and over the summer, he went to be with his father in his village. He came back and we still didn't speak much until that winter when he ended up locked out. He'd left his key at the school and there was no way he could get there in time to get it back. So, he was stuck waiting until his mother got home from one of her jobs.
I offered to let him wait for her in my apartment, but he turned me down so I let him be. Then a few hours later, it started to pour. There was nothing for a few minutes. [Bruno huffs a small laugh.] But then his pride lost and that's when I had frantic knocking on my door. I'd barely opened it before Renato came barging in, already soaking wet. I let him borrow a change of clothes, but he was upset about his textbooks. His were all secondhand and a few of them were beyond salvaging, but there was no way in hell his mother could possibly afford to buy him new ones. I lied to him about having an older cousin and possibly getting him the books, he just had to be patient and avoid letting his mother find out.
It took me a few weeks to track them down, but I stole him new copies. I don't know if he actually believed me that they came from a cousin, but I don't think he cared. We spent a lot of time together after that. Sometimes he'd come over to my apartment, sometimes he'd drag me over to his. If his mother was working late enough that she wouldn't be back until the morning, he'd just stay all night and sneak back over before she got home.
By the time the summer came around again, he didn't really want to go back to his village to visit with his father. So, I kissed him and said I'd still be there when he got back. [Bruno shrugs a little.] We dated for a while after he got back, but I broke things off shortly before my father died.
[The pronouns Bruno uses aren't a complete surprise, but it's a good confirmation to have nonetheless. Polnareff notes that in the back of his mind-- but then he's caught up in the story. It's a cute one, and he's smiling throughout it-- he can barely imagine Bruno at age fifteen, but of course he was that kind, even then.]
See? That's the kind of story I'm talking about.
[Both his tone and his smile are a little softer than they might be with others.]
And you're right: way smoother than . . . [He waves a hand, indicating the general teenage population they both hang out with.] I take back my doubt.
[Bruno notices the softness in Polnareff's tone and smile. It seems despite being somewhat of a dog with the way he talks sometimes, deep down he's a little bit of a romantic, huh? Bruno smiles a little. It's good to know.]
I'll forgive you for doubting me this time, [Bruno teases with a small wave of a hand.] But what about you? You can't go around bragging about what a great boyfriend you would be with no follow-up.
[Bruno had given an example from when he was fifteen, right? That probably counts. Except fifteen feels so remote, and anyway, he'd been kind of an idiot at fifteen. So, instead:]
Annette. My only college girlfriend. We were taking the same stupid 101 course in . . . I don't even remember what, I think classic literature or something like that, something bookish, because I kept missing whatever stupid subtext I was supposed to pick up. Which I didn't care about, except you need a pretty decent GPA if you want to keep playing sports in university, and I did, I was on the fencing team and I wasn't about to give that up, so I looked around at who seemed smart and pretty and there she was.
So she started tutoring me. It wasn't hard, she just said shit like the butterflies really symbolize sex or whatever, it didn't take long, and then . . . [He shrugs, but it's with a little smile.] I started asking if she wanted to come over not just to tutor me. She was smart, you know? Real sharp, I liked just listening to her talk about whatever she was interested in. And she had a good sense of humor, so I could always get her to laugh. We'd do all the usual college shit, y'know, football games-- I took her to see Les Bleus kick Italy's ass one weekend when they came to play-- and ice cream and parties, shit like that--
[It'd been good, for a few months. Maybe not the stuff marriages are built on, but he'd liked seeing her, day after day. Polnareff stares at nothing for a few seconds, caught up in fond memory, before wrinkling his nose at Bruno.]
Anyway. You're not the only one who stopped dating around when his father died. I dropped out of school and came back home to take care of Sherry, and I'm gonna guess she went on to be a professor or something.
[The way Polnareff tells it, Bruno spots a noticeable and interesting difference that seems to settle much better with the romantic than it does with the horndog. It seems the relationship was still busy and loud — and that makes sense because Polnareff just doesn't seem like the type who could sit still for very long — but there's a certain amount of shyness there as well in the beginning with a constant undercurrent of selflessness, too. And it's plain to see that Polnareff was happy with her. He wouldn't have that look on his face otherwise. It's a good look, Bruno thinks to himself as he loosely folds his arms with a quiet smile.]
She sounds like she was really special to you.
[Bruno could have commented on Polnareff's decision to go back home and look after his sister, but he doesn't. Bruno doesn't think his opinion on the matter carries that much weight to begin with, but it's not as though it'd be a complete and utter unknown anyway. And Bruno could say something to the mention of his father's death, but he doesn't with that either. It's obvious from what little Polnareff has said of the ways in which death has touched his life that he keeps things like that a little closer to himself, and that's perfectly fine. It just means that Bruno's far less likely to nudge the subject let alone push.]
[So, instead Bruno tilts his head a little as he smiles a little more.]
[His smile refocuses. It's not sharper, exactly, but it's most definitely for Bruno instead of Annette. Polnareff falls back on the bed, one hand rising up to gesture towards the ceiling as he speaks. It's a ridiculously relaxed pose-- something he might adopt around Jotaro or Kakyoin-- and it doesn't occur to him that he's starting to put Bruno in the same category.]
High praise! I'd be okay-- don't flatter me more, Bruno, my heart can't take it. Is okay better or worse than the rest of your gang?
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Madonna? Oh, well, [Bruno says with a small shake of his head,] then there's absolutely no way anyone could possibly resist you.
1/2
Shit, he thinks, because it's entirely unfair, Bruno saying that after Polnareff's realized what he did; it's unfair when Bruno has his hair in his eyes and Polnareff's present in his hair, when his voice is laughing and teasing and god damn it, this is unfair.]
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It's option number three on my seduction technique. Although I really sound good with the Stones, that's where my true talent lies. If I ever get Beggars Banquet, watch out.
[Just because he knows this is a bad idea doesn't mean he's going to stop.]
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In the event that happens, I'll keep a close watch on my heart. [Bruno pats his chest just above his heart lightly with a hand.] But if you do manage to steal it, you have to promise not to break it.
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You think I'm that callous? Believe me, you give me your heart, I'll be the best boyfriend you ever had. Flowers, chocolates, all that crap. You'll be so romanced you'll forget your own name.
[YOLO.]
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And how many people have you made that promise to, Casanova?
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[--oh, shit, he probably shouldn't have said that. Not even because of crush-related reasons; it just seems like something not cool to talk about when it's someone not in your core bro circle.]
--don't. Tell him I told you that.
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I'm perfectly content to forget I ever heard it.
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It's not weird-- what, you're my age and you hang out with a bunch of teenagers too, nobody ever asked you weird sex questions?
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You'd know that if you'd seen the way they were falling all over themselves around Trish.
[Because you know, just because Bruno ignored it doesn't mean he didn't notice it. It'd be like failing to notice two trains colliding as it was happening three feet in front of you.]
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Ahh, and here I thought they'd be comfortable asking their mama anything. Did they all try to flirt with Trish, then? At least Jotaro's confident enough to ask.
[A beat, and then he meets Bruno's eyes.]
Thank god we're not teenagers anymore.
[That might be the most honest thing he's said all night.]
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Calling what they were doing flirting would be an abuse of the word. [He tips his head a little.] I'd like to imagine either one of us would have managed better than that at their age.
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Yeah? I know I did-- what about you? Was seventeen year old Bruno constantly going out with all the pretty Italian gi-- people, or what?
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It wasn't constantly, but it's not like being a gangster meant I took a vow of celibacy.
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[Bro, come on. They're not two glasses into wine, but they're friends now; that means you get interesting gossip. Polnareff leans back on his elbows as he regards Bruno with an expectant expression.]
Come on, you can't just leave it at that.
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I wouldn't think it'd be all that interesting to hear. It was rarely ever anything serious, especially before I was made a team leader.
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[He really does mean that, too; he likes hearing gossip, because who doesn't? But it'd be a lie to say there's no ulterior motive as well-- ie, are there any male names in that list of previous paramours.]
I mean, you can say you were better at seventeen, Bruno, but I dunno if I believe it.
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Alright, alright, I'll tell you one story, but that's all you're getting. You have your choice between... [Bruno draws a slow breath, his gaze moving up as he considers.] Renato, Alessandra, or Sofia.
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[He says, as if it's a choice at all. But he waits a few seconds for appearance's sake, because he's not that helpless.]
Renato, I think, that sounds like a name with an interesting story.
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I actually met Renato during the tail-end of the summer before my fifteenth birthday. But he didn't want to talk to me then. His mother and father had just separated, and he was moving into the apartment next to mine with his mother. Since we were around the same age, I think she was hoping that he could make a friend before school started. She made him introduce himself to me, but after that we didn't speak.
We hardly saw each other anyway since my father was still in and out of the hospital a lot and I had business to take care of for Passione while Renato had school and over the summer, he went to be with his father in his village. He came back and we still didn't speak much until that winter when he ended up locked out. He'd left his key at the school and there was no way he could get there in time to get it back. So, he was stuck waiting until his mother got home from one of her jobs.
I offered to let him wait for her in my apartment, but he turned me down so I let him be. Then a few hours later, it started to pour. There was nothing for a few minutes. [Bruno huffs a small laugh.] But then his pride lost and that's when I had frantic knocking on my door. I'd barely opened it before Renato came barging in, already soaking wet. I let him borrow a change of clothes, but he was upset about his textbooks. His were all secondhand and a few of them were beyond salvaging, but there was no way in hell his mother could possibly afford to buy him new ones. I lied to him about having an older cousin and possibly getting him the books, he just had to be patient and avoid letting his mother find out.
It took me a few weeks to track them down, but I stole him new copies. I don't know if he actually believed me that they came from a cousin, but I don't think he cared. We spent a lot of time together after that. Sometimes he'd come over to my apartment, sometimes he'd drag me over to his. If his mother was working late enough that she wouldn't be back until the morning, he'd just stay all night and sneak back over before she got home.
By the time the summer came around again, he didn't really want to go back to his village to visit with his father. So, I kissed him and said I'd still be there when he got back. [Bruno shrugs a little.] We dated for a while after he got back, but I broke things off shortly before my father died.
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See? That's the kind of story I'm talking about.
[Both his tone and his smile are a little softer than they might be with others.]
And you're right: way smoother than . . . [He waves a hand, indicating the general teenage population they both hang out with.] I take back my doubt.
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I'll forgive you for doubting me this time, [Bruno teases with a small wave of a hand.] But what about you? You can't go around bragging about what a great boyfriend you would be with no follow-up.
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[Bruno had given an example from when he was fifteen, right? That probably counts. Except fifteen feels so remote, and anyway, he'd been kind of an idiot at fifteen. So, instead:]
Annette. My only college girlfriend. We were taking the same stupid 101 course in . . . I don't even remember what, I think classic literature or something like that, something bookish, because I kept missing whatever stupid subtext I was supposed to pick up. Which I didn't care about, except you need a pretty decent GPA if you want to keep playing sports in university, and I did, I was on the fencing team and I wasn't about to give that up, so I looked around at who seemed smart and pretty and there she was.
So she started tutoring me. It wasn't hard, she just said shit like the butterflies really symbolize sex or whatever, it didn't take long, and then . . . [He shrugs, but it's with a little smile.] I started asking if she wanted to come over not just to tutor me. She was smart, you know? Real sharp, I liked just listening to her talk about whatever she was interested in. And she had a good sense of humor, so I could always get her to laugh. We'd do all the usual college shit, y'know, football games-- I took her to see Les Bleus kick Italy's ass one weekend when they came to play-- and ice cream and parties, shit like that--
[It'd been good, for a few months. Maybe not the stuff marriages are built on, but he'd liked seeing her, day after day. Polnareff stares at nothing for a few seconds, caught up in fond memory, before wrinkling his nose at Bruno.]
Anyway. You're not the only one who stopped dating around when his father died. I dropped out of school and came back home to take care of Sherry, and I'm gonna guess she went on to be a professor or something.
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She sounds like she was really special to you.
[Bruno could have commented on Polnareff's decision to go back home and look after his sister, but he doesn't. Bruno doesn't think his opinion on the matter carries that much weight to begin with, but it's not as though it'd be a complete and utter unknown anyway. And Bruno could say something to the mention of his father's death, but he doesn't with that either. It's obvious from what little Polnareff has said of the ways in which death has touched his life that he keeps things like that a little closer to himself, and that's perfectly fine. It just means that Bruno's far less likely to nudge the subject let alone push.]
[So, instead Bruno tilts his head a little as he smiles a little more.]
You'd be okay for a boyfriend.
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[His smile refocuses. It's not sharper, exactly, but it's most definitely for Bruno instead of Annette. Polnareff falls back on the bed, one hand rising up to gesture towards the ceiling as he speaks. It's a ridiculously relaxed pose-- something he might adopt around Jotaro or Kakyoin-- and it doesn't occur to him that he's starting to put Bruno in the same category.]
High praise! I'd be okay-- don't flatter me more, Bruno, my heart can't take it. Is okay better or worse than the rest of your gang?
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