He hadn't expected the kiss, and for a moment Rufus was stunned, his mouth unresponsive as Reno's invaded it with his tongue. The moment passed and Rufus returned the kiss, pulling Reno closer as he did so.
Any thoughts of sending Reno off and being left alone for the night had vanished.
"Tomorrow's the big day, right boss?"
Reno had come into his office without bothering to knock. He leaned against the wall, his posture relaxed, casual and easy. Everything always seemed easy for him, always was easy with him. Even when they raged at each other, and their relationship was constant push and pull, it was somehow easy just to be with him.
"So it is," said Rufus. He'd reveal nothing of his feelings. No nervousness, no joy. Tomorrow was his welcoming ceremony in Junon, officially ushering in his reign as President. Then he would depart. Sephiroth was out there and Rufus was determined the track him down personally.
Not that Rufus had any romantic notion of avenging his father. The old's man death couldn't have come soon enough. It meant an end to exile and the beginning of destiny. No, what Rufus wanted was to personally crush anyone or anything that would threaten his company, or the security of his world.
"Are you going to miss me?" Rufus asked. Reno was one of the few people on the planet who knew that Rufus, at times, liked to tease.
"Well I want to give you a proper send off, yo," said Reno.
Rufus had Reno on the desk. The redhead's shirt was off and his legs were wrapped around Rufus's waist. There were no cameras in the office, on Rufus's explicit orders. After years in captivity Rufus had grown to loathe being watched, and so neither his office nor his personal chambers had any form of surveillance. If someone wanted to get to him they'd be picked up on the security feeds long before they reached his office, so there was no need to sacrifice on privacy. Here in Junon, his office and personal rooms were also sound proof and connected by private elevator which meant Rufus's liaison would remain discreet.
"We should go to my room," said Rufus. Reno had managed to strip him of his shirt, and Rufus knew if they didn't stop soon his pants would be off and they'd go at here and now.
"Why?" asked Reno. "Don't you want to break in your new desk, Mr. President?"
The idea was appealing. Rufus and Reno had always known that their relationship was strictly forbidden. It had began when they were both teenagers. It had started with stolen kisses in the blind spots of the cameras and clumsy first attempts in the men's bathroom because it was the only place they could think of where someone wouldn't be watching. Over time Rufus had grown to love the thrill of doing what he knew he shouldn't, like taking his subordinate right here on the desk.
No one would have guessed from their divergent personalities and backgrounds that the Turk and the young Shinra heir had been the best friends from early on and no one would have known, because officially they could not be friends. Reno was a Turk, and Rufus wasn't afforded the luxury of friends, not real friends. The outside world probably assumed Reno was Rufus's servant and body guard, and they would have been right, but he was also one of the few people Rufus truly trusted and indeed loved. They'd been hormone crazed teens risking everything for blind desire, and the word love was never spoken, and never could be.
"The bed's much nicer," Rufus whispered pulled the the bedspread down and ran a hand over the sheets. "Merino wool back with one thousand thread count Corelian cotton. Come feel."
Their shirts had been left on the floor of the office, and soon their pants would lay splayed on the bedroom floor. Undressing could wait though, at the moment Rufus just wanted to get Reno close enough to pin him to the bed.
"These sheets probably cost more than I make in a month, yo," said Reno. He took a seat and let his hand glide over them.
"More than you make in several," Rufus corrected. He pushed him down towards the pillow. "But all the reason to tear them apart and leave them stained. Because the point of having nice things is using them. I want to lay here with you afterwards, everything soft and nice. Just for a moment."
"Am I one of your nice things?" asked Reno. The Turk sat up, resting on his elbows and raised an eye brow. He might work for Rufus, but he'd never let anyone take him for a whore.
"Of course not," said Rufus. "I don't own you. You're the person that makes nice things worth having, because you're someone I can share, and destroy, them with."
The answer was enough to satisfy Reno, for the moment. They both knew there wasn't more to say. The question didn't need to be asked.
Professionally, Rufus regarded Reno as a valued asset to his company, a subordinate yes, but not a servant or a possession. On a personal level, however, Reno was the man Rufus loved and that was it. Reno wasn't with him because he was his boss or because he Rufus Shinra, and in many ways Rufus was with Reno because when they together it didn't matter who he was. Rufus was simply himself, simply Reno's lover.
Rufus never say the word, love, nor offer Reno any assurance because they knew such things had no place in their relationship. They had no future together, and no one could ever know of what they were to each other. The world wouldn't understand, and they didn't need the world. All they needed were these moments. Sliding down together on silken sheets, and letting their bodies entwine and become one.
Rough or gentle, slow or fast, pleasure or pain or all these things mixed together. Rufus loved the way Reno smelled, and loved to bury his nose in the crook of Reno's neck or his wild red mane just so he could breath him in. Guns and cigarettes and something like spice. Moans and whispers of yes and yes and names spoken half way between a prayer and a declaration.
This was love, but Rufus would never say it. Because he could not love Reno. Loving someone meant giving them all of you, your body, your soul, your heart, and your life. Reno would die for Rufus because it was his duty, but Rufus could not die for Reno or live for him. Rufus had to live for his company, his legacy, his destiny. There was no time for love, no room for anything of that sort.
When they were done they lay entwined, undiscovered in the sanctuary of the darkened room, protected from the world by curtains and tangled sheets. Rufus held Reno against himself and reveled in his warmth. Rufus hungered for Reno's warmth, for his body, for all him. Their enjoyment of one another was voracious, an all consuming need that would never be satisfied.
It isn't like it was when they first began. That was like a burst of flame, this is like a steady blaze. There was a time when Rufus had turned away from Reno and pushed the Turk from his heart. Reno told him later that at the time he'd thought he'd done something to drive Rufus away. The truth was it had nothing to with Reno. Rufus had discovered a truth that set him down a path where he could not ask Reno to he did not trust Reno to follow.
Rufus had become a traitor set on destroying his father and the company the man had built. Nothing would stand in his way, not even the Turks. There was a time Rufus ordered Reno's death. Then after that, when Rufus was captured, there was a time when Reno probably wouldn't have hesitated to kill Rufus himself if given the order.
Yet somehow they'd come to understand each other. Reno had come to understand and forgive Rufus for what he had done. Rufus had come to understand what it meant to regret, and to work for forgiveness.
Forgiveness had come, and with it love renewed. Just like old times, secret and stolen out of whatever spare moments they could get. Then as now there were never quite enough of these moments and the never lasted long enough.
For now, however, Rufus was content. For a moment he is safe and loved, and what came before doesn't matter, nor does tomorrow or whatever the future may hold. For the moment there was only now.
There would be violence ahead. There were would be blood and death, as there had always been. Rufus had no illusions of happy endings or a distant someday or someplace where it be like this always. Just the two of them and their love. Reno will be in danger and wouldn't want it any other way. Reno is a killer, a wolf who wouldn't give up the hunt for the world. But for tonight they were a pair of predators at ease. For now the savage jungle existed in perfect harmony, at least for them.
The morning would come soon enough and they would part. Perhaps with words of good luck and smiles, but not with words of longing. No "I'll miss you." No "be safe." Even though both realize the situation is grave.
Reno could be killed at anytime, and Rufus knew he'd never get a proper good bye. Rufus suspected Reno knew the sort of dangers Rufus himself would be now, that they all were in as long as Sephiroth was at large. Rufus knew if anything were to happen to either of them there'd be a million things left unsaid. Things that couldn't be said or faced.
At the moment, however, the silence is enough because it's filled with sound of Reno's steady heart beat and quiet breathing as Rufus rests his head upon his lover's chest. At the moment there is nothing else but the safety of each other's arms. Nothing else exists, at least for now.