Yes, you now get Reno Rufus. Fluff? No.
Reno sighed as he stared off into the distance, a content expression grazing his features. Rude ignored him.
He was good at that by then.
"Rude?" Reno sighed after a while. The bigger man grunted in reply. "What is love?"
That caused the sun-glassed man to look at his partner from the corner of the eye. Any time the red-haired Turk even thought the word 'love' something very, very bad was about to happen. Which usually ended up in two things. The first being Reno would get hurt and be miserable for a while, then supposedly move on- even though Rude knew better. The second was that things would get very, very, very interesting, and then others would get hurt too, though usually in a more physical sense.
"Why?" he grunted.
Reno shrugged. "No reason."
Rude also knew Reno well enough to know when the smaller Turk was lying.
QQQQQQQ
The next day started the same as any other. Except that Reno hadn't said a word for the last two hours.
The warning bells in Rude's head were going off.
"Reno..." he started, looking his friend straight in the face. "What is it?"
"Nothing," the other finally whispered. The man's ability to snap while still sounding sad would never crease to amaze the bigger Turk.
"It's not nothing. Who were you talking about yesterday?"
Reno frowned. "It was no one. No one at all... I can't love them anyway." There it was again. That love word. "It's pointless, and I need to give it up."
"Did they reject you?"
"Not recently."
Recently? Which meant this was hailing back to some time earlier, and another 'love' that'd hurt him. Rude knew Reno never really forgot any time he thought he loved someone, but he'd never tried to see that person again.
"Who Reno?" he asked softly. Who did you care enough about you came back to them? Who captured you so thoroughly you can't let go?
"It shouldn't matter," Reno muttered, ignoring- or maybe not even hearing- Rude's question. "It's not like he isn't on the other side of the moon for all it can be to me..."
The warning bells turned into full-fledged sirens. He. Reno had said, he. Which meant there could only be one person.
QQQQQQQQQQQQQ
No one else really knew it, but he did. He knew that Reno loved the VP with everything in him, even if Reno himself still didn't realize that. First of all, Rufus was a guy, and despite popular belief, Reno was very straight. Until it came to the Vice. Then everything that was Reno got caught up in something more, something different. Rude knew Reno, in fact, truly loved their VP. In the way he moved when he saw him, in the way his voice softened, in the way he spoke Rufus' name, in the depth's Reno's eyes took whenever thinking about Rufus, even if it was purely work-related. That was the way Rude knew.
Knowing that despite this love, nothing would ever come didn't help. Even though Rufus had never claimed him, the Turk was his. Reno kept coming back to Rufus, no matter who else caught his eye. He came back.
QQQQQQQQQQQQq
Reno watched Rufus move from across the room. He briefly wondered if the VP knew he was there, but discounted the idea. Yet anyway. Rufus hadn't seen him yet.
It was only a matter of time. But until then Reno would watch the one he couldn't let go of.
"Do you want something?"
Reno had to blink several times to clear his head. When it was sufficiently cleared, it was to find none other that Rufus towering over him. Leaping up Reno started stammering. "N-no Sir!"
Rufus raised an eyebrow. "Fair enough."
"Sir?"
"Yes, Turk?"
Reno blushed suddenly- something he hadn't done in years. "Do you need anything?"
"No."
"Oh...erm... Ok..."
"Are you alright?"
Reno tried to say eyes but the words stuck in his throat. "Do you know what love is?" somehow came out instead.
"What?" Rufus demanded.
"Sorry Sir," Reno blushed again.
"No, I don't. Why?"
"Don't you want to find out?" Reno asked.
"Why?" Rufus shot right back.
Reno paused. "Because life without love seems empty."
Rufus frowned. "Life here is empty."
QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ
Ask Reno later how it happened, and he wouldn't for the life of him be able to tell you. But somehow after Rufus had said that, he'd pushed himself on the VP without- clearly without- thinking and kissed him as he was sure he'd never kissed anyone else. And somehow, somehow, Rufus had let him.
QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ
Sing to me
A song of Far off lands
Of rolling ocean waves
Of beaches with towering trees
A song of clear sparkling rivers
Of sun dapples tree shadows
Tell me stories of this place
A vale hidden from the rest of the world
Small lives
Happy lives
Promise me that this is true
Swear to me it's not just a song nor tale
Tell me that it is somewhere
A small paradise
An oasis
Where only we can go
As you sit beside me
Promise me you'll take me there someday
And no abandon me along the way
Because
I couldn't go on
If you don't
So tell me this is true
Just once...
Even if it is a lie.
QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ
Rude realized something the next day. Reno could love without being hurt. At least he sure hoped so.
Nope, can't decide if this is Fluff...or Angst. Or both? This was writen while I felt liek crap,and I reworte it about 3 or 4 times...in one night.