A saddened Reno trudged trough the snow, heading to the one place he knew would bring him happiness. His favorite bar was just around the corner. A lithe body stopped him before he could round the corner, however, and he knew that the joy he would find at the bar was lost forever.
"Tseng, I'm not going back to work tonight. I'm too tired, yo," Reno muttered, head down in a depressive motion.
"It is urgent. Rufus is going to Healin. He needs protection."
"DAMN IT ALL! I can't even go spend Christmas Eve alone in a bar without that Shinra baby needing something from me!" He turned away from the taller man, walking back toward his apartment, but Tseng caught up to him.
"Reno, you can't spend Christmas alone. Come back to the office. That is an order, not a request," Tseng said. He tromped gracefully through along the snow-covered sidewalk behind Reno, who remained silent, but kept walking.
Soon, Reno arrived back at his tiny one bedroom apartment, tromping up the stairs and unlocking the door. He swung it open to reveal a mess of a kitchen littered with boxes and bags of take-out food. Looking further, Tseng saw the living room, but something was odd about it. The small room was nearly spotless, save for the open cookie tin.
"Reno. Are you okay?" It had been a long time since Reno had heard genuine concern in the Wutanese man's voice.
"I will be. Maybe later, but right now, I just need to be alone. Or not. I don't know. Come on in."
Tseng stepped hesitantly through the door, making his way to the living room where Reno offered him a seat on the old blue sofa. Reno sat next to him, hunched over with his arms on his knees, his head hung low. Tseng swore he saw tears stream down the redhead's face, but the man didn't press the issue.
o-o-o-o-o
"WHERE THE HELL IS TSENG?!" Rufus bellowed across the spacious board room.
"He just called, sir. He said that Reno went back to his apartment, but in an attempt to drown himself in the bathtub after crying for hours, he fell asleep. Tseng recovered him, and he has been safely secured in the apartment," Elena read from the report she had copied from the Wutanese man.
"Damn it! Why the hell would Reno want to kill himself?!"
"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he spends every Christmas alone." Tseng walked in, hanging his coat on the back of a chair, moving to sit in it.
"Alone?" Elena asked, surprised that Reno would be shocked to suicide by being alone.
"Not just the past few Christmases. Every Christmas. Since he turned 1. Every birthday, every holiday. That includes Christmas. His mother abandoned him and his father died before he was born. Hunted down by Don Corneo. God help me if I leave him alone this year." Tseng left about an hour later, heading back to Reno's apartment.
o-o-o-o-o
"What the hell?" Reno awoke to bright sunlight, a warm blanket, and a soft bed—something he hadn't felt in a long time.
"Just lie back down. You're fine," Tseng said.
"What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Saving you from yourself. You attempted suicide last night."
Reno was speechless. I tried to kill myself? But why would I want to do that? I have a job, a home, even a half-ass little family. Well, sorta...I mean, I wouldn't exactly consider Shinra my family...God damn ADD!
"Now get up. You're going back to the office. We have a job to do."
"Fine. Whatever." Reno's attitude was back, even if it didn't hold the usual charm. He got dressed, making his way to the living room where Tseng had taken a seat on the couch.
"It's Christmas morning. Here's a present." Tseng handed him a box.
"What the hell do you want me to do with this?" Reno, who had never had the experience of opening a Christmas present, carefully tore the paper off of the box and opened it to discover a snowglobe inside. "I love snowglobes! How the hell did you know, yo?!"
"Everybody loves snowglobes. Look at it closer."
On the bottom, it looked as though Tseng had gotten the thing personalized.
"Thank you. That's all I can say right now. Thank you. I've never gotten anything for Christmas. Or any other holiday, for that matter, yo." Reno felt awkward doing so, but he leaned over to the man on the couch and hugged him. Tseng wrapped a reassuring arm around him, willing to hug the man if it meant that the redhead didn't have to spend Chrismas alone.
o-o-o-o-o
Reno and Tseng walked into the office, one happily gleaming, the other placing his normally stoic expression over his face.
"Reno, what did you smoke this morning?" Elena asked, suddenly popping out of the conference room with garland in her hand.
"Nothing. Why you always gotta assume, yo?"
"No reason." She swooped back into the room, shutting the door. Reno swore he heard the click of a lock, but he could care less. He was the happiest he had ever been in years.
"Reno! Get in here!" Rufus called from the conference room. He walked over to the door, swishing it open, revealing the decorations that looked as though they had taken hours. A banner was strung across the top of the room. What it said matched the bottom of the snowglobe.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS, YO!" everyone shouted.