Dark Bonds
Summary: A mission goes awry for the Turks, and one of their own ends up as one of the casualties. Slight Rude/Reno. Rated for violence and language. No sex etc.
A/N: My first venture into anything remotely slashy so please bear with me. It's nothing graphic or explicit but please, if it doesn't sit well with you, do us both a favor and don't read it. Anyway, those who are fans of the pairing, please enjoy :). Constructive reviews are most welcome.
Disclaimer, 'All I know is that I don't know nothing', etc.
Chapter One
It was too quiet. Deep down he knew it was just his well trained, ingrained Turk sensibilities keeping him alert and cautious, but he couldn't shake an uneasy, restless feeling as he padded through the shadows, watching his footing carefully as he made his away along the narrow window ledge. Rude glanced down at the dark street, fifteen floors below, and sighed.
His earpiece buzzed faintly and Tseng's soft voice eased like velvet into the night.
"Status report?"
Rude paused, reaching his destination and peering in through the grimy window.
"Just arrived. It's dark and still inside, boss. No signs of life."
"Good. Reno said the opposite of his location, which means everything's going according to plan. Proceed and let me know when you're in."
"Will do," growled Rude quietly, reaching into his pocket for the razor knife he carried. It felt odd being partnered with the Wutian for the night, as opposed to the red-headed live wire. Tseng's careful tendency to stick to the plan and cause as little trouble as possible was almost unnerving. He figured he'd built up immunity to Reno's antics and had adjusted his own mission procedure accordingly.
He shook his head, slicing through the hinges on the window. It wouldn't do become preoccupied with Reno and lose focus on the task at hand. The kid had been driving him mad lately. Purposefully of course. They'd made a pact months ago to keep their own relationship distanced from their partnership as Turks, up to and not excluding the long tedious hours spent in the ShinRa building, slaving over paperwork.
Reno had learnt years ago that Rude didn't apply the rules of anything too sternly to him, and could easily get away with the odd discrepancy. Most recently, given the sudden lack of work outside of the office, those discrepancies came in the form of frequent, dangerous and distracting flirting. And slash or making a general nuisance of himself and practically daring Rude to reprimand him.
Rude felt it was lucky that Reno had friends in high places, of which the sky was the limit evidentially, or he would have been castrated and flogged within an inch of his life a long time ago.
The window came loose and he quickly returned to the present, setting it silently to the side. The mission would give his little lover a chance to work off some steam and pent up energy.
He spared one last glance around himself before sliding inside, dropping lightly to the dusty wooden floor. Half expecting an alarm to sound he braced, but nodded in satisfaction when all that met his arrival was a stuffy silence, and he flicked down his microphone once again.
"I'm in, Tseng."
"Good. The door to your left leads down eventually into the warehouse. I'm monitoring the stairwell; you're clear to go."
"Reno, sir?"
"Guarding the eastern wall, out of sight. Proceed."
Rude stepped up to the door and rested his ear along the wooden panels none the less, quickly satisfied by Tseng's assurance, and cautiously cracked open the door, sliding his night goggles down over his eyes, and settling his glasses into his pocket.
A fluorescent green hue settled over his vision, and he moved swiftly and silently down the zigzagging stairwell, trying to put as much distance behind him as possible. Time was of the essence.
"By the way, I should commend you two, Rude," came Tseng's soft voice again, gently interrupting his meticulous and evidentially over-precautious scan of the walls. "No explosions, no deaths, no catcalls to speak of. This is the best behaviour I've seen out of you both in years."
"You both," objected Rude, smiling faintly despite himself. "I ought to take offense to that. I may be his partner, but not in crime. Well, in that sense anyway."
He heard Tseng chuckle quietly as he searched for the floor sign on the dingy wall: 6
"I'm afraid in this case, if you're not against him you are with him, and your eternal reluctance to abandon him to his own grave digging would suggest that you are with him."
"It's too late for language like that Tseng," muttered Rude, sighing.
"Apologies. I should- Activity in floor thirteen stairwell. Hurry."
Rude glanced unconsciously at the ceiling before picking up his pace. The general theme of the Turk's mission was to get in and out as quick as possible with as little interaction with the enemy as possible. Tseng was right; Reno was being uncharacteristically well behaved in that respect, but Rude knew it was with good cause. The gang went as the alias Red Knuckles, and cheesiness aside, they knew what they were doing. Word of mouth told of fighting abilities decent enough to almost rival that of ShinRa's finest, and their technicians gave even Reno and Tseng a run for their money. Rufus didn't doubt any of his Turks or their ability to hold their own against the gang, but it had been a long month, and all privately hoped for a slick, injury-less exit tonight.
Rude just hoped Tseng had already broken through the encrypted code blocking the Red Knuckle's computer system. That would mean their job was almost over.
At length he came to a dusty dead end in the stairwell, and turned his sights quickly to the floor beneath his feet; kicking up the grime and dirt to reveal a recently opened trap door.
"Tseng?"
"Clear Rude, come on in."
Prying open the entrance way expertly, Rude spared a surprised thought at the evidentially lacking measures in security. He supposed that the gang generally relied on their fists when it came to protecting what was theirs, and Reno was keeping them busy enough by the storage compartment of the building, where everything of material worth was kept and guarded. Rude knew from experience that Reno was an expert at causing distractions. He allowed a brief smirk at that before dropping carefully into the dimly lit basement, locating Tseng quickly from the glowing monitor before him.
"All according to plan?" he asked, bolting the door behind him and sliding up his goggles.
"Everything, except having your man in my ear non-stop for the past ten minutes," grumbled Tseng, fingers flying over a keypad he was hunched over. "He saw one of them enter the stairwell in his surveillance. 'Boss, where's Rude? Is he there yet, yo? Have you seen him yet?' Like the proverbial kid on a road trip."
Torn between being moved, insulted at the insinuation that he couldn't look after himself, amused at Tseng's rare show of sarcastic frustration, and concerned about the incoming spies in the stairwell, Rude just snorted and came closer, looking over the other man's shoulder at the screen.
"How long?"
"Approximately one minute," returned Tseng distractedly. Rude turned his attention to the surveillance screen on his superior's arm, tracking the progress of the man in the stairwell. Almost home. He turned and pulled out his gun, twirling it between his fingers.
Tseng's earpiece suddenly began to crackle, and he froze as he heard Reno curse loudly. Tseng jumped, distracted from his work temporarily by the noise.
"Reno?"
"… Shit! … Boss, we got a problem."
"Expand."
"The- damn it! The bastards know I'm here. They're fuc- ow!"
"Reno!"
Rude's hiss trailed off as they heard booted steps overhead, mingled with dulled, muffled sounds of gunfire coming from the earpiece.
"Reno, status report," demanded Tseng, rushing back into his work. He typed furiously for a solid twenty seconds before Reno responded, to them at least. His labored breathing could clearly be heard over the static.
"Sorry boss. Something grazed me, s'all. I- fuck off, dipshit! Get the shit out already, Tseng. It's kinda hectic up here."
"On our way, Reno. Get yourself out, keep us updated. Finally, that's me done," he announced shortly, jumping to his feet and pulling a drive from the computer just as the trap door exploded open, and two thugs dropped in, masked, according to the gang's custom.
Rude floored one instantly with a bullet through his forehead, and, feeling vindictive, took the other down slowly; one hole through his leg and another through his shoulder, before sending him after his companion.
"Ordinarily I'd comment on the waste of bullets, Rude, but let's just hope we won't need them," sighed Tseng, snatching up his gun and knocking the computer's hard drive to crash to the floor with a forceful roundhouse kick. "Let's find Reno and get the hell out of here."
"My thoughts exactly."
Rude led the way, pulling himself up through the trap door and knocking down his goggles once more as Tseng followed, reaching for his own.
"Reno, where are you?"
The crackling presided for several long moments, during which Rude underwent a battle of wills with his churning insides. A louder gun blast shot out from the earpiece and Tseng winced, fingering his gun and staring intently at his surveillance screen.
"Reno?"
"… ucking… can't see… oss? Boss?"
"Losing you, Reno. Where are you?"
"… down. Level …or. Where… ou?"
"Level one Reno. You're on four?"
"Yeah. In the main … aircase. I was- fuck! Get… ow… ude?"
Rude knew he was probably vibrating, he was so tense. From what they could make out, Reno's night had just been shot to hell.
"Here, Reno," he answered, tugging Tseng's microphone from his face unceremoniously and speaking into it. "Help us partner, what do we do?"
"… now, Rude, I'm… break out… glass, I- fuck!"
The furiously crackling audio suddenly burst into rapid gun fire, and Rude jumped, heart pounding in his chest.
"Reno!"
With a last muffled expletive from the missing Turk, the headset went dead, and Rude spun, hurling it against the concrete wall in his fury.
"Fuck!"
Tseng scanned his surveillance monitor furiously but looked up grimly.
"Lost the signal."
TBC, please R&R.