It was a normal day, there was nothing special about it, nothing to suggest that there was a cause for concern anywhere in ShinRa. Nevertheless, Tseng felt a strange sense of unease eating away at him. Something wasn't right, he could feel it. He sat back, considering each of his colleagues, trying to identify the problem.
Elena was more snappish than usual. By that, of course, he meant that she had left one messenger in intensive care, and thrown Reno through a wall. he suspected it might be her time of the month, but he would never ask. He doubted she would give him the same treatment, but he was not prepared to take the risk. It was hard to tell with Elena.
Rude was silent as ever, though he had heard some interesting noises from his office the last time he had walked past. That would probably be something to do with Reno. It usually did.
The redhead himself was probably having fun either insulting someone, avoiding paperwork, drinking, smoking, irritating Rufus or screwing Rude.
He frowned, steepling his fingers in front of him. His usually carefully schooled blank expression was replaced by one of almost confusion. Rufus was fine, he had a special sense of when the blonde was distressed, sad or overworking, anyway, that ex-Turk he had finally found happiness with should be looking after him. Especially since Tseng had made it crystal clear what he would do to the man if he hurt Rufus. The fact that he could not die, and, in fact, healed, would only make it more fun.
He sat up as he thoughts wandered to Reeve. He had not considered the Director before. He hadn't heard from the man in a while, which struck him as odd. He looked at his watch, it was five minutes to lunch time. He pushed his chair back, deciding to walk down and offer to take the man out to lunch and catch up, seeking to resolve his subconcious concern.
Tseng walked with his usual speed and grace, down to the other man's office. He knocked, and was surprised to receive no response. He knocked again, calling out this time, in case the other hadn't heard him.
"Reeve? It's Tseng... are you in there?"
Inside the office, Reeve looked up and blinked, shaken out of his melancholy by the sound of another human voice.
"Oh...Tseng... come in..."
Tseng frowned, concerned by the lack of the other's usual warmth in his tone. He opened the door and let his eyes take in the sight of the other sitting disconsolately behind his desk. He blinked, the other looked smaller somehow than he had the last time they had met. The silence of the office, and almost dead feeling of the atmosphere. It threw him off, it felt unused, unloved, forgotten, like it had been misplaced from an old house. He half-expected to see dust sheets on every surface, but the white coverings were paperwork, not protection from neglect.
"...I was wondering if I could take you out to lunch..."
Reeve blinked several times. "...what?"
Tseng raised an eyebrow and grabbed the other man's coat from the hook by the door, crossed over to the desk and thrust it towards him.
"Get up, put this on, and come with me. you need to get out of here."
Reeve moved stiffly, but did so, blinking. His movements become more fluid as he proceeded to follow Tseng out of the office.
Tseng chose a quiet and unassuming restaurant nearby. They were seated, and water was poured, then the waiting staff retreated backwards. Tseng chose his words carefully.
"Reeve... why...?" was the best he could come up with.
Reeve shrugged "It doesn't matter. I still do my job."
Tseng raised an eyebrow "Reeve, you are like Rufus, I ahve never seen you get behind on paperwork, ever, and yet you were practically drowning in it. You haven't left your office, haven't spoken, I haven't even seen Cait around. What's going on?"
The other closed his eyes. "I'm sorry... I felt it was best if I stayed out of your way."
"You weren't in anyone's way, why would you think that?"
"I just... it's so hard being in my position. All I can do is provide intelligence, yet I have lives riding on me. All I do is sit behind a desk, it's you and your Turks who risk your lives. If I get it wrong, you get hurt or even killed, and it's my fault. I wish I could do more. I feel so useless, so helpless. I wish I could do something, anything, but I can't... I'm just... worthless..."
Tseng felt every single word hit him like a blow. He had no idea how they could have let the man who they relied on become so unconvinced of his own importance. He acted on impulse for the first time in his life and reached over the table to take the other's hand.
"Reeve... listen to me..."
The other blinked up at him, and swallowed, but settled back to listen, heart in his mouth at the other's contact.
"Without you, none of us would still be here. Without you I cannot keep track of all the missions which couuld have gone wrong if you had not lost sleep going out of your way to find us some detail which saved a life and changed the situation. Without you countless kids we have had to kidnap over the years would have been left in cells and their care would probably have been delegated to Elena by some directive from a highup official who has no idea how much of a mistake that would be. You look after them, care for them, teach them to read. They all love you! Without you, our best Turk wouldn't be here. You gave Reno the time and help he needed when none of us knew enough to help him. It would be a waste for us to let you go on missions because if you got killed, hurt or captured, we would lose our best asset and the only advantage we have."
Reeve was listening, open mouthed. He stuttered.
"I-... I-..."
Tseng smiled indulgently and stroked his hand "So let's eat... and then I'll take a day off and we can go out somewhere. You need to get out more."
He leant forward and kissed the other's cheek "You worry too much Reeve..."
That is another of aeriths-rain's birthday fics, almost a year late. However, I like this one very much, though it wasn't how I planned. I had, in fact, begun a different idea for this, which I realised would develop into a multichap, so I decided to do this instead and save that up. I have a feeling that this has gone multichap too, because to me it doesn't feel finished, it doesn't feel fulfilled. This, at least, will only go to a few more chapters, not long, so it's not as bad as the last one. It would be so nice to write a fic which behaved, this is what you get for letting plot bunnies hunt you instead of hunting them. You'd think I'd have learned by now.
Reviews are love!