Sick Innocent Little Reno
Rude wandered down the corridor having had very little to do all morning. The day was hot. Too hot to do anything as Reno would say, but in this case Rude would have to agree with him. So with the extreme heat coming through the building's halls, Rude wiped the sweat off his forehead and headed over to the employee lounge.
Entering the room Rude exhaled cool, heavy breath onto his face and adjusted his shades. There were many reasons to head for this room. They had a kitchen, a TV with 2 large couches to relax on. Importantly though it was fitted with air conditioning and he'd bet all his money on Reno being there.
"Hey Elena," Rude greeted his friend.
"Hey Rude, how are you?" Elena was bright and cheerful as usual but she looked to be quite busy. She was standing in the middle of the kitchen to Rude's left. The tap was running and the freezer door was open.
"I'm fine, a little hot though," replied the Turk. Elena smiled at him. She looked quite tired in Rude's opinion. Rude continued "Are you alright? You seem a little warn out."
"Oh, I'm fine," the blonde paused, "Reno asked me to get a few things for him, that's all."
"Where is Reno?" Asked Rude.
"He's in the bathroom." Answered the blonde simply.
Rude then turned his head to look across the room at the bathroom door. As he did, it was only then he noticed his partner's jacket, EMR and the contents of his pockets on the sofa positioned opposite the TV.
"He's been in there for a while," continued Elena who sounded quite concerned.
"Is he ok?" Asked Rude.
"Mmm… I think… I'm not entirely sure." Answered Elena 'decisively'.
"He sick or something?" Rude said questioningly.
"Yeah he is, I ran down to the infirmary to fetch a pillow for him and I got him some ice and some bottled water. Rude watched as his blonde colleague filled a glass from a bottle and dropped some ice cubes into the water.
"You've been running around then," said Rude slightly amused.
"Just down to the infirmary," said Elena who sounded a little unsure of herself.
"On the other side of the building, in this heat?" Said Rude.
"Yeah," Elena replied, sighing. "I also had to find a vending machine which holds bottled water. The one outside's broken."
After she'd finished saying this, the bathroom door opened and Reno slowly stepped out. The redhead had his head to the floor as he walked over to the sofa. He sat placing his head in his hands resting his elbows on his knees.
"Hey Rude." Reno spoke very quietly and his voice sounded rough.
"Hey partner, where'd you go this morning?" Rude asked. Earlier that morning he woke in their apartment to found his partner gone. Reno was never one for being early to work. He was a little worried, but that was Rude.
"Drug store." The redhead replied simply. "Couldn't sleep either."
"Here you go Reno." Elena said this in a compassionate voice, filled with sympathy. She placed the glass of ice cold water on the carpet to the right of his foot. Rude stood and watched as she nursed him. "I brought a feather pillow for you so you can have a lie down if you want to." She shook the pillow, fluffing up the feathers inside it and placed it on the arm of the sofa nearest to her.
As she did this Reno raised his head slowly and spoke. "Thanks." He lifted his glass, making it look like such an effort in Rude's opinion and took a sip. After placing the glass back onto the floor Reno swung his legs onto the sofa and laid his head back onto the pillow.
"I'm cold.." He said in a whiney and childish voice. "Hey Laney, could you get me some sheets?"
"You're cold?" Said Rude in complete disbelief. It was true that Reno had phases of feeling unnaturally cold in perfectly fine weather. Feeling cold in this heat though was just ridiculous.
The small redhead just nodded his head, looking up at Rude with wide eyes as he did this. Then he turned to Elena, pulling the most innocent expression he could make for himself.
"Sure Reno, I suppose I could if you're really that cold." The Turk said. Rude was pretty sure she wouldn't want to be going all the way across the building again but Reno was like that. He just had a natural talent for getting his own way with people.
He nodded his head again slowly and the blonde turned to leave the room. "Thanks Laney," Reno added in a quietened voice.
"It's ok Reno," she sighed aloud happily and continued out of the room.
"Elena," whispered Rude, pulling her to one side, "he's probably just milking the situation you know."
"No… ," she turned and looked over at Reno for a brief moment. "It's fine , I'll go."
For a couple moments Reno remained still on the sofa as Rude stood in the middle of the room. It was quiet until Reno shot forward, sneezing violently.
"Bald," Reno said, lengthening out the words. "Will you pass me the tissues pwease?"
"Reno, the table's right next to you." Stated Rude. He wasn't being lazy, he was trying to test Reno. Admittedly Reno did sound a little rough but it was not unlike Reno to fake how bad his symptoms were. The redhead just looked up at Rude and did 'the expression.'
'The expression' was what Rude said was the face that Reno pulled when he wanted to get his own way. It was puppy dog eyes and a cute grin and it was the only thing that worked it's way onto Rude's soft side. Only Reno could manage to do it but still every time Rude would go through protest.
'Don't just give into him Rude, he's perfectly capable,' the Turk though to himself. But still Reno continued to do the expression. 'He's perfectly fine Rude, he's putting it on,' the Turk kept thinking.
"Rudie please?" And then Reno did the voice. Whiny, childish but adorable. Rude couldn't believe he was thinking this about a fellow Turk.
"Reno, just reach over yourself." Rude answered. "Don't you think you've had enough done for you, you're not a child."
"But Rude, I'm sick."
Rude simply stared at his partner. This was ridiculous. He didn't want to give in to him because of his suspicions of Reno faking it. Though Rude knew fully well that he wanted to. Reno started to make stupid squeaking noises reminding Rude a lot of a puppy.
"Reno, stop it, that's not going to work." Rude said, trying to keep a level of maturity.
Reno still carried on raising the pitch of his voice as he made the childish sounds. Rude sighed. "Uhh fine." He reached over to the coffee table and passed the box of tissues to Reno. It just made it feel like a lot of unnecessary fuss over nothing and he still wasn't as stubborn as Reno.
"Thank you Rude." Reno said adding a cheesy grin. The redhead blew his nose on one of the tissues and then started coughing.
At that moment Elena re-entered the room carrying some sheets. "Here you go Reno, these should keep you warm."
"Thanks Laney," said Reno once he had calmed down and stopped coughing.
"I just bumped into Tseng, I have to go meet him." She said putting the sheets down next to Reno's head. Reno looked at Rude with a raised eyebrow, jokingly. "He said that he wants my opinion on something."
"Some sexy new lingerie for himself no doubt." This remark came from Reno of course. Elena just kept her head held high and didn't satisfy it with a look or reply. Reno smirked to himself as Elena left the room. There was one thing for sure in Rude's opinion. It was that no matter how ill Reno was, he'd never lose his sense of humour.
"Hey Rude, I'm cold." Reno looked up at his partner again.
"You're serious?" Rude stopped a grin from forming on his face. The redhead nodded as he curled himself up on the sofa. "Well then get your sheets over you." Rude said simply.
Reno lifted his arm half heartedly in the direction of the sheets. Then he looked at Rude again in his usual childish way. There was one side of Rude that didn't want to give in to Reno but there was another part of him that wanted to treat him like a child.
"Aww can't little Reno reach the sheets?" Rude tried saying it as sarcastically as he could.
"Hey, what do you mean little Rude?" Reno raised his voice and stared at the taller Turk.
Rude laughed slightly and said "you're not that ill are you if you can shout." The second these words left his mouth Reno stopped glaring at Rude. He started coughing a little again, relaxed his face and then started looking up at Rude as he was before.
Rude sighed… "You want to be treated like a baby then huh kid?" Reno just pouted and said nothing. 'I'll give him exactly what he's asked for then.' Rude thought, trying to keep his expression as serious as possible.
He lifted the sheets off the pillow and opened them up to lay them gently over Reno. He tucked the sheets underneath Reno and made sure they covered his feet. "There is that alright? Enough layers there for you, there's like 5 sheets here."
"Yes thank you Rude," Reno said sharply but Rude could tell that there was some amusement in his voice.
"Is there anything else I can get for you Reno?" Rude continued to mock his friend through the way he spoke to him.
"Yeah actually Rude can you get that bowl over there in the kitchen?" Reno turned his head slightly, pointing Rude in the right direction.
Suddenly Rude felt a little guilty, Reno did sound like he was in a lot of pain. He walked over and grabbed a large red bowl from the kitchen counter.
"Here you go Reno."
Reno took the bowl from Rude and half smiled. Looking at him closely, Rude noticed that he was quite a bit paler than he usually was. His redheaded partner sat up slowly on the sofa and appeared to struggle as he did so. Rude actually felt bad for him, maybe Reno was genuinely as sick as he let on for once.
"Is there anything I can do kid?" Rude heard the word come out of his mouth, 'kid.' He only said this when he felt bad for Reno, in attempt to cheer him up or was trying to get him to comply with something.
His smaller redheaded partner just sat there with his head down and shook his head miserably. Then looked up with a saddened smile which looked to be a bit of an effort for him. He definitely wasn't faking it, if he was he'd be trying to get all the favours from Rude as he could. "Sorry Rude, you probably think I'm being an asshole."
'Don't say sorry you idiot!' Rude thought to himself. That just made Rude feel bad. And it didn't help that he couldn't do anything. Reno refusing help just made him want to help him even more. He got this strange feeling of wanting to mother the redhead, it was what he thought of as the 'Elena' side of his personality. He knew Reno was an adult but he did think of him as a younger brother or something. Looking after him just felt like an instinct to Rude.
"Don't be silly Reno." Rude finally said to his friend. He felt like a bit of an idiot just standing there doing nothing but he didn't know what else to do when there wasn't anything to help his partner. He felt bad ignoring him but then that was almost what Reno wanted at this moment. Rude couldn't for once in his life keep silent. That was only because for a rare moment Reno wasn't constantly talking.
"Hey, do you want me to go see if Tseng will let me take you home?"
His redheaded partner lifted his head again away from the bowl and nodded slowly. Rude smiled, "hey, come here." He wrapped the sheets tight around Reno and propped the pillows up behind him on the sofa so that he was comfortable. "I'll be back in a second ok?"
"Thank you Rude." Reno said simply and quietly.
As he walked down the corridor to Tseng's office the heat hit Rude again. If he was honest there wasn't anything he'd want to more than go home and take care of his partner.
Moments later after having spoken to Tseng and Elena Rude headed back down the corridor to go find Reno. It turned out that whatever is was they were doing was going to occupy the rest of the day and there wasn't any sudden need for either of the other Turks to be there straight away.
As he was about to turn the corner into the employee lounge an image shot through Rude's head. He imagined his partner laying with his feet up, nice and warm with his head in his hands watching the TV. But he was wrong. Reno was still in the same position Rude had left him in and getting closer Rude thought that he noticed his friend shivering.
"You okay?" Rude said for some reason, of course he wasn't ok. Reno shook his head of course. "I can take you home, you alright to walk?"
"What you gonna do, carry me?" Reno still had his head down.
Rude laughed a little thinking 'he's ok to walk.' "Come on then." His partner stood up slowly and as they started walking out of the room Rude stepped as slowly as he could. It was awkward but Reno wasn't going very fast at all and Rude didn't want to walk off and leave him.
A few flights of stairs and a car journey later, Rude was unlocking the door to their apartment. He watched as Reno made his way slowly through the front door and fell onto the sofa.
He looked to Rude completely exhausted and he'd dozed off into a sleep several times in the car, struggling to keep his eyes open. Rude had asked him if he was tired every time the redhead reopened his eyes. Reno had every time shook his head although he very clearly was.
Rude looked at him laying there with his eyes starting to close again. He went into the kitchen knowing that when he came back Reno would be fast asleep. He filled up a glass with cold water and put it onto the coffee table in the middle of the room. Then he grabbed Reno's duvet from off his bed and put it down on the floor with some pillows.
The bald Turk took off his partner's shoes, took his loose tie from around his neck and then placed Reno's pillows underneath his head on the arm of the sofa. Then he grabbed the duvet from the carpet and lay it over Reno's body. There was no way that he'd get away with this if Reno was awake, ill or not Rude doubted it. His partner looked so peaceful even if he was sick. There was just one thing that wasn't right though. Rude leaned over to Reno and put a hand to his head, slowly removing his goggles. The redhead's hair fell over his eyes and he twitched and turned over onto his side.
Rude pushed the edge of the covers right up to the edge of Reno's face, brushing his cheeks. Not quite knowing what to with himself Rude stood just staring at his partner for a while, waiting for something to happen that he could help with. Nothing did though, Reno remained perfectly still on the sofa which was rare.
Rude sat down in the single chair facing the end of the sofa and reached for the television remote. Still he didn't take his eyes off Reno. What did he think was going to happen to him? He turned on the TV quietly and though about going to get himself something to eat. He stood up slowly and as he turned around heard a mutter coming from behind him.
"Why am I in bed Rude?" Rude turned back to see Reno turned round to face him.
"Coz you need to get some sleep ok?"
"Not tired," Reno said in his childish voice again.
"I'm gonna grab some food, there's some water there for you if you like." Said Rude.
"Thank you bald," said Reno yawning. He hadn't even lifted his head from the pillow. As Rude had guessed it was just a matter of seconds before this conversation would end. Reno's eyes had shut again.
Rude smiled at his partner who lay fast asleep. "Night kid."
Well I hope you liked it! I'd love to know what you thought.