02. Simple gift

Throwing himself onto his couch, Tseng sighed with relief. It had been a very tiring day for the Turk; watching the new army recruits, guarding Rufus while he inspected the recruits, sparring with a few of them to see if he deemed them potential Turk material, getting the paperwork ready, having the new Turk recruits fill out the paperwork, file the paperwork then give the paperwork to the President.

Aside from the occasional noise from Dark Nation who was sleeping in his bed, the room was engrossed in complete silence. Tseng relished it and soon enough, he was asleep.

He was awakened some time later by a gentle kiss on his lips. He smiled when he saw the bright blue eyes that greeted him when he awoke.

His lover smiled down at him. 'Good evening sleepy head.'

'Good evening? It can't be more then 5 in the afternoon.'

Rufus laughed, 'No, it's 8:00 in the evening. I got home a couple of hours ago and I wanted to wake you up then but, you really looked like you needed the rest, so I decided to wait.'

Tseng frowned, he hadn't intended to sleep that long. He had meant to take Rufus out to dinner, just the two of them. They hadn't had much time alone lately and Rufus was stressing himself out with all the work he gave himself. Tseng had wanted to do something special for him but given that he fell asleep, the plan fell through.

Rufus noted the frown on Tseng's face. 'What's wrong? Is the couch not comfy enough for you? It is the highest quality one they had available. As comfortable as a real bed or so I was told.'

'I didn't mean to sleep this long.'

'It's not a big deal. At least one of us will be refreshed in the morning. Did you eat yet?'

Tseng shook his head. 'No, I meant to do something for dinner but obviously that fell through.'

Rufus smiled. 'Don't worry about it. Come on, get up. Let's see what we have in the kitchen.'

Reluctantly, Tseng got up from the couch and followed Rufus towards the kitchen. Rufus stopped in front of the dining room and smiled at Tseng.

'The kitchen is further down that way, Rufus.'

Rufus gestured towards the dining room. 'We don't have to go that far for food Tseng. It's all right here.'

Tseng stared in awed silence at the dining room table. Dinner for two, candlelit, two glasses of wine and a wonderful smelling wutainese meal were laid out for them. He turned to Rufus, surprise and happiness showing on his face.

'Rufus, what is all this for?'

Rufus shrugged, 'It's just dinner Tseng and before you ask; no, I did not make it myself. I didn't want to burn the building down so I had the cook make it. I asked him to make some authentic Wutain food for you. I hope that he did well and that you'll like it.'

'What's the occasion?'

Rufus walked to his lover, hugged him and laid his head on his chest. 'There's no occasion. I just wanted to give you something for all the work you've done for me lately. I haven't seen you much and I missed you. I wanted to give you something else, but I couldn't think of something better then this on such short notice. I just thought of this as I was leaving the office.'

Tseng returned the embrace. 'I missed you too; even if we do work together we haven't had much time together. Don't apologize for the dinner. This is really the best thing I've received in a while. Time with you and good food, you really can't get much better then that.'