Stripes was an opulent place tastefully and classically decorated with a hushed, plush interior and elegant, graceful servers. They were shown at once to their reserved table and politely informed that the representatives from JiuShan Corporation would be late due to a scheduling conflict, but to please feel free to enjoy cocktails until they arrived.
Yazoo smiled graciously at this and primly seated himself in the lushly upholstered, semicircular booth, Reno flopping next to him in his usual casual, lazy way.
"Boring, fuck," he sighed, and immediately ordered a whiskey tall.
Yazoo smirked at his disgruntled lover and ordered himself a glass of wine, determined not to be stinking drunk by the time his potential employers arrived.
"Baby, I gotta say, these guys must have some serious backing if they're thinking of moving into ShinRa territory," Reno observed, idly playing with the silverware before him.
"Is Rufus nervous?" Yazoo inquired, knowing that the remaining ShinRa would be aware of his rivals in the city that was, essentially, his.
"Nah," Reno said, grinning at him. "He's got us Turks, baby—ain't nothing gonna worry our boy."
Their drinks arrived, and Reno dove straight in, regaling Yazoo with tales of work and his shady, somewhat questionable past.
They only waited for a half an hour or so before the representatives showed. One was a balding older man who simply introduced himself as Mr. Chen, and the other was a young woman who constantly scribbled notes and was introduced as Ms. Zhu.
"I am very pleased to meet you both," Yazoo said, and gestured at Reno, saying, "And this is my partner, Reno."
"What it is, yo," he said, waving absently at them.
Two pairs of dark chocolate brown eyes regarded him calmly before returning instantly to Yazoo.
They made small talk, ordered dinner, and spoke of inconsequential things like the world market, commerce, and the slow but steady rise of ShinRa stocks as compared to the rapidly gaining stocks of JiuShan Corporation.
"And, finally, Yazoo, we come to the crux of this meeting," Mr. Chen said, politely dabbing at his prim little mouth with his napkin. "As you know, Wutai has made vast leaps in technology and commerce in the past decades due to the stresses of war and it is now ready to enter the competition on equal footing with the decadent ShinRa Electric Company."
Reno sniggered a little and busily fussed with his drink when Yazoo glared at him.
"You yourself have been a victim of their various nefarious schemes," the older man went on, his voice smooth as silk and pleasantly low. "We took the liberty of investigating what we could of your past through certain field operatives and are assured that you would be most suited to our needs."
"Which are, sir?" Yazoo inquired, delicately sipping his wine and not letting it show when Reno, bored, groped him under the table. He just pushed that wandering hand lower down his leg and smiled sweetly at the old Wutain man.
"Wutai needs strong leaders, teachers, experts in their fields," Mr. Chen said, not catching the exchange. "We are interested in offering you a position here with our branch company as head of security."
"That is very flattering," Yazoo said, smirking when Reno insistently moved his hand back up. Yazoo, however, had perfected the art of double-tasking and did his lover one better—without breaking his conversation or even giving any indication that he was doing so, he calmly slipped his hand onto Reno's crotch and gave him a hard, firm squeeze. "Head of security, you say?"
"Whoa!"
"Are you alright?" Ms. Zhu asked, startled by Reno's outburst.
Reno flushed as red as his hair and gave her a sheepish grin, weakly saying, "Tops, baby, thanks."
She looked rather puzzled by his choice of words, and went back to scribbling notes.
"We feel that you have the proper amount of combat experience and, as you had no part on either side of the Wutain Wars, you are relatively unbiased," Mr. Chen explained, cocking his head at Reno when the man yelped and jumped in his seat, giving them all a shaky, embarrassed smile.
"I would go so far as to say that, yes," Yazoo said, sipping his wine and proceeding to give Reno a rub-job under the tablecloth, knowing his lover would have no escape and determined to fuck with him—after all, Reno had been a bit of a brat all evening and he was certainly asking for it. "You would be willing to give me regular hours, good pay, support staff, and locality?"
"You wouldn't have to move an inch," Mr. Chen said, smiling widely.
Reno put his elbows on the table and dropped his head in his hands, using every ounce of his control and decency to keep from squirming against that slowly stroking hand. He'd gotten hard in a heartbeat, his ornery teasing of Yazoo backfiring big time. His lover was the best at rub-jobs and could pull them off in a room full of people—most of the time no one even knew what was happening…most of the time. Unless Reno lost it, that is.
And he was dangerously close to doing just that.
He sat up abruptly and yanked on Yazoo's arm, hissing, "Bathroom!"
Yazoo smiled at the two people and softly excused himself, sliding out of the booth and hurrying after Reno, who strode to the bathroom like a man on a mission, dragging Yazoo along by his wrist.
They slammed into the opulently appointed latrine and Reno tossed Yazoo inside a stall, following him in and locking the stall door behind them.