Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII and its characters.
The entrance hall was completely empty when they entered the building.
"You think he's still here, yo?" the shorter one said. His partner remained silent as they took the glass lift to the upper floors.
"Well, guess we're gonna check out, though I think probably not, yo. Knowing him, he's already home sleeping soundly…"
The redhead examined the blood stains on his shirt lazily. After a few minutes he spoke again to his stern friend.
"Well, it's not my fault we're late. Those soldiers were holding us back, yo."
Silence.
"And the thing about your phone – I tried to catch it, but it slipped right through my fingers in to the sea, yo."
An even longer silence.
"Okay, okay, I know it's my fault, but you can't blame me for breaking my own phone, yo. It was that Wutai soldier, who took it and threw it against the rocks, yo."
They stepped out of the lift and walked silently along the hallways till they reached Tseng's office. Reno placed his hand on the handle and tried to open the door. To both of his and Rude's surprise, there was a small click and the door opened a little. Reno looked at his partner, shrugged and entered the spacious office, followed by Rude.
The blurry lights were switched on, and behind the desk opened a spectacular view over the night-lit Midgar. Reno and Rude came closer to the desk and observed the black figure hunching over it. Reno grabbed his weapon and looked incredulously at the desk's direction. Rude was standing behind him, ready to attack at any time.
The black shadow seemed to be moving slightly, as if breathing. When Reno and Rude came close enough, a wide smile spread over Reno's face. Their boss was sleeping over his desk with a stressed expression, his head resting on his arms.
"Whoa, yo."
It was all Reno could say at that moment. One couldn't see it very well, but Rude seemed to have problems to keep his serene expression.
"He looks really distressed. I wonder what's bothering him, yo?"
Rude walked over and peeked over Tseng's shoulder at the file he had been working on. At the top of the paper he saw their own names and the description of their mission in Wutai. Rude beckoned to Reno, who took a long look at the paper and then to his partner.
"You mean... he's been waiting for us?"
Reno looked again at Tseng's sleeping face. He seemed to be confused by the situation for a while, but then got his usual mood back again, grinning and hurrying behind the desk. Rude looked calmly at his partner, who searched for a pen and started to scribble something on the foot of the file, trying not to wake up the sleeping Tseng.
Soon Reno stood up and grinned at his partner.
"Let's go, yo!"
Together they walked out of the office and turned off the lights, leaving their tired boss in his own dream world. Next to Tseng's face read now the words:
"Case closed. R&R"
Author's Note: Aaand the second and last chapter. I had fun writing this, and this fic actually got me interested and inspired to write many more FFVII fics... Once again, beta-read by GothMana.
