AN: I actually ended up forgetting about this, and found it only a couple of weeks ago. I have written more that this, the next part is just incomplete in a really awkward manner. As it is, I'm none too fond of this chapter, and will probably end up rewriting it once my exams have finished and I'm no longer going 'oh dear god, what if I don't get into Uni?' As it is, I'm going to finish chapter 3, and am open to any suggestions for this chapter.
::2;;Feelings, just like people
When I first met Rude, he seemed a bit of a… Well, I dunno how you'd describe a guy like that. You know how when you first meet someone, your thoughts on them can generally be described in one or two words? Yeah, well, besides 'too fucking quiet', I dunno how you'd explain my first impression of him. I mean, I know there was something, I just don't what that something was. Thinking 'bout it now is probably kinda a stupid thing, anyways, though, 'cause we've been partners now for that long, that I know the bloke almost as well as I know myself. Maybe better, yeah, 'cause you can never stop surprising yourself, right? You will always manage to do something so incredibly fucking stupid, that 'til you do it, you don't think that you'd really be quite that much of a retard. As for Rude, right, he does very little that ever truly surprises me. Well, not that I can remember at any rate, so that means it musta been quite a while ago.
The redhead could practically feel the eyes watching him, see the brow creasing slowly as they became more and more irritated. Eventually, he knew, something would give. At least it would break the almost silence. It was only an 'almost silence' because the redhead, who had decided that now was a very good time to take a break from the report he was writing, and tap his pen against the desk. If he was honest, he thought it was pretty damn good tune. Or, as good as it could be, considering his 'instruments' were a plastic ballpoint, and a wooden desk. Either way, it was fulfilling its purpose of being Very Annoying. It was just a case of-
"Reno." That. The great silent one himself had finally spoken. His deep voice often only hinted at the emotion that the man presumably felt, but more often that not, that hint was more than enough. Reno grinned. "Yeah?" He drawled. "You decided it's time for a break from your report writin', too? Excellent. Let's go get some lunch, yeah." He stood up, walking over to the bald ma, and leaning against the back of his chair, tilting it slightly. There was no chance he was about to try and wheel the chair anywhere, he had a feeling he would probably get hit. Hard.
Deep breath. Count to 10, Rude reminded himself. He could not believe that he had been the one that had ended up with the most probably ADHD redhead as a partner, permanently. He was bad enough out on the field, but at least then he had a mission to focus on, to stop him for getting sidetracked and… Well, just plain annoying. "You go and get ne lunch. I don't want a break from the report, I want a break from you."
Reno pulled a face, raising his eyebrows at the man for a moment. "Whatever, man. I'm hurt, yeah." He stood, and walked over to the door of their office, pausing in the doorway. "But still, 'cause I'm such a nice bloke, I'll get summat for you."
Rude shook his head, glad of the quiet that would last for at least 10 minutes before Reno arrived back with food, most likely consisting of what the redhead chose to class as 'energy giving food' and what everyone else would class as 'junk'. Running his hand against his head, an act which he realised afterwards would have had far more effect if his head actually contained any hair, he focused once again on the almost complete report. Or rather, he tried to. They always seemed to take a disturbing long time to complete, a fact which he would blame on having the ever-distracting Reno in the same office. Ok, maybe that was a little unfair; despite what was generally perceived about the redhead, he took great pride in his work, his job, and that did mean the whole job, reports and all. He might get bored with them, complain, but he always got them done. It just so happened that he managed to get them done whilst annoying anyone he was near. And that happened to be Rude.
A string of rather loud curses signified that Reno was, in fact back, and as a result, Rude didn't bother to look up as the man entered the room. "Have people never heard of holding doors open? I mean, seriously, there I was, walkin' along, mindin' my own business, carrying these bags filled with very important sustenance, and she opens the door, looks behind her, and I think 'oh, that's nice, she's gonna hold it open for me', but no. The stupid bitch lets it slam in my face." Reno snorted, shaking his head. "You better appreciate this food."
Finally glancing up at his irritated partner, Rude raised his eyebrows at the sight of him. It wasn't unusual for the redhead to become irritated so easily, especially when he was in the middle – or rather, supposed to be in the middle – or writing a report, but Rude couldn't help but think that it was a bit of an over-reaction, even for Reno. A brief frown appeared on his face lines disappearing almost as suddenly as they had appeared.
"Thanks," he answered, after a moment.
Reno smirked at him briefly, before stalking over to his desk, and collapsing noisily into the chair, resting his feet on the desk, without bothering to move the papers that he had previously been writing on. Removing his lunch from the plastic bag, he paused before taking a bite. "Rude." He stated. "Am I really that irritatin' to ya? I mean, we've only been partners for a little while, right, and I've always been told that I take a bit of getting used to, but seriously, man, if I bug you that much, just say." That did succeed in getting Rude's attention. Raising his head sharply, he stared at the Reno for a moment, who in turn, had decided to give his full attention to his lunch. Rude couldn't help but wonder whether that was what was upsetting – how he hated to use that word – the redhead. It was true, Reno did irritate him, but… Rude couldn't actually think of a but.
This, Rude decided, was why he didn't talk a great deal. Reno could apparently think of something – anything – even if it was complete nonsense, to fill the gaps in his statements. Rude, on the other hand, thought about everything before replying, and would therefore feel as if he'd exhausted the topic before he'd said even a word. He was sure that Reno thought about very little before replying, and just rambled until he got an answer that sounded sort of right.
People took getting used to, and throwing two people who were so incredibly different together, could, in all honesty, go one of two ways; Into a partnership where the two were unable to get along save for completing missions, or they would compliment each other perfectly. At the moment, Rude wasn't sure as to which direction he believed it would be going in, but it was definitely leaning more to the former, which was, he had to admit, something that he wished were not the case.
He couldn't actually think of a reply to Reno's statement; He wasn't hugely fond of lying, and whilst Reno didn't irritate him quite that much, he wasn't about to turn round and say 'no, it's fine'. Daring a glance at the lunch Reno had brought back from the canteen, he was pleasantly surprised to see that it was something that one could describe as slightly healthy. Although what Reno had got for himself, he didn't want to think about.
Studying the roll for a few minutes, he became slowly aware that Reno was watching him. Glancing up from the food, he stared back at him. It had been rather amusing to watch the redhead slowly transformed his uniform into the relatively neat version that he had been wearing when they first met, to the one he was wearing now, a month later. It was as if his shirt was incapable of staying tucked in – a fact that had been noticed various times, and Reno had complied with tucking the shirt in, for it to mysteriously come untucked moments later. It was a fact that no-one had yet been able to understand.
"Yes?" He questioned, and received, instead of a ten-minute explanation, a mere shake of the head, as Reno appeared to return to his lunch, a smirk spreading across his lips, a sign that something not particularly good had, or was about to, happen. A frown appeared across Rude's face, the lines creasing in a familiar fashion as he warily looked away from Reno, and back at his lunch, and report.
Without bothering to move his head, Rude looked up from between his sunglasses, at the red head, who was now looking rather pleased with himself, a grin plastered on his face. "C'mon, you're so slow. Hurry up and get that report done, yeah. I already done mine." Closing his eyes, Rude massaged the bridge of his nose, wondering just what he had done to deserve this. Ignoring his partner, he looked back down at the almost complete report, content with the knowledge that although Reno took his work very seriously, his report writing was always slightly, well… Lacking. No, that was unfair. It wasn't necessarily lacking per say, it was just that every so often, the reader would encounter words, and sentences that were completely illegible, and attempting to understand what they were meant to say just took far more time than it was worth. Rude's, on the other hand, were, he was pleased to note, absolutely fine.
"Don't ignore me," he whined. "How can you ignore me after that?" The red head had once again found his way over to Rude's desk, and was now perched on the edge, gesturing at the object he had previously thrown at his partners head to get his attention. Sighing, Rude replied slowly, as if doing so was an effort that he really didn't want to waste.
"Because I have far more important things to be doing."
"I'm not important to you? I'm hurt. Really hurt," Reno answered, a completely serious expression on his face, and a hand placed over his heart. Receiving a grunt in reply, the smaller man peered over at the paper, his form casting a shadow on the paper that made it incredibly difficult to write. "Why's it takin' you so long anyways?"
Taking a deep breath, Rude stopped himself from answering with a comment along the lines of 'because you're an annoying bastard', and instead to go with the less offensive 'because mine is actual readable.'
Laughing, Reno leant away from the paper, and returned to his chosen corner of the desk. "P'raps we'll get to do something slightly more interestin' than patrol, soon. Rumour has it that that, uh, eco-group? Mudslide?"
"Avalanche."
"Yeah, them. Rumour 'as it, that they're getting' a bit pissy with big boss and what he does, y'know. Don't know what their problem is, yeah, ShinRa's done a lot for me." He stated, not referring to President ShinRa, but rather the company. Rude, who had by this point, practically given up on writing the last part of his report to the standard he wished for, and was now listening to his partner harper on. His tone, throughout that short statement had changed from a light, joking tone, to one more quiet and serious. It was a change that Rude had encountered only a couple of times previous.
"Or maybe we'll get to do some scoutin' for SOLDIER. Never understood them guys. They reckon they're all so good, right, but really, if it weren't for us, they wouldn't even be where they are."
Noticing that the bald man had stopped writing, and seemed to be giving him his full attention, Reno grinned. "So ya finally finished? Rude gave a single, sharp nod, moving his chair into a more comfortable position, one whereby he could feign attentiveness if it were required. Reno had, however, continued talking, entirely oblivious to his partners disinterest, whilst succeeding in managing to lose the man as to the topic of conversation. "-Right, yeah. So what d'you reckon?" The larger of the two found his focus being suddenly brought back to reality, and he turned to the redhead, before brushing aside his lack of knowledge as to what the question was over, and replied with a completely unrelated comment, one which he hoped would not allow the other to realise that he had not been paying any attention what so ever.
"We should take these to Tseng, or Veld," he gestured towards his own report, implying that as much as the redhead may wish it so, their work was not yet complete. The red head responded by simply screwing his face up, making his young features appear even more childish, and his attitude increasingly that of a spoilt child.
"Aw, man. Someone really needs to force Tseng to relax. He's so far up Veld's arse it's-" He paused, a grin slowly appearing on his face. "Well, maybe he ain't up there yet, but we all know that that's where he wants to be."
Rude shook his head. He personally had nothing against the other employee, in fact, he even respected him. Tseng, Rude had heard, had been at ShinRa for seven or eight months, and had already caught the eye of several senior Turk officers, leader Veld included.
"Hey, c'mon. What d'you reckon? I mean, sure, he's a damn good shot, but seriously, does the man really need to b—"
"Reno." A quiet voice interrupted the red head's gossiping, resulting in the young man spinning round, the grin on his face still intact, as the interuptee opened their mouth to continue. "I trust hat as you've found enough time to gossip to, and about, your colleagues, you have also managed to find enough time in your busy schedule to finish your reports".
"Yeah, yeah. We were just 'bout to come find you, boss. Or Tseng. Hence the conversation. We were discussin' where Tseng might be, see."
Veld didn't even bother to respond to the last comment, instead choosing to direct his attention to Rude, asking for his and Reno's reports. Turning to walk out of the room, he paused at the doorway, inkling his head back towards the two, before speaking. "I expect to see both of you down at the PT room in half an hour".
After the black haired man had left, Reno collapsed into his chair, before wheeling over to Rude. "Physical exercise? Damn it. That ain't fair. It's the afternoon! Everyone knows that people get lazy and tired in the afternoon. I ain't in the mood for goin' and doin' some random thing, y'know. Unless…" he tilted his head to one side. "D'you reckon we're gonna be sparring, or somethin'? I 'aven't had to partner you yet in that." Studying Rude's build for a few moments, he nodded, pressing his lips together before frowning. "Which, y'know, I'm actually kinda glad about. You're like twice the size of me, I swear. An' that's being conservative with the estimate!"