Note: Wow, you're all so cynical. :) Just so everyone knows, Tseng and Rufus really aren't being mean on purpose! They just don't know what's going on. Poor them… so bestialized. Geez.
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Rufus drummed his fingers against the desk in a quick, sharp staccato. His gaze meandered away from its subject and locked on a pair of dark eyes, which stared back with a skeptical expression.
Both pairs of eyes returned to the nervous Turk, though that particular emotion was well-concealed. "'Sick'?"
Rude coughed into his fist and nodded.
"I see," the President told him. The interrogatee wasn't stupid enough to think he was being believed- he hardly needed the unimpressed gaze and raised eyebrow to tell him that.
"Tell me what's going on with your partner, Rude."
The trio watched each other in silence, Tseng leaning forward across his own desk in the corner every so slightly. A long, tense silence stretched between them before he answered. It was slow but steady, and if anything was clear it was that he would not fudge the issue. "No."
"That's an order."
"No."
"Rude, I can fire you right now."
"You need me," he answered stoically. "And I would never betray Reno. There's more at stake here than you're considering."
Rufus leaned back in his seat, watching Rude carefully, trying to detect any hint to this new riddle they had been presented with.
"This issue is between him and you." His 'you' was indistinct, but it could be that way. Where Rufus was included, so was Tseng. "I refuse involvement. Sir."
He bowed, righted his glasses, and left.
"This is getting annoying," Rufus remarked with a grunt, eyes fixed on the closed door. Tseng merely sighed and returned to his paperwork.
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"Get out of bed."
Reno stayed very, very still, open eyes staring at the inside of his blanket.
"I know as well as you that you are awake."
He gritted his teeth and threw off his covered, rolling over to stare pointedly at his dark-eyed boss. "I think you're wrong- I'm asleep and having a nightmare." He rolled his eyes and turned onto his back, sinking sulkily into his pillow. "Can't I just have one day in peace?"
There was a long, thick silence and Reno was half-asleep again. He could hardly hope to actually fall asleep though, knowing Tseng was just behind him. He was hardly stupid enough to think the man had left, though he didn't quite know what he was waiting for. Reno wasn't about to ask.
He figured it out a few minutes later when he heard the clipped steps that could only belong to the Shinra president.
"Your apartment is a complete dump," the blonde man informed him graciously, glancing about.
Reno groaned weakly, pulling his pillow over his head.
"Remind me to give you some rum or something," the man continued, gingerly placing some beers on the bedside table. "Whatever you like."
"I like my beer," he answered hotly, pulling the pillow down just far enough for the intruders to catch his glare.
"Suit yourself."
He sat up slowly, gaze focused on anything that wasn't them. "You won't be leaving."
"No."
"Why not?" He sounded like a petulant child- he could hardly be blamed for it.
"You're a mess. If you take it off your shoulders, you'll do your job better."
'Always about the fucking job,' he thought bitterly, violently opening his beer and taking a dry swallow, whipping his mouth. It was cheap, too, not even really good. "I'll be fine tomorrow."
"No." Tseng's voice was sure and unwavering- direct. "You won't."
"You've been like this for weeks," Rufus injected gently.
"Then why wait till now, yo?"
"We didn't want to involve ourselves."
Reno felt hurt. As though it wasn't bad enough already… He sneered and turned away, nails biting into his wrist.
As such he completely missed the reproaching look directed towards the Wutaian man, Tseng looking vaguely ashamed of himself for wording it so.
"In the interest of your own well-being, functioning on the assumption that you wanted your privacy, that is," Rufus clarified, still glowering faintly at his lover.
"I do want my privacy, so kindly go away. Sir."
"Too late," the blonde snapped, eyes fixed on Reno's hair.
It was really distracting, as it were. Not because of its bright color but because of its- ahem- unique style. It was like an odd mix between long hair, short hair, a rattail and a mullet. He wondered briefly (though not for the first time) how much effort it would take into convincing Reno to cut it all at the same length and let it grow out uniformly. Then again, his hair was a pretty good representation of his completely inability to make any lick of sense.
He reprimanded himself for being so easily distracted by Reno when he was supposed to be helping him (in his own special way), and noticed at that point that the redhead was shivering faintly. His eyes were clenched closed, teeth grinding. He was chanting inwardly to himself, trying to convince himself that they weren't really here and he was just having a really weird dream.
"We're staying here until you talk, Reno," the blonde finally warned, eyes narrowed at him, "if it takes weeks."
Considering his day? It would definitely take weeks. Months, maybe. Damn it all.
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If anything could be said certainly about his character, it was that Rufus just naturally owned things. In truth, Reno had always found that possessive quality in the blonde president endearing. He had, however, suddenly discovered just how annoying that trait could become when it was his own apartment that found itself being subjugated into the man's personal empire within a week of the unceremonious 'moving in'. Luckily, he had an extra room- set up for Rude, to be truthful- and even if the thought of Tseng and Rufus sharing the twin made him sick, at least he didn't have to see it.
He looked at the blonde sullenly over the top of his refrigerator door. It was now filled with all sort of things he would never normally eat- fresh berries, crunchy vegetables, aromatic cheeses, marmalade, freshly-sliced lunch meats… his beer was gone, his ground beef was gone- for god's sake, his Jell-O had been removed in favor of strawberry mousse. Rufus glanced at him from the white-leather armchair, slipping a yogurt-dipped raspberry into his mouth, before returning his gaze to the white and pink marble chessboard he'd had Elena fetch for him so that Tseng and he could play.
Even his chocolate stash had vanished- not that he'd had much left, considering the stress he was under. He might have finished it last night, actually… all he could remember was an incredible headache. He couldn't get more because the men more or less refused to let him leave the place. He grumbled to himself, pulling out the last bag of chips from the pantry. (A pantry full of herbs he didn't recognize and stringy pastas apparently not named spaghetti after all, though he couldn't really tell the difference. Apparently Rufus could, rich bastard.) He plopped down on the couch, groping for the remote control on the glass table.
Okay, the remote was gone.
He gritted his teeth, plodding his way over to the television with heavy steps to turn it on. He didn't manage to make it back to the couch before the screen turned off again. He found the remote though- in Rufus's hand. Bastard wasn't even looking away from the damn chess board.
He fought the urge to break something, hurling the bag to the ground- chips scattered across the hardwood. "Stop!" he screamed at the blonde. "Stop fucking with me, yo! I can't stand it anymore!" His fingers were tense around his skull, curling in his hair. He spun in lazy, dazed circles, growling in frustration. "Enough, already! You're driving me crazy, both of you! Fucking crazy! As though it wasn't bad enough before- just shove me off a cliff, why don't you?" He slammed his fist into the table- it shook but thankfully did not crack. "And you've just gotta fucking flaunt your prefect happiness at me, don't cha? Never fucking mind, yo, I'll just jump off the fucking cliff for you!" He bared his teeth and darted away into his room, slamming the door.
Two pairs of eyes followed closely, Tseng hesitantly turning back to look at the board after a few tense seconds, slowly pushing a raspberry into his mouth. "Maybe we should-"
Rufus cut him off with the clink of a moving knight. "If we don't find out now, we never will. Besides, that sounded suspicious to me."
The Wutaian man inclined his shoulder. He looked uncomfortable, perhaps guilty.
"It's our fault somehow," the blonde continued, ignoring the sharp look given to him by Tseng. "If anything, he just proved that. And I'm going to fix it. We both know I'd rather you help."
He did not reply, merely putting the entire incident in a place in his mind where he could review it later, when everyone else was asleep. He rather doubted he'd be able to follow them into the land of dreams, especially not tonight.
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Reno cradled the bottle between arms, gazing appreciatively at his partner. "I will forever be thankful for this, buddy." He held the beer up in the air before taking a long swallow.
"I had a feeling," Rude answered in his gravely voice, smiling very faintly. "So… two weeks."
"Yeah," he groaned, dropping his head against his knee. They were both sitting against the edge of the bed, the large mattress hiding them from sight from anyone that might open the door. "I'm going crazy. It's not just that they're always around, but I can't do anything. The jackass doesn't even let me watch TV half the time. What am I supposed to do, read? Yeah right. It's not like I can train, either."
"Elena and I are trying to convince them to take you out on missions every so often."
"Lotta good that'll do," he grumbled, although he sounded faintly relieved. "I suppose the boss'll come with me on all of them, yo."
"One is better than two," he answered smoothly, and Reno glanced at him.
"Never thought I'd here you say that, aibou."
"Circumstances."
Reno grinned and patted the man's shoulder.
