Thank you to everyone who has read and especially those who have reviewed!

This chapter has some swearing and some sex, together with not very veiled references to sex of various kinds. You've been warned! This is as graphic as this story is going to get though i.e. not all that graphic. But if you're squeamish about such things, you may want to skip this chapter.

The next one will be much fluffier.

Rufus wants to know how he's different from Sephiroth...

Has anyone ever used the word 'different' in this context and not meant 'worse', I wonder?

Reclamation

Rufus hates listening to Reno recounting his past with Sephiroth, but all the same, it's horribly compelling.

"So – your first time with Sephiroth was in a helicopter outside Junon?"

"First time with any guy."

"Right. So – what? You fucked him? He fucked you?"

"We – made love," says Reno, firmly. "How – what – those things are my memories of him. I'm sorry Rufus, but some things – off limits, even to you."

"Made love!" Rufus scoffs. "You sound like some lovesick teen!"

"I was a lovesick teen." Reno smiles sadly. "Yeah – lovesick about sums it up. Obsessed. Only – I do think he felt the same about me."

"Of course he did!" Rufus is suddenly angry and lustful. Competition always turns him on, and it seems that applies to relationships as much as to business. "Reno – you're just…Even compared to Sephiroth – I'd still want you."

"Boss…"

"Don't! Don't call me that! Use my fucking name, Reno!"

"Okay! But – Rufus –"

"No – not like that. I want to hear you say it like you mean it. Come on, Reno. Tell me one thing – just one thing – that I do better than Sephiroth, and I'll do what ever you want, right now, until you're yelling my name, like you used to at the start."

"Rufus, I'm not doing that – that whole comparison thing. It's no good for anyone, yo."

"One thing, Reno! Surely there's one thing?"

"Look – Rufus – it's not like that. I'm sure there're lots of things… I mean, it's not like one way's better – or worse – just… different."

"Well, let's break it down, shall we? Is he a better kisser than me? We'll say yes, shall we, because of that whole not crashing the helicopter thing?"

Reno can't answer. If there's one thing he loved more than any other in the world, it was the depth and passion of those kisses. He looks at Rufus, half sorry, half angry. "Seph isn't anything now. He's dead. How can you ask me what he is? But yes – all right – if you insist on making me say it, he was a better kisser than you. Happy now? You're good, but he was just…" Reno shakes his head, and his eyes go soft, remembering. Rufus feels sick, but he can't stop pushing.

"So – I suppose he was better in bed, too. I suppose he knew all kinds of things I've never even thought of –"

"Stop it, Rufus!" Reno's voice is sharp and brittle. "Actually, you're wrong. There you are – something you do much better. All that kinky stuff you like? He wasn't into that at all. We were young, and pretty innocent, looking back. You taught me all that stuff."

"But you like it, don't you? You said I'd taken you places you wouldn't have thought of – like that was a good thing."

"Yeah. It was good. It is. Like I said – with Seph it was just – different."

Reno doesn't add the main point – with Rufus he needs the little twists Rufus gives to the game or it would get boring in the end. Rufus has given him new sensations – flirted on the shifting border between pleasure and pain – made him feel when he thought he'd forgotten how.

But Sephiroth hadn't needed to. Sephiroth had been enough – always. Why would Sephiroth need to cuff him to the headboard, when one kiss confirmed that Reno was his entirely? Why would he need to test Reno's limits, when they'd already faced them head-on together, and found that, for each other, they had none?

Rufus likes games of dominance and control – likes to see Reno out of his comfort zone. Reno goes along with it all because seeking those heady thrills is all he has left.

With Sephiroth everything was easier. Sephiroth was the thrill – the fantasy.

Rufus is hard-driven – always searching for the edge – the line Reno won't cross. It's as though he can't believe that Reno is really his – at heart he suspects that if he keeps pushing, eventually Reno will leave him.

Perhaps he's right?

Reno asks himself the question – should I leave him? He suspects that Tseng loves Rufus – that he always has. He believes that Tseng would be better for Rufus. The calm Wutaian would give Rufus what he needs – complete loyalty – a sense of total control. And yet, he'd be strong enough to resist Rufus' endless pushing. Tseng is a man who knows the exact boundaries of his own limits – has explored them, paced them out over time – will not deviate from them. Tseng would be a buffer for Rufus' hectic train-ride life – a bulwark Rufus could finally rest against.

Reno thinks that Rufus knows this.

But, at this point in his life, at least, Rufus doesn't want Tseng – doesn't want to rest. He wants Reno – the ebb and flow of power– the tensions and passions that constitute their uneasy alliance.

What do I want? Reno wonders. But he already knows. He wants the impossible.

He wants Sephiroth back.

Rufus has been staring at the image of Sephiroth on the screen. All at once he slams down the lid of the laptop and hurls the whole machine across the room. It hits the opposite wall, knocking a dent in the plaster, and crashes to the floor. Reno looks at the hole in the wall, then at Rufus. Rufus grabs Reno's arms, hauls him to his feet and kisses him hard. Reno makes a brief attempt at resistance, but his heart's not in it. Let Rufus have what he wants. Again.

When Rufus hits him – a hard backhand swipe across his mouth – Reno only licks his already-swelling lip and says, "Okay. Guess I asked for that."

Rufus shoves him down onto the carpet and kisses him again crushing his bruised mouth - fierce, invasive. Reno's body responds to Rufus' urgent, rough touch, and, as always, he finds himself persuaded. Rufus is very persuasive, especially when he's angry. Rufus' fingers are quick and precise – Reno's jeans are off and thrown aside before he has time to think about it – and then, with no warning, Rufus is inside him, violent and hard and so damned hot that Reno can't help moaning. "Ah fuck, Rufus!"

At the sound of his name, Rufus kisses Reno again, then bites his earlobe and whispers, "That's better," as he begins to thrust.

It's over too fast – both of them caught by surprise at the intensity of lust that has them swept up and over the crest of a wave neither of them saw coming. Rufus lies heavy on Reno's naked body, panting. He hasn't even taken off his jacket. Reno closes his eyes, one hand on Rufus' back, the other stroking his hair. "Fuck," he says again, gently. "Rufus!"

"Reno." Rufus' kiss is soft this time, and Reno smiles as he returns it.

Eventually Rufus says, "We should shower and go to bed. I've got a meeting in about three hours' time."

"Yeah." Reno stretches as Rufus gets up. He grins at Rufus, feeling almost as though things have returned to normal between them. "You're not gonna be able to wear that tomorrow, yo!"

Rufus looks down at his stained clothes. "No. I'll have a suit sent over."

"Right." Reno jumps to his feet, careless, as ever, of his nakedness. It's another difference between them: Reno has always been completely comfortable in his skin – Rufus rarely takes everything off, even alone with his lover. Rufus usually even prefers to shower alone, although there have been occasions when Reno's managed a little persuasion of his own on that score. It seems as though this is going to be one of those times, because when Reno puts a hand on Rufus' cheek and murmurs, "Come with me?" Rufus follows him without protest.

On the carpet below Reno's dented wall, Rufus' laptop lies, intact. Shin-Ra makes things to last. In the morning, Rufus will find, to his surprise, that nothing has been lost – that everything still works.

Thanks for reading.

Extra thanks available for anyone who wants to review...