Disclaimer: I don't own Reno, Rude, Tseng, any of the executives or locations referred to in this story, only my OCs Camryn, Brendan and Miyuki.

Pre-story A/N: Hi! College is hard work, but I think you'll be pleased to hear that the weird hiatus is at an end for now. I've typed up a quantity of chapters to update all my stories and hopefully can post them regularly.

Read and Review!!

March 5, 0003

Midgar

Tseng let out a frustrated breath, making Rude look up from his pile of papers. Upon seeing Rude's arched eyebrow, Tseng grumbled, "I feel like I'm drowning in all this damn paperwork. I miss my old job. I want to shoot something, get in a fight, anything . . ."

Rude felt the same way. All the cover-ups, all the paper trails that needed to vanish, it all took a piece of their humanity, a piece of their sanity. The Turks had all felt that way when Heidegger had been the one running the Turks, and they felt the same way now, with Veld taking responsibility for Nibelheim. Rude shrugged, "I thought I'd look for a sparring partner once I finished this. I could take you on. That is," he added, smiling at Tseng in a teasing way, "if you haven't gone soft with your new, cushy job . . ." Tseng narrowed his eyes, shaking his head slowly, "You're going to sink to Reno's level, trying to bait me?"

Reno was famous for baiting others into confrontations or sparring matches, Miyuki usually being the one who usually took him on (often beating him in the process). Besides being supremely annoying, taunting made people lose their focus a rage took over, something the ex-gang leader found worked to his advantage. Rude had learned well from his long association with Reno. He grinned and whispered, "Tseng's a chicken. Bawk, bawk bawk . . ."

Tseng glared at him, "Oh, you bastard. It's on, Rude."

Two hours later

"Oh, God! Stop! Stop! Make it end!" Tseng yelled, fisting his hands in his hair and pulling in painful agony. Rude had twisted his leg to an unnatural angle. The fight had gone on for a long time. Rude was the more powerful of the two, but slower. Tseng was the faster, but was very wary of getting too close to Rude.

Eventually, getting tired, Rude had exaggerated his tiredness to make Tseng feel confident enough to come near. Once the Wutaian was close enough, Rude attacked, grabbing one of Tseng's legs and twisting it.

"Had enough?" he asked, to which Tseng replied, "Yes, yes, goddamn you, it hurts, let go!" Rude laughed and let go of Tseng's leg. Tseng massaged the feeling into his leg, grumbling, "Fuck, I can't feel my toes . . ." He glared murderously at Rude, who merely laughed and patted Tseng's head, "Told you you'd gone soft."

Tseng shook his hand off, smiling, "Yeah, I still think I gave you a run for your money."

"Woo-hoo! Beefcake party!" someone yelled, and Tseng and Rude watched Miyuki saunter in, holding two bottles of energy drink. "Two half naked, sweaty sexy men. Yup! This is the right place to be!" she laughed sitting close to them and tossing them the drinks.

"I'm Turk leader now, Miyuki. You can't be checking me out," Tseng said, looking at her from out the corner of his eye. Miyuki snickered, "Man, I knew you since before your fancy promotion. And I'm older than you. So that makes me immune."

To Rude, she merely grunted, "Mmm, mmm!" He chuckled and saluted her with his drink. She grinned, sitting cross-legged and eyeing them carefully. "I could take you. Both," she said, nodding curtly at them. Rude grumbled, "Yeah, now that we're tired and bruised up . . ." Miyuki shrugged, smiling widely, "Well, duh! What, you crazy, taking a fight with both all nice and healthy? Sorry, guys. I love life!"

Tseng finished his drink and stood up, wincing. Rude grinned when the Wutaian groaned in pain, "Oh, man, Rude. You beat the everlasting crap out of me." Rude pointed at his tender chin, "Payback for that right hook to my jaw."

Miyuki looked closer, "Ooh, yeah, that's gonna look lovely in a few hours. All the colors of a Midgar sunset. Puke-green, sickly yellow, busted-capillary red." Tseng chuckled, and waved at his companions, "Alright, Yuki. Midgar sunsets are not the prettiest. Please don't insult me anymore." He got up, wincing at a flare of pain in his back, and told his teammates, "You two do whatever it is you do when I'm not looking. I'm hitting the showers. See you around."

The other two Turks watched Tseng limp to the showers, calling out taunts, "Ah, you're walking like my ancient Auntie Mai Ling!" "Think about it twice before asking me for a fight! I'm the former cage-fighting master of Midgar!" Tseng gave them the one-finger salute behind his back, laughing at the heckling.

Once he was gone, Miyuki sighed and looked at Rude, "So, what possessed you to beat the crap out of senpai?" Rude shrugged, "He asked for it. Said he was tired of paperwork, that he missed being an active-duty Turk." Miyuki sighed, "Aren't we all . . ." Before Rude could say anything, however, she changed the subject and stroked Rude's bald head, "And you always aim to please, don't you?" He shrugged, smiling. If Miyuki didn't want to tell him just now what was on her mind, that was her prerogative. He was content to just cool down and sit with a friend.

After a few minutes' silence, Rude asked, "So . . . what are you doing tonight?" Miyuki stretched her arms above her head, yawning, "Eh, I dunno. Maybe Twiggy will want to get drinks. It's Friday. Why?" Rude shrugged again, "Just asking . . ." Miyuki grinned, "Aww, Baldy wanted to ask me out! Suteki!"

He laughed through his nose, "I was not. I know you're not into dating people you hang out with." Miyuki nodded, eyes serious now, "That's right, big guy, I don't." They both fell silent. After a while, Miyuki uttered a strange laugh, something between a snort and a giggle, "So, um . . . Your apartment, 3 AM?" Rude burst out laughing, embarrassed enough to actually flush a bit. She grinned, "I'll take that as a 'Yes', I think. See you then, big guy."

With that, she rose to her knees, kissed him lightly on the lips, and got up and left. Then she turned back, "Listen, Rude, just so we're on the same page . . . I don't want to meet with you for sex. If it happens, cool, but what I really want is to talk. Something's going on, and I don't think Reno would be an objective listener. His temper's awful. Especially when he's blitzed, and today being a Friday and him having the weekend off and all . . ."

Rude gave her a puzzled look, "Talk about what, Miyuki?"

She gave a sad shake of her head, "Just . . . just stuff. Stuff I can't tell Tseng about, either. Things I've been putting together and are now making sense. Are we on? Or you really wanted that booty call?"

Rude smiled, "To be perfectly honest, Miyuki? I guess I wanted the booty call, but if you want to talk, that's fine too. You're a good talker. Especially when you're blitzed."

Miyuki grinned, looking faintly sad still but very pretty as she tried to hide her grin behind a raised hand, a Wutai habit of hers she never lost. She rebuked him, "Now, Rude, it's not polite to say such things about a refined lady like myself."

Rude laughed through his nose, shaking his head as she left, her long mahogany-colored hair swinging across her back. Miyuki was as unrefined as a lady could get, in some ways. She drank, smoked, cursed, fought, talked back to her boss, picked on her teammates. And Rude knew she was, without a doubt, a special woman, one of his good friends.

A/N: Some WAFFy friendship here, hopefully it came out OK. I wanted to kinda bring in the notion of community, of kinship, and if you've been reading 'The Great ShinRa War', you'll understand better why exactly Rude, Miyuki and Tseng are a type of unit in and of themselves. Anyway, let me know what you think, via a review or a PM, even if it's jsut to ask "Where the hell have you been?!" LOL, cheers!