Chapter 2

The 1st helicopter ride had been a smooth one; Rufus had fallen asleep, curled up in a tiny ball, almost as soon as they had taken off. After that Tseng simply sat in the helicopter and gazed out of the window.

They landed to refuel at about 02:00 the next day.

"Sir?" The helicopter pilot poked his head back in the area Tseng and Rufus were currently sitting in. "Are you going to go out and stretch your legs?"

"No" Tseng motioned towards Rufus' sleeping form; "I should keep an eye on him."

"Yes, but I'm sure Reeve wouldn't mind looking after him for a minute or two."

"Reeve?" Tseng asked, his eyes narrowed and he instinctively glanced around. Had this "Reeve" been on the chopper the whole time and he had just failed to notice him?

"Yeah, he's from Urban Development, we're going to pick him up and bring him with us so he can check the Junon cannon output."

Tseng turned back towards the pilot. "We're bringing him with us? Why was I not informed?" The cold way in which Tseng asked this made the pilot gulp in fear. It wasn't wise to anger a Turk.

"It was on your itinerary." He answered meekly, pointing to a sheet of paper that rested on his dark blue duffle bag.

"Why didn't I notice that? I've been in this thing for over five hours!" Tseng thought to himself, picking up the sheet of paper. Sure enough, Reeve was listed as joining them.

The Turk sighed. "Still, it wouldn't be wise for me to just leave him with Reeve just so I can go stretch."

"Suit yourself."

A few minutes passed and rain began to fall. That was when Tseng noticed a tall figure running in the distance. He assumed it was Reeve, for when he got closer he noticed it was a man in a navy blue suit, much like his own. He was running huddled over a laptop, which he clutched to his breast in one had, and a small duffle bag, which, Tseng noticed, was halfway unzipped, and held in the other.

By the time the man made it to the helicopter he was quite soaked, and yet, he still carried a smile on his face. Upon entering Tseng quickly added him to his mental

database. "Reeve: Tall, short dark brown hair, goatee, pale, looks professional, in Urban Development... Oh God," He thought "He's going to be one of those damn humanitarians."

After a moment Tseng found himself to be correct, Reeve was quite the humanitarian. However, he seemed to have no problem with the Turks. The first thing he did when entering was to take a small black and white kitten from the duffle bag he was carrying. "His name is Felix." He explained, then he promptly introduced himself as, "Reeve, of Urban Development, the humanitarian who hates all resistance factions and likes those who fight against them," all while happily shaking Tseng's hand.

"So, you'll be staying with us?" Tseng asked, eyeing Reeve thoughtfully. He had already set up his laptop, and had begun typing with one hand, and petting Felix (Who was already, like Rufus, fast asleep.) with the other. "Yeah, at least until the President comes for the banquet on Friday."

"Oh." Tseng mumbled, and mentally cursed himself for not reading over the itinerary more carefully. He'd already forgotten about that. The Turk noticed that Reeve had stopped petting Felix, and was now groping around in his bag. A second later he removed a cup of coffee and started drinking out of it. He must have noticed Tseng staring at him because a moment later he blushed and looked down mumbling, "I figured I'd get some extra work done. You know, before checking the cannon output...."

"Yeah, I work late as well... And sometimes I even leave a few hours early to get to work."

This seemed to cheer Reeve up "Really?!" He asked "Me too! In fact, I also-"

A soft snickering from the corner of the chopper cut Reeve off. "Wow, a meeting of the Dorks." Reeve blushed again and looked down. "S-sorry Sir, I didn't mean to wake you..." He stuttered.

Rufus shrugged. "No worries, I was going to wake up soon anyway.... You are?"

"Reeve, Sir, I work in-"

"I wasn't taking to you." Rufus hissed, "I was talking to the cat." He motioned towards Felix, who, like the Vice President, was now awake, and rubbing against his legs.

"Oh! His name is Felix." Reeve muttered, his face now resembling a cherry.

"What part about, 'I was talking to the cat,' do you not understand?"

Reeve was at a loss for words. Tseng could tell Rufus was about to start up again, so he decided to take charge. "Sir, shouldn't you be sleeping? It's only 02:20 and you have a full day ahead of you."

Rufus turned his attention back towards Tseng. "Yeah. I suppose you're right." He moved back into fetal position again, grabbing the kitten as he did so. "Come on Felix."

Reeve looked back at Tseng. "Thanks," he mouthed, and began typing once again.

The next day went by fairly smoothly. They landed in Junon and Reeve ran off to do his own thing, taking Felix with him and leaving Rufus very disappointed. Tseng was beginning to feel a bit sorry for Reeve because it was becoming obvious that Felix had more friends than he did.

At around 13:00 Tseng tried to contact Dante on his cell phone to see how things were going back at Shin-ra Headquarters. He was very surprised when it was not Dante who answered.

"Leon?"

"Yeah?" Leon's voice cracked a bit. The reception wasn't all that great.

"Where's Dante? Why are you answering his cell phone?" Tseng asked.

"I have no idea where he is, he left his cell phone with me a couple of hours ago and I haven't seen him since."

Tseng didn't reply, and Leon took advantage of his silence and continued.

"Tseng? Before Dante left he said something about 'Red carnations'...."

"...I see..." The Turk was very confused by this news; Dante was fond of playing mind games with Tseng. However, he had reservations about his superior ever since that stunt he had pulled in the Cafeteria.

"Oh, and watch out, we've gotten word that the Midgar Owls also have a base in Junon. Anyway, got to go, mission at 14:00."

Tseng nodded and hung up, encased in deep thought.

"Tseng?" The Turk snapped out of his daze and looked down to find it was Rufus that had addressed him. "Mother is waiting over there." Tseng nodded, and they headed over to where a tall, beautiful, blonde-haired woman awaited.

----

"I said stop it!" Rufus' mother cried, pulling her son forcefully away from Felix. It seemed that Reeve would be staying with them for a little while, and had already stopped by, leaving his cat. Privately Tseng was glad Reeve was going to be staying with them, the house that they were in was huge. The Turk estimated that it would be able to serve as a home to at least 200 people comfortably. However right now it was almost empty and sort of intimidating to be in. Not only that, but Reeve had seemed like an interesting guy. Tseng had never met someone as professional as himself. Even Rufus had taken a liking to him... Well, to his cat anyway. He had been trying to play with him for the last hour, but his mother insisted that he leave the animal alone, lest he get cat hair all over his new outfit.

"But mom!" Rufus whined, pulling Tseng out of his thoughts. He was reaching towards Felix again.

"No 'buts' Rufus! Your father will be here tomorrow! How do you think he would react to see you covered in cat hair?!"

"I don't think he would care." Rufus mumbled under his breath. He glared up at his mother, but stopped reaching for the kitten. A second or so passed and he stood up. "I'm going to go out on the balcony."

"Oh" Tseng quickly got to his feet, stumbling over old Victorian chair he had been sitting on. "I should come with you."

Rufus sent Tseng a dirty look. "I can handle myself." he said, but didn't complain further when Tseng followed him outside.

Standing on the balcony reminded the Turk much of standing outside waiting for the Vice President. At his current location he could see all of Junon, from the docks near the slums, to the huge cannon that towered over most of the port. The air was becoming crisp; a clue that winter was nipping at their heels.

"It's sad isn't it?" Rufus said, glancing up at his bodyguard. "This will all be mine someday, and I've never even seen half of it. We buy huge places like this," He gestured to the mansion, "and I'm stuck inside the whole time.... It must be nice being a Turk. You must get to see and do so many things...." Tseng didn't respond, and let Rufus continue. "For once I'd like to just visit a place I've never been to, a place that's not designated 'safe' for me to be." The boy sighed and the wind ruffled his blonde hair. He flipped it back, and waited for Tseng to say something. When he finally did speak, however, it wasn't the comforting words Rufus had longed to hear but instead a question that the vice president considered to be a total non sequitur.

"Won't your father be visiting tomorrow?"

Rufus snorted "Yeah, but he won't want to see me."

"Oh..."

"Is that all you have to say?!" Rufus cried, a flash of anger ran across his face. "Damn Turk. I don't even know why I told you all that..." He mumbled, moving to walk inside. Frankly, Tseng didn't know why he told him it either.

"But," he thought as he followed the child inside. "He's angry, and that definitely won't make this job any easier."

Reeve came back from work around 10 in the evening, fed Felix, than went to bed. Tseng wanted to talk to him about Rufus, Hell; he wanted to talk to anyone about him. There seemed to be something strange about the boy. The cynical part of Tseng thought that he would make a great Turk, as he seemed to have a real problem opening up to people, and then once he did, he would push them away. "Of course," Tseng chuckled to himself, "I'm probably not making things any easier for him. But, then again, that's not my job." The Turk fell asleep on the couch near the dining room that night, with those thoughts still going through his head.

The next morning was a busy one. Tseng woke up early as usual, though not as early, he noticed, as Reeve, whom Tseng was beginning to believe was a "working robot" of sorts. When Reeve spotted him, he greeted the Turk with his usual jubilant smile, then told him that the President would be arriving at around 12:00, at which time the banquet would start. Tseng quickly ran his slender fingers through his dark hair, before turning to go upstairs to wake Rufus up.

Unfortunately, he realized the Vice President was already awake when he heard the child's voice booming from his room. "But mom!" He whined. Tseng made it to his room to find the Rufus' mother attempting to force a black dress coat over her son's head.

"Put it on! Don't you want to look good for your father?!" She yelled. Rufus didn't respond, but kept struggling, and after a while Tseng started feeling sorry for him. His skinny arms were flailing in every which direction, in an attempt to confuse (Or at least this is what Tseng took it as) his mother, who was slowly giving up the fight. Finally she threw the coat on the moss-green carpeted floors and stormed out, pushing past Tseng as she did so.

The Turk slowly entered the room and watched as Rufus walked over to one of his many large rosewood wardrobes and reached inside. He pulled out a duster-length white jacket and a pair of equally white pants. "Do you mind?" he hissed. Tseng turned around as Rufus changed into the pants, and slipped the white jacket over his black sweater.

"Hrm." He muttered, "something's missing," he searched through his wardrobe again, and this time pulled out a double-breasted jacket, almost identical to the one before it, just shorter in length. He slipped this over the other jacket, and walked over to the full-length mirror in the corner of the room to admire himself in it. "Well?" His attention turned to Tseng. "How does it look?"

Tseng looked at his employer's son. "It looks fine." He responded. There was no way in Hell, he decided, that he would tell the boy what he really thought, that he looked like a 10-year-old pimp.

After his rendezvous with Rufus, the Turk found himself positioned near the front door to the mansion, ready to greet the President upon his arrival. The Vice President sat next to him on a tall bar stool. Where he obtained it, Tseng hadn't a clue, considering there wasn't a bar that he was aware of within the mansion. However, he decided not to ask, since the boy seemed to be in a very bad mood, and was kicking his legs out at the servants that walked by. The President was scheduled to appear in an hour; however, Tseng didn't want to move from his spot just in case he came early. Reeve was still upstairs getting ready, though he wasn't needed until the guests started arriving. Felix was locked upstairs, much to Rufus' dismay. In short, everything was in order, just like Tseng liked it.

When the President arrived that order vanished. All of a sudden someone realized that there wasn't enough fruitcake to sustain both Heidegear and Palmer while another found that in the current seating arrangement the Vice President wouldn't be sitting next to his father. The paparazzi had already been vanquished from outside of the building, so that wasn't a problem, but everywhere else things began going wrong.

Tseng wasn't sure whether or not he should help with anything, and decided not to ask, and to instead just sit with Rufus. So far the CEO hadn't even acknowledged their presence. He was over near the entrance talking to Hojo, whom Tseng remembered as the Head of the Science Department. "Wow." Tseng thought, eyeing the two talk, "Their conversation is so engaging he hasn't even spoken to either Rufus, or his wife, who has been trying to talk to him since he arrived." However, the more Tseng watch, the more he began to realize that the President was avoiding his wife. He wouldn't even make eye contact with her. The anguish of having her husband ignore her who plainly on the Vice President's mother's face, however the President seemed oblivious to it, and continued talking with Hojo, and then Abel.

By the time the guests began arriving Reeve had once again made an appearance, though Tseng found that he was too busy to talk to him. After the President's Wife realized her husband was ignoring her, she took it upon herself to harass Tseng. Or, at least he considered it harassment. Right now she was hanging tightly onto his arm as he walked around the perimeter of the spacious dinning room. This would have been fine had she not bumped into everyone they walked by due to her inability to let him go, or move out of the way. Everything had been operating smoothly once again until Rufus' mother wanted to speak with her child, and he was no where to be found.

"Rufus!" The child's mother screeched. "Rufus?!" She turned towards Tseng. "Honestly, where could that boy be?"

A rush of fear raced through the Turk. "I thought you said he was with Reeve?"

"No, that was over an hour ago, just fifteen minutes ago he told me he would be outside. Said he wanted some fresh air or something."

That was all Tseng needed to hear, he quickly raced towards the door, grabbing his jacket off a nearby chair.

"Where are you going?" A loud cry followed him.

"To make sure the Midgar Owls don't take your son!" He yelled back, not bothering to turn around.

"That's ridiculous! Who would want to capture that wretched child?" The CEO's wife snorted, watching as the Turk raced out of the dinning hall.

The outside air was cool and Tseng could taste the salt for the ocean nearby. Normally he would enjoy being outside on a day like this; however he was very worried about Rufus. He was nowhere to be found, and that was strange because he could be easily spotted from a mile away. The Midgar Owls could have abducted him in seconds. Tseng refrained from yelling his name, so as not to attract attention, but ran around, looking for any signs of where he might be.

The wind had begun to blow hard in Tseng's face as he raced all over Junon, his footsteps echoing loudly when they hit the hard pavement. He sprinted through the housing district. If the Midgar Owls truly had taken him then there was very little chance he would find him. However, Tseng noticed that there was no sign of a struggle, and he his mind rushed back to something Rufus had said the other day. Suddenly the Turk knew where the boy was, and found himself rushing down into the slums of Junon.

"Rufus..." The child was sitting at the edge of the dock, his feet swinging over the side haphazardly. He didn't turn around when heard his name so the Turk moved to sit next to him. For a while no one spoke and the two stared out at the calm, blue ocean for half an hour before Tseng stood up. His shoulder length black hair caught the sea breeze and blew behind him. "We should go. Your father will wondering why you're not down at the banquet." Rufus, closed his eyes, and continued to face the open sea.

A minute passed.

"Rufus-"

"I hate him."

"What?" Tseng once again turned to face the minor. He took a few steps towards the boy, but stopped when he spoke again.

"I hate him." Rufus repeated, his soft voice choking with emotion. Tseng had no reply.

"He hates him?" he thought to himself "Well, I guess his father's never really been there for him...But..." Tseng stayed silent, as was his nature and they both continued to look out towards the sea. For a while neither of them spoke. Ten minutes passed before a small voice broke the silence.

"Hey Tseng, do you have anyone?"

The Turk looked over at him, and didn't respond. "You know." Rufus continued "Someone you really care about..." He paused "Someone who cares about you." After a second the Wutain smiled and blushed slightly as he pulled out his wallet from inside a pocket in his navy blue jacket. Within the wallet he removed a small black and white photograph.

"Aeris Gainsburough" He said, handing the photo to Rufus. "She's like a sister to me." Rufus raised an eyebrow, then looked down at the picture for a moment, a small crease forming on his forehead that made him look too old for his age. Finally he handed the picture back to Tseng and shrugged.

"She's fat."

"Tseng's eyes widened. "What?"

"She's fat." Rufus again said.

Tseng gazed at the child as if he were a three-headed chocobo. "No she's not!"

"Yes she it!" Rufus argued. He snatched the photo from Tseng's hand and pointed incessantly at it. "See look!"

Tseng stomped a foot, causing the dock to creak below him. "How can you say that?! It's just because in our weight obsessed culture-"

"No" Rufus interrupted "She's fat."

"Whatever." Tseng laughed, grabbing the photo back. "You're blind or somethin'."

Now it was Rufus' turn to smile, but even as he did, when Tseng looked down at him he could tell it was forced. "We have to go back now don't we?" Rufus asked. His voice so soft Tseng could barely hear it. It was if he had been dreading saying those words.

The Turk nodded "Yeah." He began to walk with him. The wind had died down, and the sun had begun to set, causing the sky to turn a brilliant shade of crimson. The light reflected off of Rufus' blond hair, turning it to a bright shade of red. Tseng would have thought it an ominous premonition if he believed in that sort of thing, but instead it reminded him that he needed to try and get a hold of Dante later that night.