"With all due respect, sir…I would like to request a new partner."

President Shinra chuckled, leaning back in his chair. "Why might this be?"

"It's…not a good fit. He's causing an unintentional drop in my work performance."

"Oh, nonsense. You're the first one to have success with him!"

"Success?" Rude repeated incredulously. "He botched a mission beyond repair, directly disobeyed orders, and then he took advantage of my drunken state to shave my head. What part of that is success?"

"All of his other partners walked out on him. Well, except for that one unfortunate individual…regardless, you're exactly what he needs. Stability."

"He's going to get us both killed," Rude said, crossing his arms over his chest. "He's reckless, immature, and doesn't think about the consequences of his actions."

President Shinra sighed, and then leaned forward on his desk. "Rude…you are a Turk. One with an unblemished record, for that matter."

Rude snorted. "Until now."

"So, are you telling me that you can't handle an assignment as simple as this? Are you telling me that you are incapable of controlling a rookie, incapable of teaching? Because these things are important. A Turk who could not do these things when ordered to…well, he would not remain a Turk for much longer."

Rude recognized the threat. He straightened up, his hands falling to his sides. "I'm perfectly capable, sir. I apologize for questioning your decision."

"Very good. Do you have any more questions before you receive your next assignment?"

"No, sir."

"Excellent," President Shinra said, sliding a folder across the desk to Rude. "I will be attending a convention tonight, one of the utmost importance. There will be a formal ball, followed by the negotiations. You and your partner are expected to attend both the ball and the meeting as my bodyguards. Tseng will be in charge of the operation."

Rude picked up the folder and saluted. "I will read through this immediately, sir."

President Shinra smirked. "And if all goes well, your pay cut and that scar on your record from yesterday's fiasco might just…disappear."

Rude felt a rush of hope go through him- until he remembered that he had to take Reno. "I'll do my best, sir."

"And you'll make sure Reno does the same," Shinra said sternly. "Dismissed."

Rude saluted again and quickly left the room. This was his chance to prove that he wasn't being thrown off by some boisterous redhead, his chance to put things back the way they had been. All he had to do was keep Reno under control for one night, one simple mission.

He headed down the hallway to the elevator, taking it down three floors and stepping out of it to the left. He had to ignore the cat calls and snickering as he made his way past the other offices. It seemed that everyone in the corporation had heard what happened, and everyone had been praising Reno for his genius all day.

It certainly didn't help that Rude was now sharing an office with the object of his fury.

When he entered the office, he wasn't surprised to see Reno sitting back in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk. He had a thick black marker in his hand, drawing on something clipped to a clipboard. Rude sat down at the desk across from him, setting the folder down and opening it. He hesitated, sighed, then reached across both desks and shoved Reno's feet off the desk.

The redhead yelped and the clipboard and marker went clattering to the floor, and that's when Rude saw what Reno had been doodling on.

"What the hell?" he said angrily, bending down and taking the card off the clipboard. "This is my ShinRa ID! What did you do to it?"

Reno shrugged, pulling Rude's folder across the desk to look at it. "It was boring."

Rude felt his anger building. Reno had scribbled a long beard and an afro on his ID picture, and over the ShinRa logo was written "RENO WAS HERE, YO".

"Can I leave you alone…for ten seconds…without you destroying something?" he growled, and Reno gave him a grin.

"You wouldn't let me come with you. What was I supposed to do?"

Don't lose it. Don't hit him. You'll be demoted. Keep your cool.

"Excuse me for a moment," Rude said, his voice low, and then he stood up and left the room. A scream of rage and a crunching sound followed as Rude put his fist through a wall, startling everyone in the hallway into silence. He took a few deep breaths, straightened his jacket, and then walked back in the room.

"Hey, Rude, hope you don't mind. I drank your coffee."

Once again, Rude paused, then left the room.

Reno couldn't have been more obvious about his boredom if he tried.

He was leaning against the wall, his rod tapping his leg impatiently as President Shinra discussed the cost of oil with three other debutantes. Rude was used to such duties; he simply stood, scanning the room for any suspicious people.

"So…do we have to do this often?" Reno finally asked, looking up at Rude.

"Not that often."

"Good. Cause it's really, really boring."

"You just have to learn some patience."

"Patience is overrated."

Rude snorted and almost laughed, glancing over at the red-headed Turk. "Look at it this way, Reno; at least they didn't put us on desk duty for messing up."

"Yeah, that'd be worse. But this is still pretty bad, yo."

The President glanced at Rude, and Rude nodded. Everything was still all clear.

"Are we allowed to hit the buffet?" Reno asked, eyeing a display of strawberries hungrily.

"No."

"Damn. What time is it?"

"Almost nine."

Reno groaned in frustration. Rude ignored him; he didn't want to encourage the younger Turk's antics.

That was when he spotted it; a man standing apart from the rest of the people, still wearing his coat, just watching the crowd. Just that- watching. Reno took notice of the subtle change in Rude's stance, and he followed Rude's gaze and spotted the man as well.

"Brown jacket."

"Yeah."

"We should do something."

Rude shook his head. "Just wait. He'll give himself away."

"Or he'll do what he came to do before we can get him."

Rude stiffened. If Reno did anything brash, it could mean the loss of that second chance- and another permanent strike on his record, let alone getting it clean. "Reno…that's an order. Stay put."

"Since when could you give me orders? I thought we were partners."

"You're a rookie, I have to-"

"A rookie?" Reno repeated, his eyes flashing dangerously. "Listen, I didn't get where I am by being a step below everyone else. I can handle a stupid guy in an ugly coat."

Fast as that, Reno was off, heading across the room. Rude knew that if he tried to stop him it would just attract more attention to a possibly harmless situation. Instead, Rude followed slowly, trying to appear casual. He was hoping to catch up discreetly and stop Reno before he completely destroyed whatever chances Rude had left.

Unfortunately, Reno appeared anything but casual. And when the man in the brown coat saw the Turk headed for him, he put his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly.

It was pandemonium. Half the guests in the ballroom were suddenly armed, but just as quickly Tseng and another Turk were by the President, pulling him toward the door.

Rude met Reno's eyes from halfway across the room. As the gunfire started, they both knew what they had to do: protect the president. They jumped into the fray, ready to make sure no one got near ShinRa Corporation's leader.

Even as bullets cut through the air, Rude couldn't help but notice Reno. The redhead fought with a natural ease that made him seem more than human. He was intense, much faster than Rude, and he looked completely comfortable as he fought. Even when he got knocked down, it became an acrobatic, graceful action, and he was back on his feet in seconds. Occasionally Rude would catch glimpses of the other Turk using the walls and the decorative pillars to his advantage- climbing them and rebounding off them, among other things. It was like watching a complicated dance.

For a moment, Rude was envious. Reno made every punch and kick appear effortless.

Of course, in watching Reno, Rude got distracted from the fight. A bullet ricocheted off his sunglasses, cracking the lenses and leaving him disoriented. He recovered, taking the ruined glasses off and keeping them in hand as he turned his attention back to the fight at hand.

By the time the President was to safety, Rude and Reno were in the last of the battle. Most of the opposition had fled or fallen, and the few that were still fighting were losing ground- especially now that Reno had begun using his rod to shock them into submission. It was only minutes before the ballroom was completely silent and empty, save for the wreckage and the unconscious bodies laying all over the floor.

"Wow…now that, that was a party," Reno said breathlessly, looking up at Rude with an excited glee in his eyes. It took a few moments for it to hit Rude- this had most definitely not gone well. His record was unfixable for sure.

"Why in the hell do you have to screw everything up?" he asked harshly, stepping over a couple unconscious bodies to where Reno stood.

"Hey, I didn't screw anything up. You saw that guy-"

"That guy who we could've apprehended quietly? Yeah, I saw him," Rude snapped. "You're a complete mess, kid. I don't know who decided to give you the title 'Turk', but you'll never earn it. You'll never be a Turk, just a sorry mistake."

That remark seemed to hit home. Reno stared at him, and for a moment it was just pure shock- then it shifted into anger.

"At least I'm not a stuck up prick who can't do anything outside the rule book," he shot back, his fists clenching, now holding his rod with a white-knuckled grip. "I don't have to follow every rule of the company to make use of myself. They probably only keep you around 'cause you're a pushover."

That did it. Rude snapped, and he lashed out, punching Reno in the face with the hand that still held the shards of his broken sunglasses. One shard carved a gash just beside Reno's eye, and the Turk went down hard.

Breathing hard, Rude was torn for a moment between walking away or apologizing and helping his partner to his feet. Eventually, though, bitter anger won out, and Rude turned his back on Reno and walked away, broken glass crunching beneath his feet as the bloody shards of sunglasses dropped from his hand.

Tseng and another Turk were by the door- and judging by the looks on their faces, they'd seen the whole thing. Rude ignored them, and they chose to give him a wide berth as he left the room.

Reno put a hand to his face with a wince, and his fingers came away bright red with blood. Pride stung more than anything, he stumbled to his feet and left the building.

Rude didn't even bother going home from the office that night. He knew he'd never get to sleep, even with effort and a warm, comfortable bed.

Instead he stayed at ShinRa headquarters, working on the reports from that night, the reports Reno was supposed to help him with. The red-headed Turk hadn't shown up, which wasn't really surprising.

Don't even think about missing that idiot. He needed to hear every word you said, and it was all true anyway. Wasn't it?

"What are you still doing here?"

Rude looked up from his paperwork to see Tseng standing in the doorway. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Couldn't sleep. Decided to get these reports done."

"Where's your partner?"

"He's not my partner. And I'd rather not know where he is."

Tseng paused, and then took a few steps into the room. "I think…you may have been a little too hard on him tonight."

"He screwed up everything," Rude insisted. "He's been nothing but trouble ever since he ended up here. I was just telling him the truth."

"Did you see him fight?"

"Yes."

"There's a lot of raw talent there."

Rude snorted. "Raw talent that he'll never have the discipline to refine."

"Listen," Tseng said softly. "This partnership, it wasn't just done for his sake. You were chosen because the president thought you could learn something from him as well."

"Me? Learn from him?" Rude said with a laugh. "Learn how to destroy and sabotage everything I'm involved in, you mean."

"I just think you haven't given him enough of a chance. He's still young."

Rude swallowed hard. What he'd said had been pretty harsh, especially for him. He'd just been so angry about losing that perfect record, about the cut pay…and he'd blamed it all on Reno.

Maybe he had been too hard on the new Turk.

"…Maybe I should go talk to him."

Tseng smiled. "I think you should. Give him another chance. It's the same you'd do for any other Turk."

Rude wasn't surprised to find out that Reno lived in the slums. He was shocked, however, when the redhead opened his apartment door to reveal a practically spotless apartment. Sparse, but clean.

"What do you want?" Reno asked, a bitter tone to his voice. He wore only his suit pants and the white, untucked shirt, and a white bandage across his face where Rude had sliced it open.

"May I come in?"

Reno looked at him skeptically, and then stepped back and opened the door all the way, allowing the other Turk to step inside before closing the door. He crossed his arms over his chest, staring Rude down. "Come to gloat?"

Rude shook his head. "Listen…I came to apologize."

Reno's eyebrow rose. "Apologize?"

"I feel like…well, I said a lot of things back there that I shouldn't have. I lost control of my anger, and I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for doing so."

Reno stared at Rude as if he expected it to be a prank, or something to that effect. "…How much are they paying you to do this? They takin' off that pay cut? Clearing your record?"

"None of that," Rude said. "I came to apologize on my own accord. No strings attached."

"No catches?"

"None."

Reno paused, pouring himself another shot of whiskey and downing it before looking at Rude again. "You confuse me a whole lot, yo."

"The feeling is mutual, I assure you," Rude replied.

Reno started to speak, when suddenly his phone began to ring. He grabbed it off the kitchen counter, flipping it open. "Reno here."

Reno listened as Rude watched on, and then he nodded. "Right. We'll be there in a few minutes."

"What was that about?" Rude asked as Reno hung up the phone.

"We're needed at the Presidential Residence. It's an emergency," Reno replied, grabbing his suit jacket. Rude cursed inwardly; they'd finally been making a bit of progress, and it gets cut short.

"Right. Let's go."