oOo
I've never known you, and I never will
What difference does, indifference takes.
- The Nile's Edge
oOo
The Sleepless Count
Reno sighed as he stopped in front of the president's office. Confrontations like this one would be were never good times. The recent change in administration would only prove to be an even better excuse for Rufus to stay in the office. Quite frankly, Reno was getting a little tired of these discussions. Rufus was too hot and cold, virtually ignoring him some days, jealous of anyone Reno looked at on others. Not that there seemed to be much between them except the physical part of the relationship. And the business part, too, but that went without saying.
Did libido have anything to do with his attitude? Reno knew for a fact that his own affected the way he thought about Rufus, so it was entirely possible. He wondered if Reno was the only person he played this game with, or if there were a number of people under the payroll that Rufus deemed 'special' on particular days.
'It's really not that hard, just put the pen down, pass the folder to your secretary and go to bed.' Reno didn't feel like knocking.
'I'm fine, thanks. I slept last year.' Rufus didn't feel like looking up.
Reno paused and peered at a stopwatch by a pencil tin. 'You're timing yourself?' Incredulously, he picked it up to look at the numbers properly. 'One-hundred thirty-two hours, forty minutes and six seconds.' He said flatly upon seeing the readout. 'That's like... last week?'
'Last year.' Rufus said with a smile.
'New Years'... very clever.' There were a number of possibilities; he could knock him out, either chemically or physically. He could just stare stubbornly at him until he gave in, though that never worked. Best chance was to screw him until he was too tired to decide that work was still possible.
'I thought so,' his superior said without looking up. 'Why are you so concerned about my sleeping habits? I'll pass out before I die of sleep deprivation. I need to be diseased to die of insomnia. Abbreviated, FSI. Fatal sporadic insomnia. Prions, whatever they are. I don't need to be hypochondriac, Tseng does it all for me. It's not even in his contract.'
Reno scoffed and dropped the stopwatch back onto Rufus' desk. He was rather unimpressed at the show of strength, or endurance, or whatever this was. 'I have no idea what you're trying to prove, but I don't really feel like seeing you die.'
Rufus glanced up. 'I told you. I'll pass out before I--'
Reno, with a quick, well-practiced movement, flicked out his mag-rod, locked it into the extended position and brought it down before Rufus with a clang, bare millimetres from his hand.. With his other hand he snatched the pen out of his boss' hand and touched the side of it to his neck, feeling his pulse along its length.
Even his blink came only after an obvious delay. 'I assume you're trying to prove that I'm more vulnerable when sleep-deprived?'
'That's my point exactly.' Reno's eyes never left Rufus', his mag-rod hummed with electric power bare millimetres from his superiors hand.
Rufus shifted, looking back down to the folder Reno half-sat on. He took back his pen carefully. 'That's what you're for. You happen to be the fastest Turk under my employment, and there are a good number of other Turks as well. Prime directive is to watch my ass. It's in the contract.'
Reno was in no mood for pulling at the threads of innuendo at the so-called prime directive. 'And if we're not there?'
'No such thing has occurred, nor will it.' Rufus said, straight-faced.
'And President Shinra Senior? We didn't exactly stand around and watch.'
'He wasn't exactly sleep-deprived. Should Sephiroth choose to come after me, there will be nothing you can do. If I sleep, it would just mean that I lost time out of my life by being unconscious before I died.' Rufus carefully pulled Reno's thumb from the mag-rod activation switch, and the humming faded.
'That's retarded.' Reno said rather snappishly. 'We could keep you from Sephiroth no problem. Your dad's problem was that he sat out in the open, sat at his desk stupidly as alarms went off around him.'
'And I haven't done that?' There was that faint, hard tone, generally reserved for mentions of his father. Usually he sounded firm and no-nonsense. Rarely did that tip into anger. 'I stand my ground, run things smoothly as long as possible. I expect you to protect me.'
'And that all falls apart if I'm not there!'
'It hasn't happened, and it won't.' Now he sounded more clearly irritated.
'It has happened! When AVALANCHE jumped you on the rooftop, you were alone.'
'Then your information is wrong. There was a helec--'
'The chopper could do nothing. All they could do was wait for you to break away from Cloud, or die. You know it, I know it, Cloud knew it, in a one-on-one fight to the finish with him, you would die.'
'Your enormous faith fills me with warmth.' Came the terse, scorned reply.
'Do you want to be defenseless? Because right now you are. I could kill you before you thought about reaching for your gun.'
'Again, you're assuming I haven't already.' Cold blue eyes were narrowed as Reno's hand more than subconsciously slipped to take hold of Rufus' shirt. 'I know you, Reno. You dropped the plate on Sector 7 without hesitation, you chase the poor out of their shabby homes without guilt, but you wouldn't do a thing to me. I have fear on my side. It's not exactly the fear I expect from everyone else, but fear all the same. You're afraid of hurting me, of seeing me be hurt, which is why I never will be.' Eyes, tone and grip eased in tandem and silence fell.
'Just... hypothetically.' Reno said at length. 'If I weren't around, what would you do if you were attacked?'
'Then I suppose I'd die wishing you were here.' The answer surprised Reno. He expected him to mention some other Turk, or that someone else would come to his rescue, but the statement made it seem that his life and his faith rested solely on the slim shoulders of the redhead.
'What about the others? They can't save you?'
'I thought it was a hypothetical situation. You didn't say anything about anyone else being there, so I assumed that it was either you or no one.'
'And how true is that in real life...?'
Rufus considered, took a sip of coffee that Reno suddenly became aware of and leaned back in his chair. 'You all do your jobs as best you can. The system's flawless, contingencies within contingencies. If you weren't there, in real life, someone else would be. Simple as that.' He selected a different couloured pen. 'You have nothing to worry about, though it's interesting that you're more concerned for my safety than I am, considering I'm rather selfish.'
Reno sniffed indecisively and leaned on the desk with his back to his boss. 'Are you too selfish to worry about your protectors?'
The reply came without hesitation. 'It's your job, it's what I pay you to do. You and I both know the risks of our respective positions, and accept them. That's why you're more worried about me than I am, and why I'm more worried about you than you are.'
It was so matter-of-fact that Reno almost missed the actual answer to his question. Reno was frequently sent out on dangerous missions, knowing the risks, and they really seemed trivial to him most of the time. They seemed trivial to Rufus, just by the way he dispatched orders alone.
'Why should I be the source of uncertainty? The top of the ladder is the worst place for things to start falling from. The feeling's mutual. Just come back alive and there's no problem, okay?'
Reno nodded. This was going better than most of their other disputes. They rarely ended without doors slamming. 'G'night, boss.'
'Goodnight, Reno.'
Reno smiled to himself. Being more than a convenience was definitely an encouraging thought. Though it wasn't until he was in the elevator going down that he realized that Rufus had snuck his way out of bedtime yet again, bending the argument away from sleep. Reno smiled and shook his head. That was some determination. Maybe he'd check back in a few hours. If he was still up, then he'd definitely enjoy tiring him out.
