Tseng XX: Regrets
Tseng slowly opened his eyes as he drifted out of sleep. In his view came Rufus, who laid on his back on the couch, reading something on his tablet. He had neatly stacked the files on the table on one side of the table. Beside the stack sat his empty coffee mug and empty food tray. Tseng's own coffee mug was still half full, with the milk froth starting to dry at the edges of the liquid. Tseng closed his eyes again. Then he felt an unfamiliar sensation under his hands. He looked down to find a blanket draped over his lap.
Tseng inhaled sharply and rose from the chair with a start. Rufus' head turned toward him in surprise at the sudden movement. Reaching into his pocket for his phone, Tseng pressed out: "How long was I asleep?" Rufus shrugged, turning back to his tablet. "I don't know. An hour or so?" Tseng slowly blinked in attempt to mask his anxiety as he pulled out his phone and checked the time. He had been in Rufus' room for approximately 80 minutes. Far too long.
Not only had he fallen asleep while on the job, but also while he was alone with someone who was technically his prisoner. And even worse than that, he had not woken up while said prisoner finished his breakfast and touched him while draping a blanket over him. Said blanket had slipped off of his legs and laid in a pile on the floor. "Why didn't you wake me, sir?", he asked as he picked it up. Rufus shrugged again. "Why would I?" Tseng shook out the blanket and carried it back to the bed. "If you fall asleep so deep that you don't even notice, I'd say you probably needed it", he explained further. "Feeling better?"
Tseng spread the blanket over the bed as he listened and pondered how to address this. "This wasn't necessary", he finally stated as he turned back to Rufus, who lowered his tablet and shot him an annoyed look. "But I wanted to do it", he said firmly. "Do you have a problem with that?" Tseng opened his mouth to retort, but closed it again without saying anything. Rufus nodded and continued: "Besides, the way you are right now, you will be a liability when we go to Wutai. Sephiroth is already a mess, and now you?" He put the tablet on the coffee table and stood up. "You should be glad that I have no intention whatsoever to break out of here because you're making it very easy for me." He walked the few steps over to Tseng, who was still standing beside the bed. The Turk was half expecting that Rufus would try to force himself on him again, but instead, he grabbed his wrist and pulled him over to door.
"This is an order. Take the rest of the day off, go home, sleep and eat some actual food." He let go of Tseng's wrist, who stood by the door, dumbfounded, and returned to the couch. "Go on, get out!", he repeated, waving his hand. Tseng could not believe what had just happened. One moment, he had been so comfortable in Rufus' presence to let his guard down to the point where he fell asleep, and been treated with kindness. The next moment, he was thrown out like a nuisance. He looked back at Rufus, who looked angry and stared at his tablet, unmoving.
The Turk looked away. He had no reason be here. But why was he so disappointed? With a shaking hand, he rose his hand to the fingerprint reader. When the door slid open, he spared Rufus one last glance. Their eyes met for a split second, but Rufus quickly turned his gaze back on the tablet just as the door closed. Tseng cursed himself. He should have known better than to cross this boundary. But the allure of Rufus Shinra had been so difficult to resist that he had forgotten his place.
With gritted teeth, he sat down at his desk and pulled out his phone again. He would do as he had been just ordered, but there still was a little bit of work to be done before he could in good conscience go home. He had actually forgotten to notify Zack about Sephiroth's condition as he had promised and quickly devised a concise report with all the information relevant to Zack, purposefully leaving out the part where Sephiroth had asked about Aerith. It was none of Zack's concern and would raise an awful lot of questions, such as how Sephiroth knew Aerith's mother, why she was dead, and why Sephiroth was even interested in these things. Questions Tseng would not be able to answer without disrespecting Aerith's wish to keep her past a secret from Zack, or Sephiroth's privacy and integrity. He also did not mention that Sephiroth threw a pillow at him. Just why was everyone trying so hard to get under his skin today?
After he sent the e-mail to Zack, he got up and picked up his gun, which he had left on the desk. He sent a quick request for permission to take the rest of the day off to Veld, which was swiftly accepted. Tseng had accumulated enough overtime to take off several weeks if he wanted to, but he usually tended request a payout rather than free time. And so, he clocked out and headed home.