This is just a bit of one-shot fun because I've got a pretty heavy scene to write in the fic I'm working on and I'm procrastinating. Little scenes like this are useful for getting into the headspace of the characters, especially those I don't write that often. I originally posted this on the end of an old fic as an addition to an author note, but I tweaked it a bit and thought I'd repost it as a standalone.
Here in the UK we're midway through lockdown. I might make this into a series just for fun because I've got a Tseng/Elena idea forming in my mind as I type this.
Lockdown is obviously not canon in the FF: VII universe…
"But I'm soooo bored."
Tseng stared at the paperwork in front of him. He silently prayed to any god that was willing to listen that his resolve should remain unshaken. He would not allow himself to rise to it.
There was a stapler on the desk, a mere flick of the wrist away from his left hand. It had weight to it. Throwing it at the lanky redhead that was currently sprawled on his sofa would be so unbelievably satisfying.
He would not rise to it.
Reno was laying upside down, his long legs crossed at the ankles and his head hanging off the edge of the seat. His pony-tail pooled on the floor beneath him. Tseng didn't believe that anybody could possibly sit like that and be comfortable, but he'd been that way for some time now and didn't appear to be about to move. His boots were leaving black marks on the wall.
Tseng closed his eyes. Perhaps when he opened them the last hour and a half would turn out to have been a bad dream.
"Lockdown sucks. Is this really necessary?"
He opened his eyes. Apparently the gods weren't listening.
"The President wouldn't have suggested it if it wasn't."
"It's a pile of shit."
He slid the top drawer of the desk open and dropped the stapler into it, firmly out of temptations way.
"Don't you have paperwork to do?"
"Nope. Elena lost the poker game again."
"Again?" He paused; no doubt he'd be hearing about that later on. "I've told her to stop playing with you."
Reno shrugged, or at least tried to. It was made awkward by his position. "She's bored too."
"She never learns."
"I know." He grinned.
"I should stop from you betting your paperwork. You're supposed to turn it in yourself."
"Where's the fun in that?"
Tseng stared at him, his elegant eyebrows raised.
"I do some of my own paperwork," Reno replied haughtily.
He shifted position, leaving another long black mark on the wall. Tseng grit his teeth.
"Does Rude need help with the Kalm dossier?"
"Haven't seen him." Reno frowned. "I think he's avoiding me."
"How strange…"
He deliberately missed the sarcasm. "I know 'cause this lockdown thing is a real drag."
"Maybe I could find you some paperwork to do," Tseng offered pointedly.
"No thanks." He closed his eyes, smiled serenely and laced his long fingers behind his head.
A minute of blessed silence ticked by and Tseng dared to hope. He turned back to the report he'd been reading.
"What're you doing?"
Hope dissolved, taking with it another slice of his patience. "Working."
"Right."
Reno stared at him. Tseng turned the page, deliberately ignoring him.
Thud.
He drummed his fingers lightly on the paper in front of him.
Thud.
His fingers curled into a fist.
Thud.
He would not rise to it.
Thud.
"Will you stop!"
Reno stopped kicking the wall, his expression radiating blue-eyed innocence.
Tseng inhaled slowly. "The employee gym is still open. Perhaps you could go there instead?"
Reno fixed him a trademark smirk. "I know I said I was bored but I'm not that bored."