Chapter Five

Comfort

Another target shattered with a particularly savage sound. Rufus reloaded his shotgun. His eyes were calm, his body posture was perfectly straight. Nothing betrayed his extreme rage. He lifted the gun and aimed it at another hapless circle of wood and steel. His fingers slowly curled around the trigger, squeezing it firmly. The gun jumped, another target shattered, and Rufus' anger calmed somewhat as he pictured his father lying on the floor instead, a shotgun shell lodged in his brain. Stupid fucker. He stood a moment, breathing slow even breaths, trying to calm down. The deep breathing approach didn't work so he obliterated another target, imagining his father staggering back, blood as red as his suit pouring from his body to pool on the floor. The blonde gave a chilling smile. One day. One day he would kill the bastard.

A careful ten feet behind him, Reno stared with terrified fascination at the change in his boss. Some time ago, Rufus had walked out of a meeting, a nasty expression in his eyes, and... stormed might be the best word, to the Turk's shooting gallery, curtly gesturing Reno to follow him. He'd been destroying targets for the past hour, not saying a word to Reno, just working off whatever anger it was that consumed him.

Reno froze with horror as Rufus actually missed a shot, only clipping the edge of the wooden ring. The target almost mockingly stayed in one piece and there was a long, long pause during which Reno almost feared for his life, thinking the Rufus might turn and shoot him out of sheer frustration and need to hurt something. But suddenly Rufus gave a completely uncharacteristic snarl of rage and threw his heavy shotgun at the target, snapping it off at the base. There was a dull clunk as the crippled target bit the dust, echoed by the louder thunk of Rufus' gun hitting the ground.

Silence. Lots... of... silence. The drawn out, tense sort of silence that makes the air feel thick and heavy, hard to breathe. The kind of silence where your breathing is hideously loud and you try to muffle it for fear it might irritate someone. Reno's hand was halfway to his mouth when Rufus whipped around and smiled with an almost maniacal friendliness.

"Reno?" he said with obviously forced calmness. "You don't have a partner yet, do you?"

Reno shook his head, mute, not quite trusting his voice not to tremble. He'd seen a lot in his life, done a lot, too, but nothing he'd ever seen or done measured up in sheer scariness to Rufus' sudden mood swing. It was as though the anger was bubbling away just below the surface, screaming for a reason to lash out and kill someone. Reno did not want to give Rufus an excuse to kill him.

"Be in my office nine o'clock tomorrow morning," Rufus instructed. He smiled, a strange, brittle smile. "You can go home now, if you want."

Reno hesitated. He was tired and he just wanted to go home and crash, but Rufus' dismissal was phrased in a way that seemed as though he was begging Reno to stay. As he stared at Rufus, the moment stretching ever-so-slightly too long, he saw the barest hint of vulnerability seep into the blonde's eyes, a tiny flicker of pain, of exhaustion. That decided him.

"I'll stay, sir," he said, clearing his throat uncomfortably and shuffling his feet a little as he stared at the floor. If there was anyone who could make Reno feel off-balance, it was Rufus. He swallowed and lifted his gaze to meet Rufus' inquiring ice blue gaze. "...If that's okay..." Rufus nodded, just slightly, a tiny hint of a smile touching his lips.

"Thank you."

The silence stretched on again, neither knowing what to say. Reno broke it hesitantly. "Um... But sir...?" Rufus lifted an eyebrow, silently encouraging him to continue. "You... look tired..." Reno said quietly. He wasn't sure if he was pushing his luck too far with what he was saying and he was kind of nervous, not wanting Rufus to go retrieve his gun and put a bullet in him out of sheer anger. He'd looked like he'd wished the targets were human a little while ago. "Shouldn't you get some sleep? Or just relax or something."

Rufus stared at him for a moment, his face shocked, and then he gave a short bark of laughter. "I suppose so..." he muttered, tearing his eyes away from the skinny redhead's worried face. He lifted one hand and rubbed his suddenly sand-gritty eyes. "I haven't been sleeping well lately," he admitted suddenly. Reno moved closer and gingerly touched Rufus' shoulder in an instinctive, sympathetic gesture. Rufus' head whipped around and he met Reno's eyes in a startled look. No one dared touch him... The contact was strange, but in his exhausted state, it felt kind of good, warm, comforting. He shifted his shoulder, leaning into the warmth of Reno's hand. He was so fucking tired. No sleep last night, and maybe half an hour or so at his desk the night before (he'd had paperwork to finish and hadn't gone to bed). His body couldn't take much more of this.

Reno moved his hand away from Rufus' shoulder and tugged slightly on his sleeve. "You need to sleep," he said in a low voice. Rufus gave him an exhausted glare. "I can't," he hissed, anger finally kicking in. "If I could, I wouldn't be in this state!" Reno didn't flinch at the fire in Rufus' normally icy eyes, just tugged at his sleeve again.

"Giving it another try wouldn't hurt, would it?" he said and offered a smile. Rufus sighed.

"Very well," he said, managing to regain some small shreds of dignity and poise. He tugged his sleeve out of Reno's grip and turned. His back to Reno, he spoke, the command back in his voice, overlaying the exhaustion. "Go get my gun, Reno, and then we'll go." He stalked to the door as Reno saluted mockingly, a smirk back on his face.

"Yes, sir."

Rufus' apartment was huge. Reno stared around in pure shock, taking in the expensive furnishings, the thick carpet, everything. The room practically screamed 'money'. It was all abstract, white with accents of black. Small details caught Reno's eye: the black velvet cushions tossed on the low white leather couch set before a plasma TV set in one wall; a strange painting framed on one wall, black and white shapes twisted in a geometrical pattern inside a black metal frame; the way the door frames were all painted dull black even though the doors themselves were all white.

"Shit," he said flatly, glancing at Rufus. "You actually live here?" His disbelief was very obvious in his voice.

Rufus half smiled. "Yes," he replied as he bent over and started to unlace his heavy brown boots. "Take your shoes off – white carpet is apparently hell to clean and I don't want to housekeeper screaming at me again."

Reno laughed. "The housekeeper dared yell at you? The President's son?"

"She yells at everyone," Rufus said wryly. "Including my father, just about all his executives and especially Tseng when he shoots someone standing next to me and she has to wash the blood out of one of my suits. She fears no one and nothing, except possibly mud." Reno laughed again, an almost wild sound and kicked his boots off, dumping them next to the door. Rufus glanced at him, and saw aquamarine eyes dancing with amusement, a wicked grin twisting pink lips. He looked away quickly and walked further into his apartment, carrying his boots in one hand, moving quietly into his bedroom and placing the boots in his wardrobe. He shed his suit jacket and waistcoat, standing in just his white slack and the black turtleneck.

He stood there in his room a moment, getting used to the idea of someone else in his apartment, his space. He had never invited anyone in there before, and it felt kind of strange to have another human being walking around in the rooms not even his father had been in. "Um, Rufus?" He jumped violently as Reno spoke a few feet behind him and whipped around so fast he nearly fell over. Reno reached out immediately and steadied him, catching his wrists in a gentle but firm grip. Along moment passed and then Rufus' cheeks reddened in a combination of anger and embarrassment at being caught offguard. "Don't you fucking dare ever sneak up on me like that again!" he snarled, tugging his wrists free and rubbing them to try and still the tingling feeling that was jumping through them. He felt strange.

Reno flushed too. "Sorry," he said, totally lost. Why the hell was Rufus so angry? And why hadn't he heard him walk up? It wasn't as though he'd been trying to scare him. Suddenly the energy seemed to leave Rufus' body and he slumped. "It's alright," he muttered. His stomach growled and he glared at it. Reno laughed quietly.

"Is there any food in here?" he asked. Rufus nodded and walked straight past him, heading for the kitchen. Reno hovered indecisively in the doorway of Rufus' bedroom, not sure what he was doing. To his surprise, Rufus came out of the kitchen with a bag of chips and headed for the sofa in front of the TV. "There should be some movie on," he offered by way of explanation, dropping the bag on the table in front of the sofa and fiddling with remotes. As the TV switched on and the lights dimmed, Reno moved slowly across the thick carpet and sat gingerly next to Rufus.

Eventually Rufus found some loud, senselessly violent movie and Reno forgot to be nervous. He laughed evilly as the hero got his head kicked in by a motorbike gang and earned several amused looks from Rufus. He barely noticed when a slight weight pressed against his side, just shifted slightly to one side, bracing himself better and watching the gun fight on the screen, blue-green eyes sparkling in the dim light.

It was only at the end of the movie that he noticed that Rufus had fallen asleep at his side, his body leaning on Reno's and his head on the others' shoulder. Reno stared at him for a few moments, in total shock. He suddenly realised why he'd been feeling so weird about Rufus all evening. He was acting like a normal human being, and to Reno, who'd only ever seen Rufus act normal for short moments at a time, that was really, really weird. And now he'd fallen asleep on Reno's shoulder.

Reno wondered if this evening could get any stranger as he gently wrapped an arm around Rufus' back, slowly standing up and picking the smaller teenager up, bridal style. He couldn't hold back a small snicker at the thought of how mad Rufus would be if he was awake to see how he was being carried around. But then, if he was awake, then Reno wouldn't have to carry him.

He carefully tucked Rufus into his utterly enormous bed, tugging the covers up around the blonde's shoulders. Rufus rolled over in his sleep, moving onto his side, one hand curled up on the pillow near his face. He just looked so very... adorable, with his golden hair and the dark shadows under his eyes and that calm, almost peaceful expression, for once.

Reno couldn't really help what happened next.

He leant down and lightly brushed his lips across Rufus' cheek. "Sweet dreams, boss..."

Rufus slept right through the night for the first time in months and woke the next morning with a small, inexplicable smile on his face.