"That was quick."
"What did you expect?" Reno asked, giving a flippant shrug.
Rufus folded his hands on his desk and directed a firm eye toward him.
"Where did you expect me to go?" Reno asked, looking elsewhere. "At the end of the day, I don't really have anywhere else to return to, you know."
He shuffled quietly into the room and took a seat in front of Rufus' desk. Resting an elbow on the polished oak, he placed his chin in his upturned palm, and looked at Rufus from the sides of his eyes.
He looked positively exhausted, like he'd really gone and taken a look around the whole city like Rufus instructed. Rufus suspected that the others were wherever they normally would be at this late hour – sleeping, likely. Reno was uncharacteristically quiet, and, although he looked tired, his eyes were alive with thought, processing the things he'd seen, mulling what he wanted to say.
Shoulders relaxing, Rufus release a sigh. "You really didn't have anywhere else to go?"
"I practically already live with you," Reno interjected.
Something about the way that Reno said that so suddenly, so unflinchingly, made Rufus lose his focus, and he nodded faster than he intended to.
"Right." Words failed him, unable to find a casual response to something like that off the cuff. Thankfully, it was late, and Reno wasn't in the mood to mess around with him.
The swirling thoughts behind Reno's eyes grew dim and distant as he lifted his chin from his palm, then slowly began to extand that hand toward Rufus. Gently, his fingers slipped beneath the lapel of Rufus' white suit jacket, and his thumb wandered idly over the surface, stroking the smooth fabric.
"I get what you were trying to do, but," his eyes flicked up tiredly, "it wasn't necessary. Not for me. Not for the others either."
"That's probable. However-"
"No 'howevers' to it." Reno's fingers tightened in the material. There was something he wanted to say, the edge of his voice sharpened with urgency. "Haven't we made it clear enough in the past that we'd stay with you for anything? Especially now. You need us, and..."
He found Reno's passive advances to be rather irritating. Even when he brought the others into the conversation, Rufus knew that he wanted to speak about himself, about why it was important that he stay.
He grabbed Reno by the face to pull him closer, leaning his upper half across his desk, abandoning reason and sense as he toppled over a few items atop it and sent a few others flying off its surface. The soft strands of hair at the back of Reno's neck brushed across Rufus' knuckles as he slid his hands beneath his long, red ponytail.
Reno met him halfway, leaning over the desk until he also had his fingers locked comfortably at the back of Rufus' neck. His breath gusted past Rufus' cheek as he sighed into their kiss, releasing whatever tension remained coiled in his limbs. It appeared that exhaustion was finally catching up with him after the long day.
Their lips lingered against each other for a little longer, breathing softly before they parted. The silence that followed was thick and comfortable, yet to anyone else, it would have made it seem as though nothing had even occurred.
Sinking back into his chair, Rufus released a breath that resembled a laugh. Whatever it was, it made Reno smirk.
"You know," Reno said, "even if I weren't a Turk, I'd still stay for you. You know that, right?"
Rufus nodded.
He let the words slowly roll around his head. They were infuriatingly cheesy. Were they from anyone else, they would have sounded cheap, but he'd come to know what to expect from Reno.
"Thank you," he said slowly, hoping that he sounded sincere.
Sincerity was a quality he still required more practice with. Rufus knew that a man like him wouldn't be able to continue on in the manner he'd been going unless he shared the things he genuinely felt. Despite whatever Reno would say about it, he knew that Reno and the others might not be there for him in the future if he didn't learn to be more like them.
"It is my hope that, working together, we can rid the stigma from the Shinra name. I hope to make it a name that you can once again hold pride in."
"Pride? Whatever," Reno said with a huff, waving a hand in the air as he sunk bonelessly into the seat in front of Rufus' desk. "We'd stick with you no matter what you say. It's not about the name, or the company your pops built, or anything like that. I guess I should only speak for myself, but I'm pretty sure the others would agree if I said that we'd stay because it's you."
Rufus hoped that would be the case, because he would sorely hate to admit that he'd be lonely without them.