Rufus watched curiously as Reno slipped into work on Monday morning; the poorly tinted goggles pulled over his eyes were a white flag waving his surrender to a hangover. Rufus ignored Tseng's continued mumbling in his ears as he watched his very desirable and very vulnerable Turk grab an entire pot of coffee, maker and all, and cart it back to his office with a bottle of creamer and a cup clutched tightly in his free hand. He sipped at his own mug of coffee and watched Reno happily, resisting the urge to laugh as Reno was stopped in his tracks by a protest from the coffee maker in his arms. The red-head blinked and looked around, groaning angrily as he walked back to unplug the machine, the bending required to do so putting his desirable backend out for Rufus to gaze at.
Rufus pulled his attention back to Tseng as the dark-haired man clicked his fingers in front of his face. "Sir this is important information regarding your speech! Pay attention!"
Rufus sighed and forced his attention away from the overly interesting backside of his employee, listening with disinterest to Tseng's words as he outlined his speech and the conditions it was going to be given in. Rufus didn't know why Tseng even bothered to instruct him in his speeches, he would simply read the pre-picked words off of note cards and drone them into the microphone for a mass of people he didn't give a damn about. He would much rather watch Reno deal with his hangover. Rufus looked over quickly as Reno straightened. He noticed a new set of bite marks running down the pale neck and he hummed softly, stirring his coffee as he imagined what sort of marks must be on Reno's delicious ass.
Tseng had grown used to Rufus' inability to keep his eyes to himself and he had more than once wondered if it was his employer who was covering the red-head with bite-marks week after week. Every Monday Reno showed up littered with bruises that could come from nothing but a well placed bite or squeeze and since he didn't have black-eyes to accompany the marks Tseng could infer that he had simply had an overly rough night of sex. He had asked Rufus if he knew about the marks and his only reply had been a snort and a muttered, "I wish."
No one knew where the bite marks and bruises came from and despite the near-constant pestering from Elena, Tseng, and various secretaries, Reno wasn't telling anyone who his seemingly abusive partner was. Rude seemed to be the only one who had no interest in the ordeal, but that surprised no one since Reno told Rude everything and they simply assumed the bald man already knew. Rude was also pestered with questions, but he simply refused to answer them; fixing the asker with an intimidating stare and waiting for them to drop the subject or walk away. It was an effective technique and after a week only the most interested and brave people continued asking him about it.
Reno sat in his office and guzzled coffee laced with copious amounts of creamer, wincing at the thin light flowing into the room from his window. His oversensitive ears could pick up every painful car horn from the street hundreds of feet below his closed window and every click of a secretary's heels on the tile floor outside his door made him want to vomit. He pulled his trash can closer to him and started filing out the mountains of paperwork stacked around his desk. His Monday morning hangover hours were when he got the majority of his work done and he usually saved all of the paperwork from the week before to be done during that time. Every other morning was spent joking with Rude and Elena or fixing devious pranks for unsuspecting colleagues.
Right now he wished fervently that he hadn't downed half a bottle of vodka the night before, but that was simply the wish of a pathetically hungover man. The night before drinking had been a wonderful idea, especially since his thoughts had turned to Rude again. He wished that he the rest of the bottle in front of him now because he could hear Rude talking quietly with Elena in the lobby just outside his door. Each low, velvety word slipped under Reno's door and into his ear, drowning all thoughts related to work and dragging him back to the wonderful memories he had tried to drink away the night before. He was getting sick of having only memories and hopes, he wanted something real.
Getting something real every Friday wasn't cutting it anymore. He was starting to get addicted to Rude and he didn't know how to handle it. There was no anonymous group for people addicted to their best friend. Reno couldn't bring himself to start the conversation that would lead to a relationship and that was a sure sign that he was getting too involved. Usually when Reno wanted to move forward he simply asked and moved forward, dropped the person, or got dropped, but with Rude he couldn't do anything. He couldn't stand the thought of Rude dropping him and he couldn't drop Rude. Reno actually cared about Rude, yet he could do nothing about it. He didn't have the courage. He remained stuck in the rut he had paced for himself. With every passing week his rut got a little deeper and despite his attempts to climb out, he could never quite make it.
Rude sighed over his cup of water, cursing the fact that Reno had once again stolen the coffee maker. Elena had managed to make it to work in time to secure her own cup of brown morning goodness, but he had been late getting up. He had been late getting up because he had been late getting to sleep. He had been late getting to sleep because he had been pacing the hall between his room and Reno's for hours. He had been pacing the hall because he had been trying to force himself to knock on Reno's door. He hadn't knocked on the door because he was unable to force his fist to meet the wood. It was almost like there had been an invisible barrier that his hand collided with just before it rested on the wood. No matter what he did he couldn't force his way through the half inch of air between his hand and the door.
Elena frowned at him over the table and flicked her eyes towards Reno's office door. "You could go steal a cup off him. His hangover doesn't need the whole pot."
"You don't know that." Rude snorted and sipped his water. Elena knew nothing of his twisted relationship with Reno and he wanted it kept that way. Until he understood what was between them he would rather keep their Friday night rendezvous quiet. Since Elena didn't know about their issues she saw no problem with his walking into Reno's office and taking coffee. If he walked into the same room, the same small room, he would be too close to the intoxicating red-head and he wouldn't be able to resist setting a comforting hand on Reno's shoulder or more.
Elena rolled her eyes and stirred sugar into her coffee with a smile, "I could go steal it for you."
Rude frowned at her and resisted the urge to grab the mug of delicious looking coffee from her hands. "You would pester him with questions and I wouldn't get my coffee until noon."
Elena giggled and sipped at her coffee. "That's why you should steal it yourself."
"I don't need coffee." Rude sighed and sipped at his water, wishing fervently that it was caffeinated.
Elena leaned across the table and gave his cheek an irritatingly rough prod. "You have bags drooping down to your jaw."
Rude batted her hand away grumpily and rubbed his cheek. "You're exaggerating."
Elena stood, "Yeah, but you're avoiding the solution. Is there some reason you can't go in? Did you guys get in a fight?"
Rude shook his head, feeling like he had been backed into a corner. The longer he avoided going into Reno's office the more suspicious she would get. If she got suspicious she would pester him with questions and when he refused to answer them she would make assumptions, assumptions that would probably be correct.
Elena frowned and her honey-brown eyes darted between Reno's office door and Rude's exhaustion-slumped shoulders. "Rude, does this have something to do with Reno's bruises?"
Rude blinked and looked up hastily. "What?"
Elena frowned and stared at him intently. "Rude, are you jealous of Reno's biter?"
Rude chuckled; relieved that she thought his reluctance to enter the room was jealousy, not guilty trepidation and confusion. "No, I'm not jealous of his biter." He managed to leave out the statement dangling on the edge of his tongue; I am his biter.
Elena smiled and patted Rude's shoulder gently before turning back towards her office. "You look like shit. Go get coffee."
Rude sighed and stood, dumping his water in the lobby sink and doing his best to ignore Rufus' interested gaze. He knew Rufus had been eavesdropping on his conversation with Elena; Elena was so loud it was hard not to listen. Rude sighed and walked towards Reno's office with Rufus' eyes boring into his back, hoping fervently that the office door wouldn't be as hard to knock on as the apartment door had been.
Much to Rude's relief his knuckles rapped on the wood with no difficulty. He could hear Reno's sleepy voice slip through the wood. "It's open."
Rude pressed the door open and blinked to adjust his eyes to the semi-darkness Reno had tried to instill in the office. The soft glow coming from the window was the only light in the room when Rude shut the door behind him. Reno seemed aggravated by the small burn of sunlight leaking through his blinds.
Reno whined softly and waved a handful of paperwork in the air. "I'm doin' my work, Tseng! Don't yell at me!"
Rude chuckled softly and walked up to Reno's desk, glad that it faced the window instead of the door. He set a hand on Reno's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "I'm not yelling."
Reno shivered with delight at the warm hand on his shoulder, resisting the urge to whip around and jump on Rude. "Thanks. I don't think my hangover can take it. What can I do for ya?"
Rude suddenly had several ideas completely unrelated to coffee flowing through his mind at Reno's words. He refrained from suggesting what his loins wanted and instead set his empty coffee mug on the desk. "You stole the coffee pot again."
Reno sniggered softly and grabbed his head as the sound made his head throb. He whimpered softly and pressed his goggles tighter over his eyes, silently cursing the window. "Sorry."
Rude frowned and pet Reno's hair without any thoughts to how odd it was for him to do so. "Are you alright?"
Reno shivered and pressed into the fingers that lightly massaged his scalp. "Hell no."
Rude gently tugged Reno's head upright, tilting the goggle-covered eyes up to look at him. He slipped his sunglasses off and peeled the goggles off of Reno's eyes, intent on looking at him without either of the reflective barriers. "Why are you always hungover on Monday?"
Reno blinked and couldn't keep a blush from creeping over his cheeks as Rude's face hovered above his own. His first instinct was to lean forward the extra inch forward that would press Rude's lips to his own, but he refrained, curling his fingers into the arms of his chair instead. Rude misinterpreted his lack of audible response and sighed heavily, letting sorrow cloud his wonderfully brown eyes. "Did I do something?" Reno shook his head and struggled to keep down what he wanted to say. Reno knew what his first words would be if he dared to open his mouth.
Rude watched Reno's somewhat bloodshot eyes curiously, suddenly upset that he couldn't read minds. Reno was so intoxicatingly close and Rude found he was unable to move away. They always kept their relationship professional at work and he had just pushed Reno over that invisible boundary between professional and romantic. Reno wasn't pulling away like Rude had thought he would; instead, he looked like he was confused as hell. "What is it then?"
Reno wanted to lean forward and capture the tantalizingly close lips in front of him and was about to do so when a knock sounded on the door. He quickly pulled away and grabbed the sunglasses out of Rude's hands as Rude straightened. "I'm stealing these. My hangover needs them."
Rude straightened quickly as the door opened, removing his hand from Reno's hair reluctantly. "Your hangovers steal a lot."
Reno slipped Rude's sunglasses over his eyes and gave his friend a cheap grin as Rufus entered the room. "My hangover knows you have five more pairs in your office."
Rude gave Reno an equally false grin as he felt Rufus inspect them with more interest than was necessary. "I'll kick your hangover's ass later then." He pushed past Rufus and shoved his hands into his pockets as he made his way to his office, unable to hide a scowl.
Rufus watched Rude leave with a small, smug grin. He was sure he had just interrupted something; the cheap smile still lingering on Reno's face was easily seen for its falseness. He walked up to Reno's desk and poured himself a cup of coffee, ignoring Tseng's glare on his back. Tseng had told him not to go in, insisting that he still needed to discuss the speech, but Rufus didn't give a damn. He was starting to get sick of Tseng's constant nagging and when that happened he knew he would either have to shoot Tseng or find a new babysitter for awhile. He couldn't take more than a month of Tseng coddling him at a time and he was getting dangerously close to giving the shooting idea consideration.
Rufus grinned and set a hand on Reno's desk, sipping at his coffee. "Reno, whose turn is it to take over for Tseng?"
Reno blinked and laughed as Tseng growled in indignation just outside his door. The sound hurt his head and his hangover chastised him for his carelessness by throbbing angrily. "I think Rude took over last time so it's probably mine."
"You can get what you need after work tonight and then escort me home." Rufus smirked and shut Reno's office door behind him, ignoring the cold stare Tseng shot at him. If everything went right this week he'd figure out why Rude had gone into Reno's office for coffee but left his empty mug behind.
Author's Note: Hmmm…evil Rufus….I don't know why Rufus is always so evil in my stories….oh well. I'll probably get the next chapter of this story kicked out pretty fast because Rufus, Reno, and Rude won't leave me alone about it.