Tseng sighed and rubbed his eyes, the pen held in one hand ignored as he scratched it across his face. He had had trouble sleeping the night before; images of Reno and Rufus in the throes of passion made his nightmares unbearable and he had broken his last bottle of brandy in a fit of rage once he had gotten home to find it half empty. He shouldn't have lost his temper, but he had been looking forward to a night of oblivion and half a bottle wouldn't send him there. Unfortunately, he hadn't even been able to dull his sense of his pain because of his folly. He had lain awake most of the night, imagining them together, and he had ground his teeth to powder. When he had finally gotten to sleep, he had dreamt of them. He didn't want to be at work today, but there wasn't anywhere else he could go. He needed something to take his mind off of his exhaustion and the duplicate, triplicate filing was perfectly tedious enough to garner his attention.

He was tired, irritable, and when Rufus came into his office he threw a stapler at his head. Thankfully, Rufus was able to dodge the projectile before it could collide with his skull. Tseng sighed and rubbed his forehead as Rufus glared at him. "What do you want?"

Rufus set his hands on his hips and glared evenly at Tseng. "I'd like a warning before you decide to throw things at me. I can't give a speech with blood pouring into my eyes."

"Speech?" Tseng blinked and looked through his schedule, his tired and bloodshot eyes finally picking up the red inked notice he had left for himself almost a month ago. He quickly sorted out his papers, gathering what he and Rufus would need.

Rufus watched Tseng with a raised eyebrow, trying not to admire the way thin strands of loose hair drifted over his face. The fact that Tseng hadn't put his hair up confused and intrigued him. "You forgot?"

Tseng nodded and stood, papers held loosely in his hands as he passed them to Rufus. "I assume you will want Reno to accompany you." His words were bitter and he felt frown lines crease his forehead before he could stop them.

Rufus shook his head, jerking the papers from Tseng's hands and looking them over as he walked out of the room. "Reno may be great in bed but he doesn't know shit about speeches."

Tseng clenched his hands into fists as he followed, anger boiling in his veins. He walked a step behind Rufus, just like he always did. "So you finally added his notch to your bedpost?"

Rufus nodded and looked over his speech. "Of course I did. You would know that if you paid any attention. Apparently Rude's pissed about it too. They've been having issues all day."

Tseng blinked; surprised he had missed the fighting duo. He couldn't be blamed really, normally when Reno got in a fight some part of the building got destroyed, but Rude was probably keeping their argument from becoming physical. Tseng opened the door to Rufus' limousine, sliding in next to him. Rufus looked over his papers, professionally lost in thought as he memorized what he needed to say. Tseng resisted the urge to watch him; normally he would subtly gaze at Rufus as he mouthed the words of his speech, eyes focused on the way his lips moved. Today, however, was not a day to spend pandering to his lust for Rufus.

Tseng stood behind Rufus as he gave his speech, eyes darting around as he checked the small crowd for danger. He might not be fond of Rufus and his lechery at the moment, but he wouldn't allow the man to die because of his poor choices. As he watched and waited, hands folded behind him as Rufus' words droned through his ears, he plotted.

The fact that Reno and Rude were arguing over Reno's nighttime activities with Rufus confirmed his suspicion that Rude was Reno's original biter. Now that Reno had decided to move on to sleep with Rufus, Rude was obviously feeling betrayed. Tseng felt a small frown cross his face as he thought, wondering how he would be able to get the two back together so that Reno would get out of Rufus' bed. If Reno left Rufus, then everything would be fine. If Rufus left Reno, well, things normally went bad for the other person when Rufus left them. When his past lovers had left him Rufus had gone to him for comfort and support, something he wanted him to do again. When Rufus had let his past lovers, Rufus had gone on to new quarry without even batting an eyelash.

Tseng followed Rufus off the podium wordlessly, opening the door for him and sliding in beside him without hesitation. Rufus sighed and swept his hair back, rubbing at his eyes and tossing the pages of his speech to the floor. "I hate giving speeches and it's so damned annoying when people decide they're going to clap before I can finish. It makes them last longer."

Tseng ignored his boss, letting Rufus rant quietly about his speech as he thought. Another mission, he thought, smiling softly at the idea. I send them off together to a remote location to gather intel and they come back a happy couple again. He let Rufus' words drone through his ears as he piecing together a mock-assignment that the duo would easily be able to carry out without any problems. He would send them off on Monday, the sooner they left the better.

Reno slammed Rude's office door shut behind him, eyes wet with unshed tears as he went. Rude clenched his hands in front of him on his desk, eyes shut tight. Reno hadn't made any excuses, hadn't tried to apologize for what he did, he had simply admitted it. Rude had been questioning him about it all day, trying to figure out what he had done wrong, what he had done to break their relationship, and then Reno had landed the final blow. Rude kneaded his head in his hands as the words Reno had muttered before slamming his door echoed through his brain. "We didn't have a relationship, Rude, we had sex. There's a difference." Rude could hear the pain in Reno's voice when he said it, however, and knew there was more to Reno's betrayal than he let on. Rude would get Reno back if it cost him everything and this time, he wouldn't let Reno leave. He would keep him by his side until he had finished telling him how he felt a to hell with the consequences.

Author's Note: Yay plotting!

I didn't do a very good grammar check on this one, so if you spotted any mistakes allow me to express my sincere apologies.