Three times in one month. This must be some kind of a record for me.
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.
Rufus didn't know how to react when Reno and Rude showed up at his apartment to pick him up to go to Rocket Town. There was this awkward silence at his door and the three of them seemed to just decide that they were better off not saying anything to each other as they headed off towards the take of point with Dark Nation trailing behind them. Tseng met them at the helicopter to see them off and luckily for him Reno had been chosen to fly, so Rufus had the chance to think over their current situation. He already knew from experience that Rude wasn't a talker, so he didn't have to deal with idle chatter. He had to admit that this was the first time he had laid eyes on the weasel. He could at least see how anyone could be attracted to him. He had that typical scruffy bad boy look and if Zack's words were anything to go by, he had a protective streak that was worse than a mother chocobo. If anything Reno was pretty much all you would ever want in a guy that came out of a crappy teenage romance novel.
"Sir, we're here." A slightly rough voice played over his headphones as the helicopter started descending. That was a much shorter trip than he remembered it being. Once the three of them were out of the helicopter, they all stood there staring at each other for a little while. This was meant to be the part where they discussed their plan of action, but Rufus didn't know how to break the silence and Rude obviously wasn't going to be much help.
"Alright, this is getting stupid. At this rate we're never going to finish this mission." Reno seemed to have finally snapped and lost all sense of formality with it. "We're just going to Rocket Town to check the rocket right? Then we can go home and Cloud can explain to me all over again as to why it's a good idea to let him stay with that wolf."
Rufus honestly looked taken aback at Reno's sudden outburst. "So you can talk. I was almost wondering if Tseng had hired another mostly mute Turk."
The weasel sent Rufus a glare. "Your boyfriend told me to play nice, but since me keeping my mouth shut isn't getting us anywhere, I might as well just stop trying."
Rufus relaxed a little at those words. "Alright, we'll go to the inn first and get ourselves settled in. We'll go and see Highwind tomorrow, since it's a bit too late for a house call and it's going to take a while to look over the rocket." Rufus took a quick look at his PHS. It was already five in the afternoon and the sun was already starting to go down. Once they got to the hotel, they found that there had only been two rooms booked.
"Are you serious?" Reno questioned when the innkeeper told him that the two rooms were the only ones left and that was the only inn in the town.
"Sorry sir, but if you had booked three rooms earlier, we would have happily held another room open for the three of you. As it stands we cannot put you up in another room. The double room does have to separate beds though."
"I guess I'm bunking with you Rude." Reno sighed, scratching the back of his head with slight frustration in his tone.
"You have to bunk with the vice president. It's standard protocol when we're on bodyguard duty."
Reno fought the urge to groan. "Why couldn't you have just told me that before? Also why can't you stay with him and his overgrown cat then?"
Rude shrugged his shoulders. "I'm allergic to cats."
"You're joking. You just sat in the back seat with the animal!"
"He's not." Rufus cut in. "It's only a mild allergy and I don't want to have to deal with a sick Turk even if we're just here on a short stay."
"Why do you have to bring that oversized animal with you everywhere anyway? Couldn't you have just left him at home or something?"
Rufus pet Dark Nation's head gently, fondly remembering the time that Tseng bought the animal for him as a present.
"No." He stated simply and Reno just rolled his eyes as they made their way to their rooms and the weasel pretty much flopped on his own bed while Rufus pulled out a book and settled down on his own bed with Dark Nation making himself comfortable on top of the covers.
"You let your oversized cat sleep on your bed?" Reno questioned and Rufus glanced up from his book to look at the Turk.
"Tseng asked me that question once before."
Reno hummed. "And what did you tell him?"
"If I let an overgrown fox sleep in my bed, I don't see anything wrong with letting an overgrown cat sleep on it." Reno snorted. The vice president had a point there. There was another short silence between the two before Rufus finally got sick of it and decided to at least attempt to nap before dinner. He opened up his spinneret glands in his mouth and started making a bookmark out of his webbing. He took note that Reno was watching him as he slid it between the pages of his book.
"You know I always wondered where you guys got your webbing from. I would have thought that you would have gotten it from the same place as actual spiders." Rufus gave him a disgusted look as he placed his book down on the side table.
"I don't know how that Halfling puts up with you." Reno laughed a little at that.
"Cloud is surprisingly tolerant. After all, he's lived with the lieutenant for a good few months and he stayed with me for even longer. As long as you can deal with his need for certain things to be clean, then you're pretty much good to go."
"I doubt he can last being in SOLDIER if he can't stand getting a little dirty. Also Zack's apartment's usually a mess. I would have thought that he would have moved out by now."
"Have you not been to the Lieutenant's apartment lately?" Reno questioned.
"Not since that cadet moved in, why?"
"That place is as clean as a whistle. Apparently it was a dump when Cloud first got there, but one of his demands was that if he was going to give into Zack's demands for him to join the mentoring programme, then Zack had to clean his apartment or at least let Cloud clean his apartment. Also, like I said, Cloud's not fully OCD. He just likes certain things to be clean. He could fully roll around in a mud pile and be fine with that, but he won't let you even touch week old pizza without having gloves on."
"You pick up just as much bacteria rolling around in mud than you do from touching week old pizza." Rufus pointed out.
"Yeah, I wouldn't bother telling Cloud that. He already knows, like I said, his OCD is a bit weird. He doesn't like permanent things or even demi permanent, so hair dye was one of them. He only got the earring because I promised him something shiny and even then he got me to explain how sterile the whole procedure was. Food, obviously you're ingesting it so Gaia forbid that you put anything near your mouth that's either been out longer than a day or if it's touched the ground."
Rufus let out a small snort of amusement. "Sounds like a handful if you want to eat something that you were saving for a rainy day."
"Depends on what it is, but he's quite against the idea that it's fine as long as you nuke it in the microwave."
"That's very much the way that Zack thinks though. Some of the things that he eats I wouldn't even touch with a 10 foot pole. To think that he kisses the generals with that mouth. I'm guessing their enhancements are the only things that are keeping them from getting sick from whatever Zack's been eating on the day."
Reno let off a small laugh. "Sounds like the lieutenant has an iron cast stomach."
Rufus grinned. "You have no idea."