Three page long chapter… Well this is a first.
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.
Tseng didn't know what happened during the past few days that Reno and Rufus were in Rocket town, but he wasn't entirely sure if he liked the outcome. When they had come back both Rude and Reno had reported that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. He had been a bit worried when he heard that Rufus and Reno had shared a room. He had forgotten about Rude's allergy to cays and mentally scolded himself for forgetting that Rufus took Dark Nation everywhere with him. Apparently his worry had been entirely unfounded though. Not only did they get along, but Rufus had actually come up to him and said that he wouldn't mind if the weasel came along again if he ever had to go on his own to some other country again.
He stared at the report for a few more minutes before he finally grabbed his PHS and hit one of the numbers on speed dial. The phone was picked up on the second ring. "General Sephiroth speaking." There was the sound of metal clashing in the background.
"Did you… Pick up your phone while you're in the middle of a battle again?" Tseng questioned.
"I'm not in a life threatening situation right now, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to answer." There were a few cries of outrage.
"Aren't we meant to be negotiating with Wutai at the moment? Who are you fighting?"
Sephiroth let out a small laugh. "Some rebels thought that they'd try catching me off guard and they summoned a Leviathan after me. My guess is that they weren't prepared for me to kill it because neither their armour nor their fighting skills are really a match for me." There was the sound of an explosion. "They do seem to have a lot of materia though… I believe they just blew up a portion of Gen's room."
Tseng sighed as he laid back on his chair.
"So what did I do for you to call me when your lover is meant to be back? Or is he already back and that's the problem?" Sephiroth questioned.
"I wouldn't really call it a problem. It's just something that I'm not entirely sure about."
"You do know that you're asking me of all people right?" Sephiroth questioned.
"Sometimes your straight forward answers are better than the roundabout ones where people tell you to look at it from both sides of the situation." Tseng pointed out.
There was a small thoughtful hum coming from Sephiroth. "Ask away then."
"Rufus got back from Rocket Town yesterday."
"And everyone's all in one piece?"
Tseng frowned. "Yes."
"So what's the problem?"
There was the sound of someone screaming in pain.
"Are you seriously giving someone relationship advice while you're in the middle of a fight?" Genesis' voice came through the line.
"It's Tseng." Sephiroth replied as if it made the situation all the more better.
"I could have been blown up and the only reason you didn't come to check was because you were on the phone with Tseng." Genesis pointed out. There was the sound of metal slicing through flesh and another scream of pain.
"These guys aren't going to get rid of themselves." Sephiroth pointed out. "Not to mention they were using fire against you. I know you well enough to know that that explosion wasn't going to be enough to kill you."
"… Just go back to your conversation…"
"Tseng?" Sephiroth went back to the phone.
"Still here." Tseng had to admit, at least he was being amused.
"So what's wrong with the fact that the two of them haven't killed each other?"
"Nothing."
"So why are we having this conversation?"
Tseng paused. He had a good point there.
"Did they get along better than you thought they would?" Sephiroth questioned.
"Rufus said that he'd be ok if I had to send him on a mission with Reno again."
"Isn't it good that they're getting along?" Genesis questioned from the background. Tseng had almost forgotten that the red haired General was still wherever Sephiroth was.
"Who's getting along with who?" It seemed that Angeal had joined in on the fight. "Sephiroth are you on the phone in the middle of a fight again?"
"The vice president's apparently getting along with the new Turk." Genesis replied to the other general.
"Oh, so why is Tseng calling you?" Angeal questioned.
"Probably because they got along too well. He's probably wondering if something happened between the two that no one's telling him about." Genesis said.
"I doubt the vice president would just leave him for the weasel." Angeal pointed out. Tseng blinked at those words. Was that what was making him so uneasy about the whole situation?
"Tseng, you know I was just kidding. You don't have to go all quiet on us." Genesis pointed out. It was only then that Tseng realised that the sound of metal and screaming had stopped.
"Are you done with your fight already?" He questioned, straightening out on his seat so that he wouldn't zone out again.
"We were done a whole minute ago." Genesis pointed out. "You know I was just kidding about the Rufus thing right?" He questioned. There was another long silence. "Don't tell me I was right."
"As much as I'd hate to admit it, you might be." Tseng frowned at the thought.
"Maybe you need to think over this without our input." Angeal suggested. "We all need to go and see what this whole attack was about and assess the damage to Gen's room anyway."
Tseng sighed. "Maybe I should just take a leaf out of your book Angeal and just go and talk to him about this." He could only imagine the surprised look on all three of the general's faces.
"Are you feeling alright Tseng?" Genesis questioned.
Tseng just sighed again. "I'm just tired. I'm starting to think that maybe if I just throw all these feelings out in the open then it'll be easier to deal with."
"You're being really uncharacteristic today you know." Genesis pointed out.
"Don't you have a report to be writing?" Tseng retorted back and the three general's on the other end of the line just laughed.
"Take care Tseng." Sephiroth said with a slightly amused tone in his voice. "Feel free to give me the details of the outcome of your talk when we speak again."
"If it goes badly you're probably going to be the first to find out." Tseng pointed out. "Your pet wolf would probably go on a rampage and attempt to murder me."
That made the generals laugh again. "We'll try to make sure that Zack doesn't kill you if your talk ends up going bad." Genesis offered. "Only because we'd lose our source of amusement if you were to have some kind of tragic accident."
Tseng rolled his eyes. "I'm overwhelmed by your concern for my well-being."
With that he hung up his phone before grabbing his PHS and scrolling through it and calling someone. The phone was picked up within two rings.
"Rude could you do something for me? I need you to find Rufus and Reno and send them both up to my office as soon as possible."
Both Reno and Rufus sat side by side on the opposite side of the table. They were both staring at Tseng curiously. Neither one of the two knowing why they had been called, but they both had the feeling that they know why they were there.
"If you two are having a relationship spat, I really don't want to be in the middle of it." Reno was the first to speak.
"I don't recall having any fights with Tseng recently, do I have no idea what he's calling us for." Rufus pointed out and Reno relaxed a little more.
"Our relationship hasn't been the greatest recently Rufus, so I figured I would just address the Behemoth in the room before it throws us off the highway."
Rufus couldn't even laugh at Tseng's obvious reference to the incident with Zack and Reno almost immediately jumped out of his seat.
"Hey, if this conversation's going to go south, then I really don't think that I should be here right now." He was going to head out of the room before Rufus grabbed his arm.
"Hold your horses Red." Both Tseng and Reno raised their eyebrows at the nickname. "Tseng obviously called you here for a reason, so you might as well hear him out."
Tseng nodded his head in agreement and the weasel reluctantly settled himself back in his seat.
"If you get an urge to kill someone Vice President, please do not direct it at me." Rufus merely nodded his head and the two turned their attention back on Tseng.
The Turk seemed to think over his words carefully before he finally spoke to the two. "I need to come clean about my involvement with Reno."
The younger Turk really looked like he wanted to bolt from his seat, while Rufus was surprisingly calm about the whole situation.
"We aren't involved in anyway sir. I might think you're hot but that doesn't mean that I'd actually…"
"Tseng's trying to say, in a roundabout way, that he lied to me when he said that he didn't have feelings for you." Rufus cut Reno off and the red headed Turk looked surprised.
"What?"
Tseng rubbed at his face with a slightly exasperated look. Trust his partner to be blunt about it.
"Since he's in the room for this, then I'm guessing that this whole conversation isn't taking place because you want to break up with me."
"I just needed you both to know." Tseng said simply.
"So what did you want the outcome of this situation to be?" Rufus questioned.
Tseng blinked in confusion. He honestly hadn't thought that far. He got the feeling that at this rate he was going to end up like Zack in the sense that he really wasn't prepared for anything, "By the look on your face did you think you could just feel better if you just aired our your problems?" Rufus finally questioned.
There was a long awkward silence before Reno finally spoke up again. "You know I still don't know why I'm here. I mean, I'm glad you feel that way about me boss, but the Vice President ain't half that bad."
"I just told you that he doesn't want to break up with me." Rufus pointed out, trying to resist the urge to hit Reno over the head. "Obviously Mr high and mighty can't seem to think of a solution to this predicament that's obviously eating him up from the inside. Even though the answer is sitting right in front of him."
Both the weasel and the fox stared at him questioningly.
"Tseng's obviously attracted to the both of us and the two of us obviously get along a lot better than we thought we would."
Both men stared at Rufus with surprised looks on their faces at the direction that Rufus was going in.
"Obviously Reno's attracted to you Tseng and even I'll admit that he's not bad looking." Rufus pointed out.
"Hey, hold your horses Vice Pres. What makes you think that I'll be all on board with all of this/" Reno questioned and Rufus raised an eyebrow at his words.
"Would you really want this situation to pass when I'm offering you something you obviously want on a silver platter?"
Reno pouted a little at that and settled back into his seat.
"You're being strangely mature about this." Tseng pointed out and Rufus shrugged.
"I had a lot of time to think over it while you've been holing yourself up in your office doing goddess knows what and I figured that this is what it would probably come to if you ever realised what you actually felt for Red over there."
Reno gave Rufus an odd look. "Hey, I know my hair sticks out almost as bad as Cloud's, but what's up with the nickname?"
Rufus gave him a somewhat hurt look and Reno looked slightly taken aback.
"Do you not like it?"
"It's not that I don't like it, it's just that…"
"Good, because Zack was the one that thought of it and it suits your personality as well as your hair colour anyway." Rufus said as he got up from his seat before anyone else could say anything more. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I still have reports to fill out and an idiot father to speak to."
With that, Rufus rounded the table to give Tseng a peck on the lips and without any hesitation he did the same to Reno before heading out of the room.
After a few moments Reno turned his attention back to Tseng. "What… Just happened?"
Tseng was just as surprised as him. "I think that Rufus just invited you into our relationship…"
A while later, Rufus found himself falling back on Zack's couch, while the wolf was flicking through his bookshelf.
"How did it go?" The Lieutenant questioned once Rufus was comfortable on the couch. "Did they agree with having a test period?"
"I didn't wait to hear their answer. I just stated what we were doing, made some bullshit excuse to get myself out of the room and then just bolted out of there."
Zack shrugged. "Don't worry about it. They're both probably too surprised to even notice that you lied to them."
Rufus chuckled at that before he finally paid attention to what Zack was actually doing. "What are you looking for anyway? Are you actually looking for a book or are you just shuffling through your shelf because you just realised that you have one but you don't know what books are in there?"
Zack shrugged his shoulders. "A little bit of both." He paused in his search for a moment and looked thoughtful, then turned his attention over to Rufus, who just stared back at him. "Hey Rufus, you wouldn't happen to have a copy of any books with old kids stories in them would you?"