Tseng XXII: Foul play
When Tseng's alarm tore him from sleep at 5:40, his whole body was sore. He struggled to get out of bed, but at least, he was confident he could report to Rufus that he had slept well. He never stayed the night after a date, so he had returned home after yesterday's encounter. He had been fine at that time, but now that his body had rested, he could feel the arduous aftereffects of his activities. The encounter had been enjoyable, but had left him ultimately unsatisfied. He knew that intimacy with a stranger was not actually what he craved, less now than the past, but it was the best he could get, and the most he dared to pursue.
He slowly made his way to the shower and found himself staring back blankly from the mirror with sunken eyes. His wrists were red and chafed, he had still-bloody scratches on his back and a number of love bites on his neck, chest, and even on his back. Tseng had told the guy to leave his face alone and he had honored that, but the marks would still be visible above the collar of his shirt. There was nothing he could do about that now. No matter how uncomfortable the day after may be, it had still been worth it.
He took a shower as quickly as he was able to and prepared himself for work, double-checking that his wrists were covered by the cuffs of his shirt. After putting on his tie and tying his hair, only a part of love bite on the left side of his neck was still visible above his collar. He decided that this would not be a big issue as long as he did not remove his tie. And why would he do that?
Feeling better after having his morning coffee, he made his way to work using the helicopter shuttle. Fortunately, he did not have much on his agenda today. They would leave for the Wutai mission the day after next and he needed to check in with Reeve Tuesti before that. He would see if Veld had any assignments for him aside from the usual today. While on the helicopter, he contacted the Head of Urban Development about an appointment today or tomorrow. He would also try to check in with Sephiroth just to convince himself and the vice president that Sephiroth would not cause any problems in Wutai.
When Tseng got to the office, he kept an eye on the time. The advance group was scheduled to arrive in Wutai at around 10. Both Reno and Rude had been tense about what would happen once they got there, and Tseng could not blame them. He had not told Zack any more about the mission than necessary to not risk him losing his nerves. He had full confidence in Zack's ability to deal with whatever situation he would find on site, and scaring him before that would only carry the risk of him losing his nerves and messing up. He inquired with Reno via text how things were going, and he responded immediately that they were en route and on schedule. He had been in contact with the Wutai side and everything seemed normal.
It was not so normal on his own side, seeing as he had been in his office for several minutes and Rufus had not called him yet. Was he sleeping in again? Or was he still angry about the day before? Or perhaps now he was angry about something else, possibly involving Tseng's hotel visit last night. He quickly checked the video feed to find Rufus awake and reading. Tseng did not know exactly how to address the quarrel they had had yesterday and hoped that they could just move on and pretend nothing happened. But it looked like that was not going to happen.
He finally heard back from Reeve Tuesti's secretary, who offered him an appointment today at 2 pm, which Tseng confirmed. One might expect that the Head of Urban Development, being one of the five Shinra executives alongside Scarlet, Heidegger, Palmer, and Hojo, would be terribly busy, but despite that, he was always able to make time for urgent or even not-so-urgent inquiries. Tuesti was the odd one out of the leading executives and was often looked down upon, but he was definitely the easiest out of the five to work with.
He finally turned his attention back to his most immediate problem. Despite his general success in life, Tseng had little to no private connections and little experience in resolving personal conflicts. Though he was uncertain if that even mattered now. Rufus was, first and foremost, his boss, not his boyfriend. No matter what ever else happened, Rufus Shinra would never not be his boss. Perhaps he should address the problem that way. I guess love never stops being complicated, no matter how old you get, and no matter how compatible you are with your partner on the physical level. Or your not-partner, in this case. He dialed the vice president's number through the phone on his desk and let it ring several times until Rufus Shinra finally picked up.
"What is it?", Rufus asked, inattentively. "Good morning, Mr. Vice President", Tseng greeted him and was immediately interrupted: "Save it." Tseng paused for a moment. "I just wanted to report that I ate a full meal yesterday, spent the afternoon on myself and slept very well." Rufus sighed. "Good. Anything else?" Tseng tapped his fingers nervously on the desk. He was used to never backing down, but this probably was one of those cases where he should stop trying to be right. Apologizing was difficult, but Rufus was still the boss. And the boss was certainly right most of the time. "I'm … sorry for not noticing that you were just trying to help." Rufus seemed to be content with the answer, at least for now, because he responded: "Can you come in here? There's something I need to talk to you about."
Tseng nodded and confirmed: "Just a second." That could have gone worse, although he was still dissatisfied with the situation. He should not have gotten involved with his boss on such a personal level, but now it seemed too late to turn back. It was making everything more complicated than it should have been. But if he was honest with himself, he did not want to quit either, especially now after hearing again the voice of the man who had swept him off of his feet in a single swoop. He hung up, made coffee and hesitantly entered Rufus' cell.
The vice president had put down his tablet and appeared to be awaiting him impatiently. Tseng put down the coffee and sat down, holding his head in such a way that Rufus would not easily see the love bite on his neck. Rufus did not pick up his coffee, but immediately got to the point: "I know you try to do everything you can as well as you can, but if you don't prioritize yourself a little more, you'll end up not being able to do anything at all." Tseng lowered his eyes, not knowing what to say "You haven't been out in the field in a while." He hesitated for a moment before he took a deep breath and continued: "When you're like this, I start worrying that one day you won't come back."
Tseng kept his eyes down. "I'll try my best to take better care of myself from now on." Rufus folded his hands in the back of his neck. He seemed dissatisfied with this dutiful type of answer. "It's really hard to watch you destroying yourself", Rufus explained and folded his arms over his chest. "Will you allow me to look out for you from now on?" Tseng looked up. Rufus was tapping his fingers on his arms as he seemed to anxiously await the answer. Although part of Tseng wanted to give a sarcastic answer rejecting the notion, he would not make the same mistake as yesterday. So much for approaching this issue as if Rufus was simply his boss. Though I was rather under the impression that the real mistake he made was not fully understanding the deeper meaning of this phrase. "I'll try to listen next time", he promised. Rufus stopped tapping his fingers. "Is that enough?" Rufus pressed his lips together. "For now." This drew a light smile from Tseng. "Thank you."
Rufus scratched his head and finally picked up his coffee. It seemed as if the discussion was over. For the time being, at least. "So how's the Wutai mission going?", he changed the topic. Tseng checked his phone again for news from Reno, but there were no other news. "They are on the way and will probably get there in about thirty minutes. We'll see how it goes." Rufus looked at him. "You don't really think the mission won't go south, do you?" Tseng folded his arms after putting his phone away. "It's difficult to tell. I don't think they really need to pull any foul play to gain an advantage. But we're talking about Wutai. They always have something up their sleeve. And who knows whatever else is going on there that we are not aware of." Rufus got up and started pacing in the room. "It's that bad, huh?" Tseng shrugged as he observed the vice president. "It's not going to be easy to get any concessions out of them. They wouldn't even agree to parlay unless we came to Wutai." He hurried to add: "I mean, we can do this anywhere. You'll be perfectly safe as long as Sephiroth is there."
Rufus stopped and leaned against the wall. "We need to come up with a plan to force them to agree to our terms. I don't think just bringing Sephiroth along is going to be enough to scare them, even if he glares the whole time." Tseng crossed his legs and supported his head on one hand. "You have everything at your disposal, sir. Blackmail, assassination, mass destruction…" Rufus stared at him and Tseng slightly spread his arms, palms facing up. "If this was just about talking, Reeve would be enough. This is what you are going to Wutai for. You have my full support." He chuckled. "The Turks will follow your orders and the others don't even know that you're not actually in command." Rufus continued to stare. "You're creative, right?", the Turk tried to edge him on.
Rufus finally averted his eyes. "I'm sure they're prepared for assassination attempts. And who would we assassinate anyway?" Tseng shrugged. "Godo?" Rufus shook his head. "No. Godo is just the figurehead of their feudal system. He has no power by himself. We would have to kill all the feudal lords to make any difference. That would be really hard to do in the short time and with just the few people we have. And Wutai would be even more furious than before. They would be weakened, but we would be even farther away from making peace with them than before. And their military would still function without the lords, I think."
They continued to discuss their options for a while longer, but the few solutions they could think of were going to be near impossible to pull off. One approach would require kidnapping Lord Godo's daughter, his only child, and using her as leverage to control him. Doing the same to Godo himself would not work because his retainers all had different goals, and at least some of them would not prioritize the life or physical integrity of their lord over their triumph over Shinra and the integrity of their respective dominions. If Lord Godo remained alive and in command, he could be expected to go to certain lengths for his heir and only remaining family member. But they knew only the girl's name and approximate age, because she herself was a ninja and extremely elusive. She apparently did not live in the estate at all and remained away from the public eye, which is why the Turks had not been able to find her and put a photo of hers into the records. She was a figurative tree concealed in the woods, and possibly hidden in plain sight.
One problem with this plan was that Yuffie could only be used to manipulate Godo himself, and his retainers may not end up following his orders if he was perceived as weak. An even better solution would have been to take their guardian deity hostage. Leviathan was an esper trapped in a materia, and he was worshipped as the protector of Wutai by all Wutaians. Even Tseng himself had grown up with that belief that had been passed down by his parents. He knew now that Leviathan was "just" an esper, but he had no doubt that stealing the Leviathan materia and using its power against Wutai or using it as extortion would be extremely effective in getting them to do what Shinra wanted. But the lords of Wutai were fully aware that Leviathan could simply be stolen and used by anyone because it was not actually a god, but an object that could simply be carried off. Therefore, the location where it was kept was a secret, and such a small object was easily concealed or could be carried around by a strong warrior, who could defend it against all threats.
They finally decided that Reno and Rude would be ordered to look for clues as to the locations of Yuffie and the Leviathan materia in the time until that remained until the main party arrived in Wutai. But seeing as they had never been found in any of the previous recon missions, Tseng was not very optimistic about the prospect of such an undertaking.
After they had thoroughly debated all their options, Tseng folded his hands over his knee. "I'm sure the president has no high expectations, so don't beat yourself up about it." Rufus looked at him again and smirked. "Are you giving up on me already?" Tseng smiled back. "Not at all. But Wutai is an enemy that shouldn't be taken lightly. And I think they will do whatever they can to get what they want." Rufus thought for a moment and then sat back down. "Do you think they'll try to humiliate us in plain view of the world?" Tseng raised his eyebrows and said flirtatiously: "That wouldn't be so bad." Rufus chuckled. "Don't get your hopes up. I was just wondering if I should practice to eat with chopsticks." Tseng nodded. "Ah. Good thinking. Yes, it would be really embarrassing if you spilled soy sauce on your white suit. No way they'll provide you with a fork."
In that moment, his phone beeped. It was Reno. "We landed and made contact without aggression. We're on the way to the inn. Master of Ceremonies is a prick", he read out aloud for Rufus with a smile. Rufus snorted at that. "Master of Ceremonies is a prick? What's that supposed to mean?" Tseng shrugged, typing his response to Reno into the phone. "Maybe he's homophobic." Rufus scratched his head. "I have so many questions." Tseng looked up. "Have you met Reno, sir?" He finished typing the answer and read it out to Rufus: "Locate Godo's daughter and the Leviathan materia and make a plan to acquire them." Rufus nodded. "Add: 'Screw the master of ceremonies'" Tseng chuckled, added the sentence, and sent the message.
"About that other thing. Chopsticks", Rufus reminded Tseng, who looked at him questioningly. "Yes, I'll get you a pair so you can practice", the latter confirmed. "I have a better idea", Rufus interjected. "How about you get some Wutaian takeout for us tonight and then you can teach me how to use them." Tseng's eyebrows twitched. "You don't need to eat if you don't want to", Rufus added quickly. "Though I wouldn't mind if you did." Tseng scratched his head. "I'll bring food tonight and teach you how to use chopsticks. We'll see about the rest. What do you want to eat?" Rufus shrugged. "I don't know anything about Wutaian food. Just buy whatever you usually eat and get me one of the same." Tseng nodded. Finally, Rufus Shinra asked: "And can you get me feather boa?"