Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Aftertaste of Ashes ❯ Part 3 ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

"You look like shit."

Reno snorted, amused, and opened his door wider to let his partner into the apartment. He hadn't managed to snatch more than an hour of disturbed sleep while sitting up on the couch. The dark circles under his eyes were turning into heavy baggage, and even his normally wild hair looked messier than usual. The long tail was tangled and frazzled, haphazardly tied.

"Fuck you very much, Rude," Reno said and flipped him a middle finger.

"Not with that face," Rude replied and allowed a tiny smirk to curve his lips. The he turned serious, allowing his concern to show. "Partner, you can't keep going like this. How long since you last slept? Days?"

Reno shrugged. "Something like that. You know I've done it before. That stakeout job right before Rufus made me into a babysitter." Reno frowned at the reminder of exactly why he wasn't sleeping. "I'm fine. It takes more than a few sleepless nights to bring me down."

"That was different. It was work. We were running on adrenaline, and you weren't thinking of a moody, not too stable, lover at the time."

"Want coffee?" Reno asked in a effort to change the subject.

Rude's expression was pained. "Not that hazardous waste you make that's slowly eating through the pot."

Reno laughed despite himself. "Always knew you were a wuss. That's a real man's coffee, I'll have you know."

"It's near sentient biological sludge that nearly burned a whole through my stomach the last time I took you up on the offer."

"Such a delicate little flower, if the world only knew," Reno sneered playfully and yelped when Rude managed a smack to his head.

"That's Deadly Turk with Refined Taste to you, gutter rat," Rude retorted, relieved that Reno seemed to perk up a little from the banter. "I got coffee, good coffee, waiting in the car."

"Yeah, yeah. Rude the Refined. Let's go to work before my gag reflex kicks in."

Reno gathered his weapons and keys to follow Rude to the car. The smell of the coffee waiting in super sized cups inside the car made him want to close his eyes in bliss. Rude wasn't lying when he said he had great taste, not that Reno would ever say so when it was much more enjoyable to rib the big man about it. The first few sips helped to ease at least some of his fatigue.

Fifteen minutes later found them in Tseng's office. Reno slouched in a chair tapping his baton on his left shoulder, looking very much his normal self. Tseng had sharp eyes, though, and could easily see through the facade. With a glance at Rude who gave a slight negative shake of his head Tseng exchanged one assignment for another, one that wouldn't require too much concentration or delicate handling.

"Your assignment today is to investigate reports of disturbances around the construction site of the new reactor. So far it has been limited to petty vandalism and disruption of shipments, but it's costing time and money the President would rather not have wasted."

Reno's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "That sounds more like a job for the security personnel. What, they just sitting around with their thumbs up their asses and letting it happen?"

"Or someone's working from the inside," Rude stated and flexed his hands in his leather gloves.

The hard glint in Tseng's eyes and the tightening of his face let them know that Rude probably had the answer.

"That, gentlemen, is what you're going to find out."

While the prospect of a bit of violence soothed some of the burning in his gut, Reno thought it was a job that was within the realm of some of the more junior Turks.

"Why do you need us?" Reno asked and gestured at himself and Rude. "Rod and his partner or even Eve and the new kid could handle that. I thought you wanted us to follow up on the information we got yesterday."

Tseng folded his hands on the desk top and stared at Reno evenly.

"It's important that lead is followed straight to the source. You're distracted right now, Reno."

Reno's cheeks flushed in anger. "I still do my job. I'm still a damned good Turk, one of the Aces!" he snapped.

"You are," Tseng agreed evenly. "But yesterday you nearly killed our only viable link because you were more interested in venting than following orders."

"But..." Reno started to defend himself.

"No." Tseng cut him off. "Someone is using mako illegally and injecting animals with it. Human experimentation will most likely be the next step, if not already begun. Because Shinra is the only publicly known entity that still has a stockpile of mako and materia *and* has a history based on the SOLDIER program, public opinion will be that Shinra is behind it all. That is not something Shinra can afford at this time."

Reno dropped his baton to swing from its strap and gripped the arms of the chair until his knuckles whitened. "That's why Rude and I should have the assignment. We're the best you have."

"Not at this time," Tseng replied. He pinned Reno with a glare. "You're letting your personal life interfere with your focus. I can't take the chance of any unstable factors. Follow the orders you're given or I'll be forced to suspend you."

Reno's angry comeback was halted by Rude's large hand clamping on his shoulder in a grip hard enough to hurt. Fingers dug hard into tendon and muscle with breath stealing pain.

"We'll leave for the reactor immediately," Rude said, forcibly keeping Reno quiet and seated.

"Very good. I'll expect a report as soon as possible," Tseng said and dismissed them to log the assignment into his laptop.

Rude used his grip on Reno to lift him from the chair and steer him out the door. Once in the hallway he let go and easily dodged the retaliatory fist Reno swung at his head.

"What the fuck, Rude?! Tseng assigns us some pansy assed clean up duty, and you damned near break my shoulder when I object. What the hell is your problem?"

Rude folded his arms over his chest and towered over Reno in an intimidating stance that would have most people shitting their pants. Reno just glared up at him and rotated the aching joint.

"I agree with Tseng," Rude said harshly, "and I don't want to see you get killed or hurt or me, and I don't want a job fucked up because you're distracted. Right now you're thinking with either your heart or your dick, and neither one has the brains to fill a shot glass."

"You hypocritical bastard," Reno hissed. "You gonna stand there and tell me that you never think of Valentine when he disappears for days at a time?"

Rude never wavered. "I'm a Turk first, same as you, and Turks don't let *anything* interfere with the job."

A line that could have been straight from a Shinra Turk employee handbook, if such a thing existed, and one that Rude was having some trouble fully believing himself, but it was apparent Reno needed a metaphorical slap in the face.

"Whatever," Reno mumbled, still angry that Tseng had called him out and feeling stung that his own partner wasn't in his corner. "Let's get this shit done so we can call it a day. Eight a.m. and the day is already totally fucked."

Rude hesitated because it definitely wasn't like Reno to just let go of a fight, but he held out a hand of truce to his partner.

"Drinks will be on me after we show those rent-a-punks how it's done."

"Yeah, sure," Reno replied and headed for the elevator that would take them to the helipad.

At least he would get to fly. That was the only decent thing about the assignment that didn't twinge his already bruised pride.

***************************

Reno didn't speak to Rude during the entire flight. Usually the redhead could be counted on to fill any travel time with amusing anecdotes, outrageously exaggerated tales, and snarky commentary about their boss, their coworkers, their friends and enemies. No one and nothing were safe from Reno's rapier tongue. For all the times Rude had wished his partner would just shut the hell up for five damn minutes, he found he didn't much like this silently fuming version of Reno at all. Every time he glanced the man's way Reno was staring straight ahead, holding the controls in a white knuckled grip.

Five minutes outside their destination he cleared his throat. "You gonna land in plain sight or we sneaking in?"

Reno flicked his eyes Rude's way. "Straight out front, partner. Show them I...we mean business."

Rude caught Reno's little slip and he didn't like it one bit. Rude understood Reno's urge to vent his frustrations, but he made a silent prayer to whatever gods might be listening to give his partner a bit more restraint. He made a last check of his weapons, the gun in the shoulder holster under the left side of his coat, the gun nestled at the small of his back, the big knife sheathed in his boot and the mag rod tucked up his right sleeve. Rude smoothed his formfitting gloves over his hands. He loved the smell and feel of leather. He finally got a small smile from Reno when replaced his current shades with a darker, more intimidating looking pair.

Reno nailed the exact center of the helipad at the reactor site and shut everything down. One thing Reno could always be counted on for was the meticulous care of the choppers. He treated them more like pets than machines, talking to them and praising them. Rude had once given him as a gift a remote control helicopter painted with the Shinra design complete with a collar and dog tags. Reno had laughed wickedly and showcased the thing on top of the bookshelf in his office. That is, when he wasn't using it to dive bomb passersby or zip memos to other offices.

They walked with steady, menacing intent straight through the site with only a flash of their i.d. cards needed. Rude stood with his arms crossed while Reno rapped on the security office's door with his baton. The door opened to reveal a man in his late twenties, sucking the remnants of a lavish lunch from his teeth. He took in the sight of the two Turks and turned a little green.

"C-can I help you?"

"You the manager of security here, Mr...?" Reno let his lips twist into a feral grin and waited for the man to supply his name.

"Dover. Benjamin Dover. And you would be?"

"Ben...Dover?" Reno elbowed Rude and his grin turned nastier as he snickered. "Man, your parents must have really hated you."

Dover flushed red with either anger or embarrassment. "You still haven't told me your names or stated your business."

"It's not necessary," Rude spoke up. "All you need to know is that we were sent from Shinra HQ to investigate the vandalism and theft reports. Your men haven't been doing their jobs adequately."

"I wonder why, with all the technology and resources you have here, that no one has been caught yet," Reno said. "Pretty sloppy don't ya think, partner?"

"Or deliberate," Rude replied.

"We...my men...several were injured in the last attack! They're fast, real fast, and I don't know how they're getting in," Dover tried to defend himself.

"Yeah?" Reno asked, scratching in disinterest at the back of his neck. He pinned the man with his most piercing look. "We just happen to think there's more to the story."

Dover was starting to look more than a little ill and sweating profusely. "I've told you what I know. It was all in the reports."

Rude and Reno stepped further into the office, backing the man towards his desk.

"Then you'll just have to repeat it one more time, Ben, with a little...incentive," Reno smirked as he shut and locked the door behind them.