Being Watched [FFVII]
Title: Being Watched
Fandom: FFVII
Claim: Rufus/Reno, fics in an arc, 1000+ words each
Wordcount: 1866
Characters/Pairings included: Rufus, Reno
Rating: K+
Warnings: None
Summary: Confronting Reno yields answers Rufus was not expecting. (Picks up where Babysitting left off, albeit two years later.)

Rufus positively could not stand the way that Reno had been watching him. It hadn’t bothered him at first--attention was something he never minded--but the sheer frequency with which he had caught the redhead staring at him recently was becoming disconcerting. They hadn’t had much contact with each other since that horrendous time he had spent cooped up in that room at the Turks’ headquarters, at least not outside of general business. They certainly hadn’t talked in any sort of meaningful way; so much, Rufus thought, for what might have been a brief and vague offer of friendship. Two years had gone by with hardly a word. Not that he particularly cared.

But somehow it seemed now that every time they met in passing, if say they just happened to end up in the same room, Reno would watch him. Only for a moment, and in a way that wouldn’t be noticeable unless one was used to noticing such things, but he did, and Rufus did notice. And then he would look a second time and Reno’s attention would be elsewhere -- looking through information, or joking with a friend. Rufus almost had to wonder if the Turk had ended up with further orders to keep an eye on him, and if so why. On the other hand, that assumption didn’t quite seem right. The Turk looked at him less like something he was supposed to be watching and more as if he were some sort of puzzle, some problem whose core he might reach if only he observed long enough.

Rufus thought that Reno was the puzzle here, and the problem. The only thing to do then, was confront him, and a nice opportunity presented itself on a business trip to Costa del Sol (which, Rufus thought, always ended up feeling more like a vacation than a business trip, but that was beside the point). In any case, he needed to bring along a bodyguard, and decided that Reno would fill that role quite nicely. Not to mention give him several days to pick the man’s brain while he had him captive. More than he needed, maybe, but he was going to get to the bottom of this mystery and god forbid anything get in the way.

The helicopter ride passed in relative silence-- a bit of discussion about where they were staying and what exactly Rufus was doing there, but nothing outside of the usual. It wasn’t until the traveling as done and they were safely moved into the hotel room that Rufus started in on questioning.

“You’ve been watching me,” he stated, tone carrying a hint accusation. “Why?” Reno peered back at him perplexedly for a moment, stopped for a moment in the middle of moving a suitcase. He set the bag down.

“You noticed?” Reno asked, scratching his head with one hand and his lips curled into a slight frown. “Guess I’m gonna have to brush up on the whole covert observation thing.” Like so many things that came out of Reno’s mouth, the statement had the hint of a joke, and sounded as if he might not have realized he had said it aloud.

“I’m observant,” Rufus informed, crossing his arms. “The question remains.” Reno seemed to ponder for a moment, then shrugged.

“I don’t know,” he said simply, and went back to his previous task of moving various pieces of luggage to more convenient locations that just piled in the middle of the floor. Rufus blinked a couple times, and wondered if the Turk thought he was going to actually accept that answer.

“You haven’t answered me, Turk,” Rufus said, taking on a consciously authoritative tone, which was something he had been practicing. “Who ordered you to keep tabs on me? For what reason?” Whoever it was, he probably outranked them, and if it was his father he wanted to know even that much more. He expected Reno to give him an answer. Or failing that, he expected Reno to get defensive and try not to give him an answer. Instead, Reno laughed. And for just a second Rufus’ face fell. He had definitely not expected that.

“No orders,” the Turk replied with a chuckle, “and no reason.” Rufus blinked, wondering what that was supposed to mean.

“What?” he questioned after a moment of bewildered silence. Reno stopped messing with the bags and turned to his interrogator.

“I guess it would sound weird if I said I was trying to figure out if you were human, huh,” he commented with a lopsided smile that made it hard to tell if he was telling the truth or some sort of joke. It was an odd truth, if that’s what it was.

“Are you serious?” Reno chuckled again in reply and shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess. I wouldn’t call you a normal person, anyway.” Rufus snorted quietly.

“I would say the same to you.” At this point, the Turk seemed less interested in watching Rufus than in examining the room, which was somewhere between frustrating and a relief. “If you’re trying to figure out where you’re sleeping, you’re getting the sofa,” he commented. “Unless, of course, you have some preference for the floor.” It was a fairly spacious room, and actually the bed it contained would easily hold two people, but Rufus wasn’t one to share. Plus he doubted Reno wouldn’t actually have any problems even if he had to sleep on the floor. Reno seemed the type not to really care.

“How generous of you,” Reno noted with a slight roll of his eyes, though the fact that he then tossed his bag next to the sofa seemed an indication that he was fine with it. Rufus, meanwhile, took a seat at the edge of the bed. Perhaps a bit too soft, but comfortable, he noted. Sufficient.

“So what conclusion did you come to?” he questioned curiously. “Am I human?” He wasn’t sure he would know quite what to make of it regardless of what the answer was, but he was curious what Reno would say. And he still didn’t precisely understand what had inspired the Turk to watch him in the first place.

“Yeah,” he replied, flopping onto the sofa and seeming to find it likewise comfortable. “Maybe,” he added as an afterthought. Rufus raised an eyebrow and peered at the Turk inquisitively.

“What, exactly, is that supposed to mean?” The Turk shifted so that he was draped over the arm of the sofa, head resting on crossed arm at he peered at Rufus with a lopsided smile.

“Means I don’t think you’d be quite so interesting if you didn’t qualify as human somehow,” he replied, “though you don’t seem to like showing it.” Rufus stared back at him.

“Weakness, then. Is that what you mean by humanity?” Rufus wasn’t sure if he was human, whatever that meant, but he was definitely not weak. He filed away the “interesting” bit of that statement for later. Reno frowned very slightly in response.

“Caring,” he corrected. “Unless that’s what you mean by weakness.” He sat up again and started shuffling through his luggage, an action seeming to be more about having something to do than actually finding anything. “I don’t suppose you’ve made any friends since the last time I asked.” Rufus rolled his eyes.

“That again? I told you before, I don’t need friends.” Reno seemed to ignore the statement.

“Girlfriend?” Rufus shook his head. It was a likewise silly question. Rufus wasn’t interested in getting close to people; it was too much of a liability. It wasn’t that he wasn’t able to. If nothing else, he could probably pay someone. He just didn’t care.

“No.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Don’t you know the answers to all of these already?”

“I guess,” Reno conceded with a shrug and went back to rifling through his bag for nothing in particular. “You’re still alone,” he added almost as an afterthought, not looking up. Rufus turned his gaze to the floor, frustrated by the line of commentary, and disturbed by the fact that they seemed to be having the same conversation they had two years ago.

“Why does it matter?” This time Reno turned to look at him.

“You don’t have to be.” Rufus peered at Reno for a long moment, trying to find the joke in that statement, and there seemed not to be one. But then, Rufus already knew the futility in assuming that might be an offer of sorts. Hadn’t they already established that they were not going to be friends?

“What does that mean?” he finally asked, exasperated, and for a second Reno just looked at him. Then he stood, walked over to where Rufus was sitting, and touched the Vice President’s cheek lightly before pulling him into a kiss. And for the next few seconds Rufus just froze. Couldn’t move, couldn’t think. He was nothing short of shocked--when his thoughts did kick back in, they formed a never-ending stream of questions: What? When? Why? And observations he would only be able to really think about afterward, like how passionate that kiss was, and how gentle, and how much he enjoyed the sensation. It was Reno who broke the kiss, and Rufus’ impulse was to keep him from moving away, but he didn’t. Instead, he sat in a daze for a brief moment and then for reasons he didn’t understand himself started laughing hysterically.

“Guess you don’t think of me as a kid anymore!” he remarked between chuckles. Really, who knew? Frankly, Rufus would have assumed nothing had changed since two years prior, and boy had things changed. If nothing else, he had to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all. Reno apparently decided not to say anything, and just watched him quizzically until the laughter subsided and Rufus looked up at him seriously. “Is that what you were thinking all those times you were watching me?” That was Reno’s turn to chuckle, albeit much less of the hysterical sort.

“You have no idea,” the Turk replied, and Rufus stared at him a moment longer.

“So this means...?”

“Eh, whatever you want it to mean, I guess.” He reached out and brushed his fingers over Rufu’s cheek one more time before taking a step back almost self-consciously. “Think about it,” he said quietly. “Meanwhile, I’ll be on the sofa.” And with that the Turk went and flopped back down on the sofa, and Rufus stared at him for what he was sure were minutes but seemed like hours. It was Reno who finally spoke again.

“It’s getting late,” he commented, “You should get some sleep.” Rufus could only think to nod in response, which Reno took as agreement, though it was more a product of Rufus’ thoughts being scattered in so many directions he wasn’t sure what else to say. Within moments, the Turk was curled up, quite comfortably from the look of it, on the cushions of the sofa.

“Good night, Rufus,” he murmured.

“I,” Rufus started to say something, realized he didn’t know what he was trying to say, and went with, “Good night, Reno.”

...as if he was going to be able to sleep after that.