Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Bullet ❯ Chapter 2

~II~

Reno's PHS was buzzing in the pocket of his pants, causing him to swear, and struggle with his take-out parcels. He rushed to his apartment's small kitchen, all but tossed the food on the counter, and fumbled around his pocket for the cellular phone. He answered it without seeing the caller ID and hoped whoever was calling wasn't pissed that he'd not been prompt.

"Reno, yo."

"You took some time to answer," The voice that replied was only vaguely familiar. It was cultured, slightly cool, and very fucking sexy. Reno rolled his eyes at the involuntary jolt of desire that made his dick stir. God, I need to get laid, He thought irritably.

"Who is this?" Reno asked guardedly.

"Rufus."

Reno's mouth went dry and his pulse skipped a beat or two. "Oh...wow. Sorry. My hands were full. What's up?"

The ensuing silence nearly put Reno into a panic. Had he been too casual? Oh hell, Tseng would have said something classy like, 'To what do I owe this honor?'.

"Nothing. I just wanted to get an idea how you're feeling about working with me tomorrow," Rufus finally replied.

Reno narrowed his eyes. His phrasing had been tricky and he didn't quite know how to answer that. "Not real sure to be honest, sir. Everyone's treatin' it like run of the mill bodyguard duty, but I don't see how that's gonna go down considering I'm escorting you to Wutai. Last I checked they still hate us."

Rufus chuckled softly, a sound that made Reno get just a little bit harder, much to his dismay. "I'm sure it'll be quite dangerous. Do you think you can handle it?"

Reno took his PHS away from his ear for a moment and stared at the caller ID just to make sure he really was talking to Rufus Shinra. Of course it was true, which left him with the concept that he was getting seriously messed with by the president's scorchingly hot son.

"Man, I can handle anything anyone throws at me," Reno shot off boldly, "Don't let the look of me fool ya."

"I'm pleased to hear that," Rufus replied.

"Well I 'm glad you're pleased, Rufus," Reno drawled as he retrieved his cigarettes from his jacket pocket. He needed to calm the fuck down. "Better 'an you bein' disappointed that you're gettin' paired up with the pretty boy slumbrat."

Reno froze halfway to lighting his smoke when he realized what he'd said. Not so much what he'd said but how he'd said it. Shit! He'd been talking to the man like he was Rude or something! Damn, he was gonna get chewed out again for being too informal and this time by the vice-president of the goddamned company!

Rufus didn't chew him out. Instead he laughed and, nevermind the fact that it was one of the sexiest sounds he'd ever heard, it sounded pretty sincere.

"I'll confess to a bit of trepidation," Rufus admitted, "but I've looked over your personnel file quite thoroughly and I must say that it impressed me."

"Seriously?" Reno asked, more than just a little surprised.

"Forgive me for mentioning it, but I'd never had the impression that slum residents could be so...ambitious. My impression was that they were too busy focusing on basic survival."

Reno shrugged, giving himself over to the conversation. If Rufus wanted to shoot the shit, who was he to complain? Anyway, he had a great fucking voice.  "No need to apologize, yo. That's pretty much how it is. I just...I wanted to leave a bigger impression on the world."

"Hm," Rufus intoned and Reno imagined him nodding, perhaps smirking with approval, "Well this has all been very enlightening. I'm looking forward to continuing this conversation face to face."

Reno bit his tongue, resisting the urge to flirt. "Sure, sounds great."

"See you soon, Reno," He said his name like a wicked promise.

Reno's mouth was dry again, this time not with nervousness but lust. "Yeah," He breathed, embarrassed by his reaction, "Can't wait."

He ended the call and sighed deeply. While he was glad Rufus had seemed to take a liking to him, he was still a little freaked out. It had been such a strange interaction. Something had changed in his demeanor halfway through the call. Like Rufus had called with an entirely different scenario in mind. He couldn't shake the feeling that he'd just experienced something rare and extremely special. Reno was half-tempted to call one of the other Turks to see if it was usual fare to get a call from Rufus the day before, but decided not to. He kinda wanted to keep it quiet what had just transpired. Rufus would probably want it that way.

*****

Rufus was getting prepared for the journey ahead, packing a small duffel bag of clothes and weapons. Not wanting to be bogged down by garment bags, Rufus opted for more casual clothing as his changes. Anyway, it would probably be wise to not be immediately recognizable for who he was. In a small health pack, he added several different types of potions and some phoenix down just in case. In the morning, he'd stop by his office to pick up a few materia he had locked up there.

Rufus felt strange. He was both anxious and excited. Naturally, he disliked going anywhere that was a hotbed of hostility toward the company, but he was terribly excited about meeting Reno. He felt almost sick from the inner conflict.

Trying to calm his racing thoughts he went to his home office and got on the computer. Using his father's login name and password, Rufus perused the database for recent military directives and frowned as he found that Sephiroth was being assigned to a mission in Nibelheim.  That seemed like a bad plan to Rufus, considering Sephiroth's origins in that town.

He shook his head, wondering what his father was thinking. If he wanted, Rufus could quietly pull some strings to get a couple Turks to secure the Shinra mansion, but Rufus decided that it might be more amusing to watch the fallout.

There were a number of other operations happening as well. Rufus felt disgust as he skimmed the highlights. It was too much, far too much. He thought the old man must surely be going mad.

Perhaps this was all related to his obsession with the Promised Land. Every year he grew more and more fixated with finding it.  Of course...he was getting old, and wanted to leave a legacy on this world. Maybe he was trying to make sure Rufus would never forget whose hands shaped the company into what it was today.

Rufus logged off the server with a soft snarl curling his mouth. How he longed for one of Shinra's enemies to get just one good hit in. A single well-placed bullet and he'd be in charge and finally able to clean up the filth corrupting his birthright.

Vice-presidency couldn't make enough of an impact, so he quietly took on other duties that his father took little notice. If he couldn't kill the man, Rufus would do the next best thing. He'd succeed brilliantly, and he'd make damn sure people knew that he believed his father's competence to be slipping. In the meantime, he'd continue to control Junon with such efficiency as to create a model of the future.