The Continuing Tormentation of Tseng [M]

"Hmm, maybe I'll go back to being ignorant if that's the only thing keeping you alive," he muttered, a little more bitterly than he meant it to sound. He wasn't going to accept this as fact, or allow it to happen if it got to the stage where he could no longer ignore it.

"Came and take a five minute break - we don't need to accidentally spill coffee over it all now that it's starting to resemble order." He raised his hands in surrender. "Pure motives, I promise."

"hmm," Tseng mused, weighing the options of having a break or not. "Very well." He stood up and straightened his tied and jacket as he walked around the desk. "Just as long as we don't have a repeat of what happened last time."

It was hard to tell if he was joking or not as he walked out of the office and waited in the hall for Reno to catch up.

Reno followed with a chuckle, shutting the office door behind him. "While I would love a repeat performance, you've made it clear it's not going to happen... so I'll have to either accept it, or hope you change your mind."

He kissed Tseng's cheek with a smirk. "Personally, I'm holding to hope." As they started down the hallway he made sure to keep a respectable distance from him, rather than walking that little too close like he usually did.

For once he was actually behaving like a respectable human being.

Tseng sighed as Reno kissed his cheek but was glad that he kept his hands off him while they walked. "Hold as much hope as you wish, the future is a little cloudy." He said, almost sounding like one of those magic 8 balls that Rude had hidden in his desk drawer.

"Which type of cloudy would that be, oh great oracle? Mystical, rain or chocobo-head?"

He grinned, unable to not be amused by his response or glean that possible silver lining from the future not being set in stone. Cloudly had potential if he played his cards right.

"All of the above?" Tseng said with a shrug as he walked into the TURK lounge, stopping dead in his tracks.

"What in Shiva's name is going on here?!" He snapped, glaring at two TURKs from the research department who were currently having a food fight with their dinners. There was mashed potatoes and gravy and peas all over the place, even the ceiling! Tseng's eye started twitched as the two males frozen and tried to stammer a response.

Reno looked around the room and groaned - he hated nothing more than a waste of good food.

"So, erm... is now a good time to go back on the 'never do that again' part? I think the distraction might save lives again..."

"Reno," he growled in a very familiar tone, "go get the cleaning crew in here."

He kept his eyes on the other two as they tried to explain how it all started, but one look from him and they both shut up really fast. "I don't want to hear it any more. You are both dismissed for the night without pay and you're to explain to your supervisor just why you're leaving her two men down tonight!" He snapped.

Reno stalked off in the direction of the floor's janitorial team. "And there goes that nice little moment we were having... up in a ball of smoke and mashed potatoes."

Thank goodness the janitors were good with blood stains... they were probably going to need the heavy cleaning equipment again tonight...

"ANd just be thankful you're getting off lightly this time!" Tseng yelled after the two who ran out of the room as fast as they could.

With a sigh he turned to look at the mess, pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt another migraine coming on. "Just what I needed tonight." He muttered and walked over to the coffee machine to get a drink, pulling a bottle of pills out of his inside pocket and taking two of them quickly with some water before putting the bottle away again and starting to make his coffee.

Reno was almost bowled over by the two of them as he head back to the TURK lounge. He watched Tseng take the two pills, frowning ever so slightly at his need to take any kind of medication, a little worried at what was wrong.

"They're just going to finish with a particularly messy issue down the hall and then they'll work on here," he informed Tseng when he went to make the coffee, acting as though he'd only just arrived. "I see you let them live - lucky bastards. Must be doing something important between food fights for you to let them off."

"Let's just say I'm too tired right now to care if they live or not." Tseng said softly. "That and those two really aren't worth wasting bullets on." He picked up is coffee and walked over to one of the few chairs that were still clean, sitting back and trying to relax a little. Reno was right, he did need this break.. not that he'd admit that to said red head.

"Mmph, too much paperwork," he agreed, taking the cup that Tseng had (surprisingly) made for him. "Not to mention you know that you'd never get my witness report because I'd die of boredom after the first field of the form."

Tseng nodded as he sipped his coffee. "Pretty much similar story I gave Sephiroth for not actually killing Fair." He leant back in the chair, frowning at the mess. "If they don't turn up soon I swear I'm going to start cleaning up this room myself." He muttered, Tseng hated mess.. he was a tidy person and clutter made him twitch. Not that he was OCD about it or anything, he just liked things nice and orderly.

"You're meant to be relaxing," Reno chuckled, rolling the mug between his palms, enjoying the warmth. "If you're not careful I'll be forced to relax you in a way you've told me not to. Don't need you exploding from stress, yo. There's far better things to explode from."

He paused, realising just how bad it all sounded now that they had actually slept together. It had never been more than teasing banter before, and sometimes Tseng even contributed to the banter. Now it sounded more like sexual harassment.

Tseng just gave Reno a look he understood well. "If you start that again I'll really not be relaxing and you'd be running for your life."

He looked up as the cleaning guys entered the lounge and saw them hesitate to see him there. "Hurry up and clean this up." He growled to them and watched them scurry around doing as they were told. It was nice to see someone actually following his orders for a change.

Reno took a mouthful of coffee and sighed. "I'm going to miss the banter," he grumbled softly. "You're going to think I'm trying something and get huffy. No is no, I'm not as stupid as you seem to be assuming I am."

He finished the coffee, taking it to the draining board. "I might be many things but a rapist isn't one of them."

"I never implied that you were, Reno." Tseng frowned. "You're putting words into my actions again. I have more than a one track mind, thank you."

Reno bit his tongue from saying that he managed two tracks - the first work, the second putting him down - knowing better than to open his mouth right then. He placed the mug down, taking a slow, deep breath before turning back.

"Well, you never used to threaten to kill me if I was 'one track minded', that's all," he shrugged.

Tseng pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes with a sigh, noting to himself it was too early to take more pills. "Reno, it's been a long and strange day. I'm tired, I'm stressed and I have a lot of work to finish up. Forgive me if I'm not my usual eloquent self right now, I didn't realize I had to be so around you all the time." He wanted a break from work but it seemed to him that Reno wasn't allowing him to have even a moment's peace. He was the Director of the TURKs and that was all there was to it, no rest or fun allowed for Wulong-san, none at all.

"You don't," Reno sighed. There was more to this than he was letting on, and he hoped that Tseng wasn't going to pick up on it. "It doesn't matter, it's not important. Just finish your coffee and lets get the paperwork done so you can go home."

Tseng shook his head and put his empty coffee cup down. "Just go home, Reno. You look like you're about the fall asleep on your feet." He wanted to say more, ask more questions. He wanted to know really what was going on in Reno's mind and a million and one other thoughts. But with the cleaners there there was no way he was even going to broach the subject. It would have to wait until later.. when he was sure they were alone.