Summary: Rufus wants it to snow, and Reno's there to distract him while he waits. Rufus x Reno.
Warnings: Shonen-ai/Yaoi (i.e. boy and boy lovin') and Rufus and Reno being a tad bit kinky so if you don't like then don't read, ne?
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII or its characters, but I do own Rufus' ear-muffs.
My first FF7 fic so reviews with critique would be awesome! Dedicated to a friend of mine (you know who you are… -shifty eyes-). Enjoy!
Snow
"Hey Rufus, you're making my legs go numb. That's how damn heavy you are."
"I'm not heavy! Your legs are going numb because of the cold. Besides, you like me in this position, don't you?"
"Touché, though seriously, with all this rich food you're force fed with I'm surprised you haven't turned out like the hunk of a bowling ball your father is. If you were I'd be off to the emergency ward with broken legs."
Rufus Shinra turned his head to glare at his lover over his shoulder, lips pouting in annoyance. "And you better be grateful that I'm not."
Reno grinned and wrapped his arms around Rufus' slim waist from behind. They were sitting together on a large snow bank, Rufus parked comfortably on his outstretched legs with his back resting against Reno's chest. Reno could barely feel his legs and he was sure his pants were soaked through but he didn't mind. A cute, blonde vice-president in his lap outweighed his discomforts.
"You bet I am. It's a miracle in itself you turned out as sexy as you are and I'm counting my blessings everyday," Reno replied and leaned in to peck Rufus' nose which was turning slightly pink. "Your mother must've been quite the looker."
"I suppose," Rufus mumbled and turned back around, desperate to hide the faint blush that stained his cheeks, "but anyway, remind why we're sitting out here in the snow again? Last time I checked we were enjoying a nice cup of cocoa indoors before you whisked me out here to kill time."
"Well, to say it in short Tseng was bored and so he stole Elena and Rude to go shopping while he dumped me here to baby sit you—"
"I do not need baby sitting!" Rufus interrupted indignantly.
"—on this lovely little vacation of ours in the snow," finished Reno.
"Hmph," was the only intelligent thing Rufus found to say as he fumed quietly. He was never the one to be dependent on someone and he hated it when Tseng found reason to latch a Turk onto him twenty-four seven. Although that certain Turk had turned out to be Reno this time, Rufus was still vigilant in the fact that he wasn't a prissy little pansy and could blast the head off any one who said so with his double-barrelled shotgun with one hand.
"Aw, come on Rufus, you know we only do this because we care about you," said Reno and he hugged Rufus tightly. "Why don't you loosen up a bit and just enjoy this break?"
"But I have paperwork to do! If my father finds out that this is not a business trip that you so happily told him, without informing me I might add, he'll flip a gasket. How can I relax when I've got appointments to make, papers to read and sign, statistics to observe and summarise, filing to do and—"
"Employees to fire?" suggested Reno helpfully.
This earned a cold glare and a smack on the head from Rufus who was in no mood to joke. Still unable to wipe the goofy smile from his face, Reno nuzzled the nape of Rufus' neck affectionately and gave a soft purr.
Deciding that having a conversation with Reno was bound to go nowhere, Rufus sighed and leaned into Reno's arms, fidgeting absently with the hem of his white winter coat. He briefly wondered how he had ever ended up with Reno, who he'd been with for over a month. The two of them matched like how a red sock went with a green sock. They just didn't go, and yet they remarkably did.
"Whatcha thinking about?"
"Pardon?"
"You were looking all dazed and thoughtful again, and the last time you looked like that Tseng almost had a heart attack when you asked him about … you know, the birds and the bees."
"Hey, a deprived eighteen year-old vice-president has to learn from somewhere. And Tseng had seemed like the most reasonable at the time," Rufus mumbled defensively. "Anyway, I was just thinking about us; how we just ended up together."
Reno frowned and adjusted a lopsided navy earmuff to cover Rufus' ear better. "Are you still uncertain with our relationship? I thought we settled that last night."
"No it's not that! Just wondering how someone like me ended with someone like you."
"What am I not good enough for you?" Reno put on a look of dejection and wiped an invisible tear from the corner of his eye. "Turk and ex-slum thief not good enough for rich pretty boy Rufus Shinra, I should've known it'd come to this."
Rufus raised one delicate eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. "You're such a drama queen."
"Why, thank you."
"Anytime, you pompous airhead," Rufus drawled offering a rare smile and Reno felt his insides flutter ridiculously.
Feeling light-hearted, Reno stood up suddenly and whisked Rufus up with him, making the vice-president yelp in surprise. His legs cracked as he stretched and Rufus looked up at the sky aimlessly, blue orbs wandering across clouds.
"Hey Reno, do you think it's going to snow?"
"Snow?" Reno looked down at his charge and followed his gaze up to the greying clouds. "Perhaps, why do you ask?"
Rufus turned around and kicked a lump of snow absently. "I've never seen it snow before. I've seen snow like this," he gestured around himself, "but I've never actually seen it fall. I know you've seen it; with all your Turk missions and everything you get to see everything. My father never let me out of Midgar much and that place is so dull. Mother used to show pictures of snow and I've always had a fascination with it."
Reno smiled lovingly at Rufus and pulled him close to tuck the blonde's head under his chin, the blonde being only slightly shorter than him. Rufus stiffened instinctively (a habit brought out by his father's abusing hands), before relaxing and falling into Reno's embrace.
"Who'd have thought this cold-hearted brat could be such a sweet little soul on the inside, heh? You should be less of an iceberg more often."
"'m not 'n iceberg, jus' a lil' cold," was Rufus' muffled reply from Reno's neck. "Besides, I have t' be, 'tis a discipline thin'."
"Same difference. Anyway how about we stay until the others get back and see if it snows sometime in between?" Reno suggested and ruffled the strawberry blonde hair that peeked over his chin. Rufus immediately stepped back to straighten it out again, frowning at Reno as he did so.
"Mn, okay. But what are we going to do while we wait? We can't possibly just stand here looking like a pair of lost chocobos."
Placing a forefinger to his chin, Reno made a show of thinking and then clapped his hands together animatedly. Rufus started feeling uneasy when Reno's eyes fixated themselves on his with an evil glint; he knew that look far too well, and it usually resulted in something embarrassing or painful … on his part of course.
"Oi, Rufus."
"Yea—?!" Rufus was rudely cut off when he felt something warm and heavy slam into him and for an instant he felt the sensation of free fall before landing on the side of the snow bank and rolling down to the bottom, wisps of red obscuring his vision until he rolled to a stop at the bottom.
Usually, Rufus would have whipped his gun out of his pocket and blasted whoever it was who was senseless enough to knock him down a pile of snow, but since said gun wasn't present (and that the senseless person was Reno), he settled with growling angrily instead. Reno hovered above him on his hands and knees and smirked.
"Nya-ha, look who's on the bottom!" sang Reno and Rufus could feel the corner of his eye starting to twitch with irritation. Obviously someone had slipped a lot of sugar into Reno's coffee during the Turk's break an hour ago. "Heh, you're normally not this submissive."
The young vice-president flushed and in one swift movement lifted his knees to clamp them on either side of Reno's hips. Before Reno could even open his mouth in protest Rufus had grabbed his arms and flipped him over, swapping the positions so that Reno was lying flat on his back underneath him. Reno scrambled to get away but only succeeded in accidentally eating a whole chunk of snow.
"I am not submissive," Rufus hissed and to show his point pinned Reno's lax arms firmly against the ground.
"Are you sure cutie?"
"What?!"
Reno seized the opportunity when Rufus' attention broke for just a second. Using his long legs to his advantage he swiftly intertwined them with Rufus' shorter ones and with one long pull he righted Rufus so that he was sitting on his knees. As he lunged to push Rufus back on the ground the blonde ducked and grabbed Reno's Turk jacket and rolled, pulling Reno with him.
They rolled and scrambled in the snow, kicking up chunks of it as they flailed around. After about five minutes of violent tossing (where Rufus copped a lot of inconspicuous nibbles to the neck), Reno collapsed on the snow, Rufus perched triumphantly on his hips.
"See? I told you I'm not submissive."
"Of course you aren't," Reno stuck his tongue out cheekily, "except for when you're in bed, if you get my drift." Reno instantly regretted what he said when Rufus' eyes darkened, the normally clear sapphire orbs narrowed intently on his face. He closed his eyes tightly, waiting for a long overdue punch to somewhere painful.
What he didn't expect was a pair of soft and inviting lips brush against his own, his eyes snapping open to see Rufus staring down at him with half-lidded eyes, locks of his blonde hair tickling Reno's nose.
"Rufus?" Reno was almost scared when Rufus suddenly fell on top of him and dug his arms under his waist, giving Reno such a tight hug that he thought his ribs would crack.
"Reno…" Rufus murmured and hugged Reno even tighter. "Thank you."
"Huh? What'd I do?" Tentatively Reno lifted Rufus' face so that he could see his eyes. They looked slightly red and glassy, but no tears fell. The man who no one had ever seen bleed or cry.
"That was fun…"
Reno's previously worried face cracked into a full-fledged smile. He felt laughter bubble up and spilled out of him, and soon he was hugging Rufus back and the sweet ringing of Rufus' deep laughter mixing with his own raspy one soothed his ears. Rufus had never said anything was fun before. There was "interesting", "not boring", "mildly entertaining", but certainly not "fun".
Stopping to breathe, Reno buried his face into Rufus' hair, taking deep breaths of the vanilla scented shampoo Rufus used. The blonde head moved and Rufus turned to look up at him, blue eyes blinking softly.
"I love you…" Rufus whispered softly, hesitantly, as though the words were new to him.
"Ditto," Reno replied and kissed Rufus' forehead gently.
A comfortable silence followed, only broken when the two stood up to ascend the snow bank to their previous position, this time Rufus sitting as close as he could to Reno's chest. The young President could here the quick but steady beat of Reno's heart through his uniform and he wondered if it pumped that fast just for him.
"Hey, Rufus."
"Huh?"
"Here." Rufus sat up and watched as Reno took a large and slightly crumpled cookie from his pocket and removed it from its plastic packet. "Are you hungry?"
"But there's only one. Aren't you hungry as well?"
"Don't worry, we can share, okay? Besides, it's more important to keep the President satisfied than his lackey right? Now open up."
"But you're not—," Rufus stopped when Reno carefully guided the cookie to his mouth and he quickly bit down on it when the Turk released it from his hand.
"Jeez, do you have to be force fed everything?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Rufus said thoughtfully around his cookie and grinned.
Reno pulled Rufus in his lap to face him, and, carefully, leaned in to take his own bite out of the cookie still hanging in Rufus' mouth. Rufus blushed and watched as the red-head cleanly split the cookie in two before moving away, but not before mischievously darting his tongue out to tease Rufus' upper lip.
After finishing their snack (with Reno insisting that he lick some non-existent crumbs from Rufus' lips, making the younger turn a healthy tomato red), Rufus sighed and looked up dejectedly at the looming clouds, which still hadn't shed a single flake of promising snow.
"It's not snowing," he said flatly.
"Seems so," Reno flattened Rufus' coat motherly before settling his hands on either side of his shoulders, "but if it doesn't today it'll probably tomorrow don't you think?"
"Yeah, but, Rude's with me tomorrow and not you! And I want you to be with me because … it just seems right okay? I don't want Rude or Elena or Tseng I just want you dammit!"
"Hmm, point taken. Look, if it doesn't snow when I'm with you there's always next time—"
"But how do you know? What If father finds out about this outing? What if he finds out about us? Do you know what he'll do to you if he does? You'll probably never wake up with your head intact again—"
"Well that's a mighty comforting thought."
"Reno!"
Rolling his eyes partly in exasperation at Rufus' tantrum and partly in resignation, Reno leaned in and planted a forcing kiss on Rufus' lips. The blonde's eyes widened at the sudden gesture before fluttering closed and returning the kiss, hands curling into fists in Reno's vermillion hair. Smiling into the kiss Reno softened the friction between their lips and hugged Rufus closer, earning him a soft whimper.
Rufus loved Reno's kisses. They were as variable as Reno's moods; sometimes gentle and soothing – a kiss between two lovers with all the time in the world to enjoy each others touch, and yet sometimes they were rough and passionate, where their tongues would slide against each other like aquatic waves rolling against one another before melting into each other. Like the raging aquatic blend of Reno's eyes …
An encouraging brush of Reno's tongue over his lips brought Rufus back to the kiss and he parted his lips, giving Reno access to his mouth. The Turk eagerly accepted the invitation and his tongue shot in, instantly seeking out its partner to curl around it. Rufus moaned and tilted his head to lip lock Reno as his own tongue teased his, running over the top and underneath to map out the ridges of his teeth. Reno tasted sweet and bitter, the combination of the cookie and the coffee from before laced in his hot breath as it mingled with Rufus' own.
Suddenly Reno withdrew his tongue and Rufus gave a small noise of disapproval at the loss of warmth, the cool air feeling blisteringly cold in comparison to Reno's mouth. The Turk smiled and tenderly grazed his chapped lips over the vice-presidents smooth, tender ones.
"Hey, Rufus, why don't you look up?"
"Huh?" the strawberry blonde looked up at the sky expectantly. At first he wondered if Reno was pulling his leg; nothing had changed and the clouds looked as dull as ever, but then he saw something, small and faint against the backdrop of grey. As it floated lower Rufus could make out its white hue and, nervously, he held out his hand to catch it.
"Is that …?"
"Snow, yes, and by the looks of it from somewhere very inland too, judging by the pure white hue," Reno whispered as he bent down to take a closer look.
"It's so beautiful," Rufus whispered. He could make out the tiniest detail of a pattern before the snowflake melted into his hand. Looking up again Rufus saw more starting to fall, feathery tears from the sky that flitted to the ground like angelic tears. He caught a couple more and stared at them. They were white and cool, and Rufus remembered his mother describing them as powdered sugar when they caught the sunlight.
Reno watched as Rufus explored, walking around in circles to collect snowflakes and watching as they melted in his palm. He looked so childish and naïve, with his long white coat and blue ear-muffs, and yet Reno knew that Rufus was far from. Being forced to grow up quickly to become and heir to Shinra was probably the hardest part-time job in the building, so it was touching to see some long overdue youthfulness finally coming out of the normally stoic vice.
"Hey, are you enjoying yourself?" Rufus jumped when Reno wrapped his arms around him from behind and cooed softly in his ear. He had been so preoccupied he hadn't noticed the red-head creep up behind him.
"Mm-hmm," Rufus uttered distractedly as he observed a particularly large snowflake he had caught, admiring the perfectly symmetrical prongs that deviated from the centre.
"You know those things remind me of you, strangely enough."
"What do you mean?"
"Well," Reno started and nibbled the lobe of Rufus' ear, making the blonde shiver, "they're amazing to look at, white, complicated, pure, and if you feel like a little something to refresh yourself they taste great."
Flicking the some of the locks of hair that always covered his eyes, Rufus turned to Reno and raised an eyebrow again, azure orbs glowing with mirth.
"And just what do you mean by that, Turk?"
Grabbing Rufus by the waist Reno pulled him excruciatingly close, noses almost touching. He could feel the vice-president's heart beating rabidly through his ribcage and he growled predatorily, raking his slender fingers through silky, strawberry blonde hair.
"Why don't I show you, sir?"
Without waiting for Rufus to reply Reno closed the distance between them for the third time. He teased Rufus' bottom lip gently, worrying the supple flesh in between his teeth with soft nips and sucks. Rufus mewled and reached up to bury his own hands in Reno's hair, pulling the Turk's head lower to deepen the kiss. Reno complied and, without breaking their kiss, carefully lifted Rufus up and resettled him underneath him on the snow.
Rufus gave a low growl at their new position and bit down on Reno's lip, making the red-head gasp as he tasted metallic blood enter his mouth. He could sense the blonde's need and passion through their connected lips, the way they moved jerkily but fervently across his. A moist tongue glided across Reno's bleeding lip as Rufus made to nurse the wound, but was stopped when Reno enveloped the tongue completely, nibbling the sensitive tip and rolling his own beneath it. Rufus made a pleasurable noise and lifted a leg to wrap around Reno's slim waist.
"Reno…"
Hands began to roam as both Reno and Rufus became lost in each other. Rufus grabbed a fistful of powdery snow and slipped it under the Turk's untucked shirt, guiding the snow in agonisingly slow patterns on the red-head's back with his fingertips. Reno shivered as the cold seeped into his skin, and he could feel the cool rivulets of water trickling down his sides as Rufus stroked a long line down the ridges of his spine. Reno's own hands were hastily trying to undo the buttons of Rufus' coat as he felt the last of his resolve melt away with the snow on his back…
"Oh my holy lifestream!"
Blue and aqua eyes opened lazily to blink at each other before simultaneously glancing in the direction of the rude interruption.
"Aw, Tseng you made them stop! You should know better than to interrupt something like that!" Elena whined and gave a sheepish grin in the couple's direction. "Um, should we make ourselves scarce?"
Tseng, however, looked like he was about to have kittens, and ignored Elena's berating stare as he marched up the snow bank to where Reno and Rufus were now standing and tidying each other up, Rufus licking off snowflakes on Reno's cheek as the other did up his buttons. Rude decided to disappear behind a tree and pretend that he had nothing to do with the words Shinra or Turks.
"Reno!"
Said Turk stood sloppily at attention before excusing himself to wrap his arm around Rufus' waist. He looked sultrily at his superior and raised an eyebrow.
"Yes Tseng … sir?"
Looking from Rufus to Reno the Wutaian did a double take when he noticed Rufus' swollen lips and Reno's bleeding one. The corner of his eye ticked visibly and Rufus hid a smirk before Tseng turned and glared angrily at Reno.
"What in the name of the Ancients are you doing our here in the freezing cold?"
"Making out with Rufus," Reno replied bluntly, his voice completely business like and serious.
"I do not want to bring a sick vice-president back to Shinra and then end up with all out heads on the executioner's table! This is foolish of you and I'd though you'd know better than to drag poor Rufus out here in the cold. And in public! What on earth were you thinking? No don't even answer that, I don't want to know."
Rufus stepped in front of Tseng and flicked the blonde locks out of his eyes again before fixing Tseng with his cold, professional gaze. Tseng blinked nervously.
"Just for the record it was my idea to stay out in the snow and I'd much rather you not delve in my personal affairs. Is that understood Tseng?"
Tseng, who looked like his idol had just pushed him down a flight of stairs, bowed low.
"Yes sir, my apologies."
"Good, I'm glad that's clear," Rufus smirked and motioned for Tseng to head inside the holiday house. Rude popped out from behind his tree to follow and Elena tagged behind, offering a thumbs up to Reno who returned it enthusiastically.
"Hey Reno," Rufus whispered as they followed Elena's blonde hair bobbing in front of them.
"Mm?" Reno looked down in time to see Rufus licking of the melting snow off his fingers. He gulped when he remembered the still cool, damp patch of skin on his back.
"I think I quite like it when it snows."
Author's Notes:
OC-ness? Perhaps just a bit (or maybe for some of you a lot) especially on Rufus' part. If you really must complain then I'm ready, so toss whatever you have to say at me (preferably not in the form of a tomato; they leave stains).
I hope you all enjoyed that little one-shot. Read & review please!