Title: Partners
Author: Enide Dear
Rating: some violence and slight nudity
Pairing: Reno Rude not actually pairing them up
Summary: Rude's first encounter with his new partner shows some promise.

A/N: There aren't enough fics from Rude's POV *sulk*

His hands were shaking. Rude stared at them for a second, before clenching the fist, hard, and layed it down on the dirty table next to his beer. He was slightly shocked to see that the situation could affect him this much, but there were no denying it. His shirt stuck to his body with cold sweat and his shades were itching enough that he just took them off, neatly folding them into his suit pocket. He didn't need them anyway; the bar was gloomy enough as it was.

Gloomy and bereft of red-heads. He took a new sip of his beer.

He'd been stood up by his new partner and there were no suprise in that. Reno was notoriously difficult to work with, obviously to the point of not bothering to show up when he was to meet his newly assinged partner for the first time. Rude wasn't really concerned about that.

What did concern him, however, was why he'd been assinged to Reno in the first place. He'd never met the guy, but rumors were abundant, incongruos and probably half made up anyway. Except on one point, were ShinRa records spoke clearly. All of Reno's prior partners had died, quick and violently. Not a strange way for a Turk to go but…All of them? Turks were nothing if not suspicous and paraniod. Working with Reno was a death sentence. And probably one sanctioned from higher up.

Rude's collar seemed to try and smother him. He pulled a finger along the rim of it, tried to get a proper breath down his longues.

What he couldn't understand was what he'd done wrong. Why had he been targeted for subtle elimination? He might not be the best Turk on the field, his evaluations said he was a bit too pending and too carefull, but he was the best with bombs, a great bodyguard and he'd never done anything, anything at all to endanger ShinRa buinsess.

Was the room supposed to tilt this way? He felt drunk, he suddenly realized, but that was impossible. He'd not even finished one beer.

*Not drunk then. Drugged. Shit.*

This was a bad part of Midgard to be vulnerable in, not that there wre many parts of Midgard that encouraged that state. Already darker shades were breaking loose from the gloom, slowly closing up on him. Trying to get up, his legs buckled and he fell forward, almost crashing faceforward onto the table. He managed to get up on his arms at just about time to get a heavy kick in the ribs that made him weeze with pain and fall over on his back.

"Get his money." Someone started to fumble around his pocket and Rude let them. They wanted his gils; fine, he could get more. But then a knife suddenly shone in the dark.

Rude kicked out; his boot conected with someones knee and they went down screaming. Drugged he might be, but he was a big man and the effects had yet to kick in as completely as he'd pretended they had. He could still control his actions, he hadn't passed out, those were the good things. The bad things were, he was seriously outnumbered and down on his back and there really were no way of getting out of this alive now he'd pissed them off.

Didn't mean he wasn't about to go down without a fight, though.

He caught another boot aimed at his head and twisted the ankle with savage strength born from depseration, but there were already someone else tampling his chest, ribs were cracking, about to break, a new knife was coming down, eyes and teeth glittered like monsters in the dark…

Sudden, explosive light. The crackle of electricity and one opponent down, shaking as if he'd touched a live wire. Another turned to get a faceful of metal rod, a third one screamed something about Turks and then they were running, leaving Rude on the floor, coughing and bleeding.

A red head came into view, EMR boncing on his shoulder.

"You alright there, partner?" Rude tried to answer, but there was way beyond coherent thoguth and speak by now as the drugges started to really kick in. His tongue felt thick as a board and his head seemed to be floating half a foot above his shoulders.

Reno watched him a moment, eyes unreadable, then shoved sinewy arm under his shoulder and dragged. He was a lot stronger than he looked, even as Rude tried to help as much as he could.

"You weigh a ton," Reno grunted the complaint as he hoisted him up. "What are you? A fucking Soldier reject?"

"I…"

"Shut up. Open your mouth." Rude gagged as long fingers were suddenly shoved mercilessly down his throat; he tried to fight them off but to no avail. "Oh, bad gag reflex you got there, big guy." Reno grinned at his thrashings, "I fancy you already. But right now we need to get that drug out of your system, yo." He pushed in another finger, deeper and this time the reflex kicked in and Rude had to toss his face to the side as he threw up on the bar floor. Reno wiped his hand on his shirt, unconcerned. "Good. C'm on."

Rude did feel a bit better as he was half carried, half dragged along the empty streets, up a nondescript stair and into a dirty appartment were he was dumped on a suprisingly comfortable couch. Good enough that he could hold the glass himself as Reno gave him tap water and drink it without throwing up again, even though his throat hurt like hell.

"Drink as much as you can. Will help you clear out your system."

He mamaged two more glasses and then darkness crept into the edges of his vision and he passed out in exhaustion.

A few hours later he woke up, his head on a lap and a hand stroking his pate absentmindedly. A TV was on, although the channels flipped by so fast they made his head hurt and he could smell a cigarett.

"Awake? Good. How you feelin'?" It was Reno's lap his head was resting on, bony and warm. Blue eyes sparkled down at him over the cig.

"Like shit." Rude managed. "Water?"

"Here you go." He was handed another glass of tap water, this time luke warm. He drank it down.

"Bathroom?" It was damn comfortable just laying here but other needs were pressing.

"Over there." Reno pointed, then returned to his channel surfing. "Take a shower when you're at it. You stink."

The shower was full of hair care products; a funny detail as the rest of the appartment was a mess, down to and including the filty clothes strewn everywhere. Rude ignored those but relaxed as hot water streamed over him. *What a fucking miserable way to make a first impression on a new partner.*

He found a semi-clean towel and used to dry off as he walked back into the living room. Reno gave his naked body a queary glance and grinned.

"No decendy whatsovever? Knew I'd like you." He waved at a coffe mug on the table. "Got coffee. That would wake you up."

Rude managed a weak smile as he kept toweling down.

"What, no breakfast?"

"What am I, your fucking butler?" Reno grinned. "Anyway, got this rule that anyone whose life I save have to buy me breakfast in the morning."

"Yeah, sorry about that…" Rude sweapt the towel around his waist and took the cup. He felt awkward to say the least.

"Don't be." Reno shrugged. "Ain't noone can be on edge all the time. Everyone slips from time to time. The question is what you do about it when that happens. That's why I've been looking for a new partner."

"You've been looking…" Rude felt off balance.

"Yeah. Requested you especially. Tseng fucking owes me anyway."

"All your partners end up dead." He'd never been much for beating around the bush. "They say you are the Turk executioner."

Reno glared.

"Shouldn't believe all the shit you hear. Ain't my fault those loosers Tseng sent me couldn't take the heat. I'm a Turk not a fucking babysitter."

"Why me?"

"Thought it might work. You're tougher than you looks and that's saying something." Reno slumped a bit in the couch, not looking at him. "Truth to say, I'm fucking lonely. Even the other Turks avoid me like I've got the fucking plague or something!"

Rude sat quiet for a while. The coffee was harsh against his raw throat and his body was aching from multiple bruises. His clothes were still on the floor, dirty and sweaty but it wasn't as if he could borrow Reno's - not only were they too small, but they were almost as disgusting.

"You drugged me last night." It wasn't a question.

"Had to see if you could handle yourself. Ain't loosing another partner when things get serious." Reno shrugged. "Anyway I fucking helped you, didn't I?"

"Do you use the word 'fuck' in ever other sentence?"

"Fuck you! So how you feeling about it?"

Rude sighed and rubbed his face.

"I feel like I should drag you out into the bathroom, dunk you in the toilet until the bubbles stop and then drag your sorry soaked ass out of here for breakfast."

Reno shone up.

"See? Told you it would fucking work."