[Open Post]

[plate_builder]

Does it need to be said? You can find this poor civil engineer in any sort of situation you want. Put up a starter and let it run free. No Scarlets welcome, though. He can't stand them.

Comments

[plate_builder]

And still he laughs, only because he knows that Rufus can't be serious, right? Right.

"That would be more effective than a spell."

[afterlaborday]

He isn't, not entirely. Reeve and Rufus may be an item, and maybe the world would disregard their relationship in time if they revealed it, but both had lives that would not be suited to living together at this time.

It doesn't mean the suggestion is any less fun, however.

"Spell?"

[plate_builder]

"Confusion spells. How much do you actually play with materia?"

He really doesn't know what to do if Rufus doesn't know it.

[afterlaborday]

"Rarely." He shrugs, honestly depending on not fighting whenever possible. "But I wouldn't use materia for confusion if possible; I can usually do it myself."

[plate_builder]

"You really are maddening," Reeve agrees with a chuckle, moving forward to caress his cheek.

[afterlaborday]

"I think that was part of the reason this whole thing between us started, isn't it?" He laughs a bit, but shifts his head to enjoy the carress more fully. "We made each other mad a lot those first few meetings, didn't we?"

[plate_builder]

Well, that's a good point. He smiles and his hand goes up and ruffles his hair.

"We did. I wanted to punch you."

[afterlaborday]

Ruffling wet hair is not a good thing, and Rufus grabs for Reeve's hand to stop him as soon as he can, infinitely amused at the response.

"I'm sure you would have it I hadn't been an invalid."

[plate_builder]

Oh come now, the wet hair can be rewetted and dealt with.

"No, I would not have. Tseng might have done me great harm if I tried."

[afterlaborday]

"He wouldn't have." Rufus moves in closer to Reeve, giving him a small kiss and chuckling. "I had expected anger and warned them not to interfere if it was just a single swing. I mean, I was trying to prove I was different, after all."

[plate_builder]

Reeve only has Rufus's word for that. And as much as he loved the man, he couldn't comment on the past.

"I'm not a brawler, Rufus. I'm a mage. If I wanted more than a single swing, I wouldn't have taken one, I should have burned you."

[afterlaborday]

By now, Reeve should have realized that Rufus had probably given the Turks quite a few orders at their first meetings which had annoyed, disturbed and caused them all to worry. After all, Reeve may have been part of Shinra, even one of the higher ranked ones, but the world was very good at proving it didn't matter and anything could happen.

Yet Rufus himself had been fairly sure that the dark-haired man he was chuckling at right now would hear him out, and would not lay a hand on him; if only for the Stigma. It just had never seemed to be Reeve to kick a man when he was down.

"You wouldn't have done that, either. As much as you hate it, I knew I was basically safe from you doing anything that would leave me permanently injured. Or really, much at all, once you realized I was mostly confined to a wheelchair and suffering from a deadly disease."

[plate_builder]

"Counting on my sense of pity. Amusing, seeing as I had no reason to think you possessed one," Reeve muses to himself, frowning as he does so.

[afterlaborday]

"Not pity, humanity. You were always better at it than most of the Shinra executives." Still, he laughs softly. "And I have always had pity and empathy. It just was not a good idea to show it."

[plate_builder]

Most? Oh come now, he was better than even that. Give him one exec he wasn’t better than. You couldn’t.

“It might have made Shinra better if you had.”

[afterlaborday]

"And gotten me killed." Rufus shakes his head. His position and Reeve's had been very different, and even though Rufus could play a convincing fool when he had to, no one fully believed it. "Besides, part of me still wanted to be the 'good son' and live up to my Father's memory.

"I don't think that will ever fully leave me, though now it at least doesn't control me."

[plate_builder]

Good son. Reeve huffs at that. Hard to be a good son when you’re living up to an asshole like that.

“I’m sorry about it, that you didn’t have a better relationship.”

[afterlaborday]

Even harder to be a good son when you try and kill your father at 16, though with his father, he had gotten some respect for that little stunt, and it managed to lead him to his current relationship with the Turks.

Also, Reeve knew the other reasons they had a terrible relationship, so it shouldn't be a surprise when he shrugs.

"Honestly, despite that normal feeling that comes from him being my father, I'm not upset about it. After the ShinRa building collapsed, a lot of things happened and I had time to realize that he didn't think a great deal of me. Though he apparently did remember the date of my birth.

[plate_builder]

Well, perhaps his father had deserved it.

Still, Reeve looks impressed by the note given.

“You got out through the escape shaft?”

[afterlaborday]

"More like a giant slide." Rufus moves to sit beside Reeve in the tub, leaning against the other man. "There was a switch under the desk in the President's office, marked with an "L" just for me. Slid all the way from the top of the tower to below it. Broke a few things as you might imagine.

Anyway, after getting my bearings I had to get out, but the exit was locked with a number pad. If you'd believe it, the bastard had set my birthdate as the passcode."

[plate_builder]

Oh, Reeve is aware of the slide thing. He just didn’t know Rufus had found it. Who, after all, did Rufus think designed the thing?

“You’re lucky,” Reeve admits.

[afterlaborday]

Rufus hadn't given a great deal of thought to the building, or the escape hatch, since he was small. The building had merely been another extravagence his Father had built to show off his wealth and power. Who had designed it or built it? He didn't really consider it.

But he looks at Reeve. "Lucky? How so?"

[plate_builder]

“That you found it,” Reeve counters. “It was supposed to be a subtle creation. I spent a lot of time on the math for it.”

[afterlaborday]

"Oh?" Rufus raises a brow. "If you were behind it, didn't you think to add in a safety net? One picks up a good amount of velocity going down so many floors."

[plate_builder]

“I worked on a large number of strategies to handle that. Unfortunately the President cut me out of the designs in the final steps. And the person who did it... mysteriously passed. I was told the whole project was scrapped and the hatch welded shut.”

Clearly a lie.