plate_builder | [Open Post]

"Rufus," Reeve says, raising a hand to block that patronizing hand from patting his head, "I'm quite serious here. I don't know if this is the first time someone has said this to your face, even if it's not the first time it is the truth. I need you for your money. I even need you for the fact that you seem to be finding these little companies I have to corral to do the work that needs doing. Which means that, when it comes right down to it, your safety is as vital an issue to the restoration of this world as my own. I will not have you be disdainful of my commitment to my own safety without assurances that you put as much thought into your own protection. Which means not relying solely on the physical force of your Turks."

Because frankly, they aren't as all powerful or intimidating as he once thought they were. Back in the days of being an executive he knew that wasn't anyone that could best that team, save for in SOLDIER's highest ranks. Those ranks were now decimated. But the number of people who could tear the Turks down had only grown. Many of whom were people Reeve had on speed dial.

Sweet Goddess, was he really wondering right now if Rufus was doing enough to keep himself safe from Reeve's own friends? How had it come to this point?

It would certainly be the first time it was said to his face, and maybe he should have minded more, but he already knew. Reeve was a good person, wouldn't try to just kill Rufus or get him killed, but he wasn't fond of the young president. Honestly, very few people were. It's probably something he'll never remedy.

Still, known or making sense, Rufus gives Reeve a slight look, almost offended.

"When have you ever known me to not take my own safety as something very important? I'm not suicidal."

Perhaps Reeve wasn't fond of the young former corporate president right now, but that didn't mean that would always be true. After all, he had designed a rather nice vampire costume for him, not even trying to play at the bloodsucking thing. Pain in the neck, maybe.

"No, you aren't. But that doesn't mean you can't be foolish. That we both can't be foolish. I believe you've grown more aware of your mortality in light of everything, and I will be more aware of my own as well. Still, I'm going to be concerned for you. It's a reasonable thing in business partners."

Perhaps that isn't the right term for them. Reeve is the one that benefits for right now, but Rufus has long term plans to benefit as well. So in a way, they are business partners. Which means a level of concern is reasonable. Especially from a man like Reeve, a man who has tried to live with compassion.

"I've voiced my concerns, you won't hear more on that topic from me unless I find you've been remiss in caring for your own security. Which I doubt Tseng would let you do."

Rufus sighs deeply, watching Reeve and seeming to look for an answer to give. His own mortality he had to face quite some time ago, and was the reason he had such faith in the Turks. Even their failure before, after the destruction of the building, somehow didn't destroy that faith. The fact they always came for him only strengthened it.

So he just responds without his usual airs.

"We've adjusted things here to make sure I'm protected. Don't worry."

"Good," Reeve says, and there actually is a touch of sincere relief there. They're using each other, they both know it, but that doesn't mean he can't appreciate good news. That being said... He reaches up and touches his defensive bangle. A touch of a cure spell should get him stable enough to be walking around.

"I should leave today."

"Is it wise for you to leave without protection in place?" He sits back down, giving Reeve a serious look. "The Turks have cleaned up anyone from the attack on you, but there could be a larger group behind them that we haven't uncovered yet."

“It could take a while to get protection in place without being in Edge. If you haven’t noticed I don’t have a phone to arrange things with. Kalm Famg ate mine. Good thing I have it backed up.”

He can’t do anything until he gets home.

"And you wouldn't accept Turk security, even if I made it Tseng." It's not a question, merely a statement of fact, especially as he seems to be thinking.

Reeve won't take Turks, or anyone Rufus knows, and he's on the outs with AVALANCHE as far as he can tell, so that's also a no go. It also doesn't leave any other choice that he can tell, and although he could technically force Reeve to stay, such an idea would be ill-advised. Yet he doesn't want him leaving just yet, either; Reeve might feel well, but there's always a residual exhaustion to be worried about, even with materia healing.

"Honestly, I'd prefer you give your body one more night to recover before running off, but I don't think you'd go for that either, would you?"

Reeve could make a quip, given everything he had shared with Rufus, not all intentionally, but he holds back. No he wouldn’t take Tseng, but for other reasons.

“I think Tseng might have some choice words for the both of us if you offered his service.”

As for Avalanche he can’t exactly call them for a rescue without explaining why and where he is. And that would give away Rufus’s survival. Add in that he is less on the outs with Avalanche and more had barely ever been in with them and that isn’t a fallback strategy.

Exhaustion doesn’t even figure in to Reeve’s calculations. He is too used to it to notice.

“I can sleep at my home as well,” Reeve points out. Granted he could probably be gone from there a few more days before anyone realizes that no one has seen him in a while. “Besides, you have to be tired of me now. And I will only get worse without something productive to do.”

There they are closer to the truth. Reeve doesn’t know how to let himself rest. At all. Too much of his life has been spent too busy to even think straight. Socializing beyond his brief attempts at dating back I. The company, which had never gone well, had been rare.

He had considered what Reeve had said earlier, about Tseng, but he was pretty sure Tseng hadn't that sort of interest in Reeve. Sometimes, he wasn't sure the man had any interest in anyone aside from Aeris. Even if he was wrong, Rufus wasn't about to try and control that man without permission. With one exception.

"He'd do it if I asked, after his choice words." The smirk he gives Reeve this time will likely remind the man of when he was sexually harassing him earlier, probably giving more insight into his former boss than Reeve was comfortable with. "However, I'm not tired of you. You're a rather tame house guest."

“In the course of my... visit I have managed to insult and annoy you a few times. While I may be a ‘tame’ guest I cannot help but feel that I was a source of difficulty for you,” Reeve admits.

As for the smirk he plainly ignores it. He is far too old and far too mature to deal with such silliness right now. Especially as a captive audience.

"I seem to recall returning the insults and annoyance quite well. I'd even be happy to step if up if it would help." As he says this, Reeve might notice that Rufus' smirk is a little less arrogant than normal, far more childish in nature.

“Really? I have dealt with Reno, Barret Wallace and Cid Highwind, I think I can handle anything you can throw at me,” Reeve counters. His own smirk is a bit gentler. This isn’t a challenge. Just a statement.

"Oh, but I have Reno under my command. All I'd have to do is ask him to stand naked at the door so you wouldn't want to leave for fear of seeing that." It's not a bad idea, truly, but he isn't quite that cruel. Just enjoying himself, if he's quite honest. "However, I suppose you are intent to leave, no matter what I say.

"Are you sure you won't allow a Turk to shadow you, at least so far as the edge of town?"

“I’ve seen him naked,” Reeve dismisses. That isn’t much of a threat. And it isn’t that he insists on going.

“Rufus, if I stay here I will go mad. I can’t... I can’t not do things. I have to be doing something.”

"You sure? I'm sure he would love to show off again." He seems to mean this as the end of that tack, instead focusing on Reeve's reasoning. "Again, can I convince you to allow a shadow? If you want to work, I get it, I'm not great at being idle either. Yet I'm not comfortable letting you wander out without some form of protection this soon after an attack."

“If you insist and there is someone you can spare then I suppose I can agree to an escort. Even so far as my door if you require. Or a cursory examination to make sure it is alright in my place. I will reach out to Barret once I am settled, see about letting people know I was attacked. I would entertain suggestions for security. I trust your teams evaluations more than anyone I would otherwise have access to.”

None of AVALANCHE ever really covered that but Vincent and Reeve doubted the man would even recognize him if he called.

"Tseng and Reno are the most stealthy, so I'll ask one of them. Probably Tseng, though, as he can give you information on security." Rufus doesn't try to hide the look of relief that Reeve is agreeing to take a Turk along. However, he isn't sure about Reeve's choice of contact. "Are you sure Barrett is the best choice of your old contacts, however? All reports say he's got the biggest temper, and is likely the one who be least pleased to hear from you."

"He's also the only one who could help," Reeve explains. "Cloud has his delivery service and is rather hard to contact. Cid would have no real contact with someone to serve the purpose I need. Tifa isn't necessarily good in that area too, she'd find people, but they'd be the sort of men to hover around her bar. And Yuffie?"

That would be a laugh. She's good for many things, but not this. All of her contacts are Wutain. Not much use here.

Finally there are Nanaki who doesn't leave the canyon as much anymore and... Well, Vincent's just impossible. Really, Barret is the only choice. Which he expects Rufus could come to the conclusion of if he really works at it. Or maybe he really doesn't know.

"Keep it up, Rufus, and I might think you're really interested in my well being and not just as a tool."

He listens, and supposes the reasoning makes sense. Honestly, he would have suggested Tifa as she could get hold of Cloud, and the guy had this need to protect things. Yet he can also acknowledge that Reeve would know them better than he does, even with very good dossiers on each.

Of course, then Reeve has to add that last, and Rufus gives him the strangest look, as if he's not sure what remark to send back; although that only lasts an instant, the blind leaning on his palm and chuckling.

"Keep that up, and I'll make you uncomfortable again. You know very well I'm not so cold as to not care somewhat for the safety of a former employee."

"I doubt you would make me feel much of anything," Reeve returns. He's got his wits about him now. No, Rufus would have to do far more to make him uncomfortable. It would be a rather professional level of chicken before he would flinch.

"The former employees you care about are the Turks," Reeve counters, and it's not out of lack of kindness he says it. He's come to realize that maybe Rufus really has changed some. But caring for a former employee like Reeve? A man who worked to undermine him and his authority? A man who had fought for the 'wrong' side. Well, not so wrong, but definitely against his contract with the company. "I'm just a troublesome rebel."

He could easily play processional level chicken if he wanted; was well versed in it, actually. After all, he was a Shinra, and something one learned as such was to find what people wanted and use it to get what you were after while giving them the bare minimum of their desires.

Reeve may have been older, but Rufus had plenty of knowledge. Would have been more than happy to share if it wasn't for the fact he was just enjoying himself and knew Reeve took it as him being a bray.

So he doesn't respond to the first remark, as much as he wants to, but does respond to the second.

"Admittedly, they are my favorites. But I do have a healthy respect for you, Reeve, which means I do worry to some extent."

A healthy respect? Reeve just looks at him, a look that clearly says 'I don't understand why.' The ShinRa were never good for returning kindness for betrayal. No, he can't quite get what Rufus respects him for. But he ends up coming to his own conclusion for that. Simple: Rufus respects what he can use Reeve for, which is gaining power over Edge in time and respect for the company he intends to rebuild. Anything else. doesn't seem too sensible to Reeve. There will be time to learn to trust Rufus a bit more. For now he accepts what he has here. A reason to start believing.

"I suppose I should give you time to arrange things with Tseng. Which is reasonable. I'll need some time to put a few more spells into my leg."

It always amused Rufus, in the wrong way, how much people believed he was identical to his Father in certain areas. No, he didn't take betrayal much better than his old man did, expected it just as that fool had, but he could respect what Reeve had done. He could even respect AVALANCHE and its members. After all, they were guided by a certain will he realized he had been lacking, and maybe still was?

ShinRa had messed up the planet. Knew they were messing it up, but continued their path for the sake of money and power. Even when it became obvious that their damage would end the world, it was still more important to retain that power than fix anything. To die on top, he supposed, if it came to that. Above the people they considered fools and sheep.

Even after his father had been killed, when Rufus could have truly changed things, he kept on the path that had been programmed in him. Rule, retain an iron fist, do not let anyone be better than you. A rule he had followed to the point of trying to prove that the company could clean up the mess it had made, and which had almost ended his life when Weapon attacked.

Ever and always, he did things for his sake, for the sake of being above. It wasn't until after things occurred with the building and his abduction that Rufus let himself honestly realize something he'd been adept at fighting back; true strength wasn't about money, or how many people you controlled, but about how you held yourself and what you did. True power was being able to sometimes look past yourself onto something else.

Reeve? Avalanche? They had always understood this, and so he respected them. Reeve had betrayed Shinra, but he had not betrayed himself or the things around him. A year or so ago, Rufus would have made remarks about this, but now...

He shrugs a little, not ready to divulge all this. "Let me get Elena to scrape together a few more Potions. You'll need to conserve your materia just in case."

"I'll be fine," Reeve assures Rufus with a smile. "I've got quite a reserve of magical energy, believe it or not. Your Turks may need the potions more and can't acquire them as easily if you're trying to keep a low profile. In this much, Rufus, you can trust me to handle myself. But I thank you for your hospitality."

Whether he had a right to expect it or not from Rufus, he had benefited and it was worthwhile to keep a positive relationship here. "Would you like me to keep you appraised about my recovery?"

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Finally finished rereading everything. Should provide a more cohesive Reeve

Yay!

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