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jaded_grinKadaj tried not to show that he was nervous, but he knew his panic must be pouring off of him in waves—he was crammed as far into the corner of the limo as he could get, but somehow he was still touching Tseng.
The man himself sat easily in the middle of the seat with the relaxed posture of one who owns the world around him. He seemed to take no notice of Kadaj’s nerves, but his cold brown eyes would occasionally rest on him with that same possessive surety. He never reached out to touch him, no, but the occasional bump and shudder of the car would bounce Kadaj’s light body against him, only adding to the boy’s fear.
He did not want this man to touch him.
“You don’t remember me,” Tseng suddenly murmured, cutting those glittering dark eyes to Kadaj.
“No, sir,” Kadaj told him, uneasy. This was not the first time Tseng had said they’d met before, but Kadaj had no memory of it.
Tseng sighed, but let his eyes linger on Kadaj’s mouth, saying, “I paid for you, my Jewel—I paid very well to have you…Only to find that what I was offered was a child. How tiny and fragile you were, beautiful boy, crying and afraid. If I’d had access to my fortune I would’ve bought you that very moment.”
Kadaj felt his breathing start to stutter, his heart skipping wildly in his chest. He had virtually no memory of the dark days before
“Too young,” he murmured, and looked out of the window, suddenly more afraid for himself than he’d ever been.
“Too young,” Tseng softly agreed. “I would have bought you and taken you away from the horror that awaited you, Kadaj. I would have waited for you to grow up. I would have treated you as the prince you are.”
“None of that happened,” Kadaj told him, rubbing his head as another memory came—a man smiling down at him, cyan eyes alight with joy as he hefted him up so that Kadaj could tangle chubby little fists in his long silver hair… “I made it out alive only thanks to
Tseng let the silence build for awhile as the city rolled by, the car moving at a crawl due to the traffic and the press of humanity. A long time later, he softly inquired, “Do you never wonder, Kadaj, who your parents were?”
“There’s no sense in it,” he quickly answered, giving Tseng Reno’s own reply to his question. “They left me, didn’t they? They probably sold me to those people themselves. I don’t owe them the time it takes to think of them.”
Tseng laughed a little and said, “Should you ever want to know, Kadaj, my Jewel, just remember that I would be happy to tell you.”
“Tell me?” Kadaj sharply questioned, glancing at him. “Not find out for me, but tell me?”
Tseng gave him a sphinx-like smile and sighed, “I have long thought of you, my Jewel—I know where you came from and how you were taken away.”
“You lie,
Tseng’s winged brows rose and he gave Kadaj a smirk, asking, “Is it not possible, Kadaj, that he simply did not wish to lose you?”
Kadaj snorted a little in disdain, but the seed was planted. They passed the trip to Siderunner’s in silence, Tseng gazing out of the window and Kadaj nervously chewing his lip.
“You would not believe what happened today,” Rufus said, bemoaning his existence. He hadn’t expected
“What?”
“Oh screw the sunburn,
“A crazy person?”
“No, not that one,” Rufus corrected, and laughed a little. “Who’d have thought we’d have multiple nutters near our house! No, I couldn’t place him earlier, but I was flipping through some reviews today and remembered how I knew his name—it was Genesis Rhapsodos—”
“The director?”
“You got it, babe!” Rufus said, flopping down in the other chair with a grunt.
“You really need to lay off the drinking,”
“Oh, for god’s sake,
“You didn’t!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“I cannot believe you,”
“What?” Rufus inquired. “I was just supposed to let him prance his fancy ass in here and mince around?”
“Why are you being such a bitch? I thought you’d be all excited that he came by the house,” Rufus complained, draining his glass.
“Oh, let’s don’t talk about that again—”
“This just makes me more determined!”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Rufus cried, shocked. Without
“Don’t tempt me!”
Rufus just stared at him, dimly realizing that
“
“Who do I talk to when I’m afraid, Rufus?”
Rufus smirked at him a little and asked, “So that’s it,
“Go ahead,
“Perfectly,”
“Welcome back to Midgar,”
Tseng gave him a cool smile in return, his delicate hands on his drink. Kadaj was seated next to him, a mutinous expression on his beautiful face, lower lip poked out in a pout that
He slid into the booth opposite them and lit a cigarette, seeing one of the waitresses on her way with his usual. Siderunner’s was one of his more luxurious hotels with a self-named restaurant run by a five-star staff—it didn’t hurt that the club attached was a hands-on full-nude strip joint, either. His high-class asshole clientele called this a two-for club, and
“So, what brings you back to this bitch?” he asked, tapping his cigarette and accepting his drink with a wink and a grin.
“Curiosity,” Tseng smoothly answered, his eyes inscrutable as always. He was one of the few people whom
“Weird question,”
Tseng turned his cup in his hands, his dark eyes still on
“He didn’t know him, did he?”
“Your friend, Mister ShinRa,” Tseng murmured. “He didn’t know who that man was when he hired him, and he didn’t bother to find out, did he?”
“Fuck, I don’t know,”
Tseng blinked. “Does he?”
“What’s that supposed to mean, yo?”
Tseng smiled a little. It was cold and would’ve scared
“You’ve grown too comfortable,
“You saying this guy is a danger to me?”
Again, Tseng smiled, and said, “I am saying that he is a very dangerous man, but not specifically to you, no.”
“Well, if he was going to hurt
Tseng idly ran his fingertip around the rim of his glass, probably to see if he could make it sing.
“I should like to meet her.”
Tseng’s eyes flicked to the cup and back up to
“A real knock-out,” he agreed. After a moment he added, “I just wanted to give you the courtesy of letting you know I was in your beloved city.”
“Much appreciated,”
Kadaj was giving him pleading, panicked eyes from across the table, his anxiety thick enough to taste.
“Well, may I borrow your Jewel, then?” Tseng asked, his voice cool. “Simply to accompany me tonight, of course.”
“Sure, why not?”
“I don’t blame you,” Tseng said, and again he smiled that slight, cold smile. “I would not share him, either.”
“Yeah, well, you kids have fun,”
Kadaj just stared at him like he’d never seen him before.
Tseng smirked and said, “We won’t, I’m sure…”
He looked at Kadaj.
Rufus was drunk and still in a foul mood when
The man languidly dropped onto the couch in Rufus’s suite and draped there, waiting.
“Hey, yo, I was wondering—you ever run a background check on the gorilla?”
Rufus gave him an exasperated glance and moved to the mirror, saying, “Premier Jenova sent him, Reno—I don’t think even that crazy man would have his own child assassinated, especially in such a slow, tedious way. Why do you ask?”
“Why do you care?”
“I guess I’m going to have to check on him,” Rufus conceded. “You’re the second person to bring this up and now I’m curious myself. Seriously, what brought this on?”
“Tseng asked me,”
“Such a bitch!” Rufus sighed for the millionth time, fighting with his tie and finally just jerking it off of his neck, frustrated.
“Who?”
Rufus smoothed his hair, looking at his own reflection, and said, “
“Yeah, how dare the one with all the money threaten the freeloading, cheating husband,”
Rufus scowled at him in the mirror and said, “Not helping! No, he told me I either relocated my activities or else he was going back to his father’s house. Then he tried to lay a guilt-trip on me about how he doesn’t have anybody and is always alone and how you took care of him when he first came here! Was I really gone a whole month?”
“After your wedding?”
“Wow, thanks,” Rufus snorted, and moved back to the bar for another drink, pouring one for his friend as well. “He thinks he has the moral high-ground because he’s never fucked around on me so that gives him some kind of right to dictate how I live my personal life.”
“No, I think being your wife gives him some kind of right to dictate how you live your personal life,” Reno remarked, getting up to fetch his drink and sit next to Rufus at the bar. “What’s the big deal? You gotta fuck people outside of the house or something? It was that crazy Princess, wasn’t it?”
“Well, myriad things,” Rufus admitted. “The Princess didn’t help, going through
“Well, it doesn’t help that I insulted some director that
“Wait, what?”
“How the fuck does everybody know this man but me?”
“You do know him, asshole!”
He tapered off with a laugh and sighed, “Yeah, well, I guess you were pretty drunk…So was he, if that’s any consolation—that man doesn’t leave his house without being lit up like a Christmas tree. I can’t believe you threw him off the property! No wonder Cateyes is pissed!”
“Don’t call
“Well, that’s pretty good incentive to keep it outside of the house,”
Rufus sighed heavily and said, “I guess. I can’t let
“Man, why are you so obsessed with that shit?”
“Which is precisely why there is something there!” Rufus told him, suddenly excited. “I bet better than half of the Jenova fortune comes from Wutai, the way they pretend there’s nothing going on!”
“Well, whatever, Rufus, but you ain’t gonna get that shit by being an ass to your wife,”
“Except the downstairs department,” Rufus pointed out. “He was born a boy, he is a boy, and I don’t do boys. I wish now that I hadn’t made sure he wouldn’t have any lovers—maybe if he were involved in his own affairs, he wouldn’t mess with mine. Or at least he wouldn’t have his moral standing to rely on and look down at me from. Maybe if he were more on my level, he’d change his tune.”
“Yeah, maybe,”
It was a joke, clearly, but Rufus gave his friend a thoughtful look.
“
“Hm?”
Rufus smiled at him, a look of utter devious calculation spreading across his face.
“I have a favor to ask you…”
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 02:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 05:38 pm (UTC)Rufus and Yazoo... what an unhappy situation! I think, whatever plan Rufus is hatching in his pickled brain, is likely to be a very bad idea. Reno'll probably go for it, just for that reason. *sigh*
no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-08 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-10 09:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-10 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-09 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-09 02:41 pm (UTC)recovered password
Date: 2008-12-09 05:17 pm (UTC)Hn, I have to say I am rather impressed about the whole gender-confusion you created with Yazoo. You make perfectly clear that gender is not a biological fact but also a constructed, socialized part of identity. And not only does Yazoo has problems coping with it, but also everyone who knows his secret (especially Rufus, who seems like he could actually come to terms with his wife if only he just hadn´t that little 'extra', which somehow seems almost a little ridiculously insignificant to Yazoo´s mainly female personality). Ugh, I´m sorry if I am overanalyzing this (bad habit), but I just liked that theme of your story.
As always splendidly written, and just so amazingly dramatic :D
I´ll eagerly await the next chapter!
Btw: I noticed that you wrote Yuffi Kisagari, but actually it´s 'Kisaragi'... ;)
Re: recovered password
Date: 2008-12-10 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-09 07:21 pm (UTC)Poor Yazoo. He must be so lonely... And Tseng is oh so deliciously dangerous... More please!
Aaah, lookie what you did to me! It's already one of those where I can't wait for the next episode! *grin* And I don't even LIKE soaps.
Only yours!
no subject
Date: 2008-12-10 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 10:13 pm (UTC)Kadaj is being the Kidnapped Heir With Amnesia(TM)? Woot! Really, Kadaj told him, rubbing his head as another memory came—a man smiling down at him, cyan eyes alight with joy as he hefted him up so that Kadaj could tangle chubby little fists in his long silver hair… sent me into an insane amount of squeeing.^^
no subject
Date: 2009-01-19 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-21 09:13 pm (UTC)