Well, here we are! Episode 13 already--it doesn't seem like I've been doing this for 13 weeks already, but I guess so! Expect to see shameless promotion on some of the communities because I'm secure enough with this now to share with others. Hopefully it doesn't get yanked as spam. Anyway, this week we got some slight confrontation, a little forward momentum, some more scary Tseng, and general tension. Enjoy!
1 12 14
13
“Oh, look! There’s your bodyguard!” Yazoo said, his green eyes wide. “My, he looks put out, Reno.”
Reno, whose entire world had just narrowed to the naïve and softly spoken sentence, ‘Oh, look! There’s your bodyguard,’ had a little trouble with the follow up, but he got the gist when he looked across the huge space and saw Kadaj coming at him with the same deadly intensity of an enraged bull. It was almost amusing how scary the boy could be, but now wasn’t really the time.
“Yeah, hey, hang on a sec, Cateyes,” Reno said to Yazoo, getting up and tossing his napkin on the table. “I’ll be right back.”
“No, bring him,” Yazoo pleaded, dabbing at his pouty mouth and licking his lips, utterly unaware of himself. “I haven’t spoken to another Cetran in ages! Where is he from? The capital? He has the look of a northerner, like me.”
“Some other time, okay?” Reno soothed him, and he sure as fuck didn’t mean that. The last thing in the world he wanted was for Yazoo and Kadaj to get within detail-distance. “I brought you out for dinner, remember? No tack-ons.”
Yazoo giggled a little and flicked his eyes to where Genesis was holding noisy court. “Okay, you win. No tack-ons.”
Reno met him just in time to intercept Kadaj before he got too close and halted him by grabbing his slender shoulders.
“What are you doing here?” the boy hissed, furious. There was a man behind him whom Reno didn’t recognize, some guy with spiky black hair and concerned blue eyes.
“Who the fuck is he?” Reno asked, momentarily side-tracked.
“Fuck you!” Kadaj eloquently suggested, gritting his teeth but making a concerted effort not to raise his voice and give Reno’s restaurant a bad name. “You lied to me so you could have a date with your best friend’s wife?”
“Hey, you watch your mouth,” Reno told him, ignoring the stranger for now. “I needed a chick around for the opening, Kadaj.”
“You said you couldn’t come!” the boy reminded, his venomous green eyes shooting sparks. “You practically begged me not to come! Is this why? You didn’t want me to see you with that…that slut?!”
“I told you to watch your fucking mouth!” Reno snarled, leaning close to keep their conversation nominally quiet. “You don’t say shit like that about her, okay? She’s worth ten of you, you little fuck, and she never did nothing to deserve being talked about like that!”
“Oh really?” Kadaj asked, and got that cold, scary smile on his face that never boded well. In his own language, he icily asked, “Worth ten of me, is she? Is that what you say about every woman who betrays her husband with his very best friend?”
“Hey, Rufus ain’t no saint himself,” Reno said, calming down a little now that they’d switched to Kadaj’s native tongue. Midgarians couldn’t be bothered to learn another language, so they could say what they liked. “Get your claws into something that’ll fight back, Cateyes—not Yazoo. She’s soft, she ain’t lived like you.”
“But she’s worth more,” Kadaj purred, reminding him of what he’d just said.
“Well…that wasn’t exactly what I meant,” Reno told him. “You just hit the wrong button.”
“To hell with your fucking buttons,” Kadaj spat, and looked away from him to glare at Yazoo, who was looking at him with curiosity mixed with a generous amount of alarm. Very slowly, very deliberately, he said one word. She was too far away from him to hear him, but she read his lips and shrank back, looking horrified and ashamed.
Reno gave his wrist a hard squeeze and growled, “What did I just fucking tell you? Not Yazoo.”
Kadaj jerked his wrist away hard enough that he had to take a step backwards to avoid falling. When he did, he stepped right back into Zack, who steadied him with gentle hands.
“Now, who’s this guy?” Reno demanded, reminded of the man when he moved.
“None of your fucking business,” Kadaj said, and twisted to walk away, his arm around the man’s waist.
“Kadaj!” Reno called, and glowered at him when the boy shot him a triumphant look over his shoulder. “You’d better be in bed when I get home.”
Kadaj smirked and said, “We’ll see whose bed I’m in tonight.”
“I mean it,” Reno warned, hands on hips. He couldn’t do shit about what was happening—not with Yazoo waiting for him and a whole restaurant surreptitiously watching.
“So do I,” Kadaj said, and strutted off with that bewildered man’s arm around his slender waist.
*** Elena saw Kadaj sashay off with that handsome stranger and a heartbeat later she was on her feet. Before Reno could even register that she was coming, she slid up next to him and looped her arm around his waist, pressing against his side and teasing, “Trouble in paradise?”
“Shut up,” Reno told her, his temper short and his look thunderous as his blue eyes watched Kadaj leave.
“He’s a handsome fellow,” Elena remarked, just casually tossing some salt on the wound. She took advantage of his distraction to fit herself tightly to him, snuggling against the lean length of his side. “Wonder what that boy has been up to…”
“Didn’t I tell you to shut up?” Reno asked, looking down at her. He didn’t push her away, they were too public for that, but he didn’t encourage her either. “You wanting a smacked mouth or something?”
“My my, you’re in a bad mood,” Elena laughed, not put off in the least. She looked back and waved at Yazoo, who just weakly returned the wave and immediately dropped her head like she’d been scolded. “I thought you’d be happier, seeing as you’re on a date and all.”
“Where’s all this interest in my personal life coming from?” Reno wondered, aggravated. “First the brat shows up bitching and now you. Ain’t I a lucky guy?”
“Could be luckier,” Elena purred, giving him a sultry smile.
“No thanks, I don’t fuck whores,” Reno said, and stepped away towards his table. “Get back to your dinner, Laney.”
“Good thing Rufus doesn’t mind, huh?” she asked, and her voice was just loud enough that he turned in alarm, coming back to shush her.
“What’re you on?” he whispered harshly, glancing around to see if anyone had marked the odd sentence.
“Nothing,” Elena said, smug. “Just that he told me about it—your affair with his wife. Said he didn’t care, so long as he didn’t have to fuck her.”
Reno’s eyes narrowed and he gave her a hard shake, hissing into her ear, “You wanna keep living in that mansion with servants at your beck and call then I suggest you use your mouth for what it’s good for and leave conversation to the grown-ups, you little bitch. Word travels, Elena, and if I catch wind of you spreading talk I swear to god the best thing you can hope for is being sold to the butchers below the plate, we clear?”
Scowling, Elena jerked away and angrily said, “It isn’t like it’s a secret, Reno! The general public thinks you two have been having an affair for years!”
“You do as I fucking tell you,” he told her, and gave her a shove towards her table. “Now get gone, and don’t bug me again.”
Practically boiling over with anger, Elena gave him one last, fierce look and did as he told her.
*** Tseng watched the drama unfold from his cozy private booth in the upper corner of the restaurant. He’d been intrigued when Reno had arrived with the lovely Mrs. ShinRa on his arm, apparently unconcerned that he was only feeding the rumor that they were lovers. Tseng wondered if they were—she was a lovely woman, and certainly enough to tempt any man, even one of Reno’s peculiar tastes. She didn’t behave like a woman smitten, though, and he took the opportunity to watch her. He’d never had a chance to see her in the flesh and relished the fact that he could look on with impunity, with no one aware of his presence.
She was a jewel on par with Kadaj—every movement was made with that languid, seductive grace that so defined the Jenova line. Her dainty, ring-laden hands gestured just enough to emphasize her words and, occasionally, artfully tucked back a stray coil of silky silver hair that persisted in falling over to tickle her shoulder. He found her more interesting because she utterly lacked the hard, frosty suspicion inherent in every Jenova that Tseng had ever dealt with. He wondered how she could have lived in that household for fourteen years and emerge so…vulnerable.
He finished his dinner and was lingering over his drink when he spied Kadaj making his way through the large, multi-tiered restaurant, as eye-catching in the crowd as a prince among pigs. He leaned forward to watch the sway of the boy’s hips, the slight jostling of the souba only enhancing his strut. Tseng didn’t even see the man walking with him, he was entirely focused on Kadaj. When the boy stopped, Tseng smiled.
Nothing could have helped his cause more than what unfolded before his satisfied eyes—Kadaj finding Reno blatantly flaunting his mistress in public. He even chuckled to see his business partner so caught-out, amused by their argument. It was only once Kadaj left with a stranger’s arm around his waist that Tseng abruptly lost his sense of humor. His dark, jealous eyes watched the boy briskly walk away to be seated, attached to another man’s side as if they were glued together.
Calmly, he concentrated on finishing his drink, but his hand shook a little when it lifted his glass, and the alcohol did nothing to soothe his sudden, dark anger.
Whoever he was, that man would simply have to go…
*** Yazoo was still reeling from that venomous, vicious slur on his honor which that boy—because he was just a boy, he’d seen—had so deliberately inflicted. That single word had only been spoken in his presence one time before, and his mother had explained to him that it was the definition of the worst kind of woman, a woman with no integrity, no value, no respect. In the country of the Cetra love of all kinds was celebrated and encouraged, but one’s family always meant more than one’s personal pleasures. For a Cetran, a person who deliberately slept with another without any regard for their family’s welfare or wishes was reviled as a creature with no honor whatsoever. That was what that boy had called him, an opportunist flouting familial responsibilities. There was no greater insult than that.
He forced himself to look up when Reno slid back into his seat, sitting back with a heavy sigh and asking with a hangdog expression, “You gonna get mad at me, too?”
“What?” Yazoo asked, smiling a little. “No, of course not. Why would I?”
“Just that everyone else is,” Reno muttered. He picked up his fork but tossed it down, asking, “You still eating?”
“No, go ahead,” Yazoo told him, knowing he wanted a cigarette. “I’m not hungry. I eat light in the evenings anyway.”
“Yeah, you look like it,” Reno commented, lighting his smoke and sighing with bliss, his eyes closing briefly. “He upset you?”
“A little,” Yazoo admitted, pushing at his food with his fork, not interested in it despite how delicious it was. After a long silence, he asked, “Why would he say such a thing? He doesn’t even know me.”
“He’s making assumptions, like the rest of Midgar,” Reno said, significantly more calm once he had some nicotine in him.
“I had hoped…” Yazoo trailed off, still shocked and offended and deeply shamed. “I had just hoped that maybe he would want to know me, since we’re both Cetran and there are only a handful of us in your country.”
“You getting lonely?” Reno asked, tapping his ashes into his plate.
“I just miss home,” Yazoo said, thinking of that painting and yearning for his family. He gave Reno a troubled, unsure look and asked, “Does the world really think that I would be such a person?”
Reno laughed a little and asked, “What? Does it bother you that bad, people thinking we’re a thing? Cateyes, ever since you married Rufus the rumor mill has had a heyday about you and me—it’s old hat, baby, don’t worry so much about it. And don’t let him get to you, okay? He takes his guarding duties a little too seriously sometimes.”
“He certainly did seem offended that you were with me,” Yazoo murmured. Trying to lighten his own spirits, he teased, “Perhaps I’m not the only one who needs new friends?”
Reno chuckled and winked at him.
“I wouldn’t trade you for ten of him, Cateyes.”
“Excuse me.”
Yazoo started, taken by surprise to find a man standing right next to their table. He hadn’t even heard the man approach!
“Tseng, hey!” Reno said, standing up to shake his hand. “You should’ve let me know you were coming tonight, I would’ve reserved you a seat!”
“I was seated without trouble,” the man assured him, and turned to bow gracefully to Yazoo. “And is this the lovely Mrs. ShinRa?”
“Yazoo, this is Tseng Si Ming,” Reno said, sitting back down and scooting over a bit to make room. “Tseng, this is Yazoo.”
“I’m very pleased to meet you,” Yazoo said, not at all sure that he was. The pale Wutain man prickled at his senses even more than Reno sometimes did—he was dangerous, it was written in every nuance of his graceful movements and in the depths of his dark eyes. Despite the charming way in which he took Yazoo’s hand and softly kissed it, there was an air of cruelty about him that made Yazoo afraid.
“I have heard much about you, Mrs. ShinRa,” Tseng smoothly said, gently releasing his hand. “But no tale of your beauty has done you justice.”
Yazoo blushed, never one to be comfortable with his own appearance.
“And modest as well,” Tseng murmured, amused.
“Have a seat, we were just about to get some dessert,” Reno said.
“I respectfully decline,” Tseng said, but his dark eyes never stopped scanning Yazoo, taking in the details of his person, cataloguing him like a specimen in a lab. “I just wanted to wish you a very good evening and infringe upon your privacy in order to become acquainted with the renowned and beloved Cetran Swan.”
“You are too kind,” Yazoo breathed, dropping his gaze to his plate so that he wouldn’t be so aware of being watched. Never in his life had he been so thoroughly examined, beheld with such scrutiny—it was as if the man was trying to pry his secret out of his very skin, as if some stray strand of hair or some errant fold of his gown would betray to him Yazoo’s most closely guarded self.
“Reno, I have no wish to further violate your hospitality, but I would greatly enjoy an evening of your company while I am still here in your beloved Midgar.”
“Sure thing, yo,” Reno said, relaxed and easy in his presence, even if Yazoo was not. “You got my number, just give me a call.”
“I will do so,” Tseng said, and delivered another slight, respectful bow. “Goodnight to you both.”
“Goodnight,” Yazoo said, smiling at him even if he didn’t quite look all the way up.
“See ya,” Reno said, giving him a wave. Once Tseng was gone, the man cocked his head and asked, “You okay, Cateyes? You look a little done in.”
“Do you think you could take me home?” Yazoo asked, overwhelmed by too many bad experiences all at once. Reno was right, he was delicate, but he’d been carefully molded by his family to be so, and he had no basis for change.
“Sure thing,” Reno said, and smashed out his cigarette. “Let’s go.”
1 12 14
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaded_grin![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 03:21 pm (UTC)Lovely new episode... poor Kadaj and Yazoo... they are both being played =( *still wants to shoot Rufus*
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 07:16 pm (UTC)Oh my lord, is that an understatement! But typical of someone who's been overcivilized like Yazoo has. (Poor Yazoo, finally sees someone who could maybe relieve some of his homesickness and it's jealous, possessive, troubled Kadaj.)
Zack's sure upsetting things, isn't he? First Reno goes all possessive (not that he has any right to) and then Tseng freaks... in his overly-restrained, completely-scary way.
Lena=skank. 'nuff said.
Loved the update, loved it, loved it, loved it! I'm sitting here, on the edge of my chair, switching between bouncing and biting my nails, wondering what's going to happen.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-27 01:22 pm (UTC)And poor Zack! He didn't even MEAN to get into the middle of things and yet there he is. Without even doing anything he has his boss mad at him and a complete stranger wanting to murder him. All in a day's work for our favorite handyman!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I wrote this at like eight o'clock on Sunday night, freaking out because I had like half a paragraph started! But it's just so FUN :D
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-27 01:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-27 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 11:55 pm (UTC)I really REALLY don’t like Elena! She’s all bad news and I bet she’ll play a vital part when the shit hits the fan. Damn. She's the character you just love to hate!!
Love Tseng! Devil incarnate – and possessive too… Zack is really getting himself into trouble without even knowing it, huh?
no subject
Date: 2009-01-27 07:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-27 01:26 pm (UTC)Elena is, as Etrix put it, a skank, but you're right--I DO love to hate her!
Tseng...*shivers* I dunno where I even get this stuff! Poor Zack had better watch out!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-27 06:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-27 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-27 07:13 am (UTC)So, I don't know what I'm gonna do for plot suggestions next month when the tvs all switch over. I don't think the old b&w rabbit ears we have for the colobus would even support the upgrade, even if we used a coupon. "Yes, our monkeys need their cable...." So, inspired by whichever soap has the guy with the eye patch: pregnancy, either real or a scare. Did ShinRa senior actually get it up one night? I was originally wondering if he could even be the father; maybe Reno finally threw Elena a pity fuck, but not after this chapter. Is Rufus' position secure enough that he won't be concerned? Has Yuffie found herself in a world of trouble? And of course she'll turn to older, comforting Mrs. ShinRa, who certainly will know what to do,right?
no subject
Date: 2009-01-27 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-01 02:03 pm (UTC)Can't wait for an update, I especially want to read what Tseng is up to *mwah*
no subject
Date: 2009-02-02 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 10:46 pm (UTC)Hmmm, and Zack might get lucky tonight... or not so much, if Tseng decides to hunt his ass down. Err, that sounds wrong. Anyhow, off to read the next one!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 10:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-22 05:54 am (UTC)Oh and did Kadaj do his ANGRY walk in that scene? I was watching AC with my partner and I pointed out to him that Kadaj has an "angry disco bitch" walk... like, when he bends over and stomps around XD I totally pictured him doing it in the scene with Reno XD *giggles*
By the way, I hope you don't mind me commenting so often. I figured if it were me I'd be pleased XD plus I mean, it's a soap, it craves discussion!
Oh a suggestion (if it hasn't been fulfilled already): When Reno taunts Elena, it'd be fun if she got aroused as well as angry! ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 12:45 am (UTC)And I love your commenting! It's fantastic, especially when you are as kind and fun as you are and also use those adorable icons *noms the Reno Oh Snap one*
And Elena has her own kinks, I'll see if I can work that one in ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 12:50 am (UTC)Awww :D I wish I had more FF7 icons. I didn't make that Reno one and I forget who did but I credited them somewhere for it. I never remember to get new icons. I made this Garfield one, though XD it's one of my favorites. I need to make some for my upcoming fics.
Oooh, Elena kinks. Yum. I love Elena. <3