jaded_grin | Episode 29

Well, another Monday already! I hope everyone has a fantastic week and that all is well! Things here have finally started to dry out here, and the last of the bad storms has blown over. Thank you to all of you for your kind thoughts and well-wishes, they have meant the world to me and really helped me through! This week's episode was supposed to have been the second half of last week's, due to LJ's post restrictions, but a pal clued me in to how to get around it, so now the episodes can be the length that I actually intend them to be :D And also this time I can bring you more artwork by Bela! She has some amazing pieces at her journal here, so please check them out if you're interested! Thumbnails within the cut are not safe for work, but they ARE thumbnails, so click for larger view!

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Rufus hated his father, he was certain of it.

Firstly, the old man had the utter, outstanding gall to call in sick to being President in both of his capacities.

Secondly, he had shown his doubt in his own son by naming that asshole Lazard as his successor—and boy howdy had Rufus taken umbrage at that.

Thirdly, he had the conceit to be holding a job that kept him (and now Rufus) at work until late in the evening.

If that wasn’t annoying as all bloody hell, Rufus wasn’t really sure what was.

He came home to a mutely lit house, no sign of his “wife” anywhere, no sign of that annoying little twit, Marlene. His own twit was waiting on him, sprawled out in his den watching television and munching on some snacks that Beth had sent up.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked sourly, jerking his tie off and tossing it down with his briefcase—which was full of contracts, memos, and statements that required his signature.

Denzel nodded emphatically, and said around a mouthful of costly caviar, “Beth said she’d bring ya a tray, Sir, if you was hungry!”

“Well, have her bring it up!” Rufus snapped, heading towards his dressing room. “Where is Yazoo?”

“She’s gone out, Sir,” Denzel said, chewing noisily. “Mister Reno came by and got her. He dropped you off a note on his way, said don’t wait up.”

Rufus laughed humorlessly and took the note from Denzel’s grubby hand.

It read:

Rufus,

Got Cateyes out, don’t look for her until late.

Denzel,

If you read private notes to Rufus again, I’m gonna fucking kill you.

Reno

Rufus laughed and asked, “Did you get that part about him killing you?”

Denzel nodded again and grinned, saying, “He always says that.”

“You really need to learn to mind your own business,” Rufus said, brows drawn. He headed back to change his clothes while Denzel scrambled after him, crowing, “Oh, I will, Sir! As soon as you do!”

“Ass,” Rufus sighed, and thought about his plan while he changed.

Pretty soon, he would have those holdings in Wutai with no way to trace anything back to him. Yazoo would always believe that Reno had blackmailed him, and would never say anything to his family about it from shame of having been so easily swindled. If they bothered to trace it back, they would find everything done through Reno’s book-keeper in Dai Jiao, and from what Rufus had heard of that guy, even the crazy Jenovas wouldn’t fuck with him.

Either way it went, unless Reno dimed him out, nothing would ever point back to Rufus. He would wind up set for life through Yazoo’s family, both through his stipend and the things in Wutai, and he would have a very complacent, quiet wife who would no longer bitch at him about his hobbies.

A smile crossed his face when he thought of said hobbies. It had been awhile since he’d last had some company over, and even though he’d sworn to himself that Yazoo’s secret was too delicate to put in jeopardy, he reasoned that such a thing had only happened once out of so many times, and it wasn’t likely to happen again.

He finished changing, leaving Denzel to pick up the mess, and got out his cell phone, dialing Reno’s office line. It switched to the desk in the foyer of his home and the girl on duty there.

“It’s Rufus,” he said, without preamble. “Send someone over.”

“Right away, Sir,” came the soft reply, and Rufus hung up with a wide, happy grin.

“Get your hands off of me!” Scarlet snarled, rounding on the smaller woman, bending a little to get into Elena’s face.

“Listen, lady! I can’t leave here!” Elena shouted, and the movers had stopped to stare at them, eyes wide. “Ronald owes me mon—”

“He owes you a kick in your backside, you little tramp!” Scarlet hissed, eyes narrowed. “Don’t you ever say that Ronald owes you anything!”

“I will not be dictated to by some upper-plate, blue-blooded bitch!”

Scarlet slapped her hard across the cheek, trembling with anger, and lowly said, “Don’t presume to know me, you trumped up, overpaid whore. I’ve been places and seen things that would make you piss in your designer panties.”

Elena couldn’t have been more shocked if Ronald himself had turned and hit her. She couldn’t quite believe that an old woman was trying to get the best of her! Furious, she launched herself at Scarlet and they clashed in a flurry of outraged shrieks.

Though she’d grown up beneath the plate, Reno had found Elena before she’d even become a teenager—from then on she’d been reared as a debutante in the making, and never once had she been forced to defend herself.

Scarlet, however, was another matter entirely.

She had Elena by the hair and was ready to take her to the ground when the furious outburst was suddenly interrupted. Panting, both women paused, fingers still entangled in each others hair, nails poised to scratch, enraged scowls on both of their faces

Ronald ShinRa looked at the two women of his life. In a low, perplexed voice, he asked, “What on earth is going on in here?”

Reeve Tuesti was in trouble.

It wasn’t police trouble. It wasn’t debt trouble. It wasn’t artist’s block.

For whatever unusual reason, he was having man trouble.

And the strangest thing was, he’d been fairly certain that he’d made his position clear—no Genesis Rhapsodos, ever!

“You have such an odd look on your face just now, are you ill?” Genesis inquired, head cocked. He’d paid the dining bill without so much as a flinch.

Reeve had nearly choked on his far too expensive wine, and the waiter had pounded him on the back until he’d gotten control of his sputtering.

“No,” he said, wondering where he’d gone wrong. Firmly, he said, “Mister Rhapsodos—”

“Darling, for the thousandth time, call me Genesis!” the man corrected. “Mister Rhapsodos is my father—and may his skin shrivel up and fall off like that of his precious fucking apples.”

“Uh…” Reeve managed, weirded out by the odd statement. “Look, Mister Rhapsodos—”

“Reeve, dear,” Genesis said, his voice mild, his eyes half-lidded. “Darling, if you insist on calling me Mister Rhapsodos, then I shall be forced to call you Sugar Bunny instead of Reeve, and we don’t want that, darling, do we?”

Reeve found himself sputtering again, horrified.

“Now, shall we start over?” Genesis inquired.

Reeve cleared his throat and stiffly said, “Genesis—”

“Yes, dear?”

“—we aren’t a couple, you do understand this, correct?” he tried.

Genesis blinked lazily at him and purred, “Of course, darling.”

Reeve took a deep, relieved breath.

“But we’re getting there,” Genesis said, and smiled at Reeve’s crestfallen defeat.

“Ronald!” Elena cried, trying to look the wounded party…it was admittedly tough, considering that she had her fingernails poised to scratch the other woman, but she was a born manipulator and she wouldn’t go down without a fight. “Ron, who is this woman? What is she doing here? Are you alright? I was trying to find you and I co—”

“Oh, shut up,” Scarlet said, and shoved the smaller woman away from her.

“Scarlet,” Ronald said, his voice soft. His big, sad eyes were on Elena, his expression equal parts grim and longing.

“Ronald,” Elena tried again, shaking at the thought of being returned to Reno’s home. “Please, I don’t want to go! He’ll hurt me if I have to go back to him, don’t you understand? Please!”

His round shoulders slumped a little. Clearly, he’d been hoping that she would claim love as her shelter, would say that she needed him—even if it was a lie.

“I’ve made my decision,” he lowly said, unhappy with it, but having to make a break with what they had. “I will make arrangements with Reno for you to go home.”

“Ron! The money you gave me! He wants it!” Elena pushed, her fear making her graceless, making her frightened even before Scarlet’s assessing eyes. “He wants you to pay him for me or else he’s going to kill me!”

Ronald’s brows drew down in a frown and he reminded, “Elena, I already paid the money, you have it.”

“He took it,” she said, her voice high with panic. “He took it out of my account and says you need to pay him directly! Ron! You have to do this! After everything I’ve done for you—”

“The only thing you’ve done for Ronald is make him poorer,” Scarlet snapped.

Ronald flinched at that, and his mouth tightened just a bit.

“Please,” Elena pleaded, wondering in the back of her mind just what in the hell she would do now. “You can’t do this, I…I’m pregnant!”

Yazoo was chastened and quiet on the way back home, and Reno seemed oddly silent himself, which only made Yazoo glad that he hadn’t made a fool of himself even more than he already had. It was bad enough that he’d dressed like a streetwalker, he didn’t need to compound his stupidity with an offer Reno had no desire to receive.

They arrived back at the house and Yazoo murmured thanks to the guard who helped him out of the limo, starting a little when Reno turned up at his side to take his arm.

“You surely have better things to do than see me inside,” he said, and thought of Tifa, thought of any one of the hundreds of women he’d seen Reno with over the years.

The man shrugged a little and smiled at him, his blue eyes solemn when he said, “You seem a little upset, so I thought I’d come in and keep you company for awhile.”

“You don’t have to,” Yazoo said, blushing and dropping his gaze, but that only forced him to look at his awful dress. He decided that he would give it to Yuffie. With some altering it would look quite stunning on the young woman, and the style would suit her better than it did himself. He had no need to make a display of himself.

No one wanted to see it.

“I want to,” Reno said, and opened the door, taking Yazoo into the parlor where he promptly plopped down in one of the chairs and asked, “What’s wrong, Cateyes?”

“Nothing,” Yazoo said, shaking his head a little, brows drawn. He reached up and took the pins out of his hair, tossing the long, silver pieces down in a porcelain bowl, letting his heavy silver hair tumble down around his shoulders. “It’s nothing, really, I just…I just remembered something, that’s all.”

“Something? Something like what?” Reno questioned.

Yazoo started to stammer a lie, but when he turned his head he was painfully reminded that he hadn’t taken his choker off, and winced as it pulled his long hair.

“Oh, this stupid choker!”

Reno glanced up, curious, and came to help him.

“What is it?” he asked. “Cutting off your air or something?”

“No,” Yazoo sighed, thoroughly put out with the piece of jewelry and still irritated that he’d made such a spectacle of himself. “It’s always tangling in my hair. I always forget to take it off before I let my hair loose. Damn it all, anyway…”

“Here, knock that off,” Reno said, watching him tear loose a few strands of silver hair. “Here, quit. I’ll fix it, you stop.”

Yazoo dropped his hands with another sigh of frustration, cheeks rosy with shame at his own ludicrous actions this evening. Imagine, someone like him having a lover! The sheer silliness of it should’ve alerted him straight away.

Reno worked in concentrated silence, freeing Yazoo’s tangled hair from the clasps and links of his diamond choker. His fingers were deft and light and strangely gentle. Yazoo blushed, a little discomfited by his nearness when things had been so strange between them. It didn’t help that the soft brush of his fingers lifted goosebumps on his skin, and he firmly reminded himself that all of this nonsense was in his imagination. Reno didn’t want him, he was just a friend. Just a friend.

“There,” Reno said, lifting the heavy mass of Yazoo’s hair over one smooth shoulder to bare the nape of his neck. His fingers were warm when they undid the clasp and eased the choker off of Yazoo’s neck. “Here you go.”

“Thank you,” Yazoo murmured, his head down. When Reno held the choker over his shoulder, Yazoo took it in his palm but didn’t quite know what to do. He felt weak and ridiculous, nothing at all like the confident woman who had flirted with Reno at the restaurant. He just silently wished the man would leave so that he could go up to his room, take off this horrid dress, and go to sleep.

“It scratched you, Cateyes,” Reno whispered, and stroked the pink seam of irritated skin along the nape of Yazoo’s neck.

Yazoo’s blush deepened, and then his big jade eyes widened even more in stunned surprised when Reno softly kissed the spot, the moist play of his lips sending tingles down Yazoo’s slender spine.

“Stop it!” he softly cried, clutching his hands to his chest in sudden fear and bewilderment, but Reno’s strong hands easily slid up to cup his clenched fists and hold him still.

“Just a kiss, Cateyes,” he said, sounding amused as he cradled Yazoo’s body against his own lean belly and hard chest. His breath whispered in Yazoo’s hair, the tickling sensation only adding to the young man’s confusion. “Just a kiss to make it better.”

“Stop it,” he whispered again, not understanding and utterly discomfited. Was this just Reno showing him pity? Was he just trying to make him feel less like a freak? The young man couldn’t fathom why Reno would touch him so, not when he only liked women and knew that Yazoo was anything but.

Reno chuckled behind him and remarked, “You act like nobody has ever kissed you, Yazoo.”

Yazoo ducked his head and tried to pull away again, defeated by Reno’s greater strength, embarrassed to the core of himself and trying to maintain some sense of decorum.

“Hey,” the man said, stilling him and turning him in his embrace, holding Yazoo in a familiar, easy grip. He got two fingers under Yazoo’s lowered chin and forced his head up, though his jade eyes stayed resolutely downcast. “Yazoo, I’m just playing with you.”

Yazoo’s cheeks flamed with renewed heat and he jerked his head away, straining away from Reno’s warm, lithe body.

“Stop that, sweetheart,” the man lowly laughed, managing to slip his arms more tightly around Yazoo’s corseted waist and hold him in such a way that the young man was certain he would simply die of embarrassment.

“Please, Reno, let go of me,” he stammered. He lifted his delicate hands to Reno’s shoulder, the diamond choker sparkling against the dark material of the man’s expensive suit. “Please let go of me, you’re jus teasing me and I—”

“I told you I wanted to at the cages, Yazoo,” Reno said, and tipped his head down to nibble on Yazoo’s sensitive throat.

Yazoo gasped, fingers clenching and then opening in nerveless shock, the choker dropping to the floor.

“You were just trying to make me feel better,” he mewled, feeling tears rise, though he didn’t know why. He should be happy! This was what he wanted…wasn’t it?

Reno’s mouth just grazed its way up to Yazoo’s ear to suck on his pierced lobe.

“Please don’t,” Yazoo whispered, adrift and afraid. He closed his eyes and a spill of tears washed down his perfect cheeks but his body was warm in Reno’s arms. He couldn’t reconcile what he knew of Reno with what was happening. Against all evidence of his preferences, Reno was actually touching him like he…like he wanted Yazoo.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Reno soothed, cupping his head to kiss away those tears. “I’ll be careful with you, Cateyes…”

Yazoo swallowed a sob, trembling in his arms as the man’s mouth lingered over his delicate eyelids, kissing the welling tears away. It terrified him and yet he’d gone so long without any human contact that he would’ve wept harder if Reno had listened to him and stopped. It was that same lack of human contact for nine long years that made it so terrifying to him, and he shuddered in an agony of indecision.

Reno decided for him, as he had so many times before over the long years of their acquaintance. The man’s lush mouth moved from Yazoo’s eye and covered his lips, his warm tongue sliding between them, forcing Yazoo’s mouth wide beneath his.

Yazoo shivered once and relaxed against him, tilting his head uncertainly, curling his fingers into the lapels of Reno’s jacket. Reno’s mouth was warm and wet, his lips moving and coaxing Yazoo’s own, his hot tongue teasing Yazoo’s. The slender young man trembled with discovery, every nerve in his body suddenly on fire, suddenly alive in ways that he’d never known could happen.

Eyes closed, he followed Reno’s lead and kissed him back, innocent but hungry, mimicking Reno’s devouring movements. He’d never felt anything like it in his life, and shuddered hard when one of Reno’s slender hands pressed against the small of his back, pulling Yazoo firmly against him. He felt the man’s body like a burning brand, scorching and liable to scar him, but he pushed himself towards it in helpless response.

Reno made a low, purring sound against his lips and that hand dropped to cup Yazoo’s taut, round backside, forcing him more firmly against the hard curve of his groin.

Yazoo felt it and gasped, his only experience being with his own body, which seemed foreign and strange to him. Yet it was undeniably arousing, and his body fought the constriction of its bindings, ached to fall into its natural place with such force that it was almost pain.

“Mmm…” Reno sighed, breaking the kiss but keeping his lips against Yazoo’s own parted ones. “See what you did to me, Cateyes? One kiss and I want you this bad.”

Yazoo made a helpless, urgent little noise, so outside of his realm of experience that he had no idea what to do.

“Don’t worry, Yazoo,” Reno promised, and both hands squeezed his bottom through his dress. “I got what you need.”

He easily lifted Yazoo up in his arms bridal-style and carried him through the suspiciously empty hallway towards the stairs. When he looked up, Rufus was watching them from the landing.

Reno gave him a long, meaningful look and the man smiled, tipping his hand in silent salute before fading back into the shadows.

Yazoo, his face pressed to Reno’s throat in bewildered, excited shock, never saw his husband’s complicity in his affair. He was aware of nothing but the scent of Reno’s skin and the silky texture of his suit. He didn’t even notice when the man easily mounted the stairs with him as if he weighed nothing at all. It was only once the door to his bedroom closed behind them that Yazoo began to question himself, but his protests were stifled by Reno’s hungry mouth until he couldn’t remember what he was supposed to be worried about anymore.

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"Dunno"

"Love Trance"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

zilldk.livejournal.com

Oooooohhhh I STILL want to slap Rufus!!!! Damn he needs to get his ass kicked so bad it's not even funny!

And I still don't know what to think of Reno's part in this. He seems like it's more than just business, and knowing his shemale fetish it could be, but... Yeah, lemme kick his ass just a little for dragging Yazoo into a scandal just in case...

Yay for catfight!!! And Elena... That was a low blow!!! Well, Ronald, drag her to a doctor and don't let her out of your sight until the test has been done! If she's lying... *Hands over nail-file to Scarlet*

And poor Reeve. Hehe I'm still not even sure he's into guys, but on the other hand... Who can resist Genesis in the end? :D

From:

Otherwise known as the journal of Jaded Grin

Episode 29

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