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It had been a long day and as Reno walked out of the change rooms and into the communal showers, he was a little taken aback to find Valentine there, head back and eyes closed, ignoring his arrival. Usually their second in command went home to shower, his apartment being only one floor up from the Turk offices. It was a perk he and Rude didn't share, both of them living in separate apartments downtown, but Reno honestly preferred it that way. He spent enough hours in the Shinra tower as it was.
Moving to stand under a shower himself, Reno couldn't resist taking the rare chance to check out the other man as he washed himself, curiosity getting the better of him. As he began to rinse off, his eyes traveled upwards, finally coming to meet red eyes gazing back at him.
"See something you like, Reno?" Valentine murmured, face expressionless before he broke eye contact to rinse out his own hair.
The redhead snorted out a laugh, tilting his head back under the shower and closing his eyes.
"Ya know, modesty's a virtue, Valentine. You should try it some time," he muttered, not ashamed he'd been caught in the slightest. As he finished up, he opened his eyes, almost jumping backwards when he found the other man right in front of him, looking at him with an odd expression.
"Why do you always do that?" Vincent asked, gaze holding firm.
"Do what?" Reno retorted, frowning.
"Call me Valentine. I do have a first name. Why do you insist on ignoring it when I have asked you before not to use my last name?"
Reno mentally squirmed. Valentine bothered him, mainly because Reno could never work out what his true intensions were, and knew virtually nothing about him. Calling him by his first name seemed wrong when Reno had a closer relationship with the janitor than he did with this Turk. The guy had some kind of twisted love/hate relationship going with Tseng and they spent most of their downtime together, only rarely socializing with the other Turks. On the job, Valentine was silent, deadly and more than a little twisted, which made him a great Turk but a pain in the ass to get to know. Even Rude said more to Reno when at work than Valentine did.
"It's just a name," Reno finally answered, wishing they were having this conversation with clothes on. "Don't mean nothing by it."
"You do mean something by it," Vincent replied, his eyes calculating. He reached out a hand to touch the redhead's face, eyes suddenly curious and Reno flinched away from him reflexively. "Are you afraid of me, Reno?"
"No!" Reno retorted, temper rising as the insult he took those words to be. "You're just... unpredictable. I don't like unpredictable."
"Hmm," Vincent replied, hand still hovering in the air between them. "I just wanted to touch the lines under your eyes. I've always wondered, are they scars or tattoos? Touching them would answer that."
It was an obvious lie, as the answer was in Reno's personal file, easily accessible to Valentine. Reno's discomfort grew as he tried to work out what the other man's true intensions were. Unfortunately, his body was working on a different angle from his brain, reacting to the proximity of an attractive male and giving him a rising problem he had no way of hiding while standing completely naked. Maybe Vincent wasn't the only twisted one here after all.
Valentine's eyes moved down Reno's body before returning to his face, his hand moving forward as a smirk curled one side of his lips. Reno managed to keep still while the surprisingly gentle fingers traced one of the marks under his eyes. Vincent suddenly took a step closer without warning and Reno sucked in a breath in surprise, back-stepping only to find the tiles of the wall behind him.
"Is there a problem?" Rude's voice suddenly sounded from the doorway to the change rooms and Reno looked over Vincent's shoulder with wide eyes at his partner's sudden appearance. He felt a sudden stab of guilt and pushed it down. After all, he hadn't done anything wrong... had he?
"No. I was just looking at Reno's marks," Vincent replied, seeming to be unaffected by the other Turk's presence. His hand withdrew slowly, tracing the side of Reno jaw before it fell away. "They are very beautiful, Reno," he purred softly, smirk widening. "And please, call me Vincent in the future, alright?" he asked before turning and walking past Rude without waiting for a response.
Reno stared after him, frowning in confusion. "What the fuck?" he muttered, turning his gaze to Rude and preparing to make a joke about Valentine's strange behavior to break the tension in the room, but the comment died on his lips as he realized Rude wasn't looking back at him anymore.
Well, more accurately, Rude wasn't looking at his face, but was definitely studying another, lower part of his body rather intently.
"Tseng wants to see us both," Rude muttered, voice so full of emotion that it stunned Reno. He sounded angry... and hurt? Okay, so Reno was obviously turned on, but seriously, it wasn't something Rude hadn't seen before. Reno got hard every time he shared the communal showers with Rude too. It never got him anywhere though, Rude usually simply ignoring his obvious attraction and various failed attempts at flirting. Reno had simply assumed Rude was straight, but if that was true, what was with the hurt tone of voice?
"He will be more than you can handle," Rude finally said flatly, voice back to its usual tone. His eyes slowly lifted to give Reno one last eye to eye gaze before he turned to walk back out the door into the change room.
"And you're not?" Reno exclaimed, getting annoyed at Rude's behavior. His partner stopped in place facing away from him, before slowly turning back. "Well, what the fuck is with that look?"
Rude sighed before taking a couple of steps back into the shower area, letting the door close behind him, giving them a measure of privacy.
"I thought you didn't trust him?" Rude murmured, standing stiffly.
"I fucking don't. You think I was enjoying that?" Reno blurted out, temper rising.
Rude's eyes moved back down to the redhead's still half hard erection.
"Oh come on! I get hard every time I shower with you and ya don't see me jumping your bones, do ya?"
Rude looked back up at Reno's face, one eyebrow raising as he crossed his arms.
"Why is that Reno?"
"What?" the redhead spluttered, walking out from under the water to walk up and poke the front of his partner's suit, leaving a wet spot on the dark material. "I don't see you jumping mine either, asshole. What, you wanna be the girl here? Decided the ladies can't give you what you need? Seriously man, I don't pity fuck curious straight guys," he taunted, angry that everyone seemed to be determined to annoy him today. He'd pursued Rude for so long without any success, only to have to put up with this crap?
"You unfamiliar with the term, bi-sexual, Reno?" Rude replied, a small smile on his face.
Reno's eyes narrowed, not believing it for a moment.
"I've been flaunting my naked ass around in front of you for months man, cock up and waving at you like a fucking Midgar Zolom. If ya wanted it, all you had to do was fucking reach out."
"Really?" Rude asked, expression dead serious.
Reno swallowed, anger draining away.
"Yeah, really."
~~~
Vincent buckled up the belt on his pants and pulled on his shirt, watching Tseng as he looked through the glass pain in the door to the showers. He couldn't help but grin, knowing that there was no way he had been wrong about this. By the time he had the buttons done up and was slipping his tie under his collar, Tseng was turning back towards him, frowning.
"Well?" Vincent asked, knotting his tie perfectly while grinning at his boss.
"How did I not see this?" Tseng murmured, still not meeting his eyes.
"You just don't notice the little things when it comes to your subordinates," Vincent replied, turning to pull his jacket out of his locker and shutting the door before slipping it on. Walking over to Tseng, he reached up to pick a piece of lint from his lover's shoulder, the touch all Tseng would allow during business hours.
Sighing, Tseng finally met his eyes, not looking pleased, but he nodded slowly, making Vincent's face bloom into a full smile.
"So you're not going to back out of the bet? You'll finally let me top?" Vincent asked, wanting it confirmed so Tseng couldn't back out of it later.
"I do not break my word," Tseng replied, turning to walk towards the exit door before pausing to glance back over his shoulder. "8pm on the dot. If you are even a minute late, I will not let you in."
Vincent waited until Tseng was out the door before allowing his laughter to surface. There was no way he would be late, no matter if he had to kill to get there on time.
~~~ the end ~~~