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Most of the greenery was fake. Trees and branches, garlands and wreaths… these were hard to come by in the city. Elena had been trying to keep a pathetic little poinsettia alive for weeks now, and she was slowly losing the battle. It probably didn't help that Reno secretly emptied the dregs of his coffee into the pot, which also served as an ashtray when Elena wasn't looking.
Cissnei, more practically, had placed a fake wreath on the wall of her station. Reno and Rude used it to play darts from the other side of the room, but she didn't really mind, and a number of sharpened objects remained lodged in the wall through its center hole. She was sure, however, to keep her shuriken out of Reno's sight.
Tseng's one capitulation to the season was a red tie that he occasionally wore, when appropriate. But though most Turks ignored the seasons altogether. One time of year was the same as any other when death and destruction were in the job description no matter what month it was.
Most Turks were out on some assignment or other, but Reno and Rude had drawn the short straw and remained in the offices writing reports, which meant that Rude loomed over the computer threatening the words into submission while Reno slept on Elena's desk, a spent cigarette dangling from lax, nicotine-stained fingers.
Well, he pretended to sleep. Rude was smart enough to know Reno's state of consciousness at all times, and Reno was smart enough to know when he was being watched.
Despite his inert form, Reno broke the silence with, "Whaaaat? What is it? You've been looking at me sideways all afternoon."
"I'm going home for the holiday." Rude said. "You wanna come?"
Reno cracked opened his eyes.
Rude went on, "My Auntie 'Sario keeps pestering me to bring a girlfriend." He grunted, which was one of few ways Rude was known to express amusement. "I haven't had a girlfriend since sixth grade. She thought I could bring someone from work."
"Your… Auntie?"
"Yeah."
"All right," Reno said.
"All right?"
"Yeah."
"Sure?"
"I'll come," Reno promised, sitting up to bang his heels against the desk. "…What? What is it now? You're looking at me funny again."
"Didn't think you'd say yes," Rude told him, black glasses aimed back at the computer screen. "Not so quick."
"Truth is," Reno admitted, "there's a Yuletide tradition I've been trying to get out of for years."
Rude grunted, in either curiosity or disinterest.
"So where's home?" Reno asked, finally having a reason to.
"Other side of Kalm."
"No shit. And you always go home for the holidays?"
"Mostly," Rude said, thinking back to a dark Eve three years earlier and how he spent it sitting beside Reno's hospital bed.
=
That evening, Reno insinuated himself into the chair on the other side of Tseng's desk, despite having no reason to be there. Tseng resolutely ignored him, but Reno was surprisingly patient, and did little aside from smoke cigarettes and stare at the ceiling.
When Tseng finished his work, Reno was still there, quiet and sullen the way he never was around Rude, and so they left together and ended up in one of the many bolt-holes the Turks had scattered throughout the city. It was a small, but well furnished room, and as well-stocked with liquor as it was with first aid supplies.
There were no windows, but a large illuminated screen showed alternating images of what Reeve's team must have thought to be calm, relaxing places and the men stared morosely at it from where they sat in dark, overstuffed chairs, glasses of amber liquid in hand.
"Reno," Tseng finally said, "you're worrying me. I've never seen you go so long without insulting someone, let alone without speaking."
Reno ran a hand through messy red hair and shrugged. "Gonna have to bail on you."
"Bail?" Tseng asked, completely baffled.
"I'm goin' to visit with Rude's family. For Solstice."
This pronouncement took some time to settle in the air between them.
"Oh," Tseng finally said.
"I don't like to leave you alone," Reno admitted, draining his glass in a single go and coughing lightly. "But maybe you should do something else for the night, aside from getting totally wasted and passing out on my floor."
"I only did that once."
"Once was enough, man; you know I'm not gonna let you live that one down." They sat in silence, Tseng spending the time trying to avoid Reno's gaze. Reno finally said, "I know what you did the year I was in the hospital. Stupid bastard."
"It could have ended… poorly," Tseng acknowledged.
"Listen," Reno said, leaning forward with -- possibly -- the most serious expression he'd ever worn without a weapon in his hand. "You keep doing stupid shit, you're gonna end up in a ditch somewhere."
Tseng shrugged and didn't look up.
Reno performed the nervous-hand-through-hair motion again. "I always thought I was so fucked up, until I met you."
"Rude's had a calming influence on you," Tseng pointed out.
"And Rufus has only made you the most paranoid person I know," Reno countered. "And I swear to your deity of choice that if you don't say something to him soon, I will lock you in a closet together."
"You wouldn't," Tseng said flatly, knowing that Reno most certainly would, and not a shred of conscience would he struggle with before, during, or after.
"This ain't a time of year to be alone, and I'm gonna be with Rude this year. So, you go to him, bring a fancy fucking bottle of wine and for all I care you can fall asleep on his couch instead of mine, but you aren't going to a fucking brothel or some dive even worse than the ones in Wall Market. And if I think for a second that's what you're gonna do, I will set Elena on you."
"You wouldn't," Tseng said again.
"Right," Reno answered, which wasn't any kind of an answer. "Rufus cares about you."
"He cares about having a right-hand man who knows what the fuck he's doing," Tseng corrected him.
"He really likes that shitty flower wine," Reno told him.
=
Rude had signed out a company car with a large trunk and Reno had -- with a great deal of bemusement -- helped him load a pile brightly wrapped presents into it.
Generally, they could not agree on music, so as they left the city they did so with the radio tuned to something neither liked but both could tolerate.
Reno wanted to ask Rude about his family.
Rude wanted to ask Reno about the holiday tradition he'd so blithely mentioned.
Instead, Reno rattled on about Reeve's shenanigans and Rude grunted in all the right places.
The landscape around them dwindled from mostly buildings to mostly nothing and then finally, all nothing. When Reno ran out of impetus for his one-sided conversation, they rode with only the nondescript music between them.
=
Rude pulled off the main drag and they followed a long, straight dirt road for almost an hour until they reached a sprawling and somewhat ramshackle collection of buildings that Reno -- if forced to call it anything -- would have called a farm.
As Rude parked beside a tractor, a screen door in the longest, homiest building banged open and approximately a dozen children and half as many dogs spilled out of it.
"You might want to be standing up when they get here," Rude advised as he climbed out of the car.
Reno eased out too, and they barely had time to close the car doors before the roaring mass of barks and shouts reached them.
Reno found himself playfully assaulted by the dogs while Rude had at least four children hanging off him as they screamed at the tops of their lungs, "Ru! Ru! Ru! Uncle Ru!"
"Oh! Ack! You got me!" Rude admitted defeat and was soon laid full-length on the dusty ground, only half visible under the pile of dusty children, who shrieked with delight.
Reno watched all this with some bewilderment and then looked up to the door, from which the adults had begun to trickle out.
"Dustin! Stop that right now!"
"Freesia, get off of your uncle..."
"Emmon, for heaven's sake, get your sister out from underneath Dustin."
A few teenagers reached them and began pulling children off the pile.
Rude stood up with one child hanging from his back as he hugged and kissed the older kids.
Rarely had Reno felt more out of place as he stood with long arms held awkwardly at his sides, biting his lower lip. Most of the new faces swirling around him fell somewhere in the hue of caramel, and sported black hair that ranged from frizzy to wire straight.
One little boy, however, had sun-tanned skin and sun-bleached blonde hair and he stared up at Reno with curious green eyes.
"Hey, kid," Reno said.
The boy put his finger in his mouth and edged away, back into the swirling mass of people.
Introductions flew around him and Reno was soon pulled into the mass. He matched names to faces with his sharp mind, but had to employ every shred of control not to lash out at the arms that enfolded him, the hands that took his, the faces that leaned in close to kiss his cheek.
Rude should have warned him, or… well, or something. Reno looked down when a small hand wormed its way into his and he smiled creakily down at a little girl.
There were too many voices to keep track of; only rarely could he pick out Rude's low rumble as they were ushered toward the farmhouse.
Reno was made to take off his shoes and suit coat and then to sit on a long couch that was suddenly piled with children pulling at his hair and exclaiming over his tattoos while he eyed what had to be the largest pine tree they could have fit into the place. It scraped the ceiling and dripped with hundreds of handmade ornaments. A fire burned steadily in a long fireplace beneath a mantle loaded with picture frames and lopsided clay figures made by small fingers.
He accepted a mug of coffee from the rangy teen named Emmon, who then set off to break up a fight between a brother and sister. Somewhere, a baby's cry rang out and two people hurried off in one direction while a small pack of children broke off to play with the dogs. A woman named Lorel pestered several of the teenagers to go back to their chores and then chased off most of the rest until she could sit next to Reno, throw an arm about his shoulders, and kiss his cheek, as many of the other women and older girls had upon his arrival.
"Well, I can see by the vacant, shocked expression that he didn't warn you. Rude was never very good at that sort of thing."
Reno blinked owlishly at her a moment before he offered, "Your name is… Lorel?"
"Yes, Rude's sister-in-law. I married his baby brother, Rocko." She then pointed to a group of children stacking firewood at the grill. "Those three are mine."
"Dayu, Shyla, and Freesia?" Reno remembered.
"Very good! I'm impressed."
"I've a head for things like that," Reno said.
"Auntie 'Sario will like that; ah, there she is."
Lorel stood and Reno swiftly followed suit as an older woman approached. Dark lines marked her chestnut-brown face and her eyes were deep like the earth. She was unhurriedly wiping floured hands on a pale apron and she studied Reno intently as she approached. Like Rude, Reno was taller than most, but he found his height no advantage here, for the woman stared up at him with the judgment of a goddess.
"You're him, then," she said.
Reno had no idea what he was supposed to say, and he briefly caught Rude's eye where he stood in the corner still greeting his relatives. Rude offered an unapologetic shrug and elbowed the person next to him.
Reno suspected this was all some sort of joke, but he had no idea what the punchline was supposed to be.
"Guess I am," he said, offering his hand in the most gentlemanlike gesture he could muster.
The old woman stared at him. She did not accept his hand, but turned away and said, "Come with me, then."
So Reno followed her. Across the great den and down a hallway, around running children, under hanging branches, and into a kitchen occupied by a number of people cutting and chopping and stirring and tasting and laughing.
"Out," Auntie 'Sario told them all, and she didn't have to say it twice.
They evacuated like the kitchen was on fire, leaving Reno to his fate.
"Sit," she said, indicating a row of abandoned stools.
So Reno set his coffee on the counter and he sat.
She pushed a vegetable on a cutting board at him with a knife and made a firm gesture. "You slice."
"Uh, okay," Reno gamely agreed, wiping his hands on a rag before attempting the task.
Auntie 'Sario began kneading a lump of pale dough she'd pulled from a bowl. "I am Rosario, Rude's mother's eldest sister. This is my house, and all the land you see around it, that is mine, too."
"It's uh… nice."
"Rude is dear to me, especially since my Adler passed: three years ago, he lost his arm in a thresher and could not be saved. All my three sisters, they are dead, too. Only Thanos, Watimu's husband, still lives, and he does so in Costa del Sol where the sun shines. My Lilla left the farm, too, like Rude. The others -- my nieces and nephews -- have stayed, with their own children. We all work and live here. We are a family, yes? And Rude, when he comes, he brings the energy of Midgar's Shinra with him, like a green sun, to shine on us briefly here."
Reno can't tell if that's supposed to be good or bad.
"He comes for the Winter Solstice, but that is all. When Nadia's Nasiim brought Riva home to marry, Rude did not come. When Riva birthed a healthy girl, and we celebrated this birth of Yvelle, he did not come. When we buried Adler, and Souzan wept, Rude did not come. Freesia cries for him, at night, and asks, 'Why can not Rude come?' We do not have any answer for her. We can only say, 'He must work. He must do his work for the Shinra man, so that we can eat through the lean seasons.' She is too young to understand. I, I am old now. I understand. That does not mean I like it. And is it so important, what Rude does for the Shinra man? You are his partner, you tell me."
"You know what he is, don't you?" Reno asked, the vegetable lying neatly sliced before him.
"They say a name," she admitted. "I've heard it whispered in fear. I told myself, this is not a thing my Rude can do. Not even for his family. Not even for a great man, and the things I hear-- the Shinra man must be a great man, yes?"
"Yes," Reno says, not because it's true. It isn't, but it isn't wrong either.
"Good. You tell me about him."
"Uh…"
"Not now. Now, you tell me: is Rude happy in his work."
"I think so."
"That is all? You think so?"
"We've been partners for going-on seven years," Reno told her. "That doesn't mean he makes his confessions to me. Till last week, I didn't even know he had a family."
"He has always played things close, my Rude. He tells us stories sometimes about this man Reno, with fire in his hair and lightning on his cheeks, and we feel this is good, for Rude to have such a man to depend on. But never has he brought a person. Every year since he is seventeen I tell him, 'We only see you this one time a year, but we know nothing of your life in the city-- there must be someone you have who is close, who can share some part of your life. Bring this person to know us and our family will grow'."
"Uh…"
"Never before has Rude done this thing, allowed a person so close. You are good to him, yes?"
"I think so, but--"
"And he is good to you?"
"Yes, but--"
"You work together, protect each other; I know this is good as well. But I think you do not see the eyes he hides from the world. They are his tells, like in poker-- he cannot play; I always watch him lose to his cousins. And when he speaks of the city and all the things in it, we hear his words but I always watch his eyes, for that is where the truth lives, and I have seen the truth in his eyes when he speaks of this man Reno, who is beside him so faithfully when times and history dictate such things to be rare. And when he speaks of this Reno with the fire and lightning, I see the sun in Rude's eyes."
Reno swallowed. "Gee, that's nice." He couldn't even tell what his own voice sounded like. Was that sarcasm? Fear? He thought he understood, but he really didn't want to.
"Three years ago, our Rude did not come home. His letter says there is a thing that has happened. His presents come to us on a transport two weeks late, and nothing else do we hear from him. What was this thing, to keep Rude from his only family?"
Three years ago, Reno thought, when her own son had died. Three years ago, when Reno's first sight upon waking from extensive surgery was Rude's naked eyes.
"I, uh… there was an accident. The doctors didn't know if they could fix me up okay. Rude was there when I woke up."
Auntie 'Sario nodded. "I think he does not say more than he has to, like you. You have no one else?"
That's not the sort of thing Reno talked about, not to strangers or to Tseng or to anyone.
"No," he said. "Just Rude."
Auntie 'Sario nodded. "The soup will boil over if we leave it any longer. Go back to the family and tell the cooks to come in; we eat well tonight."
Reno stood. "We are what the whispers say. Men like us don't deserve your hope." Reno didn't want to have the last word, but it was necessary and he retreated as quickly as he could.
=
Reno didn't know what he'd expected. Maybe a set of dour parents that would tower over him and glare disapprovingly. Maybe a tough-guy brother and some hellish in-laws. He hadn't expected anything like this.
Though he must have appeared visibly shaken, Rude didn't say anything, just left Reno to the children's devices, and the girls soon had him sitting on the floor wearing a tiara, three necklaces, and a ring (all plastic) in the midst of a game called Prettiest Princess, which -- he was informed with high-pitched squeals -- he was winning.
His fingers tapped skittishly at the frayed carpet he sat on until he was declared the official winner. Rude finally condescended to rescue him before the girls could get their plastic combs and pink barrettes near Reno's irresistible hair, though anyone with a deal of sense knew he'd have a red nest of bows atop his head before the week was out.
Reno followed Rude through the house and out the slamming screen door into the dusty road.
Rude stalked calmly toward the car, but Reno sped along beside him, hissing, "What were you thinking?! Bringing me out here without any kind of a warning? You've got more'n two dozen relatives in that house, and the matriarch just marched me through her very own inquisition in the kitchen!"
"You survived," Rude told him as he unlatched the trunk and proceeded to stack boxes into Reno's unresisting arms, draping bags over his fingers.
"No, dude, you don't get it; I can't survive this place until the weekend-- it's gonna be five days of madness till then and I'm like to bite someone's head off before nightfall."
"You won't," Rude said, hefting his own load and turning back to the house. "They love you."
"Yeah, I can't figure that out either, I mean: what the fuck!?"
"Watch your language," Rude told him as they mounted the porch steps and a girl rushed over, screaming, "Presents!" as she burst out to hold the door for them.
The two men were swiftly unloaded and the mostly empty space under the tree was quickly filled.
"What is it?! What is it?!"
"Did you get me the foam-gun?"
"Is it a dolly? I want a dolly!"
"Uncle Ru! Did you get me a new skirt?"
Rude smiled and shooed them away, except for Freesia, who he hefted easily into strong arms. She wrapped little arms around his neck and rested her head against his shoulder, looking shyly at Reno.
"You're very pretty," she told him.
"Thanks, kiddo," Reno said. "So are you."
She smiled and hid her face, and Rude gave him such a soft look, Reno had to look away.
=
Not everyone could fit in the dining room, so they ate and served in shifts. After dessert, while some cleaned up the kitchen, others prepared the children for bed, and the teenagers were made to take out the garbage. Chores on the farm were unending, but Reno and Rude were not expected to help until the next day; it seemed they got a break after traveling. So they sat together on the couch, Freesia curled up beside Reno, who had tied her purple ribbon to the end of a messy red braid, and Rude holding baby Yvelle while Riva and Nasiim were busy with their own duties. The quiet blond boy, Carle, sat beside them.
A muscle twitched in Rude's jaw and as soon as they had a spare moment, he turned to ask Reno, "How are you holding up?"
"How do I look?"
"Overwhelmed."
"Well, there you go," Reno said with a shrug, wary of dislodging the sleeping girl leaning on him.
"Let's take the kids to bed," Rude said.
"Yeah, all right."
=
Reno and Rude slept in an attic in one of the outbuildings. It had clearly had many occupants over the years that had left their marks behind them, and the space still served partially as storage with boxes stacked in one end. But there were two narrow beds flanking the jalousie window. Neither was quite long enough for a tall man. Rude laid on his stomach, feet sticking off the end, and Reno curled up tight like a cat, red hair streaming over the mattress's edge.
Rude closed his eyes and to all appearances was making a good go of trying to fall asleep. Reno's bright eyes surveyed the room with only the moonlight from the one window to light the place. A bedside table with a drawer missing its handle held his goggles and a sturdy Shinra water bottle. The coffee table next to Rude's bed had an uneven leg with folded cardboard stuck under to keep it from wobbling. Its surface was scarred by every imaginable scratch and spill.
An ancient dartboard hung on the wall, surrounded by a full five square feet of wooden wall pitted with years of missed darts. Broken picture frames, forgotten toys, so many things that had outlived their use surrounded him.
Rude said, "Go to sleep."
"Can't."
"…What did Auntie 'Sario say?"
"Not sure," Reno said. "She wanted to know about you."
This prompted Rude to open his severe gray eyes. "What? She knows me."
"I don't think she does," Reno said. "Not like I do."
Which was true enough.
They slept only fitfully until the sun rose.
=
Reno's only other clothes were jeans, a black t-shirt with the Shinra logo over his left breast, and a pair of sturdy workboots. He spent the morning out with some of Rude's cousins, fetching eggs and milk into the kitchen, checking the fences for needed repairs. His work kept the cold at bay, and he fended off several offers of the loan of a warmer shirt.
Rude had disappeared into one of the barns with his little brother Rocko -- who easily matched Rude in height and girth -- and no one saw fit to disturb them until lunch, which was a buffet set up in the kitchen, through which people passed and grabbed what they wanted.
At Lorel's insistence, Reno took a plate piled with sandwiches to the barn, Freesia trailing behind him like a shadow.
Reno shook Rocko's hand and said as little as possible, trying to make neither a good nor bad impression, as he was completely out of his element. The three men ate together and Rocko set his daughter on his lap and told her and Reno stories about Rude as a boy, which were so damn country-perfect, Reno couldn't even laugh.
=
The days followed in a similar fashion. Reno was quiet and worked hard, which endeared him to everyone, and he played outside with the dogs and the children, who idolized him.
Reno smiled more as the days passed and he was entertained with stories of the family and with carols sung at night with hot chocolate and cider passed around.
He and Rude stayed up late in the den with various cousins and in-laws, though Auntie 'Sario was rarely seen outside the kitchen.
The children grew wild as the magical Solstice morning approached, and on the Eve when excitement ran through everyone like electricity, Reno worked hard to tire them all out before bedtime. He'd become a field expert at coaxing children to clean their teeth, take a bath, and get into bed. He'd even read them stories. That night, he made sure each child had their boots set out at the foots of their beds, and when sleep had claimed them all he and Emmon went around with sacks of goodies, filling the shoes with trinkets. Emmon's sister Havel followed with the treats and candy, and their cousin Drona was last, placing a ripe orange atop each one.
Then, even after the adults had fallen to sleep after the exhausting day, Reno and Rude still sat by the illuminated tree, sipping at strong liquor and saying nothing.
"My Auntie 'Sario, she talked to me today."
Reno swallowed. "What'd she say?"
"She's afraid for us. That we'll get in too deep."
"D'you tell her we already are?" Reno asked.
Rude didn't have to say that of course he didn't; that wasn't the sort of thing you burdened an old woman with, so he said, "She's glad I have you."
"For a partner," Reno clarified.
"That, too," Rude said.
"What do you mean?" Reno asked.
"You aren't blind."
"Um… not usually…" A question stood, perplexed and afraid, in bright green eyes. "What am I missing?" he whispered.
Rude set down his glass, shot the cuffs of his flannel work shirt, and stood. He gestured with the jerk of a head and Reno followed him outside into the cold air. They walked with near silence across the grounds and out beyond the furthest building into a thicket of trees until they reached the family cemetery.
Sheer force of will kept Reno from shivering in the cold, and he drank in the sight of Rude's unshielded face; he still wasn't used to seeing this man so open. Reno's partner was still and beautiful in the moonlight.
They rambled between the gravestones, Rude speaking at a few of them. They stopped at the newest grave, neatly tended with flowers blooming around the headstone. "Souzan's Adler. Left behind three kids. Sometimes Souzan looks at me, and I know what she's thinking." They moved on to a pair of headstones set flat in the ground. "My parents, Deen and Zina. Da died when I was twelve. The summer Mama died, I left for the city."
They stood still in the moonlight. Reno really didn't know how to deal with loss, even an old one.
Rude said, "None of them know what a Turk is. They think that someday I'll come home, come back to my life here. That I'll grow old and die here. Or maybe some day they'll get a call, and my body will be sent home, here." He nodded out at the graves. "They don't know that when I die, they won't know when it happened. Or where, or why. They'll never see a body and they'll never get a reason. That's why Auntie 'Sario is glad I have you. Cause at least you'll know. At least I'll have that."
"Fucking shit, man."
Rude accepted this pronouncement with a shrug. "It's the truth."
Reno huddled into himself for warmth and finally started to shiver.
Rude turned to him and stepped closer until he could put his big arms around Reno's narrow shoulders.
"I don't have a family," Reno muttered into Rude's collar. "Never did. Didn't think I ever would. Guess I'm stuck with you, though."
"Guess so." Rude smoothed a hand over red hair, dark in the moonlight. He bowed his own bald head and whispered, "Can I kiss you?"
Reno buried his face into Rude's neck, laughing until he was breathless. Finally, he ran out of hysterics and tilted his head up. "Sure as fuck."
Rude grunted and kissed him softly.
Not one to hold back, Reno returned the sentiment eagerly, but soon enough, the deepening cold sent them back inside.
They slept in different beds, but their gazes remained locked across the attic room until sleep claimed them.
=
Rude woke to the sight of Reno sitting naked on the side of the low bed, phone held tight to one ear.
"Yeah? …Okay. ….Yeah. ….Okay. Congratulations, you nut-fuck. Now go to sleep. Shit," he said as he punched the call to an end. "Fucking Tseng texted me this morning at five o'fucking clock." Reno held the phone out so Rude could see the illuminated text that read, "SLCROE!!!1!111"
"Do I wanna know what that means?" Rude asked, voice even deeper than usual, sleep-heavy and slurred.
"Probably not," Reno said, standing up and pulling on semi-clean jeans and another black Shinra shirt. "But I'll tell you anyway: he 'scored' with Rufus last night."
"Finally," Rude muttered.
"Right? Anyway," Reno went on, "Might as well get outta bed, if we wanna decent breakfast before the kids wake up."
Rude grunted agreement and slowly stretched as he eased himself fully awake. "Gonna take a shower," he said.
"Want me to come with you?"
They looked at each other.
"Not this time," Rude said, and Reno thought the man just might be blushing.
=
The Turks were the only coherent people in the kitchen as they poured coffee out for everyone, and the mood quickly elevated as the caffeine flowed. There was much cheek-kissing and a great many hugs, and the kids hadn't even woken up yet. Reno helped pick the hot muffins out of their tin and place them in bowls and baskets, wrapped in cloths to keep them hot. Rude fetched out plates and slabs of butter and the family started to look a lot perkier until the first shrieks reached their ears.
The next five hours were pandemonium. Toys and wrappings were strewn through three buildings; the kitchen was a disaster, mud had been thoroughly tracked through the den by dogs and careless children. Reno had saved several children from being crushed underfoot and Rude helped many of them assemble their new toys.
Freesia had gotten the frilly pink skirt she wanted, and she twirled until she fell over. Carle ate too many sweets and threw up in someone's hat. Shtol got into a fight with Dayu and they had to be sent to their rooms.
A lull did not come until noon, when many of the children collapsed into naps after all the excitement and the teenagers took themselves out to the barn to get away from haggard parents and whining siblings.
Lorel took the opportunity to present Reno with a sweater she'd made in the preceding days, having noted his lack of seasonal-appropriate clothing. He blushed, unable to remember the last time he did so, and put it on before heading outside for a walk with some of the family.
Later, when he and Rude set out to feed the animals, they did so in silence, though Reno stopped every fifteen minutes to text Tseng. He smirked and said, "I hope this wakes him up, the douche."
"I thought you liked Tseng."
"Well I kinda do, but he woke me up at an ungodly hour just to boast that he'd banged the boss, and for that I hope they both have the hangover from hell."
"With that shitty wine Rufus likes?" Rude asked, heaving another shovel of hay from the loft. "There's no doubt."
=
That evening, there was a huge dinner, and everyone ate until they were stuffed. Reno and Rude joined the dishwashing volunteers and found themselves side-by-side in a well-organized assembly line of cleaning, drying, and putting away.
They would be leaving the next day, but already the farewells had started, nearly everyone telling Reno they expected to see him the following year, no begging off.
Freesia insisted that Reno be the one to put her to bed, and he did so with tender care. Once she was under the covers with her sister Shyla, and Dayu in the roll-out bed beside them, Reno sat down and read a favorite story. He quietly promised them that -- barring tragedy -- he would be there the following year. He kissed them each goodnight on ready cheeks, turned out the light, and slipped from the room. Lorel and Rocko were laying in wait, and they both hugged and thanked him, though Reno didn't understand for what.
When they crawled into bed that evening, Reno turned toward the wall and closed his eyes tight, breathing in the unique scent of the forgotten attic.
"You okay?"
"Yeah," Reno answered. "You want me to suck you off?"
"I've known you more than seven years," Rude said. "How is it that I still haven't got you figured out?"
Reno shrugged in the darkness. "Never done this before."
"Done what?"
"Wha'd'you think?"
"Loved someone?"
"That, too," Reno admitted. "But I mean… been with someone? For more than a day, or an hour? I don't think I can do it."
"You want to?"
" 'Course I do."
"Then we'll do it," Rude said. "Will you come over here?"
Reno slunk out from under the covers, his naked feet padding over a threadbare throw rug, and he slid under the blankets that Rude lifted in invitation. There was no way to fit side-by-side, so Reno eased himself over Rude, aligning skin and muscle and bone until they curled into one another, lips aimed at one another's ears.
"I can't make any promises," Reno whispered.
Rude grunted.
"But I want to come back here with you next year."
"That's enough," Rude told him.
=
In the morning, Lorel brought the Turks their suits, freshly laundered, and they set about getting themselves ready for the journey home.
With the dark suit pants slung low on his hips, a distraught expression crossed Reno's face. He held out the pure white fabric of his button-down between two fingers like one would a dead rat. "She… she pressed my shirt."
Rude laughed outright and said, "Don't worry too much. You'll have it suitably wrinkled again in no time."
"You offering to help?" Reno asked brightly, sliding the open shirt up long arms.
Smirking, Rude strode forward and gathered Reno into his arms, heat and pressure creasing the white fabric in his embrace as their lips met.
=
Rude always tried not to make a fuss of the goodbyes, even as he knew better than any of them that each parting could so easily be the last. This time, more tears were shed than usual, as they had to bid Reno farewell, too. Freesia was devastated, and every time he tried to move away from Lorel, she pulled him in for another kiss.
Auntie 'Sario stood in the midst of the crowd, but she had no words for Reno and Rude, only a firm press of the hand and a nod of encouragement.
Once in the car, Reno hung out the open window and waved goodbye to all thirty-two of Rude's family until they were lost beyond the dust kicked up by the tires.
Once the farmhouse was out of sight, Reno settled back in the seat, his new sweater piled in a lump on his lap. His brows were furrowed as if in pain, and Rude didn't say anything when Reno turned away to hide his tears.
By the time they were back on the main road, Reno had composed himself, and he told Rude, "Regrets were never really my thing."
"What do you regret?"
Reno thought about his answer a long time before he said, "Not having a family, I guess. Not ever… looking for one."
"Well, you don't have to now."
"There are so many things I won't have," Reno realized.
"You'll have me," Rude promised.
Reno smiled. "I know."
=
The End