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Heal Thyself	By : RikuRocks Category: Final Fantasy VII > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 571 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Final Fantasy VII, nor am I making any money from this work of fiction.

Chapter List
- 1-Heal Thyself
- 1
Dr Alex Tannins was not easily intimidated or frightened. He could not afford to be in his current position as one of ShinRa’s employee evaluation psychiatrists. He specialised in trauma and recuperation, so whenever one of the company’s guards, SOLDIERs, or Turks returned from a mission or event that could have likely affected their mental or emotional state, they were sent to him before they could become a liability.

After fourteen years of handling shell-shocked SOLDIERs, traumatised Turks, and gabbling guards, Dr Tannins was confident in his job, and had gained a decent reputation among his peers, as well as some of the ShinRa executives.

However, all of that experience and praise meant very little to him at present, for the man sitting across his desk, frankly, scared him.

The man had greeted him politely, if a little monotonously, sat down on the large leather sofa when asked to, and had remained there for nearly three hours. Over that time, he had said six words, each given only when necessary. Aside from that, he nodded or shook his head in response to Dr Tannins’ questions, and did not say anything.

Not one word…

It was unnatural. The man also did not move and Dr Tannins was sure that he was not even blinking behind the sunglasses that he wore, despite the fact that the light in the building did not seem to merit sunglasses.

The brawny Turk’s suit was immaculate and his fine moustache and goatee were trimmed neatly. His posture left nothing to be desired, and while the suit hid most of the brawny man‘s body, it could not hide his broad shoulders and thick, heavy limbs. The light of the room reflected off his shaven head, dark glasses, and many piercing as he sat straight-backed with his gloved hands folded neatly in his large lap. For nearly three hours, he had not turned his head to glance about the room or to gaze out the window as most of the patients who sat in his position did, but had simply stared at the doctor.

Rude of the Turks would have been a perfect study in self-discipline and control had he not been freaking the psychiatrist out too much to think of such things.

It was unnerving.

This was the fourth afternoon that Dr Tannins had seen Rude. Normally, such a case would have been assessed after the usual one hour evaluation, however, Alex could not sign off Rude, nor could he suggest therapy or medication, since he truly had no idea how to determine the large man‘s mental state. He could not very well deem the Turk a threat or liability, yet he could not declare him fit for field duty in good conscious. How could he? The man had not spoken a complete sentence since they met.

Dr Tannins was having a very different, but just as serious, problem in assessing the silent man’s partner, whom he was also supposed to evaluate after the last botched raid in which the two young men had been involved.

The first impression of Reno was that he was Rude’s contrary. The younger Turk was fair skinned, slight of build, bright-eyed, and boisterous. He entered the room with a casual grace and a nervous slump to his shoulders, introduced himself right away, checked the certificates and diplomas on the wall, complimented the artwork and plant life in the office after checking the room out, and then sat on the sofa, gazing out the window. Unlike his taciturn partner, the redhead’s suit and hair were always dishevelled, and his posture and grammar left much to be desired.

The redeeming feature had been that the blue-eyed Turk actually spoke when prompted to and could easily hold a conversation. At least, that is what Dr Tannins had thought until after the young man left him, sitting slightly dazed and disorientated. At that point, he realised that Reno had not actually answered any of his questions, but had manoeuvred the conversation in a way that made it impossible to determine anything about him, aside from a sharp wit and quiet sort of control.

The second meeting with the wiry redhead had been similar, only this time, the Turk had managed to turn the conversation around so that Alex found himself revealing information he should never give a patient, and then discovered that Reno had rearranged all the items on his desktop while he was writing in his notebook. Apparently, the young man’s title as the fastest of the Turks was well warranted.

Dr Tannins sighed quietly as his thoughts returned to the bald man currently in his office. He had hoped that keeping Rude for longer than the standard hour session would prompt him into speech, if from simple boredom than nothing else. Nevertheless, they were nearly through with the allotted time and the man had still said nothing other than a brief greeting when he first entered the room and a polite refusal when offered something to drink.

Alex glanced down at the file on his desk. Normally, for this type of evaluation, he simply was given the names, ranks, and serial numbers of the employee in question, as well as a brief overview of the incident that had led them to his couch. His receptionist’s computer would flag e if something in their personal file indicated a previous condition or incident that could be of interest. Otherwise, he never knew much about his patients. However, as his usual methods were not working with these two men, he had asked his receptionist to pull their files and put together a few notes on their history.

Deciding that he was running out of options, for he truly hated to resort to threats, Dr Tannins opened the file and began to read.

It seemed that Rude was the youngest of three children. The eldest, his brother, had an impressive career in SOLDIER, until the beginning of the Wutai Rebellion, when he had gone missing for several weeks before he was found dead. The other sibling, a sister, was currently a teacher in Costa del Sol. His parents were both in semiretirement. Rude’s educational records showed that he was of above average intelligence, with a particular affinity for chemistry and mathematics. The young man had worked part time in both an electronics shop and a fireworks dealership until he became old enough to enlist, which was when Turk had picked him up. Naturally, most of the information on his assignments and skills were classified, as it was with most members of Turk. There were no marked incidents of indiscretion or notable illnesses or injuries in his history. Over the nine years that he had served in Turk, his vacations were always spent in Costa del Sol, where his family still lived.

Alex found it slightly odd that a man whose background suggested a bright boy with a happy family and a promising future would end up so imposing and uncommunicative.

Moving on to Reno’s file, Dr Tannins took a moment to note that, despite the fact that Rude had four years of service over Reno, the younger man had a larger section of restricted information. That meant the redhead had served in more close-lipped cases than his partner had or had recovered information that was more sensitive during their assignments. It was noted that the young man was a likely candidate for second in command once Tseng took over The Investigative Division of General Affairs Department for Verdot.

Making a mental note of that, Alex moved on to the redhead’s background and found it to contain less than a third of the information that Rude’s had. It seemed Tseng had discovered Reno while he was investigating a group in the lower plates, in an area best known as the slums. Reno, then a mere child, had left a great impression upon the senior Turk. The boy informed them that his mother was deceased, that his elder brother had been missing for several years, and that he never was aware of his father’s identity. As he appeared to have no legal guardian at that time, he had been legally emancipated and signed up for Turk within a fortnight. There were no records of any formal education prior to entering the Turk training program, but Reno had shown no signs of struggling while passing his exams and possessed an IQ of well over average. His medical exams showed that he had several past injuries that had not healed correctly, however, the ShinRa medical staff had repaired the damage (although the reports did not specify the means, Dr Tannins suspected that Mako was involved) and the youth had passed every physical exams just as quickly as he had the academic ones.

Alex was briefly amused by the idea that if he were to block out the names and have one of his associates read both backgrounds and then attempt to evaluate the two young men, they would likely assume that Rude’s history was Reno’s and vice versa.

Dr Tannins attempted to start a conversation with Rude again, this time bringing up Costa del Sol and his family; however, the brawny man still responded with grunts and gestures only. Alex was just about to start pulling out his hair when his receptionist ringed him to announce that Rude’s session was over and it was time to prepare for his next patient, which happened to be Reno.

The bald man stood, nodded as he shook the psychiatrist’s hand politely and then left the room without a word. Dr Tannins’ receptionist dropped off a note from Tseng, inquiring as to why there was no progress with either Rude or Reno’s evaluations after nearly a week, and reminding him that he could not have two of his best men off field duty inevitably while waiting for his assessments. Alex crumpled the note and dropped his head onto his desk. Then, he heard Reno’s voice drift through the door, which his receptionist had left halfway open.

“Hey, Aibou; how’d it go?”

“Same as the last two, only longer;” Dr Tannins’ head shot up at the sound of Rude’s easy reply. He found himself straining to hear the partner’s conversation, even as his conscience told him it was highly unprofessional.

“So…name, rank, serial number, nada?” questioned the redhead, sounding slightly amused.

“No, that was the first session,” corrected Rude, whose tone matched his partner‘s; “Now, I just get the formalities out of the way and get the hell out of there. How about you?”

“Eh, you know me.”

Rude made a light scoffing sound; “So, you tell him nothing in as many words as possible so he doesn’t realise you’re not cooperating; nice. I’m surprised you haven’t started picking his brain just for shits and giggles.”

“Who says I haven’t?” questioned Reno. “His full name is Alex Nicolas Tannins; he’s a divorcée -they met in med school- with no kids; one younger sister -she’s a surgeon- mother’s a retired housewife and his father’s a deceased military officer. He swings both ways but is in denial, yo. He has a cat named Mince and three fish -used to be four but one ate one of the others. He plays the trombone and likes jazz, golf, and scuba diving. His poison of choice is scotch.”

Alex’s mouth fell open. He had had no idea that the redhead had managed to gain that much information on him. He could not even recall telling the young man most of it and guessed that much of it had simply been surmised with frightening accuracy.

There was a deep, velvety chuckle, and Dr Tannins was shocked further when he realised it must be coming from Rude. “I wish I knew how you do that. You’ve only spoken to him for what, three hour-long sessions? …And you spent most of that time talking to deflect his questions.”

“Yeah,” Reno sounded tired now, “I’m thinking of just giving the jargon they want to hear to get this over with, you know?”

“I know,” Rude’s tone was completely understanding and supportive. “You would think they’d cut this bullshit by now and let us get back to our jobs. It’s not as if we weren’t trained to handle these things and do they actually think we’d have lasted this long if we weren’t mentally equipped to endure it?”

“No shit,” agreed the redhead. “We wouldn’t have survived advanced training if something like one botched mission could push us over the edge.”

“Speaking of going over edges,” the brawny man’s tone turned concerned and Alex moved to peek through the hinged side of his office door, his conscience long having given up. Rude and Reno were standing close together on the far side of the small, empty lobby. “How’s your head?”

“Haven’t heard you complainin’ yet, yo;” Blue eyes glanced down to the larger man’s groin before glancing up at his face with a hint of a grin. Reno did not seem fazed at all by the sunglasses that prevented him from looking into the taller man’s eyes.

“Reno,” his expression gave away nothing, but there was an exasperated tone to Rude’s voice, and a hint of fondness. He lifted a gloved hand to gently cup his partner’s jaw and turn his head in order to inspect a livid bruise and a gash secured by a couple of butterfly closures on the shorter man’s temple.

“It’s fine, yo,” Reno rolled his eyes. “We both know I’ve had worse. I didn’t even need stitches this time.”

Rude released the younger man’s face and nodded as he folded his hands in front of him once more. “Do you feel like going out tonight?”

The redhead rubbed the back of his neck and scrunched his nose slightly. “Nah, I’m still in that weird nestling mood…sorry.”

“Don’t be, I understand.” Rude’s assurance was simple and firm, and seemed to be enough for his partner, who relaxed immediately. “How does some Wutain takeout sound?”

Reno grinned lightly, “Sounds great. Hey, one of the new releases at the movie rental place looks like a good one. It has all your favourite plot elements too: explosions; cool cars; good cinematography; lots of guns; justice prevailing; and it looks like the guy gets the girl at the end. Want to pick it up on the way home?”

The corner of Rude’s mouth twisted up slightly, “Sure. I’ll see you in the office in a few hours.”

Both men nodded to each other and Alex could have sworn he saw their hands brush against the others’ as they passed each other.

Dr Tannins returned to his desk immediately and flipped open the files he had previously disregarded. He immediately noticed a fact that he should have become aware of earlier: each of Reno’s vacations over the past four years always coincided with Rude’s and were always spent in Costa del Sol.

Alex sat up straight as his door opened and his receptionist entered with a strange smile. “Aren’t they just adorable when they think no one’s watching? You should see some of the things Cissnei and Buki have caught with those cameras they hid in the Turk’s male locker room. Reno’s ready whenever you are, sir. Oh, and your six o’clock needed to reschedule. Apparently, he needs to be at work an hour early today. Want me to put him in your free slot on Monday?”

Dr Tannins looked from his receptionist, to the files on his desk, to the crumpled note in his waste bin. He pulled two evaluation forms out of his top drawer as he shook his head, “No, tell him my current patient is only going to need the standard hour, so I can fit him in early.”

In his report, Dr Tannins recommended giving the pair the weekend off before putting them on active field duty again. He made a small note at the end, stating that they both knew their limits -as well as each others- better than anyone and recommended that Tseng speak to Rude and Reno about what they felt they were capable of before wasting everyone’s time again in the future.

As Alex finished his paperwork that evening, his receptionist handed him a small envelope with a wink and an odd smile. He discovered a disc inside, with the words Welcome to the R&R club written on it in an unfamiliar hand. Curious, he placed the disc in his computer and saw the words R&R’s Best Moments appear on the screen before the worlds melted away to a scene taking place in what appeared to be a locker room in one of the ShinRa buildings.

Dr Tannins’ eyes widened as the scene continued. Realising what he was viewing, he quickly stopped the video, ejected the disc, returned it to its envelope, and stuffed it in his briefcase…all the while muttering about crazy fangirls.

He was very pleased that Tseng had apparently taken his note to heart, for he had been uncomfortable enough around Rude without knowing that his left ear was not his most pierced body part and had enough trouble not eyeing up Reno before he was aware that the redhead had remarkable control over his gag reflex.

Dr Tannins avoided the company locker rooms from that day onward and felt a mix of dread and anticipation whenever his receptionist left a gift for him. His reputation continued to grow, however, as nearly every secretary and receptionist in the company, as well as several lower officers, seemed to know of him suddenly, and would recommend him whenever an executive mentioned the need for a company psychiatrist.

As frightening as he found it, he had to admit that the fangirls had an impressive network.

He began to wonder if he should seek treatment when he actually began to look forward to the envelopes marked R&R that would appear on his desk from time to time, holding either discs or photos. In the end, he decided against it.

After all, if they worried about every idiosyncrasy or kink that a ShinRa employee possessed, they would all be in therapy. Then there would be no one to govern the planet and he would have no time to sit down with a glass of wine and a nice…movie.
- 1
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Heal Thyself