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Tough Love	By : tstearns Category: Final Fantasy VII > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 809 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
"YOU!!!"
Butch screwed up his little rat face so tight I thought he was
going to sprout whiskers and a tail.
"Hey, Butch.
Nice t'see ya again," I greeted through a melting grin.
I pushed him back into the shop where he
stumbled over his own feet and bumped right into his pal, the Salamander.
I stole a quick glace around the small,
dusty shop and immediately spotted Tseng in the center of the room, perched on
the edge of a small wooden table. He slowly crossed his arms and cocked an
eyebrow, obviously more amused to see us than relieved.
Well, you're
welcome, I felt
like saying, and a brief catch of his gaze followed by that self-righteous little smirk creeping up on his face meant he understood damn good and well what I thought.
"How's the ear, Butch?" I said,
getting back on topic. "Oh, by the way, this here's my associate, Rude. Be
polite and say 'hello', Rude." He had stepped around me during my little
silent exchange with Tseng and placed his gun to Sal's temple. Rude acknowledged
everyone with a charming little grunt.
"Careful," Tseng informed, rising
from his spot to briskly cross the floor over to where the rest of us were
gathered. "He has a
gun. Standing behind Sal, Tseng
brushed aside the larger man's blazer and pulled a revolver from the
Salamander's hip. Tseng popped open the
bullet chamber and turned it over to empty the ammunition into his hand.
"Hello...what's this?"
Tseng turned the revolver over to look more
closely at the weapon's grip, noticing three extra materia marbles imbedded
into the metal. Curious, I turned my
head away to get a better look for myself.
That was my first
mistake.
Mesmerized by the shiny little object, I
didn't notice Rat-Face swing the briefcase he was holding out in a giant arc to
knock my own gun free from my grip.
Stunned, it took another half second before the real pain kicked in when
I realized he'd just smacked me hard on my injured wrist.
That cool little trick Tseng had performed
the night before completely undid itself in one deft blow, and pain shot up my
arm like a bolt of lightning. Before I
could even react to that, though, I found myself with a mouth full leather as
he swiftly shoved the case to my face and mashed it into my nose.
Close by, I could hear the sounds of more
shouts and struggle and hazily concluded that Sal had taken this opportunity to
create some commotion of his own. I was
preoccupied with trying to shake the stars out of my eyes to make out anything
clearly, then I felt the bones in my arm grind into the floor, and I yelled in
agony while Butch did a great job of crushing it with his knee.
After a couple of small audible cracks and
pops, I knew he'd actually broken it.
"That's for biting me, you
son-of-a-bitch," he growled close to my ear.
Vaguely I wondered where Rude had gone off to
and why his big, giant foot wasn't kicking this guy in the head for me, and
then I heard him boom, "Let go of him!" from across the room, and
knew that I was on my own for the time being.
A surge of anxiety hit me like a cold wave from the raw anger I heard
ripped from Rude's throat; one thought immediately fled to mind: Tseng.
Tseng, who had yet to make a single sound...
"And this is for stealing my favorite
weapon," Butch snarled again, shaking me out of my reverie.
Or rather punching me out of it.
His knuckles contacted solidly with my
cheekbone, whipping my head to the side.
That was pretty much when I decided it had
been one helluva rotten day.
That was also when I decided to gather my
senses and stop letting this guy use me as his personal punching bag.
I had friends who could do this for me, I
didn�t need this punk. And speaking of
�weapon...� I'd forgotten all about
that. That must be what was poking me
in the ribs this whole time...
Reaching promptly into the inside of my
blazer, I curled my hand around the grip of the weapon and withdrew it, shaking
out the telescoping rod and thumbing on the switch with a vibrating hum.
Following in another fluid-like motion, I
aimed the rod at my attacker's throat, and jabbed it right against his jugular,
just in time to see his eyes bulge in absolute surprise.

And then I snapped.
Driving him back, I pinned him against the
wall and held him there, savagely relishing the look of pure, intense horror
straining his features. Unable to make
any other sound other than a choking gurgle, his lips peeled back in a
repulsive grimace and veins began popping out in his forehead and neck.
When the skin around where the electrorod
was making contact began to blacken and bubble, that's when I let go, and he
slid down the wall in a sickening thud hitting the floor like a sack of wet
potatoes.
No time to celebrate, though.
Spinning quickly around, I was just in time
to see the Salamander fling Tseng away from him like a rag doll and land on the
small table he�d been sitting on before, showering the floor with wooden
splinters flying in all directions.
Rude leapt into the air and dove straight for Sal, and I had just put
one foot in front of the other to do the very same when I saw Sal's large hand
curl around an object and point it at Rude�the revolver!
At that moment it didn't occur to me how they
could've gotten the gun reloaded in the amount of time I had been laid out on
the floor, and I just froze. I squeezed
my eyes shut and helplessly waited for the sound of a gunshot to catch my best
friend in mid-air.
But the gun didn't fire.
Instead, Sal strafed out of the way just as
Rude landed, and I heard him say what I thought were the words,
"Earthquake, level three," as he started running toward the front
door, scooping up one briefcase on the way and making a beeline for Butch and
the other case.
I turned behind me once again to head him
off, but didn't get very far before I felt like my knees were suddenly going to
buckle in a way knees aren't designed to bend.
Then my legs began to tremble involuntarily and my spine felt like it
was being used as a jackhammer. All of
these odd sensations happened within the space of milliseconds; when I felt my
teeth begin to chatter, I realized it was coming from the ground, not me.
I can't say that I was any more relieved to
discover that than thinking my own body was literally falling to pieces, but at
least it gave me a little perspective.
At that moment, however, Perspective needed to take a flying leap.
What I needed was a goddamned handrail.
The quake itself didn't last that long.
Twenty seconds, thirty at
most.
But when you feel as though you've been stuffed in a blender and set to
'puree,' twenty seconds can be a surprisingly long time.
One Renotini, shaken
and stirred: coming right up.
I wound up getting knocked right off my feet
again and tried to land in a position that hopefully wouldn't do any more
damage to my wrist than was already done.
I was only marginally successful in my efforts, as the ground had
continued to shake for a few more seconds once I'd landed on it.
Chunks of plaster flaked off the walls and
ceiling, adding to the dust and debris already being tossed around, and the
foundation of the very floor seemed to be splitting open right under me.
Finally, when I was just on the verge of
having nearly everything I'd ever eaten for the last twenty-five years rattled
out of me, it stopped. For a heartbeat
or three, I just laid there, dazed and unsure if it was really over, mentally
willing my stomach to stop somersaulting.
Slowly, I sat up and looked around, shaking the fine, powdery dust from
my hair. The eerie silence that
followed in stark in contrast to the rumbling freight train-like commotion that
had preceded it left a distinct humming in my ears.
A hand shot up in from a pile of wooden
pieces in the middle of the floor, and I breathed a sigh of relief to see that
Tseng was moving. Thankfully, Rude was
also starting to collect himself. The
Salamander, Butch�or what had been left of him�and the two briefcases were
nowhere in sight.
A sudden, sharp pop over my head caught my
immediate attention, and I looked up to see the ceiling bowed impossibly in on
itself like a canopy. Wire-thin
fissures were branching suddenly everywhere and running off into small
tributaries along the structure. Oh
shit. Rude was ok.
His position left him near the perimeter of
the room, similar to myself, but Tseng was right underneath the bulk of the
bulge. Shitshitshitshitshit.
"TSENG!!!"
The popping and cracking overhead sounded as
if firecrackers were being set off one by one and bigger chunks of plaster
randomly rained down around us. I
catapulted up and dove into the air, tackling Tseng in a rush that would've
made a pro football player proud, knocking him free as the ceiling finally
caved in on itself. I landed hard on
top of him, out of the way for the worst of the damage, but not enough to
completely avoid the collapse. I hugged
his head while the brunt of the debris pelted my back.
Tseng wheezed close to my ear attempting to
catch his breath.
At last, the dust seemed to settle, so to
speak, and I shook my head and coughed up a lungful of dirt.

I had thrown Tseng down into a
rather...compromising position. I hadn�t
intended to do that, but I didn�t particularly mind it at the moment,
either. But only a very small
percentage of that, surprisingly, was my dick talking.
I was mostly concerned.
Tseng still hadn't said a single word since
discovering the extra materia and the revolver, and I would've gladly taken an
insult or derogatory comment just to know he was okay.
"Wow..." I said hoarsely, and
peered down at Tseng's face below me.
"Did the earth move for you, too?"
"Get...off...me."
Fine.
Fine. I�d asked for that.
I pushed myself up onto my knees and
instantly regretted it�having forgotten about my wrist again, I set my hand
down on the floor for leverage. I
winced and cradled my arm near my body, and just knew that if it hurt this bad
now, once all this adrenaline in my system finally leveled off, I was
really going to be in a world of
pain. Fortunately, I still had the ACE
bandage wound tightly around it, and I definitely wasn't in a hurry to get it
off now.
I heard Rude get up and pick his way over to
where Tseng and I sat. Looming over me,
I looked up behind me to see him, thankfully, in one piece, if not a little
worse for the wear. Above him, a huge
hole in the ceiling gaped open like a giant mouth ready to eat him up.
Heh...you could really see the Plate from
here... All of us were covered in fine
dust that practically turned our navy suits white.
Amazingly, Rude's sunglasses still sat on the bridge of his nose,
albeit a little crooked. He bent over
me slightly and held his hand out to Tseng.
Tseng halted his preening for a moment and looked inquiringly up at
Rude.
"The Salamander and the cases are
gone," Rude said flatly. He
dropped a green colored marble in Tseng's hand.
"He left that behind."
Tseng looked down at his hand.
"Cure," he said, devoid of any
expression whatsoever. "We just
paid six-and-a-half million gil for one Cure materia."
Closing his fist tightly around it, he let
out an aggravated sigh and shut his eyes for a moment in a sort of meditative
rage. I knew there was not a whole lot
either Rude or I could say at this point, so we waited in silence. When he
opened his eyes again, his attention fell on me for a brief moment as he
glanced over me. I attempted to give him a sympathetic smile.
In the space of one heartbeat, his
expression changed from tired and irritated to a sharp glare directed at
me. "You're hurt."
I shrugged it off, though I wasn't about to
say everything fine. My wrist hurt like
a motherfucker and I knew I wasn't going to be able to hide that from him,
anyway.
Tseng glanced from my wrist to the little
green marble in his hand, and I saw the conflict of concern and skepticism
etched in fine lines on his face, hesitating between his better judgment and
his belief. Saving him the anxiety of
making the decision, I closed his fingers around the materia again and pushed
his hand away. "Don't
bother," I said, with a weary smile.
"It's broken. It'll need to
be set, anyway."
He frowned at me for a moment, then nodded
once without any arguments before getting up to leave.
It might�ve been my imagination, but I
think he even looked a little relieved...
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
As soon as we got back to the Tower, Tseng
and Rude steered me right into the campus infirmary, and for once in my life, I
didn't complain. I'm no fan of
hospitals or anything even resembling one, but I was too tired and too beat up
now to care where I was being taken.
The medic on duty was a foxy
little thing with sharp eyes and a quick wit.
Seems someone over in personnel finally figured out that if the
infirmary was going to be housing a bunch of whiney, ungrateful patients,
they'd better hire the staff that could handle them.
She'd patched me up a few times in the past as well and we'd
always managed to have a good laugh and a flirt or two.
Well...usually it was me flirting and her
laughing. Guess I'd been in there a
little too many times that I really cared to remember.
Turks are a never-ending supply of cuts and
aches and injuries that keep the on-board medics quite busy.
Today I wasn't in the mood for
any of it. I'd rather she didn't say
anything to me and just do her job, but I�m never that lucky.
As she poked and prodded at my arm and
hummed and hawed at the bruises�now much bigger and uglier than they had been
the night before�I couldn't help but wonder what she thought I'd done to
myself. Not that she didn't try to
ask...I just avoided giving her an answer.
She gave me a reproachful
look. "I'll need to set it,"
she said flatly.
"I know," I answered
with the kind of enthusiasm I only reserve for doing laundry.
"It'll hurt."
She grinned at me like this was some kind of
bonus treatment.
I narrowed my eyes at her and
gave her a warning look. "I�m
tough, I can take it," I assured.
She smiled, mocking green eyes
twinkling bright. "I just thought
maybe you'd like to invite one of your buddies over there to hold your hand or
something."
That pushed an extra sensitive
button deep inside me, and I stole a quick side glance out of the corner of my
eye at my two 'buddies.' Rude and Tseng were both loitering in adjacent sides
of the room, arms folded and silently watching on.
"We're only allowed to hold hands off
company time," I sneered back at her, and felt more
than saw Tseng's gaze try to cut me in half.
I swallowed nervously as the medic grabbed my arm in preparation to set
the bone, but my anxiety had nothing to do with what she was doing.
"I'd like to see you in my
office as soon as you're through here," Tseng ordered, the pitch of his
voice knocking the temperature down in the room at least 10 degrees.
He opened the door and shot me a quick, but
hostile glance over his shoulder before stepping out.
Shit.
I'd have rather had the medic break every single bone in my body
than go up there and face him.
"Sounds like someone's in
hot water," said the medic standing before me, eyeing me warily as she
braced my arm.
I sighed and looked away,
waiting for the pain and instead feeling completely numb from head to toe.
Some reason her comment made me think of the
night before, sleeping in the bath with Tseng, his arms wrapped tightly around
me. Shit, it hadn�t even been
twenty-four hours yet. It already felt
like a distant memory. A dream, at
that. Darkly, with no trace of humor in
my tone whatsoever, I muttered, "Wouldn't be the first time."
- 9
- 10
- 11
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Tough Love