Happy Birthday was made for you

A/N: Ok, guys, the next chapter will be the last chapter.

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His fire spent for the moment, Reno can only look up miserably at the irritated tone of Rude's voice. He wants to keep arguing, keep the anger going so he doesn't pause long enough for his treacherous heart to betray him further, but he can't seem to muster the energy for it at the moment. The simple logic behind Rude's words steals the fire right out of any argument the redhead can possibly come up with but that's how it's always been between them. Reno loses his temper, screams, tries to start a fight, and Rude just sits quietly until the younger man runs out of steam before he calmly wipes away any trace of ground for Reno to stand on. He flinches when he sees that fleeting look of hurt sweep across his partner's face and for a few moments he wishes he could pull back every word he'd just said. Words are fickle things though, and much like bullets, you can't take them back after their spent. All he can do is hope he hasn't damaged the trust they'd begun to form between them tonight, hasn't helped Rude rebuild the walls around him by practically handing the man mortar. Tangled red hair fills Reno's vision as his head drops. Rude's right, as usual; he didn't say anything to really provoke that tirade, but Reno lacks the ability to explain that half of that anger was meant for himself, that it was what he said in his own head that had set him off that way.



Reno barely notes the soothing scents of earth and mint that fill the room suddenly but he manages to look up at where Rude is balanced on the edge of the tub when he hears the larger man speak again. Bright aqua pierces the curtain of red strands darked with moisture and it seems that Rude's tone of voice has re-energized some of the fight in the other TURK, but Reno doesn't say anything and no new argument is started. He sits for a long moment, just staring at his partner and trying to decide what the hell he's doing here before slowly unfurling from his seated position. His lanky frame unfolds and the redhead manages to find his feet with slower movements and a little more grace than he'd shown trying to get out of the tub, his gaze locked on Rude's and an unreadable expression on his face. Part of him screams to rebel, to tell Rude to get fucked and then go raid his kitchen anyway, and were it anyone at all but the normally stoic man before him, Reno would have done just that, making a point of breaking as much as he could along the way. Nothing says "I think we're over" quite like property damage. He can't bring himself to go through with it though, not with Rude, and as much as he'd hoped his anger would burn off that damnable need in the pit of his stomach to just curl back into Rude's arms, he finds instead that he only wants it more. This would all be so much easier if Rude would just cooperate and kick him out, turn him away, or punch him the way Reno had partially hoped for. The calm refusal to be baited into a fight which meets Reno's attempts, however, isn't something he was quite prepared to deal with.



Reno finally breaks the gaze, shifting his eyes to the side and grumbling something unintelligible under his breath that could never the less be assumed to be one of his more colorful curses. He shuffles forward anyway, willing to concede the win to his partner though not without at least his usual amount of offered resistance for show. He shoots a rebellious glance out of the corner of his eye at the thunder god that so easily seems to manipulate him without even really having to try hard, and then clambers the best he can back into the warm water, grumbling the whole way under his breath. There's no heat to his words this time, just the normal snarkiness that accompanies Reno when he's being told to do something and he feels the need to resist just to show he can. As he sinks back into the water, allowing the warmth to envelop him once more, he can't really complain though. Even if he's loathe to admit it to himself, he's glad Rude didn't ask him to leave.



He lets out a small hiss through clenched teeth when the water finds his sore and abused skin but the sting is less pronounced this time and after a few seconds, it lessens to a point he can more easily tolerate. He swirls his hand through the water for a moment, watching the last of the powder as it dances along the bottom of the tub before dissolving, but he can't quite bring himself to meet Rude's eyes when he talks. He doesn't have a right to ask for a damned thing right now but he does anyway, cringing internally at the note of pleading under his voice despite all his earlier protesting. "Ya gettin' in with me?"





Rude's eyes, though faintly bloodshot from such long exposure to this light, remain on Reno's approaching form. His hand is held out to assist the redhead into the tub, though he doesn't make a production of it. The last thing Reno would want at this point is to be made to feel like a cripple, especially after all that. He turns on his perch to reach for soaps and the shampoo to bring closer to Reno, but pauses when presented with the sullen request.



He is, needless to say, incredibly confused. He knows Reno is a mercurial sort of soul, but it was an easier trait to deal with when he wasn't directly involved in it. He has a feeling he knows what brought most of this on, but to point it out would shatter the work they've done tonight- and regardless of the drink, the games, the sex, it has indeed been work... even rewarding work, save for the fact that they have no idea how to handle the result. Cautiously, he sets the soaps and shampoo on the ledge and reaches to ruffle the wet hair, offering a tentative half smile.



"Give me a few minutes to make the bed. I'll get in with you after that." There's an apologetic tint to his tone, but nothing that gives the impression of trying to avoid Reno. It simply comes up to Rude being... well... Rude. He stands from his perch and, stopping to gather the banket off the floor, disappears toward the bedroom to finish the chore.





Reno rolls his head around to look up as his hair is ruffled playfully. He can almost feel sorry for Rude, having to put up with what must seem outwardly like really strange mood swings, but it would be almost impossible to really explain how he thinks and what brought everything on. Even if the words were simple, Reno himself isn't sure he's ready to use them. He doesn't want to have to think about confusing concepts like love and how easily his six foot plus partner who never fucking speaks has managed to gain more of his heart than anyone else ever has in all of his twenty six years of life. This shit just isn't fair. Still, he can't deny the little swell of happiness that at least Rude doesn't seem to be mad at him anymore, it's not as if the big man hasn't had practice enough getting around Reno's strange personality traits in the last year, and the redhead returns the half smile with one of his own. There's a tinge of something that might be a reluctant apology hidden in that smile, the same one he gives when he's done something he just KNOWS is going to get them into trouble with Tseng the next day, and he manages not to look disappointed when Rude states that he has to finish cleaning up first.



Reno stares hard at Rude's retreating form until he can no longer see the big man, the broad shoulders having become swallowed again into the darkness of the rest of the house. He turns with a soft squeak on the bottom of the tub and stares instead at the array of shampoo and soaps that Rude has laid out along the edge for him and a sigh escapes as he finds himself terribly alone with his thoughts. It would be easier to handle this if Rude was still here. He could distract himself with the other man's presence and use it to drive all his thoughts to the background, but with Rude in the other room, the swirls of questions and apprehension start gnawing at the back of Reno's brain like a dog with a bone. Can Turks really love? What if people find out? What if we get into shit loads of trouble when Tseng finds out? Does Rude really HONESTLY love me or is he kidding himself and only THINKS he loves me? Oh fucking gods.......I'm GAY.



The litany of random thoughts skitters through his head over and over, lingering mostly on the last statement as the redhead tris his hardest to piece together how in the nine hells THAT happened. "Last night, I liked pussy. Tonight, I like dick. What the hell was I drinking?" he mutters under his breath, reaching desperately for the first bottle in the neatly formed row of soaps in a desperate plea to distract his mind from such thoughts. He scans the bottle idly and even reads the ingredients but it doesn't seem to help much. "Glycerine," People are BORN gay..... "essential oil of eucalyptus" People do NOT just suddenly have dinner and suddenly decide they like dick.... "hydro somethingIcan'tfuckingpronounce"Does that mean I've always BEEN gay and just didn't KNOW I liked dick??



"Fuck it," Reno growls at last, absently tossing the bottle over one shoulder and moving on to the next even as he can hear the tap of the plastic hitting the floor behind him. "Soothing green tea mint and citrus," he mutters, popping open the cap on this one and taking a tentative whiff before deciding that one wasn't so bad. It gets a grunt of approval and is then set to one side as the redhead turns fully to begin a more intensive study of the soaps left behind for him. The young Turk had always been truly talented in the area of forcing himself not to think too hard when the time came and thus, it is with a singular talent that he throws himself wholly into rifling through the soap bottles instead of accepting or listening to any of the disturbing questions in his head that he lacked the answers to anyway. Bottle after bottle is sniffed, read and either set aside or tossed haphazardly onto the floor as he waits for Rude to return. A bored Reno is a dangerous Reno.



Flustering Rude is a far more difficult task for a similar set of questions. He's spent so long ignoring the buildup that ignoring the mental chaos of this aftermath is easy. He will worry about it when Reno decides it's time to worry. It hurts to see the ache and confusion in his partner's face tonight, but there's nothing he can do about it that wouldn't make it worse, unless circumstances change. He cycles through his empty reassurances while he makes the bed, runs the dirty sheets to the laundry room and pads back to the bathroom, where his thought process grinds to a halt.



While the litter of bottles on the floor causes a temporary tic under his eye, Rude can't help but find the sight adorable. He watches for almost a minute, arms crossed, while Reno sniffs at bottles with his back to the bathroom door. One flung bottle rolls across the floor and stops at Rude's toe. He bends over to pick it up and slips into the room, picking a few more off the floor as he goes. The bottle in Reno's hand at the moment is plucked away as well, and by the time he sits on the ledge again, Rude is smiling almost fully. "This one is only for rashes," he intones, his words tinged with amusement. "Find something you like?"



Reno doesn't even hear the entry of his partner, his mind far too absorbed into trying to decipher the cryptic ingredients of another bottle, and it is a testament to how comfortable he's become in at least this room of Rude's house that there's no warning bells going off. The bottle meets it's end with a shrug, tossed over his shoulder to meet the same fate as it's many brethren and it has barely hit the floor before Reno has a new bottle in hand. He quirks an eyebrow at this one, scanning over the pale yellow label that marks it as obviously medicinal of some sort. Reno half wonders which of these might help the sting in his behind more but he's not about to go shoving stuff up there without knowing if it's some strange hair restoration formula Rude is attempting to use. The mental image of his partner with a full head of thick hair gets a snort of disgust out of the redhead. He never thought he'd admit it, but his partner is far sexier with the smooth look and Reno is about to throw the bottle away in complete disregard when he finds it snatched from his fingers instead. The movement startles him slightly, causing the smaller man to spin in place, his body tensing on the full defensive to fight off whoever might have just come in but it only takes a few seconds to process that there's only one other person here with him and Reno quickly eases back down. The instinct to fight dies swiftly and he leans back against the side of the tub to look up at Rude.



"Yeah," he drawls, reaching for a small half empty bottle that smells of some spice he can't quite put his finger on, "this'n. The one I can't pronounce. Oh wait, ya got a lot o' those." He chuckles up at Rude and tosses the bottle to him before scooting to the far side of the tub expectantly, allowing his partner enough space to get in.



Rude catches it even as he's setting the rest back in order, giving it a quick glance. "Haldi and ginger extract," he reads. "Wild turmeric, actually, from west of Del Sol. Relaxes muscle strain, helps skin diseases and zits." he slips into the tub and settles into place, refusing to flinch in the hot water. "Come here. does it hurt any less?" he reaches for the shampoo as he requests his partner's presence, preparing to clean him up.



Reno snorts in something akin to amusement at the description of the soap he'd chosen, he honestly couldn't have cared less what it was for, only that it smelled good. The fact that Rude seemed to own a myriad of soaps all with different purposes lay somewhere between confusing and endearing for the redhead whose only requirements in his soap were that it didn't stink, got him clean, and preferably didn't leave behind any thin layer of film on his skin that would annoy him the rest of the day. "What ever ya say, Rude," he grins as his partner resettles the once discarded bottles back into their proper place on the edge. There's a relief when Rude finally slips into the water near him and Reno forcibly shoves the reasons for it to the back of his mind, preferring to settle on the notion that at least he won't be bored now.



The relief turns to a sudden nervous apprehension as Rude's hand closes over the shampoo bottle. Reno chides himself that he has no reason to be nervous, not after the extreme intimacy they've just shared in the bedroom but even all of that could be easily enough filed away in his head as just physical attraction should he have too hard of a time coming to grips with what it all means. Having his hair washed, being taken care of this way, won't be so easy to explain away in his head. Even as a child, the redhead had always been fairly self sufficient. His early life had been anything but gentle or nurturing and it had been almost too long to remember since anyone had been allowed to wash him. He'd always either gone home to shower after some sexual encounter or had helped himself to the woman's shower before taking off out the door depending on how dirty he felt after it was all said and done. It dawns on the young Turk that he isn't even really sure HOW to let someone else take care of him. Oh sure, he knew how to get pampered, how to get others to do his bidding, but there is an immense difference between manipulating someone into letting him be lazy and allowing someone to really take care of him. It seemed to imply some sense of weakness that Reno had always fought tooth and nail against but he knows without question that Rude doesn't think he's weak.



Reno offers a nervous smile to his partner and creeps closer in the tub, uncertainty written over every line of his body as he slides on hands and knees. He wants this, he knows he does even if he isn't sure how to handle it, but his body language makes it more than obvious how uncomfortable he is with even the idea of being cared for in this way. It confuses him the way the gentle kiss from Rude did earlier in the night and he knows he should be reciprocating it but he isn't quite sure how. He knows well enough how to wine and dine someone, knows that if this were some woman he was trying to woo, he'd simply bring her flowers, lean on her, whisper sweet nothings in her ear and then mop up the puddle that's sure to form by that point as she melts to his whims. With Rude though, he doesn't want to offer anything fake and he knows the larger man will tell right away if the affection is genuine. In the past year, he's always shown his friendship for Rude the same way he shows affection to everyone else, he annoys the shit out of the bigger man and then takes him out for drinking and fighting. Some how Reno doubts that socking Rude in the jaw and starting a physical fight isn't going to be as well received as it might have before they decided to take this farther than a mere partnership.