Happy Birthday was made for you

Rude severely dislikes holidays. He dislikes celebrations in general, which is why he made it a very sore point with Tseng to have his exact birthdate erased from his records, and he never pays attention to the random celebrations among the ranks of TURK, regardless of Elena's begging and 'community spirit.' He wishes he could tape her mouth shut sometimes. Especially when he ends up feeling guilty because of her yakking.

He’s felt bad for an entire week now, having overheard her talking to an intern from a lower floor about his partner's birthday, of all things. They haven't even been assigned together a year- not even half as long as Rude had been with his last partner before the guy got himself blown up- and Reno seems to have had a more profound effect on him in that scant handful of months than the rest of Rude's life combined.

The guy talks more than Elena on a bad day. He's a jackass to a fine degree, and he annoys Rude more than a warehouse full of chocobos in heat... but he's earned his share of covert smiles from the silent hulk, and they work together with a seamless perfection that has Tseng pissing with pride over.

Even if Rude is always the one doing the report paperwork afterward.

Reno doesn't tell him much about his personal life- and who could blame him? Rude ignores just about anything anyone tells him unless it's work related. He's sent Elena running fro the room in tears from mere lack of attention or pointed glares. But if Rude knows anything about the caustic force, it's that he loves to celebrate.

He'll find a reason to drink to anything, to go out dancing, to shoot pool with 'the boys,' to show up at a party or throw his own. He's invited Rude to many such celebrations, and Rude declines every time. He takes Rude's refusals with more grace and good sport than the standard supply of any man with a healthy sense of pride.

He hasn't invited Rude to anything in the past few weeks, however, and Rude has found himself oddly missing the chance to say no. Or maybe even yes. Reno has lately been, if anything, a little more irritable than he ought to be.

And then Rude heard Elena discussing the solstice bash at the President's estate last week... and her comment about how it's such a shame that Reno's birthday has to ride the coattails of such an important holiday. Of all the times rude had to *listen* to what Elena was saying.

No wonder. Even a stoic and private man like himself, if he celebrated anything, would be irritated by a lifetime of an important event of his own lumped in with such a commercial sort of situation. It would make Rude feel cheap and less worth his salt around this time of year.

Such is the reasoning for his request to Tseng, though he never makes a point to explain himself over personal matters, and Tseng is well accustomed to this by now- if Rude is asking for time off, then it must be for an extremely important reason. If rude is...... asking for time off on Reno's behalf? Then it must be something strange.

Nevertheless, time is granted. Rude has spent the rest of his day making preparations, canceling and remaking them, because he honestly has no idea how to go about such things. He doesn't celebrate such things, and he certainly has no experience with parties. This is why he's scheduled, canceled, rescheduled and re-canceled the same party a good four times in a row.

At least now he's figured something out that won't drive him ballistic and hopefully won't disappoint his partner, though in his opinion, it's nothing worth a lot of whoop anyway.

Rude has never gone this far for a partner before. He looks at the passes in his hand and furrows his brow before walking into their office, wondering what makes Reno different, before looking up to Reno's desk and tossing his coat to him. "Close up shop. We're going." Well, it's as close to an invitation to socialize as Rude gets. At least he's trying.


Reno HATES this time of year. Snow, bells, wreaths, trees, and a shit ton of pressure to find the perfect gift for every person you ever knew in your life or run the risk of being called a social outcast for all time. Normally, any excuse to go out and get shitfaced would have been met with open arms but as the dreaded holidays loom closer and closer, he finds less and less reasons to go out. It's a dangerous cycle for him.

He goes out, sees all the decorations and the endless commercials about what to buy, jokes about bad presents, and talk of family all getting together for the season, all of which remind him why he hates this holiday so much, and he winds up going out less and less. Instead, he stays home and drinks by himself.

His small apartment isn't anything befitting company and Reno isn't interested in having anyone over anyway. They'd just wind up talking about Solstice. How could they not? It was fucking everywhere, on every billboard, in every window, on every channel and in the middle of it all was a lost celebration that everyone forgot.

His birthday.

No one in the building had said a single word to him about it all day. Not so much as a fucking cupcake. Really, it shouldn't bother him, birthdays should stop mattering to anyone after they turn eleven, but Reno has always felt a little cheated. Every year, people were so busy with the season that they either lumped his birthday in with Christmas or forgot it all together.

Even as a child, he loathed the phrase "we'll just have one party and celebrate both at the same time!" No. Thanks. The day marking his birth deserved to be celebrated in its OWN right, not as an add on to a holiday.

He's pretty sure no one has EVER given him a birthday present that wasn't wrapped in Solstice paper and he'd had turkey dinners for his birthday more often than cakes. In the end, he'd come to hate the whole season if for no other reason than because it made everyone forget he was born....literally.

Reno growls something unintelligible and plunks his coffee mug down onto his desk, heedless of the fact that he's just made a perfect stain ring on the report he was supposed to be filling out. He stares at the small envelope in the corner of his computer screen that says he's received company mail and he checks it based solely on the hope that more of those humorous bits of spam have gotten past the filter again.

Being offered a bigger penis was always entertaining if only because he could see the look on Tseng's face when the stoic man got one too. He'd even gotten one with a particularly entertaining rhyme in it and had printed it out to hang on the President's door.

This time there was no porn-tastic poetry to be had and Reno frowns as he eyes the e-mail entitled "PTO Request Approval" from Tseng. PTO? He hadn't asked for PTO. Why they hell would he ask for days off right now? If anything this time of year is when he seemed to have the best attendance, save for the fact that he often came in half drunk.

Maybe Tseng was just stepping in ahead of time before they had another "goldfish in all the toilets" incident like last year when Reno had used his holiday bonus to buy every single goldfish from the local pet store, fit them all with red stocking caps and then drop them into every toilet in the building to voice his drunken displeasure over the holiday.

Of course, he was still proud of the fact that even half buzzed, he'd still managed to get all the toilets to flush at once, much to the horror of the employees that had gathered to gawk at the fish.

Take THAT Solstice.

Reno clicks on the e-mail while trying to decide if guinea pigs would actually flush as an option for this year when Rude comes into the office. Reno looks up at him bleary-eyed as his coat all but smacks him in the face. He tugs it down and shoots Rude a curious look. "Wha?"

Rude doesn't like to go out. Where the hell? Reno sits still for a few seconds, trying to decide if it's worth it to deal with the argument if he refuses. It's his birthday, dammit, and he shouldn't have to go anywhere he doesn't want to, that includes anywhere but home and a good bottle of scotch right now.

He knows he's really not much in the way of fit company at the moment but Rude so rarely ever offers to go anywhere with him that Reno can't bring himself to say no. He reaches over and slides open a top drawer, withdrawing a lighter in case he feels the need to set any holiday decorations ablaze in his attempts to feel better, and then pulls on his jacket.

Reno rubs absently at the thin layer of stubble on his chin and decides it's better that he not bother looking in a mirror right now. He's sure that the weeks of heavy boozing and little sleep have taken their toll a lot more than they normally do when he can happily pass out after a good party.

"Where're we goin'?" he slurs, his voice lacking all it's usual cheerfulness. He hasn't been partners with Rude for long, but in the short time they've been together, Reno has come to really enjoy Rude's company, even if the guy barely talks, and he discovered a few months back that he can be himself around Rude without worrying what the man will think. Only Rude gets to see him without the mask of usual cheerfulness.


It's odd, that wrenching sort of sensation in his chest when he sees the look of underlying pessimism on Reno's face. The stubble accentuates the expression, but in Rude's opinion, it would do the same to any of Reno's expressions. He finds that interesting, though he doesn't allow himself to discuss that any further with... himself.

"Somewhere," he answers gruffly, pulling his gloves from his coat pocket and onto his hands. "Somewhere with scotch and sake," he continues, moving to his desk to shut down his laptop and arrange his papers. He can't believe he's doing this for such an annoying fuck, he thinks to himself, but that face... "and somewhere without this ridiculous shining crap Elena threw all over our office," he concludes, flicking a bit of tinsel off his desk with a muted air of murderous rage.

Then again, Rude always has an air like that. It's only Reno who never seems to be deflected by it. He straightens and adjusts his jacket when he's back at the door, waiting patiently for Reno to join him. Usually the guy would jump at time off, no matter the consequence. The sluggish attitude only breaks Rude's heart a little more- even if he has none.