Bets

BETS


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By: Albedosreqium / Soyna

Setting:
After Advent Children and Dirge are said and done

Rating, Genre and Warnings:
T
Friendship and Gambling.

Disclaimer:
All related Final Fantasy names and characters are copyrighted by the almighty Square Enix©. I do not profit from this endeavour.

Summary and Additional Information
This is self-Beta'ed so if there are any mistakes, they are my own.
ReevexTseng or VincentxReeve or all three from :iconshadowhaloedangel: for the deviantArt first 10 thingy thing…. I got three lovely gentlemen in the fic. Enjoy.


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Tseng frowned heavily at the phone. This was the fourth message that he had left for Reeve. Reeve was usually very prompt at returning his messages and was quick at reacting to his concerns. Tseng mad a few more calls, searching for the WRO leader and was not satisfied with any of the answer, they were vague and concerned him. People were saying that he had not left his office for more than a couple hours at a time and this was not normal behaviour from the man.

He decided to try Reeve's cell one more time before he went to investigate further.

He had a brief moment of relief when he heard the line answered but that was quickly squelched as a deeper voice spoke with a simple, "Yes."

"Who is this?" Tseng responded. "Is this not Reeve Tuesti's phone?"

"It is." The deep voice answered. "He is not inclined to answer at the moment."

"You still haven'tt answered my first question," Tseng said curtly. He did not like surprises and this strange but familiar voice answering Reeve's phone displeased him.

There was a heavy silence from the person on the other end, but it did allow him to hear what was going on in the background. He heard some cheerful, annoying and familiar background music.

"Vincent." The voice finally answered.

"And why are you answering Reeve's phone?" Tseng was a little annoyed at this. He knew the two talked from time to time, but he had directly told Reeve that he should be careful around the ex-Turk.

"He had discarded his jacket earlier and I claimed it for him. His phone was in it," Vincent said simply. "His attentions were on other things."

"And where were his attentions?" Tseng asked but was starting to get the idea as to what was distracting the engineer from the louder fanfare music that was playing in the background.

"I believe he was trying to acquire more gold coins," Vincent said.

Tseng closed his eyes and sank in his chair. "What is it this time? The fights? Arcade?"

"Chocobo racing," Vincent answered.

"Is he still betting?"

"Of sorts." Vincent sounded distracted. "He seems to have won some coin back."

"How long has he been there?"

There was again a heavy silence over the phone before Vincent spoke again. "I am not here to do your investigations."

"I'm not asking you as a Turk. I am asking you as a friend of Reeves. Reeve… He get's carried away when he gambles."

"I've noticed."

The silence hung there for a bit and Tseng waited for more from Vincent. "I'll watch him so that he does not do something more dangerous that leaving his coat behind."

Tseng refrained from giving out a relieved sigh. "I will make arrangements to be at the saucer as soon as possible."

"I will be waiting then." The phone went silent.

Tseng gathered his coat and started to arrange for transport as he pondered what could have started Reeves compulsion to begin gambling again.

…..

Tseng hated going to the Golden Saucer. It was too loud and bright. The music blaring around him would surly give him a headache by the end of the day. He was also aware that Reeve enjoyed the place immensely and went here at every opportunity, even if it was only with his surrogates.

Before he left, he had stormed Reeve's office and had confirmed that Reeve was not there; well at least not the real one. One of the 'Reeve suits' was sitting at the desk doing menial work but the programming of it was not complicated as it answered his simple questions easily, mechanically and wrong. It seemed to know that it wasn't supposed to talk to him and that the contraption would not fool Tseng, so the fake Reeve didn't bother to try.

He knew that no one would suspect that Reeve had a gambling problem even it was so plainly obvious. Having to deal with Cait's silly gambling attacks with dice and cards should have been more than enough evidence of his enthralment with the games of chance.

Last time it was cards, the time before was dice and now it seemed to be chocobo racing. Tseng walked straight to the races to see if he could find the Engineer or Ex-Turk there. He did not see his targets at first until he saw a small figure with a crown sitting on the betting counter. Cait was staring up at the outcome boards. It seems that the girls at the desk thought Cait was cute and he had a small chair and a board in front of him that he used as a table.

Tseng walked beside the counter and examined what Cait was doing with the betting tickets. "Oh," Cait said once he noticed him. "What ya doing here?"

"How bad is he?" Tseng said simply.

Cait blinked and looked at the racing board and then back at the tickets in his hand. Cait stumbled over his words as it tried to say that everything was fine. If Reeve was getting Cait to make the bets for him, he knew his friend was going over the edge.

He grabbed the cat by its neck, getting a small yelp from the creature. "Where's Reeve?" Tseng asked. "I'll shut you off and find him myself if you are going to be difficult. I have no qualms about that, as you should know."

"Vincent's got 'em," Cait said. "They got a room at the Haunted Inn."

Tseng nodded and took Cait up into his arms. Cait protested but Tseng expertly held the wiggling creature. "Which room?"

Cait sighed and slumped in his grip. "Can I finish these tallies?" He pointed to the piles of papers on board that he had used as a desk. Tseng turned his attention to the nearest girl at the desk.

The girl gave him a large fake smile. "Take care of these and place the winnings aside. Cait or Mr. Tuesti, for that matter, will not be placing any more wagers today. Ensure that it happens." He said curtly.

"Yes sir."

Tseng started to walk away from the Chocobo betting counter with Cait firmly in his arms. Tseng ignored the strange looks and even the odd questions on which game you had to play to get the cool plushy. Cait was babbling but Tseng was used to it and choose to ignore it. He went to the haunted inn and followed Cait's instructions as to which room Reeve and Vincent were in.

He gave the door a firm knock.

Vincent answered the door with a stern look and a heavy frown. He motioned with his claw for him to enter. Now that he had arrived at the room, he reached and pressed the button that was hidden on the crown of Cait to silence the cat.

"Hey!" A yell came from the bathroom.

Vincent made as small sniff, "He's pouting."

"I can hear you!" Reeve stormed out of the room, with a device that looked very much like a cell phone firmly in his hand. He was not wearing his usually long blue robe like coat, but wore a simple pair of dark blue slacks and a white shirt that was usually crisply ironed but now looked rumpled and slept in. and his tie was just a dark blue fabric that was draped over his shoulders. "I am not pouting."

Tseng raised his eyebrow at the man. Vincent shook his head. Tseng let Reeve take the limp Cait from his arms and reactivated it. "How dare you! Cait is not something to be gambled with."

Vincent went to reach for Cait. "All the more reason to deactivate it." Cait let out a little yelp before it scurried out of everyone's grasp and went to hide behind a chair.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Reeve crossed his arms and glared at the two men in front of him.

Tseng closed the door behind him and then turned his dark eyes back to the hostile man. "How much have you spent on the races?"

Reeve immediately tensed. "I don't have a gambling problem! It was just a few races."

"What day is it Reeve?" Tseng asked.

"Saturday."

"Try again," Vincent said and circled around to where Cait was hiding causing the small creature to scramble under the chair.

"What?" Reeve said and looked genuinely confused. Tseng was familiar with this. Reeve's body may have been sleeping but when he was overusing Cait and his other 'suits', the days would blur together and he would get confused. Exhaustion was creeping up on him and starting to take a visible toll on the engineer. It had happened before after meteor fall occurred. Tseng remembered recovering from his injuries, courtesy of Sephiroth, along side Reeve. Reeve because of his near fatal exhaustion and himself the painful blade that went through his stomach. Pushing oneself for the sake of saving the planet was one thing, for the sake of a game of chance, it was unacceptable.

"How much money?" Tseng asked again, crossing his arms.

"Well, it wasn't that much," Reeve said but he looked down at his feet as he spoke.

Tseng sighed. "Cait?"

"We started with Three Thousand gil," Cait said from underneath the chair.

Reeve glared at his counterpart. Vincent shook his head and asked, "How many races have you bet on?"

"A few," Reeve said, his eyes darting to Vincent but not making eye contact.

"Three hundred and sixty six," Cait said and hid further under the chair, his ears wilting and its tail wrapped in its front paws.

Reeve clenched his teeth together and glared at both of them. "How did you know I was even here!"

Vincent held up a cell phone. "You left this behind with your coat in your rush to place a bet."

"Why are you even here?" Reeve said and crossed his arms, looking as if he wanted to reach out and grab the phone. His eyes were darting between them and he was looking rather nervous.

"You had been talking to Cloud about Chocobo's," Vincent said as if it explained everything. To Tseng, it did. Reeve's gambling obsession covered any gambling game and Tseng remembered how Cloud had raced and breed the large birds. He was a little surprised that Vincent noticed the man's quirk.

"I…," Reeve started but stopped as he looked at the two men staring at him. He gave out a heavy sigh and his shoulders slumped. "Have I been blinded again?"

"Yes," came from three voices. Tseng glared down at Cait who slunk back under the chair.

"You guys can't get mad at Cloud. He doesn't know. He didn't know that this would happen when we were talking about selling some of the Chocobo's that he has in the stable." Reeve said and moved to sit on the couch and placed his head in his hands.

"I heard," Vincent said. "You got that gleam in your eye and I grew worried."

Tseng nodded knowing how a simple card game could grab the man's attention and drive him to distraction.

Reeve groaned. "I had a whole system that I developed where I would look at their stats and…well, I had to tweak it."

Tseng also knew that he wasn't very good at gambling, so he softened his voice and stance as he asked the next question. "How much did you lose?"

Reeve hesitated.

Cait spoke as he started to emerge from beneath the chair. "He nearly broke even."

"Has the stress of WRO been getting to you? You have not had a vacation or a break in months, even after your injury." Vincent said and moved closer to where Reeve was sitting. Tseng agreed with Vincent's assessment. Reeve was always a man that pushed himself to the point of breaking as he took the responsibilities of the world on to his shoulders.

"I can handle it," Reeve answered sitting up straight on the couch. His rumpled clothes and dark circles under his eyes ruined the illusion of confidence that he was trying to exude.

"You most certainly cannot when you disappear for nearly a week betting on giant birds running around in circles," Tseng said curtly. "You need to take a real break."

"But…"

"Quiet."

"But…"

"No, there will be no more arguments." Tseng said with finality.

"I do not want to hear any further protests either," Vincent said and sat beside Reeve. Tseng was not expecting the next move. Vincent leaned close to Reeve and placed his hand on the director's belly. "Does it still hurt?"

Tseng was not aware that the injury still bothered Reeve or aware that Vincent knew about it. They had kept it quiet, not wanting to disrupt the delicate balance of power that they held and the trust in the people. If they had lost him as a leader, things would have gone into chaos.

Vincent's voice was low as he spoke. "Have you gone to any doctors about it?" Tseng sat in the chair that Cait had hid under earlier. Cait moved to sit on the arm of the chair and Tseng was grateful that it was quiet for a change.

"Does Heal help?" Vincent asked as his hand remained pressed against the shirt.

"Well, for a little while but," Reeve sighed heavily and hung his head, his whole body slumping against the back of the couch.

"I do believe that you need a break," Vincent said.

"And a doctor," Tseng added, "You should not be hurting still."

"I don't need any of that!" Reeve protested pushing Vincent's hand away from him but resting his own there.

"Then what do you need?" Tseng asked.

"Nothing! You both can go. I don't need nursemaids," Reeve protested and moved a little away from Vincent and started to look a little uncomfortable.

"I believe you do," Vincent said.

"But I…"

"You have already missed a week gambling, you can miss a few more taking proper care of yourself," Tseng said.

"Away from Chocobo'," Vincent said nodding his head.

"But…"

"And Gambling," Tseng added.

"But…"

"Costa Del Sol would work? There is a villa there that Cloud hardly uses I am sure I can acquire for use," Vincent offered.

"But…"

"I do think he will need to be watched though," Vincent's eyes turned toward Tseng.

"Agreed," Tseng nodded.

"But…"

"I can do it." Tseng and Vincent looked down at Cait who gave a whimper before disappearing back under the chair.

"I-I," Reeve stammered.

Tseng pulled out his phone. "Reno has been claiming that I don't give him enough responsibility. He could look after my affairs for a week."

"I have no other obligations," Vincent offered and placed a hand firmly on Reeve's shoulder.

"But," Reeve said looking almost panicked as he looked between the Turk and the Ex-Turk.

"I need a break as well," Tseng said simply as he scrolled through his numbers.

"I have been told that I could use some sun," Vincent said simply.

Tseng couldn't help but smile at how Vincent had said that with a straight face. "There is enough room in that Villa for us all."

"Of course," Vincent nodded.

"Don't I get a say!" Reeve yelled.

Three sets of eyes looked at him. "No."


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In Dirge…Cait wore a Reeve suit and I ran with it for this stroy. Well, I think he could do something like this to get away, even if it was controlled by one of his lesser engineering creations. Another version of Cait perhaps, as there at least 3 that I can figure… (One was stuck inside the black materia.) Anyhoo… I am running with!

So, did you like :shadowhaloedangel:

I think this is the second fic I wrote where Reeve was looked after by the two dark-haired Turks (well one is an ex-turk)… I think I can't decide who he should go with. It turned into a friendship fic… I like it though.