Love is Never Silent

~~--~~

Rude rolled over on his side and hit his alarm clock, shutting it off. -Ever since the President played this song, it's been everywhere. I swear Reno programmed it into my clock on purpose.- He thought as he stood up and stretched. Rude began his day as he normally did, with one hundred sit-ups, one hundred push ups and finally one hundred pull ups. He was more distracted than usual; his mind was still trying to comprehend the fact that he was having dinner that night with Tifa. Part of him was thinking that it was just a dream and he would wake up at any minute. He showered and got prepared for his day, he stared  at his suits for what seemed like hours, trying to figure out what would be the perfect outfit to wear.



~~--~~



Reno stood in the kitchen yawning, his hair still messed up from sleep. He yawned again as he looked around for something to eat. "Oi! Rude! We don't have anything to eat, yo!" He called as he shook his head. He then decided on the leftover pizza that was sitting on the counter. 



"We have plenty of food. You don't like to eat anything that isn't pizza or already cooked." 



Reno turned to glare at his partner, when his mouth fell open. "Rude?"



"What?" Rude asked as he walked into the kitchen, straightening his tie. 



"You've got a date! Way to go man! Never knew you had it in ya!" 



Rude looked at him, shocked. "How could you tell?"



"Look at yourself! You're wearing a colored tie!" 



Rude looked down at it nervously. "It isn't too much is it? I just wanted everything to be perfect." 



Reno looked him over and shrugged. "Yeah I guess its okay. So when is the date and who is the lucky person?"



"We're just having dinner. It's not a date." 



"Aww! C'mon man! You're holding back on me, yo! Who is it?" Reno asked eagerly. 



Rude pretended to be seriously interested in cleaning up the mess that Reno was making with his pizza. 



Reno sighed, shaking his head; he then reached over and grabbed Rude's sunglasses. "Mine now!" 



Rude turned and glared at him. "Give them back to me Reno!" 



"Not until you tell me who this mysterious person is!" He said, as he jumped onto the counter and held them out of his reach. 



Rude sighed annoyed. "Fine, it's Tifa." He said, reaching up and grabbing his sunglasses and putting them back on. 



"See was that so hard? So you and Tifa are having a date tonight? Way to go big guy." He said hitting Rude on his shoulder as he jumped off the counter. 



Rude rolled his eyes, finishing the cleaning. "Shut up Reno. It's not a date. It's just dinner, to repay me for fixing her bar." 



Reno laughed, "Maybe you should have me destroy the bar then you can fix it, then maybe you'll get laid!" 



Rude looked away, blushing a tiny bit. "Shut up Reno."  



"Well as much as I wanna keep teasing you about your date tonight with Tifa, I would HATE to have Elena drag us to work again." He said over exaggerating the "hate" and rolling his eyes.



Rude shook his head as he walked into his room and switched his colored tie for his normal one. "Let's go." He told Reno as he headed outside. 



~~--~~



They had barely made it twenty feet from their shared apartment when Reno asked, "Are you sure I didn't have sex with Tifa?"



"You didn't."



"Are you sure? Cause you know-"



"No Reno, you aren't the lifestreams gift to women." 



Reno glared at him, crossing his arms. "Name one girl I haven't slept with!" 



Rude rolled his eyes. "Tifa, obviously." 



Reno rolled his eyes right back at him and stuck his tongue out at him for good measure. "Name two more!" 



"There's Aeris. Also Yuffie." 



"Aeris is dead! She doesn't count!" 



"You didn't even when she was alive!" 



"Fine! I couldn't sleep with Yuffie! She's 16!"



"That hasn't stopped you before." Rude muttered under his breath, earning him a glare from Reno. "Besides Monkey, she is 19 years old. She's been legal for awhile now." 



Reno grinned, "Score! Tell the boss I'm gonna be in Wutai for awhile!" Reno turned to walk away. 



Rude grabbed him by his collar. "Don't even think about it. We're going to work." 



Reno moaned loudly, over exaggerating his shoulder shrug. "Rude you're such a killjoy! Maybe I should tell Tifa!" He threatened, grinning evilly. 



"You aren't allowed anywhere Tifa! Not after you got her drunk! That reminds me, what did you give her?" 



"I gave her booze. Duh." He said with a roll of his eyes. 



Rude tried to resist the urge to smack him upside his head. "What was in the drink?"



"More booze. Man Rude, for someone who drinks as much as you do, you sure don't know your liquor." Reno said as he opened the doors to Shin-Ra and they walked inside. 



~~--~~



"Hey Rude! Congratulations!" One employee said as Rude walked him.



Rude looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "What?" 



"Have fun tonight Rude!" The receptionist called as they headed to the elevator. 



As the doors closed, Rude turned to Reno and glared at him. "Reennoo....." 



"What???? I didn't say anything to anyone! You're smiling today, even if it's a small smile. People never see you smile! Hell, I don't think even I've seen you smile! So people are going to assume something good happened to you." 



Rude scanned Reno's face. Their history together usually gave Rude the edge when trying to sort through Reno's fibs, but he had no luck today. 



The elevator doors opened to reveal of group ten people standing by the doors, waiting for them. Some were applauding for Rude, others saying words of encouragement. 



Rude hit the button to close the doors and turned to Reno, glaring daggers at him. "I know only 30 people at this company. How do they ALL know what I'm doing tonight?" 



Reno just grinned as he pulled out his phone and waved it at him. 



Rude growled under his breath as he punched the wall beside Reno's head. "You are paying the rent by yourself this month. Maybe for the next two months!" 



"C'mon Rude! That's not fair!" 



"You should've thought about that before you shared my private life with everyone in the company! Next time you tell you are out with a girl, I'll tell everyone."



Reno just laughed. "Everyone already knows when I have a new girl! That's not a big threat Rude." 



Rude sighed annoyed as he opened the door to the elevator. He pushed his way through the crowd, ignoring the more lewd comments.



~~--~~



At the end of the hallway, near Rufus' office, he spotted Elena looking at him, but she quickly looked away, as if embarrassed to have him spot her. Rude just shrugged as he continued down to Rufus' office. 



Tseng stood at the door, waiting for them, when Rude and Reno walked up, he shook his head at him, annoyed. "Great, it seems like you've got a date tonight. That means you'll need time off to do whatever it is that couples do, going out on dates or whatever. That means more paperwork for me to do, that means I'll have to create a whole new folder just for you, which means I have to rearrange my entire filing cabinet just for you!" He sighed shaking his head.  "Now let's go, the boss wants to see us." 



"Alright! We got a mission! Let's go! To President Shinra's office!" Reno said pointing in the air dramatically, as he took off running. 



The rest of the Turks just sighed, shaking their heads, wondering where he had the energy sometimes. 



~~--~~



Tseng, Rude, Reno and Elena stood in front of Rufus' desk, waiting for him to look up at them and tell them what their new mission was. 



Rude looked over at Elena as she quickly looked back down. -Huh. I wonder what's wrong with Elena today?- Rude thought as he shrugged again, straightening his tie. 



"Excuse me sir?" Tseng said as he cleared his throat. "I've brought the Turks sir. You said you had a mission for us." 



Rufus looked up at them, "Ah! Rude! Just the Turk I wanted to see!" He said as he wheeled over to him.



The Turks looked at Rude, mouths dropping open. Rufus never spoke to Rude before, or any of the others like an individual. -What is with Rude?  What makes him so special?- 



Rude gulped a little, fixing his tie. "Umm, yes sir? What do you need?" 



"Well I hear you have a dinner date tonight with Tifa." 



Rude glared at Reno, who flinched a little in response. "Well it's not really a dinner date, sir. It's just dinner." He said nervously. 



"Well what ever it is, I have something for you." He said handing him a sheet of paper. 



Rude looked at it, eyes wide. "Sir? What is this?" 



Reno grabbed the paper and gasped loudly. "Holy crap Rude! How'd you get this kinda money?! That's not fair! I should get paid too!"



Tseng nodded, as he looked at it, eyes wide. "Yes sir, I didn't know we were finally getting paid. Where's the money for the rest of us?" 



Rufus shook his head, holding up his hand. "No, no. This is just a temporary loan to Rude. So this way he can do whatever it takes to woo Tifa, so that way he can find out secrets about AVALANCHE and get the money that they are making with their oil field. Rude, I expect this money to be repaid! I will be keeping track of the money you spend." 



Rude gulped nervously. "Y-yes sir! I promise that I'll pay you back." 



"Mr. President? You had a mission for us?" Tseng interrupted, forcing Rufus' attention back to him. 



"What? Oh yes, Rude, you're dismissed for the day. I'm sure you want to get ready for you dinner date. Remember, this is very important for the future of Shin-Ra. Do NOT fail, otherwise, we'll be finding ourselves with one less Turk. Am I clear?" 



Rude gulped and nodded. "Yes, sir. I understand completely." Rude then nodded Tseng and the others as he walked out of the room, seeing Elena's eyes follow him. 



~~--~~



Rude made his way back to the locker rooms and sighed a bit, annoyed. He was looking forward to having a mission, so that way he would have something to take his mind off of the dinner tonight. He didn't know what he was supposed to do now, the dinner wasn't for several hours. Was he supposed to bring something? Was he supposed to help her somehow? He sighed, closing his locker and heading out into the hallway. 



Elena was leaning up against the wall, waiting for him to come out. When he came out, he walked with him for a few seconds, before stopping him. "You know Rude, you're really lucky. You'll have to tell me your secret later! By the way, if I were you I'd buy her some flowers or something like that. She'd really appreciate it; I know I'd love it if Tseng would buy me flowers." She said smiling sadly to herself.  "Enjoy your day off." She called as she ran off to join Reno and the others. 



~~--~~





Two hours later, Rude found himself standing outside of 7th Heaven, holding a bouquet of flowers, pacing back and forth, trying to work up his courage to knock on the door. 



The warning from Rufus kept playing over in his head. "Remember, this is very important for the future of Shin-Ra. Do NOT fail, otherwise, we'll be finding ourselves with one less Turk. Am I clear?" 



Rude sighed as he stopped his pacing, he decided that right now, he wasn't going to worry about what Rufus said, and he was going to have dinner with Tifa tonight because he liked her and cared about her. Not because of Shin-Ra or because of Avalanche, that would be pushed aside for tonight. Tomorrow would be the time to worry about what he was going to do next. Tonight was what mattered. Tifa was what mattered.

~~--~~

OneWingedAngel's note: Thanks for continuing to read my story! If you would please just take a few seconds to give this story a quick review, I'd very much appreciate it!