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Tseng knows he's not supposed to be smiling when he walks into Veld's office upon their return to Midgar. Veld will think that he's treated the situation flippantly, which is far from the case, but there's something about Veld's scorching anger that makes Tseng feel giddy and alive.

'You did that on purpose,' Veld growls, pulling his tie down to give himself room to breathe. Tseng stands across him, doing his best to keep his face straight as he says, 'Yes, sir.'

'You pushed your men into corners I've taught you never to find yourself in.'

'Yes, sir,' Tseng answers, and waits a beat. 'Actually, your men, sir.'

Veld tucks his hands into his pockets, unimpressed. The past week has left him on edge, and Tseng has to consciously stave off the urge to stare because he has rarely seen Veld so openly raw; collar open and tie loose, blazer thrown aside and feet a comfortable shoulder's length apart. 'You've disappointed me, Tseng,' Veld says quietly. At any other time Tseng would have flinched but --

'The guards guard themselves, sir,' he answers, the words rumbling in his chest and tasting sweet on his tongue.

Veld, standing at casual ease, regards Tseng for a long, long while before he draws his hand out of his left pocket, and reaches across to pull the tie that holds Tseng's hair back loose. A wave of dark hair falls warm and silken about Veld's calloused fingers. 'You've grown,' he tells Tseng with voice filled with pride and something thicker, his fingers speaking for him as he brazenly pushes dark strands behind the delicate shell of Tseng's ear.

Tseng shivers before he leans in himself.

-

For Turks, there really is no rest. Tseng, a field operative first and foremost, ferries himself between Junon and Midgar, Nibelheim and Wutai, Rocket Town and then finally Corel as they race to recapture a semi-complete reactor from AVALANCHE, whom they had all thought defeated.

The helicopter ride into the mountainous coal-mining region is long enough for Tseng to muse over the long silence on the part of Rufus Shinra. There have been no calls, no appearances, no hint of the attention-loving brat that Tseng knows exists under Rufus' skin.

There's something else that's hiding under Rufus' skin, Tseng soon discovers as they struggle through a swarm of AVALANCHE units to find their own Vice President at the heart of the reactor.

'So you managed to get through,' Rufus drawls, eyes fixed on Tseng even though all the other Turks are equally beside themselves with disbelief. 'Just what I expected from the Turks. You've given me some problems.'

Tseng does not dignify Rufus with any visible response, and is the first one to move when Veld infiltrates, emerging from his cover to shout, "Get the Vice President!"

In the confusing melee that follows, Rufus is betrayed by the very AVALANCHE members he trusted to propel him to greatness. A bomb sabotage on the reactor later and the double-crosser finds himself double-crossed. 'This is why you will never surpass your father,' Fuhito flashes a razor sharp smile at Rufus, moving to attack him as the vice president stands rooted to the ground.

Veld throws himself in front of Rufus before the boy can shake off the shock of not being /right/, shoving him into a corner and cutting off all protests as bullets ring off the metal girders around them. 'Tseng, take front,' he commands, pulling a materia-loaded gun from his holster and arming it so fast that Rufus can't see what he's doing. Veld pulls the trigger twice and shields the blond with his own body, Tseng flashing forward ahead of them like a deadly black blur, taking down anyone who gets in their way.

Fuhito and Sears level attack after attack upon them, klaxon alarms ringing ear-splittingly loud as Rufus discovers how real his game really is. An AVALANCHE lackey yells preparations for explosion complete somewhere in the background.

'Elfe,' Tseng grunts as the force of a blow throws him bodily backwards, his feet skidding under him as he pauses for a moment next to Veld, winded. A gloved hand coated in someone else's blood points out the leader of AVALANCHE, emerging from behind a series of guards. 'Coming in from the left, sir.'

Her voices rings out clear as the fighting dwindles to a stalemate. In her hands is a remote. 'We have the power,' she calls out, 'to blow this place up whenever we want.'

The bomb isn't the detonator buried around the Mako-refinement cells. It is her voice. Veld's grip on Rufus' shoulder suddenly becomes white-knuckled and painfully tight. 'Felicia?'

Tseng throws Veld a look before snapping his eyes to the leader of AVALANCHE; Elfe, Felicia, Veld's daughter (file no. #18923, believed dead).

The resemblance is actually startling in that none of them noticed it before.

Later, Tseng strips off red-stained gloves and stands together with the rest of the AVALANCHE-defeated Turks. It is the hardest thing he has ever had to do, to tell Veld to go after her, and to leave them behind.

'You have always thought of us, sir. This time this is something that we want to do for you.'

Veld's gaze bores into him, molten hot, mirroring Rufus' own from the side. Tseng begs some god to have his mentor say yes quickly, and to just go.

Instead, Veld addresses Rufus. 'Mr Vice President. Please do not forget what I am about to say. For a long time, the President has been thinking of leaving his position, waiting only for the appropriate time. There are no parents, Rufus Shinra, that do not wish their children happiness.'

Lies/, Tseng spits hatefully inside of himself, overcome in a moment of bitterness. /Lies that you're telling him because you want to keep him under control.

Veld's gaze isn't on Tseng, it is on Rufus, as if conferring on the younger man ownership of something. 'What father doesn't want the best for his child?'

Rufus' blue eyes glitter with knowledge about Kalm. 'What father indeed.'

'The world is not that simple, Rufus Shinra,' says Veld, who has looked upon Tseng as his own.

'No,' Rufus returns quietly, something dawning in his eyes. 'No, it isn't, damn you.'

Tseng wishes his mentor would look at him, just once, and if his eyes had been anywhere other than on Veld's face he would have noticed Rufus flicking a thoughtful look his way.

But the last thing Veld says to him before he leaves is, 'Take the vice president back to the Turk headquarters for confinement. The rest is up to you, Tseng.'

-

The first thing Rufus and Tseng do when the double-locked doors shut behind them at the Turk headquarters is to quarrel.

'Rufus, you are like a stubborn little child/. You could not have my approval so you sought it elsewhere. With /Avalanche. You put Shinra in danger, you put the Turks in danger, you put yourself in danger.' Tseng's eyes are uncharacteristically wild, his voice uncharacteristically harsh.

'At least,' Rufus volleys back, voice rising to match Tseng's, 'I do more than just /pine/. And that's what they tell me you've done for years; pine at Veld, lick his feet so that -'

Tseng's voice is ice cold. 'Let go of my blazer.'

'-- weak like the rest of them --'

'Let go of my blazer.'

'At the end of the day, this is what you get,' Rufus spits. 'His loyalty to you is to drop you like a rock, abandon you to the side.'

Tseng's tapered fingers attempt to wrench Rufus' long ones from where they have fisted themselves in his blazer. 'Veld did what he felt was best,' he states, diffident, pulling himself together. 'He left, and refused to let the ties of his family incarcerate him, now let go of me, Rufus Shinr--'

Rufus presses himself up against Tseng's chest and presses his mouth against Tseng's and presses his tongue against the enamel of the Turk's teeth, and neither of them speak except with their anger, and their hurt.