Chapter Text
Her fist hovered over the door, hesitating. Was she really going to do this? The very idea, as little as a couple of years ago, would have been… Insane. Senior Turk or not, she’d have slapped Reno clear across the face for even suggesting something so taboo. And then probably cited the exact clauses in the employee conduct rule book regarding interpersonal relationships and prohibitions.
But things had… changed, since then.
Reno had started it, of course. Even though their desks were across from each other, he’d texted her instead: a simple message entirely composed of an eggplant emoji and a sweat emoji - their implications obvious - with a question mark and a winking emoticon. At first, she’d refused to respond, assuming maybe he’d somehow messaged her on accident… Except that she could see his furtive glances in her direction, intentionally anything but subtle.
An hour later, she finally replied, “Aren’t you and Rude a thing? I’m not getting between that.” Reno had frowned but didn’t respond, and Elena expected the conversation to be done with. But then, her phone pinged once more. To her surprise, it was Rude.
“Ignore him. Dinner at our place?”
That piqued her interest.
So there she was, standing in the hallway outside her senior officers' home. The place was smaller than she'd expected; evidently housing only four units, with two of them currently vacant. Her fingers curled around the bag strapped over her shoulder as she steeled herself to finally knock.
Reno had suggested she wear something "flirty," which, predictably, earned a roll of her eyes. Rude had suggested a few other things to bring with that were a bit more surprising but at least served to make clear how their intentions truly lie. Chief among them had been a set of comfortable clothes to change into; foresight she appreciated after the last few minutes of standing still in a pair of stilettos.
Rude was the one to answer the door. Despite herself, Elena blushed - clearly she wasn't the only one dressing flirty for the evening. He'd exchanged his already handsomely cut suit for a silver button-down dress shirt, the sleeves rolled up past his forearms. The top two buttons of his collar were undone. At first, she thought he might have kept his usual dress slacks on until he stepped aside with a subtle smile to let her in, and the shift in lighting made it clear they were leather. Leather!
"You look great," he said, holding a hand out to take her bag as the door clicked shut behind her. Absently, Elena let him take it, her attention fixed on scanning the apartment. Rude just chuckled, leading her further inside to where she could see Reno in the kitchen. His hair was coiled up in a rough bun on the back of his head, somehow managing to look both deliberate and disheveled at the same time.
“Thanks.” It was more belated than she’d meant it to be. “So we really are doing this?”
“Fuck yeah! If you change your mind though, you’re still helping eat dinner.” Reno turned halfway, shooting a pointed look at both Elena and his partner. “This shit doesn’t keep well for leftovers.” He said it so quietly that Elena couldn’t help but snicker under her breath. Especially in combination with the fact that he was wearing an apron - an honest to goodness apron! - over his own clothes.
Reno’s usual suit was cut even more closely than Rude’s and left little to the imagination about how toned he really was underneath it. Sure, the dark jeans he’d changed into made his ass look positively fantastic, and his tee-shirt was thin enough she could almost make out his muscles and the shapes of his various tattoos. But Elena knew him as a highly-skilled corporate assassin first and foremost, which really made the cute Tonberry and Moogle print apron stand out in an almost uncannily disarming way.
“Come on. Living room’s this way,” Rude drew her attention once more, leading her on a brief tour of their home along his path to drop her bag off in the bedroom.
“You’re nervous?” he asked quietly once they were out of earshot of the kitchen. Elena glanced sidelong, giving a halfhearted shrug in response.
“Don’t get me wrong. Like I said this morning, I think it’ll be fun, I’m just…”
“It’s okay to be nervous, Elena.” Rude’s expression was soft. She relented under his gaze and he chuckled, “Reno can be a handful. But we both want you to enjoy yourself.” He leaned back against the door jam and she marveled at seeing him so at-ease.
“I know. I’ll speak up if something makes me uncomfortable, don’t worry. I’m a big girl.” Her eyes lifted to meet his, and she offered a wry smile. “I’m not a virgin or anything. Just never been with more than one guy at a time. I’m still not sure how that’s supposed to work.”
Without his sunglasses, it was easy to see that Rude wasn’t judging her. His smile was small but warm, and she found some of her own anxiety bleeding out just from admitting her reservations.
“That’s why I suggested you bring the strap. Come on, let’s get settled in and we can work out a game plan over dinner.”