"Stop it, Reno."

    "Heh heh heh."

    "Ow, quit it!" Smack.

    "Ow!" The red head grabbed as his head and glared at his friend. "Ya big tight ass! I was jest playin' with ya!"

    Reno and Rude were both fourteen. They were both friends. And they were both brand new Turks.

    Rude grunted in reply, crossing his arms. "Tseng will be here soon."

    "So? He's a tight ass too."

    "I think you just like that expression."

    Reno grinned. "Maybe I do."

    The door opened and Tseng slipped quietly into his own office.

    Both Turks stood at attention, although the red head was holding back laughter.

    The older man surveyed the papers on his desk before glancging up at his recruits. "reno," he spoke sternly, "wipe that smile off your fice. This *isn't* play time."

    "Yes, sir." His grin faded somewhat, but not completely.

    "We'll continue with you training today," Tseng told them. "But first we must report to our boss."

    "Mr. Heidegger?" Rude spoke up.

    "No," Reno muttered sarcastically as he rolled his eyes, "Your mother."

    The other young man glared at him, teeth clenched. "Thta's not funny, Reno."

    "All right," the leader snapped, stepping between them. His black eyes focused on Reno. "You had better learn to control that mouth of yours, Reno."

    Reno raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And why's that?"

    He expected a smack across the face but instead he got a vacant glare. "You'll learn soon enough."

    The red head furrowed his brow as Tseng walked away. "Huh?"

    "Come on," Tseng instructed, pausing at the door. "Heidegger hates to be kept waiting."

    Reno grew bored and jabbed Rude in the stomach just to get a reaction.

    "Ow," Rude growled. "Jack ass."

    "That hurt?" snorted the red head. "And you wanna be a Turk? Take the pain!"

    "Quiet back there," Tseng silenced them.

    Reno muttered something about Tseng being a tight ass.

    The older man stopped at Heidegger's office door and cleared his throat before turning to his subordinates. "Not a word," he insisted, voice dead serious. "Not a *fucking* word out of either of you. Understand?"

    Both of them nodded, silently shocked to hear Tseng curse.

    With a curt nod he knocked.

    Heidegger clearly was in a rotten mood, proved by his gutteral growl of "come in."

    "Good morning, sir," Tseng greeted him emotionlessly.

    "It's not a fucking good morning," Heidegger snapped, knocking a stack of papers to the ground. "President Shinra's on my ass about getting your new recruits trained." He came around teh desk, standing eye to eye with Tseng.

    "They are almost fully trained, sir."

    Reno let out a gasp as the heavyset man reached out and smacked Tseng hard across the face, leaving a bright red mark.

    "Not fast enough!" Heidegger roared, repeating the motion.

    Tseng barely flinched as he turned his head back to face Heidegger. "I'm sorry, sir."

    "Sorry doesn't cut it!" With a voice loud enough to be head down the hall, Heidegger completely lost it, punching and kicking his head Turk, beating him to the ground.

    Tseng didn't make a sound.

    Rude was frozen stiff, horrorfied.

    Reno was confused and angry. He knew Tseng had said not to talk, but he turned to Rude and exclaimed, "why isn't he fighting back?!"

    "I don't know," Rude whispered.

    The red head looked back at his mentor who was obviously in great pain as the older man kicked him like a dead soccer ball. He looked in confusion, boiling anger and burning compassion. "Tseng!" He cried suddenly, lunging to save him from the onslaught. "Tseng!"

    Rude reacted quickly and seized his friend by his jacket, holding him back.

    "Shit," Reno growled as he tried to break free. "Shit, Tseng!"

    "No, Reno. Don't." the other turk held onto him tighter.

    The red head's eyes did not leave the violent scene as he stood panting and wincing. It hurt him so badly to see this... So badly he wanted to cry. But he didn't. Look, he's getting the living shit beaten out of him and he's not even wincing.

    Finally Heidegger stopped his onslaught. "That ought to teach you to work more effciently."

    Tseng wiped the blood from his face and he slowly got back to his feet, trying not to wince. "Yes, sir."

    "Get the fuck out." Heidegger turned and went back to his desk.

    "Yes, sir." Tseng saluted and motioned for the others to follow them.

    Once they were outside and  down the hall a bit Reno stopped dead in his tracks, arms crossed. "Why the *hell* did you let him do that to you, Tseng?" he yelled, sounding more upset than angry. "He beat the shit out of you because of his own damn problem! You could have beat the hell outta him! Why did you take it?"

    Tseng calmly looked at him. "Reno....do you remember how I told you to control your mouth?"

    "Yeah....what has that got to do with it?"

    "We're Turks, Reno. We do whatever is asked of us without question, even if it means acting like the bosses punching bag. We don't ask questions, we just act. That is our job." He looked from Rude to Reno as he wiped some more blood from his face. "I hope you learned something."

    As they began to walk again, Reno found he was shaking and he missed a step, almost stumbling to the ground.

    Rude caught him. "You okay, man?"

    The red head's eyes focused on Tseng, who was trying to shake off a limp. I wanna be just like him.... "Yeah. I'm just fine."