Streets are filled with --

A Good Education (2583 words) by karanguni
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Rufus Shinra/Tseng
Characters: Rufus Shinra, Tseng (Compilation of FFVII)
Additional Tags: random guest appearances
Summary:

'This is a lesson,' Rufus told him, coolly undoing button, then zip, 'about freedom to do good. Let us begin. Once upon a time, there were five or six men who planned to bring the continent some very bright futures indeed.'

One morning I woke up and realised I could make Rufus terrifying. My life has not been the same since. Many thanks to pere_chan and dnatio_memoriae for flailing through betajobs, and much has changed since - though, since it's me, not necessarily for the better... With these boys I think "worse" is always a better option.

If Talking Were Effective, Yelling Would Be Academic (1/?)

Fandom: FFVII/FFXII nasdack AU
Characters: Rufus, Balthier, Tseng; Cast of Office Gawkers: Reno, Rude, Elena
Rating: PG13
Summary: Rufus, Enfant Terrifying. Since it would be bad advice to tell any of them to talk things out, Rufus opts for alternatives.

3275 words of ?!?!

'Draw,' Rufus saysore slowly, rolling up the cuffs of his pristinely pressed white shirt with his ringed fingers, 'the shutters.'

This fic officially took my brain, injected a thousand CCs of politics into it, beat it up and left me staggering about wildly. I haven't written something like this, I think, since Empery.

The last (and crowning) jewel of the Honourable Men triple bill (they're all standalones, though, so no need to read through).

I humbly request that you give this one a try. ♥ Okay going to go expire from exhaustion now.

Year One

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII (BC through CC)
Characters: Lazard-Tseng-Rufus, Veld, Reeve, does the City of Midgar count?
Rating: PG13
Warnings: Spans through Crisis Core and Before Crisis backstory. You don't need to know BC, but it helps, and there's a tiny appendix at the bottom of the fic to help you if you'd like.
Summary: From the journals of Urban Development, filling in the lives and empty spaces in Midgar.

7575 words and Midgar being alive.

( One gets the impression that we shall soon be bringing them brighter futures as well. )

Caveat lector: I played around a bit with this piece, because I took a look at what I'd written for Tseng thus far and asked myself if I could honestly, honestly answer the question of why he seems - for the most part, with no truly contradictory evidence - to be at the very least amoral, and at the very worst outright evil, during the course of the original game canon. I wanted to find an answer that had him unashamed, and unrelenting, and true to the badassery of evil just being evil, and not caring if evil is a true enough name or not. And then, uh, Rufus-the-megalomaniac. Way to go, no explanation there either.

WELL, I TRIED. BUT I'M NOT THAT PROFOUND, SO YOU GET THIS PIECE OF WEIRD FIC. 8D NOW I GO HIDE, USING THE EXCUSE THAT IT'S FRIDAY THE 13TH, THEREFORE I AM ALLOWED TO USE ALL SORTS OF WEIRD ELEMENTS IN THIS FIC.

In intervening years

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Characters: Tseng, Rufus
Rating: PG
Summary: Sector Seven burns below. Then Tseng is paid his due rights: for loyalty, and trust, and the practice of looking for some small freedom.

Every day I examine my character in three aspects:
I am disloyal in my designs for others;
I am untrustworthy in my dealings with friends;
I have failed to practice what have been passed on to me.

(taken, and warped, from another Tseng - this one a Zen master.)
Warnings: Some Before Crisis and Crisis Core knowledge would be superbly helpful, but it's not essential, and a little note is attached under the cut at the end of the fic to try and compensate.

1512 words and an extremely, extremely experimental style here: this is not your normal Tseng speaking! Also, I apologise to several Roman emperors for stealing their cool.

( This is how loyalty is rewarded, as Tseng has seen out through to the latter days )

Restorations, Interlude II

Rating: PG
Characters: Tseng, Rufus, Veld.
Summary: By the end of the world, there were more scars on Tseng than there was skin.
Warnings: Foruth part in the Restorations Arc. Post-Advent Children, with references to Before Crisis.

Part I Interlude I Part II

2197 words, and more Tseng backstory than I really should ever shake a stick at.

( Dying, to Tseng, was a job best done neatly.  )

Tired K is tired, but here is fic:

Entropy, And Financial Fantasy

Fandom: FFXII/FFVII (Stockmarket AU)
Characters/Pairings: Balthier/Rufus, implied Tseng/Rufus, Balthier/Tseng
Rating/Warnings: PG13
Word Count: 2529
Summary: Rufus re-negotiates his territory. Balthier rearranges it.

Functional explanation: The joint fault of karanguni and logistika_nyx.

( Entropy isn't Tseng's favoured form of therapy. )

For your random fic-reading needs: some stuff on Rufus and Tseng, built for the stockmarket AU but essentially applicable to anything. Remove "New York" and replace with "Midgar", remove "Chicago" and replace with "Junon", and viola.

Collapsing into bed now.

Strange Untitled Stockmarket!AU

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII/Final Fantasy XII/The Stock Exchange
Rating: PG-99
Characters: Balthier/Tseng, Tseng/Rufus
Summary: Tseng's in New York, Balthier's in London, and Rufus is in the sky as the world burns around them. Hedging on futures can be such tricky things.
Functional explanation: It's all logistika_nyx's fault. A good chunk of this belongs to her, adapted to fit the situation and tense. You can read the original crack-ery here to see precisely which bits. Nyx: I apologise. Profusely. But probably not profusely enough.

Mostly, this is just a trader!AU: in which Tseng and Balthier make money on the gone-to-shit stock markets of our world. And Rufus waggles his eyebrows a bit. Hooray!

2425 words and oh, such a hell I am going to for this. Beware un-beta'd tense shifts!

( 'Are you an optimist?' Balthier would say into the receiver, when Tseng picked up. )

Rufus' interlude for Restorations, go! \o/ Suit!sortofkink, also... sort of go!

Title: Restorations, Interlude I
Rating: PG
Characters: Rufus/Tseng, Reeve
Summary: Even in the aftermath of everything, few men would tell Rufus Shinra what to do with his life.
Warnings: I worldbuild too much. Machiavelli is probably rolling in his grave. Rufus Shinra is an asshole, also.

Restorations I

2657 words and finally managing to manhandle Rufus into a suit. Sorta. Kinda. Almost.

( Dying, to Rufus, was a concept seen in relative terms. )

[and equal marriage still wants YOU for their fundraising army!]