*chinhands* talk to me about how Rufus feels about Tseng, professionally and personally.
professionally? that's easy. tseng is by far the most loyal, capable and irreplaceable member of the turks as well as his chosen, personal guardian. there are very few people whose opinion he holds in as high regard as his own even when it comes to topics he's not necessarily an expert in. but in all aspects, tseng's opinion— and advice— is welcome. he's most certainly one of them. in a more personal capacity, it's... difficult to get rufus to admit how he really feels about him for all of the obvious reasons; attachments are a weakness that always has the possibility to be exploited. so, while it's quite easy— from an outside perspective, especially— to spin their close-knit relationship as one of mere convenience, that's far from the truth of it. no, he really does care about him. at least he thinks he does... as much as he's capable of caring about anyone, anyway. he doesn't think he's particularly good at it. and he's certainly far from conventional in how he shows it. even so, he trusts tseng more than anyone else. he feels genuinely safe around him; he's actually able and willing to drop his guard. and he would mourn his absence just as easily as he would jump at the bit to avenge his death should anything happen to him. a betrayal would be tantamount to a bullet to the heart. huh— how funny. he didn't know he had one.
