Talking to Rufus like he was summarizing the details of a report to Tseng was easy enough in public, but it's when he starts to talk about things that are less straight forward than that it becomes difficult when people might overhear.

Once they sit down he looks at the blond quietly, appreciating that he doesn't feel that way about Rude's inability to be there to help prevent what happened. It took some weight off of him to know that, yet he still blamed himself. He'd gone home early that night, getting too drunk and going too far to stay as long as anyone else. Rude was never the best at holding his liquor.

"Of course I will protect you. I couldn't live with myself if I let what happened to Reno happen to you." Rude speaks quietly, just in case, leaning a little closer and resting a hand on Rufus' thigh just for a moment. "I want to keep you involved with everything, I just don't think you should be troubled by some of the things that go on. It's not because I think you can't handle it. Sometimes we just don't want you to worry over things that might turn out to be nothing." He's speaking directly about Tseng's death now, and it did turn out to be nothing, so it would be up to the man himself to disclose that.

"I know you're stronger than people think you are, but even so can you blame us for wanting to protect you from certain truths too?"