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Cloud didn't know when Reno had become his designated fucking Turk, but he swore that he was.
Every mission that he got assigned that required a Turk, it was Reno.
Reconnaissance? Reno.
Transport? Reno.
Extraction? Reno.
Hell, even some missions that didn't seem to need the assistance of a Turk at all had Reno, and he wasn't even bitching about it. Not that Cloud had heard, at least.
Cloud would think that all the other Turks had quit their jobs, if not for the fact that he saw them around Shinra Tower fairly often.
Rude favored taking his breaks in the same quiet places that Cloud enjoyed, and they often ran into each other. The particularly empty stairwells, the break rooms you could only get to if you had especially high clearance levels - the ones that a Turk and a SOLDIER First would have.
Rude was nice. Cloud didn't mind being around him. He mostly kept to himself, but could still make non-awkward small talk and was more witty than Cloud had expected him to be.
"Haven't seen you in a while," Cloud remarked one day, sipping a shitty fucking break room coffee in the stairwell.
Rude was sitting on the ground, legs folded underneath himself and a few napkins spread strategically on his lap. He was eating what looked like one of the messy sandwiches from the cafeteria. Which - gross. Worse than the coffee. But whatever.
"Let me guess," Rude said when he'd finished chewing. "You've seen a lot of Reno?"
Cloud didn't know how to interpret the smirk that was on his face.
"Uh," Cloud blinked. "Yeah. I have."
Rude nodded.
He was still smirking.
"He likes to stay busy," he said.
The first time they met, Cloud was a lowly infantryman. A trooper. A gil a dozen. Completely unremarkable, unmemorable by anyone's standards. Except for the motion sickness, maybe. In that case, he was memorable for stupid and embarrassing reasons like pulling his helmet off, red-faced and gasping for breath, and trying not to vomit all over the helicopter a meager fifteen minutes into their flight.
Always the object of derision, Cloud seemed to be. It felt like an unavoidable condition, his destiny. From Nibelheim, to Midgar, an unshakeable, deep-seated part of his identity.
First came the low-hanging fruit. Cloud was pretty, in an ethereal, angelic sort of way. Unique even among feminine visages. Unfortunately, this didn't serve him well. When word spread that Cloud's goal was to join SOLDIER, and that he had already failed the entrance exams once, the gossip evolved into endless amusement at the idea that someone so small and weak would think they had a shot at something like that. Then, it grew even further, because Cloud was clumsy and bad at his job and got motion sickness on helicopters, in boats, even in trucks, sometimes.
"Wow, Strife, everyone else call out sick today or what?"
A snicker from one of the other infantrymen assigned to the mission.
"I dunno, man, he's the one looking pretty sick right now."
"Can't believe they still let you out on the field."
Cloud rolled his eyes, ignored them, resigned to his fate. It was the usual. If anything, it was a little tame.
Then-
"Hey, Strife, was it? Get up here, man!"
Their... pilot?
Their Turk pilot.
Cloud, confused and reluctant - surely this could only mean further humiliation, though he didn't see what he'd done to deserve it or why a Turk of all people would fucking care - stood up. Just what he needed, more moving around.
The pilot had a youthful face, rounded cheeks and piercing cyan eyes that narrowed thoughtfully when he turned to look at Cloud, but the tattoos on the curves of his cheekbones and the broad shoulders straining under the material of the suit jacket that he wore told Cloud he was almost definitely older than himself.
"Take a seat," he was saying, gesturing toward the empty copilot's seat in the cockpit.
Cloud, dumbfounded, did as he was told.
"Check it out," the pilot nodded his head, indicated the canopy or, rather, the view beyond it.
Cloud blinked.
"Look. Focus on the horizon, yeah?"
... Sure.
The view really was beautiful. They were flying low enough that Cloud could clearly see the terrain, could make sense of his surroundings. He leaned back in the seat, tried to start to regulate his breathing, orienting himself to what was around him. The horizon was steady, unmoving, grounding in a way that he wouldn't have expected it to be. He didn't feel quite so sick to his stomach anymore.
"It's chill, yeah?"
It was.
He was actually starting to feel better, miraculously enough. Like he might survive the flight in one piece, and without puking everywhere.
The pilot was watching him intently when Cloud looked over, and he grimaced apologetically when their eyes met.
"Sorry," he said. "Fifty-fifty shot on if that'd work."
Oh.
He was... trying to help him?
"It-" Cloud cleared his throat. "Uh, no, don't worry. It did. Thanks."
"Oh," the pilot had looked away, back to messing with the controls, but he was smiling a little. "Good. Motion sickness is a bitch, huh?"
The guy clapped him on the shoulder at disembarkment time, once they'd landed roughly in the mountains.
"Good luck out there, sickie."
It was said fondly, or so he wanted to believe. Cloud couldn't even be mad.
The next time that Cloud saw the pilot, he recognized him. It was kind of hard not to. Even with the addition of a rat-tail ponytail and a little less baby fat, sharper cheekbones and a more narrow and defined face, he was distinct.
Cloud hadn't expected that recognition to be mutual.
"Cadet Strife!" the guy crowed, holding up a hand for a high-five.
Cloud stared, blinked, and slapped their palms together.
"I'm not a cadet anymore," he said.
The guy laughed - maybe good-naturedly? - gestured dramatically at him, and said, "Of course, Mister Second-Class. My bad."
Cloud scowled at that, and the guy just laughed harder.
"Did the mako get rid of the motion sickness, then?" he asked offhandedly, once his laughter subsided.
Oh, the pilot really remembered him.
The Turk's name was Reno, he learned, and he was twenty-three years old. He'd joined up at fifteen, the same age that Cloud had been when he'd enlisted.
From how he told the story, Reno had been recruited into the Turks fairly early on, and had been with them ever since. He'd worked his way up the ranks - easier to do, when the Turks suffered massive losses in their employee count more than once - and was now second-in-command only to Tseng.
As such, he worked on the more difficult, more important missions. Of course, he was tight-lipped on what exactly that entailed.
Which had definitely been true at the time. Cloud did see him, but - rarely. Only ever in passing, when they happened to be on the same elevator or walking down the same hall and stopped to exchange pleasantries. Reno was always busy, always in the middle of something he couldn't say a word about.
Cloud thought that Reno enjoyed it. He probably had some sort of superiority complex, wanted to be seen as cool and mysterious and-
He really pulled it off well, Cloud had to admit, but it was still kind of silly.
Especially when Cloud would have one such interaction with Reno, only to see him later providing bodyguard duties to some Shinra executive or something else utterly boring and mundane.
Two years later, however, Cloud was starting to find it hard to believe that Reno worked on the things that were important. Sure, Cloud was now a proud SOLDIER First Class, and they'd been on a variety of actually important assignments together, but- most of his day-to-day missions were small and insignificant. And Reno was still there, lately.
Yeah, technically Cloud needed transportation often, all around the Planet, but - he was pretty sure most of these trips didn't require a Turk. If they did, a new recruit would be more than enough... Then again, maybe a new recruit wouldn't be a competent pilot.
He wasn't sure.
But still.
All Cloud knew was that he had seen a lot of Reno and not a lot of anyone else, and he kept thinking about the little fucking smirk on Rude's face in the stairwell.
Seeing Reno on literally every mission felt like too much to be a coincidence.
They had even started to hang out, occasionally, off the clock. Reno would invite him out for drinks when they finished work later than usual. It was nice, surprisingly fun, and Cloud found that he enjoyed hanging out with him.
Finally, there was one mission from which Reno was absent.
"Where's Reno?" Cloud asked Tseng as nonchalantly as he could, when they had a moment to stand around and wait while everyone figured out what was going on.
Tseng gave him a look, something that was maybe like a smirk? Cloud couldn't tell if he was trying to convey amusement or offense. Maybe some odd mix of both that he of all people would definitely be able to pull off.
"He's finally busy with something so important he couldn't put it off to follow you around."
Cloud blinked.
"Right," he said. Then, "What?"
Tseng eyed him for a long moment.
"You really think carting you around is the best use of his time?" he asked finally.
"Uh?" Cloud stared at him. "No, not really?"
Obviously it wasn't.
He had been wondering about that exact thing, actually.
Tseng pursed his lips in thought.
"Right, well- this really isn't my conversation to have," he said curtly, as if that was of any help at all.
Then they were being called over, and Cloud didn't have time to push any further.
"Cloud!"
Cloud stopped halfway down the hall and turned to be met with fiery red hair and an unkempt, unbuttoned suit.
Reno was smiling at him, something small and soft and hard to read, as he approached, long legs covering the space between them quickly.
"Hey, man," he said once he was close enough to come to a stop. "I haven't seen you in forever."
It had only been about a week, but - Cloud was feeling some kind of way about it, in all honesty. It had felt like longer than that for him, too.
"Tseng told me you've been busy," he answered.
Tseng also told me that you've been fucking off on your work to play as my personal chauffer, he didn't add. He was still trying to unpack that. Didn't really know what to do with the information.
Reno grimaced apologetically.
"Yeah," he agreed. "I'll tell you more about it when I can."
That was new.
Even as a First, Cloud wasn't privy to the most information. The whole SOLDIER program existed for the purpose of providing brawn, not necessarily brain. Cloud's day-to-day experiences consisted of being told what to do, and doing it.
The idea of being informed, simply because Reno wanted to share with him - it was heartwarming, in a weird way that Cloud wasn't sure how to process.
"Anyway!" Reno smiled wider, more performatively. "Swing by my apartment tonight?"
"Sure."
Reno's Shinra-issued apartment was sleek and luxurious and honestly cleaner than Cloud would have expected it to be. The granite countertop and the hardwood floor were standard, but he had an impressive view from floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room and an expensive-looking leather couch that one wouldn't find in Cloud's own place downstairs.
It was a gorgeous view, really, the hustle and bustle of the city over the plate.
"It's a cool view, huh?" Reno materialized at Cloud's side, holding out a can of some fancy, artsy beer that Cloud didn't recognize. "Good IPA," he added absently, when Cloud took the offered drink.
"I grew up below the plate," Reno continued after a moment, sipping - chugging, really - his own drink. "I thought I was dreaming, when I first got this place. It's a whole different world, y'know?"
Cloud... didn't know, not really. He hadn't spent much of his time in Midgar below the plate. But he had heard a lot. He could imagine.
"How'd you end up here, anyway?" he asked.
Reno blinked at him.
"Oh. When I was fifteen, I-"
"No, I know. Did you just.. enlist?"
Reno shook his head.
"Tseng found me. Watched me for a while. Thought I had a lot of potential," Reno grinned. "Guess he was right."
Cloud tried to imagine a younger, less competent Reno, fighting to survive in the slums. It was both difficult and easy to envision. The man in front of him seemed so far removed that Cloud would never make that kind of association. All the same, he was rough around the edges. Sharp, bony, and vaguely feral. A little too many teeth in his grin. It made sense.
"Anyway," Reno crushed his empty can in his hand. "Want another?"
Cloud woke up warm and comfortable the next morning, under a plush blanket and on Reno's fancy leather loveseat. He hadn't gotten trashed or anything - far from it, even with the generously sized cans and the high alcohol content. Mako fucked with the bloodstream too much. Still, he'd been pleasantly buzzed, Reno had been - ... pretty drunk, and they must have dozed off at some point.
Reno was sprawled out over the couch across from him, and Cloud wasn't awake and coherent enough yet to override his own impulse to stare. Reno looked vulnerable in sleep, delicate in a way that he didn't when he was awake, as if it were an impression that he consciously worked not to give. His hair was down, ponytail undone and rat-tail flowing disorderly toward the floor where his head was angled almost but not quite upside down, falling off the cushion of the couch. His goggles were off for the first time that Cloud had seen, leaving his forehead exposed, even more so from his hair pulled away from his face by the force of gravity.
Reno's attractiveness wasn't lost on Cloud, nor was it even something new. He was popular among the people - at least, from a distance, where his off-putting, jackass-esque mannerisms could be ignored or forgotten. To quote one of the SOLDIER Seconds that Cloud had overheard, "He's fuckin' insufferable... but in a way that kinda makes you wanna fuck him after you kick his ass, y'know?"
A laugh, a club on the shoulder, something that Cloud couldn't hear well enough to understand, and the same guy had said, "Fuck off, man! I know you've thought about it, too."
Cloud hadn't listened to the rest of their exchange, but it had lingered in his mind. He felt a little prickly about it, and felt silly for feeling that way. But- Reno hadn't ever really been insufferable... Not to Cloud. Then again, he had heard plenty of stories from others. Namely, the other Turks. If anyone knew what Reno was really like, it would be them.
It was hard to reconcile that that was the same person in front of him, smooth-faced and angelic, eyes moving rapidly behind his closed eyelids.
Cloud finally looked away, dug around for his PHS and found it wedged into the side of the loveseat.
Oh.
It was four-thirty in the morning.
He had mission briefing at six.
Cloud spared one last lingering glance at Reno, still sound asleep, and got up to find his shoes and let himself out.
Cloud learned about what was going on under much different circumstances than he had expected to.
Reno had invited him out for drinks in Sector Five and, most of the way there, just after they'd gotten off the train, had stopped to tug Cloud into a seemingly random, dead-end alley.
"Is this where you take me to kill me?" Cloud joked.
Reno just smirked and asked, "How much do you trust me?"
"Enough that I'm falling into your trap, apparently."
Reno barked out a laugh, mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'that's good', and Cloud felt heat rising to his cheeks.
When he had deemed them far enough away from the main road, Reno came to a stop. His smile dropped, and he looked at Cloud seriously. He held up one finger, and Cloud looked on as Reno muted his comms.
Cloud raised an eyebrow at him.
"Cameras are down," Reno said by way of explanation, gesturing up at the security cameras tucked discretely away into corners, almost blending in with the brick walls. "No Shinra eyes here."
"How do you know..?"
Reno waved a hand dismissively, then busied himself with lighting a cigarette. "It's a known issue, but it ain't my job to fix it. That's on Public Security. I can see everything that happens without the cameras."
Cloud shrugged. Fair enough.
Reno held out the pack in offering, and Cloud grabbed one for himself.
Then Reno was moving forward, closing the distance between them.
"C'mere," he mumbled, muffled by the smoke between his lips.
Before Cloud could process it, Reno was in his space, almost but not quite close enough that they were touching. He had one hand raised to cup the air around Cloud's cigarette, and the other sparked the lighter to life. It was weirdly intimate. Cloud could feel his breath catching in his throat, his eyes wide as he looked up, took in the details of Reno's face. Reno's turquoise eyes, his long dark lashes, his pouty lower lip.
Cloud's heartbeat quickened.
Their eyes met when Reno looked up, and the Turk smirked.
Then the moment was over and he was stepping back, taking a long drag from his cigarette and leaving Cloud to his own.
Cloud tried to shake it off.
"There have been uprisings in Wutai," Reno said quietly, staring down at the concrete underfoot.
Yeah, that was jarring enough to be a distraction from the way that Cloud kind of wanted to kiss him.
It wasn't surprising to hear, not really, but it still hit Cloud like a punch to the gut.
The war had ended years ago.
"Big ones?" he asked, already knowing the answer. It wouldn't be a big deal if they weren't big ones.
Reno nodded anyway.
"We may have won the war, but the new government has some big ideas."
He sighed, long and heavy, kicked at a rock with the toe of his shoe and watched it skid away over the pavement.
"You know what that means. More of it."
Cloud didn't know what to say. He took a drag, tried to distract himself with the disgusting fucking taste.
The war in Wutai had lasted almost a decade the first time, and had been devastating for both sides. Revisiting that wasn't exactly an exciting prospect.
"There's been talk of sending in Firsts," Reno continued. Then, in a lighter, teasing tone, "Ready for a vacation?"
"It's just what I've been dreaming of," Cloud deadpanned.
Reno laughed, then, stepped closer to bump Cloud with his arm, and Cloud found himself smiling, a little.
"It'll be fine," Reno promised. "Besides, I'll be with you."
Oh, yeah. There was... that whole thing.
"Anyway! Ready to go get some drinks for real?"
Things went on mostly as normal for a while. Relations with Wutai were tense, but... nonconfrontational, as far as Cloud had been made aware. They were negotiating.
Shinra's presence in the nation had increased, but no troops had been officially deployed as of yet.
Instead, there had just been a ramp up in 'routine' visits and diplomatic meetings. Cloud wasn't privy to those, but Reno often was, and he dutifully relayed information in the form of written notes, sitting with Cloud in the corner booth at a bar or on the balcony of his apartment.
Cloud enjoyed those moments more than he cared to admit. Reno's usually carefree, cocky facial expressions were gone, replaced by a concentrated frown, his pen scratching across his notepad as he wrote. His handwriting was more legible than Cloud would have expected it to be, his scrawl still careful even in its haste. Whenever he was finished, he would slide the notepad over with a wink and an exaggerated waggle of his eyebrows. It was cute, funny, a charming little quirk, even when the content of the notes was particularly unpleasant. Cloud was grateful to spend time with him.
All was well enough, until-
Inevitably, the ceasefire was broken. Future reports would provide conflicting information over which side had been the instigator, whether it was Wutai adamant about defending itself or Shinra trying to assert their dominance. At the end of the day, none of that really mattered, anyway.
Firsts were sent out to capture land, ambushing military forts, with instructions to clear them out, all attempts to weaken enemy forces as much as possible.
It wasn't anything new, really.
Cloud accomplished the tasks of his job methodically, took out who he was told to take out, and tried not to think too deeply about the moral question of it all. On one hand, they were on Wutai land. On the other hand, why didn't Wutai want the best for its own people? Wasn't it still someone's job to have the civilians' best interest at heart? Wutai's government didn't seem to be accomplishing that.
So Cloud, armed with his own escort of infantrymen and Seconds, went about emptying forts in the wooded areas along the outskirts of Wutai's land.
Then they would head for the extraction point, a simple and straightforward mission, and so it went, over and over.
Reno was always there, eyes bright and smile wide and relaxed, carefree. He would give half-assed salutes, tease obnoxiously, and chirp announcements that no one else in the helicopter ever had it in them to give a single fuck about. He would goad Cloud into sitting in the empty copilot's seat, and grin proudly when he got his way.
More quietly, he would ask Cloud if he was okay and invite him over to his apartment later, or the next day, or whenever they were both free.
Cloud was always soothed by his presence.
The missions grew more difficult.
Wutai upped the defense, unwilling to let themselves be so easily run over by the might of the Shinra military.
"Okay, I don't know how much I'm enjoying this anymore, man, " Reno was saying to him one day, distractedly, and there was something strained about his accompanying laugh. "I think I'd much rather hang out with you off the clock."
Cloud was grateful to see him, still, as he always was, even when their meeting was accompanied by the sound of gunshots and the helicopter dove at haphazard and less than ideal angles, just barely staying out of the line of fire.
Reno was an impressive pilot, really, when he needed to be and wasn't too busy fucking around. His knuckles were white on the cyclic stick. His expression was grim, determined, his eyes a little wild, and Cloud didn't dare to break his concentration in a moment like that.
Finally, they must have covered enough ground for Reno to relax, and he let out a long, heavy breath that it sounded like he'd been holding. His face was still distinctly pale, but the quirk of his lips could be considered more of a smile than a grimace, which had to count for something.
"Fuck, man. Are you okay?" Reno asked after a long while, actually looking over at Cloud for the first time since he'd sat down.
"Yeah."
"You sure you're okay?" Reno asked again, the heels of his shoes hitting the concrete of the landing pad as he hopped gracefully down from the helicopter.
Cloud nodded, turned to offer him a reassuring smile.
"Yeah, 'm fine."
"Right," Reno still didn't look fully convinced, but he mirrored his nod anyway.
Then the concern on his expression broke away, smoothly replaced by an easygoing and unbothered smile.
"Swing by my apartment tomorrow night?"
It had become a routine of sorts. Being dismissed from duty for a day or two, swinging by his apartment to change into something clean and comfortable and wash all the flecks of dried blood out of his hair, and then going to Reno's to drink shitty, expensive beer and watch bad movies on his ridiculously comfortable couch.
It was nice, grounding, something that Cloud had to look forward to when he was in the jungles of Wutai, deflecting bullets with his sword.
Reno was beautiful, impish, charming, and he definitely enjoyed being around Cloud or they wouldn't spend so much time together. It had to mean something, surely. Cloud didn't know exactly what, but - he wasn't stupid enough to think that it was meaningless.
These were the thoughts that Cloud pondered from his place on Reno's loveseat, his eyes tracking the Turk as he moved through the living room. He reached down to ruffle Cloud's hair when he passed by him, and Cloud swatted halfheartedly.
"Wanna take a vacation?" Reno asked later, absently, finishing off another fancy IPA. The brand he'd gotten this time actually wasn't that bad, Cloud had to admit. "A real one. I'm sick of this shit."
"Where, Wutai?"
Reno snorted.
"No way in hell."
"I was thinking more like Costa del Sol," Reno said, even later. They had migrated to his balcony, sitting together on the ground up against the railing.
Reno was already looking at him when Cloud looked over, his expression thoughtful - .. wistful, almost.
Intent. Cloud couldn't read it well.
Then Reno leered at him, exagerrated and silly and deliberately so, and Cloud looked away.
"I know how to party," Reno crooned. "I'll show you a great time."
.
Unfortunately, their next meeting was much less pleasant.
What should have been a routine assignment, more than easy enough for Cloud to accomplish on his own - simple reconnaissance, determining whether a fort was actually as empty as it was presumed to be - became much more difficult when said fort was found decidedly not empty. Wutai forces had been waiting, like they'd been prepared for his arrival. It was suspicious, but something Cloud didn't have time to think about.
Wutai had monsters. Their own monsters, big and threatening and ready to hunt him down, so clearly they'd been investing into their own scientific breakthroughs.
It would have been fine, really, if Cloud wasn't completely by himself. He was strong - was leaps and bounds from where he'd started - but he wasn't Sephiroth, at the end of the day.
He was able to make it out victoriously, but barely, and he wasn't entirely sure he was in one piece. Cloud honestly wasn't even sure he could relay to anyone what the last few hours had consisted of.
He just knew that he was alone, staring down the prone body of a slaughtered beast, of slaughtered men, and that he needed to get the fuck out of there. That there was an extraction point, predetermined, not too far away, and-
Cloud had to get there.
The forest was disorienting, dark and labyrinthine, but Cloud's enhancements served him well. Even when his body was failing him, even when his limbs ached terribly and movement felt like something he was not supposed to be doing, he could still find his way around. Somewhat.
It wasn't far, anyway, and he covered the ground quickly.
He just hoped nothing else got to him on his way.
"Hey!"
Oh.
Someone was there, and they weren't trying to keep their presence a secret.
Generally, that was a good sign. They weren't a threat. Or they didn't see a point in bothering to hide themselves, which was an equal possibility considering the condition that Cloud was in. He couldn't imagine what he looked like, but he was sure that he didn't make for an imposing figure.
Regardless, the approaching figure was rapidly closing the distance between them and Cloud would find out soon enough.
"Cloud! What took you so long, man? I was getting worr-"
Oh, thank fuck. It was just Reno, suit and goggles and all, hurrying up to him through the underbrush.
He paused when he was close enough to see more clearly, and Cloud watched as his face rapidly paled.
"Oh. Fuck."
Great. Great sign.
Cloud didn't care. He wavered a little, and slumped against him regardless.
"Holy fuck. Come on, man, it's okay- You're-" Reno caught him easily, carefully, wound an arm firm around him. He grabbed for his comms and said into them, panicked, "We need fucking help."
"It's fine," Cloud tried to assure him, and his throat felt raw and the words hurt.
His limbs felt heavy. It was nice, really, that Reno was supporting his weight. He could relax. After a moment, everything went dark.
"Strife is hurt. Really fucking hurt. I-"
Frantic chatter brought Cloud into awareness - if it could be called that. His surroundings had changed, the foliage of the Wutai woodlands replaced by ... oh. A Shinra helicopter. Comforting.
What wasn't comforting was everything else.
Reno was babbling into his comms, and he sounded more panicked than Cloud had ever heard him.
He looked it, too, from what Cloud could see through the hazy and limited field of sight that he had. His pilot was wild-eyed, teeth bared in a horrible grimace and face pale. He was also.. covered in blood? He was messier than Cloud had ever seen him before.
These things would have been more concerning if Cloud was coherent enough to care. As he was, Cloud really just wanted to close his eyes and get a quick nap in. His body hurt. He was always so busy, and always so tired, and really over getting his ass kicked in Wutai, and, really, a helicopter was an okay place to sleep. He had done it before, once he'd started to get over the motion sickness.
There was crackling through the comms, too loud for how much Cloud's head ached, and he groaned miserably as he raised a hand up to his temple.
"Medics on standby."
Tseng. Maybe. He had a nice voice.
Oh.
Cloud felt wet and sticky.
He blinked.
Right. His hand was covered in blood. No, his whole arm. He was smearing it on his face and into his hair while he tried to clutch at his head.
Gross.
There was a vaguely hysterical noise from his right.
"Yeah, but- touchdown is in fifteen," Reno was talking this time, clear and distinct and right next to him, not over a speaker. His voice cracked. "I don't- I don't know if-"
Another crackle through the comms.
"Reno, relax."
Someone else.
Low and deep and comforting. Cloud felt better, and he wasn't even upset.
Rude, this time?
He wasn't sure.
Then there was finally a moment of silence, and he closed his eyes, willed his headache away, and tried to rest.
By the time the noises started up again, Cloud was unconscious.
Tseng hadn't fully known what to expect at the end of the latest failed mission, but he'd known from communications that it wasn't going to be good. Still, nothing could have prepared him for how absolutely distraught Reno was. Tseng hadn't seen him so phased in years, since he had been much younger and more sensitive. Before the reality of life working under Shinra had bled that out of him. Sure, he had made it absolutely no secret how infatuated he was with one of the SOLDIERs, but.. even then... Reno got like that sometimes, and it never really meant much in the end.
Reno's landing was uncharacteristically smooth, like he was trying to be careful - something unusual - and then he was throwing the door open barely any time after the helicopter touched down, rotors still roaring.
Oh.
He was holding something - someone - a body, First Class SOLDIER Strife.
The SOLDIER looked, frankly, horrific. He was lifeless in Reno's arms, head tipped back, slumped awkwardly, and he was covered in so much dark red that he wasn't fully distinguishable. His face, his pale blonde hair tinted an ugly shade, the battered armor that he wore. Reno was covered in blood, as well, and Tseng could only assume that it was Cloud's rather than his own.
Tseng felt a pang of sympathy. The only consolation was all the Mako running through the kid's bloodstream. Surely he would be fine, once the medics that Reno was handing him over to got him stabilized. Hopefully.
Rude got to Reno first, and Tseng watched him blink distantly as the taller man clapped a hand down on his shoulder.
"He'll be fine," Rude was promising.
Reno looked shell-shocked, his eyes locked on the retreating gurney, and he shook his head.
"No, he- it was-" Reno made a pained sound. His voice was hoarse. "I don't know what happened- Something went wrong. I- I was going to find him, I couldn't wait around any longer, and-"
"Reno, breathe," Rude interjected.
Tseng watched as the taller man turned to face Reno fully, both hands on his shoulders, directing his attention toward himself.
Their close partnership was well established, but it was still interesting to see them interact.
"You did everything you could," Rude was telling him.
Reno nodded, but his eyes were still wide and he still looked distressed and the expression on his face didn't do much to convince Tseng that he believed it.
"Reno, you can stay with-" Tseng started, as gently as he could make his voice.
Reno looked over at him as if just remembering where he was and what was going on, and his expression shuttered. There was a flare of something in his eyes, in the way that his posture went rigid - panic? - before it was gone.
"No," Reno said as if automatically, all emotion wiped from his face. He still sounded hoarse, though. "I'm going back out."
Tseng stared. Reno was not in the condition to be flying. Honestly, they would be fine, anyway. They had enough new recruits that Reno could sit back for a few hours and be around to monitor Cloud's condition. He was clearly deeply affected by it. He needed a shower, a breather, a bit of time off the field.
"I'm sorry?" Tseng asked, eyebrows raised.
"I'm going back out," Reno repeated, more confidently this time.
He was already stepping back before Tseng could process it, out of Rude's hold and moving toward the helicopter's door that had been left open, his expression deliberately blank.
"Reno, wait," Tseng tried, dumbfounded. "What-"
"C'mon, boss man," Reno turned and stepped up into the aircraft, waving a hand flippantly behind him. If Tseng didn't know better, he would almost say that it looked like he had tears in his eyes when he angled his head to look back at him. "There's always something to do."
Then he slammed the door.
Cloud had been expecting his mandatory time off to go better than it did. He'd healed quickly and easily enough, the Mako and Cure materias doing the work to stabilize his body and treat his wounds. Still, medbay had been adamant that he take three weeks off from active duty. Just to give him time to fully recuperate, and to make sure that everything was fine before he was plunged back into danger.
Which - Cloud thought that that was excessive, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. He was tired, bone-deep and worn down. He would take the break. He could spend more time with Reno, anyway.
Reno, who he hadn't seen since that night. Which hurt, but, whatever. He was a busy man. Usually not too busy for Cloud, but-
It was fine. He tried not to take it too personally. Reno didn't owe him anything, not really. Not yet.
Reno would prove incredibly difficult to find.
As it turned out, he was completely unreachable. No responses to calls, or to texts, or to showing up at his apartment. No finding him fucking anywhere.
It was confusing, and hurtful even more so. What had Cloud missed?
After a week or so of unsuccessful attempts to locate Reno, Cloud couldn't take it anymore. He was going to figure this shit out. While he'd been barred from active combat, physical activity wasn't off limits. Therefore, he took to scouring the building.
That was how he had found Rude, predictably eating his lunch in the stairwell. It looked like some sort of fancy salad, this time, a marked improvement from the shitty sandwiches.
"Hey," Rude greeted him with a small, friendly smile. "You're looking better than the last time I saw you."
Cloud snorted. That wasn't saying very much.
"Thanks. It's because I'm not half-dead this time." Then, "Where's Reno?"
Rude's smile fell and he pursed his lips in thought.
There was a long moment of silence, loud in the empty stairwell, and Cloud just stared and waited.
"He likes to stay busy," Rude said finally.
Cloud huffed out a sigh and rolled his eyes.
Fucking helpful.
"Yeah, I'm sure."
Rude gave him an apologetic look.
When asked, Tseng smiled sympathetically. Cloud thought it looked distinctly fake.
"I'm afraid I haven't seen him much myself."
Which - yeah, sure, but Tseng was Reno's fucking boss and Cloud knew that he had seen him. Not seeing him much wasn't the same as not being able to find him at all.
"Right," Cloud said diplomatically, because there was literally no point in arguing with Rufus Shinra's own personal lapdog, and he wasn't going to waste his time on it. "Well, can you let him know that I need to talk to him?"
Tseng smiled, bland and impersonal, and said, "I'll pass along the message."
Another week passed.
"Tell me where he is."
Cloud had tracked down Rude again, who had stopped taking his breaks in empty stairwells after a few tense conversations but apparently not in the high-clearance level break rooms.
Rude, who was heaving out a heavy, put-upon sigh.
Cloud was unphased.
"Tell me or I'll destroy your backup sunglasses supply."
Rude twitched.
Jackpot.
Cloud should have tried that the first time.
"There's no way you know where-"
"Supply closet 32A on the nineteenth floor."
He'd learned that from Reno, actually. One of the many small pieces of gossip that he liked to share, the information that he armed himself - and apparently Cloud, at least in the past - with like a shield.
Another, heavier sigh.
"Try the bars in Sector Eight," Rude offered reluctantly. "Near the train station."
Cloud turned on his heel and headed for the door, waving one hand absently at the faint, "Please leave my sunglasses alone," that was called after him.
Reno was so easy to find that it was comedic. Cloud almost felt like it was set up. He wouldn't really put it past him, either. He was literally in the first place that Cloud checked, a dirty-looking little bar right down the street from the station that seemed vaguely familiar, like they might have been there together before.
The only things that made him doubt that was the case were the facts that Rude had seemed genuinely adamant about not giving away his partner's location, and that Reno blinked as if he was hallucinating, then tensed as if he wanted to run away, when he saw Cloud approaching.
"Fuck," Reno mumbled when Cloud came to a stop in front of him, arms crossed over his chest. Cloud was much more imposing a figure than he used to be. It served its purposes. That and his enhancements, the fact that he could and absolutely would unapologetically kick Reno's ass. "I've drank too much."
Cloud was so fucking sick of this stupid shit.
"Why are you avoiding me?"
There was a moment of stunned silence. Reno just stared, appearing uncomprehending, like he and Cloud suddenly didn't speak the same language.
Then he burst into laughter.
Obnoxious, grating, fake laughter that gave Cloud an extremely strong urge to slap him in the face just to get him to fucking stop.
"I'm not, Strife. To be avoiding you, I'd kind of have to care."
God, he was so fucking annoying. It was a little jarring, actually. Cloud wasn't usually on the receiving end of this. It made him feel a little more sympathetic for the people who usually had to put up with it, like Rude and Tseng.
That being said, he was still acting exactly how Cloud had expected him to, and this knowledge kept him from being as phased by the treatment as he otherwise would have.
"Reno," he said as calmly as he could. "You were on every single mission I had for months."
"Yeah, that's kind of how the job works," Reno answered airily, in the same tone one would use if speaking to a small child.
So goddamn annoying.
Cloud's patience was quickly starting to slip.
"Don't give me that shit!" he snapped.
Reno bristled.
"Fuck off, Strife. What shit?"
"You mean to tell me I needed a Turk escort to the fucking Sector Five slums?"
Reno rolled his eyes.
"Obviously!" he groaned - so full of shit, such a shameless fucking bold-faced liar. "I was there, wasn't-"
"You were there because you wanted to be," Cloud interrupted.
"I was there because Tseng said-"
"No, Tseng told me-"
A palm slapped down hard on the surface of the bar, and a worn-down, rough-edged voice interrupted them. Cloud's words died in his throat.
"Take your shit outside, Shinra," the bartender said.
Reno huffed out a sigh, rolled his eyes again like he was deeply inconvenienced by this, and slammed back the rest of his drink.
Then he stood up, gestured for Cloud to follow after him, and stalked off toward the back door.
"Why are you avoiding me?" Cloud started when the wooden door had shut behind them. "Why haven't I seen you in weeks?"
"I've been busy," Reno answered. "I told you I wasn't avoiding you."
"You've just been that busy?" Cloud challenged, eyebrows raised disbelievingly. "Too busy to even be in your apartment?"
"Is that so hard to believe?"
Reno was lighting a cigarette like he didn't give a single fuck, slowed only by the way he paused to glare at Cloud when he talked.
"Reno, I kinda thought we were fucking friends," Cloud said. "I'm not leaving until you stop bullshitting me."
"I'm not bullshitting you!"
"Reno, I've been off for weeks and I haven't seen you once!" Then, something that hurt a little to bring up, no matter how stupid it felt to acknowledge the feeling, "You didn't even come see me in medbay!"
That seemed to get a reaction. Reno raised his head, cigarette and lighter still in hand, and stared at Cloud for a long moment. His expression was something that Cloud couldn't read. He was just glad that it wasn't blatant indifference, no matter how obviously forced.
"You want me to stop bullshitting you?" Reno hissed finally. He sounded fucking mad. Cloud reveled in it. "You scared the shit out of me."
Wait.
"I.. what?"
Cloud didn't know what he had been expecting, really, but.. that wasn't it.
"You scared the shit out of me!" Reno repeated. He was raising his voice now. "I thought you were fucking dead!"
Cloud.. still wasn't really following. At the risk of sounding callous and uncaring, Reno saw death all the time. Reno most likely caused death all the time, considering every piece of Shinra that the Turks had their hands in. He couldn't possibly be that phased by it, or he never would have made it to where he was. This was something that he was going to avoid him because of?
"That's... the usual, is it not?" Cloud pointed out slowly.
"Not when it's you!"
What the fuck.
"Huh?"
"Sue me, man," Reno's volume dropped significantly. "I'm really fucking into you."
"You're... what?"
Cloud was hallucinating this entire exchange. He had actually gone into a coma when he'd gotten taken out in Wutai, and none of this was real.
"I like you, okay? I like you!" Reno was raising his voice again. "I like you and I thought you were fuckin' dying in my fucking chopper and there was nothing I could do about it!"
"You like me?" Cloud echoed dumbly.
That was a good feeling.
Also, it was making Reno want to avoid him? Instead of the opposite?
"Fucking- holy shit," Reno groaned like it physically pained him, dragging a hand harshly down the side of his face. "You have no idea. I didn't either, okay? I had no idea how much I liked you until you almost fucking died!"
He looked vaguely hysterical. The visible state of inebriation definitely didn't help, but- even then, Reno's eyes were wild and his voice wobbled and tension was clear in the rigid way he was holding himself.
"... And now?" Cloud asked automatically.
He still wasn't really processing. It just really didn't make sense.
Furrowed eyebrows, a glare - anger again, overriding the other emotions.
"And now I'm staying the fuck away!" Reno yelled, turning away from him.
It would have been cute, in a dramatic sort of way, if it wasn't a little infuriating instead.
"Why?"
Cloud was starting to follow, was grasping onto everything that had been made clear to him, was making sense of this much too quickly for his own comfort.
"Reno, why?" he pressed when he didn't get a response.
Reno was still turned away, still not answering him.
"So, what, so it doesn't fucking hurt when I die?" Cloud tried again, more of an edge to his voice this time.
That got something.
Reno whirled around, furious, snarling.
"If so, that's a stupid plan, Reno."
"You think I don't fucking know that?" he snapped, throwing his arms up in exasperation. "Of course I fucking know that!"
Another pause.
Cloud waited, watched as Reno curled his fingers into his own hair and tugged, then dragged his hands down to hide his face.
"Not having to worry about anyone who can't take care of themselves was kind of the appeal of Shinra, y'know?" Reno was asking then, suddenly so much smaller, muffled behind his hands.
Oh. There was... so much to unpack to that.
"You think I can't take care of myself?" Cloud challenged. He sort of regretted it, as soon as the words left his mouth, but he didn't know what else to say. And, what the fuck, really? Reno was avoiding him because he was, what, scared Cloud would fucking die? They were in the military.
Reno groaned pathetically, lifted his head to meet Cloud's eyes.
He looked so, so tired.
Cloud fought his sympathy with anger.
"Yes?" Reno offered. "No? Maybe?"
"I'm a fucking SOLDIER First, Reno-"
"I know, I know!" Reno was yelling, yet again. It sounded like his throat hurt. "That means you get yourself into a bunch of crazy shit that I don't get to be there for!"
"You worry about me."
"Yes!" Reno just looked sad. It didn't match his tone. He swallowed visibly, tense, staring Cloud down.
This was so fucking stupid, honestly. Fundamentally stupid.
Reno's avoidant behavior was bullshit - and now all of Cloud's time off was almost fucking over, and Reno had actually liked him this entire time, hello- what the fuck-
He wasn't wasting more time.
"So this is going to help? Staying away from me?" Cloud asked.
Reno was looking down, turned away from him again. He shrugged.
"You're not staying away from me, Reno."
Reno had started trying to light a cigarette again. His hands were shaking.
"That's not up to you," he ground out.
"You don't think so?" Cloud challenged. He was trying to soften his tone - taunting, a little, but not trying to fight. He was still mad, but - yelling at one another wasn't being productive, not right now. "I think your Turks would be more than willing to help me out. How do you think I knew where to look for you?"
That was not necessarily true. They had actually been extremely tight-lipped about it. The knowledge of where to find Reno had been a product of blackmail, but- still. He didn't need to know that.
Reno scowled.
Cloud smirked.
"I'll tell Tseng where you keep all your liquor."
Reno's head shot up.
"Oh, no the fuck you wouldn't-"
Cloud barked out a laugh.
"Would."
"Cloud."
Cloud just stared impassively.
"Reno," he countered. "I'm serious. You're not shutting me out like this."
Reno opened his mouth, closed it, looked away again.
"I'm not gonna die out there," Cloud tried. Maybe it was a fucked up promise to make. It wasn't like he could have full certainty in that, after all. Still, he felt confident enough. He definitely wasn't letting that possibility keep Reno away from him.
"I'll kill you if you do," Reno said after a moment.
He was smirking, a little, when their eyes met.
Cloud took a step forward, then another, closing the distance between them. Reno watched intently, reached out to grab Cloud by the waist and pull him in as soon as he was close enough.
Cloud crashed their mouths together in an aggressive kiss - maybe he was still sort of pissed off, whatever, Reno could fucking deal with it. Reno would fucking like it, judging by the way he moaned against Cloud's lips.
"Fuck yeah, c'mere," he mumbled when Cloud pulled away, knocked their foreheads together, leaned down to nose at Cloud's jaw, to move his face down and mouth at the crook of Cloud's neck.
Oh. Okay, yeah - it was getting a little harder to be pissed off. Cloud's breathing hitched, a small whine escaped his lips, and he raised his hands to curl his fingers into Reno's hair and tug his head back up.
Reno went willingly, easily, pressed his lips to Cloud's jaw, then the corner of his mouth, then kissed him again.
"So, wanna swing by my apartment?" Reno asked, grinning against Cloud's lips.
Yes, fucking finally. Fucking hell.
"Will I be sleeping on the couch this time?" he asked.
"Fuck no."
fallowell Fri 05 Sep 2025 01:31PM UTC
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