Carry Me Down
A/N: This is a one shot based on a song. Mostly the video to the song. No I will not tell you what song it is. It's for you to figure out, and no, it is not Carry Me Down by Demon Hunters. If you're really interested, then just drop a review I suppose. It's not a happy fanfiction, hence the fiction tags.
Pairing: RudeReno Rating: T
Summery: Reno doesn't know why Rude isn't answering him. No happy ending here. RudeReno
~o~
"Rude! 'Ey, Aibou! Wait the fuck up will you!" Reno called after the retreating form that was Rude, his partner. He must not have heard Reno because he kept walking and Reno had to run to catch up with him due to the larger male's much longer legs giving him a longer stride.
"Dude, yo, not cool," He said, catching his breath a bit, damn, he must have cracked a lower rib in the last mission, it hurt to breathe, huh, he'd have to get it checked out when they had some downtime. He'd dealt with worse so it wasn't a priority to the young redhead. "So, Ru, I think we have one of those awful meetings going on today, not looking forward to it, y'know how bored I get during those. Man! Now that I think about it, I really don't want to go there today. Y'know what I mean, buddy?" Reo paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts quickly before launching into another long spiel. It was a main reason Reno was still in the ranks of the Turks and why he was being considered to lead them when Tseng stepped down. Growing up in the slums had given him a tough and quick mind, the quickest out of all the Turks. He's saved the entire team of veteran Turks and the President many times because of his mind.
"You being quiet today, dude? Usually you talk to me, at least a little bit. But ah well, we all have bad days, I'll do the talking for you today. Talk when you feel like it, yo. Anyway, I hear this meeting is about President ShinRa's upcoming press conference right? That shit is goin to be fun as fuck, yo. Hopefully we'll get crowd control, we're good at it. Last time we had to train those turkings? Ugh, newbies annoy me, yo. The Richie rich stuck up twats that think this is an easy job. They'll last a day before getting a bullet between the eyes." The redhead continued to speak, falling into an easy stride next to the larger man. They were walking towards the nearest elevator, Reno continuing his talk while they stepped into it. They took advantage of the empty lobby, usually the ShinRa headquarters was booming this time of day, but besides a handful of people there really weren't that many people present. Which was notably unusual, but both Turks ignored it, happy for the peace and quiet for one in their lives. To the people that were there, no one waved to them, or smiled. Rude was intimidating enough on his own, but when you but him with Reno and take into their reputation for being ShinRa's Turks, people who recognizes them and weren't friends typically scattered when they rolled into sight.
Reno shuffled into the elevator, Rude snatching the button before he could press it. He shrugged it off, normally Rude would let the hyperactive redhead press the button, since it pleased him and it was an easy thing to do to please the redhead.
"I was thinking of having Ax over for dinner sometime, been too long since we last saw him, plus Demyx is out of town visiting family. We can talk about it later, yo, just wanted to throw the idea at you, y'know? Since you like to mull over things longer than most people, not that it's a bad thing, yo! I like that about you. Anyway, I think we should have some good ol' grilled chicken or steak, yo! I'm feelin' lik a nice quick mission after this too, like a retrieving job. Go get the guy, bring him back and go home. Get a good big rat." Reno smirked, the pair having stepped off the elevator and was now on their way to the meeting room. Anyone in the halls moved out of the way, giving them a very wide berth. Reno frowned when they would flash sad looks as they passed or murmur a small apology before scurrying away. "What the fuck, yo? Whatever man, let's get this meeting over with." He said, stretching before entering the room behind the taller Turk, completely concealed by the large body in front of him. He took up his usual seat and as he always did, proceeded to zone out. He knew Rude would snap him to if he was needed; he'd never failed him before.
Most of the meeting went well though Reno kept noticing those odd looks again, the sad ones. They were being shot his way too, like in the hall way. He was becoming very irritated very quickly. He didn't like the silent looks, being a blunter person. Those looks could mean many things and he didn't like sitting around trying to figure just what the fuck it meant. If that wasn't completely obvious. He was starting to shoot dirty looks back at the people who gave the sad looks to him, becoming thoroughly annoyed. He finally gave an aggravated noise and gave the entire room a sweep of a classic Reno death stare, "What! What the fuck! Is something on my face! Is that it? Jesus, what's with the people ignoring me all of a sudden?" Reno said, starting in a growl before ending in a shout. He stood quickly and stalked out of the room, not bothering to straighten his chair. The group attending the meeting seemed to finally acknowledge him as they all winced when the chair moved back; Rude had seemed surprised and looked at the chair warily, eyes hidden behind his sunglasses, thus hiding how surprised he was.
Reno stood in the hallway to cool off, being on his own helped him calm down. It was something of a technique that Rude had shown him. When he was feeling the burn of anger inside of him he should go off on his own to calm down, it gave him breathing room and let him work out the anger in his own ways. Rude had been trying to get him to adopt the technique so he could cool down some. Being the total hothead he was when he was eighteen and a fresh recruit to the Turks. It worried Rude because when he got really pissed off he saw red, completely. He was getting close to turning thirty and while it wasn't like he was getting really older, but Rude was Rude and Rude worried easily over Reno.
It was a good ten minutes of growling and muttering to himself outside of the meeting room before a sharp pain in his shoulder made him clench his teeth and grip at his shoulders. It felt like a knife was deep into the muscle and bone, making him almost fall to his knees from the sudden pain and how intense it was.
"Fuck this, man." He growled, turning and shuffling to the elevator, another person was waiting in front of it and the button as already pushed. Luckily the elevator arrived a few moments after he shuffled over. When the elevator doors opened, he walked in; glancing at the buttons to the floors and saw lobby was already lite up and pushed. The other three people in the elevator acted like they didn't notice they were sharing an elevator with a high ranking, dangerous Turk. They seemed to not even know he was there. Reno would take being ignored completely rather than the looks he kept getting. When the elevator reached the ground level and dinged. He and one other person exited the elevator. He felt a small ache in his ribs as his shoulder went on throbbing painfully. He growled again to himself, hurrying back to the apartment he shared with Rude. Recently his brother had gotten the redhead and the bald Turk to move above the plate, instead of on the outsides of the slums where they used to be. It took much longer to return home, being almost the same distance, but the traffic was much worse.
In the slums he and Rude could get home in ten minutes, knowing the area and being intimidating enough to just slip through it. Above plate it took almost half an hour, and while people were just as intimidated, they could work their charms on vehicles, which were very popular above the plate.
He unlocked the door, slamming it shut he kicked off his heavy boots, each making a loud thud as it hit the wooden floor. He then went over to the couch and plopped down carefully, lifting his good arm up over his shoulder, resting his head in his hand behind his head. He went over his day silently, deciding nothing was better. He didn't understand why he was being treated the way he was. He didn't understand why the looks were being thrown his way, why he was ignored by everyone he was around. It bugged him to no end. Perhaps he had done something, but usually Rude would at least talk to him. Rude. That was what bothered him the most. He wanted to know why Rude was acting like he was. It was like they were back to when Reno was eighteen and freshly paired with the older Turk. He scoffed it off, deciding it wasn't worth getting upset over. He ignored his shoulder as it burned sharply. He had almost dozed off when Rude had returned home.
Usually Rude paused at the door to remove his dress shoes, of which Reno tried time and time again to get the other to change to boots, knowing they were much more comfortable. He also secretly knew that Rude hated the shoes, but wore them because they completed the look, he looked more professional. He would remove the shoes and then usually tidy up Reno's mess, the redhead always bursting through the door before Rude and removing his shoes before hurrying off to the kitchen. Rude this time made a beeline for their bedroom. It was completely odd for the bald Turk, considering how Rude was3.
Reno got up from the couch after a few minutes, wondering what Rude was up to, knowing he lingered around the apartment before going to their bedroom. When he pushed the slightly ajar door open he blinked and took in the sight. Rude was standing with his back to him, seemingly in the process of unbuttoning the buttons to his crisp white dress shirt. He then seemed to be fumbling with his belt, while Rude did this Reno glanced around the room, seeing the black tie on the floor, tossed carelessly away. Then the matching black suit jacket was laying on the bed and the black dress shoes on the floor by the door. Reno stepped over them and wandered a bit into the room, seeing that Rude had unbuttoned the top three buttons to his shirt and then rolled up his sleeves to bare his forearms, and Reno couldn't help but stand back and admire his lover's body, always having thoroughly enjoyed the sight of the elder's chest. Then Rude turned and headed for the door and as he passed he seemed to look right at the redhead. Reno didn't know if he was reassured because it looked like Rude was looking straight through him, looking past him, it gave him a weird chilling feeling.
Nevertheless he followed after Rude, deciding to try and get Rude's attention; he wanted to talk with the older Turk.
"Ru! Rude, dude, answer me. What's wr-aah! What the fuck?" Reno pestered, before his leg went out on him and he fell to the floor sloppily. "Rude! Yo, help me up, dude! The fucks wrong with my thigh, shiiit." Reno called before his voice ended in a faint hiss, gritting his teeth. Rude didn't acknowledge him. Now Reno knew something was wrong, whenever Reno even breathed in pain Rude would fret over him, hating it when Reno was in discomfort. And he fell; Rude would have grabbed Reno and dragged him up in a second. Reno didn't know what he did, but it seemed that Rude was keen to disregard him. When his leg allowed, he got up and stalked angrily through the house, he wasn't as angry as he seemed to be, he was more worried and upset then angry after the initial anger washed away.
When Reno found Rude, who was coming out of the bathroom, he tried to grab onto him. He hurried up, hand stretched out to touch Rude but just as his hand landed on Rude's shoulder did the taller male suddenly go transparent, Reno's hand sliding straight through his body. At first Reno couldn't believe it, and tried again and again, unable to touch Rude each and every time. When Reno began to realize it, he panicked.
"What the fuck! Rude! What the fucking shit!" Reno shouted, backing up a few steps before getting his phone out, fingers dialing Axel's number as fast as he could.
"Hello?" Axel picked up on the second ring.
"Ax! Dude, what the fuck happened to Rude, man!" Reno yelled into the phone as soon as he heard his brother's voice. Axel sighed, which made Reno worry. Was he sick? Did he do this every day? Was he mental?
"Hello? Anyone there?" Axel asked finally, in a very tired voice. Not in the sense that he'd just woken from a slumber, but rather that he'd had none at all.
"Reno! Fuckin hell, man! It's your brother! Can you hear me?" Reno shouted again, getting more and more frantic, not understanding what was going on in the panic he was going through.
"I'm hanging up now." Axel said, being true to his word and ending the call. Reno continued to flip out, spending longer then he even knew in a full out panic.
Eventually his panic subsided, shifting away until he was all but numb. He decided to just follow after Rude, being his shadow basically. He watched him sadly, Rude going about his usual routine, which consisted of Rude's sitting on the couch not really watching the television. He made a small dinner, then showering. He continued to walk throughout the house, not really settling. He tried to touch Rude a couple of more times only to be denied the touch he wanted so much. Reno eventually went to sulk into their room, hoping all of this was just a bad dream.
"What the fuck man. What happened? Why can't I touch Rude? Is he a ghost? Shiva! If this was a dream I'd have woken up by now." Reno spoke aloud to himself, pacing at the end of the bed, unable to settle in one spot. "I don't understand it." He muttered, face in his hands. His reasonings continued, trying to will himself to believe that it was all a dream. He could feel the pain creep up again, in his leg, his ribs, and his shoulder. Making his lip curl up in a bit of discomfort. It was more annoying to deal with than it hurt him. Just as he was about to fly off the handle again, feeling panic bubble up in his throat, when Rude entered the room. He grabbed the jacket and threw it onto the dresser, walking over to Reno's side of the bed, sitting down on the bed. Reno blinked and watched Rude, wondering why he was on his own side of the bed.
Rude bent down and reached under the bed, pulling out a shoebox, it was plain, a black bottom with a tan top that could be lifted off completely. Reno's brows furrowed a bit, recognizing the box as somewhat familiar and his eyes went wide, realizing just what it was when Rude lifted the top of the box up.
What was revealed when Rude lifted the top off were a pair of boots, heavy duty and new and unworn. They looked like an exact pair to the pair on Reno's feet only bigger. In fact, they were a complete match. The top of the box looked dusty with age, a thick layer on the top of it. His eyes glanced back to Rude, to the box in his lap. His brows furrowed as he noticed a few drops of what looked like sweat. His blue eyes looked back up to Rude's face and gasped, treks of salty water trailing from under his sunglasses. Reno had only seen the tears once before, and he'd been quick to drive them away. He knew now that he couldn't wipe them away, he couldn't touch Rude. Couldn't talk to him at all. He was useless.
Out of instinct, he tried to comfort Rude anyway. But instead of Rude going transparent, his own hand went transparent, sliding through Rude's shoulder. Reno yanked his hand back quickly. His hand became solid again once he wasn't trying to touch Rude.
"Reno…" Rude was oblivious to Reno, to his attempts on comforting, to his realization that now he became transparent. He just kept breaking down and ended up bent over the box in his lap, shoulders shaking visibly.
"Ru…" Reno mumbled quietly, realizing completely that he couldn't do anything to help Rude. Then out of nowhere, more pain flared. All the spots he had felt before burned wildly, and a new pain exploded in his chest, just a few inches below his clavicle, on the left side. His knees trembled as he bent over his waist, fist gripping the spot that had just flared up. After a moment he blinked, the pain still intense and still there, he realized his palm and fingers were coated in a wet substance. He pulled his hand back and his eyes went as wide as they could, pupils retracting to a pinpoint as he saw the unmistakable dark red liquid that was blood. His entire body shook, glancing down to the areas that hurt as well. Blood was soaking through his clothes, it took but a moment to realize that they were bullet wounds, from his count he had at least four, if not five or six bullet holes torn through his body. He could recognize the pain, the feeling of the holes ripped into his flesh. He was a Turk, he'd been shot before. But nothing like this. He could recognize at once that it was a fatal number of shots, especially the two he could feel in his chest. Those would be nearly fatal on their own.
Suddenly his vision started to fade and he could feel himself almost, dissolving. Then it went dark and completely black.
~o~
"Routine mission. Reno, Rude, you will be on foot with a small group of first class soldiers, Elena, you'll be with me in the helicopter above. We'll be providing any needed cover to Reno, Rude and the Soldiers. This will be a quick in and out mission. We have reason to believe that there is a group of old avalanche members inside the home, who were responsible for that attack on President ShinRa a week ago. Are we ready to go?" Tseng's voice rang out in an authorative boom. The three Turks that their leader was addressing.
Reno, Rude and Elena nodded curtly, knowing now was not a time to joke around. Especially Reno. That last attack had landed all of the Turks a trip to the hospital. Elena had a broken elbow, Tseng a concussion, Rude a few cracked ribs and a fractured tibia, and Reno had been shot in the hip. All four of the Turks had received potions to heal their wounds so they could return to active duty.
They all advanced on the house, which seemed to be a small mansion, Reno and Rude on the ground with Tseng piloting the helicopter with Elena assisting. They'd been teamed with a group of four First Class Soldiers, none that they knew.
It was when one of the soldiers stepped just a few feet too close to the house when he suddenly fell to the ground, cussing loudly. A bullet whizzed by, where his head was just a moment ago. He scrambled to find cover, Reno and Rude instantly disappeared like only Turks could.
"Shit, Rude. Guess they saw us coming. Leave it to Tseng and Elena to open an opportunity for us?" The redhead asked his partner with a grin, unfazed by the shots on them.
"Sure, Ren, get a hold of them." Rude spoke quietly, letting Reno turn and talk into the receiver on his neck. Within a few minutes the front of the house was blasted open, with more people spilling out of the house then the Turks were informed. Many more. They'd expected a maximum of fifteen people, though at least fifty people now shooting at them.
"Shiiit, yo. This ain't good. What we do, yo? Storm?" Reno asked both Rude and Tseng. Rude waited to see what Tseng said. The leader gave them the go, but telling them to be true Turks, and slink up undetected.
This was the easy part of the mission, especially for Reno. He could slip in and out of things undetected faster than any other Turk. Rude was a little more clumsy when it came to quick ins and outs, but he was just as efficient as the rest of the Turks. The pair of them managed to sneak up into the mansion unseen and the pair slipped inside and looked around, wondering which way to go before they settled on splitting up and meeting back up in ten minutes.
Reno's route hadn't turned anything up yet, and when he heard two gunshots he whizzed around and looked up and down his hallway before realizing they were quite a ways away from him. He immediately set to contacting Rude via their mics.
"Rude! Y'alright?" He said, loud enough into the microphone but not loud enough to draw unwanted attention by any enemies in the immediate area. It took about a minute for Rude to respond, his voice cutting into Reno's ear.
"'M fine, Ren. Wandered across a couple enemies, I'm not hurt." Reno sighed in relief and nodded to himself.
"Alright, Ru. No problems here, yet." He said and then went on about the mission. He himself happened upon a few guards and was quick to take them out, luckily being behind them he could just taser them with his EMR. It wasn't until he heard a gunshot, that was much closer this time, and felt immense pain did he realize he had another guy to take care of. He turned and as he did he'd drawn his own pistol and easily took down the other man. He groaned and gripped at his shoulder, it was a solid hit, but luckily the bullet went all the way through and didn't get stuck inside his body. He was about to contact Rude when he heard his voice in his ear again.
"Reno! Are you alright? I heard shots." Reno chuckled a bit and gripped his shoulder a bit tighter.
"I'm okay, but I did get hit. The ass snuck up on me, It's my shoulder, I'll be fine. It's not bleeding much and I can still use my other arm. Continue with the mission. No, Rude. Don't worry about me and finish with this mission. I'll be fine." Reno insisted, arguing a little with the older man. He huffed a bit finally and stood and continued on, taking care to keep his wound hidden from anyone, knowing they'd use it against him. Reno found one more guard in the corridors and made quick work of him, managing to dodge any bullets this time.
"Shit man, where is this guy?" Reno muttered to himself and kept alert, knowing if he slipped up he could be injured even worse for it. He gasped when he felt a sudden rip in his side and leg, and couldn't figure out what had happened until he realized he was shot again. This time with silenced guns, he turned, gritting his teeth and popping off two rounds, both into the chests of the men that had shot him. He looked down at his leg when he felt it was clear, and groaned. The bullet had torn straight through both his hamstring and quadriceps. He then looked to the hole in his side, feeling it had gone through his side about two inches in. He felt his ribs gingerly and winced, feeling at least one cracked rib. "Rude, two more down, have you found this guy yet?" Reno asked, not bothering with worrying Rude further with his injuries. He'd dealt with worse and he'd manage to keep going with the mission.
"Negative, Ren. Start heading to the middle of the house, we'll meet up and look together. He might have gotten out of the house before we got here." Rude said into Reno's ear and the redhead gave an affirmative and headed towards Rude's way. It was about five or so minutes after that that the redhead heard the second shot from Rude and started to run, knowing the bald Turk wouldn't be able to report while under fire.
"I'm on my way, Ru." He said into the microphone and found his way to the gun battle, he came to a long hallway and saw Rude crouched down by the end he could see and braced himself against the wall, readying his gun before flashing out into the hallway, squeezing off precisely aimed plugs into the enemies while backing up towards Rude. He grinned when he found his way back, uninjured in this fight. "Heh, hey Ru. I think that's our guy down there. I think we should advance on them, they aren't expecting that." The younger of the two Turks said with a grin. Rude gave Reno a hesitant look before humming.
"Stay behind me then." He said simply and they waited the time out until they rushed into the hallway, taking precise aim at the enemy, Reno ducking out behind Rude whenever he saw an open shot. Reno grinned when he saw the perfect opportunity, and took his stance, squeezing out two plugs towards the man they were after, both bullets heading for his knees and hips. President ShinRa wanted this man alive, and like good Turks they followed their orders and would bring back live people if that was what was ordered of them. Reno smirked when his shots hit their designated places and turned, getting rid of the body guards the guy had that Rude hadn't disposed of yet.
"Haha! There we go, yo! One big baddie ready to be tak-" Reno had been gloating to Rude, grinning broadly before his words were cut off by two shots ringing out, he looked forward fast enough to see the guy they had just taken down had pulled a pistol from a coat pocket. He didn't feel the impact of the bullets, didn't feel himself fall back onto the floor, couldn't tell if his heart was still beating or if that was the sound of Rude's footsteps running back towards him.
"Reno! Shit, Tseng, Reno's down, we have the man, house clear." He said, having knocked the man unconscious with a quick jab of the butt of his pistol. Rude crouched over Reno and pressed his hands to the two holes in his chest, dangerously close to where his heart was to be. "Fuck." He muttered, having just now seen the shots in the redhead's thigh and side. "Fuck, Ren! Why did you hide it!" He yelled to no one, trying to stop the profuse amount of blood leaking out of the holes in the younger's body.
Reno floated in and out of consciousness, he was aware for when he was lifted up by Rude, unaware how he got to the hospital, aware of when he was shocked back to life by chest paddles. He was sure something was wrong when then next time he saw images he saw himself, lying on a hospital gurney. He looked around and was shocked to see not only the three other Turks he worked with, but President ShinRa and a few others as well. He looked back to himself and saw that he wasn't hooked up to anything and then he realized.
He was dead.
"Fuck!" He swore, looking down at himself, he bore no holes from the bullets and no blood all over his body. He faded out, the scene going black.
~o~
A/N: Well there it is, the ending was not planned ahead and therefore is mediocre. It was fun while it lasted. Keep an eye out for more RudeReno, I have a nice long one-shot in the making.