Request/gift fic for Yusuke kun! MUAH! :3 He wanted an AU high school setting for our boys, and I hope I can do his plot idea justice. I'll be covering their last year of school and also their lives after graduation.
I do not own the characters and do not plan to make money from this fic.
Cloud groaned as the alarm clock beside his bed went off, blaring a song from years past. He sighed heavily and lifted an arm up and over to slam down on the snooze button, then stopped. Slowly opening one eye, he began to grin. Thoughts of Reno raced through his brain as he shut off the alarm and jolted out of bed, racing to a large pile of his clothes in the corner of his bedroom. A sniff test was in order: he still had yet to do this week's laundry and was completely out of clean clothes to wear.
One shirt in particular caught his eye, and he smiled. He didn't think he'd ever wash this shirt. He had worn it on his very first date with Reno a few months ago. The two of them had been together since the beginning of school. It was their Senior year, and at age seventeen, Cloud had never had a boyfriend until Reno came along.
Five months, three days and ten hours together. He had it marked down.
Cloud lived alone with his mother, who kept on him constantly about eating well and had always taught him to be himself, no matter the circumstances. When he had finally admitted to his mom that he preferred males rather than females, she grabbed him in a motherly bear hug, her large breasts threatening to suffocate him. She had known the truth for years, and her only words of advice were to stay safe and never cheat on his partner - whomever he chose to be with.
Reno was the one he did eventually choose. They had been friends for two years, meeting when Reno had transferred from Midgar to Nibelheim. A bastard child and an orphan, Reno was used to skipping from town to town on his own. He had learned to take care of himself at a young age, having survived abuse from each foster family that he had been placed with. When he turned fifteen, he ran away from Midgar and never looked back.
In Nibelheim, he worked for crap pay at a local restaurant, bringing in just enough money each week to pay for room and boarding at the Nibelheim Inn, a fairly cheap bed and breakfast establishment. Always alone and rarely happy, he made do with what he could. When he began school at Nibeheim High, he met Cloud - and his world changed for the better. They were friends from the start, sharing secrets and exchanging their life stories. After almost two years as friends and at the beginning of their Senior year, Reno finally broke down and told Cloud his true feelings. To his surprise, Cloud had responded positively, and they had been together since.
Cloud finally decided on a fairly-clean blue shirt that set off the color of his eyes quite well. He tugged on a pair of slightly ripped jeans and dashed to the bathroom that was connected to his room. One quick look in the mirror, a slight running of his fingers through his golden locks, and he was out the door. His mom didn't even bother to glance at him. She knew how happy her son was, now that he was with Reno… and she also knew that Cloud had absolutely no intention of going to school that day.
As Cloud rounded the corner to his home, he checked over his shoulder to see if his mother was peeking out of the window at him. Satisfied when he didn't see any movement from the curtains, he grinned and ducked around the opposite corner, heading straight for the Nibelheim woods. He sprinted through the trees, wincing as a limb slapped him across the face, but didn't stop. His heart was too set on getting to Reno, to the place where they had decided to meet this morning.
He finally caught sight of the vivid red hair belonging to the person who held his heart. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the forest, smoking a cigarette. Slowing down, Cloud jogged to a stop in front of Reno and smiled. "Hey," he said, out of breath.
"Yo, babe. Damn, you look hot this morning," Reno replied, grinning as he followed his line of sight from Cloud's shoes to his face. He stood up from the ground and brushed himself off, then grabbed Cloud by the hands. "I missed you, you know."
"Yeah, me too," Cloud said, blushing. Reno tugged on his hands and pulled him forward, gently grazing Cloud's lips with his own.
"Your mom give you any shit for skipping classes today?" Reno asked, brushing a loose strand of Cloud's hair away from his face and tucking it behind his ear. Cloud shrugged and shook his head. "That's good," Reno said. "Have I told you that I love you today?"
Cloud grinned. "Not yet."
"Well then, I love you. And good morning," Reno replied.
"I love you, too. How's your day been so far?"
Reno sighed. He ran a hand across his hair and tugged on the end of his long ponytail. "It was shitty when I woke up, but now that you're here with me, I'm doing much better now. I just… I hate waking up alone every fucking morning. I've only ever been alone in my life, really, and now that I have you… I find myself wanting you to be the first thing that I see when I open my eyes every morning," he said. His eyes shifted away and he rocked back on his heels, seeming nervous.
As Cloud heard the words that Reno had spoken to him, his heart dropped to the pit of his stomach, making him feel woozy and warm all at the same time. Sure, they were both still young - but at the age of seventeen and in their last year of school before becoming adults, it wouldn't be long before they had to figure out what to do with their lives. Because of the conversations that he and Reno had already had about one day living together, he had a feeling of what Reno was dying to ask.
"Are you…" Cloud cut his sentence short. He didn't want to jump to conclusions, but he really hoped Reno would ask him what his heart truly desired.
"Not really. I mean, yeah, in a way I am. But nothing concrete yet. I don't want to make it official or anything because I don't want to freak your mom out," Reno said, still looking away and now kicking at twigs with the toe of his boot. "I want you to leave with me after graduation. I've got a friend who still lives in Midgar; says he can get me a job with the Turks after school. I never saw myself returning there, but with you by my side, maybe things wouldn't be so bad. Me and Rude, we're gonna own Midgar one day, yo!"
"You'd go to work for the Shinra Corporation? Are you kidding?" Cloud butted in suddenly, his brow furrowed. "They do nothing but fuck this planet and the people on it. Old Man Shinra doesn't give a shit about anything but himself and his money."
"Cloud, it would be a steady, secure job. That means money for us, babe. If I can make it into the Turks, I'll be a made man," Reno said, his voice escalating a little in order for him to try to get his point across to Cloud. He put his hands on Cloud's shoulders and gently squeezed them. "I know that this is what I want to do, and I want you with me every step of the way. I won't keep trying to convince you, though. I'm not gonna make you do something you don't wanna do, yo."
"No, I'll come with you. I don't like it, but if I can be with you, then I won't complain," Cloud replied. His expression softened as he looked into Reno's eyes. "Promise me, though. Promise me that you won't get in over your head, okay? My dad…"
Reno pulled him in for a hug and ran his hands across his back in a soothing motion. "I know, babe. They really did a number on your family, didn't they?" he said. Now he felt regret at even thinking of going back to Midgar to work for such a hateful company. Cloud had told him the story about his father only once, but once was enough for Reno to never want to hear it again. Beaten to death by President Shinra himself because of a top-secret file landing into the wrong hands, Cloud's father had died seven years ago when Cloud was only ten years old, even though the event that caused his death was not his fault.
Cloud and his mother were reduced to begging for scraps of food in the town square of Nibelheim, and if their house had not been paid in full already, they would have been out on the streets. One day, a certified letter arrived from Midgar that contained a check for one million gil. Though the letterhead was from Shinra, Inc., the letter itself was unsigned and only stated that the person was sorry for the family's loss.
What Cloud didn't know was that the money was from a man by the name of Tseng, leader of the Turks.
It would be one year later before he would find out, and when he did, it would rock his world and make him look at Reno's job much differently after that. Before that, though, he and Reno would have to survive their last year of school. Neither one of them could have predicted what was going to happen between the two of them during that final year, and that it would almost cost Reno his own life. For now, they were content to enjoy their day away from school, ultimately ending up at Reno's room at the Nibelheim Inn. After that, Cloud knew that he was chained to Reno for life.