Picture
And I will come through
Do my very best for you
And your lovin' arms
Gonna keep me warm
Like no other arms will do—John Hiatt, Rest of the Dream
"Do you think we've been together long enough for me to put a picture of you on my desk?"
On the surface, there was nothing in his tone to betray his usual confident demeanor, but Cloud was practiced enough in Reno-ese to hear the multiple rehearsals it had undergone in his head. He looked up from his paper, determined to interpret the foreign language before making some fatal cultural gaffe in this visited country.
"Do you have a picture of me, or do we need to have one taken?"
"I think I can find one. It's just that Rude has one of Tifa and the kids. You practically have a fucking collage all over your office of everyone you've ever met, yanno? And I was thinking, we've been together a while, I didn't want to seem like a stalker or anything."
He hid a smile behind the paper. Four months, Cloud filled in mentally. And it was easy to forget that Reno, a natural loner like himself, still craved a family. "I've got an idea. Why don't we take a vacation? That way we get a shitload of pictures and you get some time off, and the picture is well, a souvenir of something. You haven't taken a day off since I've met you." And that way, you don't know that I see just how, and how much you need this.
"Yeah! That would be so cool, yo. I was thinking there was that one I took with my phone? But I'm not sure that would be so good on my desk at work. There's some kind of decency clause I'm sure. Not that I remember signing one. I'll ask Tseng. About the vakay time, not the decency clause. Where are we going?"
Cloud almost asked "What picture?" but decided he didn't want to know. There was a part of Reno's mind that had simply stopped maturing when he realized things were less fun as a grownup, and that could make him…not safe. Especially around cameras and explosives.
"Beach. Place called Alligator Point. It's not on any map, but you'll like it. The closest thing we'll be to dressed for a week is swimsuits and water shoes. Sandals when we get formal."
"Water shoes?"
"They're ugly, that means you don't own a pair. I'll take care of it. You take care of the time off. Meet me back here tonight and we'll leave in the morning."
Reno woke to the soft clink of dishes being washed in the kitchen and the buttery smell of breakfast cooking, but he lay in bed soaking up the sheer joy of it until he heard the stoneware rest on the breakfast bar.
"Nothing fancy. Scrambled eggs, cheese, toast, coffee. Eat up. Here's your shoes, put them in your bag."
They were the ugliest things Reno had ever seen, colored net sewn to a nonskid rubber base. A bit of a fashion whore, he was appalled. "I have to wear these?"
"Unless you want to bust your ass falling off watercraft or boats, or limp along primitive beaches because you have broken shells or jellyfish stuck in the bottom of your feet, yes. I'm not carrying your injured self anywhere because of it though." Cloud winced inwardly; he sounded like his old grumpy ass not-interested self. Gods, maybe they both needed a vacation.
Reno considered it. It really was a toss-up, but if he were injured and abandoned on a beach he might get laid a lot less. That made his decision for him. Ugly shoes were acceptable. He just hoped the beaches were deserted and he met no one he knew.
Cloud rode down a one lane road leading away from Costa del Sol, until they reached a beachside stand advertising watercraft rentals. He parked the bike. "OK, time for the ugly shoes. Suit up!"
"Where are we going?"
"A bar, it's called Josie's. You can't get to it by land."
Cloud drove the watercraft like he drove a bike; fast, terrifying, and with little regard for the laws of physics. Reno gave him hell for it as they tied off to a thin swaying pier. The bar was underneath a thatched hut in the middle of, well…water. In all his travels as a Turk, he'd never seen anything like it. A bar in the middle of a, what? Lagoon? Gulf?
"Bay," Cloud said in answer to his question. It was genius, in Reno's opinion. Nothing gained his respect like creativity applied to bombs and alcohol, and he sipped the tropical looking drink Cloud had brought him in appreciation. They were in the middle of nowhere at a dumpy bar drinking booze out of plastic cups, dressed only in their swimsuits. Reno propped his ugly shoes up on the cable spool that served as a table; he was in heaven. Cloud grinned. "Feeling better?"
He popped his neck. "Now that you're not trying to kill me on the marine version of Fenrir? Yeah." He took his hair down to comb out the water with his fingers, and retied it. Cloud was mesmerized. "This place is awesome!"
"Just thought you could use some time away from the real world." Cloud ordered another round, which was about all he could handle if he was to safely pilot them to the beach house. It might look like a girly drink, but it was lethal stuff and Cloud had ordered them with rum toppers as an added bonus.
Leaving the bar, Reno was sufficiently buzzed to forget, or at least temporarily not care, about Cloud's driving. And so he didn't notice at first when Cloud slowed the watercraft and cut off the ignition, pocketing the deadman's switch in his life vest.
"What's up, yo?"
"Swim time. Keep your shoes on or you'll never get back on this thing."
Reno sat for a moment.
"Reno. Fall backwards. We're in the middle of the bay, we don't have a pier or a ladder here." City boys…
Obediently, Reno fell backward. He came up for air inches away from Cloud. "It's called Weeks Bay," Cloud pointed to a building larger than the ShinRa headquarters back home. "Rufus' digs, if you want to swim up and say hi. And see that tiny peninsula way over there?"
Reno nodded. His hair had come out of its ponytail on the dive and was floating around him. It felt oddly erotic. "That's the Point, where we're headed. The fishing camp is on the other side."
"We're not fishing, I hope."
"Hell no. I stay there because it's cheap. The Point is where all the locals live that service the rich bitches in Costa. The camp is off the beaten path, so to speak, but not too much. Feel like driving?"
The question went straight to Reno's groin. "You mean later?"
Cloud dunked back under and came up with the expression of a man calculating the weight needed to hide a body. "That too, perv. I meant, the watercraft. Do you want to learn to drive it? It's just like a motorcycle. Go ahead." He unhooked the deadman's switch from his vest and hooked it to Reno's.
Reno climbed onto the driver's seat without much issue. "OK, keep center when I climb on. Do not move." Sadly, Reno turned around to listen to this last statement, capsizing them both back into the water.
"Sweet fucking Gaia, what did I just tell you?"
"Well you told me too late, yo! I can turn around on a bike!" Three more tries convinced them that Reno's taller form and shorter attention span were not well suited to the front craft's higher center of gravity. Cloud drove them back to the rental center for the sake of their future relationship. Oh well, he kicks ass on land and air, anyway. Can't command all the elements. Gods, he's beautiful though. The ponytail holder lost somewhere at the bottom of the bay, Cloud got to see Reno's hair down which he loved and which Reno bitched about the whole drive to the camp.
Cloud pulled up to a small stilted house sandwiched between a beach walk and a canal. It was typical older waterfront construction, with jalousie windows to catch the sea breezes and cheap wicker furniture. The kitchen and bathroom were primitive and tiny, but the place held a simple charm missing in a luxury villa. It was the kind of place you could track sand into and not worry about it later, thought Cloud. Reno was thrilled to find the landlords had stocked the refrigerator; it was an arrangement Cloud had reached with them on the rent.
"Yeah, because I usually show up on a bike, it's easier to just pay them extra for most of the groceries. I probably overpay, but it's nice to not have to do it myself." He pulled two beers out of the cooler and looked around. "Not exactly ShinRa digs but it will do in a pinch. They stocked the liquor cabinet too so we should be ok for a few days. There's a couple restaurants but no one sells anything fancier than draught beer in a cup and a fish basket with fries."
Reno leaned back on the railing and smoked a cigarette in utter contentment, being sure to take a picture of Cloud sitting on the rail with his feet hooked through the banister.
After the ride down and the drinks at the bar, a nap sounded good but Cloud insisted on a swim. "I didn't come all the way down here to nap, damn it." So Reno fought his own natural laziness and followed Cloud to the beach. The water was warm and the current nonexistent this time of year, but he was glad Cloud had insisted on the ugly shoes. Sharp coral littered the beach at every step.
He pulled Cloud to him in a kiss, soft and slow but leaving no doubt as to his intentions. Cloud did nothing to resist, but laughed. "Horndog."
"Beach makes me horny."
"Breathing makes you horny, Reno."
Reno's hair, still loose from earlier, floated around them like a creature of the sea as they stood in the chest-deep warm water. It was so natural, being held like this. As if they had been born to fit together. Cloud tucked his head into Reno's shoulder the way he loved to do, and Reno wished there was some way to fit this into a picture, but his phone was back at the house. So was the bed, and Cloud's body pushed against his by the water made him think insane, primitive things. He inhaled the salt air against Cloud's skin.
"Let's go inside." They emerged handfast from the water to discover the air had cooled considerably while they had been swimming. It wasn't cold, exactly, just a little too cool to linger wet in a swimsuit.
"Shit!" they laughed as they bolted through the sea oats and up the stairs. They ran through the dark of the house like poltergeists, laughing and colliding with the wicker furniture and trying to kiss while not slowing down. Cloud tried to retrieve towels from the bathroom but Reno had a better idea. He pulled off his swimsuit and ugly shoes, stripped Cloud in mid stride and threw them both naked and wet onto the bed.
Cloud pulled the quilt over them as they shivered into each other. "Next time, we bring towels and hang them over the deck railing."
"Don't need 'em now, do we?" Reno began to kiss the salt water off his lover's collarbone, his chest, his neck.
The only response was a moan and a roll of Cloud's hips. He reached for his backpack but again, Reno anticipating his move, grabbed it and fished out the lube one handed, with frightening efficiency. Amazing, how warm it was getting, and how fast.
They only broke the kiss to breathe, and they only breathed when they started to see spots. Reno ran his hand down Cloud's side and pulled his hip closer in, grinding into him; gods, it felt so good, the contact only making him want more of it. Just to go at each other with complete abandon like this, it was heaven. Sometimes they made love, sweet and generous and patient.
Sometimes they fucked so hard it was like they were trying to push their way to the other side of one another.
This was one of those times.
Reno pulled away to open the lube; pushed his fingers inside Cloud rough and fast. It elicited more groans, Cloud arched into him as if desperate for the contact. Reno pushed him back onto the bed out of sheer survival; one more move and he would lose it.
Cloud nodded in understanding. He parted his legs, hands fisting the sheets in an only partly successful attempt to stay still until Reno was inside him. Finally, blissfully, he felt Reno enter him and begin to move, the sudden ache of being filled. He cried out in his need for more.
"Too rough?"
"Not rough enough." His voice sounded broken.
Reno gathered Cloud up in his arms, one around his back and one around his hips, and thrust into him as hard as he could. To hell with lasting long enough to be impressive; who the hell did they have to impress? It was the two of them and no one within sight or hearing, only their desire for each other to witness.
Reno felt Cloud tense around him, his own head thrown back and moaning. There had been a time, they would warn each other of their impending release. Now, they knew each other only too well; their bodies spoke their own language and what Cloud's was telling Reno's body was nothing short of fucking beautiful. He dimly felt a rush of liquid heat wash over their abdomens. The shuddering that surrounded him brought him to a peak that was almost painful in its suddenness. Almost, but he rode out wave after wave of it anyway.
He held Cloud like that for a time, then panting, lay him back on the bed and stretched out his own lanky frame alongside. Neither spoke for a long while.
"Sooner or later we have to eat, you know." Cloud, always the practical one.
"Umph."
"Go out or grill something? We have steak and charcoal."
They opted for the grill, and sat out on the upper deck over the canal in post coital bliss, windbreakers tossed on over their shorts.
"Side dishes or just steak?"
"Fuck side dishes, yo."
Well, they wouldn't die of some kind of deficiency disease in four days, Cloud figured. The two men liked their steaks the same way. Rare. Or as Reno put it so delicately, "Wipe its ass and tear the horns off!" Reno lit a smoke off the grill and looked up. "Cloud? I don't mean to be alarmist and shit, but there is an old lady in a housedress down there waving at us."
"Shit." He carefully made his way barefoot down the stairs and hoped he didn't reek of sex. "Mattie!"
"I came by earlier but you weren't home! I made you a casserole. Are you going to introduce me to your boyfriend? You've never brought anyone home before!"
He could feel the amusement coming off Reno in waves, could just see the smirk form around the dangling cigarette, even without turning around. "Um. Reno, this is Mattie. She and her husband Dade own this place. Mattie, this is Reno."
"Delighted, ma'am. We love the house." His voice deepened a little with suppressed laughter.
"Well, I'll let you boys get to your dinner. Don't worry about returning the dish, I'll just pick it up after you leave. Steaks smell delicious!" She waved and waddled back down the driveway to her house.
"Could be worse babe, they could be rabid homophobes."
Cloud wasn't sure about that. He sighed. "What's in that thing? If I know her, it's a salt lick fried in lard. Let's eat."
They ate off paper plates in the dim light of the kitchen and drank beer straight from the can. Reno took a picture of it.
The next morning, after more subdued wakeup sex and a shower, they decided to explore what there was of a town. Located on the back side of Costa del Sol, it was as Cloud described, tropical but low key, and the locals were friendly. Reno took pictures of Cloud in front of everything, including an oyster bar proudly proclaiming the slogan "Suck me nude!"
It was a fine idea, and one Reno applied with great enthusiasm the minute they got back to the camp.
Later, they sat in a booth adjacent to a gas station and ate fried fish out of a newspaper-lined basket, drinking beer from plastic cups marked MIKEES. A roll of paper towels graced the table as there was nothing resembling a utensil in the whole establishment.
"How did you find this place?" Reno asked around a mouthful of fish so hot it burned his tongue.
"You find a lot of things, riding a bike. Back roads just…take you places." Cloud got up to grab two more beers. "Anyway, I saw that house, well fishing camp. And talked to the people that own it. They kind of adopted me, I guess; I wasn't in very good shape back then. It was off season so I spent a lot of time here, just healing." It had been shortly after Tifa had gathered up bits of his consciousness out of the Lifestream with a dustbuster, he recalled. 'Not in good shape' was possibly the understatement of the century.
Reno sipped on his beer, looking thoughtful.
Cloud went on. "It's not fancy, I know. I still like to kick back at a villa now and then and have someone on payroll kiss my ass and bring me pool drinks, you know? But this is just a different kind of awesome. It sort of works the kinks out."
"It is awesome. I can feel my blood pressure drop just sitting here. And last night…damn."
"Ha. Last night was not planned but I am so not arguing." Nor was he arguing with that morning's gentle touches, or later when he had awoken from a nap to find Reno's mouth traveling down his body in a very determined manner. Maybe the beach did make Reno horny; if so, Cloud was buying that damn house.
"We have two more days, yo."
"I hope we can walk when it's done."
Reno took another picture of Cloud, sitting there in a cheap tourist t shirt, the light streaming through the cracked glass.
Back home in Edge, Reno loaded the pictures onto his laptop, then all but twelve were sent to the local drug store's photo department. Those were not for public consumption. Cloud was going to kill him for taking them anyway, but it would be worth it. That skinnydipping one…well. He needed a new wallpaper on his laptop anyway.
The rest presented a dilemma. But on Monday morning he walked into his office and placed on his desk a framed photograph of Cloud. He was sitting at the gas station restaurant, staring out the window at the beach with a rare grin, not a care in the world, sipping on a cup of beer. He had fish batter on his fingers and it was Reno's very first family vacation.
Reno smiled and admired his desk, and got down to the day's work.