Title: Mako Tears
Summary: Reno laments over a lost love. But all isn't what it seems.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the computer I wrote this up on (actually, I don't even own THAT), and the plot bunny that created this.
Dedication: To Brian, who will recognize the storyline rather easily, I think. :-D Considering we now RP something incredibly similar. The method of their meeting was changed for this fic, as was the length of time they've spent together, but... all in all, it's very similar.
Every year he came. Of course, he couldn't visit in the middle of the day - it would arouse suspicion, and he'd run the risk of smacking into Strife, who also made the annual trek to the outskirts of Edge/Midgar. Of course, Strife's reasons were entirely different than his own. For Cloud, the buster sword driven into the earth was a symbol of honor and lost friendship that had made the ultimate sacrifice. It was a symbol, to the blond, of the type of protection he strove to emulate.
For Reno, it was a symbol of lost love.
He went, if he was able to, at the same time and day each year - the day he found Zack's body, the night he had to witness his lover riddled with bullets - just minutes before the body itself finally gave in and disappeared into the lifestream.
Even now, four years after Zack's death. He knelt by the sword he'd always known as Zack's, staring out over the edge of that cliff toward the twin cities being reconstructed. They gleamed in the distance, a testament of metal, glass, and concrete for the ShinRa company and the will of the people of the Planet to survive. But for Reno, it seemed a hollow victory. Zack was dead.
Pale fingers traced over the now dull blade.
"I remember when we met," he whispered to the unfeeling metal. "You were a cocky SOLDIER recruit. I had just made it into the Turks. And we were constantly making trouble. Only a week in for both of us, and our superiors had been frustrated to no end. And of course, we'd both done some incredibly stupid shit. I managed to cost the company a chopper... and you managed to embarass the hell out of the General. Sephiroth finally had the brilliant idea to make us serve our punishments together, figuring that maybe we'd somehow manage to calm each other down. Taste of our own medicine or something." He gave a half-laugh, rubbing a little at his nose and steadying his voice.
"It was instant. Yanno... I wanted you right then and there. You know, Tifa once said that there are no perfect people, just people that are perfect for us. You were perfect for me. Energetic enough to keep up with me, strong... understanding and friendly. Enthusiastic about your job. I swear, you were everything I could ever have hoped for." He broke off, turning his gaze away from the sword and the city, swallowing hard. "And I think Sephiroth knew it. He liked you, I think. Thought of you like he might a brother. I mean, Angeal and Genesis were his best friends and all, but he took an instant shine to you, despite your antics. Maybe it was like Tseng and me - I got under his skin constantly, but he still liked me. Trusted me."
A faint smile touched his lips. "I still remember how damned good you were in bed, too. Nothing compares. Not even the most vivid dream could replace the feel of you..." His breath hitched as two tears trickled down his cheeks. "It's hard. So fucking hard. I miss you..."
"He knows," the soft and familar low tones of his partner sounded behind him, and Reno jumped slightly at it. "Rude!"
"Reno, come. You'll get sick." Oops. Somewhere in that mess, it had begun to rain. Appropriate, he thought to himself.
He gave a sigh, hoisted himself back up to his feet, then allowed Rude to wheel his bike onto the truck he'd driven. Rude always was a thoughtful guy. They'd even tried a go at things after Zack had died. Reno had been nearly about to fall apart and Rude had been there, soothing him and consoling him. But it hadn't felt right to either of them, and the relationship had ended nearly the same day it had begun. They were best friends and Rude would always be one of the most important people in his life. But he couldn't replace Zack, or the role Zack had in Reno's life.
Still, Rude did dote upon him from time to time, especially around this time of the year. A strong arm wrapped around Reno's waist and led him to the passenger side of the truck. There was no protest when cafe-au-lait hued hands clicked the seatbelt on over his shoulder and lap, and he was unnaturally quiet the entire ride back to Edge.... till Rude spoke up.
"Boss wants us to check out a new section of the old headquarters we found. Some hidden rooms connected to Hojo's lab." Reno nodded mutely.
"Partner... you okay?"
Again the nod.
"Rufus ShinRa's been fucking Tseng for five years."
Mid-nod, Reno turned to Rude with a startled look.
"Thought that might get your attention. Not true, but at least it snapped you out of things. You up for the mission?"
The redhead took in a deep, shaky breath. "Dun have my rod, buddy," he replied, but looked a bit more determined.
"Brought it with me, partner." Reno managed a brighter smile at Rude.
"Thanks. You always take care of me, you know that? I don't deserve a Partner like you." Rude flushed slightly and laughed.
"You deserve more, Reno. But I take it you're up for the challenge?"
The drying wisps of red hair bobbed in his affirmation. "Hell yeah. Bring on the nasties!" Rude laughed, then altered their course to Center Midgar.
"Fucking hell, Rude. What the hell was Hojo breeding back here? Devilspawn?" Reno shock-hacked another monster as they edged their way into the hidden lab, pushing aside the charred and smoking remains before they disappeared into a burst of green mist - headed for the lifestream. A small part of him ached to join it just then, and he took his frustrations in not being able to on the next monster that attacked.
"Reno. The papers." The short instruction came as the last of the monsters in the room had been cleared, and the redhead trotted over to the pack of research material that Hojo had kept hidden. He scanned the top few sheets, his skin growing sickly pale. "No..." He read further, then dropped the papers and promptly passed out. Rude, more concerned with Reno than the papers, shifted quickly to catch the slender Turk before he could hit the ground, then gently eased him into a comfortable resting position while he gathered the papers. What he read shocked him almost as much as it had Reno. Fuck. What the hell WAS Hojo thinking?
"Come on, Partner... wake up," he insisted after abandoning the papers on the table. He shook Reno's shoulder gently, then reached into his pocket for a vial of salts. With the Turks doing the work they did, sometimes you just needed them to keep the stench of blood from overwhelming a guy. He held the glass under Reno's nose, then grinned when the redhead sputtered back to awareness.
"Fuck, that's foul, Rude!" A weak hand lifted to shove the stench away and he sat himself up properly. "Is it... Did that really mean what I think it means? Is..."
"Yeah, buddy. Somewhere in this mess, if the life-support machines didn't break down at some point.."
"He's here, then. He's..." He gulped some air, then looked at Rude with wide and hopeful eyes. "We gotta find him. Gotta save him."
"Agreed."
The challenge was far greater than either of them had expected. Hojo had a vast laboratory set aside from the main ones in ShinRa headquarters, and the monsters he'd been breeding had managed to survive on their own these past few years. And with all the mako still around, they'd grown strong. It took forever to clear the section out of the creatures, and by the time they had done so, Rude had already called for backup - there was no way they'd all make it out alive if there were any more of the bastards littering the building - especially if HE was alive, but unable to walk.
And it did look to be as much. In the room they'd just cleared, there was a single metal cylinder in the corner, a bubbling sound coming from it. Reno rushed to the computer attached to it and began inputting codes, passcodes, commands and the like till...
The metal peeled away with an airlock-like hiss, sinking into the ground and ceiling and revealing a glass tube holding .... yes.
It was Zack.
A strangled sob left Reno's throat and he rushed over to the glass, hands and face pressing to the smooth surface like some lost puppy. He felt as much, too. "Rude... It's him.. .he's here.. he's alive..."
"He's a clone, Reno."
"But the papers... the research... he's a -stable- clone. Hojo did it. It can't make up for all the hell he put us through, but... perhaps it's his one redemption." Rude sighed, then nodded and smiled a little. If the papers were correct, this Zack clone was as close to the real thing as anyone would ever get. Zack's memories up until the point of extraction were all there, supposedly. His physical prowess would be the same, once he recovered from being in the tank for so long. His resistance to the Jenova cells was the same, much to Hojo's dismay, too. It was Zack.
Reno sniffled a little, then went to the computer again, gesturing for Rude to go to the back of the cylinder to fish Zack out once he unlocked the seals. He couldn't even rush the job, or he might damage Zack... or kill him. Again. Easy did it. And thus with careful movements and thoughtful selections of commands, Reno finally was able to release Zack into Rude's waiting arms. A very naked Zack. Not that Reno minded much, but when the poor guy woke up, he might not be too thrilled. "Can you give him your jacket?" he asked of his partner, who laughed, but nodded.
Rude shrugged out of the jacket and put it around Zack's shoulders, weaving his arms through the sleeves. Then he unbuckled his belt - drawing a few shocked garbles out of Reno in the process, and removed his boxers, as well - wriggling them over Zack's legs. "It's not much, but it's something," he explained, then tugged his trousers up.
"Going commando, hey Partner?" Reno joked with a shaking voice, but nodded still. "Thanks."
All the while, the dark-haired man remained soaked and comatose, but the rise and fall of his chest gave them both hope. He was alive.
Together, they waited for Tseng and Elena to join them and help them out, providing a few potions and cure spells and assistance in removing themselves from the building. Then it was off to the healers in the new ShinRa building. It wasn't as enormous as the previous, but Rufus still liked a small sense of luxury - and keeping a staff of doctors on hand was one of those luxuries the Turks were ever grateful for.
Days passed and Zack didn't wake up. The prognosis was still good - he was breathing on his own, and his brain showed signs of functioning normally. But he still didn't wake, and Reno was becoming worse and worse to deal with. He'd start fights, he was overly sensitive to nearly everything, and more importantly, he was distracted on his missions. Which is why Tseng finally threw up his hands and pointed to the healing wing after three days of this. "Go, Reno. You're a mess. Go see them, get fixed up, and STAY THERE till he's awake." Reno didn't have to question an order like that.
He ran down the hall, turning sharply into the immaculately kept wing of the building, flagging down one of the physicians. "Boss says to check me over, then let me stick by Zack." The doctor rolled his eyes at the demand - Reno was likely as healthy as a chocobo (and as hyper as one) - but did as requested before leading him into the room the comatose man was resting in. "He won't wake up, but he responds a bit when he hears others around him." Reno grinned.
"Then I'll just have to talk to him, won't I?"
Hours later, Reno's voice was practically gone. He'd been speaking almost non-stop, telling Zack about all that had happened with ShinRa, with Meteor... how much he'd missed him. He'd recited quotes out of childrens' books, sang nursery rhymes, and even some more lewd couplets that could make Cid blush. Still, no reaction. He continued, reading out of some magazine... till all that would come out of his mouth was a whisper. It was only then that a large, caramel-colored hand rested on his shoulder.
"Reno... let me." It was Rude. Always there by his side, always when he needed him. It really was a wonder that their attempt at a relationship didn't work out. They were practically married, to be honest - just that there was no romance to it. No passion. And they both wanted that in a lover, and couldn't get it in each other. Sad, really. But the smile Reno flashed Rude was grateful, and he scooted over to allow Rude room for his own chair. Then he passed the magazine over and pointed to the sentence he'd left off on. Rude chuckled, then began reading.
Unlike Reno's voice, Rude's had a smoothness to it. A syrupy flow that could lull a person to sleep if they weren't careful. Naturally, Reno was out and asleep in less than a half-hour, pitched forward onto Zack's bed, his head sharing the dark-haired man's pillow. He'd hurt for it later - that position couldn't be good for the back. And so it was that his back -did- give a sharp spasm when a warm hand shook him awake a few hours later.
"Reno... Reno, wake up."
"Nnnngh... dunwanna. Five more minutes." Two voices let out soft laughter.
"Reno... come on, baby, open your eyes for me," the original voice encouraged.
Ba... what? Blue eyes snapped open to find a familiar pair of mako-infused blue staring at him, framed by shaggy, spiky black.
"Zack!" he surged forward, arms wrapping tightly around his chest, knocking him back onto the pillow again. A chuckle left Zack's throat as he caught his redhead up, stroking a hand along the long, red ponytail.
"This is new..." he commented, giving it a playful tug. "I like it."
Reno blushed, then smacked Zack's arm. "You ass! You didn't trust me! You didn't... We could have found you... would have saved you. Tseng gave us orders to bring you in alive!" he growled. "Even if I had orders to kill you... you know I couldn't..."
Rude's eyes went wide at that, then gestured to the redhead clinging to Zack's form. "He missed you," was all he said. He supposed that were he in Reno's shoes, he'd probably feel the same.
Zack seemed both confused and chastized. Rude had filled him in once he woke, but...
One look at the man that now was tucked against his chest and *crying* proved that no matter what Rude had said, it didn't begin to express the depth of what had happened.
"I won't doubt you again," he murmured, stroking along that new and interesting tail of red Reno had grown in the past eight years. It really was nice.
"Better not," was the muffled, sniffled reply mumbled against his chest. Zack laughed again, then gently pushed back on Reno's shoulders.
"Come on, Red, let me see those pretty eyes of yours again," he pleaded with the Turk, who did manage to allow himself to be held back a little. His eyes were a little red along the edges, his nose was a tad rosy too. But this was his Reno. "There..." he smiled, "much better. Now... Rude filled me in a little bit. Sephiroth went nuts... Spikey wiped the floor with him.... bigass rock squashed most of Midgar... Three crazy brothers attempted to do something similar... Some whackjob Weapon called Omega nearly wiped us out..." Reno nodded a little, a few cracks of laughter escaping his lips. Zack always was good at getting him to cheer up. "And apparently, I'm not 'me'... but I am... but I'm not." Reno sniffled, then tightened his arms around Zack once more, nuzzling into his neck.
"You're 'you' enough for me." Rude snickered a little at that, then pushed away from the wall he'd been leaning against.
"Zack's been checked out while you were sleeping. We didn't want to wake you, since you've been a wreck the past week or so. But now that you're awake, you're welcome to take Zack home with you. Just keep in mind that this is all going to take some adjusting - take it slow, don't rush it all. A lot has changed in the past four or five years. The last thing we need is Zack getting shell-shock." Reno nodded again, then leaned back again and settled in his chair.
"Will do, Partner. Yo, can you tell Tseng I said 'thanks'? And I'll be reporting for duty bright and early tomorrow morning." Rude hid a smile and nodded.
Once the bald man had left, Reno stood and offered a hand to Zack, pulling off the bed and to his feet. He hadn't even noticed that the former SOLDIER was fully dressed until now - a pair of jeans and a soft grey tee shirt hugged his body nicely, and Reno let his fingers trail over the fabric. "I... I wanted to find you so badly... wanted to tell you everything. But you and Strife hid too well," he murmured, letting those touches lift up and sift through those wild spikes of hair. "I saw you... after the ShinRa Army caught up with you..." he shuddered, then clutched a little tighter to his reborn lover, who held onto Reno in return. "I thought a part of me had died that day. Nothing felt the same anymore. And now you're here and.."
Zack silenced the babbling Reno with a swift, confident kiss and the Turk froze for just a second before leaning into it, melting against the swordsman with a happy moan. He'd missed that so very much.
When Zack finally pulled away enough to speak, he ran a steadying hand through Reno's fiery hair, then grinned in that way that left Reno giddy and breathless.
"Let's go home, Red."
[fin]
AN: No, I will not continue this. I'm good at one-shots with Final Fantasy, but I don't think I could ever put together a multi-chapter story for it - please don't ask. BUT I welcome any and all reviews! Seriously. Any reviews at all.