"What a day." Rude said, stretching as he and Reno stepped out onto the sidewalk. It certainly had been a day, a long and boring one.
"Uh huh." Reno tried to reply in mid yawn. "Damn I am still tired." He rubbed his eyes as he said this. He had only gotten a couple of hours of sleep the previous night.
"You might have slept better if you didn't watch all of that horror crap before bed. If it keeps you up at night-"
"I wasn't scared of it. I was just restless, yo."
"You held on to me like you thought I was going to blow away last night. Don't give me that, 'I wasn't scared' nonsense. I know you better."
Reno shook his head and continued to walk. "Hey Rude. Do you mind if we make a quick stop before we head home?"
"What for?"
"I have someone that I want to introduce you to, yo. Please. I swear we won't be long." Reno asked, hoping that his partner would agree to go with him. He and Rude had been a couple for a month and he wanted his beloved to meet the family. Of course, the only family that he had was his younger sister, but it didn't matter. He was happy to be with Rude and today he felt like showing off his newly found happiness.
"I guess we could." Rude agreed, not entirely wanting to make an extra errand, due to his exhaustion from work, but it was very seldom that Reno asked for something like this. He didn't have many friends; at least not many that Rude wasn't also acquainted with. This might prove to be interesting.
Reno smiled and Rude followed him a few blocks in the opposite direction from their usual route home. This was a rather nice side of town, just about as nice as the apartment they lived in together. The streets were rather clear of litter, and the sidewalks weren't cracked. Most of the houses had a nice white color, with tiny lawns or flower patches in front of them, and cement walkways to the door. Reno stopped at one of these houses and walked up the way, motioning for Rude to follow. He knocked a couple of times and a female voice answered, asking who it was.
"Open up. It's your brother, yo." He said, giving Rude a smirk. The door opened and Rude caught sight of a beautiful young woman. She was young and petite, with pale skin and huge deep brown eyes. She had a thick, choppy style to her black hair and a pair of small, rectangular glasses with thick black frames on her face. Covering her small body she wore a pair of flared black jeans and hot pink maternity shirt, stretched over her swelling belly. She met her brother with a flawless smile and pulled him into a hug, making him hunch in order for her to reach him.
"Hey you! You haven't stopped by in a while." She said, before letting Reno go.
"Well, I have been busy, Panties." Her sibling replied.
"Don't call me Panties!" the young woman snapped, stomping the floor with her bare foot, toenails painted neon green. Rude could see she didn't mind too much, because her face still held a smile. Rude couldn't help but feel curious about this nickname and why Reno called her by it.
"I call her that because of something that happened when she was sixteen." Reno stated to his partner, as if reading his mind. "One weekend I was off work, me and her boyfriend at the time, now her husband, and her decided to go to see a movie. We got to the movie theater and we just got inside. Well, she was wearing this skirt, and she didn't notice it got closed in the door. So when she goes to take a step, the thing rips all the way off like it's made out of that breakaway shit. She stops dead in her tracks and is just standing there shocked in a pair of little frilly pink panties. Her boyfriend runs over like the speed of light and throws a jacket around her waist, and I'm on the floor about to piss myself."
Rude nodded in understanding as the Reno's sister blushed. He could see that she was embarrassed but not shocked. Reno didn't seem like he had ever been humiliated in his life, he just didn't care. Needless to say, he probably took no note to the embarrassment of others.
"Hey, who's your friend?" She asked, noticing the tall dark and mysterious man standing behind her brother.
"Oh yeah." Reno said, just remembering. "This is why I'm here. Della, this is Rude. Rude, this is my little sister, Della." Della nodded in Rude's direction, telling him that it was nice to meet him. Rude, not knowing what to say, simply said, "You too."
"Is he your work-buddy you talk about all the time, Reno?" Della asked, noticing that they were dressed very similar which made her put two and two together.
"Yep, that's him. But he's not just my partner at work, yo." Reno said, and when Della raised an eyebrow in question, Reno finished, smirking awkwardly and stroking through his hair. "He's my boyfriend."
"Oh…my…God! For real? You are actually settling down with someone?" Della squealed excitedly, clapping her brother on the shoulder. Reno looked at her in surprise at her easy acceptance.
"What, you're not grossed out?" Reno asked.
"Oh come on. What's gross about it? You never brought me up to think like that. Now that you mention it though, I'm not surprised. You sure know how to pick them though; he's a real cutie, Reno." Della said with another smile. She was genuinely happy, and that was a huge relief. Reno was not sure what he would have done if his sister that he dearly loved turned him away.
Down the hall, Rude noticed a little girl approaching. From the looks of her hair and her sleepy eyes, she had just woken up from a nap, and had a stuffed bunny clutched in one arm. Upon noticing her uncle standing in the front room, she quickly became excited, tossing her toy down and running down the hall as fast as her little legs would carry her.
"Reno!" she called out, leaping at her uncle, who crouched down and caught her, lifting the child into the air before holding her at his hip. She kissed his cheek and he tussled her hair, a huge smile crossing his face.
"Kiki! How are you, kid? Rude, this is my niece, Kiki. Sweetie, this is the guy that watches my back everyday. Say hi." Reno said, turning so that Kiki could face Rude.
"Hi!" Kiki chirped happily. Rude smiled and talked with the little girl for a while, learning that she was three years old and her favorite color was blue. She was a talkative and sweet little girl that looked almost identical to her mother. He spoke with Della for a time while enjoying the sight of Reno playing with Kiki on the floor of the living room. Della had told him that her husband had worked for Shinra too a time ago. His name was Koma and he used to be in SOLDIER. Now that New Shinra was rebuilding, he looked forward to getting his job back. He had been working as a chef in recent years. They exchanged interesting conversations until it was time to go. Reno got up and headed over to where Della and Rude were talking, now exhausted.
"We need to get going. It's getting late, yo." Reno said, affectionately rubbing Della's pregnant belly. "Hey, how far along are you again?" he asked.
"Six months, you goofball." Della replied, giving her brother a hug goodbye, followed by Kiki. Reno hugged her and said he would be back again later in the week for some visiting.
"Congratulations Reno. Nice meeting you, Rude."
"Bye bye!" Kiki yelled as they left.
----------------------------------------------------
"You seem to have a little bit if an extra spring in your step." Rude noted as they walked home. It was true. His lover looked happy, more so than usual.
"I like going to see the kid. Makes me wish that I had one of my own, yo." Reno replied.
"I didn't know you liked kids so much."
"I love kids. Kids are badass."
"What stopped you from having them before you got with me?" Rude asked. Reno was a very attractive man; he could probably get a number of women to want to be with him.
"Well, because none of the bitches or skanks I took out wanted kids."
"Reno, that's a little demeaning to women."
"No it's not. That's what all of the girls in my past were. I have never been with a real lady or anything. The girls would go on a couple of dates with me for free food or a one nighter or whatever, steal my shit when I was sleeping, and then they would never call again. You're my first committed relationship. I was used a hell of a lot back then, because girls like…let's say Tifa, were way out of my league. She's like a fuckin princess or something. I don't mean anything bad about all women at all, but I have never been with an honorable girl."
"I see."
"I used to be with Kiki almost every day from the day she was born back before Della got married. I'd work at night so that Della could finish school, since she got pregnant when she was 17. It was fun as hell just hanging out with the kid. The rumor going around the slums was that she was actually my kid and not Koma's, yo."
"She's not, right?" Rude asked hesitantly.
"Of course not. People just like to talk a lot of shit. Hell even I have a code of honor, and one of my rules is to not sleep with family members."
"But she's really just your step-sister, isn't she?"
"Yeah, she was my step-dad's daughter, but we lived as brother and sister for so long, I still see her just as close as blood."
"Why didn't her father watch her?"
"Because, when I found out that Koma got her pregnant, I had a word with Koma. I told him that if he was going to be a deadbeat and leave her, he was going to leave Earth, too. Naturally he told me he wouldn't, so I forced him to get a job to support Della and the baby. He chose to join SOLDIER with me. That's where I started out before Shinra scooped me into the Turks. Anyway, I didn't let her go live with him until he married my sister."
"Sounds like you were quite the father figure." Rude replied with a grin, looking over at Reno.
"I don't want to brag, but I think I did pretty well for only being a kid myself. I pushed her to go to school, and now she's got a man with a good career, a sweet kid, soon to be two, and she graduated from college with a degree in chemistry. She wants to apply as a Chemist at New Shinra after Kiki starts school, and the second kid starts preschool."
"Why didn't you ever tell me that you wanted kids?" Rude was curious. He had never seen this side of Reno before. He would have never guessed how good he was with children until that day.
"Because…we can't have kids together. I mean, we're both guys, ya dork. It would be wrong of me to go knock up some girl, because I'd have to cheat on you." Reno replied. He cared too much about Rude to do that to him. He had only been in love once in his life and he planned on keeping Rude as long as he could.
"Haven't you heard of Artificial Insemination?" Rude inquired, as the two of them turned the corner and stepped up the way into their home. Rude got the keys out of his pocket to unlock the front door.
"Artifici-what?" Reno asked, having not the foggiest idea as to what the older man was talking about. Man, what the hell is that? It sounds kinky, like getting it on with a toaster or something. That's stupid. How would that help? Maybe he means making a clone at Shinra, and that's not what I'm about.
"It's when doctors take a sperm sample from a man and surgically place the sperm into a woman's uterus without any sexual intercourse. The woman, or serrogant mother, is then pregnant and carries the baby until it's born, then gives it to the parent."
"What? You've got to be yanking me! They can actually do that, yo?"
"Yes, a lot of same-sex couples do it. I read about it in a book. Even straight people do it if the woman has a problem with her uterus and can't carry. They take one of her eggs and fertilize it with her husband's sperm and then put that into someone else. Lesbian couples buy sperm at a bank and put it into one of the two of themselves, too."
"You can sell sperm? Damn, if I'd have known that shit, I'd be rich as hell right now. I've just been washing a fortune down the shower drain…or the toilet."
Rude laughed. "You are too much, Reno."