Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy or anything created by SqureEnix, this is just for fun.
Warnings: Violence, really bad language, and Reno.
A/N: So if you've read anything else I've written and posted on this site, this story is completely separate and very different. I wanted to try to write something that had no romance and a little bit of a darker twist.
Things start taking place during the Before Crisis story line and continue through to Advent Children. I didn't adhere strictly to everything in BC, mostly because I've never played the game, but I did my best with Wikipedia etc. Also, I ignored the stories from On the Way to a Smile, mostly because I found that they didn't really fit in with the story I wanted to write and this is fanfiction, so I'm allowed to do that.
Also, I didn't list this as a crossover, because it really isn't. This story is very Reno-centric and focused on the world of FFVII. Axel is present as Reno's brother, but I mostly used him as a plot device to develop Reno's character.
Anyway, I hope you like it!
The pubs in Midgar were no longer smoky, providing a comfortable haze and adding a certain atmosphere. Some bullshit about health and fire hazards and cancer or something.
That didn't stop a certain patron from lighting up at the bar, ashing his cigarette into the bowl of peanuts that probably contained more STDs than the whores hanging around outside. The music was loud enough that the surrounding conversations were dulled, but not too loud to make him want to kill something, which was good. One more off duty murder and Tseng might actually punish him.
But just because nobody was going to die tonight didn't mean that the fucking schedule was going to be changed. There was an order to things, there was a certain way that everything was done and he wasn't OCD, he didn't have some fucking anxiety disorder, this was just the way the godsdamned planet worked, and fuck whoever thought otherwise.
It always started out the same, and ended with the same punch line.
Two Turks walk into a bar.
Ha, fucking, ha.
Rude always came with him for the beginning of the night, had a couple beers, nodded along, actually listened to his rants (gods, he loved his partner). Then Rude would get bored or tired or find something soft that he wanted to take home and fuck through the wall. So Baldy would leave, and the other Turk would switch from beer to whiskey and start scoping out targets.
Who was he going to fuck, and which unfortunate bastard was he going to fight?
Then came the cigarettes, between two and three, because this was the amount of time it took to catch the eye of something he found aesthetically pleasing, and wished to introduce to the alley out back and all the fun activities they could participate in there, and also scout out the sucker that was getting his ass kicked into the next century.
That night it took two and a half cigarettes, and he was starting to get concerned he might need a fourth, when an overweight, sweaty, waste-of-skin, moron knocked over his drink.
Bingo.
Forty-five minutes later, dumb-ass was crumpled out front. Maybe someone would call an ambulance, but in this city probably not.
The Turk adjusted his pants back on his hips, the sweet-but not so sweet-blonde-pretty-little-thing was leaning against the brick building, her skirt askew and her panties caught around her ankle.
"Thanks, yo. I won't be calling." The Turk completed his ritual lighting his last cigarette for the night and strolling away, vaguely in the direction of his apartment.
Stars were lost in the light pollution, the faint sound of trains and cars and reactors echoing through the Midgar night. Under the greenish light of the street lamps, bright red hair glowed eerily in the dark, and the figure stopped to take one last drag before tossing the stub to the ground. The light cast shadows across the angular face, everything sharp and dangerous, the wrinkled and messy blue suit hanging off of the deceptively gangly frame.
Reno tossed his head back, loving the chaos and the reek of mako that surrounded him.
In this poisonous city, he was just another parasite, contributing to the disease.