Runo and Elidae - a study in partnerships
I do not own Runo's parents or Elidae's parents. Rufus, Reno, Rude, and Elena (as well as the brief mention of Hojo) all belong to Squeenix
I don't own Elidae either, he belongs to my RP buddy, who also RPs Rude and Elena.
I was going to link an image here, but I can't. go to my Bio for a link to see what Runo and Elidae look like
This is not the Runo from "You gotta be shittin' me!" - I have like, 3 versions of Runo.
Runo rolled to the side, barely missing the slashing blow of her opponent's sword. Coming up behind the wielder, she shot him in the base of the skull, killing him instantly. She had cuts cris-crossing her arms and one eye was obscured by the blood running from a cut near her hairline. The bruises on her body made her look like some sort of leopard woman, and a couple of her fingers on her left hand were broken. She limped over to her partner, grinning widely and ignoring the deep slash on her leg. She gave him the thumbs up as he sighed and cast cure on her.
It was really starting to wear thin on him. Every mission they went on, it felt like he was babysitting her. She needed a good talking to about it, and this time he was not going to let his attraction to her stand in his way. Every cut she had, every bruise, his heart had stopped for just a second as he wondered if it was going to be the final blow that killed her. If it kept on, he would end up having a heart attack at his all too young seventeen years of age, and dying.
The ride back to the new ShinRa building passed in silence. This wasn't unusual, Elidae rarely talked immediately before, during, or after a mission anyways. He took after his father in that way. He also had his dad's darker skin tone, bulkier build, and knack for harder hits than the average person. However, he did get the lighter hair color, smoother hair texture, and lighter eye color from his mother. It was rare to see his green eyes though, as he always had the dark yellow-lensed sunglasses that his partner had given him on at all times. A small silver charm in the shape of his partner's gun dangled from the right temple piece, right at the corner of the lenses.
Runo was just about to go into her office, an offshoot of the lounge they shared, Elidae finally opened his mouth.
"Hey, Ru. Gotta moment?" he asked.
"Sure, Elli. 'Sup?" she asked, following him out to the hallway, smiling and brushing her strawberry blonde hair out of her eyes.
"What the fuck was your problem?! You gotta deathwish or somethin'?!" he yelled at her, anger written all over his face.
"The fuck?" she asked, taken aback by the venom in his voice.
"Our last mission! You almost got your ass fucking killed!!"
"But I didn't, did I? I'm still here." she was starting to worry now; Elidae had never gone off on her like this.
"Still! You still coulda gotten yourself KILLED. I'm not always here to bail you out like I do!"
"The hell are you talking about? We're partners. We work together, whaddya mean you're not always here? You ain't making any sense, Elli"
"There's such things as Solo missions and the fact I'm not always 10 fucking feet away from you at all times!" He kept trying to hide the fact that he'd been worried about her, holding that anger to him, keeping him yelling.
"I'm not helpless, Elli, I can handle, and I know what I'm doing!" now she was starting to get angry; how dare he treat her like she's helpless?
"Sure you do! And that's why you rely on me 24/7 so you can keep on with your suicidal tendencies"
"I'm not trying to get myself fucking killed out there! I know what kind of chances I can take, and yeah, I push 'em sometimes, but I ain't suifuckingcidal!"
"You sure act like it! Fuck! I can't have a second of peace without you frying my nerves freaking me out like that constantly!" He'd slipped up a little there, but thankfully, Runo hadn't noticed.
"Fucking hell, Elidae, you're acting like a fucking overprotective mom on me all of a sudden! What the fuck is up with you?!" Now Runo was really mad, she rarely called him by his full name, preferring to call him Elli, her nickname for him.
"What the fuck is up with me?! Fuck, Runo. I don't know! Maybe its cuz my partner likes to take a dive in an exploding reactor for the thrill!!" his voice dropped to a bitter tone as he added "I swear. I resent calling you partner at times."
Runo swallowed deeply and stared in shock for a moment. She could handle anything, as long as Elidae was there with her, or she could find him afterwards. Hearing that last statement started fracturing her mentality, and her heart. This was her partner, telling her that he didn't like working with her.
"You're lying . . . that's a fucking lie and you know it . . ." even she could hear the shakiness in her voice.
Elidae didn't answer, just looked to the side.
"Tell me you're fucking lying, Elidae! Goddamn it, TELL ME YOU'RE LYING!" desperation tinged her voice as parts of her fractured further; any more of this, and she would break.
"...I'm going..." he said, taking off his sunglasses and throwing them at her feet "seeyah...Shinra..." he started walking away.
Runo fell to her knees, picking up the shades that she'd spent so much time picking out. They'd had to be perfect, and the charm was supposed to be a good luck charm for him. She didn't fully grasp that he'd left her until she looked at them, confirming the worst to her mind. Her eyes started overflowing, and she wailed loudly, the sound echoing through the hall, and stabbing through Elidae like daggers.
"Elli . . . Elli, come back . . ." it was deafening to her, but to anyone else, it was a mere whisper.
Steeling his heart from the wrenching pain, Elidae continued walking down the hallway, trying to ignore the cries.
"Elidae!" Runo wailed one more time, fists tightening around the sunglasses hard enough to leave marks.
By this time, he'd turned the corner and disappeared. Runo fell into a heap on the ground, curling into a fetal position, still gripping the sunglasses as though it were her only lifeline to reality. Elena was walking down the hallways as she heard the sobs.
"Come back . . . please . . . just come back . . ." Runo was repeating in a whisper when the blonde found her.
"Runo!" Elena ran over to the teenager, concerned as to why she'd be crying in the hallway. "What happened...?" she asked, pulling her up to a sitting position.
"I . . . Elli . . . gone . . ." the teen gasped out between body-shaking sobs, followed by loud wails of anguish.
"Let's get you somewhere where you can calm down." the blonde said as she picked up the girl and carried her off to the apartment she shared with her husband, Rude.
Being carried seemed to have a somewhat calming effect on Runo, as her shaking had gone down to a constant tremble. She was still sobbing and muttering nonsense syllables though. Inside the apartment, Elena set the girl down on the couch, in a seated position.
"Now stay right here while I go get something for us to drink." She said, going into the kitchen.
The shaken girl couldn't say anything, just nodded. She'd about cried herself dry, and could use something to drink, preferably something with liquor in it to calm her some more. She looked up when the elder Turk returned, two large mugs in hand.
"Drink it; it's got scotch in it." She said, handing her one.
Runo nodded once more, and started sipping at the spiked tea.
"What happened with Elli?" his mother asked, knowing it had to be something serious, to get his partner so worked up.
Aqua eyes shot open at the name, and she started sobbing again, loudly. This startled the other Turk, and she reached over to hug the crying girl.
"Runo! What happened? You've got to tell me." She'd never seen the girl this upset before, it must've been something big.
"h-h-he LEFT ME!!" she stuttered out, before crying even louder.
"What? What do you mean? . . . wait...those are the sunglasses you...you had a fight...didn't you...and it didn't end well." The only response she got was a furious nodding of the head.
"Oh dear...do you want to get to your father?" she'd learned that you had to differentiate between the two parents of the girl, as they were both male.
"I-I dunno . . . I . . . I . . ." she broke off into sobs again, unable to continue.
Elena just sighed and helped the girl to her feet. She may love the girl like a daughter, but she wasn't her child. Helping the girl walk down the hallways, she pulled out her cellphone and called up the girl's father.
"Rufus?" she said as she heard the line pick up.
"What happened?" it had to be serious if his subordinates used his name instead of 'sir'.
"...Runo needs you, that's all I'm saying." She sighed into the phone.
"Right," he covered the mouthpiece of the phone as he addressed the executives in his office "Meeting's over, everyone out!" the employees scattered, knowing that when Rufus Shinra took that tone of voice, you had better listen.
"Yeah. We'll be up in a min..." Elena said, ending the call.
As the office door opened again, the Turk leading his daughter in, Rufus rushed over to the girl, all professionalism gone. He'd allowed Hojo to construct a womb for her inside himself, and he carried her to term, so it was understandable that he'd want to protect the girl.
"Thanks, Elena, I've got her." He said, hugging Runo to him. Elena nodded.
"And to help with explanation...look what's in her hands." Rufus pulled away just enough to look at the girl's white-knuckled grip.
"Ah, I think I understand." He knew not to mention the owner of the sunglasses, it was one of Runo's quirks; even if she seemed calm, you never wanted to mention what had made her upset in the first place, or she'd just start all over again.
"...yes." the other blonde replied.
"Where was she found?" he asked, knowing that he couldn't ask Runo what happened, but having security cameras everywhere helped immensely in these situations.
"In the hallway in front of their office." She replied, some of the training bringing her back to a more businesslike tone. The president nodded briefly.
"I'll get the details from the cameras, better to not stress Runo any more than need be." His tone followed suit, unconsciously.
"Yes...any mention of...him...causes her to break down."
"I figured. She's been like that for a while. If something upsets her this bad, you don't mention what upset her, you'll get nowhere." Elena nodded at this.
"Anything I should do, Rufus?" even if their tone was more controlled, there was still a problem, and thus calling him 'sir' had been tossed aside.
"Tell Reno to come up here the second he gets back, and make sure he knows how urgent it is." He told her, still comforting his daughter.
"I'm on it." She didn't even move from where she was standing as she pulled her phone out again.
"Yello?" the redhead answered after a few rings.
"Reno. How far are you from here?" her responses were clipped, wanting to impart the importance of the conversation.
"Ten minutes, en route. Why?" his brow furrowing.
"Minute you get back; you come to Rufus' office."
"What's up?" he asked, grip tightening on the steering wheel.
"Runo's broken." She stated bluntly, after looking at the girl's blonde father for confirmation.
". . . FUCK. Make that two minutes." He pressed on the gas, speeding and weaving through traffic, his partner and Elena's husband looking at him oddly.
"Just don't kill anyone." Elena warned
"I won't. Not until I know why she's broken, and who broke her." The anger was showing in his voice; how dare someone hurt his daughter?
"Can't say who without her breaking down...but you'll know when you see her." The blonde informed him before hanging up.
"Less than 2 minutes." She informed her boss.
"He's speeding, isn't he?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"I'm not surprised." He added, setting his daughter on the white couch in his office.
"Neither am I...how is she?"
"It seems she's gone into some sort of trancelike state. She's not crying, but nor is she speaking, moving, or doing much of anything but staring straight ahead and still clutching the sunglasses with that death grip of hers."
"...dammit."
"I don't think it's very healthy for her to be like this." He said, shaking his head in dismay.
"Frankly...I'm starting to worry about..." she started.
"If you want to go check on him, feel free, I'm sure Reno will be here any . . ." he was interrupted as the door slammed open, one very angry redhead on the other side ". . . second." He finished flatly.
"Hey Reno." The female Turk said, turning to look at him.
"What happened? Who did it? Where's my Runie?" Reno had taken on the role of overprotective father ever since Rufus had started showing, and any time his little girl got hurt, he got pissed.
"Look at what she's holding..." Elena said, answering the second question.
"She's right here, Reno. She's . . . gone blank." Rufus answered the other questions as Reno loped over to the couch.
Seeing the sunglasses that he'd helped her pick out, he started to growl out the boy's name, only to have his husband's hand slapped over his mouth.
"Reno, you know not to do that." The blonde male reminded him.
"I won't kill him, because he's yours, but he is not getting away with this unharmed, 'Laney." Reno always talked far more coherently when he was pissed.
"I know..." she started "he needs it."
"I can either go now, or wait for you to find him. I can't guarantee I'll wait long." As much as he loved his daughter, Reno still valued his friends and coworkers.
"I think I'll try to find him first...gimme an hour before you go on your man-hunt. Your daughter still needs you."
The redhead nodded once, all of the anger and fury in his eyes washing away as if it had never been there as he turned back to his daughter.
"One hour, then he's mine." He said just loud enough for her to hear.
The blonde woman nodded, then dashed out of the office to find her son, and the cause of all this trouble. As she ran off, Rufus pulled up the various video feeds from the security cameras.
"Shall we get the details, Ren-kun?"
"Yeah." Reno sighed as he left his daughter sitting on the couch, so much like a porcelain doll, staring without blinking.
As they watched the argument unfold, the redhead became angrier by the minute.
"Dammit, he saw when she started to crack, I KNOW he knows that look." His fists were alternately clenching and loosening, fighting the urge to punch something.
"Ren-kun, you gave her an hour, let her try to get something done." Rufus gently reminded his fiery husband.
"He will still pay for what he did to Runie."
"I know."
Waiting on the clock, Reno sat with his daughter again, trying to get some sort of response out of her that wouldn't upset her.
"Hour's up. Where is he?" the Turk stood as soon as the clock read an hour since Elena had left the office.
"Third floor, that one office we use for storage." Rufus told him, checking the security feeds.
Reno stormed off down the hall, fire burning in his eyes as he took the stairs down to the third floor. Thankfully, this building wasn't nearly as tall as the one that had been blown up by Diamond Weapon. Eight story buildings weren't nearly as conspicuous as the 70-story monster that he'd had to climb to get to work.
Elidae was sitting on a box in the third floor storage office, his tie loosened and his jacket missing. He had his head in his hands, already regretting the things he said to Runo. He'd really screwed it up this time, and he wouldn't blame her if she never forgave him. He'd been mentally beating himself up when the door slammed open.
"Elidae . . . you seriously fucked up this time. You can fuck with anyone else, but you don't fuck with my daughter." Reno growled as he strode forth and pulled the boy up by his shirtfront.
It didn't even register to Reno's anger filled mind that the boy had looked away in sorrow and shame when he backhanded him.
"You had to know you'd pay for this." The redhead continued, holding the teen at arm's length before punching him squarely in the face.
"...I know." Elidae whispered, already hating himself.
"Don't even fucking talk to me. My little girl isn't even MOVING because of you. All she does is stare blankly straight ahead!" the older man yelled, dropping his target to the floor and kicking him in the gut.
The dark-skinned teen said not a word, didn't even grunt in pain as Reno kneeled down and punched him some more.
"She's fucking BROKEN because of what you said to her. What you DID to her." He yelled some more, pulling him up by his oddly silky, straight hair and backhanding him again.
"You should be fucking GRATEFUL she's your partner. She's the best thing that ever happened to me, and you WRECKED her!" he ranted some more as he threw the boy against the wall.
As the redhead slammed him against the wall again, tears started to form in Elidae's eyes. Not from physical pain, but from the heartbreak that he was being dealt, learning what his fight with Runo had done to her. He didn't look up though; he was too deep in his depression to do so. Reno grabbed him by the throat and slid him up the wall, looking him in the face.
"You crying? Better be for her, cuz if you're crying for yourself, you're the most selfish bastard that I'd have the shame to know." Reno let the boy drop to the floor. "You stay the fuck away from my little girl. I ever catch you doing this shit again, it won't matter that you're my best friend's kid, you won't survive the night." He kicked him once more, for good measure, before walking out the door, slamming it after him.
Elidae continued his silent crying, slamming the back of his head against the wall, punishing himself even more.
"It's always been for her...always..." he whispered, covering his face with his hand and sobbing softly.
Reno walked back into his husband's office, where Elidae's parents and Rufus were waiting. Runo hadn't moved yet, and hadn't even noticed he'd left. The redhead hadn't registered that his knuckles had been cut open on the kid's face, nor that he had one of the safety pins that Elidae often pierced himself with sticking out of his right hand.
"The kid is on the third floor. Empty office. I wouldn't suggest curing him, he needs to hurt for a while for what he did." He told them quietly.
"Is that a safety pin in your hand?" his partner asked him, just loud enough that Runo would have heard.
"Huh, guess it is." Reno said, looking at his hand, then pulling it out and dropping it into the trash can.
"Dad? What did you do?" Runo asked hoarsely, barely above a whisper.
"You probably ripped out a piercing." Rude replied to the redhead's actions.
"That'd hurt him." He then did a double take as he registered that Runo was looking at him. "Runie? Are you ok?" he ran over to her.
"Runo..." Rude and Elena murmured at the same time, the taller dark man putting a hand on his wife's shoulder.
"What . . . did you do, dad?" Runo asked again, a hint of steel and ice demanding he tell her.
". . . I, uh, well . . . y'know . . ." he stuttered under the glare in his daughter's eyes.
"He beat the crap out of him." Her other father told her, nodding once at her hands, indicating who 'him' was.
"Oh shit." Rude muttered.
Runo slowly stood up, still looking at the sunglasses in her hands. Reno stood with her, as he'd knelt down to talk to her. Looking up, she pried one hand free from the sunglasses and punched her own father squarely in the face. Reno fell backwards, blood spurting from his nose, a shocked look on his face.
"FUCK YOU DAD!" she screamed at him before running out of the office.
"That went well..." Rude snorted sarcastically, rolling his eyes behind his sunglasses.
"But . . ." the man looked forlornly at the door his daughter just ran out of, holding his nose shut.
"She may be our little girl, but she is fifteen, Reno."
"Meaning?" he asked, confused.
"You really didn't notice, did you?" Rufus grinned, shaking his head.
"Obviously not." Rude smirked
"What am I missing here? And what ain't you tellin' me?" Reno said, getting to his feet.
"Rufus? You wanna spell it out for him?" Elena sighed.
"Spell? What? Someone tell me what the fuck is going on." Reno demanded, some of the old anger coming back.
"Runo loves Elidae, Reno. As pissed as you were on her behalf, you still kicked the ass of the guy she loves." The redhead's jaw dropped and he blinked a few times.
"I'm a fucking idiot, aren't I?"
"Yes, I suppose you are." The blonde man replied.
"Gee thanks, wifey." Reno retorted, getting only a smirk from his husband in response.
Elena rolled her eyes at the two before reminding them that the teens were missing.
"We need to find both of them..."
"Yeah, we really should. Or more, you guys should, I don't think either of 'em wants to see me right now." Reno bemoaned.
"Yeah..." she replied in a tone that said he was stating the obvious.
"So Reno stays here, we go look for them." Rufus sighed.
"Sounds good. Elidae wouldn't stay in the same place...we better try his room." Elena nodded.
"I get the feeling that Runo might try to go to the last place she knew he'd be. I'll check there first."
"Let's go." She said, nodding before running out the door with Rude at her heels.
Rufus headed for the elevators, pushing the down button for the third floor. As Rude and Elena reached their apartment in the building, the blonde grabbed her husband's arm.
"Rude. You look at our room...I'll check his."
"Yeah."
A/N: I 'borrowed' the concept of Reno calling Rufus 'wifey' from a fanfic on y!gallery that I really like. I just thought that for the pairing, it was wonderfully fitting, so I've been using it in my RPs (this fic was an RP before I ficced it)