I asked for some FFVII fanfic prompts on my Tumblr the other day, and my friend Mana suggested 'Reno and Cloud find themselves trapped in an elevator, and have a surprising heart to heart when Reno admits to being claustrophobic.'

It's not very polished, but it's been so long since I finished The Answer I thought it was about time I posted something.

'Aw, shit.'

The elevator stopped with a clunk, floor bouncing for a moment. Cloud shifted his feet and managed not to lose his balance. His helmet slipped down his face. As he shifted it back up, the lights flickered.

'You're fucking kidding me.'

Cloud pressed his lips together, fairly certain that the Turk didn't want him to reply. But then Reno looked at him, and said,

'Is this your floor, yo?'

Cloud swallowed. 'No, sir.'

'Fuck,' Reno said. He seemed to be thinking for a moment. 'Fuck.'

The doors didn't open. Pushing himself further back into the corner of the grey box and trying to inconspicuously tighten his grip on his standard-issue gun, Cloud said, 'Is something wrong, sir?'

Reno looked at him like he was dense. 'The damn elevator's broken. We're stuck.'

His voice rose a few notes in pitch on that last sentence.

Zack had told Cloud to be careful what he said around the Turks, but then again Zack was friends with Reno. Or at least, they went out drinking together a lot and seemed to have a friendly competition going on whether their inebriated antics would drive Sephiroth or Tseng to homicide first. Cloud shifted his weight a little.

'Fuck, yo, don't do that!'

'Sir?'

Reno looked faintly green. It clashed with his hair. 'You're making the floor move.'

'Oh.' Cloud evened his weight over both of his feet. 'Sorry, sir.'

'You're damn right—' Reno took a step towards him and then, as the floor trembled ever so slightly, lurched for the bar at the back of the elevator. 'Fuck!'

'Sir, are you okay?'

Reno ignored him in favour of talking to the security camera. 'Rude, did you do this? Is it because of that thing with the socks? I didn't know they were yours.'

His voice was mostly level, but under his buttoned-down shirt Cloud could see Reno's chest rapidly rising and falling, and that his knuckles were white from gripping the bar behind him.

'Rude, let me out! I'm sorry yo, I'll buy you new ones! With my own credit card this time!'

The elevator lurched again. Reno yelped and the lights flickered.

'RUDE YOU COCKSUCKING SON OF A WUTAINESE WHORE!' Reno let go of the bar long enough to launch himself forward and land a kick on the elevator doors. The whole elevator rattled, and swayed, and Reno collapsed in a heap on the linoleum floor.

'Sir?' Cloud took a tiny step closer to him. Reno moaned and kept his head buried under his arms.

'I didn't sign up to get shut in a fucking elevator. I signed up to shoot people and get away with credit card fraud and grope the SOLDIERs when they weren't looking.'

'Um,' Cloud knelt and extended his hand, very carefully patting Reno on the shoulder with the tips of his fingers. He had gloves on; he was sure he wouldn't catch anything. 'There, there.'

It was seven more minutes before the elevator started moving again, and then approximately seven seconds before Reno was on his feet, straightening his suit jacket and tousling his hair around his goggles.

Cloud, startled by the red flash that had been Reno suddenly reassuming his mask of Turk indifference, stood up more slowly. Reeling slightly, Cloud said, 'You still have some sweat on your—'

Reno wiped his sleeve over his forehead just as the doors dinged open. He alighted, paused to look at the floor number, and deliberately turned and started walking up the stairs.

Cloud pushed the button for his floor, and only realised a day later that his credit card was missing. He wondered if there were any Turks at the base in Junon.