The night had started out badly: Reno had got that look in his eyes, his fingers had started twitching, and then he had suggested they go out. He'd grown incoherent somewhere along the way. And now--Rude wondered what was so urgent that Tseng wanted them back immediately. What he said was, "All right." Then he put the cell phone away and frowned at the alcove into which his partner had vanished (with a girl and another bottle of beer) fifteen minutes ago. Reno had, as usual, given up on getting Rude drunk in favor of getting massively drunk himself, and then had staggered off. The past three hours had been consumed with following the brash redhead and making sure he wasn't getting himself killed. There had been a few near misses down the street where someone was selling something. Rude would have to make sure Reno hadn't bought anything too illegal before they got back.

There was no hope for it. Time was passing and Reno had not appeared. Rude sighed and went in to extract his partner. He got him out of the building, and then had to stop while Reno threw up in an alley.

He didn't usually feel obliged to comment on Reno's lifestyle, but tonight it had become an inconvenience. "Even know her name?" he asked brusquely.

"Wha?"

"You remember to use protection?" Not a question he would normally ask, but Reno had looked completely out of his head going in there.

"Had barrier materia," Reno slurred, holding up his arm so the sleeve fell down to reveal the glowing orb embedded in his arm.

So that was what Reno had bought from the dealer. Rude took off his sunglasses and looked away, marveling at his partner's drunken idiocy. "Reno, barrier materia isn't birth control."

"Wh' not?" Reno squinted at him. "Issa barrier. Barrier, protection…" he waved his hands in vaguely obscene gestures to demonstrate.

Rude put the glasses back on and grabbed Reno's arm to pull him down the street. "Barrier materia works against harm, as in someone trying to hit you or use other materia. It is not a prophylactic."

"Wha? But then… then…" Reno staggered along, jaw hanging. "What if? If I… I mean, shit!" His eyes widened and he tried to stop.

Rude pulled harder. "Just get checked out at the clinic. She's probably using something else." That sort usually did; they couldn't afford to get pregnant.

He managed to get Reno back to the Shinra HQ, despite the red-head's drunken panic. He didn't see the problem. Probably nothing would happen. Reno was only worrying because he was too drunk to know better. Rude would have thought that the man who pushed the button to bring down the plate on Sector Seven wouldn't quibble over minor details.

Tseng looked up when Rude dragged the still-protesting Reno in. He raised an eyebrow.

"He's afraid he got some girl pregnant."

The second eyebrow joined the first.

"He used barrier materia. For protection."

Tseng sighed, "Only Reno."

Rude grunted in agreement.