Chapter 6

Rufus awoke the next morning feeling as if he was being watched, he carefully opened his eyes only to gazed directly into a pair of lucent green eyes inches from his face. He guessed by the even brighter red hair who's child this was, and slowly pushed the boy away from his face. Rufus sat up and rubbed his eyes, then went back to looking at the grinning child.

"What?" he asked lazily.

"I'm Reno, I'll be spending today with you!" he beamed.

"Says who?"

"My father, he said that you could use a friend."

Rufus ignored him as he got dressed and did his hair, he guessed something like this was bound to happen as yesterday was to good of a day, something had to go wrong today. He walked out of the room with Reno following behind, he needed to have a talk with Rhett. Any child with even half of his energy was bound to be more than a handful. After minutes of, according to several guards and secretaries, missing him by mere seconds managed to corner him in the cafeteria.

He pointed at the temporarily distracted Reno, "What is this and why is it following me?"

"You know who he is, I figured he could keep you busy today, maybe lighten your mood a little," Rhett sputtered out as he chewed his sandwich.

Rufus raised an eyebrow looking back at Reno, "You can't possibly mean he is baby sitting me."

"Kinda, I mean he's a bit young but he can defiantly hold his own, I'm suppose to be watching you, but I've got other plans."

"Your leaving me to your child?! I'm not six I can watch myself, much better than he can."

Rhett stood up and started walking out of the cafeteria, "Give him a test run I'm sure you'll be in for quite the surprise."

Rufus grinned looking at Reno, "Test run huh."

Rufus guided him down to the Training Facility where some guards were training. Rufus looked over at Reno who was looking around curiously.

"I want to see what you are capable of, Reno." he walked over to a resting guard.

Reno looked at the guard, "You want me to fight him? I don't want to embarrass him in front of all these people."

"Your pretty smug, but he's gone through years of extensive training. Don't think that you can just squeeze your way out of this with tough talk."

Reno smirked and shrugged, his face remaining calm as he approached the guard. Rufus stepped to the side and leaned up against the wall. After a few sarcastic comments from both, they began to fight. At first it seemed clear that the guard would win, however the tides quickly changed and Reno made a complete idiot out of him. Shortly there after Reno had exhausted the man and had knocked him out, how he stood over him gloating his victory. Rufus shook his head and sighed.

"See? I can handle anything." he walked back over by Rufus.

Rufus slowly walked out of the room and down the hall, wondering what to do with him. He didn't want to be followed the entire day. He walked into the elevator and looked at Reno.

"What am I going to do with you?"

Reno looked at him innocently, "Why do you hate me?"

Rufus sighed and leaned on the elevator wall looking at the ceiling, "I don't hate you. I'm just...not used to people. Your just following me around because your father told you to, you don't have to."

Reno looked at the floor, "I'm not doing this because I have to I do this because I want to," he inched a little closer toward him, "Listen, I don't know what all you've went through, but I can imagine it's been a lot. I know that the president's not as good as he makes himself look. I just want you to know that I'll be on your side, no matter what...so what'cha say...friends?"

Rufus looked over at him with an eyebrow raised he smirked and lightly shoulder him away, "Don't get all sentimental on me."

"There's a lot more to me that what you see. Come on friends?"

Rufus shook his head, "Your not going to give up on this are you?"

"No I'm no..."

Luckily before Rufus had to show anymore emotion that he wanted to the elevator door opened and another kid sat there. Before he could question who he was Reno butted in and jumped in front of him.

"Rude! Long time no see!" he grabbed him by the arm and drug him in, "How was your vacation? How's your mom? Did you bring me anything?"

"I take it you know him?" Rufus looked at them.

"Oh yeah this is my best friend Rude, he doesn't talk much he's more of a listener. He was on vacation in Costa Del Sol with his mom."

"I...see...well hello Rude" Rufus shook Rude's hand.

Rude merely nodded and let Reno continue to rattle on about different things. Eventually the ended up back down in the Training Facility only this time it was Reno and Rude doing the fighting. Rufus enjoyed watching them beat up on each other.

The sun was setting on Midgar and Rufus, Reno and Rude were all on the roof watching it fall. Rufus contemplated the day wondering how today was, he wasn't entirely sure what to think. Somehow, he still felt empty, depressed, and alone. Reno and Rude looked over at him with slight concern on their faces, along with bumps and bruises. In the end it was a tie and they ended up knocking themselves out and Rufus had to pull them to the infirmary to get patched up.

"Life is full of challenges it takes a lot of patience, willpower, and strength to survive. If you give up now your just a weak and pathetic soul. Is that they way you want people to remember you?" Rude leaned on his knee still looking at Rufus.

Rufus looked over at him, "No I don't, but I'm still alive am I not? Don't think that I haven't tried. That I'm still trying, it's just..."

Reno smiled, "Don't worry we'll be here for you! Just incase you do anything stupid!"

Rufus smiled, "I'll make sure of that, I'll make sure that you two get jobs here when your older."

Reno got wide eyed, "You can do that?"

"I can do anything, I'll just take time. Think of this as a token of my friendship."

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Afternote: Sorry I took to long, life's been squirting lemon juice in my eyes. No I'm not gonna go all depressive on you. I can say that I really didn't care for this chapter. I'm sure there are errors, lots of error's and I'll proof all over it later. The next chapter will be taking a time jump foreward. A fairly big jump but just the same I hope that you'll enjoy it. I love reviews so keep 'em comin'! Let's hope I get them out faster -smacks self-