By the time Blondie returned, the sun had begun its decent. That ever annoying orange ball in the sky cast flattering rays across everything but Reno's sunburn. Why Reno was even outside was anyone's guess. Even he didn't know anymore. Currently he was just staring at a few tufts of foliage, head tilted as if to ponder its existence.

If Cloud had any thought upon the strange stance Reno had taken to, he didn't mention it. All the more, Reno found himself grateful. Like hell he wanted to explain his desperation for any wisp of amusement which was likely to unfurled into another nightmare. The latest of his antics proved pretty damn disastrous if he had to say so himself.

From the corner of his eye, he just let the blonde go inside without interruption. He knew for a fact it would only stay quiet for so long. Inwardly he was wincing, knowing that yet again, he'd done a bad thing.

A noise of verbal agitation caught his ears not a moment too soon.

Now ordinarily he would he hightailing it out of there. Yet in his condition, Reno knew he wouldn't even make it past the swaying palm trees a few yards away, lest he fall like some doomed damsel in the coming onslaught. His mind was oddly blank, as it had overloaded something fierce just an hour ago.

One Hour Previous.

In the midst of pacing around with nothing better to do, Reno continued to make odd laps around the abode without much attention paid to where he was stepping. Some pretty heavy consuming thoughts were trickling across his brain, essentially drowning everything else out. When his hip nudged the table and something fell, he continued on rather oblivious to the fact.

Just as he was recalling a woman from his old block who had a nasty habit of chewing toothpicks and spitting them out, the memory near shocked him when he stepped on something that caused reminiscent pain to stab the bottom of his foot.

With a yelp, the redhead bounced on his uninjured heel in some flailing dance.

"Gahh! S-shit..!" He grit his teeth and turned his foot up to see if he was losing his mind.

There's no way just the memory of imbedded toothpicks in his feet could creep into reality like that!

To his utmost horror, a spurt of blood rushed from the arch in his foot, trickling down in a steady stream to dirty the floor.

"Hnniii..." He winced at the dramatic effect, still trying to balance and effectively screwing it up when he tried to get a closer look.

The redhead teetered backwards and awkwardly to the side, his hand shooting out to catch himself on the table with absolutely no luck. The edge brushed against his palm at best, mocking his slip further. Then he felt a brief rush of wind before he collided lopsided to his bottom. A sharp pain hit his tailbone, and then came the displeased throbbing.

How his previous injuries began to protest as well was beyond him. Thankfully he barely missed the ledge of the table clipping his head. Granted, he was paying little mind to that. Instead he sat mystified at the ordeal, bringing a hand to ease the residual thrumming about his back with a sympathetic rub. A curse slewed easily from his mouth, really serving no purpose but to remind himself that this day sucked.

Reno forced a quick survey to make sure he didn't knock over all the cards on the table, only to pale and grow rigid. He finally took notice to the little trails of blood which managed to dot along odd pieces of furniture from his position to about 10 feet away.

"Oh c'mon…!" He loudly complained, observing that the prominently stained furnishings had the audacity to be extremely light in color, or entirely pallid.

For as long as he sat with jumbled thoughts attempting to process how in the hell he was going to clean this up, his foot continued to innocently make a puddle on the flooring. Unfinished wood had a tendency to just stain like no ones business, despite how decent the job was done.

As a bit of the initial pulsing in his backside dulled, he gingerly made to stand up and assess the damage. It wasn't too tragic, he figured. Given that the biggest splotches weren't more than a dime in size. That was until he placed too much pressure on the bleeding appendage and stamped his foot print on floor. Once more startled at the tender flesh, he opted to shift his weight to keep from further aggravating the open wound.

Grumpily he pulled himself at full height, straightening out as he carefully leaned into the table for support. Reno lifted his foot again, taking it in his good hand and turning the bottom to face him. A nasty smear of vermillion went from heel to in between his toes. A scoff was given as he let it back down, still favoring his other leg in the process. It was then a frustrated whine caught in his throat, the image of soiled wood staring directly at him. How had he not even noticed!

"This is shit." The defeated redhead muttered.

"Absolute shit!" The outburst released enough tension for him to realize his body felt hot from aggression. He had to let it all go. Just breathe in, then push the bad juju out, he reminded himself.

First thing he did was sigh loudly and look around for anything to cover his foot with. Priorities were a must right now. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to concentrate on a damn thing. Another deep breath ensued, bright eyes darting about in a narrowed fashion. A neatly folded dish towel caught his eye. Utilizing his long reach, he plucked it up and gave it a remorseful look once he realized the fate of the pristine cotton. Reluctantly lifting his foot again, as the pit pat of blood drops hit the wood, he knew Strife was going to berate him endlessly over the misuse of good kitchen linens.

It was this or smudge up the rest of the cabana, he told himself. A foreboding feeling served to threaten him at the thought of leaving bloody foot prints all over the place. He'd rather avoid further desecration to the floors, lest he bring on the wrath of furious blonde pretty boys with likely OCD in cleanliness.

That horrific image proved good reason enough to sacrifice the dish towel. And so he did.

Doing his best to make quick work of the task, he wrapped his foot tight to stop the flow of bleeding and took one hell of a moment to tie the little bastard on. Reno tentatively set his foot down, putting a bit of pressure on it to test his work. The pain wasn't really much after the initial slice, but he dared not to be too careless.

Blue eyes peered down momentarily to spot the culprit of this mess. A paring knife that lay upon its side, blade facing him like the menacing devil it was. The realization he almost landed ass first on it did little to quell his thoughts. If anything he wanted to pitch it out the door on that fact alone.

Against his personal wishes however, he instead bent to pick it up, only holding it between two fingers while glaring at the blade. Rudely he tossed it in the sink, a scraping clatter meeting his ears as if to protest.

Good. He hoped it knew how much of an asshole it was.

He wouldn't be in this mess if that thing had known its place.

Turning back to the mess at hand, Reno surveyed it thoroughly from his full height, only to realize he was clueless when it came to getting blood stains off any porous object. Right then he was far from impressed with himself, making a sour expression.

"You'd think I'd know somethin' about this…" The self condescending grumble only made him frown.

Even Rude knew how to restore the brightest of whites from a blood bath. Reno had been notorious for sneaking his laundry into his fellow Turk's wash. The memory was both funny with a dampening sadness at the end.

Yeah, they weren't exactly on the same page these days. It was a remorseful thought he tucked away.

Pulling himself roughly to the here and now, he hobbled about in search of some cleaning product, doing his best to ignore the puddle he left behind. In his quest, he opened every single cupboard and rummaged through baskets like a madman the second he realized Strife was due back at some point. He found not a single bottle of bleach or even bathing products. To his utmost horror, he had only retrieved two things; toothpaste and aloe.

Had he been a smarter man, he would have noticed the peroxide tucked behind the medicine box, lying silently on its side. Instead he was getting antsy, looking between the two products with trepidation quickening his pulse.

Toothpaste looked promising until he remembered the one time he tried to polish off mud stains from his shoes with it. Why he did that as a child, he didn't know. But the results were far from pretty considering the shoes had been plain old fabric sneakers. Instantly he tossed it back in the basket before padding out into the more furnished living quarters.

Aloe… it had many properties. He knew his sunburn appreciated it.

Closing his eyes tight, he thought long and hard.

"Ok…" He could do this. "Alright…" Woooo saaaah… C'mon damn it! "Think!"

Reno opened his eyes and gave one more look to the bottle. Maybe, just maybe… If he was lucky, this might turn out to be one of those old wives cleaning tricks.

"Yeah!" He was trying desperately hard to convince himself.

This had to be his only hope. There was no way he could doubt himself now.

After taking a long inhale to calm his anxieties, Reno looked at the challenge with new found determination. He could do this! He had to!

Picking up a clean cloth, he got to work.

About forty minutes later…

"No, no, no, noooo!" A massive cringe and despair had taken great hold of Reno's face.

A disaster! This was an absolute disaster!

His wrist hurt like hell, everything was sticky and somehow greasy… moreover, the blood had made its mark. The only thing he did was smudge and further imbed the stain into everything he tried to purify. A soft cry wanted to escape him.

But he's a man damn it. He can't give in now; Even if he was at his wits end.

At the very least, nonporous objects didn't resist his methods so much. Too bad he bled mostly on anything but.

As he pressed the soiled cloth back to the floor, he gave one last furious scrub as if to spite the situation. No luck though. If anything, the stain was a permanent reminder that he was hopeless. Of all the times, a tightening itch was starting to bother his skin too.

Reluctantly getting up, he took note of the small amount of aloe left. He really shouldn't have used so much. His sunburns only relief lies in the near vacant tube. Thinking things through wasn't exactly his strong point and he knew it would slap him in the face sooner than later.

Reno would be facing the music tonight for sure. Just looking at the place assured his nervous thoughts, what with everything turned over or crumbled in a heap of failure. In his quest to clean, which he wasn't the best at to begin with, he effectively trashed every stained article beyond repair.

After a good few minutes of trying to straighten the abode into relative order, he just had to give up. He needed a new plan that didn't include aloe.

'Of all the moronic things I could have even thought of!' The bitter words in his head didn't help.

Roughly slamming the aloe down on the table, he padded toward the door to get some fresh air, but not before sending a ruthless glare toward the sink. The little self righteous bastard… Stabbing him with no shame like that!

"…who the hell needs knives…" He grumbled under his breath.

When the fresh air met his face, he did what he could to take advantage of the light breather. The sun was setting and he was running out of ideas. Maybe he should have gone with the toothpaste after all. There's no way it could possibly inflict as much damage that the aloe did.

Yet at the thought of going back inside to try and reclaim the tarnished furnishings, he felt his body ache at the mere idea.

While his thoughts nagged at him that there had to be some way to work around this before Cloud returned, he was pretty much sick of the entire scenario. Reno was no house wife or genius in departments pertaining to cleaning. He knew technology from endless hours of studying it to better his position and knew his way around elite organizations. But cleaning blood stains? Nope. Not a damn clue.

That's what made him sag with defeat, a long sigh drawling out with some kind of remorse attached. Mmhm, yeah buddy. This night was just gonna suck when the anal retentive blonde showed up. He could feel it.

As Reno's fatigue sapped away all traces of panic, he recognized his own submission taking over. He would just have to accept the consequences as they came. No questions asked. After all, it wasn't like Cloud was ever happy to see him. Shit, he wasn't too thrilled about the circumstances of their 'living together', either. It just sucked he was bored all the time without the blonde.

He was done though; Wiped of all energy and more than content to stare endlessly at the plants growing along the cabanas side.

The redhead didn't even pay tribute to his itching skin. It just wasn't worth it right now. Not if he had to again witness the mess he made.

So in this rare moment, he decided to clear his head and be a vacant shell until his attention was needed.


This fic needs WORK. I'm stunned I'm even picking this back up. So let's all hope for the best, yeah?