Dear Diary
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Disclaimer: They're not mine, but I play with them whenever SQUARESOFT's not looking.
Summary: Reno finds someone's diary...
Author's Notes: Nothing big. I just edited this story. Fixed the typos, yada yada yada. It's still the same old fic. Wanna review it when you're done reading it though? I love feedback, especially with ketchup!


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"Man, Rude, I have no idea why we should do this. Shouldn't they be sendin' one of them SOLDIERS in here?" complained Reno. Rude didn't reply, as usual. He took a key out of his pocket and used it to unlock the dorm of one of the SOLDIERS'. Inside, there were two beds, a green blanket over both of them folded military style, and pushed to opposite sides of the room. Beside both beds were small dressers, with two drawers, and a lamp on each. At the end of each bed sat a chest, obviously where personal items were kept.

Reno took a sad look at the room; it looked just as plain as any other room. "Man this guy had no life." They entered the room and Reno sat on the bed on the left and began rummaging through the drawers. "Hey Rude why were these guys killed again?"

"He and Cloud," Rude nodded to the other bed "were responsible for the Nibleheim fire, and had ran off to avoid punishment. They were discovered just outside of Midgar, where Zack was shot and dragged off, and Cloud left for dead." Rude didn't add more, much as he would've liked to. Their job was to clean out the rooms, punishment for their little mess-up caused by Reno on their last assignment.

"Ah." nodded Reno, as he reached a little further into the drawer, then proudly, "Bingo!" he laughed as he pulled out a diary and began reading the first page.

"Oh come on, Reno." said Rude. "We're not here to read other peoples' diaries."

Reno looked up that trademark grin plain on his face. "Think about it, how am I gonna get caught? Is this Zack guy gonna come back from the dead and strangle me? And even if he tried, I'm a Turk. What's he gonna do?"

Rude sighed and went back to digging clothes out of the chest, while Reno went back to the diary, and decided to read out loud, just to test if he could push Rude over the edge, "First entry, 'First day in SOLDIER..' yada yada yada..'Met my roommate Cloud, he seems very nice. A loose canyon, but I could've been stuck with worse. Have to end this entry here. It's time to go to the mesh hall.'" Reno looked up. "Interesting life."

"Are you quite through?"

"No way man I wanna see if it gets better. Lesse....'We're on an out-of-office mission right now! It's quite a bit more refreshing than stuck inside a stuffy office writing reports on junk that'll just be thrown in a file cabinet and locked away for eternity.' ****ing straight! This guy may actually be more than the little shy boy with a SOLDIER uniform and a weapon!"

"Reno, he and this Cloud guy burnt down an entire village."

Reno shrugged. "So, you know we've done worse."

"We're Turks. We do a lot of top-secret assignments such as that. These two were just SOLDIERS, and they did this without authorization."

"Not to mention being responsible for the disappearance of the mighty Sephiroth!" smirked Reno. "Whatever. Back to the diary. 'Today I met a girl, her name is Aeris. She's got beautiful wavy brown hair, the most dazzling green eyes, and a heart of purity. We're going out tonight.' Whoo hoo! 'Cloud hasn't met her yet. He doesn't seem to want to go anywhere or do anything. Just fighting is all he ever wants to do.' BOOOOOOOOOORING!" he skipped a few pages. "'Aeris and I have decided to go out exclusively! Tonight she was going to show me around her sector. She was mentioning something about a playground. Cloud's still on a fighting frenzy. He's already had a few fall-outs with the other guys in our group.'"

Rude had already emptied out Zack's chest, and unlocked Cloud's. Reno watched as Rude pulled out just a bit of boring clothing, a picture of a little girl with dark brown hair, and a bit of materia. "Not much of a life." muttered Reno. "My dorm looked more...human."

"Yeah, especially after you got in that ink fight with your buddies."

"Hey c'mon you didn't think that was stylish? We all thought it looked great with a black ink splattering across the wall above my bed."

Rude grinned for once. "Bet you didn't think it looked great when you saw the boss' expression and those toilets you had to clean!"

"So? He forgot to order us to clean up the splatter. And when he did remember, I was promoted to Turk and in a higher position than him. The look on his face when I threatened to remove his badges if he dared touch that splatter."

"But a Turk cannot remove badges like that." said Rude with question clear on his face.

Reno grinned. "I know that, and you know that, but the sergeant didn't!"

Rude shook his head and Reno went back to the diary. "'We got to meet Sephiroth today! He's a lot different than I expected! He's totally calm about everything and level headed. Cloud seems to be really interested in the guy. He's always talking to him about fighting and stuff. While I think it's cool to meet Shinra's greatest warrior, I'd rather spend more time with my Aeris'. Good choice man! 'Aeris likes to grow flowers in that old abandoned church. I like to tease her by saying the flowers follow her wherever she goes. She laughs, but sometimes I think it true. Since the plate above blocks these people from the sun, the flowers have no problem growing. She'll spend an hour just praying for them. She's once told me that the planet grows them, not her.' next page!"

"What are you looking for?"

"I wanna see how far he's gotten with that Aeris chick, and if he gets descriptive...." said Reno and Rude shook his head once more. Reno flipped through a few more pages. Reno sarcastically sniffed. "Aww how sad: 'Today's our last day working in this section of Midgar. I won't get to see Aeris again for two more months.' Hey, maybe he does something with her that night!" Reno flipped to the next page.

"You know, you're a real pervert sometimes Reno." said Rude as he dumped Cloud's stuff into a bag. Reno chuckled.

"I know. Ain't it great? 'I kissed Aeris earlier. I sure am going to miss her. She gave me a picture of herself to remember her by.'" Reno pulled the picture out of the diary and whistled. Aeris had long wavy brown hair, just as Zack had described, but he didn't do her eyes justice. They were magnificent. Reno found himself captivated by them.

He must have been staring, as Rude spoke up. "Let's see it." He took it, looked at in uninterestedly for a few seconds, and then handed it back. Reno gazed back into her eyes once more.

"Good choice Zacky!" he said, and then flipped to the next page. "'We left Midgar today. Aeris cried a little, and then told me she'll be praying for me. We're on our way to Nibleheim. I overheard Cloud talking to Sephiroth about how he was born there. Maybe I'll meet that Tifa girl that I've heard him talking about in his sleep.'" Reno stopped reading out loud. He found himself wanting to go back and read about this Aeris again. Realizing Rude was still in the room, he went back to the next page. "'We arrived in Nibleheim this morning, and our guide turned out to be Tifa herself! I asked Cloud later if he knew her, but he looked in another direction and said no. He has no idea that I know how much he likes her. Wonder if he himself knows?' Doubt it!" Rude moved from the chest to the dresser. Reno ignored him and kept reading. "'Sephiroth's discovered the library in the Shinra Mansion. He's become obsessed with Prof. Gast's books. He's not supposed to even be down there. We were assigned to find out what was wrong with the reactor. And without his fighting skills to help us fight the monsters, we can't get inside the reactor!!!' Rude, check this out! This explains what happened at Nibleheim!" With sudden interest, Rude looked up. "You sure?"

"Yeah, check out the date. It's right after the burning! 'I know I shouldn't be writing this down, but it's very urgent!!! Sephiroth's gone mad! He burnt down the home of Nibleheim in a rage and killed the townspeople! Cloud had stopped him, but refuses to talk about it, if he can talk. We've both been injured severely, and I don't think Shinra's very happy. We're back in Midgar, waiting for our 'punishment', which I don't understand. They're blaming us for the burning, I think! We're back inn our room. Cloud's tending to his wound right now, but he's very weak and won't accept our help, I-'"

"What happened?" asked Rude.

"I don't know. The writing just stopped, and the pen seemed to slip off the page. I did find it just thrown in the drawer unlocked. Maybe someone came in the room while he was writing it?"

"I don't know, but it's too late to find out," said Rude, looking at the bag full of Cloud and Zack's possessions. He looked up. "You gonna toss that in here?"

Reno looked at the diary. "They're just going to burn it. There was nothing requiring him to have a diary. They won't know if he had one or not..."

"C'mon Reno, you're going to keep that?"

"I think I just might." said Reno, looking at the book in one hand, then finally remembered the picture in the other.

Aeris.....

"I'm keeping this for sure." said Reno with a grin as he popped the picture into the pocket of his blue uniform. Then he looked at the book again. "Should we show this to someone?" he asked.

"Think anyone would believe it?" asked Rude, an eyebrow raised.

"No, definitely not." Reno sighed and put it in his other pocket. "Oh well. I can always claim it as evidence or something."

Rude looked at him, with his trademark silence. Reno's known him long enough to read his expression but this time he couldn't tell what Rude was thinking.

"Suit yourself." he said as he stood up with the bag and walked out. Reno stood up, but not before taking the picture back out and gazing into it. He slipped it back into his pocket and walked out, leaving behind the empty room.





THE END