Rude sat one the porch of his house, looking up at the stars. They were much brighter these days than they had been before, when Shinra's numerous reactors were belching pollution into the sky. Elena sat beside him, her head resting on his shoulder, her blonde hair bright against the darkness of his suit. It had taken a while to get her calmed down after her rather stressful day at work - not good. Her pregnancy was already a difficult one, and the doctors had been telling her that she needed to remain calm, for the sake of both her and the baby. Unfortunately, it seemed that everyone else had different ideas. One event after another had struck them, pushing Elena toward the edge.
He grimaced into the dark, sliding one arm around her waist, resting his hand protectively on her enlarged stomach. The day that Elena had agreed to marry him stood out in his mind as perhaps the best day of his life, even better than the day that he had been brought into the Turks. At first, he'd worried about his own silence, fearing that she felt under appreciated or unloved. She deserved to be told she was loved and beautiful every day; it just wasn't something he had the words for.
Other times, like this, he knew with absolute certainty that she understood how much he loved her, even if he couldn't say it. And he knew that she loved him just as much in return.
A soft sound by the gate brought him quickly from his reverie. Beside him, he could feel Elena tense, her hand slowly reaching for the gun she always kept tucked into her waistband at the small of her back.
The sound came again, and Rude relaxed almost immediately. He hadn't heard that particular shuffling of feet combined with the barely perceptible, idle jangling of pebbles and small coins in years, but he still recognized it like the mannerism was his own. "Reno, why don't you just come in? You know what pattern the mines are in." he said, speaking up enough to be heard by the man at the gate, but not so loudly that it would attract the attention of any watchers.
The gate swung open, then shut, and the sound of quiet footsteps came toward them, down the walkway. Elena slowly relaxed as well at the familiar sounds. For a moment, it felt as if a long lost brother was coming home.
The feeling died quickly as Reno drew to a halt in front of the couple. Even underneath the forgiving glow of the porch lights, he still looked like hell. The worry lines and shadows on his face were softened a great deal, but it was obvious how painfully thin he had become, how even his hair seemed desultory in attitude. He reeked of alcohol, though he was somehow still sober; he stood his ground firmly, not wavering in the slightest. The mako glowing in his eyes gave him a very alien, unforgiving look.
"It's been a long time since we've seen you, Reno."
"We've missed you." Elena added softly, her head still resting on Rude's shoulder.
"I…" Reno's voice cracked, and he stopped for a moment, taking a deep breath. "I—I've missed both of you as well. You both know you were the only real family I've ever had." There was a great deal of pain in his voice, confusion, and anger as well. Some things never changed - there had always been anger.
Elena let out a soft sigh, as if she'd been holding her breath. "Come on…sit down…" She held out her hand. After a moment's hesitation, he took it, and she pulled him over to the bench that she and Rude occupied, releasing his hand to pat the seat next to her. He sat, his body tensed as if ready for flight, every nuance of his posture unsure. "You look like hell, Reno."
"So I've been told." Reno said dryly, relaxing a little. He leaned back into the bench, slouching down. "You're looking as good as ever, the both of you." Without asking for permission, because he none was necessary, he rested his hand on Elena's stomach for just a moment. "When's the baby due?"
"Still two months to go." Elena smiled and patted Reno's hand.
"Boy or girl?"
"We've decided to be surprised."
"Ah." Reno pulled his hand away. "I'll put my money on the baby being a girl. She'll look a lot like her mom when she grows up, too. You'll have your work cut out for you, Rude, trying to keep all the boys off of her." Silence descended completely for a moment, an uncomfortable silence, full of unsaid words and accusations, resentments and fears…and the fine sense of betrayal.
"When she's born, will her uncle be there to hold her?" Elena asked softly.
Reno yanked a hand through his hair. "I don't know. I don't know if her mom and dad will want him to be there."
"We always have, Reno. We never wanted you to go. If we're your family, than you're our family as well." Rude kept his voice carefully neutral.
"We sent you an invitation to the wedding, you know. I guess we always just hoped that it was misdelivered, that you never got it." Elena turned her head so that she could see Reno out of the corner of her eye. He sat terribly still, looking straight ahead, his hands clasped tightly in his lap.
"I got the invitation."
"That's what we thought." Elena didn't bother disguising the hurt in her voice any more."We hoped we were wrong…but…we knew, just the same, that you didn't want to be there." Once again, there was silence, heavy with anger. "We wanted you to be there, Reno. We wanted you to be part of it. We never wanted you to leave. Why did you walk out on us?" At last, the question was asked, the one that Elena and Rude had felt so sharply for years.
Reno stood abruptly, all the anger returning to his movements. He was once more the sullen young man that had joined the Turks years ago, the one that often covered up his battered emotions with a laughing, obnoxious mask.
There was no mask now, as he walked away, every movement stiff, as if he expected a blow to come from behind.
"Damnit, why are you walking out on us again?" Elena almost yelled.
Reno stopped, standing very still. Slowly, her turned back, his expression unreadable. "Once a Turk, always a Turk, right? No rules, no regrets. But it doesn't work that way, does it? We were a family...a fucked up, scary, dysfunctional family, but it was ours." For one instant, the hurt child inside was visible. "I tried to be what Tseng was for you guys, and I failed. I failed him, and I guess I failed you, like I always do in everything else."
Elena tried to stand. Rude's hands closed around her arms like irons; he'd seen Reno like this before.
Reno turned around again, stalking down the path, toward the gate. "You know what, though? Even though I blew it, and couldn't follow what Tseng started, I wasn't the one that left. And for what? A fucking white picket fence and a mailbox that looks like a retarded frog." The gate opened, then shut, the sound almost another betrayal in itself, a slap in the face. "I didn't walk out on you. You walked out on me."
Elena tore herself from her husband's grasp and ran inside. He made no move to follow, instead sitting back on the bench and watching the stars blur through his tears.
Reno saw the same thing, he knew; he always did.