Respect

Just inside the ruins of a mansion, two men stood side by side, eyes scanning the shattered brick, metal, and molding debris. At the same moment, they pushed up their sunglasses. Their eyes glowed brightly, lighting the dim hallways in a mix of red and blue light.

The shorter of the two men itched under his shirt, scratching around a wishbone shaped scar. His blue eyes traveled up to the dark man. "You wanted to talk to me then, Vincent?"

The ex-Turk walked ahead of his old companion, running a metal claw along the dusty rafters. "Yes, I did. But not here, in the lab."

He had been inspecting a fallen tapestry when Vincent's suggestion hit him. "Why in there?" His voice felt choked, something he had grown rather unaccustomed to.

"Are you afraid, Cloud?" The look that accompanied the question was serious, not mocking.

"Uneasy would be the word, I doubt anything is truly worth being scared about anymore." The blond hero of the planet once again stood beside the ex-Turk. "What could we talk about there that we couldn't here?"

"Why I can't hate you Cloud, even though I really try to." With that, Vincent Valentine led the way to the shambled mess of the labs.

Neither of them spoke again, both feeling it when the other's skin gave an involuntary twitch. After all the time, the labs still smelled like blood and urine. Vincent sighed, sitting on the rotting chair in front of the table. Books still littered its worn surface. He pushed the pages around, waiting on the blond.

Cloud had stopped, looking at a pair of old mako tubes. He read on the side of the one that was still intact, the words Zax had clawed. Closing his eyes, he muttered a quick, "sorry buddy" before sitting across from Vincent. "So you hate me?" One couldn't tell one way or the other if Cloud cared about this or not.

Without looking up from the book the other man shrugged. "I want to very badly, more so recently then when we were fighting ShinRa."

"So I'm just such a nice guy that I inspire your not hate of me?" Cloud snorted. "You know I am not expressly bright, Vincent, so why not just come out and say it."

The book slammed shut in a flurry of dust. "You don't get it, do you? I was a Turk; I was leader of the Turks." While the motion of slamming the book contained hostility, Vincent's words did not. "I was an assassin, if I really hated you, nothing, and I mean that, would stop me from killing you."

Cloud waved the dust away with his callused hand. "So you are here to try to hate me and then, what? Shoot me in the head?"

The Turk glared at him. "I suppose, I just wanted to talk to you. You don't care do you? That someone could hate you?"

Cloud leaned on the table. "Nope. I guess I don't."

"You knew that no one would really be behind you from the start, didn't you? Despite letting us all think you were a step away from losing it?" Turk mode shone through, Cloud simply nodded allowing the other to continue. "And you just wanted to save the planet because…"

"…It was the right thing to do. That is why."

"After everything that was forced on you, that they did to you?"

"Yeah, I suppose so."

Vincent snorted. "I read the files. You refused to kill in the experiments, up to the point where your life had to be threatened. And that holds true right now?"

Cloud only nodded again.

With a final growl, Vincent stood up and headed to the door.

"So that's it, you hate me now? Happy?" Cloud looked over his shoulder.

"No, I don't hate you, I don't like you. I don't fucking understand you either. But I respect you. Can we leave it at that Cloud?"

The other man nodded. "Sure."

Fin

A/N: Another 30 minute challenge fic. I'm growing really fond of these.