Stained Souls

Chapter 10: A Rude Awakening

Rude stood at the doorway and paused. Listening intently through the door he heard not a stir of commotion from the other side. Quietly he inserted the key through its chamber and unlocked the door's lock, opening it slowly. The door deceived him in being quiet, because it made an even louder noise while opened slowly. Reno heard the creak of the door and shot up immediately in bed and heart racing.

He panicked to move when he saw Rude was behind the door. The young man planned Rude to slam the door and smash his brains out but instead he didn't. Rude stared at Reno for a long time, disappointed in him for sleeping not with another but with Cloud. He turned to close the door lightly and lock it behind him while Reno gathered the sheets to better cover himself. The redhead came over to Rude a few steps to see if he could get a word out of him with smaller space.

The young man was answered with a smack across the face, almost stumbling backwards from the blow. He shot Rude a surprised look, seeing that this was the first time Rude has ever laid a hand on Reno like this.

"How could you!" Rude finally said. Reno was disbelieved that he slapped him for that reason, as if he betrayed him.

"Don't make this like I cheated on you! There is no blame on my part. I just spent my time differently then usual!"

"And how do you spend your time during those exchanges? Huh! Different the usual messaging exchanges?" Rude mocked.

"Oh, shut-up!" Reno had to get away from his face for a second. "Do you really think that we are still together!"

"You've been with me for so long. After all the times you could have gone off, you stayed with me!"

"To survive! Do you really think that there's something else for someone like me out there! Guys like us don't have second chances; which is why you don't have any with me!" Reno left, heading towards the bathroom but was stopped by Rude.

"What do you mean by that? I gave you everything!"

"And you still screwed with Tseng! You're words and touches and stares don't mean anything to me anymore! In fact they disgust me! I'm going to take a shower, and after that I'm going to bed." Reno left without another glance back at Rude before hiding behind the shower doors.

Rude stayed standing, to afraid to sit down anywhere at the moment in fear that it was the same place where Cloud had Reno. Imagining those two fooling around on the bed made Rude flinch and singed with anger afterwards. No matter how much he craved for Reno for his own he knew that it would forever be gone since the event that took that one night in Shinra's office. With two lovers making hot love with another's eyes to see and envy. Rude shook his head of that memory, trying hard to forget it with the ignorance that it never happened. But it only works for so long.

Eventually the nightmare comes back to him, stinging the painful truth into his spine, bending it to make weak. Afterwards he would sometimes not be able to look at Reno, knowing the pain he inflicted on him. But now he was in the same scenario as the younger Turk. Torn, tired, and dishelmed inside and out. Reno had his revenge.

Denzel and Marlene were playing cars on the polished wooden floors of the bottom landing. In came Cloud who entered sore and tired. But the sudden squeal of the children's delight made him perk up for them.

"Cloud!" Marlene ran into his arms. Clouds knelt down to grab her little form and hoist her up to his height. "Where were you?"

"I was exploring for the day off."

"But you left without saying sorry." Marlene had a stern face on. Cloud looked to Denzel to find out why she was correcting him so. But the younger boy hid his face shyly, still not warming up to Cloud.

"Saying sorry to whom?" Cloud asked.

"To Tifa! You yelled at her and made her cry."

"She cried!" Cloud was so surprised that the weight of the child seemed heavy.

"All the rest of the day! What did you do Cloud." Marlene asked.

"I wish I knew." He said almost to himself. He pondered of his strong friend, crying for the first time since they were children. What could have I said to trigger her to cry? Zack's death! Was she mad that I was paying to much attention to Aeris' death and not others that I cared about?

"Marlene said that it was because of 'her'." Denzel finally said, approaching Cloud and Marlene. "Cloud, who is she?" Cloud couldn't look an neither children, he brought down Marlene to the ground and turned toward the stairs.

"Do not repeat this again. Tifa was just being sad of another matter." Cloud stayed silent for a moment before climbing upstairs. "And there never was a 'her'." He lied as he climbed those stairs, away from the pressing truth, away from the harsh reality that seemed dead just as him, away from the constant sadness that he seemed to have been surrounded with.

Next chapter another character comes into play: The Silver-haired Men. Especially Kaja for the most part. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW!