Stained Souls

Chapter 19: Valentine Talks

"I've been around all of Midgar Heights." The decetivive laid a vanilla folder on his desk filled with black and white photos of Reno's days. "Found out he's living in an apartment complex called the Commons and not alone."

Rude looked up at the man in disbelief.

"What!" He hissed. The portly man leaned back in his chair.

"Half of the time he has that blonde beside him all the way. From my perspective their relationship seems intimate." Rude refrained himself from clenching the papers for the detective to see. "You know who this guy is?" The man asked.

"Yes." Rude looked at the last picture, one where only Cloud was in. "I know him."

Cloud opened his eyes as the dawn light spilled into the room waking his senses from a deep sleep. His arm was wrapped around Reno's waist drawing the two bodies closer to each other. Once he knew Reno was still asleep he looked around the bedroom. A clock read 6:30, clothing from the night before still were lying from where they were thrown, and not another sound stirred other then their breathing; meaning apartment was calm.

Slowly the blonde crawled out of bed without waking Reno and thought he'd go out for a walk. Two months living here in uptown Midgar and still there were places that Cloud did not know of yet. Mostly because he never been here until Reno took his hand and led him to this place. Seeing this side of the crumbling town, the place where there are barely any damages, Cloud felt like he could get use to living in this city.

The ex-Soldier made his way down Rea Road on the wide sidewalk paved with shops and restaurants on either side of the road. Time was on the brink of 5:00 and still walking people were a rare thing to see on the streets. Every now and then a possible thief or hooker from downtown took this time to venture into the area where they wished they were. Seeing their faces made him remember that place where he despised and in doing so he hated them for coming here.

As he was turning into Holiday Blvd. Cloud heard a rustle of movement in a deep alley. He stopped and listening inside the crack of the city before venturing in to see what it was. Bags of trash were the only things to be seen from Cloud's eyes, but his ears were to slow to catch Vincent from falling from the rooftops and beside Cloud. Only when the blonde turned around did he jump from Vincent.

"What are you doing here!" Cloud snapped.

"Well it's nice to see you too." Vincent backed a bit away to give Cloud room. "Where have you been? I'd thought you'd be at some seaside city on the other side of the world."

"The only drawback of living on a planet is that you're never far away from one place."

"What do you mean?"

"If you continue going one direction you find yourself at some point coming back."

"So you came back to run away?" Vincent question.

"No." Cloud answered.

"Then why did you come back?" Cloud stayed quiet to search for words.

"When I was leaving I was ambushed." He could feel Vincent tense and he had an idea that Vincent knew who it was.

"So you read the letter then." Cloud nodded 'yes'. "I always wondered if I could trust you."

"It was only that one! The rest I kept faithful until now! Who is your contact?"

"He's not important. The important thing is that they are coming after you."

"Who are they?" Cloud hissed.

"I don't know yet. But surviving members of AVALANCE is in danger. Run."

"I can't damn it!" Cloud cursed. "What the hell do you think I was doing before!"

"So you came back and not to Tifa!" Vincent was now the one yelling.

"If I came back to her then they would get her before me. I came back to make sure she was okay…And you can't say that I'm here still. She'd come running into a trap if I was the bait."

"What makes you think she's so ignorant?"

"She loves me and that is a good enough reason to do stupid things." They stayed quiet for some time now until Cloud began motioning toward the waking city.

"Where are you going now to?" Vincent asked.

"You know where unless you wouldn't know where to find me." Vincent smirked at Cloud behind his buckled collar that hid his delicate lips.

Reno woke up when he heard the banging on the door. Damn boy forgot his key again! The redhead only found his pants and knew that was enough to go out in public. After finally moving into the Heights, the one place where Reno missed the most of the past, he had to get use to its restrictions and one of them clothing.

Reno unlocked the door and was met with a massive hand grabbing around his throat. The Turk dug his nails into the attacker's hand that held his neck but it didn't do anything. He was to far away from his attacker to hit him down. His green eyes looked from the hand to its owner's face.

"Rude!" He gasped. His former partner flung him to the ground and bolted the door up. He turned to again face the redhead on the floor and kicked him deep into his ribs. The youth gasped for the extreme loss of air.

"Running away from me, huh!" He brought down another kick only this time across the redhead's jaw, busting his lip. "And with that mercenary, Cloud!" Blood slipped from Reno's mouth, pouring into the carpet wondering why Rude was doing this. Rude grabbed Reno by the hair and went close to his ear. "Well I'm going to finish off that little shit once and for all."

Reno's green eyes widened and found the strength to reach for his gun, lying on the key drawer. But Rude was too quick and smashed his boot flat on Reno's hand to stop him.

"GET OFF OF ME!" Reno yelled but Rude took no heed. He grabbed Reno's form from off the floor and carried him to the bedroom. Meanwhile Reno thrashed and struggled to get free with curses. But nothing helped him escape. Rude made sure the door was closed behind them and then Reno's cries were at their loudest by then.

Wow! Even writing this chapter I got a little scared. Those that are reading this now please ALL review and tell me what you think about this story.