A/N: Yes, I'm FINALLY updating. :D The world must be ending… I'm actually having a lot of fun writing though, despite my incredibly bad writer's block. Anyways, I'll reply to my reviews now.
Chibi demon scythe: Thankyou.
Nanaki BH: Cool.Argh, I know, but when I started writing this, the only Runo's I had read were yours, Miyamashi's, and one or two others. I didn't know it was an over-used topic.; I'm sorry. And yes, I've been angry with myself for putting Rufus OOC, since I love his cold cynicism. And I'll try very hard not to turn him into a super-uke, since I don't find the thought all that good for Rufus anyways. Thank you for your advice.
Puki-san: Innocent? Really? I'm flattered.:) Thank you.
Miyamashi: Runo, eh? I'll be sure to use that…but anyways, thank you very much. I love your Runo stories, so I feel kinda honored that you'd review my somewhat pathetic attempt at a Runo.;;; Um, all this is happening about a month before the death of the president. Does he really seem that young…:);; But I know, I make a lot of grammar errors. sigh Gotta fine-tune my writing.
Teragon: Mmm, yes, there should be.
Green Feathers: Mwee, thank you! I'm so glad you like the fluff…I thought I was overdoing it. Barely dressed Rufus does sound appealing, ne? Elena is such a lucky girl. And thanks for the tip. I know I should be more descriptive, but I don't really think about it sometimes, and plus, I don't want to be too descriptive. And you're welcome! I want to give anyone who would review my stories a special mention.:) Reviews are what make me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Kurohi Tatsaki: Yes, cuteness all around! But there may be some angst in later chapters. Just keep reading.:)
TheHomocidalManiac777:Awww, thank you. It makes me feel so special to know that someone would put on of my fics in their fav category.
Tao-chan: Thank you! And I agree, they ARE one of the best pairings in FF7. Besides Vin&Cid o'course.
Chapter 3
By the time we got to the beach, I was close to passing out. The speed and blurring colors had all been so overwhelming. But I didn't mind much. After I had gotten past the first few minutes, it had become rather fun. I wasn't going to tell Reno that though; not yet at least. I was still a little peeved about the motorcycle thing, but I wasn't really angry anymore. It's pretty hard to stay mad at Reno for long.
I had to admit though; it was definitely worth that hellish ride to be here. It was absolutely beautiful here. The sand was snow white, and incredibly soft. It felt good against my bare feet. And the ocean was stunning, blues and greens mixing together to make light aquas. The way the sunlight hit it made it shimmer brightly, almost blindingly so. But I couldn't look away from it, finding it all too entrancing for words. It was enough to take one's breath away.
Than I felt two arms slip around my chest, hugging me tightly. Reno rested his chin on my shoulder, gazing out at the ocean as well. His bright red hair brushed against my neck, tickling it softly.
"It's beautiful, huh?" He asked, his voice holding a strangely gentle tone.
I nodded, still unable to speak. Beautiful didn't even seem to fit. Gorgeous was better suited to the sight before me. The wind blew the salty spray on my face, cooling it easily, while I closed my eyes, taking in the scent of everything around me, picking up a particularly strong scent, one I knew came from Reno. It was an almost indescribable smell, something like cinnamon, alcohol, and smoke, although there was something more to it, something that added to it all to make it unique. Something that could only be described as Reno…
"Reno…do you think time exists out here?" I asked. I knew the question sounded extremely odd, but I couldn't help it. To me, the sparkling ocean and clear, blue skies seemed to go on forever, as though time or age could not touch it as it did to us humans. It seemed as though the world could end around it and it would still be here, a continuous, blue whole in which time could not, and did not exist.
"I don't know," he finally answered, his voice so quiet I could barely hear him above the crashing waves. "Sometimes I wonder…it does feel like there's no time here, huh? Just you, and the things around you…"
I turned around to face him, startled at how much his answer sounded like my thoughts. I ended up staring into his beautiful eyes, and was a little surprised to see so much…depth in them. So many emotions seemed to be swirling around in those emeralds…happiness, caring, and…what was it? It seemed to be soft and warm…it reminded me of the emotion I had felt yesterday…what was it?
Before I could think any more about it, Reno flashed one of those big grins of his and ran past me, down to the ocean. He quickly removed his shirt and jacket, tossing them on to the dry sand a few yards away. Then he began running around wildly in the water, yelling at the top of his lungs, just like a child. He looked mad…but at the same time, he was incredibly sexy…
"Hey, Rufus, come over here!" He had stepped out of the water, and was soaked from the waist down. He had an innocent smile on his face, one that I would have been a total idiot to trust.
"Why?" I asked suspiciously. He just continued looking at me, and I finally gave up and began walking over to him. His smile grew wider, and I could see mischief playing behind his eyes. What did he have planned…?
"Ever been swimming before?" He asked, his innocent smile never wavering.
"No…why…" But then I saw the glimmer in his eyes. So that was it! It only took me two seconds to start scrambling away, but he, having far better reflexes, quickly grabbed me and lifted me up, carrying me bridal fashion to the water.
"No, Reno, don't! I can't swim!" I did all I could to protest, kicking and screaming, but I might as well have been talking to a brick wall, because as soon as he had gotten waste deep, he dropped me in.
It was freezing! I gave a yelp that was cut off by the water rushing into my mouth. It tasted terrible, like liquid salt. As soon as my feet touched the sandy bottom, I shot up, coughing like mad. Reno, on the other hand, was shrieking with laughter. Bastard.
"It's…not…funny," I said in between coughs. He didn't stop, instead I think he laughed harder. Frustrated, I grabbed his shoulders and shoved him under the water. When he resurfaced ,however, he wasn't coughing. He was choking. His face was bright red, and he couldn't even seem to put two syllables together. I burst out laughing. It was so hilarious! Finally, the choking noises stopped, and I opened my eyes, my laughter dying down when I saw the angry glare in his eyes.
"You are SO going to pay for that," he said, a mischievous glimmer in his eyes.
I started backing away slowly, looking at him cautiously. "Reno…what are you going to do…?" I was almost scared to hear the answer. I started running as best I could in the water, which didn't really amount to much. I got as far as two feet, before he had caught up to me, grabbing my arms and pulling me back. Before I could say anything, he shoved me under, although this time he didn't let go of my shoulders.
I lost air fairly quickly again, but this time, when I tried to get up, he still held me under. I continued to struggle against his grip, although as panic began to fill my body, and as air began to leave it, I started to lose control of what I was doing. I ended biting his arm, forcing him to pull back, and I shot through the surface of the water, taking a huge gasp of breath.
I turned towards Reno, who was holding his arm angrily, glaring at me. "What the hell was that for!" He hissed.
"Excuse me? YOU were the one trying to DROWN me asshole!" I shouted. Who the hell did he think he was, getting angry at me for not letting him kill me!
Reno rolled his eyes, and said, "I wasn't trying to drown you, you're just over-reacting."
My eyes widened, both anger and incredulity surging through me. "Over-reacting! I couldn't BREATHE Reno, how the HELL am I over-reacting!"
Now something along the lines of hurt entered his features. "So, you honestly thought I'd let you drown?"
I stood still for a moment. The question had stunned me, as I hadn't even stopped to think about it before I had started yelling at him. Now that I thought about it, it seemed completely idiotic that I had made that accusation, because it was highly unlikely that Reno really would have let me drown. "Well, I was panicked…I wasn't really thinking…I couldn't breathe…"
He glared at me. "Damn straight you weren't thinking."
"But then why wouldn't you let me up when I started struggling in the first place?" I asked, feeling a sort of need to defend myself.
"Because I thought you could handle it. I wouldn't have kept you down there for that much longer, idiot."
The insult held a particularly angry tone, which really pissed me off. How in God's name was I supposed to know that? It's not like I can read his damn mind. "Well, I'm so sorry for not knowing that," I said coldly.
We both walked over to the shore, soaking wet. But at least Reno had taken off his shirt and jacket before going into the water. I was completely clothed when he dragged me in. When I sat down on the sand, I began shivering. It was a relatively warm day, but it was also somewhat windy, and I was not appreciating the cool breeze at the moment.
Just when I thought the awkward silence would never end, I heard Reno sigh and get up, walking over to me. He sat down next to me, and handed me a blue bundle. I stared at it in confusion for a few seconds, until I realized that it was his jacket.
"Thanks," I said quietly, avoiding eye contact. I put the jacket on quickly, and was surprised at how warm it was. I feel like the world's biggest jackass right now, and god only knows how Reno must be feeling.
"No problem," he replied, just as quietly. Then he looked at me and said, "Look, I'm sorry."
I looked up, surprised and slightly wary. "What?"
He sighed again, although this time he looked me in the eye. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have tried holding you down in the water, and I shouldn't have acted like such a bitch when you got freaked out."
"It's okay…and I'm sorry too," I replied, swallowing slightly. I have never, in all my years of living, apologized to ANYONE for anything. It's hard.
It was quiet for a few minutes until Reno grinned and said, in an overly gushy voice, "Awww, I think we just ended our first fight."
I slapped his shoulder in mock annoyance, and said, "Shut up."
He didn't say anything, choosing instead to ruffle my hair. If he were any other person, I would've slapped his hand away and warned him to never touch me again. I hate having my hair messed with, because when I was a child, my mother always used to ruffle my hair just like this, while she called me 'her little boy'. I frowned slightly, trying to pull more images of my mother from my memories. From what I can remember, she had the same, strawberry blonde hair, and the same blue eyes as I do. Except her eyes were never icy-cold, like the ones I saw reflected in the mirror every day. Hers were always filled with love and warmth.
"Rufus?"
My head snapped up when I heard my name, temporarily ceasing my influx of memories. "What?"
"Are you okay?" Reno's voice held an undertone of concern, and I realized that I had been spaced out for the last few minutes or so.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I was just thinking," I said, in what I hoped was a reassuring voice.
"About what?" He asked, his voice sounding a little more relaxed.
I frowned again. My mother was one of the most uncomfortable subjects for me to discuss with anyone, and it always has been. But I decided that I at least owed him this much for not trusting him earlier. "My mother."
I saw a hint of interest spark in his eyes. "Your mother? I didn't know you had a mother."
I raised an eyebrow. "Everyone has a mother, Reno."
His cheeks flushed slightly, and he spoke in a frustrated tone that proved fairly amusing. "I know that! What I meant was, that I'd never seen your mother before. Does she live somewhere else?"
Despite the fact that it was an honest question, I tensed up, and my reply came out much colder than I had meant it to be. "She's dead."
His eyes widened for a moment, then he looked down. "I'm sorry."
I forced my body to relax and shook my head. "It's okay, you didn't know."
"Um…if you don't mind my asking, what happened to her? Your mom, I mean." I could tell by his now careful speech pattern that he was trying not to upset me, which made me strangely happy. Not many people go out of their way to make sure that I don't get hurt. And if they do, it's only because they don't want to lose their job. So I decided to answer his question, albeit somewhat icily.
"When I was 9, my mother and father had a huge argument about me. My father thought that I should be put into a special training facility in Junon, where I would be taught 'proper discipline', as he put it. My mother flat out refused to let me go, saying that I was too young. It ended with my mom dragging me out of there, screaming about how she wasn't going to stand for this anymore. The next day, she was gone. They said she committed suicide. My dad killed her," I finished bitterly, tears of rage and sorrow stinging my eyes.
I could tell by his face that Reno wasn't nearly as surprised as most would be. But he still seemed stunned. "He killed her over something like that?" Reno asked, incredulity seeping through every word.
I shook my head, tears spilling over and splashing on the sand. "No, not just that. It turned out that my mother had been making plans to take me away with her to her hometown, Gongaga, where we would stay with her relatives. But father made sure that that wasn't going to happen."
I could see the sympathy in Reno's eyes, but he didn't say anything. I don't think he knew what to say. So when he finally did break the silence, he did something that most people do when uncomfortable with a topic. He changed it.
"So…your mother came from Gongaga?" He asked, feigning non-chalance.
"Yes," I replied, my voice becoming a little less painful with the lighter topic. "She lived there until she was 19, with her aunt and uncle. She a left about a year after her cousin Zack was born." I avoided mentioning that she left with my father, figuring that he could fill in the blanks.
Now there was actual interest in his eyes. "Did you say Zack?"
I nodded, tilting my head. "Yes, why?"
"I knew a guy named Zack back during the incident at Nibelheim. He came from Gongaga, too. Had long, spiky black hair, blue eyes, and never stopped smiling," Reno said, a grin appearing on his own face. "And he was pretty good at holding his alcohol too."
I jumped slightly, excitement flooding through me. "That's him!" I exclaimed. "Zachary Knightblade, SOLDIER 1st Class. My second cousin. I can't believe you knew him!"
Reno laughed, which prompted me to do the same. I didn't usually laugh that much, so I think he may have been a little surprised when I did. But after the laughter subsided, he looked at me curiously and asked, "Whatever happened to him, anyways? I haven't seen him since it happened."
I shrugged, although I was fairly curious about it myself. "I don't know. I lost contact with him 5 years ago, around the time I turned 16. I was actually kind of disappointed when he stopped writing to me…besides my mother and his parents, he was the only other person that genuinely cared about me…" I trailed off, not knowing how to finish the sentence. "So, where did you come from?" I asked, trying to put the focus off myself.
"I grew up in the Slums," he replied, his grin unwavering. "My mom came from Kalm, but my dad lived in Sector 6 all his life. Dunno how he managed to marry her, since he was drunk all the time, but he did. You can thank my dad for my insane hair," he remarked, pointing towards his untidy hair, laughing slightly. "My mom is the reason I'm so damn skinny though."
I smiled as I listened to Reno rant on and on about his family, whom, though he pretended not to, he obviously cared about very much. Although one mystery that he'd had yet to explain to me was his scars. So I decided to ask. "Reno…I've been wondering…how did you get those scars underneath your eyes? They look to neat to have been accidental, like if you'd gotten them from a job…" Instantly I noticed the unease that appeared in his eyes as I questioned, but when I finished, he answered me immediately.
"You're right; they didn't come from a job…I made them. When I was 15, my mom had temporarily left my dad. She took me with her, to Kalm, and we ended up living with some friends of hers. Her 'friends' were abusive control freaks, though, and the didn't want us to leave. They started hitting my mom, and then me. My mom wanted to call my dad, but they refused to let her, and when I tried to sneak a phone call, they beat us, then locked us in a room…" He trailed off slightly, but before I could say anything, he continued.
"They weren't letting us out, and I knew that they weren't going to unless they had too. I knew that if something bad happened, really bad, than they would let us out. So I decided to hurt myself somehow, in a way that wasn't all that bad, but that would look bad to them. I told my mom, and at first she didn't want to go along with it, but I eventually got her to realize that it was the only way. She asked me what I was going to do, and I told her that I would cut myself, so that they would see all the blood and figure that I was in a lot of trouble."
"So I grabbed a razor edge and went to the mirror. I knew that the most convincing place to cut myself would be my face. So I decided to make two cuts, one beneath each eye." He laughed a little here, with a slightly bitter edge to it. "It worked. My mom started screaming and pounding on the door, saying that I was bleeding to death. They came in and saw my face, and completely freaked out, and they took me to a hospital. I guess I'd done more damage to myself than I'd thought, 'cause I ended up passing out somewhere on the way to the hospital, and when I woke up, my mom and dad were there. My mom was crying, saying that she thought I was in serious trouble." Reno rolled his eyes. "She was always melodramatic about this kind of stuff."
I gaped at him, alarm flooding through me. Reno had recounted his tale with a casual tone, like he was talking about a family vacation, but it was horrible all the same. Being forced to cut yourself, and bleed to the point of passing out to escape some abusive crazies was not something that most would refer to in such an off-handed manner. Maybe he'd done what I'd done, and pushed it back enough so that it didn't hurt so much. But Reno really didn't seem like the type who would do that…
"Hey, it's almost 4:00, we need to get going," Reno stated, pointing to a black watch on his wrist.
I leaned forward to look at the watch, a little surprised to find that it was correct. "Has it really been that long since we've been here?"
He nodded, a somewhat sad smile on his face. "Yeah, it has. And we need to get back so that I won't be late for my guard duty again."
I frowned, but I didn't want Reno to get in trouble again on my account, so I sighed and said, "Alright." We trudged over to his bike before I finally realized something. "Reno, what are we going to do about my clothes? I can't go back there wearing your jacket."
Reno smirked and said, "What, would it be embarrassing?"
I gave him an annoyed glare and replied, "Seriously, what do I do? My clothes are soaked anyways, and I-" He didn't let me finish the sentence before he pulled me into a kiss. But just as soon as he'd done it, he pulled away.
"Don't worry, okay? If I play it right, I can get you into that house without anyone noticing, and you can change then, alright?"
I nodded, my head spinning a little from the quick but pleasant kiss. "How are you going to get rid of the guards?" I asked, as we got onto his motorcycle.
"Don't worry about that yet, just sit back and enjoy the ride," he answered with a grin, once again starting to rev the engine. I sighed and decided to trust him, and I fastened my arms around his waste. Without warning, he started the bike up, racing towards the stone building again, although this time I was more prepared, and my only reaction was to hold on tighter.
Well, this wasn't what I expected for a first date, but what the hell?
DONE! I finally finished the 3rd chapter. That was certainly an interesting date, eh? Bet it's not what anyone expected (I didn't expect it to be this way either), but I think it turned out good. Oh, and in case no one noticed, the Zack I used is the same Zack from the game. ;P I couldn't resist the thought of Zack and Rufy being related, and I felt the urge to toy with that idea. Hey, it's not entirely implausible.;) Haha, I have the feeling that this chapter was a little too fluffy, and I know that there wasn't very much romantic-ness in it, but please bear with me. I promise I'll make the next chapter better.:) And I promise not to take so long to update either. 7 months…damn…Kay, well, til next time! Kylie out.