2
Blurred Snowflakes
RayZor
I wrote this last spring sometime, so please bear with the older style of writing. It was one of my first in-depth detail fics and I just got it typed up today. Enjoy!
Icy green eyes stared up at the sky from his seat upon the roof of his new home. Stars twinkled like diamonds upon a black velvet back drop. No, he decided. That was too cliche. They were snowflakes that a child had caught upon a piece of black felt - to examine them, of course - blurred by the tears from a brisk winter breeze. Yes, that described the stars much better. No cliches for this red head. He's all original, baby!
Except for one thing... He craved to be accepted. He needed to be normal, to be able to fit into society, to walk the streets without being feared. He could have no such luck. Anyone from the higher ranks of ShinRa was to be put in prison for public endangerment. So far, Scarlet, Hedeigger, Palmer, and Reeve - who was soon released due to the Planet's Saviours begging - had been caught and put behind bars. The Turks split. None of them knew where the others were. That was, interrogation was useless.
Sighing, the man leaned back until he was lying with his hands behind his head. Only because of one woman could he live in such leisure. She had fought him physically at least once - in Gongaga - yet fought for him for ten months in court. A chance meeting in Mideel, the normal childish insults traded, a man yearning for freedom and accepteance, a woman striving to make a difference, to leave her mark on the world, strictly platonic. Yeah, as if. If Reno could have kept his hands to himself, he would have never ended up with ShinRa. The grabbing of an ass landed his own ass in trouble with Scarlet, then landed him a job when he whooped up on her two guards. Needless to say about the woman fighting for him, though... She was not as innocent as most perceived.
As this thought crossed his mind, he smirked. Where was she anyway? Surely her trip from Nibelheim to his house - a quaint little place on the edges of Cosmo Canyon with a great view of the ocean - could not take two hours! She must have stopped off at store or gas station or something. Her apartment in Nibelheim was less than forty-five minutes away - less if Reno was driving. Reno frowned. Could something have happened?
Whipped, are we? Worried about our little princess?
He shook his head, staring at the blurred snowflakes upon black felt and trying not to think of her. But the more he tried not to think of her - as one might have guessed - the more he did think of her. She was thin - scrawny, really, with barely enough curves to make her look feminine - with a short stature, obviously Wutain through and through. Her eyes varied in shades from storm cloud grey to light lilac, depending on the lighting. Short, choppy layers were sun-bleahed and framed her elfen face perfectly. To go along with that cute picture was a quick tempered imaptience accompanied by a tongue-lashing to rival all.
"Dammit," he grumbled and sat up. "I'm only with 'er 'cause she ain't afraid of me an' she treats me like anyone else. Makes me feel accepted." A white light shot across the sky. A shooting star. He had never wished on one before... But this time, he did. And he kept his wish silent, like an unspoken longing or dream that one never expects to come true. He knew that his wish was stupid, juvenile, wishing for a person, not a thing. But he did not care.
"I'm lyin' to myself. I'm with 'er 'cause I love 'er."
Headlights appeared in the distance, but he did not notice. He was entranced by the blue-white snowflakes caught upon black felt, blurred by tears from a brisk winter's wind. They seemed so far, but tauntingly close. Too far away to touch, yet close enough to feel their innocent gaze. The roar of a V8 engine made him start and look toward the road that led to his house. Headlights stared back, bright and blinding.
Just like her personality.
In a few minutes, the large pick-up had parked behind his blue Berreta, which never ran. He returned to watching the stars, knowing that the driver would either call him or find him. He figured the latter.
"Hey, Turkey, arentcha bored yet?"
A small smile graced his face. "Nope. Care to join, dawl?" He heard her shuffle, but she did not plop beside him. Unexpectedly, she remained sitting on the window sill. He looked back to see a serious expression on her normally smiling face. "Whassa matter, sweetheart?"
She wrinkled her nose in a cute fashion to show her distaste for what she was about to say. Obviously, something bad had happened. "You gotta go on trial, Ree. Charges against you for public endangerment from the ShinRa bullshit."
He stood and stretched. "We knew it was gonna happen sooner or later, darlin'."
Yuffie frowned, brushing too-long chocolate bangs out of her face with manicured fingers. "My friends," she spat the word as if it tasted like asphalt, "Are the ones charging you. Cloud Strife, Barret Wallace, Tifa Lockheart, and Cid Highwind." Reno's calm green eyes met her livid purple. "How could they do this?"
Reno shrugged. "'Cause I'm ShinRa scum?"
She scowled. "You are not! Kya-ha-ha and Gya-ha-ha and Lard-Ass are, not you!" She huffed in aggrivation, folding one leg beneath her and letting the other dangle out the window. She did not wear her normal jeans and sneakers, he noticed finally. She wore a black skirt and pumps with pantyhose. "Gawd! They're so infuriating!"
He meandered over and looked down at her. Innocent lilac eyes watched him curiously. She was perfect righ then. Her hair was messy from having the windows down during the ride to his house, her make-up was a little smudged, her pantyhose had a run in them, her pumps had been discarded inside the house, her knee-length skirt had ridden up to her upper thigh; she looked gorgeous. He bent low to kiss her gently.
"It's gonna be fine, sweetheart."
She nodded, eyes closed. "I know. Because Reeve's gonna be you attorney." He smiled at her as she sat there, eyes closed and face to the heavens. An angel fallen from grace, her wings no longer attached. His guardian angel, even. More beautiful than gems or flowers and more deadly than the fastest acting poison. Yes, she was his guardian angel, taking on the world just for him.
He noticed her shiver and pulled her up so that she was standing, eyes open once again. He smield down at her. "So... What're we gonna do after I get off the hook? Go out to eat somewhere fancy? Go to a movie? Go to a concert?"
She laughed. Her laugh was a truly joyous sound, like church bells ringing on a Sunday afternoon or a butterfly fluttering through the woods in the early morning when everything is new. Then again, her laughter could be described as beautiful as Wutai bathed in the golden hues of a Da Chao sunset. However he preferred to describe her laugh worked for her. She thought he was too much of a dreamer to have ever been the Reno that she met in Gongaga.
"Who says we have to go somewhere?" she asked. He arched a crimson eyesbrow in questioning and an angelic smile graced her already too-perfect features. "Why don't we just come back and watch the stars?"
He smirked. "Is that all we would do?"
A look of overly dramatized shock crossed her face, but both knew the answer. "I am apalled that you would even think of such a thing, let alone voice it," she stated in a mock sophisticated voice. Once again, they both knew that they would do more than stare at the stars. Being twenty and twenty-five, neither were naive enough to think otherwise.
He took her in his arms, just needing to hold her. She wrapped her slim arms about his waist and rested her forehead on his chest, taking in the faint cologne that was Reno and loving every moment of it. Reno rested his chin atop her chocolate and sun-streaked locks, eyes allowing tears to form and fall. Even with Yuffie and Reeve on his side, Strife could win all-too-easily. Lockheart and Wallace could be persuaded by their ninja friend, but Cloud and Cid could not. Tifa would stand by Cloud's word... And Barret went with the majority. He was royally fucked.
"Ree?"
"Hmm?"
"What if we do lose? What'll we do then?" He did not know what to say. He wanted to laugh it off, say that Reeve could get him out of it... But he... He could not. Yuffie was looking up at him now, the star light making her eyes look a vivid purple. "Could we just run?" she asked in such a faint whisper that he nearly dismissed it as the wind.
The snowflakes twinkled upon their piece of black felt, blurred by the tears from a brisk winter's wind. He smiled once again, a habit he had been forming in place of his drinking and smoking. Perhaps Yuffie's optimistic outlook on life had been rubbing off onto him? Or maybe he merely had more to smile and be happy about. Most likely both, he deicded. "Whatever ya wanna do, darlin'. I'm by your side as long as you're by mine."
She smiled again and hugged him tightly. Both of them knew that they would not run. They had nowhere to run to! Wutai was off limits for Reno - they hated ShinRa - and Yuffie was well-known as the youngest member of AVALANCHE, frmo almost four years before. Their case was hopeless, they could not run...
Mint green eyes turned toward the heavens, where diamonds glittered upon a black velvet backdrop. No, he told himself. They were tears... Lost in the turmoil and despair of one's heart. He crossed that one off too. Yuffie would tell him that it was too depressing, too angsty, to suit his style. Icy blue-white snowflakes winked at him from their spot on the piece of black felt, blurred by the tears from a brisk winter's wind. She would like that one. He might have to tell it to her.
Until then, though, he remained lost in her embrace, eyes to the heavens. A cool wind whipped his fiery ponytail around and the scent of wildflowers invaded his sense. Yuffie liked wildflowers. Maybe they could go on a picnic or something.
"C'mon, Ree," she said, tugging him toward the window. "I wanna see that movie we rented."
When she pulled away, the fragrance left. "Okay," he replied with one last glance at the blurred snowflakes in the black felt sky. One way or another, he and Yuffie would choose their paths, whether they included the other or not. The trials of a relationship - as well as the trials for "public endangerment" - lay ahead as they cuddled on the couch watching some cheesy vampire movie. And only blurred snowflakes helped clear Reno's mind.
.fin.