Disclaimer – I don't own FF7

Coeurl

By Crimson Skies

Chapter Twelve – Reminiscing

Wanted for the Theft of Shinra No. 12 Warehouse

Suspect One – male adolescent between the ages of twelve and thirteen. Red hair, blue eyes.

Suspect Two – adolescent (female?) between the ages of ten and eleven. Blond, spiky hair. Eye color unknown.

Informants will be paid a sum of 500 gil for substantial information.

Sephiroth stared at the wanted poster will barely contained disgust. It was ridiculous. That described half the population of Midgar! Okay, maybe not, but it was certainly close enough. And what was worse, plenty of citizens were sure to come forward with false information, meaning someone would have to weed the information out. Of course, someone like Sephiroth would not be called upon for such a duty, but he couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor sap that was.

"Sephiroth, you will not believe what just happened to me!" Zack burst through the door. The look on his face was one of blatant horror. "I'm a high ranking SOLDIER for Gaia's sake! I can't believe that did this! It's demeaning!" he ranted, pacing in front of the bemused General's desk. Sephiroth merely watched him, knowing Zack would inevitably speak without being prodded. "Geez! This is so humiliating. I never thought this would happen to me! They actually have me interviewing people concerning that stupid warehouse break in!"

Sephiroth bit back a smirk.

"Apparently," Zack continued, "The higher-ups are embarrassed and completely pissed that something like this was allowed to happen. I'm surprised you haven't heard about it!"

Actually, Sephiroth had heard about it…at length. From the President himself, no less. The man had wanted to know how a couple of kids slipped past trained SOLDIERS. Sephiroth had curtly replied that he wasn't in charge of warehouse security and that the President should ask the instructors at the Training Center. Certainly, admittance into SOLDIER had noticeably become more difficult in the past week.

"And so now I'm stuck with interview duty. I can't believe this! And I heard at least thirty people have shown up claiming to know the brats today alone," Zack finished with the groan.

Poor sap indeed.

COEURLBYCRIMSONSKIESCHAPTERTWELVEREMINISCING

"Reno, will you stop laughing! It's not that funny!" Cloud snapped, eyes blazing. Reno just choked before laughing that much harder. Tears streamed from his eyes. Cloud waited irritably while the other boy fought to compose himself.

"I can't…gasp…believe! Too funny!" Reno sputtered.

Cloud let out a frustrated howl and promptly tore the wanted poster to pieces before glaring at his friend. Reno just laughed harder.

Ten minutes later, when the red head was no longer hyperventilating Cloud spoke again.

"It really wasn't funny."

"Oh but it was! Gaia!"

"I do not look like a girl. And I'm not that short. They missed my age by a couple years!" Cloud fumed.

Reno snorted.

"And I don't look like a girl!"

"You already said that," Reno informed him. Cloud scowled, too irritated to think of a response. "It's not so bad, the less they know about us, the better, right? Besides, we managed to keep some of the materia, and the 'big dude' let us go."

"Yeah, let us go with the promise to 'inform' us if and more 'jobs' became 'available'," Cloud reminded him.

"But we are still alive."

"I'm not sure that's such a good thing anymore."

"Ever the pessimist," Reno sighed.

"Is anyone in this city an optimist?" Cloud countered. Reno appeared deep in thought. "Don't strain yourself," Cloud warned.

"Nope!" Reno replied. "Except maybe this one girl I heard about who sells flowers."

"Flowers? Who sells flowers in Midgar?" Cloud asked incredulously.

"Dunno, but she's gotta be one interesting girl."

"Flowers in Midgar! Now that is strange," Cloud muttered.

COEURLBYCRIMSONSKIESCHAPTERTWELVEREMINISCING

Vincent scowled, something he seemed to be doing a lot of lately. He had reached Kalm, and had yet to find Cloud. After asking around the town, he had concluded that no one had seen the boy. He could have spent more time looking in the small town, but Kalm was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone and their pet goldfish. Cloud, as an outsider, would stand out. Which meant, of course, that there was only one place left.

Midgar.

Just the thought of returning to that cursed city set Vincent on edge. And the thought that Cloud was there? That was worse. But there was nowhere on the continent left to search other than Midgar. The gunner really hoped that Cloud hadn't gotten himself into too much trouble. However, knowing Cloud, that hope was a lost cause.

One week later the gunner stood on a cliff overlooking Midgar. Though the city looked near, he knew it was still a day's travel by foot to reach it. He couldn't help but feel a little lost, staring at the vast expanse of human dwellings. Where did one even begin to search in a city like Midgar? A harsh wind whipped past him, causing his cloak and hair to flap wildly. There would be no shelter from that vile wind as he crossed the plain.

COEURLBYCRIMSONSKIESCHAPTERTWELVEREMINISCING

"I wonder what he's doing now…" Cloud thought aloud.

"Who?" Reno asked. Cloud glanced up, startled. For once, he hadn't heard the other boy approach.

"Vincent," Cloud replied. Reno leaned up against the wall and studied Cloud for a moment.

"You know, you never really told me much about him. I just know he looked after you and you guys traveled for awhile," Reno said suddenly.

"…I know. It's awkward."

"What do you mean?"

"It's kind of hard to explain. Talking about him when he's not here. It's too much like reminiscing. It makes it seem like he's dead, and that's not something I want to consider," Cloud explained.

"Rem-inis-cing?"

"Reminiscing. Uh…thinking about the past," Cloud explained. "Spelled R-E-M-I-N-I-S-C-I-N-G. The base word is reminisce. Spelled R-E-M-I-N-I-S-C-E." Cloud crouched to write in the dirt as he spoke.

"I'll remember it," Reno said, after studying the word. Shortly after they'd met, Cloud had taught Reno to read and write. The red haired boy had been ecstatic. He absorbed everything quickly. Occurrences like this were still fairly common though. Cloud still had a much larger vocabulary than Reno, but the gap was shrinking.

"I wouldn't mind telling you though, if you'd like to know," Cloud said, returning to the former subject.

"I am curious," Reno admitted. "I don't even know what he looks like."

"He's tall, for one thing. He's got black hair and red eyes. His left arm is artificial and kind of like a claw. You can't often see it though, because he's usually using his cloak to cover it. His cloak is just about the only colored thing he ever wears…it's blood red. Otherwise he wears mostly black, sometimes dark blue. It depends on what we can get at the time. Oh, and he's really pale. You know what, I never really though about it, but he's never had to shave either. No facial hair whatsoever. Actually, I'd say he looks more like a vampire than a human being."

"Really? For some reason, whenever you talked about 'Vincent', my mental picture was nothing like that."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I guess I thought he'd look more like you. I mean, I know it's stupid, but it's true."

"Physically, the only thing we have in common is the pale skin. I suppose we do make an odd pair."

"So what was he like?" Reno inquired.

"Quiet, usually. Sometimes he'd go into 'lecture mode' though. Then there was no shutting him up. Not that I ever wanted to. He rarely repeats himself and never says something unless it's relevant."

"Relevant?"

"Related to the subject. R-E-L-E-V-A-N-T." Cloud wrote the word in the dirt, next to the others. "Anyway, he always had something to teach me. I don't think he even realized sometimes that he would ramble on like that. He never did it in front of others. In fact, if you asked anyone else, they'd say it would be completely out of character."

"Kind of like what you're doing right now," Reno noted. Cloud sometimes did the same thing, when he was showing Reno something. Cloud blinked in surprise, before laughing.

"I suppose I got it from him," Cloud said, grinning.

"Don't let it stop you. I'd still like to hear more about him."

"Well, he's an expert marksman. I'd never seen anyone as good with a gun as he is. I won't say he never misses, but I will say it's rare when he does. And whenever we sparred, he would always win hands down. Well, almost always. I've pulled off a few lucky stunts. Actually, I'm starting to wonder how much better I've gotten since I last fought him. He's also good at magic, though he didn't use it too often. He taught me how, too."

"And you're going to teach me."

"Right."

"So far, you've basically told me he's a vampire-like gunman who's usually quiet, unless he goes into 'lecture mode'," Reno summarized.

"Pretty much. You should also know that he also has a good grip on his emotions, but a wicked sense of humor if you know where to look for it," Cloud added. "Other than that, you'd really have to meet him yourself. I hope you get to, someday."

"He sounds like a guy worth knowing. What did he do before traveling with you?" Reno inquired. Cloud looked away for a moment. Finally he sighed and turned back.

"I can't really tell you that. Vincent has…secrets. And they're not mine to tell. Not that I don't trust you, it just doesn't feel right," Cloud explained, hoping the other boy wouldn't be upset. He shouldn't have worried.

"Okay," Reno said with a shrug. He understood secrets well enough. And he knew that some secrets were lethal, so he wasn't going to pry. As it was, Cloud had told him more about his own past than Reno had expected originally. Reno would never betray Cloud though. He was…

…family.

COEURLBYCRIMSONSKIESCHAPTERTWELVEREMINISCING

Vincent stared at the wanted poster tacked by the gate of the town. It couldn't possible be…After all, there were plenty of teenage, spiky-haired blondes, right? Teenage blondes that can break into a Shinra warehouse and escape unscathed? His mind asked mercilessly.

"For the love of Gaia! Cloud, I really hope it wasn't you," Vincent muttered before walking off.

ENDCHAPTERTWELVE

So, here I am, updating after all this time. Really, people, I have a good reason! Other than the writer's block, I found out just after my last update that I have cancer, which means chemotherapy and radiation and all that fun stuff. So don't be too hard on me, k? And don't worry! Hodgkin's Lymphoma has a very high cure rate, so I doubt I'm gonna die anytime soon. Anyway, thanks to all my reviewers for your support. I love you guys. Oh, and I found I can't reply to you all individually since that will take up more space than my actual update and FFnet will not like that. Know, however that I appreciate all of your support immensely.

Thanks to:

miss.maniac, Kaoru, little-tenshi, azure, rei, DownRighT-evil, Night, kk, Kiki-sama, KiraDN, SarsMortis, rachel, Jenny, My Daze, RuByMoOn17, Nightwings, Shiri Matakami, rurouniturtle, MajinBakaHentai, shadow, nicole, and dogcollar

rurouniturtle – That was some rant. I think I managed to follow your train of thought…maybe. Hehe.