oOo

Sleep without a dream, cold as it seems
It's my destiny
- Dirty Hole

oOo

Two Hundred Days

It was six months until he saw those eyes again. Six months of 'any day', six months of 'maybe never'. It took Elena and Rude both hounding to get him to eat, but nothing could make him leave that room. Tseng hardly spoke to him at all these days, partly blaming him for the fall of what remained of ShinRa after the Diamond WEAPON. Without Rufus, the rest of the company tore itself apart, Reno knew. Tseng knew, everyone knew that there was nothing that could have been done about it.

So the most loyal of employees, those who remained under the payroll not for the money or because of fear, soon let the ailing company fall to the dogs and turned their attentions to the recovery of the young man that seemed as doomed as his corporation.

'The longer he takes to wake up, the less likely it is he will.'

Those were the gently spoken words of Rufus' personal physician, the man who had overlooked every single one of his injuries, had practically placed every band-aid since his childhood. He had actually been the choice of Rufus' mother; Adrian Collins, a friend of a friend.

'But he's healed.' Reno felt like he'd had this argument a dozen times in the last week alone.

'Bones are mended, wounds are stitched, but some injuries can't be healed with materia and needle. His entire system has gone through serious shock. The lifestream upheaval also needs to be factored in... and even if he didn't suffer a head wound, if he wakes up he may never be the same again.'

'Right. If.' Reno scoffed, his eyes never leaving the screen of jagged lines that pretended to tell him what Rufus dreamed.

'Do you believe that you can cure him?'

Reno looked over, then regretted it. He had those eyes. The eyes of a SOLDIER. Even though he had quit long ago, the strange mako glow still lingered, and meeting the eyes of the SOLDIER-medic-turned-GP gave Reno chills. He didn't want to think about what could have been going through Dr. Collins' mind when Jenova issued her summon, so he turned back to the EEG readout. 'I just don't believe that you can't do anything.'

'Well...' Collins paused before taking a step closer to the bed, and the place where Reno sat. 'Some people believe that the comatose can hear things... some even think that they're aware on the subconscious level, and the readouts that indicate dreaming are actually attempts to interact subconsciously with the world around them.'

'In English, please.' Reno said flatly.

'Talk to him, hold his hand... though I'm sure you've been doing these things, but don't just mutter like you're talking to yourself, talk to him. You're stepping so lightly around him as if you're afraid to wake him, but we're hoping for the opposite.' Bright green eyes flicked to the door and back, and a faint smile touched the doctor's lips. 'Some people even think that the right stimulation can stir someone from a coma.'

Reno was adamant about not looking at the doctor right then. 'Pretend I have no idea what you're talking about.'

'I am Rufus' physician. As such I have to keep matters between us confidential. He's spoken openly with me in the past, and I know that you two are involved. I wasn't sure just how involved until he asked me to test him for VDs.'

Though there was nothing in his mouth, Reno choked. He made an attempt to speak after a moment, but the attempt failed. After a minor coughing fit, he fell silent.

'He was rather nonchalant about it, and kudos to him for that. However, I won't make you any more uncomfortable than I already have. While I still try to maintain hope for your sake, from a medical perspective, we should have let him go two weeks ago.'

Reno's head snapped up. 'You won't touch him until I decide when to let him go.'

Collins nodded silently and turned from the room, closing the door behind him when he left.

Reno sighed.

Rufus slept.

Monitors chimed.

'So I'm supposed to talk to you, huh...? Among other things.' Reno took the hand closest to him, rubbing idly with his thumb. 'I really don't know what to say, but I'm going to talk anyway, so this is going to end up being the most random thing you've ever heard.' He had no idea why he felt suddenly nervous. He was being put on the spot, and felt like he needed to perform flawlessly, even though his only audience wasn't even conscious to see it.

'Okay... so this is going to be strange, having a conversation with myself. More like a monologue, really, though I'm surprised I remembered that word.Maybe I should read to you? I don't even know what you like to read though, and I don't have much patience for reading anything more than a page. Maybe I should read off the business section of the...' Reno stopped himself. Newspapers had ceased production due to lack of resources. Instead there were leaflets and informative booklets, though where they came from no one knew, and whether or not the information could be trusted was equally as dubious. '...of the non-existent newspaper. God, Rufus we need you back... you got things done, you were the man. You were the hero... not Cloud. Yeah, he did away with Sephiroth, yeah he fought against us and our mako consumption, which was somehow what the people wanted, but he didn't understand things like you.'

A quick glance at the monitors told him nothing had changed, though he lacked the perception to notice how the lines had changed on the EEG readout; Rufus was listening...

'You were doing what was best for the world. If all the mako generators were destroyed, like AVALANCHE wanted, then we'd all be left without power, without heat... it would be chaos worse than this. You took out two of the WEAPONS. You were left to govern a teetering empire that your bastard father had all but destroyed, and you kept it together. You kept Midgar running, you knew what needed to be done, and you did it. Quite simply... you were what made Shinra the best thing to happen to the world in ages. We need you now more than ever... and as stupid as it sounds, I need you.'

Reno swallowed as he watched the still face. He turned in his seat and lay beside Rufus on the mattress. 'We don't exactly get along that well, and mostly when we're alone together I jump you, or you jump me, and there's not really anything beyond that, but if that was the only thing I liked about you... then I should just be saying que sera sera and go back to Rude, or find someone else to roll with in the hay. I don't know what it is about you... because it's certainly not the money or the power... though looks are just, well, wow. But it's more than that, I tell you. I know all we seem to do is screw around... but if you wanted, I'd be just fine with just sitting around, or watching a movie or something... Maybe you're worried that I wouldn't go for something tame, maybe you think all I want is to screw around. Or maybe that's really all you want... either way, one of us is a masochist.'

Reaching out, he touched the sallow skin. Being fed intravenously for six months... and half-starving himself for weeks before the WEAPON incident, left him a slip of a man, made smaller by the size of the bed, and the insane amounts of sheets surrounding him. He had to be down to ninety pounds, soaking wet. 'I'm sort of thinking it's you, but I don't know for sure... maybe it's me for sitting here waiting for you to wake up though you never will... not that I don't think you will, because you will. I'm not even making much sense to myself anymore, but this doesn't seem to be working at all.' Reno paused and thought a moment of the other thing Collins had suggested.

'But did your doctor say what I thought your doctor said? He'd really suggest something like that?' It had to be a joke... but the man was a doctor, and Reno had never known the practitioner to lie or lead anyone on, especially when it came to his patients health. Jumping his bones seemed like a strange solution, though.'This is going to be weird... but I guess I'm starting to get desperate.'

Reno got up and made sure the door was locked. Fortunately they had managed to get a private room. In the chaos that followed the WEAPON attack, there had been a great deal of casualties but Rufus managed to keep priority. He came back to the bed and stood at the foot of it. Respirator. A-V lines. Electrode leads. Reno eased carefully onto the bed, straddling the blonde's legs, but being careful not to touch him too much. He was healed for the most part, but he wasn't awake to say if something hurt.

How would he do this without disturbing all the equipment? Well duh, his mind told him. It's actually a really simple answer...

Reno slid off the bed to the side. He glared at the bed-prone figure, more out of frustration with himself than anything else. If he did it, he'd feel like a sicko. If it worked, then, well, there'd really be no problem. But if it didn't, he'd have to just live with it, and know that it was the last thing he did with Rufus before he died.

Not that he'd die.

'If you woke up now, I wouldn't have to decide whether or not I've got to give you a blow job while you sleep.' Reno sighed. There had to be something else he could try before moving to extreme measures. He'd do it in a second, if he were actually awake, because then permission could be given, or at least acknowledgement, and overall it would feel less illegal. 'Someone put grease into your IV, you're getting pure fat!' He cried suddenly. 'The nurse is chewing on a pen she borrowed from you! Someone wore shoes to bed in the room across from us! The custodian spits on the floor! OH MY GOD, TSENG'S WEARING A HAWAIIAN SHIRT!'

He paused. There was no change. Well, if Rufus really could hear him even in a coma, maybe it wasn't kind things he should be saying, but things that would tick him off enough to wake him up. 'Heideggar sure is fiiine. I'd hit that like the angry fist of god. There would be mag rods involved, I'm sure. And maybe Reeve. Or your secretary. And stationary no doubt. Lots of stationary. Secretaries come with danishes and tang, right? So there'd have to be some of that there, and we'd all be standing and peeing in your pool back at Costa Del Sol. Or sitting in your secretary's case. You know, whatever floats her boat. Or maybe all of us should get together and try to wake you up the way Dr Coillins suggested, either one at a time or all at once depending on space, but this room's pretty big, and you're a small person, I'm sure we'd all fit around you. Please wake up and shut me the hell up.'

'...Reno... shut the hell up...'

Startled into silence, Reno stared as pale blue eyes fluttered open and attempted to focus on their surroundings. It worked...? Why did it work now of all times? Why didn't it work six months ago? 'You stupid jerk!' Reno found himself saying, and certainly not without a large degree of annoyance.

Those eyes turned to Reno's.

He wasn't sure why, but now this irritation rose up in him, as though Rufus had some nerve, just lying there for so long. 'What the hell were you thinking? You just had to pull some fancy stunt, be Mr Self-Sacrifice. While you get to be cozy here in your room, the world's going all to hell. Tseng couldn't hold it up himself with all the vultures in every layer that were just waiting all along for you to fall like your father. It's over.'

The word that the bed-ridden blond chose to repeat was not quite what Reno expected given his current state. 'Tseng...?'

All at once, Reno settled. Yes, he didn't know Tseng had actually survived the encounter with Sephiroth. He didn't know the current state of the world, didn't even know how long he was out. 'Yeah...' Reno suddenly felt at a bit of a loss. 'He made it okay after all.'

'The cannon worked?' He sounded as though he were muttering in his sleep.

'Yeah, it worked just fine.' Rufus gave a little nod and his eyes slid shut again. 'I'm going to get a nurse or something. Try to stay awake.' He rose, but Rufus had at some point seized his sleeve.

'Talk to me...' he said quietly. He meandered a tired hand to the nurse button on the bed, not yet letting Reno go with the other. He didn't elaborate and his eyes were still closed, but he seemed to be awake.

'About what...?' Reno asked as he settled.

'Whatever you were saying before. Just... whatever comes to mind.'

Reno looked at him rather startled. 'You heard all that?'

'I heard you speaking. I didn't know what you were saying.' He still sounded half in a daze, but managed to speak clearly. It was easy enough to understand; it took a while to wake up when you've been sleeping six months.

Reno was privately very relieved that he couldn't actually be understood during his ramble. 'I was just trying to wake you up.'

'Guess it worked...'

'Unless something strange happened while I was at your bedside and suddenly I'm with you in Comaville. But probably not.' He paused. What was there to say? He supposed he should inform him on everything that had happened while he was out, but not until he was feeling better. No point in burdening the burdened.

But inevitably... 'What happened?'

Reno made his answer as quick and uninformative as possible. 'Diamond WEAPON returned fire.'

'Did we lose anyone important...? In the attack?'

Almost, Reno thought. We almost lost the most important person... He chose to say nothing.

'No one we can't replace, I'm sure. Summon whoever's left... keep minutes and give them to me so I can-'

'No, Rufus. The WEAPON ended it. The company's been torn apart. Like I said, Tseng couldn't keep it all together once you were out for the counting. Things are really different, you don't un-'

'I don't understand? Then explain so I might know.' His eyes and voice were clearer. Reno knew he was definitely better, otherwise he wouldn't be able to stare at him quite like that.

'It's been six months without you at ShinRa's helm. Six months without ShinRa keeping things in check.' Reno watched it sink in, knowing that Rufus would know better than anyone what the results of that would be, possibly even better than Reno who had lived it.

There was a pause that stretched into a silence...

Then, with his usual calm, Rufus said, 'I'll let you know when it's over,' and pressed the nurse button.

Reno knew there would be nothing he could say that would turn his mind onto something else. He couldn't even bother to tell him to take it easy, because Reno could see he knew better than to push himself just yet. Rufus knew how to play his cards. By the time the nurse came in, Reno could only smile and shake his head. He almost didn't believe himself- that morning he was barely able to drag himself out of the waiting room chair, knowing that there'd be yet another day of watching and waiting as yet more hope slipped away.

Now there was no doubt in his mind that order would come from this chaos, and that it wouldn't take that long either. Rufus had an 'overnight policy' that he had mentioned on a number of occasions, and though Reno didn't know the exact terms of it, he could see the pattern. Rufus implemented this overnight policy and whatever he applied it to got done before the end of the next day. While rebuilding the world would be a fair bit more difficult, Rufus had a tendency of making things look simple enough for a child to pull off.

Reno took his leave as the nurse continued about, paging the doctor and sounding astonished. Reno didn't think she was trying very hard, she wasn't very convincing.

Still smiling, he sat back down in the waiting room with a worn magazine. He couldn't wait to see the leaflets tomorrow.

oOo

A/N

This chapter would have been up sooner, but has been weird about letting me upload for the last few days.

This got 500 hits between 10:30 and 10:50 MST on Saturday June 10th.. If you read my story at this time, contact me and you can request a chapter all to yourself It doesn't even need to be Reno/Rufus I suppose. If I get too many people who claim to have gotten me my 500th hit, then the deal is off, just so that there's no confusion.

I really wanted the last scene to go like this:

Reno: ...it's over.
Rufus: It's not over until the fat lady sings!