Chapter 63

Reno drank until he could barely think straight. He could barely sit straight after a while, and leaned heavily on the bar, his chin resting in one hand. "One more, Tifa." He muttered, watching the pretty woman eye him critically.

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah, yo. I know what I want." He frowned, trying not to slur his words. Tifa carried a glass toward him and set it carefully by his hand.

"Where's your friend?" she asked, and he watched her dark eyes scan the room. Half turning, Reno looked toward the table he'd left Rude at.

"No idea." He replied, "Probably still watching you with no intention of doing anything about it."

He looked back to Tifa to see her frown at him. "Maybe you should go home." He picked up the drink she'd given him and downed it in a single movement. "By yourself." She added and he lifted his eyes to her slowly.

"What did you think I was gonna do, yo?"

"I don't know?" she replied drily, "What you usually do when you're in a mood? Find some poor girl to take home and fuck."

Reno just stared at her, his vision blurring at the edges. "Not done that in a long time."

"Bullshit." Tifa sighed, "You fucked that ShinRa woman in my storeroom not that long ago…"

Reno made a face at the thought of Zena wrapped around him. "That was a mistake."

"I'll bet." The woman replied, "Which is why I suggest you go alone."

Reno looked at her again. "You're a woman…" he began and Tifa raised an eyebrow at him.

"You've noticed?"

"Tell me what to do." He said, leaning halfway across the bar, "Aura is pissed off at me and I didn't do anything and she wont talk to me and I don't know what to do. Should I go to her house?" He heard the desperation in his voice, despite the drink in his system, but he couldn't make himself care. He just wanted answers.

"Leave her alone." Tifa said, "You push it, you'll make it worse."

"But I want to see her…"

"Go home, Reno."

"Tell you what…" he breathed, sliding off his stool to stagger slightly, "I'll go home… if you go talk to Rude." He heard her sigh and agree, and so Reno nodded and headed for the door, trying to dodge random dancers as he went.

Once out on the street, Reno stopped as he saw Tseng dragging Elena behind him further up the road. He blinked as he watched them disappear into the darkness before he turned to head toward his own apartment. Reno had taken barely twenty steps when a familiar face caught his eye on the other side of the road, and he stopped again to watch Cadan slip down an alleyway. Without pausing to consider, Reno stepped into the shadows to follow him.

Tseng was at his desk not long after the sun rose the next morning. He took a stack of papers from Reno's desk and went over them quickly and efficiently. Catching up on what he had missed while he'd been stuck in the infirmary had become top priority, and he intended to be on top of everything before Rufus called in him into his office later in the morning.

Reno had done a good job, the man decided. He would have to make sure to tell the red-head as much when he arrived for work. All the paperwork had been completed, and everything looked to be well in order. The idea to track any missing equipment from the old warehouses was solid, despite his men having found nothing the previous day. There was more investigation into that he could do, and he would see to it before the day was out.

With a soft sigh, Tseng moved on to the problem with the recruitment centre. Rufus would, no doubt, want to continue with that plan. He needed more people, and it was one of the most effective ways to grow their ranks. After his morning briefing, Tseng decided that he would head back to the scene and figure out what they would need to do first.

To his great surprise, Reno walked in at least an hour before Tseng had expected to see him. "You're here early…"

"Yeah." Reno's tone was colourless, and Tseng tilted his head, watching the other man.

"You alright?"

"Fine, yo." The red-head strode toward Tseng's desk and sank into a chair, looking at him. Tseng just waited for him to speak as he obviously had something to say. "Saw that Cadan fucker last night."

"Did you?"

"Followed him."

"…is he alive?" Tseng wouldn't have put it past Reno to kill the guy in a back alley. Especially considering what he had done to Aura when she and Zena had been held captive.

"Yeah." Reno ran a hand over his face, and Tseng noticed that he looked tired. "Didn't go anywhere interesting, but I know where he lives now."

"Do you think we can use that?"

"Guess so." Reno muttered, leaning back in the chair. "We wanna tail him? Find out where he goes. He'll lead us somewhere eventually."

"Put Rude on it." Tseng replied, "He's probably least familiar to Cadan."

"Or you." Reno said, and Tseng nodded his agreement. He watched the tired way that Reno moved as he got to his feet.

"Did you stake him out all night?"

"Nah. Reno murmured. Just saw him go into his place, then I headed home." The red-head looked at Tseng still watching him. "… didn't sleep much." He added and Tseng nodded again.

"You right?"

"Yeah." Reno gave him a slight salute and headed for his own desk. Tseng watched him for a while before looking back to his paperwork. Reno was usually honest with his own limits. If he wasn't fit for work, he would tell Tseng so. Still, Tseng mused, he might ask Rude what the problem was.

Reno watched the clock. Aura was usually in her work room by nine in the morning, and he specifically had not gone to check yet. It was swiftly approaching eleven, and he was almost afraid to go and look. What if she hadn't come in again? What would that mean? He couldn't sit watching the clock and wondering all day, however, and so he got to his feet with a soft groan.

Rolling his eyes at himself as he headed up the stairs toward Aura's work room, Reno tried to ignore how nervous he felt. He could have called up, he supposed, but there was no guarantee that she would have picked up the call. The only way to be sure was to go and look. He pushed open the door to her workroom almost sure he was holding his breath, but then he released it with a disappointed sigh when he saw that she was not inside. "Fuck…" he breathed, shaking his head and running his hands through his hair. The disappointment tasted bitter in his mouth and Reno didn't know what to do.

Unable to take it anymore, he strode back downstairs and told Tseng that he was going home for the day. His superior seemed unsurprised and simply said that he would see him tomorrow. Reno just grabbed his jacket and headed for Aura's house.

Standing on Aura's doorstep in the sun, Reno hesitated. Again, he didn't think it would be appropriate to use the key she had given him, so he knocked and then stood and waited. After a while he knocked again, and listened hard for any sound from inside. He didn't hear anything, however and, unable to help himself, Reno pulled the key from his pocket and unlocked the door. Quietly, he moved inside. "Aur…?" he asked softly, not finding her in the livingroom or the kitchen. Reno then headed for the hall and checked her bedroom and the rest of the house. She wasn't there. "Fuck…" he sighed and headed back outside, pulling the door closed after himself. Where in the name of Shiva could she be?

Walking down the street aimlessly, Reno had a moment of low-level panic at the thought of Cadan coming back to Aura's house. The prick knew where she lived, and he had used her to get at ShinRa previously. Nearly as quickly as the thought had come, Reno dismissed it. Aura's door had been locked and there had been no sign of disturbance or distress inside the house. She had simply gone out. She hadn't gone to work, however, and he had no idea where else she may have gone. He was fairly certain that she didn't have other friends, although he supposed he never really had asked. There had to have been aspects of her life that he hadn't known about, just as there had been of his that she had not known about. Cissnei. The very reason for the current issue was a great example. Did Aura have people he didn't know about? Had she gone there to get back at him for not telling her about Cissnei? He dismissed that thought, too. Aura wasn't petty.

Pulling out his phone, Reno sent a quick text to Elena, asking if she knew where Aura was. He knew that the two women had become quite friendly, and he figured that perhaps Aura was in contact with Elena. Not a few seconds later he received Elena's reply that she did not know where Aura was, and he slipped his phone back into his pocket, swallowing agitation.

He wanted to sort this out. He couldn't think about anything else, or focus on anything other than the fact that Aura was hurt, and not speaking to him. His mind centred on nothing else and Reno half worried that it was bordering on obsession.

Unable to face going home and just sitting around fixating on it, Reno turned around and went the other way. He would wander Edge for a while, maybe go back to where he'd found Cadan lived the night before, and keep a bit of a watch on him. He had to do something to try and keep his mind occupied and off of Aura.