- A Final Fantasy VII Reno Fanfiction - by Nightcrawler666 -

! Hi! This took a while even though it's ridiculously short… I 'lost' my laptop charger and then it didn't work. :0 but oh well. Tseng = angry

Shoutouts to:

FireWolfHeart, Red6, Shin Kayima, Silver-x-Crimson and Lobandgeek for… doing things to my story ;)

Chapter 11 - Ready, aim, FIRE!

"Reno, you know better than to exploit Louisa in such a way! Get to your own apartment right now, and don't bother expecting to see her for another month! Now!" Tseng shouted, ridiculously out of his persona. Kyle stood there smirking, watching Reno leave until he himself was sent home too.

Lou sat perfectly still on the end of her bed, staring at the space that Kyle had pinned Reno against.

"Are you alright? I'm so sorry, he wouldn't usually do that to a woman of your age." Tseng said.

"Do what?"

"Well, Kyle said he was raping you… Is that not true?"

"No! I got him started on his family and he pinned me down on the bed! He was just strangling me!"

"You say that like it's a good thing." Tseng pointed out, leaving Lou speechless as he walked out of her flat.

Reno felt a little disappointed. Betrayed? No, just let down. He was determined, too. Determined to see Lou again in the next month. Why had he been isolated from her? He was only kissing her! He did that all the time! Well, maybe not to other Turks, but still… Reno was just sulking.

Tseng, he felt slightly more concerned. He'd seen the look on Kyle's face when Reno left. It was pure victory. He considered that as his sign that Lou was his. So, he'd tell Elena to keep guard. Keep everyone away, especially Reno and Kyle. And then he'd tell Rude to do the same for Reno.

Rufus certainly wasn't pleased to hear it either. Of course Tseng told him an account of Lou, Reno and Kyle, so that he had different viewpoints. On the outside, the brief explanation of the incident left only a slight frown on Rufus' face. Inside, he was sent into a deep trance of unanswerable questions and unsaid details. Who the hell was Kyle?

Rude didn't like his new job any more than Reno. He was made to sit on a heavy box in front of his door and sleep there, ready to wake up if he heard anything at all. Most of the time he opened his eyes just to see Reno had rolled off his bed. Once he even woke up because he breathed louder than usual. It was really unnerving, and it put Rude under unneeded tension.

Elena was having fun. Her and Lou kept pulling all-nighters, watching cheesy rom-com's and laughing at all the parts you shouldn't laugh at. They often just slept on the sofa together. Lou felt more accepted than she ever had with the Turks, and all that was missing was Reno…

No. She snapped back into reality to see Elena fast asleep to her right. Although Lou was nearest the door, she had to make sure Elena wouldn't hear her. She stepped up and removed her slippers, then imagined her route before hastily tip-toeing away and out of her door. With a soft 'click' she locked Elena in and ran down the corridor in her bare feet.

Her baggy jogging trousers caught the heavy wind as it hurtled towards her, and her hair whipped back and slapped her cheeks. The lack of sleeves on her vest top was proving a problem, and every step she made seemed to be harder than the last. It didn't occur to her how she'd get into Reno's, or what the consequences would be. For once, her mind wasn't trained on the future.

The car turned the corner with ridiculous drift, men with guns hanging out of the top and waving their arms wildly. Lou turned to look at the wrong moment. The car headlights stunned her vision and she saw nothing but white. Heard nothing but shooting. Smelt nothing but rubber. Tasted nothing but fear. Felt nothing but pain.

And that was it. After that, she saw nothing. Smelt nothing, tasted nothing and felt nothing. But she heard laughter. Her entire body had crumpled and fallen, and was numb and cold on the pavement. Her ears popped. Sirens could be heard even as distant as they were.

Elena blamed herself. Rufus blamed the police and as did Tseng. Rude blamed the Lifestream, but Reno blamed no-one. He couldn't take it upon himself to say what he thought: that Lou was stupid to have gone out at that time, and that Tseng shouldn't of isolated them both. He didn't blame either of them though. As mentioned, he couldn't take it upon himself to say what he thought.

Of course Elena hadn't even been to the hospital to see her. Tseng and Rufus were busy talking to the police. Rude was totally unfazed by it all, not seeing the purpose in mourning someone who wasn't even dead. Reno went. As if by magic, Kyle appeared too.