Day 10

Rude, Cloud, Tseng, Rufus, Cid, Vincent, and Barret showed up promptly at eight o'clock at Reno's place for dinner.

"Come on in, I've got some drinks and appetizers in the living room, dinner will be ready in about half an hour." Reno said as he opened the door wearing an apron and chef's hat.

The men came in and went to the living room, trying to find something to talk about as they waited for dinner.

"How goes the oil business, Barret?" Cid asked.

"I guess you survived your torture by the Remnants." Vincent said to Tseng.

"Have you reconsidered rejoining Shinra?" Rufus asked Cloud.

Rude and Barret helped themselves to the puff pastry appetizers, noticing the way they were shaped with a hole in the middle was quite suggestive.

***

"Dinner is served!" Reno called out to living room.

The men gratefully left the awkwardness of forced small talk, sitting down at their seat at the dining room table according to the name cards, noticing their main course was a sausage sliced and arranged in a straight line, with the side dishes in little bowls at the beginning of the sausage, one on each side. Reno walked around the table, filling up everyone's wine glasses before sitting down to eat himself.

Rude wondered how much longer Reno was going to last without sex. It was obvious still very much on his mind.

Cloud was thinking that maybe Tifa should have come tonight, she had been so pissed off lately, maybe it would have distracted her. Usually if they had a fight and he left for a while, she was always happy when he came back, but that hadn't happened lately.

Tseng wished Reno would give up this stupid strike, Scarlet had always been hard to deal with, but she had reached a new level of bitchiness, and Elena was starting to echo it.

Rufus made a mental note to have Tseng get the recipes from Reno as he sipped the soup. If Reno ever decided he didn't want to be a Turk anymore, he'd be willing to hire him as their personal chef.

Cid wondered if this would be a good time to ask Rufus if he'd be interested in funding a new aviation program.

Vincent was hoping this would end soon, he needed to dust his coffin, he had been putting it off for too long, and it was hard to sleep when you're sneezing. And it was the only place he could hide from Yuffie, who had become unbearable lately.

Barret had no idea why Reno had invited him, but it was beyond him to pass up a free meal.

They all stared at Reno when he brought the desserts out, cream puffs that had been made to look like breasts, with whipped cream and a cherry on top.

***

Day 14

The men left Reno's place after another dinner party, not surprised to find that the meal once again demonstrated Reno's suppressed need for sex. This time the main course was a pasta dish with an overwhelming amount of cut-up sausages and oysters, and dessert was individual cherry pies.

Rude had decided to stay behind and help Reno clean up.

"Don't you miss sex?" he asked Reno.

"Nope, there's a whole culinary world out there worth exploring." Reno said.

"Riiiight…just be careful, you're starting to put on weight." Rude pointed out.