Summary: Reno will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. Cloud finds this out the hard way. A prequel of sorts to 'Snapshots.'
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII characters belong to SquareSoft, now known as SquareEnix… I think. Whatever the case, I don't own them.
A/N: First and foremost, I'd like to thank kazuhiko, a wonderful writer in her own right,for graciously offering to beta-read this chapter for me. Secondly, I apologize for the late update. I had meant for chapter 6 (i.e. this chapter) to be the last, but when the unfinished draft wound up being nearly ten thousand words long, I knew I had to split it up. The next chapter should be up in a week or two. Hmm… I'm afraid this chapter can be somewhat confusing and difficult to follow. This fic, like 'Snapshots', is mildly AU in the sense that some of the significant past events had been intentionally altered for the purposes of the story. For those of you having trouble understanding what's going on, I'm more than happy to answer any questions you might have. Reading 'Snapshots' might help too, though it's not really necessary. I hope you enjoy the read. Feedback is much appreciated. Cheers.
Tactics
A Final Fantasy VII Fanfiction by ntc
Mission objective: Cohabitation with Cloud
'Tifa? It's Cloud. I'm calling to let you know that I won't be coming back tonight. I just need to… um…' There was a brief pause, followed by a shuddery intake of breath that was barely audible. 'You don't have to worry about me. I'm fine. Really. And, uh, I'll see… I'll call again. Goodbye.'
The message on her answering machine ended with a heart-sinking beep. The more Tifa listened to the message, the more concerned she became. Her perceptive ears could detect a definite brittle quality to Cloud's voice, despite his efforts to sound calm and reassuring on the phone. Cloud's message was nothing short of a blatant attempt to dispel her worries; albeit an unsuccessful one. Cloud usually wasn't one to answer his voice messages, much less leave behind voice messages of his own. The fact that he had done so this time only showed how desperate he was in making sure that no one would go looking for him. Tifa's heart ached with the thought that Cloud had chosen to shut her out at a time when he clearly needed someone with him.
By the time she and Denzel had managed to break down the main door of Seventh Heaven (some twisted prankster had bonded the edges of the door to its wooden frame with a strong adhesive) and find their way to Reno's apartment (she had had to resort to manhandling and terrorizing a whole team of security guards to gain entrance into the condominium), neither Cloud nor Reno could be found. What had set Tifa's teeth on edge were the signs of a scuffle she saw at the Turk's place— broken glass, spilt wine and smashed furniture. She couldn't even comfort herself with the thought that maybe they were the result of Cloud losing his temper and finally giving Reno the long overdue thumping he so rightly deserved. She couldn't shake off the feeling that something really bad had happened.
Denzel nearly chewed off the tip of his thumb in his agitation. "I knew we shouldn't have allowed Cloud to meet that pervert alone! I knew it! I bet this was all planned right from the beginning! It's too much of a coincidence that we were sealed inside Seventh Heaven at the same time that Cloud had gone to meet up with that bastard."
Tifa found herself nodding in agreement. "I wouldn't put it past Reno to do something like that to secure some alone time with Cloud." A worried frown knitted her eyebrows. "It looks as if not everything had gone according to Reno's plans though."
"Goddamn it!" Denzel proceeded to curse with a vocabulary almost as vulgar and extensive as Cid Highwind's. Under normal circumstances, Tifa would have reproved Denzel for his language; but the current circumstances were anything but normal. If it wasn't for the boy's presence which reminded her of her obligation to act like a level-headed adult, Tifa was quite sure that she would be doing something similar, with the addition of property damage.
After Denzel's rant had run its course and died down, Tifa reached out to place a comforting hand on the boy's trembling shoulder. "Why don't we return to Seventh Heaven? Cloud might be back there already, waiting for us." She had to remain optimistic for both of them.
They had left Reno's apartment and walked back to Seventh Heaven with heavy hearts; hearts that became even more heavy when they arrived at the bar to find that Cloud's motorcycle was nowhere in sight. When they discovered Cloud's message on the answering machine, they were both initially surprised and relieved. Their relief, however, did not last long when it became apparent that Cloud had deliberately avoided any mention of his returning to Seventh Heaven.
"What if he's not coming back?" Denzel's words came out as a harsh whisper. "What if he decided to leave us?"
Tifa began to protest, "Cloud wouldn't do that…"
"Stop kidding yourself! We both know that he's been meaning to leave; to live somewhere else on his own. The only reason why Cloud stayed here with us these past few weeks was because that jerk of a Turk removed all his other accommodation options. Hah, guess I should've thanked that bastard…"
"Denzel…"
"Let me finish!" cried Denzel in a strained voice. The boy kept his back to her as he continued, "The truth is that Cloud was never comfortable living here! He cares about us; I don't deny that. Maybe he cares enough to pretend that settling down here with us is something he actually wants. But I know that, for a while now, he's been looking for a reason to leave. And tonight… tonight… I'm afraid he found that reason, thanks to that damnable spawn of Satan. Cloud's gone and… I don't think he's coming back."
Tifa spoke gently, "If that's the case, I'll just have to look for him and bring him home. And I will find him, Denzel. I promise." Her gentle voice took on a hard edge. "I won't let him disappear like that without so much as a 'by your leave' or an explanation of some kind. When I get him back, we'll take turns drumming some sense into that thick chocobo head of his, how about that?"
Denzel sniffled and rubbed his eyes surreptitiously before turning to give her a curt nod. The young orphan's pink nose spoiled the otherwise perfect stoic mask, but Tifa pretended not to notice.
It took her more than an hour to persuade Denzel to retire to bed for the night. Like her, Denzel had been clinging to the hope that Cloud would turn up and was determined to await his return. In the end, she managed to convince the boy to sleep with the argument that she would stay up and wait for Cloud tonight whereas he could have his turn the next day.
Tifa cast her bleary eyes at the digital clock on her desk, which read ten minutes after five in the morning. Having nothing better to do to pass the time, she had replayed and listened to Cloud's message several times. That wasn't the smartest thing to do, seeing as how it only heightened her anxiety and made Cloud's ongoing absence all the more unbearable.
She would find out what happened to Cloud last night. She would get her answers from the one man who was able to shed light on the matter.
Even if she had to break every single one of the two hundred and six bones in Reno 's body.
xXxXxXx
"Are you planning to run away?" Arms akimbo, the blond haired woman glared at the beefy Turk who was trying to sneak out of the Shinra building by the back exit.
Grateful for his tanned skin which hid his flush of embarrassment, Rude straightened himself up and coolly retorted, "Who's running away? One of us has to go and look for Reno. Seeing as how I'm the one most familiar with his behavioral patterns and usual haunts, the choice is obvious."
"You're leaving me to handle that bitch from hell who's currently beating the living crap out of all the guards stationed at the lobby?"
"Don't call her that," growled Rude warningly. "Strife is missing. As his friend, she has a right to be concerned."
The female Turk crossed her arms. "Since you have such great sympathy for her cause, why don't you go downstairs and handle her?"
"Because I can't handle her, that's why!" The petite blonde merely raised an eyebrow at his wimpy outburst. Rude cleared his throat self-consciously. "She wants to know where Strife is and she's after Reno because of that. I can't help her, since I have yet to find Reno and interrogate him myself. You'll just have to try your best to convince her that Reno isn't here."
"I have a better idea. Why don't I just order the snipers to open fire, riddle her with volley upon volley of bullets, and then bury her corpse in a dumpster somewhere? It's much easier that way."
The utter lack of sarcasm in his colleague's voice worried Rude. "You're a very disturbing and violent woman, Elena. And I thought Scarlet was bad."
"Why do you think I got this job?"
Rude didn't wish to touch on an old yet still highly sensitive subject, but he felt compelled to pull out his trump card to ensure Tifa's safety. "You owe it to Strife to handle this situation peacefully. You've already taken away one person he cares about. I doubt he'd appreciate another."
"You…" Elena's jaw sagged open in shocked surprise but she quickly clenched it shut in anger. "That's hitting below the belt, you asshole!"
"I know." Rude calmly met her enraged gaze until she blinked and looked away. Her lips quivered with the rush of guilt and shame.
Rude gave a comforting pat on Elena's back as he walked past her. He was reaching for the door handle when Elena spoke up suddenly, "Do you think he'll ever forgive me, Rude?"
Pausing at the doorway, Rude asked, "Who? Strife?"
Elena released a bitter laugh. "I don't expect forgiveness from him. I know I'll never have it." She bit her lower lip. "I'm referring to Reno . You know… We used to have this easy camaraderie between us, though he had an annoying habit of treating me like a wet-behind-the-ears kid. But ever since… that day… he's been acting cold and distant towards me."
"Really?" Rude frowned. "I haven't noticed anything of that kind."
"Oh, it's nothing obvious like throwing insults in my face or ignoring me completely. Reno still treats me with respect, or what qualifies as 'respect' for someone like him, and we still work well together as a team. But he's just so damned… professional when he deals with me. He no longer treats me like a wet-behind-the-ears kid."
"I thought that habit of his annoyed you."
"It did." Elena lowered her head. "But isn't that how Reno shows that he cares about someone? By annoying them? It's something like the juvenile behavior displayed by kindergartners who pick on the people they like."
Rude's lips curled up in amusement. "If that's true, he must care about everyone around him."
Elena responded with a small smile of her own, but her eyes remained troubled.
When Elena's gloomy mood showed no signs of receding, Rude sighed. "Okay, since it's my fault that this depressing subject was ever brought up, I'll confront Reno about this when I see him."
Elena's smile widened in gratitude. "Thank you, Rude."
xXxXxXx
To Tifa's great disappointment, her foray into Shinra headquarters ended up as a total waste of time.
Taut nerves and lack of sleep had put a tremendous strain on her patience; and before she knew it, she found herself in the middle of a melee, delivering head concussions, broken jaws and shattered kneecaps all around with brutal efficiency. The brawl was effectively put to an end by two warning shots fired into the air. The guards surrounding her hastily parted to make way for a slim woman wearing a crisp, tailored suit and a no-nonsense expression. They warily sized each other up for a few moments before the other woman broke the silence and insisted to her that Reno was not in the building. Unconvinced, Tifa demanded to comb the place personally, and was surprised when her demands were met without argument or resistance. She should have suspected that her easy access most likely meant that the woman was speaking the truth, but her stubbornness held out and she spent more than three hours checking out every nook and cranny of every room on every floor.
It was mid-afternoon when she left the building, and she still wasn't any closer to finding Reno or Cloud.
She was running out of ideas for where she could locate either of the two men. Earlier, at the break of dawn, she began searching for Cloud by visiting all the people she knew in the town— Elmyra, the street orphans and even her sensei Zangan— but none of them had seen him. Checking out the church in the slums where Cloud used to stay was her next step, but she found it to be forlornly empty. In fact, there was no trace of anyone having ever stepped into the building for many weeks, if the thick layer of dust coating the floor was any indication. Moreover, the flowerbed next to the pews was in a state of sad neglect, with almost as many weeds growing in it as there were flowers. If Cloud had visited the church, he would never have left without tending to the needs of the small garden first. The flowers had been Aeris's legacy, and Cloud would never…
Tifa stopped the thought before the feeling of tightness inside her chest became too much to bear. The tightness always came on whenever she thought about Cloud and Aeris at the same time. The only way to ease it was to stop thinking.
She was jarred out of her depressing thoughts when her phone started ringing. Tifa had to cast a quick glance around before she recognized where she was. Had she wandered all the way back to Seventh Heaven without even being aware of it? She really should do something about this dangerous tendency of hers to space out every time her thoughts consumed her…
Gah! You're doing it again! Answer the phone before it gets cut off by the answering machine, you fool!
The brunette dashed up the stairs and grabbed the phone with frantic eagerness. "Hello? Cloud?" said Tifa breathlessly. "Is that you?" Please let it be him. Please let it be him…
After a long moment of quiet hesitation, the person on the other end of the line decided to respond. "No. It's me."
Upon recognizing the voice, Tifa's eyes widened in surprise before they narrowed into angry slits. "You! You have some nerve calling here!"
"I'm not interested in picking a fight with you."
"You're not, but I am!" Tifa practically snarled. She was gripping the handset so tightly that the hard plastic was making ominous creaking sounds. "Tell me where you are, you scumbag!"
"Do I look like an idiot to you, woman? But I can tell you where Cloud is, if you're interested."
"When I get my hands on you, you piece of turd, they'll need to identify you through your dental… No, scratch that. By the time I'm done with you, you won't have any teeth left! It'll have to be either DNA testing or…" Tifa's diatribe screeched to an abrupt halt when her brain finally caught up with what her ears were telling her. "…What?"
"I know where Cloud is. Do me a favor and… Look, just check up on him, will ya?"
Tifa nodded dumbly before it occurred to her that her caller wouldn't be able to see her. She hastily spoke up, "Where is he?"
xXxXxXx
Everything hurt.
His head felt like it was about to explode. Liquid fire seemed to be flowing in his veins. His hands were caked with mud and blood. All his fingernails were cracked and bleeding, though the superficial pain was a welcomed distraction from the greater pain that was tearing him up from the inside. He refused to think about how his hands had come to be coated with blood— his own, and someone else's… mostly someone else's. There were too many confusing noises in his head. Gunfire. Shouts. Screams. He whimpered. He just wanted everything to stop. The noises. The pain. Everything.
In his foggy state of mind, he slowly became aware of the warm back that he was pressed against. Someone was carrying him; holding him so carefully and gently, as if he was made of spun glass.
"Hang in there, Shorty," said the owner of the warm back. "We're almost there."
Heedless of the wounds on his fingertips, he fisted his hands in the fabric of the shirt worn by his rescuer. Long, messy hair tickled his nose as he held on tightly. "Zack?"
The person carrying him made no reply. Despite this, he was not disheartened. He almost wanted to laugh and weep in immense relief.
"I had the most horrible nightmare. I dreamt that you died. You were shot and I… I buried you. It felt very real though."
More silence.
To his mortification, he suddenly realized that his cheeks were wet. Had he been crying? Why was he crying? "Gods, look at me— whining and breaking down over some silly dream. How pathetic can a guy get, right?"
When there was still no response this time, fear and uncertainty spread their inky tendrils into his mind. He tried to force down his panic.
"Say something," he pleaded. He hated the weak sound of his own voice. "Please say something to show me that you're really here with me. Show me that I'm not just imagining this."
"I'm really here, Cloud. And I will never leave you," said his rescuer softly. "Not even if you want me to."
With the feeling of peace that came with the promise, he drifted off to sleep once more, a serene smile on his face.
When he woke up, he found himself alone in a train station, where before there had only been rocks and wasteland. Before his mind could process where he was and why he felt as if someone, or something, important was missing, he heard a familiar female voice calling out to him from behind.
"Cloud?"
He turned around and was greeted by the sight of an old friend he had not seen in years. Tifa?
xXxXxXx
"Cloud!"
In his state of physical and emotional exhaustion, it took a while for Cloud to gather enough energy to force his eyelids open. Tifa's worried visage immediately took on a look of utter relief and joy when their eyes met. The sight of her baggy, raccoon-like eyes immediately filled him with guilt. Apparently his phone message did nothing to assuage her anxiety.
The brunette threw her arms around his shoulders and crushed him in a tight embrace. "Thank all the gods you're alright!"
Cloud was silent as he gazed past Tifa's shoulders at the rusty broadsword that was half-embedded into the ground. Yes, this was where he had retreated to the previous night. After losing all the photographs he had of Zack, at least he still had this buster sword to remind him of what he had lost. His dream… Was it really a dream? Or was it his past memories? In a daze, he slowly brought his hands up to examine his fingers. There was no blood covering them. No, of course there wouldn't be any blood. He had buried Zack a long time ago.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Tifa still hadn't released him from her hug, for which Cloud was grateful. He didn't think he would be able to maintain his upright position without her supporting arms around him.
Cloud made a sound that would have been a laugh, if it wasn't filled with so much grief. "No. Not really."
Tifa stiffened slightly at his reply, and Cloud knew then that he had hurt her by his refusal to let her share his pain. Before he could find the right words to form an apology, Tifa said grimly, "You only need to answer one question for me, Cloud." She drew back slightly and watched him with a serious expression. "Do you want me to whop Reno 's ass for you?"
The offer earned her a soft chuckle from Cloud— one that held more mirth than his previous false laugh. Tifa felt a bit of the pain inside her lessen at the sound.
It didn't matter in the end that Cloud didn't answer her question.
xXxXxXx
Reno blinked his glazed eyes. "Elena told you what?"
"That you blame her for what she did that day." Rude slid onto the barstool next to his increasingly inebriated work partner. "You know, the day when she killed—"
Reno hissed, almost as if he was in pain. "Don't say it."
Rude raised an eyebrow. "Say what?"
"That man's name. Don't say it. In my current mood, I don't think I can hear his name without wanting to smash someone's face in."
"Right." Rude ordered a scotch on the rocks and watched the bartender prepare his drink. He took a sip and savored the burn of alcohol on his tongue while trying to find the words to continue his conversation with his moody colleague. "So, do you blame her?"
Reno knocked back another shot of vodka. "Why are we even talking about this now? I thought you'd be more curious about what happened yesterday."
"We'll get to that later," Rude promised as he took another sip of his liquor. He had to watch his intake carefully if he wanted to go about his interrogation with a clear head. "Right now, I'm sort of obligated to find out whether everything is cool between you and Elena. She feels guilty for what happened."
"This is ridiculous. It's not my place to forgive her or not." Reno 's expression darkened. "If anything, I should be grateful for what she did."
The shot glass in Rude's grasp nearly slipped out of his fingers. "You're… grateful?"
"I'm not a nice person, Rude. I can't help feeling glad when I see the only rival I had that mattered die a horrible death."
"You can't possibly mean that."
"Believe it. I'm that much of a bastard." Reno stared balefully at the bartender until the man received the subliminal message and hastily went about getting another glass of vodka for him. "A selfish bastard who would do anything to get what he wants. If I had the guts years ago, I'd've pulled the trigger myself."
"And the reason why you're giving Elena the cold shoulder is…?"
"It's just much more difficult, ya know…" Reno fished out the slice of lime in his glass and started gulping down the new shot of vodka when it arrived. "…To compete with a dead guy instead of a live one." Reno was gripping the glass so tightly that his whole hand trembled.
Rude quietly pried Reno 's fingers off the glass and took it away from him before the red-haired Turk could hurt himself. "Did Strife know? About who killed… the-man-whose-name-I can't-say-for-fear-of-having-my-pretty-face-disfigured?"
Reno snickered at his feeble joke. "He was there when it happened… but I don't think he remembers any of it. His mind was pretty messed up after that incident. He doesn't even remember…" Reno fell silent.
Rude finished his sentence for him. "He doesn't even remember you."
A long moment of silence passed. "I need another drink," Reno said finally.
Rude looked down at the empty glass in his hand. "So do I."
xXxXxXx
By the time Reno was done spilling his guts and confessing to all his dastardly deeds of the previous night, he was drunk up to his eyeballs and was incapable of putting one foot in front of the other. With many grumbles and long suffering sighs, Rude carried Reno out of the bar. To his chagrin, Rude realized that he had forgotten to organize his transport back home and suddenly found himself in the unpleasant position of having to carry Reno all the way back to… No, he would look for a nearby inn to stay overnight. That would be the smarter choice. He began walking down one of the better lit streets with Reno draped over his back.
Despite Reno 's drunken state, the redhead was still capable of carrying on a somewhat coherent conversation. "So, what do you think of my chances?"
"It's hopeless, Reno ," said Rude, shaking his head. "I don't think Strife would ever forgive you for what you've done. Why did you do it, by the way? Your actions don't make any sense. You're not stupid, no matter how hard you try to convince the rest of the world that you are. You've got to know that destroying those treasured mementos of his would only make him hate you." A startling thought suddenly occurred to Rude. "Were you deliberately trying to make him hate you?"
"Hell, no... Yes... I don't know!" Reno shouted in an aggrieved tone. Reno started flailing his arms about and Rude had to quickly readjust his grip so that the redhead wouldn't fall off and land his backside on the asphalt road. "I don't know what I was doing anymore! I wanted to test him! I wanted to see the extent to which he would go to get those items back. If only he had refused… If he'd only given me a tiny sliver of hope, then I wouldn't have become so angry. Then I wouldn't have completely lost it and… I actually wanted to hurt him. I wanted to make him feel a tiny fraction of what I was going through. Gods, I'm a vindictive, despicable asshole, aren't I? I can't believe I made him… Do you know the only other time I've ever seen him cry was when that SOLDIER traitor died? Now Cait Sith is going to put thumbtacks in my shoes, shave off all my hair in my sleep and set my apartment on fire, and I would totally deserve it!"
"Okay… I think I was able to follow everything right up to the Cait Sith part," said Rude slowly. "Why would Reeve want to sic his robot cat on you?"
"I promised him that I wouldn't do something, but I did it anyway." Reno snorted defiantly. "Hah! Serves him right for being so gullible as to trust the word of a Turk. He should've stopped me when he had the chance. Fool!"
Rude was having increasing difficulty making sense of Reno 's tangential, random ramblings. He could feel a major headache coming on, on top of the major hangover that was already building up.
But Reno wasn't finished with his drunken ramblings. "Ya know what?"
No, I don't know. And I'm pretty sure I don't even want to know. But you're going to tell me anyway. "What?"
"I say screw Cloud!"
Rude couldn't pass over the chance to jibe at his partner. "I thought that was what you were trying to do. And failing miserably, I might add."
"No more wisecracks from you, smart-ass," Reno growled. "Screw him, I say! I don't need him and his eternal gloominess and angsty-ness! I bet I'd get the life force sucked out of me or something just by standing too close to him. If he loves to wallow in the pits of his misery so much, why should I join him? You know the expression 'misery loves company'? Well, that's certainly not the case for his royal emo-ness! He hates company, whether he's in misery or not! So why should I continue to allow my feelings to get trampled upon by him again and again? Ya know what the worst thing is? He doesn't even know that he's doing it! He doesn't know anything! He buries his head in a hole in the ground, sees what he wants to see, hears what he wants to hear, and never once opens his eyes to the possibility that… that…"
"That you love him?" said Rude softly.
"No! Take that back! I most definitely do not love that self-absorbed son of a bitch!" Rude noted that Reno was also most definitely drunk. "Hmph! Okay, so I might possibly have cared about that clueless jerk at one point in time. A teensy weensy bit. Maybe. But not now! Oh, definitely not now! He doesn't give a damn about anyone else, so why should I? For all I care, he can go and… and…"
When Reno remained quiet for too long, Rude helpfully suggested, "Jump off a cliff?"
Without warning, Reno 's arms suddenly wrapped around his neck and squeezed. "Gack!" Rude choked and stumbled, but managed to pull himself upright before both of them ended up hugging the pavement. "What are you doing, you idiot?!"
"Tell me the truth, Rude." It was uncanny how Reno could sound so… sober so quickly. "No more bull-shitting me, this time. Was Cloud the one who saved me from the fire that day?"
"What…?" Rude's head was spinning from the abrupt change in topic, and probably from the lack of oxygen to his brain as well. "How did you…?"
Reno cut him off, "Was he?!"
"Yes," Rude grunted. "When I arrived at the scene, I saw him carrying you out of the building over his back. You weren't fully conscious at the time. He…" It then occurred to Rude how Reno had figured it out. "He's much shorter than me, isn't he?"
"Yeah, his shoulders are narrower too." Reno 's chokehold around his neck had eased off significantly, but not fully. "I can't believe you've kept this from me."
"Hey, even couples who have been married for years still keep secrets from each other, so I don't see why—"
"You asshole!" Reno 's chokehold returned in full force.
"Sorry," Rude wheezed out before the pressure around his windpipe began to ease again. "I didn't think it would help matters if you knew. The last thing I wanted to do was to add fuel to the fire of this obsession of yours. It's destroying you, Reno."
"I don't care. I need him, Rude." If Reno was in a right frame of mind, he would've been appalled by how pathetic he sounded at that moment. As he was not, the redhead even allowed a choked sob to escape his throat. "I need him…"
Rude was slightly overwhelmed by the intensity and rawness of the emotions bleeding out of Reno . Never before had he seen his carefree partner so unguarded and vulnerable. Rude let out a quiet sigh. Reno was beyond his help now. If it had been mere 'want' which, by definition, implied some sort of voluntary desire, Reno should be able to shake off his fixation on Cloud Strife with time. 'Need', on the other hand, was a whole different story…
"But… what chance do I have?" Despair crept into Reno 's voice. "That spiky-haired idiot would choose death. He would endure any humiliation; even go so far as making a whore of himself… all for a dead man. No, not even that…" Reno clenched his fists so tightly that his fingernails drew blood from his palms. "He's willing to do all that for the mere memory of a dead man. Where does that leave me, Rude? How can I even begin to compete with… to destroy that kind of devotion?"
For a few minutes, neither of them spoke. Rude spent that time carefully weighing and deciding his next response. "Instead of seeking to destroy that part of Cloud, have you ever considered accepting it?" the taller Turk said finally. "If you truly lo… care about the spiky-haired idiot, wouldn't you accept the parts of him that drive you crazy as well; and not just the parts that make you care about him in the first place?"
An expression of surprise darted across Reno's face, followed closely by an indulgent, grateful grin. "You're actually encouraging me? What would Rufus say if he finds out?"
"Tell Rufus, and I will hunt you down and mount your stuffed head on the wall of our office lounge to be used as a dartboard," Rude deadpanned.
Reno chortled and rested his head on his partner's shoulder. "Why couldn't I fall for a guy like you instead, Rude?"
Rude's usually emotionless face contorted into a look of abject horror at the thought of that possibility. "Do that and I will do something much, much worse to your decapitated head."
"Aww, I love you too, buddy."
(To be concluded… for real next time)