Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII is the property of Square Enix and no financial profit is sought from this work.

Warnings: language, violence, blood, death and yaoi

Chapter Four: Bonding

Reno just couldn't understand why someone would want to built a building that was over ten storeys high. Yes, he had to admit that after living in what was more of a tin and less of a house for sixteen years, he was more than exited to be able to walk through the ShinRa building's main entrance and into the 37th floor where the Turks' lounge was. But the excitement lost its hold one day on his second month as a Turk when for some weird reason all of the elevators in the whole damn building were out of order. He had to walk the fucking stairs all the way to the 37th floor. When he finally had made it to the lounge he had promised himself that, even if the President docked his pay, the next time the elevators would be out of order he would go home. And just to make the day even worse, after he had walked up all those stairs he had been told that there was no work for them for the day. Not that after that kind of workout he would have wanted to go beat somebody lifeless, he had been pissed because instead of climbing an inhumane amount of stinking stairs for nothing he could have stayed home.

But that was what it was like being a Turk. If the people behaved themselves (from the President's point of view) there was no work for the Turks, and when they had to work, they would work when and where the President told them. A bit like now. There were Turks out there at all times looking for the rest of the resistance movement. But damn, it was starting to get boring; not a trace of them in a week. But hey, Midgar was a big city… But even though it was boring to look for something and not finding it, Reno though that it was better that way, because when they really will find them, it'll be the end of them.

'And I don't want that. It'd be pretty shitty to kill my friends…' Reno violently shook his head to get rid of those thoughts, 'I though I was over that.'

Reno lifted his gaze to the red numbers over the elevator door, the number just changed from forty to forty-one. 'Even with the elevators working it takes forever to get up,' he snickered, 'Another reason why high buildings don't make sense.'

Actually it only took about three minutes to get to the 69th floor, but for Reno that was too much. It was funny that even though the redhead had a tendency for laziness, he could still get bored very easily. And when he got bored he started to amuse himself with anything possible, and in the small, closed space of the elevator his only options were his thoughts.

'I'd like to see Sephiroth climbing all the stairs to his office, it'd be almost twice the amount I had to walk…' the Turk thought smirking, 'But I bet the bastard wouldn't even get out of breath. I swear that man can't be human!'

Reno's thoughts drifted back to yesterday and into the training hall. Being a part of the generation that had spent their adolescence during the war, Reno had heard lots of stories about Sephiroth and his incredible strength. But he had always though that the stories were exaggerated; there just was no way someone could be that strong. But yesterday he had been proved wrong.

Ever since winning those two men in a fight when he was fourteen he had considered himself a good fighter. But that illusion had been destroyed yesterday in three seconds and two simple moves. He had never before in his life felt that humiliated. But the more he thought about it the less humiliated he felt and could do nothing but be at awe at the General's strength.

The elevator dinged, signalling that it had arrived its appointed floor. Reno pushed himself off the glass wall and walked out of the elevator, the doors closing behind him. Walking along the corridor the redhead let his thoughts still linger in the events of yesterday's sparring.

Sephiroth really was strong and skilled. Reno had never before seen someone move with such grace and efficiency before. The man didn't make any unnecessary moves, and he blocked and dodged every attack from him and Zack (even when they attacked at the same time) with very little effort. Sephiroth's own attacks were quick and powerful and he kept both him and Zack at their toes the whole time. Yet a very, very powerful man, Sephiroth didn't cross the limit even once during the sparring, he seemed to know how much his sparring partners could take and he didn't cross the line to make them lose, and thus the fight continued for hours. And when they finally decided to call it quits, the man hadn't even broken a sweat, while someone could smell Reno and Zack from miles away. Reno couldn't believe how the silver haired SOLDIER could make fighting look so… well, beautiful, there really was no other word for it.

And during the sparring Reno had learned something new from Sephiroth's attitude as well as his strength. When the General had knocked him down and called him a poor fighter (well, the man hadn't used those exact words, but combined with his tone he might as well have said so) Reno had been furious and ready to defend his honor with any way possible. Whether that way would've been killing the man with his bare hands (yes, it was impossible and Reno knew it) or shouting from the top of his lungs like in the hideout, he would have done it. But he hadn't needed to do so, because Sephiroth had done it for him by praising him. That had been weird as hell, because since meeting him, Reno had thought that the SOLDIER was just a mean and cold bitch, and then he went and said something nice! Maybe, like Zack said, Sephiroth wasn't a bad person… But to Reno he still looked more cold than nice.

'Well, maybe I'll find out something new today…' Reno thought and stopped in front of the door that led to Sephiroth's condo. He ringed the doorbell and waited.

When the door opened Reno found himself staring at two strong collarbones and a throat surrounded with silver hair. The Turk lifted his gaze up to Sephiroth's emerald eyes and flashed the man his trade-mark grin. "Hello, General. Can I come in?" he asked and peeked into the condo behind Sephiroth.

The silver haired SOLDIER just stared at Reno for a few seconds as if questioning his presence, then he stepped out of the doorway and let redhead walk in and shut the door. "What do you want?" Sephiroth asked in his usual cold tone and watched after the Turk who was heading towards his usual place at the couch.

"What do ya mean 'what do I want'?" Reno asked turning to look at Sephiroth, "I came to-" the Turk cut himself off, glancing around the living room. "Zack's not here yet?" he asked, stating the obvious, since Zack was nowhere to be seen.

"No. He is training with that friend of his."

"Oh, that's right!" Reno said slapping his hand at his forehead, "He's with Cloud today."

Reno recalled Zack mentioning about it yesterday after the sparring when they were heading to their places, but at the time Reno had been too tired or dazed to actually remember it. And now he was here under the cold gaze of Sephiroth, and Zack was somewhere training with that SOLDIER wannabe.

"Any idea when he'll be done?" Reno asked Sephiroth who hadn't moved from the door.

"It can easily take two hours," Sephiroth said, recalling previous times Zack had been training the cadet.

Well, that sucked. Reno had to be at the sector four slums after about four hours, and he had already came all the way to the ShinRa building from his apartment from sector one, and he most definitely was not going to go back home and then, after few hours, to the slums of fourth that was almost on the other side of the city, when he already was in the middle of the city and thus the way to sector four was shorter.

These thoughts in mind Reno asked Sephiroth: "Mind if I stay here waitin' for him?"

Sephiroth seemed to consider the request for a while, his eyes narrowing at the Turk while he thought about the possible outcomes if he let the redhead stay.

"I don't mind," the silver haired man said at last, "Just stay out of the way," he added and walked past Reno, took a book that was left open from the small coffee table and sat on a leather armchair next to the couch.

Reno dropped himself on the couch and let his eyes travel around the spacious living room until they settled on Sephiroth sitting in his chair, reading the book. This was the first time Reno was alone with the General, and stuck with him for two hours as it seemed. 'Not a big deal,' the redhead thought, in the past week he had spent longer times in the SOLDIER's presence. But those times Zack was there, and for the most of the time Sephiroth just sat somewhere doing his best to ignore them, and when he was dragged into a conversation it died quickly, which was why Reno often forgot that the man was in the room.

But now, when Zack wasn't there drawing his attention, the silver haired SOLDIER's presence in the room was unmistakable. For some reason just the man's looks forced Reno's eyes on him. Sephiroth was wearing his usual leather outfit, with the coat and all, but the gloves and shoulder plates were gone, obviously it was more comfortable that way. His long hair cascaded down his leather clad body and some strands pooled over the arm of the chair. His eyes skimmed along the book that he held in his hands, the odd slit pupil in the middle of Mako greenery concentrating on every word.

"Do I have something on my face?" Came a deep voice that no doubt belonged to Sephiroth, but he didn't lift is gaze from the book.

Reno was slightly taken aback by the fact that Sephiroth had noticed him staring, when he hadn't noticed it himself. But he got over it quickly and even managed to fight back the slight embarrassed blush. "Yeah, you've two eyes, a nose, lips, eyebrows…" Reno started listing with a grin on his face.

"Very funny," Sephiroth replied, but his tone told Reno that it was anything but funny.

Reno shut his mouth and a long silence set above them, the only sound being the pages of the book rustling when they were turned. Once again getting bored, Reno tried to come up with something to keep himself amused, for a while he considered turning on the TV, but he knew that afternoon shows were either boring stuff for kids or ridiculous soap operas for house wives. So, even though Sephiroth had told him to stay out of the way, he decided to open his mouth because sitting quiet was just something that was against Reno's nature (and Sephiroth hadn't forbidden him from talking).

"What're ya readin'?" Reno asked, trying to see the cover of the book that was resting in Sephiroth's hands.

"Astronomy," the man answered.

"Astronomy?" Reno repeated.

"Astronomy."

"Astronomy, as in the stars an' stuff?"

"Yes," Sephiroth answered with a bored voice and for the first time lifted his gaze from the pages. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"Oh, nothin'," Reno said and shrugged, "Just that one can't really see stars in Midgar 'cause the Mako glow an' all," he continued, looking out of the window, where the sky still had a faint green hue even though the whole city was bathed in daylight.

"All the more reason to read about them," Sephiroth said and turned back to the book.

A sensible logic… of sorts. Reno had always thought that if he couldn't see something and it had nothing to do with him, he didn't need to know about it. But apparently that wasn't how Sephiroth lived his life.

Feeling the conversation about astronomy dying, Reno decided to try something else. "Well, now that ya aren't here all by yourself, how about we do somethin' that we both can participate in?" Reno asked, eyeing Sephiroth with challenging eyes.

"You want to go sparring again?" Sephiroth asked in mild disbelief.

"Naw. I've an evenin' shift. Gotta save my strength," Reno said, waiving a hand at the question. The work part was true, but not the whole truth; his muscles were still a bit stiff from yesterday, and he rather not go through the same workout again. 'But I'll be damned before I let you know it,' Reno thought, but judging by the SOLDIER's tone he already knew.

"How 'bout we play a round of poker?" Reno asked a mischievous grin on his face.

"Alright, sounds good to me," Sephiroth said, closed his book and placed it back on the table. "What are the rules?"

For a second time in two days Reno felt his eyebrows lift towards his hairline and his jaw drop at Sephiroth's words. "You've never played poker before?" he asked in utter disbelief, "But that's the number one pastime activity in SOLDIER trainin' centre."

"I didn't do much socializing in the training," Sephiroth said nonchalantly, but someone who was familiar with the General could have noticed the irritated note in the man's voice.

'I bet you didn't,' was what Reno wanted to say, and almost did, but managed to bite it back at the last second.

"It's okay, I'll explain the rules to you," Reno said, reaching inside his suit jacket and pulled out a deck of cards. Reno watched Sephiroth's reaction carefully; he had always liked to see the surprised look on people's faces when they found out that Reno walked around a deck of cards in his pocket. The redhead remembered the first time Rude found out, even though Rude was one of the most stone faced people he knew Reno had had the pleasure to see his eyebrows arc up questionably behind his shades. But Sephiroth did nothing, whether the SOLDIER saw nothing weird in men who carried cards with them or he simply was even better at hiding his emotions than Rude was. Reno guessed it was the later.

The Turk shuffled the cards and started dealing them while explaining Sephiroth how to play.

An hour and a half and numerous rounds later a flush of diamonds was lying on the table in front of Sephiroth and a full house, aces over tens, in front of Reno who was grinning like a maniac.

"Well played for a rookie, but you're nowhere near my skill in this," the Turk said, gathering the cards, "You're lucky we aren't playin' for money, 'cause if we were I'd have wiped every gil out of ya."

"If we were playing for money, I wouldn't let you cheat," Sephiroth said calmly, leaning back in his chair.

"Wha-?" Reno's hands froze in the middle of shuffling the cards as he stared at Sephiroth with wide eyes. "I'm not cheating!" he bellowed.

"I have seen you changing the cards in your hands with the ones you keep in your sleeve," Sephiroth said, sliding his gaze from Reno's face to his left hand.

'Impossible,' Reno thought. Playing poker, and cheating in it, was one of the things he really was good at. Playing for money and cheating unnoticed was one source of money for him after his parents passed away. After years of practising he had became so good at it that even Tseng, the man with hawk's eyes that never missed a thing, couldn't notice it. How was it possible that Sephiroth noticed it? 'It's fucking impossible!'

"But I have to admit, you're very good at it. For the first five games I didn't even notice it, and then it took me thee more games to make sure. It's very subtle," Sephiroth continued, pulling Reno out of his thoughts.

For some reason Reno felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards. It was nice to know that his skill was still acknowledged even though he had been busted, and maybe the fact that this was the second time Sephiroth had praised him was a small factor in his smile. "Well, I'll just have to make it even more subtle," Reno said and dealt the cards.

"I'd recommend you to stop cheating, or the next time we play I'll have to make you play naked so I know you're not hiding any cards," Sephiroth said in a dry voice and picked up his cards.

Just as Reno was wondering whether or not the SOLDIER was joking the doorbell rang a few times forming into a happy little tune that both Sephiroth and Reno recognised; the former had been familiar with it for the last twenty-one months and the later for the past week.

"Zack," Reno said, voicing their mutual thought, "Great, now we'll get another member in the game," he said jumping up from the couch and started walking towards the door to let his friend in.

"Now, be careful, if he catches you cheating he might really punish you."

The new tone in Sephiroth's deep voice made Reno turn around and look at the silver haired SOLDIER. And then he saw something he had thought was impossible. Sephiroth was smiling. It was small, though, just a little thing ghosting his lips, but a smile never the less. 'So, he has a sense of humor then,' Reno thought, 'A little weird one but at least something. Maybe this iceman is a human being after all.' The Turk let a smile of his own spread on his face, but he was the only one smiling in the room, because Sephiroth's smile had faded away and the man was gathering the cards from the table and started to shuffle them his usual indifferent look on his face.

The little tune sounded from the door once more, making Reno realize that he had been staring at Sephiroth again. Reno turned around and walked to the door before the General lifted his eyes to Reno to see what was taking so long and catch him staring.

"Hi!" Zack said as Reno opened the door, and then the look on his face turned from cheerful to surprise as he realized who had opened the door. "Huh? Reno? You're here."

"Yeah. Have been for the last-" Reno turned to look at the clock on the wall, "two hours, it seems."

"You forgot that I was training with Cloud today," Zack said smirking and leaned against the door frame. Then his expression turned into mockery of worry. "Seph didn't eat you, did he?"

Reno waved his hand at Zack's comment. "Naw, he behaved the whole time," he said, and then, gesturing towards Sephiroth, he added: "We've been playin' poker."

"Poker?" the SOLDIER asked surprised and peered behind Reno to look at his commander who was sitting next to the coffee table where the cards had been dealt to three players.

Reno watched Zack's pondering look as the dark haired SOLDIER looked at Sephiroth. 'Yes, I taught him that,' Reno thought cockily and wanted to say it, but instead he slapped his friend on the back, pulling him out of his thoughts. "Are comin' to play or what?"

"Yeah, sure," Zack answered and walked into the condo, closing the door behind him.

Later that evening, Reno arrived to the slums of the forth sector half an hour late, but very proud of himself because even though he hadn't cheated again in the poker he had won almost all of them.

…And Sephiroth had noticed that he wasn't cheating so he didn't have to play naked.

A/N: For some reason, I don't like this chapter… Something's just not right in it. I don't know what, though… Maybe you could tell me, constructive criticism is always very welcome.

Oh my God, this story broke the 20 review line. I'm so happy! Thanks everyone!