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: a small lemon in this chapter!
Chapter Six: The Dream
Reno emerged from the bathroom, a towel tied around his waist, his damp hair hanging loose. Without bothering to put on the light he walked straight to his kitchen. He needed a beer. He didn't care how late, or how early, it was. He needed a beer, so he has going to have one. He couldn't remember when was the last time he had needed a beer this badly, probably never…
He made his way to the fridge and opened it, the little light inside was the only source of light in his apartment. Not that his place was dark even during the unholy hours of the night, the everlasting Mako glow of Midgar's reactors seeped trough the apartment's windows, colouring everything green.
Reno grabbed a beer, kicked the door close and strode to the living room, cursing under his breath. He dropped himself on the couch, put his bare feet on the messy coffee table before him and switched on the TV.
Midgar's TV shop sold the stupidest (and ridiculously expensive) things one could ever imagine. And the only time the stupid thing was on was the time when few were to watch it, mainly during the day when most people were at work, and during the quietest hours of the night. This told Reno that it must be about four or five in the morning, which meant that it was only three hours since he had gone to bed (which was directly after he had arrived home), and three until he needed to be back at the slums, snooping around for the resistance movement.
'Great,' the red head thought as he opened the beer can and took a long gulp to calm his nerves. 'Just motherfucking great. I've been running around this goddamn city, digging up every fucking hole, questioning and threatening every stupid punk for the last three days, so I've barely had any sleep. My sleep deprivation is big enough without any stupid, shitty, fucking dreams!' ...Wet dreams to be exact.
Yeah? So what if he was having wet dreams. He was a healthy young man, and it was perfectly normal for a 17-year-old youth to have wet dreams from time to time. …But not now, not like this, and not about him.
Reno changed the channel, trying to find something more intelligent to watch than a too perky man with a fake smile trying to sell a Materia-based monster alarm. The best option he came up with was a very old movie about a detective or something of the like, but it didn't hold his interest for long when his dream started to dominate his thoughts.
Even though Reno tried to convince himself other vice, it was definitely the best wet dream he had ever had, and there was a big wet mark in his sheets to prove that. Speaking of witch, he needed to change the sheets. But not yet, he was too tired, and pissed, to do so, and if he didn't do it maybe he would forget all about the dream.
Reno grumbled and pulled a hand though his mass of red hair and drowned the last of his beer. He leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes.
His attempts at ignoring his dream failed gloriously.
Reno recalled those beautiful eyes, usually so cold now clouded with passion, that wet mouth panting warm air on his neck and those soft lips trailing hot kisses down his body. Faint sweat tingling from that flawless, pale skin, and long, silky-soft silver strands of hair tickling his arms and legs. That sexy, deep voice softly purring his name and that intense pleasure when his lover's mouth closed around him or that wonderful feeling of fullness when he pushed inside him…
Reno looked down at his lap and sighed in frustration. 'Oh, shit. I'm gonna need another shower… a cold one, a very, very cold one.'
Reno got up from the couch and walked towards the bathroom cursing the dream and a certain General.
Three hours, seven cups of coffee and four cold showers later (and the showers weren't only because he needed them to keep his body unaroused, it was because cold showers helped him to stay awake) Reno reached the place where he was supposed to meet Rude in the slums of sixth sector. The streets were busy with people hurrying to their jobs in the Wall Market, and no-one spared a look at a very tired looking Turk leaning against the slide in the playground.
Reno was early, and it would take about twenty minutes before Rude would get there, maybe even more because Reno had the tendency to be late and his partner had adjusted himself to that and usually shoved up at least ten minutes late so that he didn't have to wait long for his lazy partner. But today Reno had left early. He had decided to stay awake the rest of the night after the dream, and in the morning he had been so damn tired that he had decided to leave early, hoping that clear air would refresh him. Although none of the air in the slums could be called neither 'clear' nor 'refreshing'.
Reno yawned and rubbed his tired eyes. He wanted to sleep so badly. Maybe he could take a little nap while waiting Rude, he could sleep on his feet if he just had something to lean on, and he was a light enough sleeper to wake up if someone tried to mug him or a monster decided to attack. But he decided against it, because the firs thing he saw when he closed his eyes was a scene from his way too erotic dream.
Reno didn't know why the dream intimidated him so much. It wasn't because it was about another man, he had had some experiments earlier in his life and he was confident in his sexuality. And it shouldn't be because it was about Sephiroth, every woman and some men who had as much as seen his picture would be dreaming about him, no-one could deny the fact that the man was just simply gorgeous. And being a fighter himself, Reno respected his unbelievable talent in combat, so that was another reason why dreaming about the silver haired SOLDIER shouldn't have been so weird.
But Reno had seen Sephiroth's picture long ago, and had witnessed his wonderful fighting over a week ago. And he hadn't had any dreams then. So why was he having them now? Probably it was because he hadn't known the man, and once he had met him, half of Reno's awe towards the man had been killed by his sour attitude. Maybe it was the day Reno had spent alone with Sephiroth that had changed his attitude towards the man, because in the end he had enjoyed himself and Sephiroth's company hadn't been so bad. And the subtle smile had been kind of beautiful.
So, if Reno had enough reasons to dream about the man, why was he so intimidated by it? Maybe the redhead was afraid. But of what, he didn't know.
'And why the fuck I'm even thinking about this?' a tired voice in his head said, 'It's just a stupid dream.'
Reno shook his head to clear his thoughts and decided to think something else.
But after a while the Turk got very irritated at himself when everything seemed to finally remind him of Sephiroth; he recognised the owner of the weapon shop and then found himself thinking about Sephiroth's sword, he looked at the houses built from scrape metal and they somehow managed to remind him of Sephiroth's shoulder plates, he looked down at his own shoes and noticed that they were dirty unlike Sephiroth's leather boots which were always so spotless. And then he realised that he hadn't seen the silver haired man in three days.
Reno was just about to start groaning and hitting his head on the mog-shaped slide when he noticed a familiar blue suit and shades walking towards him in the crowd. And his immediate thought was that even though Rude was almost a head taller than most of the people around him, Sephiroth was even taller.
And that was when Reno realised that he was obsessed with Sephiroth.
He banged his head against the slide.
Rude walked up to his partner, one eyebrow slightly raised behind his sunglassesshoving his surprise, maybe because of Reno's odd behaviour, or even the odder thing that he was on time.
"You're late!" Reno yelled at the bald Turk. 'And thanks to that, I was left alone with my twisted thoughts and they made me twisted!'
Rude didn't even flinch when the first thing his partner said to him in the morning was an angry yell. "Good morning to you too," he simply said.
Reno kicked a little rock that was lying next to his feet on the ground and cursed under his breath something about stone faced people and short answers. "Well, let's go then. We have work to do an' I don't think the resistance movement is gonna just pop out in front of us," Reno grumbled, stuffed his hands in his pockets and pushed himself off the slide.
Rude was left staring at his partner's back and wondering if Reno had hit his head hard on the slide.
Reno's anger calmed down during their work as he and Rude moved in the shadows of the alleyways, searching for possible hideouts and asking people questions. They moved quickly and stayed rather unnoticed thanks to Reno who had lived in the sector six and thus knew it like the back of his hand.
During time Reno was reminded just how tired he actually was and he kept yawning almost every tenth minute. Rude noticed it and once asked if Reno's cranky behaviour was due to his lack of sleep. Reno answered it with a tired groan and flipped his partner of.
Just when Reno though that this day would be no different of the rest and they would find no trace of the resistance movement he spotted a familiar face in the crowd.
Reno jumped back in the alley he had emerged from and pulled Rude with him. "See that guy with dirty blond hair?" he asked pointing a man who was carrying a big plastic back with him.
Rude nodded, and because Reno was watching the man and not him he made a small noise of acknowledgement.
"He's in the movement," Reno said and turned back to his partner, "The easiest way to find the nest-"
"-is to follow him," Rude finished.
And so they did. The Turks stayed a safe distance away from the man while they followed him out of the Wall Market and into what seemed to be a deserted warehouse behind the Honey Bee Inn. The storage was still standing firm but it was in an even crappier condition than the rest of the buildings around it, which meant that it must have been abandoned long ago and it could be expected to be swarming with monsters. It was a perfect hideout.
"Well, my friend," Reno said after their prey had disappeared inside the warehouse, "I think it's time to contact the General."
A/N: Yes, I put the infamous 'dream sequence' into the fic, but this being my firs longer fic I think I have the right to use some of the clichés.
And I'm pretty sure some of you were expecting a lot more from the lemon, sorry about that, but when I say 'a small slice of lemon' I do mean a small slice of lemon.