CHAPTER 2:

Reno's eyes opened, after what seemed like a sleep of a lifetime. He looked around the room, without moving, knowing that if he did, it would probably hurt. He was in a bedroom, his bedroom that he and Rude shared back home. He didn't realize how much he missed his bed and his soft pillow until he was here again. It was so comfortable that he didn't want to get up. He knew he was alone in bed, but he felt eyes on him, which was an uneasy feeling, so Reno decided to move a bit. He lifted his head slightly and looked across the room, since he knew there was only a wall to his right side. Their room was well-kept and had been tidied up since three days ago. He could tell Rude had been cleaning in here, because it smelled of Carpet Fresh, and the blankets smelled like the laundry detergent. Reno was a terrible house-keeper. If it weren't for Rude, the place would smell like garbage and their bed would look like it was pulled out of a dump, since Reno liked to spill food on it during his late-night snacking binges. The window adjacent to the bed was closed, and the curtains were drawn. It must be raining. Rude hated rain, and always closed the curtains when the sun wasn't out. Rude's love for the sun could be a pain in the ass when one had a hangover.

Looking to the right, he noticed why he felt like he was being watched. Cloud had been sitting in a chair beside the nightstand, watching Reno wake up. "Good morning, Reno." Cloud didn't smile when he said this. He was serious right now, which wasn't unexpected. Cloud was oddly either clumsy and silly, or serious and statuesque, even perfect. There really wasn't an in-between area. Sometimes he hardly seemed real. Reno slowly, stiffly propped himself up, stuffing more pillows under him, and turned only slightly to look more comfortably at Cloud.

"Good morning." He replied. Reno gave himself a look over. He was clean, and his clothes had been changed. He was now wearing one of his very dorky pajama outfits. It was a silky button-up long sleeved shirt with a matching pair of baggy white pants. Wait, what the hell? I'm wearing different clothes. How did that happen? He looked over at Cloud, mentally demanding an explanation.

"I cleaned you up. Whatever got you on your left side was looking really bad, Reno. You were a mess. I'm sure Rude would have been angry if I put you in bed like that." Reno flushed slightly at the thought. Cloud changed his clothes, and that struck him as terribly embarrassing. Normally being seen naked wasn't something that bothered Reno. He was comfortable with himself, but this was different. He had been unconscious, and had no control of the situation at the time. That was what bothered him, being helpless. But why be embarrassed in front of Cloud? Nothing shocked him. He was only trying to help, and he didn't want Rude to be angry. Wait a minute. Where is Rude?

"Wait, Cloud. Has Rude seen me like this?" Reno was worried. Rude was very protective over him, and it bothered him seeing Reno hurt. It was obvious he was a little banged up as soon as Rude saw him back at the 'hospital' but he had hoped he didn't know just how banged up he really was. Rude always asked too many questions, and Reno did not want to lie to him. Sometimes the truth hurt worse than just leaving well enough alone.

"No, only Tifa and I have been with you. The two of us cleaned you up and stopped your bleeding. He knows that you're hurt, but to keep him calm, I neglected to include any details. All I told him is that you needed some of your skin butterfly-bandaged back together. I told him you would come out of it just fine. By the way, you are not going to want to move too much or too quickly on your left side, just for a couple of days so that it can close up right. For all Rude knows, you just got a cut fighting."

"But what do you know, Cloud?" Reno asked hesitantly. Cloud sighed and shook his head, running a hand through his blond hair.

"Well, I know that you got pretty messed up in there. Whatever you got cut with was sharp and hot, not typical of a simple hostage negotiation. Looking at you, Reno, I'd say you were tortured rather thoroughly. But what I also know is that I'm just your friend. I'm supposed to take care of you medically and be there for support, but beyond that, it is none of my business. I know you don't want to waste your time talking about it. Rude is going to want to see you, though. He is going to ask, you know that." Cloud stood up to exit the room, leaving Reno speechless and confused.

There was no time for it though, because Rude came in only moments later. He pulled the chair closer than it had been when Cloud was using it and took a seat. He gave Reno a quick peck on the lips before saying:

"Good morning. You're looking a lot better. How do you feel?" Rude smiled, or smirked rather. It made Reno smile too. It made him happy to know that someone was genuinely glad to see him.

"Sore. But I'm glad as hell to be home, yo." He replied.

"Well, now that the small talk is out of the way, how about you tell me what that was all about? I was worried about you. It took us three and a half days to get you out of there. What did they want?"

"Honestly, I don't really know." That answer was true. Reno, to this moment was still slightly unclear about why they needed him. He had supposed that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But seeing the dissatisfied look coming from Rude, he added. "It was something to do with someone's dead brother. The majority of them were butt-hurt about something that happened when the upper plate above Sector 7 fell. They knew that Shinra was responsible, and insisted that I was going to be able to give them answers. They knew it was me that actually made it fall. To tell you the truth, I don't know shit about any dead brother or his group, yo. I don't know this guy. I think they just got me because I'm a Turk. They hate us. This was an anti-Shinra group, man. Kind of like how Cloud and Tifa used to be. But they have a vendetta against Turks."

He tried to remember as much as he could about the situation, as much as he wanted to forget it. These people were out for revenge, and Reno could tell that by the way that they treated him. The leader told him that his brother was the previous leader of their organization, and when the plate fell, 2/3 of their people were killed, including said leader. They had some deep hateful issue with the late president Shinra, stemming back to just before he was killed by Sephiroth and passed the torch to Rufus. Apparently Rufus's father had prior knowledge of these people, who called themselves KPS. They had their ongoing little battles amongst themselves. Though everyone knew that the plate falling was initially put into play to destroy Avalance, KPS saw this as a personal attack on their people as well. They figured that Shinra was trying to kill two birds with one stone. The leader's brother, who had been named Kesht, was never recovered from the debris by KPS, and the group started to believe that Shinra got to the wreckage first, and now have Kesht held captive. KPS figured that they should take one of Shinra's own captive as well, with an eye for an eye mentality. Reno tried to explain this to Rude, hoping he would drop it since this was all Reno knew.

"That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why wouldn't they go after Rufus? I have heard of KPS, but as far as I've been told, Shinra saw them as more of a joke than a threat. The Turks don't have any answers for them. I don't think any of us have been informed about them any farther than that." Rude seemed to be in deep thought for a moment, easily distracted when work came up, but quickly shook it off, realizing that he had more pressing matters to get to. "Reno, what did they do to you in there?" he asked, as he replanted himself, sitting on the side of the bed facing his partner. He extended a hand and placed it gently on the other Turk's cheek. Reno placed his hand overtop of Rude's, interlacing their fingers as he kissed the inside of Rude's palm. With his gaze falling to Reno's neck, Rude tipped his lover's chin up turning his head slowly to the right, and again to the left. On the pale flesh of Reno's neck, painted in bruised purple, was the perfect imprint of a hand, a large strong hand. The four fingers displayed on the left side, and the thumb marked the right. Rude could almost see a man's hand close around Reno's collar, and the vision was heart-breaking. There were little scrapes beside the bruising, as if Reno had to dig his fingernails into his own skin to try pulling off the strangulating hand. Rude's thoughts wandered. How could a person be that strong? How could he have been strong enough to leave that dark of a bruise on Reno through the collar of his shirt? More importantly, how could he have done this damage with only one hand?

"Why did they do that to you?" Rude asked, very obviously upset by it. "I'm sure you didn't deserve that." Reno had to agree there. He didn't deserve any of it.

"Rude, they just kicked my ass bad because I didn't have any information for them. They were angry at me because they thought I was hiding shit from them to protect the R man, yo. It just escalated." Part of that was true. The initial tortures started because they knew Reno was highly trained at keeping secrets. But they were looking for answers that Reno just did not have.

"Let me see." Rude demanded.

"Okay. Let's get this over with." Reno sighed. He knew that there was no use in arguing with Rude. Rude loved him and Reno knew it. It was only natural that he worried.

Rude reached for the buttons on the front of Reno's shirt, removing them and spreading the front. A cringe went down his back. Reno's skin was in no way perfect. Scar tissue was very attracted to any Turk's skin, but this was different. This had not been just getting hurt on the job. This had been torture. Adorning Reno's torso were fresh bruises of different sizes and shapes. There were multiple little pairs of burnt puncture wounds scattered around Reno's upper body, two at a time.

"What are these little holes?" Rude asked, his index and middle finger tracing over one of the slightly swelling perforations.

"They're from the KPS's own form of EMRs. According to them, farmers use them to shock the shit out of their cattle."

Rude's mouth dropped open. "They stab the cows with those?"

"Huh? No, Rude. They don't stab them. The prods aren't supposed to go into the skin. You're supposed to use them like our EMRs. Just touch them against something, and it shocks. But theirs are kind of sharp, so if they push hard enough and shock long enough, the skin burns and gets weaker, so they can just stick the electric ends under your skin and it really hurts, yo."

"God…that's sick." He replied. Reno felt bad for saying this to Rude, but he insisted on asking. And he didn't learn.

"Cloud said you got something on your left side he had to butterfly back together. How did you get that?"

Rude moved his hand over to the cut on Reno's side. It was as long as his finger and it was held shut, so he had no idea how deep it was. It looked bad, though. It was purple all around it and it looked like Reno would have been fighting a massive infection if Cloud had not taken care of it.

"Okay, don't freak out. But I got shot." Reno said slowly.

"WHAT?!" Rude yelled, jumping to his feet.

"Jesus, Rude. I said don't freak out! If you're going to act like this-"

"How am I supposed to act? You got shot?! Like with a gun? And you didn't tell me?"

"Relax, Teresa." Reno joked, trying to calm Rude down, pulling his arm to get him to sit back down.

"Do NOT call me Teresa!" Rude thundered. Teresa was Rude's ex-wife, and Reno only said it because that was what they all called people when they were being dramatic. Teresa was the queen of the Drama Queens. Teresa graduated with a PHD in Drama Queen-antics.

"Well, damn Reno. What else are you going to surprise me with?" Rude demanded.

"Nothing right now. You're too excited. Let's drop it for a bit, just until you calm down. Then we can talk about it again later." Reno assured Rude.

"No, wait. I'm calm. Please talk to me, Reno." Rude pleaded.

Before Rude could press on, and to Reno's tremendous relief, the door opened. Tifa poked her head inside and said that she made breakfast, and expected them downstairs. Rude helped Reno out of bed and buttoned his shirt up for him.

"Um, Rude. What are you doing? I can't go downstairs in my pajamas. You can see my nippies through this shirt." Reno complained.

"You sound like me. I didn't realize you were so old-fashioned." Rude joked, jabbing his partner playfully with his elbow.

"You're not old-fashioned, Rude. You're just old." Reno stuck out his tongue cutely.

"What? I'm only 31. That's only 9 years older than you." Rude scoffed.

"Yeah! You probably absorb my youth while I'm freakin sleeping."

Tifa opened the door again, before Rude could retort. "Breakfast, now!" She informed, ushering them out to the living room with their friends. Everyone was there, probably to come check on Reno, except for Tseng and Elena. They were both busy working. Vincent was standing with his back against the living room wall, resting one of his enormous feet just under his thigh for extra catch. While everyone else was watching the news on TV, Vincent was examining his gun. Cid was on the couch with Yuffie and Cloud, chewing on a toothpick, since Rude would not let him smoke in the house. Reno hated that rule. He always had to go outside to smoke, even in the winter when he thought he was going to freeze. Somehow he thought that this was Rude's secret plan to get him to quit. The kids were at school, and Reno had no idea where Barrett was. Red 13 was in the kitchen, chewing on something in a big bowl on the floor. Reno could smell what Tifa was making in the kitchen, and it smelled better than anything in the world, especially after spending three days of smelling sweat, mildew and blood. What he smelled now was totally different. Tifa had made steamed rice, fish fillets, pork and egg dumplings, nori and some tofu/vegetable mix. Reno could have cared less what it was, as long as it wasn't rotten. He hardly touched the stuff they gave him at the hospital. It was all just leftovers that had been sitting out all day because no one else wanted them. He took no time hesitating before sitting down and gorging himself on food and coffee black as pitch.

"Reno, slow down a little." Yuffie called from the living room. "You're going to throw up again if you keep wolfing your food down like that. And Tseng isn't here to catch it this time."

"What do you mean wolfing? I don't eat like that." Red 13 piped up. This drew a laugh out of Tifa. She always laughed at Red 13's jokes. Then again, she always laughed at everyone's jokes. "I'm glad to see that you're feeling better." She said, which was directed at Reno. He made a noise to acknowledge that he heard her. Yuffie was right. He did feel like he was going to throw up again, so he took a break from his food and sat back to give himself a little breathing room.

On the TV screen, the two news anchors were discussing the hospital that Reno had just come out of. They didn't mention anything about all the people found dead though. The mustached brunette man was reading out his report.

In related news, Rufus Shinra of the new Shinra Corp. has donated $6.5 million dollars toward the renovation of the abandoned hospital over in west side. As of this morning, his own employees were seen entering the building to begin reconstruction. When asked for a statement as to why he has decided upon such a generous donation, he replied, saying that he wanted to enrich the city's economy, by first offering jobs to the many people out of work. Secondly, he plans on organizing this as a "Discount Hospital" if I may call it that, to offer free care to the local poor houses and orphanages. Now to June Kirasowa for further news.

A thin, blond woman took over.

Thanks Tom. I spoke with Shinra this morning about his plans and he added that…

"Damn he is smooth." Muttered Tifa, exacting a rather disgusted look from Cloud. In fact, everyone but the two Turks seemed to be looking at her oddly. "What?" she asked. "All I'm saying is it's obviously a very good cover-up. Rufus sent his people into the hospital early this morning to clean up all of the corpses that we left. He must have done this to draw attention away from the actual matter at hand. So now he is going to make his people clean the whole hospital up and renovate it to cover for Reno. It's clever." Tifa looked flustered, so Rude stepped in.

"Reno is valuable to Rufus. He can't have anything making us or himself look bad. He doesn't care about all the money. It's no big deal to him to give it. But don't start thinking that Rufus Shinra is soft-hearted, because he isn't. He's taking the heat off himself so he can get to the bottom of who these people are that are responsible for taking Reno and why they thought he would be a benefit to them.

Reno cleared his throat. "Ummm…sitting right here, guys. You can talk to me instead of like I'm not here. Why don't you just drop it, now?"

"Moody." Vincent murmured. "What's wrong with you? Are you sweet on a group of terrorists?" Vincent hadn't intended to incite anything, but he was calloused. He had very little care for the feelings of others and it showed by the way that he talked to people. He was not a happy man, and therefore, he did not care if anyone was happy. He was loyal, but never particularly kind-hearted. He personally liked getting under people's skins, but all in a joking manner.

"Vincent, fuck you, yo." Reno said as he got up and went outside on the back balcony, slamming the glass door behind him.

"Jeez Vince. Did you have to go there?" Tifa asked, after an awkward silence.

"I wasn't serious. He needs to learn how to take a joke."

"No, you need to learn how to not tell so many. Especially not ones that are hurtful to other people. That's like joking about you and Dr. Hojo being best friends; even though he pumped you full of all kinds of DNA changing cells."

"Too far, Tifa. That is not even the same. They didn't pump Reno full of anything."

"How do you know that? How are you so damn sure? You don't know, Vincent! Why can't you just admit that what you said was inappropriate? That was just screwed up and wrong. I expect better from you!"

Tifa looked around the room at her friends. Every living thing in sight had both of its eyes on her slightly bleary ones. Vincent's mouth dropped open, since Tifa had gotten within inches of his face and yelled at him. That was not like her. As much as he would never admit it out loud, it was frightening. He, Vincent Valentine, for the moment was quite literally scared out of his shoes of a 22 year old woman. Tifa may have been a girl, and Vincent may have been all-powerful, as well as immortal, but he would never hurt Tifa. She was tough as nails, but no matter what she did, he would never lower himself to hitting her. That's what made it so scary. Tifa could have punched Vincent in the mouth at any second, and there wasn't a thing he could do about it, because it would have been wrong of him. He really did not want to get punched by her. Though he could not die, he could still lose teeth, and that could still hurt.

Cid cleared his throat, nudging Yuffie into looking somewhere else.

"I'm sorry Tifa. That was uncalled for." Vincent said, in his dark but dignified manner. He wanted to keep face in front of everyone by being polite to Tifa, but that wasn't why he apologized. He said he was sorry because of the way she looked at him like she was going to swing at him if he didn't. There was no doubt about it. The feeling was palpable, she was fuming angry.

Her face softened though, and her anger was gone as quickly as it came.

"Its okay, Vincent. I'm sorry, too. I overreacted. I should not have gotten mad at you. You didn't mean it. This is just a stressful situation for all of us." She finished by stroking Vincent's cheek with the side of her palm nearest to her thumb. Catching herself, and now very embarrassed she abruptly stopped and stood up straight, bringing her fingernails to her mouth, to chew them nervously.

Vincent could read people, and Tifa was like the simplest book in the world. He knew to himself that she didn't mean anything amorous by her sudden affection. She spent most of her life with children, and he had seen her give them hugs when they were sick or afraid, or if she had been too hard on them. To her, children needed to be loved as well as disciplined, and the way she showed that she cared about them was usually physical, like a pat on the back or a tussling of the hair. At that moment, she just lost her bearings, and was treating Vincent like a child she had disciplined too harshly. She was a good mother and a good person, and that was nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact, Vincent found very slight and very, very rare affection comforting. He didn't often like human contact, and if he felt he was in the mood for it, that was always in very small doses. That was a burst of refreshing air to him. Though, like every other thought and feeling he had, he would never admit it aloud.

Seeing her bothered like that struck him as humorous and a very slight grin crossed his cheeks. He knew that everyone in the room had now dropped their jaws even closer to the floor, and it just made the situation all the more entertaining. Vincent didn't care what anyone thought, but he could see out of the corner of his eye that a very livid Cloud Strife was staring daggers at him, so he decided to put the Kibosh in this thing and wrap it up quick.

"Eyes down." He told his friends, and immediately got results. Everyone but Cloud quickly found something else to do, getting up and rushing around the house toward a new chore. Vincent, not wanting to get Cloud anymore irritated and jealous than he already was decided that it was time for him to get to his daily errands. He stood and with a quick nod of the head said, "Good day, Tifa." Before heading out the front door.

Before Rude could take advantage of the opportunity to go check on Reno, the back door opened and in Reno came.

"Rude, you are never going to believe what just happened."

End of Chapter 2.