Cid sat in the tub with Reno pressed against his chest, absently playing with the long red strands of hair that draped into the water. They had decided to stop doing anything more sexual that evening, (Reno felt woozy after the head bobbing) and they decided that perchance simply relaxing in the tub would be best.

It had been a long time since Cid had shared a tub with anyone, let alone the Turk that sat curled in his arms. Reno relaxed his head against the older man's chest and stared at the flicker of light on the faucet. It felt odd to be lying against Cid's broad chest, much different than it had been with Tseng in the man's private jacuzzi tub.

Cid's chest was broad and had just enough "give" to be comfortable. Reno almost felt cradled against the chest instead of laying on it. There were bits of grey in Cid's hair that you didn't notice until you looked closely against the blonde. The older pilot also had his fair share of scars, mostly on his arms from cuts and burns while in a workshop. The blonde's casual stubble poked at the top of his head as the pilot absently set his chin against Reno. It was all so foreign, but yet so familiar.

It was like when he was with Tseng, but Cid was so different from Tseng. The Wutain was too high strung to cuddle with Reno. They had tried the whole snuggle in the bath thing, but instead it turned into a casual Tseng lecture about bathing culture in Wutai. Reno looked at the older man's legs that stretched across the tub from behind him and lost himself in deep thought.

He didn't know what he felt for the man, yet he had just done something sexually explicit with him. It felt like it did when he was younger, but it was also completely different. Part of him really liked Cid, yet still he kept thinking of Tseng.

"You're starting to smoke."

"Huh?" Reno asked looking carefully over his shoulder at the older man.

"You were thinking so hard you had smoke coming out of your ears. I was just letting you know." Cid said with a corny smile.

Reno smiled and turned back to face the faucet. "Yea, kinda got lost there for a bit."

"Care to tell me what got you thinking so hard?"

Reno thought for a moment before he finally spoke, "Cid, I must warn you."

"Uh, oh this doesn't sound good. What're you warnin' me about?"

"Before we start anything at all, no matter what it turns into or even what it doesn't turn into. If the Turks come for me and tell me we have been reinstated I am sorry but I will be leaving."

"Are ya sayin' you want this to be sumthin'?"

"Not necessarily. What do you want out of this?"

Cid frowned in thought as he absently twirled a lock of the Turks red hair.

"I dunno. I haven't had anythin' in so long, it almost didn't dawn on me to want anything at all."

"Would you want a relationship, Cid? And I don't even mean with me? After Vincent, are you ready to try again? Or would you simply want a fuck buddy?"

"Never much cared for the thought of fuck buddies. Someone always gets hert when it comes to just fucking for the hell of fucking."

"I've seen it work out."

"I'm not sayin' it can't. I'm jus' saying that usually someone wants the other more than the other person wants them. It's a matter of unequal love, not blind lust."

"So are you saying you don't think you could manage to have a fuck buddy relationship?"

"Nah, I don't think I am the fuck and run kinda guy. What about you? Are you the settle down and try to be with someone because you love them?"

"I've never really known much about love and I've only ever dated someone steadily twice. I tried it out but it tends to bite me in the ass."

There was a lengthy silence before Cid cleared his throat, "Would you want to try again?"

"Are you saying with you?"

Cid nodded wordlessly.

"Don't get me wrong, but I don't think you can handle my baggage."

"I handled Vince's baggage from when he was a Turk and from Lucrecia. Is your baggage worse?"

Reno looked down into the water at his own reflection and glared at the person he saw there.

"Some have thought so. It was hard to find someone who could understand a Turk, let alone my life before the Turks. That's why Tseng and I got along. We both understood the whole Turk thing, we just needed to get around each other's past. I have done some horrible shit in my time Cid. It's one of those things that I have tried to overcome time and time again. Try to make it all better, but every time I get an inch I am thrown back a mile. Just saving those men was great, but it doesn't make up for anything."

"It was your job. You shouldn't beat yourself up over what you were ordered to do."

"I know and I am happy that I got the job I did. For all the downs it had, it did have perks. It got me out of where I was and for that I am grateful, but the cost to my-" Reno cut himself off with a viscous snort. "Look at me laying on the heavy. What a little Miss Merry Sunshine I'm being. Sorry for changing the mood for the worse."

Cid smiled and wondered what Reno stopped himself from saying. He looked at the Turks back at the scars that laced across his skin. It was almost surreal sitting in the tub with the younger Turk, being allowed to play with his hair and touch his soft pale skin. He stared at the younger man's scars trying to imagine how they all got there. He could see several bullet wounds scattered across the lean torso all near vital places, but none hit the mark. There were old rope burns on the thin ankles and his wrists from years of capture and torture. Cid looked down the bruised arms and saw scars that he knew exactly were they were from. How he had missed them when he mistook the mako collapsed veins he couldn't guess. Two deep vertical lines ran down the younger man's arms an obvious mark of a suicide attempt and scarily enough there were no stutter cuts. If he hadn't known any better he would have thought someone else had done it. It was horrifying to think that such a beautiful young man would try to do such a thing.

"You know you don't need to hide things from me. I might not be a Turk, but I know about Shinra. I have heard what kinda shit you were ordered to do. If you ever need to talk, about anything, I hope you realize that I will listen and despite my huge fucking mouth, I can be a pretty good listener. You asked me if I am ready to try to be in another relationship and I can honestly say I don't know. I can tell ya though that if I wait until I think I am ready that I will never be with another person. Reno, I don't know if I can handle your baggage simply because you haven't told me what it is. I hope that one day you will feel comfortable enough to tell me and you don't need to feel comfortable telling me now, I can wait. I am tired of waiting for Vincent to come back. If you are willing I would like to try out a relationship, we can try. We can't guarantee the length, but we can try it out."

Reno thought for a moment, before finally nodding.

"We can only try."

~Here it is chapter 16. Sorry it took me sooo long. I had to type this with my internet browser open because I am using the new "present" computer my fiancé got me and with the power cord dead I couldn't get the original "Grease Monkey" save file off of the dead computer. I hope you liked this chapter, things should start picking up soon.

As promised A HUGE thank you to the reviewers for chapter 14: bettina1959, fetherhd, VioletIsInPain, Namantos, trabeck, and omgitskirby. Thank you all for bing patient for your recognition!

Also a nice big thank you to those that reviewed on chapter 15: bettina1959, VioletIsInPain, Black-Rogue-Fairy, fetherhd, and Namantos.

Hearing what you all think keeps me writing and I love hearing from all of you. Thank you so much for taking the time to review! Thank you for reading, hope you all liked it. ~CR