Long story short, I had a laparoscopy then my cousin's wedding up in Auckland.
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.
The first thought that went through Reno's head was, this was really weird. Today was the second time that he had woken up on his own and Cloud wasn't right in his face. Said cadet was still lying in bed dead asleep with his head buried beneath his pillow and the blankets covering every other part of his body like a cocoon. After a moment of staring he finally decided that it wasn't getting him anywhere so he hauled himself out of bed and made his way into the bathroom.
Just as he reached for his toothbrush he just remembered something. Was that hair dye that he bought permanent or temporary? Because Cloud was going to kill him if his hair was turned black till it grew out; not to mention if his plan didn't work, it was going to look mighty suspicious if Clouds hair turned black the same day that they left a listening device in Tseng's office.
Almost immediately, he dropped his toothbrush and grabbed the bottle at the top of the rubbish bin, only to stop when he realised the weight of it in his hands. Had Cloud even used it? He twisted open the lid and stared at the sight of the seal still fastened to the top of the bottle… So how had Cloud changed his hair? Cautiously, he headed towards the door, to find that Cloud had finally woken up, still sporting his black hair and he was rubbing his eyes in an adorable fashion.
"Hey chickabo?"
"Yah?" Cloud stared back at him sleepily. Reno tossed the unused bottle of hair dye onto Cloud's bed.
"Explain, and don't give me that cute look." Cloud stared at the bottle that was sitting on his bed for a few moments before turning back to Reno.
"It's a bottle of hair dye?" Reno shook his head, reminding himself that Cloud was probably still half asleep and didn't know what he was on about.
"It's the bottle that I gave you yesterday remember? Care to explain how you got your lovely raven locks without using it?" What Reno didn't know was that Cloud's brain was working at a mile a minute trying to come up with a good excuse as to why he didn't use it.
"Um… I'm a crane?" Yup, that was smart. He didn't even know if cranes had that ability. The only ability that he ever witnessed his mother having was the fact that she could fly and she could heal, considering the amount of cuts and scrapes that he used to get as a child.
"You mean it's one of your abilities?" Cloud nodded his head dumbly. "Why didn't you just say that before then chickabo?" Cloud just shrugged as Reno walked over to the bed and picked the bottle back up. "Next time, just tell me instead of throwing away a perfectly good bottle of hair dye." With that he strode back into the bathroom and shut the door behind him and Cloud let out the breath he didn't know that he was even holding. Well, that was close.
In side the bathroom, Reno placed the bottle of hair dye on the table and resumed his previous idea of brushing his teeth. He paused as another thought hit him. Why had Cloud felt the need to wet his hair to make it look like he had dyed it? He pondered over it for a few seconds before he finally decided to just let the detail slide. It wasn't important anyways.
An hour or so later Cloud found himself wandering the slums with Reno at his side, whistling a tune that he couldn't quite place.
"Hey Reno?" The other cadet turned to Cloud questioningly. "Where are we going?" The Turk wannabe grinned as he slid an earphone from his pocket into his ear.
"We're going to get you a nice little earring, and while we're doing that, we're going to see what kind of a range this baby has." He tapped the earphone that was nestled into his ear.
"How do you even know it's working when there probably isn't anyone in Tseng's office to listen to?" Reno just grinned as they turned a corner into a tattoo and piercing store.
"Hey Reno, long time no see. Finally decided to get something other than that one time?" The guy at the counter questioned. From what Cloud could tell, the guy was some kind of a bird. He had sharp golden eyes and brown wings.
"Nah, I owe my little chickabo here a favour, he likes shiny things so show him something nice, that will at least suit him." The man nodded before he started rummaging through some drawers, pulling out a few trays full of earrings.
"Um… Reno, are you sure…"
"It's fine chickabo. This guy's reasonably priced, not to mention he's a hawk. He's got good eyes, whether it's for fashion or accuracy." The hawk seemed to beam at Reno's compliments as he arranged the trays on a desk for Cloud to look at. At first he couldn't stop just looking at the trays in general. Everything was just… Well, shiny to put it bluntly and none of them even had crystals in them. Everything on the trays were made of either gold or silver. Reno let out a low whistle at the sight.
"Nothing gold chickabo, won't suit you." The hawk made a face.
"Didn't you just say that I had a good eye for fashion?"
"Not saying you don't, just that chickabo's usually a blond." The other monster stared at Cloud for a moment, seemingly trying to imagine him with blond hair before he nodded his head in agreement and put all the gold earrings back. "So, found anything you like?" Cloud made a bit of a face.
"Reno… They're all… Well, you know… How the hell am I supposed to choose like this?" Reno merely shrugged his shoulders before turning his attention to the hawk that was patiently waiting for Cloud to choose something.
"Think you can recommend something, since our resident chickabo can't decide on his own?" The other monster stared at Cloud for a second before he turned his attention back down to the collection that he set down before him.
"What about this one?" He pulled out an earring that had a wolf head as its design. "It'll probably suit your friend here."
"Well, you're the one with the good eyes." Reno turned his attention over to Cloud, who finally seemed to have snapped out of his daze from all the bright things being shown to him. "What do you think chickabo? Think it'll suit you?" Cloud stared at it for a moment before he finally nodded his head.
"Yeah, it looks good."
"Sweet, we'll get that one then."
"Right, one Cloudy Wolf, coming right up." Reno burst out laughing at that, while Cloud just looked confused.
"What's so funny?" By the look on his face, the Hawk also seemed to be wondering why the weasel had just started laughing.
"That design really suits you Cloud. I mean with a name like Cloudy Wolf, it's almost like it was made for you." Cloud scrunched up his face in distaste while the Hawk started chuckling, finally getting what Reno had been laughing about.
"Right Cloud was it?" The Hawk questioned once Reno's laughter had died down and Cloud nodded in affirmation. "Take a seat right here and I'll be right back." He patted on a chair that Cloud hadn't noticed before and the halfling moved to sit down while the Hawk moved into one of the back rooms. He came back a minute later with some kind of white device that had his selected earring attached to it, a spray bottle, another bottle of some kind liquid and a packet of medical swabs. "By the way did you want both ears or just the one?"
"Hey I'm not made out of money here. Just stick one in his left ear and we'll call it a day." The Hawk nodded and turned his attention back to Cloud. The halfling was staring at the piercer wearily.
"Is this going to hurt? I heard that it does." The Hawk chuckled.
"You'll get a prick and it'll sting a little and that's about it." He picked up one of the medical swabs and poured the liquid from one of the bottles onto it. The smell of alcohol filled the air as the Hawk gently started cleaning Cloud's ear.
"If you don't take care of it your ears are gonna get infected so yeah, that will hurt, but other than that it shouldn't hurt." He held up the piercer and the next thing Cloud knew, there was a short stinging pain and his ear felt like it was heating up. He blinked in surprise, it barely even hurt at all. The Hawk chuckled at Cloud's surprised look as he grabbed the spray bottle and sprayed some of it onto Cloud's ear and the heat suddenly disappeared.
"Thought it was going to hurt worse than that didn't you?" Slightly embarrassed, Cloud nodded his head a little. "You get some like that, if they pierce your ear with a blunt piercing it's gonna hurt like hell, that's why we sharpen the ends here see." He reached over the desk to show Cloud the back of one of one of the earrings. It was almost as sharp as a needle. "Anyway." He tossed the earring back on the counter once Cloud had gotten a good look at it. "That's six hundred gil Reno."
"What? That's the same price as a materia!"
"Hey, silver ain't cheap ya know? Tell you what. Since you're always coming over here I'll give it to you for five hundred. Even though I know you've got the cash to pay in full."
"I knew you had a heart somewhere under that mass of feathers." Reno grinned as he tossed the gil onto the table and the Hawk stepped back behind the counter, grabbing the money along the way.
"You're going to be the death of me one day weasel." He said as he reached down and pulled out a small bottle, setting it down in front of Cloud. "Dip a bit of tissue or whatever you have on you in it and wash around your earring every day for a few weeks. Don't take it out for two weeks or you might spring a leak and we don't want that hole to close up unless you wanna come in here again to get it reopened." Palming the bottle, Cloud murmured a thank you as Reno grabbed one of his wrists.
"I'll see you around then." With that he dragged Cloud out of the shop as the owner waved them off.
"He was nice." Cloud commented once Reno had released his arm and they started making their way back to Shinra HQ.
"Of course he's nice. All my friends are nice… Well cept for the ones that say they're my friends but really they're out to kidnap you to see if I'll cough up some cash for them."
"Speaking of cash." Cloud looked thoughtful for a moment. "You've so far bought me two materia and an earring that was pretty much the price of materia and a bottle of hair dye… Where the hell are you getting all that money." Reno grinned.
"Only if you tell me where you got that gold armlet and your materia." Cloud shrugged.
"Father sent them to me. The cure was for my tenth birthday after mother had told him that I kept on injuring myself. Either he realised that I couldn't use it without something to equip it to or he was just waiting for my next birthday but he sent me the armlet the year after. The next five years were spent sending me different pieces of materia." Reno let out a low whistle.
"Your dad rich or something?"
"You could say that… So your cash?"
"I was a really good pick pocket when I was living down in the slums, some of the stuff that I managed to nick could last me a life time, so I've got a bit too much cash stored away now." Cloud raised an eyebrow at him.
"You haven't nicked anything of mine have you?" Reno chuckled at that.
"Course not chickabo. There's nothing in your trunk that I'd want to nick, not to mention you're too adorable to steal from." Cloud sighed in relief.
"Wait a minute, you mean you've picked the lock on my trunk before?"