Gone from 3 pages long to 2 pages.
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.
Both Reno and Rude were hanging around the lobby sitting by some plants with Reno throwing out random, sometimes crass observations about the people walking past while Rude had a small smile on his face. It was obvious that the bald Turk was amused and that spurred Reno on to continue with his observations.
"Is that Scarlet? You know, I know she's a black widow spider and everything, but seriously, she doesn't need to dress up like one." Reno said as the head of the weapons department walked by. Luckily she was far enough away to not be able to hear the comment. As expected, Rude sniggered a little.
A few moments later and there was a ding from the elevator and a semi roughed up Cloud appeared.
"Well, there's our target." Reno said in a somewhat light tone. His expression quickly turned into a frown when the smaller monster got close enough for Reno to notice the state of his clothes.
"Hi Reno… Person that I don't know." It seemed that the cadet had also lost all sense of formality on the way down.
"Cloud, Rude, Rude, Cloud. Be friends. Now, what's with the messed up look? Is there someone that I need to kill?" Reno questioned.
"I might have kissed General Rhapsodos and then Lieutenant Fair made out with me." Cloud said without thinking and the next thing he knew, Reno was out of his seat and was about to make his way over to the elevators when someone grabbed the back of his suit and dragged him back into his chair.
"Where do you think you're going Red?"
Reno could recognise that voice coming from behind him from anywhere. "What are you doing here Rufus?" Reno questioned.
"Am I not allowed to be in the lobby of my fathers' own company?" Rufus questioned.
"I never said that you weren't allowed to be here. I was asking why you were here, pulling on the back of my suit." Reno replied.
"I saw you and Rude and the little chocobo talking, so I thought it would be best to stop you from attempting to kill Genesis and Zack. We still need them just in case war breaks out in Wutai again and I don't want to be picking up bits of you off the complex. Even if you did manage to kill them both, I would not want to be on the receiving end of Sephiroth's wrath." Rufus pointed out.
"They kissed Cloud!" Reno said as if the thought itself was a crime.
"No one died. No one's hurt, granted, you do look like you've taken a dive into a dumpster cadet. Was Zack trying to paw your clothes off or something?"
Reno tensed at the thought but didn't move since he could still feel Rufus holding onto the back of his suit.
"I don't even know what I look like right now. Not to mention I don't even remember much from the time in between when Zack jumped me, to when he was helping me off the ground."
"That bastard. Did he drug you?" Reno questioned.
"No." Cloud said. "At least, I don't think so."
"Zack was probably just that good." Rufus supplied for them. "You probably just lost all train of thought and now you're feeling a bit confused and disoriented, but not in a bad way right?" Rufus questioned and Cloud nodded his head.
"How do you even know that? Are you sure he didn't use any kinds of drugs on you?" Reno questioned suspiciously. A second later he had his head turned so that he was looking at Rufus.
"You can't tell me you didn't have the same feeling when we were on the beach together." Reno blushed bright red.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Rufus grinned at that. It was obvious that the weasel was lying be the way he wouldn't look at anyone's face.
"If you don't remember, then I don't mind refreshing your brain right now." Reno was quick to pull himself out of Rufus' grip.
"Not while I'm working." Both Rufus and Cloud looked surprised at that.
"Why did you call me down when you're working?" Cloud questioned.
"Because you're our next job." Rude was the one to reply. Cloud looked even more confused at that.
"Tseng assigned us to make sure that you get into SOLDIER." Reno added on when he noticed Cloud's confused look.
"Is this related to the whole, 'if Cloud gets into SOLDIER we'll let you use him for safe jobs only,' thing that they were discussing the other day?" Cloud questioned.
"I knew I liked you for a reason." Reno grinned. "You're so smart." The weasel felt a pair of arms wrap their way around his shoulders.
"Have you ever been told that spiders can get extremely jealous?" Rufus practically hissed into Reno's ear. The weasel was quick to push the spider off him.
"I didn't mean it that way Rufus, and besides, I'd rather not be skewered by Masamune or a rapier or some form of buster sword any time soon." Reno shuddered at the thought of being impaled by either of the general's swords. He heard giggling coming from Cloud and noticed Rude smiling while Rufus was grinning. "All of you get your minds out of the gutter. I thought I trained you better than that Cloud." Reno said with a small pout when he realised what they were all thinking.
"It's because you trained me that I think this way." Cloud retorted back and Reno let out an overly exaggerated sigh.
"And you used to be so innocent my little Rain Cloud." He sobbed dramatically, leaning on the smaller monster while Cloud just rolled his eyes. "Where did I go wrong. I was just doing what I thought was the best for you and then this happens."
"I think it started when you first thought that it would be a good idea to put me into a vent." Cloud pointed out and Reno almost immediately covered Cloud's mouth.
"Not in front of everyone Cloud." He scolded and Cloud rolled his eyes again.
"Give it a rest Red. We all already know." Rufus pointed out and Reno glared at him.
"I don't want to give Tseng any reason to send Cloud on any kind of dangerous mission." He stated.
"I thought we had already established the fact that Cloud wasn't allowed to go on any dangerous missions, so you can lay off with trying to hide it. Neither of you are going to get punished for it either…" A small, suggestive grin appeared on Rufus' face. "Unless that's what you want."
Reno paled slightly at that. "No, we're fine the way we are. There's no need for any kind of punishment."
Rufus' grin widened. "Are you sure about that? Because I can easily have it arranged."
"No." Was Reno's immediate reply and Rufus pouted.
"Has anyone ever told you that you're no fun?" He questioned.
"You tell me that almost every day and for your information. I can be lots of fun. I just don't show it in front of you."
Rufus once again smirked at that. "I guess I'll just have to drag out that side of you then."
Reno backed away slightly at that, not quite hiding behind Cloud, but close to it.
"Rufus, there you are."
Reno almost immediately breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the sound of Tseng's voice. The spider on the other hand, frowned.
"Tseng." He acknowledged him.
"I did not search the whole complex just for you to pretend that there's nothing wrong Rufus." Tseng said as he walked over to the vice president, giving him a pointed look.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." It was painfully obvious that the spider was lying.
"Stop pretending." Tseng said as he grabbed Rufus by the arm and practically dragged him towards the elevators. "You only have to do one thing, and right when I think you're going to do the right thing you disappear right before the meeting. I'm beginning to think that the General's puppy is rubbing off on you more than I had thought."
"Don't compare me to Zack!" Rufus immediately complained.
"I guess I shouldn't, granted he doesn't skip out on meetings, he crashes them instead. Usually with some form of monster following after him… I'm still wondering how he managed to get that chocobo into the complex and all the way up to the office without security catching him…" Both Tseng and Rufus' voices were cut off as the elevator closed behind them.
Once the two were gone, Cloud turned his attention back over to the two remaining Turks. "So what was that whole thing before about me being your next mission?" He questioned. He didn't think he liked the smirk that suddenly appeared on Reno's face.
"First up, let's head to the archives. We're gonna teach you a little bit on information gathering!" With that Reno started dragging Cloud towards the elevators.