Once More, With Feeling

by Illusor Meaneld

If you could start your life over, knowing how things could turn out, what would you do differently? Cloud is offered this chance, and tries to change the future, but he quickly discovers that fate and destiny play a high stakes game.

36. Team Effort

Once More, With Feeling... – Chapter 36: Team Effort

Summary: Cloud's friends cooperate in an effort to find the ultimate gift.

Author: Illusor Meaneld

Rated T: for Descriptive violence and injuries, No Adult Situations, No Cussing.

Disclaimer: I did not create, and do not own the characters from Final Fantasy 7, They are owned by Square-Enix, and I am simply borrowing them for my own (and hopefully your) enjoyment.

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Reno dropped a gil coin into the pay-phone, grumbling to himself as he punched in the number for Zack's PHS, shouldn'ta wrecked mine… gotta getta new one soon… He thought with a sigh, the other end picked up on the second ring,

"Professional Chocobo-sitter at your service, this is Zack Fair speaking, what can I do for you?"

Reno couldn't help but grin, "Yo porcupine… how'sit all goin?"

"Oh! Hey Bantam, it's all 'goin' good! Chocobo's doing fine, he's had lunch and now he's resting, we played some card games earlier and made a few card-towers too."

"Cool, cool." Reno shrugged the information away for later, happy that Cloud seemed to be recovering quickly, "So, … how's 'bout the plans for tonight yo? Yer all ready for that right?"

"Hnn?" Zack's voice on the other end paused, "OH! Yeah, tonight… right. Yeah I remember that, I'm all ready."

Reno chuckled at the sudden enthusiasm, only to pause when he heard the distinctive sound of Cloud's voice distantly audible through Zack's PHS,

"What are you and Reno doing tonight Zack?" Cloud inquired suspiciously,

"Don' say a word yo!" Reno hastily ordered Zack, even as he heard the other boy stammering in sudden confusion,

"Um… well… uh, … nothing much…?" Zack laughed a little strained, Reno could practically HEAR him fidgeting nervously in place.

"Zack." Cloud's voice instantly dropped into his 'warning' tone, "What are you two up to?"

"Hey! Hey!" Reno piped, straining to catch the young SOLDIER's attention, "Ya can't tell Cloudy 'member? No talkin'!"

"Um…" Zack began uncomfortably,

"NO TALKIN'!!" Reno yelped,

"Right, right!" Zack sighed, "Sorry Spikey, I'm not supposed to tell you."

"Zack." Cloud almost seemed to growl, but then there was a pause, followed by a barely audible sigh, "I better not wake up to anything weird Zack… no face paint or squishy stuff in my underwear, or anything like that."

Reno could hear Zack laugh, "Naw naw… We wouldn't do that Chocobo-head, … not while you're still recovering. … Besides! Reno wants you to stay here too badly to pull any nasty pranks."

Reno blinked, was he that transparent? He hadn't SAID anything like that to Zack… but …it was true.

"Yo Porcupine…" Reno interrupted, pausing until he was sure he had Zack's attention once more, "I'll meet'cha out front in twen'y minutes, okay? I'll pick us up a ride'n all that ta make things go faster."

Zack chuckled, "You bet! I'll see you then Bantam."

Reno grinned even as the phone clicked dead. He was whistling by the time he sauntered out of the building and into the garage. They didn't give him any trouble this time about acquiring a vehicle. They wouldn't even look at him funny if he asked for two… though Tseng would mention it if he didn't have a good reason… misuse of company property and all that… Reno chuckled at the memory…

Not in a hurry this time, Reno managed to drive at something resembling the speed-limit, not anything he intended to make a habit of… at least unless Cloud was in the car, the poor kid seemed to have some speed issues, … Reno really hoped it wasn't some kinda motion sickness, wincing at the thought he parked the car in front of his own apartment, briefly toying with the idea of just honking for Zack, … before he remembered that Eirene lived a short block or so away… and he cringed at the thought of the gun-toting blonde Turk. She always seemed to know when it was Reno… He spat a soft curse, and turned off the engine. Not that he was afraid of Eirene, not in the least, … but since Cloud was off-duty, his chances of getting partnered with her were rather good, and she just seemed to have a way of directing Murphy and his law to follow other people…

Reno opened the front door of his home quietly, poking his head through and peeking around before entering completely. "Yo Zack!" He called in an undertone, counting on the SOLDIER's enhanced hearing to pick up the sound. "We gotta go Man! C'mon!"

Sure enough, the raven-haired youth padded out of Cloud's room a moment later, "Hey Reno!" Zack murmured softly back, "Why are we whispering?"

"I don' wan' Cloudy ta start interrogatin' us yo!" Reno hissed, jerking his head towards the door, "I gotta feelin' he'd be real good at it, so I ain' waitin' aroun' ta find out y'know?"

Zack chuckled softly, but even as Reno turned and stepped out the door, the SOLDIER 2nd class turned and gleefully called out,

"HEY! CHOCOBO-HEAD!! … Reno and I are going out for a bit kay? Be back soon!"

Reno froze mid-motion, mouth agape, his hands twitched momentarily with the urge to wrap around Zack's muscled neck. But before he could do much more than turn to stare, a muffled voice called back from down the hall.

"Sure thing! Have fun! … remember what I said!"

"will do!" Zack replied before turning back to Reno, "See? Nothing to worry about! I already told Cloud we had stuff to do, he says it's fine and…"

"WHAT PART of 'secrecy' did you NOT understand?" the red-head snarled,

"I didn't tell him what we were doing!" Zack frowned, "Just that we were going out to do stuff… it's not like we can just DITCH him! He'd notice! And he might get worried or something…"

Reno sighed, adjusted his goggles and scratched his head for a moment, "Fine… whatever yo…" He grumbled, "Jus' get in the car."

With a grin and a shrug Zack loped to the car Reno had brought, "Hey… this one's different from the one you had yesterday." The raven-haired youth observed as he slid into the passenger seat.

"'course it is, I had ta return the other one… an' I don' need a back seat or anythin' so I jus' went with more engine an' more trunk-space y'know?"

Zack ran a hand over the leather interior and sighed, "Turk's get all the fun stuff…"

Reno grinned, "You bet! 'at's why we're Turks!"

Zack was still chuckling when Reno revved the engine and pulled out. It was a rather short trip to their first destination, and as the young Turk drove up to the large Sector 2 shopping mall he flashed a grin at his passenger,

"There's another perk ta bein' a Turk yo…" Reno chuckled, Zack's puzzled blue eyes flicked to his face, but the red-head said nothing more as he maneuvered into the 'valet' parking section. Zack's eyes widened as Reno simply flashed his Turk ID and handed over the keys, no questions asked, and no money exchanging hands.

"FREE Valet??" Zack hissed as they walked towards the mall,

Reno snickered, "You bet! Can' always have records a' where we've been an' all that… so Shinra arranged fer all us Turks ta have free valet parkin' everywhere in Midgar! Comes with the badge yo!" he waved his ID card at the young SOLDIER again,

Zack groaned, "This is so unfair! How come SOLDIERs don't get stuff like that?"

Reno snorted, "If ya haven' figured that out by now… I ain' gonna tell ya."

Zack slumped with a groan of defeat, "Why do people always say that?"

Reno blinked once, always huh? … guess I ain't THAT surprised… kid's denser than a cactaur sometimes. He snickered softy even as he pushed open the doors to the mall.

Their banter quickly quieted as they walked around the crowded shopping center, eyeing the brightly lit stores and signs. The first establishment to catch their attention was a huge bakery, multilayered cakes displayed prominently in the windows.

"Hey! We could get him a cake!" Zack enthusiastically trotted up to the glass, gazing over the confections behind them, "Sweets always make ME feel better!"

"I dunno 'bout that…" Reno frowned, gazing speculatively over the elaborate sweets.

"You don't think he'd like it?" Zack pouted in disappointment,

Reno chuckled, "'s'not that yo… but get-well cakes… tha's pretty borin' don'cha think?"

"Boring?" Zack returned with a frown,

"Yeah, I mean… everyone does THAT… Cloudy deserves somethin' better then yer typical get well slag." The turk waved his hand dismissively.

The raven-haired youth scratched at the back of his head and frowned, "I suppose…"

Reno didn't wait for him to think it over, but instead hastily dragged the other boy off to peruse more of the shops. They ended up browsing through several clothing stores, toy stores, a knife shop that Reno eventually had to drag Zack forcibly from, and a video game store, where the red-head had to veto the idea of buying Cloud the most recent game in the 'Dead Fantasy' series.

"When would he have time to play?" was Reno's argument, which Zack finally had to succumb to the logic of. SOLDIER Prep. Cadets weren't exactly rolling in spare time, nor were Turk Interns. Frustrated with the lack of 'ideal' gift options, and each other's arguments, the two sixteen year olds finally settled down on a bench near the indoor restaurants to go over their options.

"Man!" Zack groaned as they sat, "You shop worse than a girl!"

Reno snorted, "don' blame me yo! This place ain' got anythin' good!"

"Then why did you want to come here?" Zack folded his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"'cause there's alotta variety an' crap… thought we might get lucky or somethin', but 's'all cliché."

Zack heaved a sigh, "I can understand wanting something special… I kind of want something like that too, but this is getting ridiculous!"

Reno frowned, No way he was gonna get something ordinary for his partner! That just wasn't how it worked! He sat there for several moments more, turning the problem over in his mind, Finally he had to just laugh, ignoring the puzzled look on his companion's face, "We're goin' abou' this all wrong yo!"

"Huh?" was Zack's predictable reply,

Reno grinned, "I figured we'd check tha Mall 'cause it's big, … but we don' wan't any a this stuff… we gotta go where we'll find somethin' rare and cool." Zack's blue eyes continued to stare back in confusion, even when Reno stood and grabbed his wrist, "C'mon yo! We gotta go downstairs!"

"Downstairs?" Zack repeated, "… uh… haven't we already looked there?"

"Not THAT downstairs! I mean DOWNSTAIRS. … under tha plate an' all that."

"The Slums?" Zack's eyes widened with sudden enlightenment, "You think we can find something good there?"

Reno chuckled, "I'm thinkin' we've got a better bet than stickin' aroun' here!"

Zack scratched at the back of his head uncertainly and sighed, "It's worth a try I guess,…" He mumbled.

"Great!" Reno grinned, "'s'all I wanna know. C'mon! There's a train station nearby, we'll be down an' back in no time!"

The two of them ended up half running to the station, and roughly twenty minutes later, made their way into Sector 6.

"This here's tha infamous Wall-Market!" Reno crowed smugly, watching Zack's face as he glanced around at the dirty but strangely exotic place. Following the young SOLDIER's gaze, Reno's eyes widened at the sight of a few scantily clad, 'less than reputable' young women, who waved and winked at him from across the street. He nudged Zack with his elbow, "Maybe we could get Cloudy THAT!" He snickered.

Zack's blue eyes darted around in confusion, "Get him what?"

"Nevermind yo, I don' think he'd really appreciate it, he ain' really tha type a guy, ya know?" Reno shrugged,

"Type for what?" Zack frowned, his head whipping about more frantically,

Reno raised an eyebrow, "Dang,… whadda they teach ya back there? Yer all kindsa naïve ain'cha?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Zack scowled, folding his arms sullenly, "I don't see anything."

"Don' worry 'bout it yo, I'm sure ya'll figure it out sooner er later. … er… maybe a lot more later than sooner."

"Figure out WHAT?!" Zack cried in frusteration,

Biting his lip, Reno shook his head and grabbed Zack's arm, "C'mon yo, I got some shops ta show ya!" he quickly dragged his companion away before he succumbed to the temptation to laugh, or 'introduce' the innocent SOLDIER to the prostitutes. He pulled him into the nearest convenient shop, which turned out to be a small drug-store.

Zack scratched his head again, "What are we looking for in here?" he asked glancing around, and wrinkling his nose at the strange smells.

"we ain' lookin' fer somethin' in particular, jus' checkin' stuff out, y'know?" Reno shrugged, sliding his hands into his pockets as he prowled around.

Zack watched him for a moment, before returning the shrug, "Okay… if you say so." He muttered, joining in the search. After a moment he turned away from the shelf he was perusing to hold out a few small glass bottles with a grin, "Hey Reno! Are we looking for something like this?"

Darting a glance at Zack's prize, Reno snorted, "Ya tryin' ta tell 'im somethin'?" He grinned, eyeing the bottles of cologne and perfume,

Zack sniggered, replacing them on the shelves, "No, I suppose not."

Having successfully distracted the raven-haired youth, and yet unsuccessful at finding an appropriate gift for Cloud, Reno lead his charge further into market, they paused by the Honeybee Inn, laughing as the young ladies out front mentioned 'clothing' for sale, Reno didn't bother explaining that half of the 'women' were actually men, even when Zack continued to inquire after men's outfits. The red-headed Turk was laughing by the time he'd dragged a rather flustered and confused blue-eyed SOLDIER away from the notorious establishment.

"This place is really weird," Zack whined, as Reno firmly prodded him towards yet another shop.

"'S'the slums yo, 'course it's weird,"

Zack sighed, and scuffed his feet as he walked through the door, but a moment later his bad mood dissipated, and his eyes widened in awe. He swallowed three times and gaped, pointing his finger crudely at the object just inside the store, "Is that… a… a … TANK?" He gasped,

Reno grinned hugely, "You bet it is, told ya tha slums had cool stuff didn' I?"

"Yeah…" Zack breathed, his hands clenching repeatedly as he shuffled forwards, "We should TOTALLY get that for Cloud!"

Reno grinned and snickered, but the shop-keeper looked up with a frown, "That ain't for sale." He grunted, twisting a cigarette between his fingers.

Zack looked up, "Wha…? Why do you have it then?

The large man shrugged, "doesn't even work really… just the gun, I've been fixing it up, but I have no intention of selling it. I practically built this shop around it, so call it my mascot if ya will."

Reno nodded, and nudged his elbow into Zack's ribs again, "I'm all fer big guns and stuff, but where'dya think he'd put somethin' like that anyways?"

Zack ducked his head and rubbed it sheepishly, "Guess I didn't think about that." He glanced around the dirty store, noting the swords and guns on the walls, "Cloud's already got a weapon though, do you think he needs a new one? … is that a BATTERY?"

The young Turk opened his mouth to answer the first question, but paused and frowned at the second, "Um… yeah… guess it is."

The man behind the counter shrugged again, "I pick up all kinds of junk." He mumbled, "was there something you wanted?"

Reno passed his gaze around the room once more before his face split into a smirk, "Cloudy's got plen'y a weapons fer tha moment, … 'sides, he'd wanna pick out his own toys yo, but that doesn't matter, we're getting' him THAT." He pointed to a high shelf.

Zack's gaze, quickly followed Reno's triumphant finger and his jaw dropped, before quickly shifting into a grin, "WHOA! Oh that is SO perfect!" He bounced in place excitedly,

Their elation was quickly interrupted by the proprietor, "That ain't for sale either." He growled.

"Aww man!" Zack's whole form sagged in disappointment,

Reno snorted, "That is so too for sale, an' we're buyin' it!"

The Owner raised stiffened and glared, "I said it ain't for sale! Who do you think you are?"

Reno paused, raising one eyebrow derisively, "I got two reasons that IS for sale," he sneered, sauntering up to the counter and reaching into his pockets, he pulled out one hand and flicked up a card between his fingers, "This badge, which says I think I'm a TURK." He waved the ID card a few times for affect, enjoying watching the color drain from the shop-keeper's face. "An' this card," He flicked out his other hand to display his Shinra Credit-Card. "Which says I'm well-compensated, if ya know what I mean."

The large man swallowed heavily, "Uh… alright, it's for sale…"

"Hey!" Zack interrupted, jogging up beside the red-head, "I was gonna help pay too!" He pouted, Reno rolled his eyes and spared a glance at him,

"Shaddup Zack, we'll worry 'bout splittin' stuff later, right now this is barterin'! An' that's one of my specialties!" He grinned slyly at the merchant, "So … how much ya want for it?"

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(( Uhhhmmmm,… Well… Eh-heh,… I don't really have any 'good' reason for my extended absence. I just haven't been writing… at ALL. So… yeah.

Anyways, I'm sorry if I worried people, That wasn't my intention, but I HATE those 'non-chapters' that Authors sometimes post when they're gone for a while, so I don't write 'em.

But I CAN promise that I won't abandon this, or any other fanfic or story I'm writing… it's not my style.

Anyways, sorry again, but I hope you continue to enjoy my story despite my inconsistent udates.

-Jianre M. A.K.A … Illusor Meaneld. ))