Thanks for the memories

“Thanks for the Memories”
A Reno fan fiction
Chapter 17: “Of keystones, Ancients and Weapons”
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*Disclaimer: The world that this story is set in and all characters therein belong to Square-Enix. This fiction piece is strictly a non-profit exercise of creativity and entertainment for people (like me) who can’t get enough of this world and the characters.*
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Reno kicked and hit the full-length punching bag vigorously, while his partner held it steady for him. He’d worked up a good sweat and his strikes were forceful enough for Rude to feel them through the insulated cushioning of the heavy bag.

“You okay?” Rude finally asked when the redhead snarled launched a series of rapid attacks on the bag.

Reno stopped and wiped his flushed, sweaty face with the towel that was draped around his shoulders. He nodded wordlessly but didn’t look his partner in the eye. He still couldn’t speak properly and the more frustrated he got, the worse it made his speech impediment.

“Why don’t you take some time out?” Rude suggested with a concerned frown. “You’re working yourself too hard, man.”

Reno shrugged, panting softly. “I can lick a stove,” he said. He snarled again and picked up the little electronic touchscreen that he had hanging around his neck and he used the electronic pen to write in what he meant to say and shoved the device under Rude’s nose.

“I could use a drink,” the screen said. Rude nodded in understanding and released the punching bag to drape an arm around his smaller companion’s shoulders.

“It’s on me, partner,” said the bald man.

~**********************************~

Reno relaxed after he had a shower and got a few drinks in him. He sat by Rude at the company bar and sipped his third cocktail, sighing as he worked the flavor over his tongue and swallowed.

“Feel better?” Rude asked.

“Yeah,” Responded the redhead. He stopped and quirked an auburn brow. “I DO feel better…hey, the salad’s going away, yo!”

Rude smirked. “That was fast. I was getting to like the quiet, too.” He dodged the punch Reno aimed at him and ruffled the other Turk’s vivid hair with rough affection.

~*****************************************~

It was a real relief to get my pipes working again. It didn’t get completely better all at once, though. At first the only time I could say more than a couple of sentences without babbling was when I had some drinks. After about a week I was back to normal and even though I still felt stabs of guilt now and then, I was feeling a lot better. I went back to work and found out that Strife’s gang and Sephiroth were last spotted on a barge heading to Costa Del Sol. Reeve managed to “join” Cloud’s gang using Cait Sith, which was this weird mechanical cat thing he’d engineered. So far they didn’t suspect anything and Reeve kept us informed about what was going on with those guys, yo.

Rufus sent Rude, Elena and I to Gongaga when Reeve told him Cloud and the others were on their way there. Scarlet and Tseng were supposed to check the ruined reactor there for huge materia and we were sent to make sure Cloud’s gang didn’t get in the way, yo.

~************************************~

“So Rude, if you were into girls who do you think you’d go for?”

Rude looked at the redhead sidelong and grunted. “I never thought of it.”

“Not even once?” Reno persisted. “Come on, there’s gotta be someone you’d be curious about, man. So give, who would it be?”

The bald man shrugged and looked in the direction of the path leading into the small village in the center of the forest. “Tifa, I guess.”

Reno would have made a crack about that but he was interrupted by Elena’s excited shouts, coming from the path leading out of the forest. “They’re here! They’re really here!”

Reno and Rude turned around to see their blonde partner hurrying toward them and behind her were Cloud Strife, Aerith and a familiar little cat riding a giant stuffed mog. “Calm down, Elena,” Reno said as she joined he and Rude, “You get way too excited sometimes.”

“I’m just ready to prove my worth,” Elena countered.

Cloud’s group stopped in front of the three Turks and the blonde fighter took a step forward and drew his sword. Reno noticed he was wielding a new, wicked-looking blade and he wondered what happened to the Buster Sword.

“You guys again,” Cloud said in annoyance. “Get out of our way. I’m getting sick of this shit.”

“This is as far as you go!” Elena shouted as she drew her gun.

Everyone exploded into motion and Reno was a little uncertain of how much force to use when Cait Sith ordered his mog to attack him. He didn’t want to hurt company property but he couldn’t very well let the damned cat pummel him, either. Rude barely dodged Cloud’s swinging sword and Elena shrieked as Aerith hit her with a rather strong burst of fire magic. Thankfully the Turks each wore materia that was resistant to elemental attacks but it obviously still hurt. Reno leaped out of the way as Cait Sith’s mog tried to drop its fists on his head and he smacked the automation with his EMR.

“Yowch, that stings!” Cait Sith hollered, nearly dropping his megaphone.

Rude faired well enough to get a decent hit in on Strife, bloodying the blonde fighter’s lip and making him stagger. Elena fired her gun at Aerith, aiming to wound rather than kill. Unfortunately the young Cetra had activated a Barrier spell that blocked the bullets. Reno grabbed Cait Sith by the scruff of his neck and yanked him off of his mog, tossing him roughly into the bushes. The cat yowled in alarm and the mog wandered around aimlessly, useless without its rider’s instructions. For a minute Reno thought his team would beat the encounter but Strife lost his temper and everything went downhill from there.

Rude was knocked back forcibly into Reno by Cloud’s swing and the two of them fell to the ground. The bald man barely twisted his body in time to avoid crushing his smaller partner and Cloud Strife abruptly followed up by clunking the big man in the back of the head with the hilt of his sword, knocking him out. He stopped beside the unconscious man and the redhead trapped beneath him, looking down at Reno with more than passing curiosity in his blue eyes.

“I guess you’re not going anywhere soon,” Cloud said with a little smile as Reno cursed and struggled to roll his partner’s bulk off of him.

“Elena, get to the chopper and send for backup,” Reno grunted when he noticed that the blonde woman had an opening to get away. She raced to comply and Cloud started after her with a severe frown on his youthful face, only to stop and shake his head.

“Quit following us,” Cloud warned Reno, holding him in with that burning, sapphire gaze for a moment.

Reno stared up at him and his body decided to get inappropriately excited. Cloud was a pretty boy but there was something powerful and attractive about him that went beyond good looks.

“You know we’re not gonna do that,” Reno answered breathlessly, grimacing a little as Rude’s gun dug painfully into his hip.

Cloud shook his head again and motioned for the others to follow him. “It’s your call,” he said as they started away and he retrieved Cait Sith from the bushes and put him back on his mog. “You’re gonna get hurt if you keep this up, though.”

Reno grumbled crossly and struggled to get to his phone as Cloud’s party walked down the path. He managed to get the device out and call Tseng. “Yo, it’s Reno,” he grunted, “Rude’s out of it and Elena’s on her way to you now. Strife’s party got away and they’re heading for the village. Should we follow?”

“No,” Tseng answered, “Just get back to the helicopter and take us to the reactor. Strife’s gang can be left alone so long as they don’t get in the way of our assignment.”

Reno sighed and hung up the phone, then groaned and struggled to roll his partner off of him. When he finally succeeded, he slapped Rude’s face lightly until he woke up. “You okay, partner?”

“I’m getting sick of that punk and his friends,” Rude groaned.

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Reno agreed, staring down the path where Cloud and the others had gone. He kept his attraction to the blonde a secret—not because Rude was especially jealous but because if he found out he harbored dirty thoughts about a non-Turk that was basically the opposition, he’d probably lecture him for days. “Can you walk, big guy? Tseng and Scarlet are waiting at the chopper for us and Elena’s on her way there.”

Rude nodded and allowed Reno to help him to his feet. He pressed his fingers gingerly against the back of his head, where a lump was forming from Cloud beaming him with the sword hilt. “Damned kid…why did I ever feel sorry for him?” he muttered.

~******************************************~

So the search for huge materia at the Gongaga reactor was a bust, but a couple of weeks later Rufus had a run-in with Cloud’s gang again when he went to Rocket Town to get the tiny bronco from Cid Highwind. He wanted to use it to get to the Temple of the Ancients faster than a helicopter could make it but Strife and his buddies stole it before Rufus and Palmer could get it. They shot it down but it could still move in the water, so Cloud and his pesky friends got away again. Rufus gave me, Rude and Elena a little vacation after that because there wasn’t anything else to do until ShinRa could find out where the keystone was to get into the Temple of the Ancients.

Yo, you’d think a vacation was a good thing. We chose Wutai and of course, we ended up running into Strife’s gang there. Shit, what was it going to take to get them out of our hair? Not only that, but we got word that Don Corneo was hiding out there too. So much for our break, yo.

~**********************************~

“He’s here,” Elena reported.

Reno took a deep swallow from his beer and raised an eyebrow at her. “Who’s here?”

“Corneo! I saw him near the Dai-Chao statues.”

Rude grumbled and Reno sighed. Before they could answer the blonde Turk, she made another exclamation. “Strife’s here, too!” she cried, drawing her gun.

Reno heard the sound of weapons being drawn and he turned around in his barstool to study Cloud. This time the blonde was with Cid Highwind and a pale man with long, black hair. Reno almost fell off the stool when he recognized the dark-haired man as the “corpse” he’d found years ago in the ShinRa mansion. He barely contained his surprise and forced himself to stay cool and collected.

“Elena, you talk too much,” Reno said, turning around again and taking another drink from his beer. “We’re here on vacation.”

“Even the booze tastes bad now,” Rude added.

She stared between her two partners and Cloud’s group, angry and humiliated by the public chastising. “Fine then. You two enjoy your ‘vacation’. I’m going after Corneo!” She rudely shoved past Cloud and his group and made her way out the door, practically fuming.

“Maybe you shouldn’t let her wander around with that pervert on the loose,” Cloud suggested, crossing his arms over his chest.

“She’s a big girl,” Reno shrugged. “She can take care of herself.”

Cloud shook his head at him. “If you say so. We’ve got to find Yuffie. Come on, guys.” He and his friends left the bar and Reno waved absently at them. He and Rude sat silently and drank for a few minutes until the bald man began to get restless.

“I’m starting to think he might be right,” Rude mumbled. “Corneo’s reckless and you know if he can get his hands on Elena he might try to use her as a hostage.”

Reno considered this and sighed again. “All right partner, let’s go find her and get this Corneo business over with. I want to enjoy what little vacation time we’ve got left, yo.”

Rude nodded and Reno paid for the drinks. They went outside and started toward the statues. Reno narrowed his eyes when he saw the familiar figure of Don Corneo heading toward the base of the gigantic statues.

“Yo, check it out,” Reno said as he pulled Rude behind a house with him before they were spotted. They watched as Corneo and his thugs dragged two struggling women with them—one of whom was Elena.

“I knew this would happen,” Rude sighed.

“Hold up…we’ll have to take ‘em by surprise,” Reno whispered, stalling the bald man from going after them right away. When the group disappeared from sight the two Turks stepped out from behind the house and began to walk to the path leading up into the statues. Before they could get far, Cloud’s group nearly bowled them over.

“Hey, watch where the hell you’re going, yo!” Reno snapped as he narrowly avoided crashing into Cid.

“Did you see Corneo come by with a Wutaian girl and your partner?” The black-haired man beside Cloud asked in a low, hollow voice.

Reno shivered as he met the man’s crimson eyes and he wondered if he remembered him at all. The marble features were expressionless and hard to read as the dark-haired man waited for a response.

“Let’s just say they’re in the place that stands out the most, man,” Reno said smoothly, looking at Cloud with a nod. “If you figure it out, we’ll work with you to get the girls free. Come on, Rude.” He nudged his partner and they took off, while Cloud discussed his plans with his group. Reno and Rude started up the path to the Dai-Chao statues and decided to split up and keep their cellphones ready for communication.

Reno had already explored one of the hands and he was just under the right statue’s face when he literally bumped into Cloud Strife’s hard body. “What’s with you people?” the redhead complained as Cloud caught him around the waist and steadied him. Sea-green eyes stared into ocean blue ones for a couple of seconds and Cloud didn’t let go of him immediately. Reno felt the blonde’s heart thudding just as hard as his as his hand inadvertently pressed against Cloud’s chest.

~What was I doing again?~ Reno was distracted by Cloud’s lips, so close to his. Strife’s lips were some of the most nicely shaped he’d ever seen and he couldn’t stop himself from entertaining thoughts of what it would be like to kiss them and feel them around his cock.

“Uh, I already checked that way,” Reno finally said, jerking his chin in the direction he’d just come from. “Where are your friends, man?”

He saw the blonde’s throat work as Cloud swallowed and Reno almost smirked. So, he wasn’t the only one feeling some chemistry, here. “We split up to find them faster,” answered the fighter as he slowly released the Turk. “Maybe they’re at the top?”

“Yeah, you go check there and I’ll take a look in the cave systems,” Reno suggested. His body tingled where Strife’s had pressed against it and he felt his groin tightening as a result. “Good luck, Blondie.” He took off before Cloud could respond, swearing silently and willing his libido to back off. Now wasn’t the time to get hot and bothered over Strife. He vowed to have a cold shower or a long fuck with Rude in the hotel room when this was over with.

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Reno met up with Rude again near the bottom of the statue. Both Turks were winded from climbing up and down the statues in their search and neither had any luck in finding their quarry. Reno was just about to suggest they go get the chopper to do an air search when the sound of Elena’s screams echoed through the surrounding statues.

“Up top,” Reno panted. He and Rude struggled back up to the top of the statues, where Cloud’s party had just dispersed some sort of winged creature they assumed to have been Corneo’s latest pet. Elena was tied to the face of one of the statues and beside her was a Wutaian girl, equally bound and helpless.

“Let them go, Corneo,” Cloud growled.

“Did you think I didn’t have a backup plan?” Don Corneo hollered as he reached for a remote. Both of the captured young women screamed as they rotated in their bonds to hang upside down over a killing drop. How he’d found the time to rig a mechanism to do that was anyone’s guess, but there was no time to lose.

Rude drew his gun and fired in one smooth motion. It was Corneo that screamed now as his remote flew out of his hand and blood sprayed from the neat hole shot through the appendage. “Shit!” the Don screamed as he tucked his wounded hand against his jacket and backed away. Reno approached him, followed by Rude. Cloud’s gang watched silently as Corneo shuffled backwards until he lost his balance and nearly fell over the side of the statue. He managed to catch hold of the edge with his uninjured hand and he babbled and pleaded with the Turks incoherently.

Reno knelt down and stared him in the eye. “Why do you think we worked with these guys to find you, yo?”

“I…I don’t know,” Corneo whimpered, “Please, don’t kill me!”

Reno straightened up. “You shouldn’t have blabbed,” he said as he stepped hard on the Don’s grasping fingers, twisting the hard heel of his shoe back and forth over it. “And you really shouldn’t have kidnapped one of our own. Sucks to be you.” Corneo screamed and lost his grip, falling to his death swiftly.

Reno turned to face Cloud’s group, daring them to say anything. They stared back mutely for a minute, until the captive women’s shrill cries reminded them why they were there. Cloud climbed onto the face of the statue carefully and began to free the girls one at a time from their bonds. Reno was a little worried about that but the blonde was Mako enhanced and he had the strength to keep his perch and hold onto each girl as he freed them. He handed them down to his waiting companions and the Turks. Elena was shaking like a leaf when Strife helped her down but she held onto her composure as well as could be expected.

Reno’s cellphone rang and he answered it, looking at Cloud as Tseng gave him orders. He hung up with his superior and announced that the Turks were supposed to bring Cloud and the others in. Cloud’s group tensed and got ready to fight, but Reno held his hands out to stay his partners, reaching for his pack of clove cigarettes instead of his EMR.

“We’re still on vacation,” said the redhead as he lit up and took a drag. “If they’re still here when our break’s finished, we’ll bring ‘em in.” He looked at Cloud silently, smirked a little and motioned for Rude and Elena to follow him. He felt the blonde fighter’s eyes on him as he and his companions walked down the path leading to the bottom of the statue. Elena was too shaken up to question his orders and Rude just went along with it as he usually did, clearly uninterested in further conflicts for the time being.

Cloud’s team left Wutai that night and Reno enjoyed the final two days of the vacation, distracting himself from forbidden fantasies concerning Cloud Strife by enjoying the reality of his muscular, bald partner. As they were leaving Wutai to get back to work, Elena made a comment that sleeping in the room next to theirs was like leaving the TV on a porno channel all night long. Rude looked embarrassed about that but Reno just grinned and shrugged.

~********************************~

A few days after we got back from vacation, Rufus found out that the keystone to the Temple of the Ancients was in Dio’s showroom in the Gold Saucer. Guess who got their hands on it before we could? Yup, Strife. Rufus wanted to get it from him so that ShinRa could use it to find out more about the Promised Land, so Reeve had Cait Sith snag it from Cloud’s group while they slept at the Gold Saucer and I took Tseng to pick it up. We barely got it in time, yo. The cat chucked it at Tseng right before Cloud tackled him from behind.

We expected Cloud to turn Cait Sith into a pile of springs, gears and stuffing but the damned cat was so good at negotiating that he convinced him to let him come with to the Temple. Rude and I were sent to drop off Tseng with some soldiers at the Temple and then to return to Midgar, but a whole shitload of things happened after we got back. I thought I was gonna lose someone really important to me, man.

~************************************~

Reno stood at the side of the hospital bed and stared down at Tseng’s unconscious form. He’d been sent to pick him up after Rufus got a call from him that he could barely understand. The Wutaian had been attacked at the Temple of the Ancients and all of the men he’d brought with him had been killed. He couldn’t tell them who was responsible for it but Elena insisted that it had to be Cloud and his gang. The problem with that was the entry and exit wounds in Tseng’s torso and back were too thin to belong to have been caused by Strife’s weapon.

They’d gotten Tseng to the med lab before he bled to death but now he was fighting a severe infection. When he wasn’t delirious with fever and mumbling nonsense, he was unconscious. Reno took turns with Rufus and Rude watching over him, while Elena took off to go after Cloud. It wasn’t until after she was gone that Reeve got in touch with Rufus and Reno and told them Sephiroth was responsible for Tseng’s condition. He’d had Cait Sith sacrifice himself to shrink the temple into the form of the Black Materia so that Strife could get it and try to keep it safe. Unfortunately, it seemed that Sephiroth and Jenova had some sort of power over Cloud and the blonde had ended up giving the black materia to Sephiroth. Reeve then informed them that Strife’s group was leaving the City of the Ancients and that unfortunately, Aerith Gainsborough had been killed…supposedly by Sephiroth.

“I’m sorry, Tseng,” Reno whispered as he held the Wutaian’s unresponsive hand and squeezed it. “I know you cared about her. I don’t know how you’re gonna take it when you find out, man.” He sighed heavily and lifted his superior’s hand to his cheek, nuzzling it softly and feeling how hot it was. “You’d better not die on us,” he finished after a moment. “Sephiroth’s got the Black Materia now and there’s no fucking telling what’ll happen if he’s not dealt with. We need you, Tseng.”

Rude came into the room and walked up behind Reno, squeezing his shoulders soothingly. “You need rest,” the bald man insisted to his partner.

“I already tried to sleep,” Reno said as he looked up at his partner with glossy eyes. There were dark circles under them. “I just keep thinking about all this shit and I’m afraid if I go to sleep, I’ll wake up to find out Tseng croaked it.”

“There’s nothing else we can do about it,” Rude said. “You’re not going to be any good to anyone if you don’t get a little rest, man. The President’s running himself ragged too. He’s trying not to let this get to him but I saw his face before he boarded the airship with Hojo and the others. They’re going to the Northern Crater, where Reeve said Strife’s gang are heading.”

“Have you gotten in touch with Elena yet?” Reno asked.

Rude shook his head. “No, she’s not taking any of her calls. She still thinks Strife did this to Tseng and she wants to give him payback.”

Reno groaned and dropped Tseng’s hand to rub his tired eyes. “Great, that’s just what we need, yo. What’s the deal with Strife and Sephiroth…is it because of the shit Hojo did to Cloud in the mansion that Sephiroth was able to brainwash him into giving away the Black Materia?”

Rude sighed. “That’s about what I got out of it, but Hojo’s being pretty evasive. Rufus said he mentioned a ‘Reunion’. There were a bunch of clones in Nibelheim that Hojo experimented on and they’re all heading north, like they’re being called or something. It’s some crazy shit, man.”

“So they’ve all got Jenova cells inside of ‘em, like Strife,” Reno guessed with a frown. Was it Jenova calling them or was it Sephiroth? A lot of it was speculation on his part because he only had second-hand information about the whole Jenova project Hojo had worked on. It was all tied to the Ancients and the Promised Land but he wasn’t sure just how and if he kept thinking about it, his headache would only get worse.

“Let’s leave it up to others to figure out,” Reno said after a couple of moments. “We should just concentrate on following orders and getting through this shit with our skin intact, yo.”

~*******************************************~

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, word came back from Rufus that he found Cloud’s group at the Northern Crater all right, but Sephiroth—the REAL Sephiroth—was also there. Hojo finally spilled the beans and told him all the sightings of Sephiroth before weren’t actually him, but copies—kind of like what Genesis was making of himself. Cloud got the Black Materia again but the dipshit ended up giving it right back to Sephiroth and now these big ass creatures called WEAPONS were awake and rampaging all over the Planet. Elena came back and finally found out that Cloud wasn’t the one that attacked Tseng, yo. Heidegger tightened up security and Rufus ordered a curfew for all ShinRa controlled towns to try and keep order.

That wasn’t even the worst of it. Sephiroth summoned Meteor and there was no telling how much time we had before the fucking thing destroyed Gaia and everyone on it. Cloud Strife was missing but Rufus brought back his friends Tifa and Barret with him to Junon on the airship. He ordered us to come to Junon and bring Tseng, because he figured it was safer there than at Midgar because of the extra firepower and the big Mako cannon.

Now there was a new plan; we were going to collect huge materia and send it up on a rocket to try and blow Meteor to pieces. Rufus was doing everything he could to fight the rampaging WEAPONS and find a way to destroy Meteor. When we finished moving Tseng to the Junon hospital, Rufus checked up on him and then took me and Rude to his hotel suite. The sex was pretty intense, probably because we had doom hanging over our heads, man.

I could tell that the strain was taking a toll on the boss, though. His worry for Tseng and the public panic he was trying to keep under control made him desperate. I couldn’t believe it when he ordered the execution of Cloud’s friends to pacify the public. When I asked him if he was sure about it he nearly bit my head off. Things were falling apart fast, yo.

~**************************************~

“Reno, can I have a word with you in private?”

Reno turned to face Reeve, who had come up behind him while he was on his way to Rufus’ office to try and convince him to wait on the execution of Strife’s friends.

“I’m in a hurry, yo,” Reno said with irritation.

The handsome executive held up his hands in a pacifying gesture. “I’m aware of that,” he said, “It will only take a moment. If you’re as concerned with the recent state of affairs as I am, you should hear me out.”

Reno stared at him with narrowed eyes for a moment. Looking around, he grabbed the sleeve of Reeve’s business suit and dragged him toward a utility closet in the hallway. Shutting the door behind them, the redhead flicked on the light and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. “What’s this about, man?”

“I think I can stop the execution and get Cloud’s companions safely out of Junon, if you’ll help me,” Reeve said without hesitation.

Reno tilted his head and smiled coldly at the older man. “What makes you think I won’t rat you out?”

“Nothing’s stopping you,” Reeve countered, “except your conscience. Deny it all you like, Reno, but I’ve been paying attention to you and I can tell you think this is just as wrong as I do.” He reached out and surprised the redhead by cupping his jaw and gazing into his eyes knowingly. “If I’m wrong, pick up your phone now and give me away. If I’m right, help me save some innocent people.” He stepped closer and Reno could smell the pleasant aroma of his cologne. “What’s it going to be, Reno?”

He’d always thought Reeve was kind of sexy but now the man was absolutely hot to Reno. Maybe it was the chutzpah he was demonstrating that Reno never even knew he had, but the Turk decided that sometime in the future he was going to have to tap Reeve and see if that intensity would carry over into the bedroom.

Reno reached into his pocket for his clearance badge without being fully aware he was doing it. He was caught in Reeve’s dark eyes as he fished it out and handed it over. “Use this to get into the observation room where they’ll have the execution,” he said, “We never had this conversation and if you get caught I’ll deny knowing a damn thing about it, yo.”

Reeve took the card and nodded elegantly, releasing the redhead’s jaw as he pocketed the security badge. “Thank you, Reno. I promise, you won’t regret this.”

~Hmph…we’ll see,~ Reno thought. There was one more dilemma, however. If anyone saw them leaving the utility closet together, it would look suspicious. ~Hmm…naw…now’s not the time to fuck around. Still, it’d be better for people to think we fucked than know we were making plans to free Strife’s friends.~

“Hold up a sec,” Reno said. He reached out toward the other man’s crotch without warning and unzipped his fly.

“What on Gaia—“ Reeve started to say. The Turk didn’t answer. Instead, he ruffled the older man’s hair brusquely. Reeve stared at Reno as the redhead reached up and tilted his goggles on his head to make them lopsided before mussing his own hair and undoing the buttons on his shirt.

“If anyone sees us leaving this closet together there’s gonna be questions,” Reno explained with a wink. “I’d rather them think we were messing around than think we were plotting something, yo.”

“I see,” Reeve murmured in approval, scanning the Turk with dark eyes. It was a shame they didn’t have time to mess around for real, now that he thought of it. “This also gives you the perfect alibi, should I get caught. You could use the excuse that I snitched your keycard from you while we were…occupied.”

Reno sighed. “Too bad you’re not a Turk, yo. I think you’d fit right in.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” Reeve countered with a soft chuckle, “but I appreciate the sentiment. Are we ready to leave the closet now?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Reno answered as he twisted to unlock the door. “I’ll go out first.” He opened the door, stepped outside of the closet and bit back a curse as Scarlet walked by and stopped to look at him. His clothes and hair were convincingly disheveled and he had no choice but to go with it. He smirked at her as he finished buttoning his shirt. She stared at him with narrowed eyes, which widened visibly as Reeve exited the closet.

The head of the Urban Development department noticed the blonde woman staring and he gave her an uncharacteristically lewd look and zipped up his fly. Reno snorted with the effort to hold back his snickers as her jaw dropped. Whistling with satisfaction, Reeve walked away from Scarlet and Reno toward the elevators. She watched him go for a moment before her head whipped around to regard Reno. Her mouth was still hanging open and he shrugged at her and continued on to Rufus’s office in the opposite direction from Reeve.

~Word’s gonna get out fast about this if things ever calm down enough. Hell, I didn’t even screw Tuesti but that’s what Rufus is going to hear. I’ll have to lie to him one way or the other, man. This blows.~

Reno sighed as he reached the door to Rufus’s Junon office and pressed the button to announce himself. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t right now…which seemed to be the norm in his life lately. He only hoped that Reeve managed to pull off the rescue tomorrow, without getting caught.

~*********************************~

I didn’t have to worry because Rufus had too much on his mind to worry about me “screwing Reeve in the closet”. I told him right away and he said he’d deal with it after we stopped Meteor. He wanted me to oversee the shipment of the huge materia and make sure it got to Rocket Town for the launch. Rude and Elena were assigned to go with me, yo. We were supposed to leave in the morning, after the scheduled execution.

Nothing ever really goes the way it’s planned, though.

~*****************************************~

-To be continued