Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Strange Bedfellows ❯ Cutting to the Heart of the Matter ( Chapter 3 )

~Three~

 

 

Costa del Sol had become less a vacation spot and more of a proper port city. There were still tourists but there was a certain edge of desperation to their revelry, a hungry, needy celebration of life.

 

Well sure, everyone had watched a giant meteor on a point-blank trajectory toward the planet. In the aftermath of survival, people were either eager to forget or desperate to feel alive.

 

Cloud hated making deliveries to Costa del Sol. It was such a pain crossing between the continents and he usually ended up laid over for several hours waiting for a boat back to Junon. He didn't really like calling up Cid for help when it came to his jobs. Cloud liked his independence or perhaps he just liked his solitude.

 

“Fuck, I hate this city,” Reno sighed.

 

“I didn't ask you to come along,” Cloud muttered.

 

“Yeah, I know, but I'm actually off-duty today. Shit, the first time since that fucking Weapon blew the Shinra building sky high!” Reno shrugged somewhat sheepishly and grinned. “I guess I just wanted to have my own time, y'know…Away from the others.”

 

“You're not alone, though,” Cloud pointed out the obvious, “You decided to tag along with me.”

 

Reno chuckled and shook his head, “I don't know if anyone's ever told you this, but you're not much of a conversationalist. Sometimes spending time with you…I may as well be alone.”

 

“Gee, sorry I'm such shitty company,” Cloud groused, feeling sullen and restless. He should have never taken this job; he hated waiting around. Cloud wished he were on the road right now; he didn't even care about the nagging notion that he still wouldn't be escaping Reno.

 

He'd leeched a ride on the back of the Fenrir a couple times and had behaved well enough. Reno's perpetually running mouth had fallen silent, though his hands had wandered quite a bit. Along his hips, over his thighs, brushed his stomach…Cloud blushed faintly, remembering how harrowing those trips had become. Cheap thrills and nothing more but Cloud knew that Reno wanted a little more than cheap thrills from him.

 

“When did I ever say that?” Reno grinned, “I like your company. It's like watching an impending train wreck, yo.” He suddenly grabbed Cloud's arm and the blonde cringed slightly from the touch even as he found himself enjoying the comfortable warmth. “Hey, the bar's open! Shit, do you know how long this place has been closed? I wonder if they still have all those cute little cocktail waitresses….”

 

“Reno,” Cloud groaned softly, “God, the way you drink…You must have more whisky than blood flowing through your veins.”

 

The red head laughed, “Hell yeah and don't forget the rum and vodka and wine and sake….”

 

“I get it, I get it,” Cloud chuckled despite himself, “Well…I suppose that we've nothing better to do until the ship to Junon returns.”

 

“Heh, that's the spirit, Strife.” The fingers that were still wrapped around his upper arm gave a companionable squeeze before letting go. “You know, I think I'm a good influence on you or something.”

 

Cloud snorted, “Or something.”

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

The table was covered in so many shot glasses that Cloud didn't know where to put his hands. Most of them had been drained by Reno, but Cloud was no innocent and done quite a bit of drinking as well. He wasn't drunk, mako poisoning and whatever the hell Hojo had done to him made him quite resilient, but he was feeling pleasantly buzzed and  his vision had become a little bit blurred around the edges.

 

Reno, being mere mortal, was a bit more inebriated than Cloud. His pupils were highly dilated and his pale complexion was flushed a mottled pink, but his speech was only slightly slurred. “I really don't get you, Strife,” Reno was moving at least half a dozen little shot glasses toward the center of the table so he could rest his elbows on its surface.

 

“Hm,” Cloud grunted in reply.

 

“I mean, you go to all that trouble to save the goddamned world and yet you mope around like it doesn't even matter,” Reno shook his head.

 

“A lot of stuff happened along the way,” Cloud admitted. “I mean…beyond Aeris's death. My life…it's in turmoil. For too long, I pretended to be something that I wasn't and now I guess I'm trying to re-discover myself.”

 

Reno rolled his eyes, “I know you were never in SOLDIER, Strife. There's no need to be cryptic, yo. Took me awhile, but I remembered you taggin' around with some kid that Sephiroth had taken a shine to.” He was babbling somewhat, “Yeah, the rest is buried under a big fucking mess of paperwork and classified files. Rufus was just scratching the surface when those Weapons woke up. Guess it's all lost with Hojo, but it's not really an issue anymore.”

 

Cloud closed his eyes. Of course Reno wouldn't think much of his identity theft. He didn't have to live with the confusion and he didn't spend days and nights picking apart his memories.

 

Cloud was just trying to figure out what went wrong. “Listen, let's just drop it. You're right; it's not an issue anymore.”

 

He heard Reno's voice like a distant murmur, “The past seems real damned important to you, yo….”

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

They watched the sun come up over the ruins of Midgar and the small city being built on its ragged edge. Dawn's sunlight played brightly in the wild angles of Reno's hair, setting it ablaze with its fiery colour. The scarlet tattoos on his face stood out starkly against his pale complexion, making his features seem sharper and somewhat feral.

 

Reno was leaning against Fenrir, a bottle of scotch in one hand and a cigarette dangling between the fingers of the other. Cloud watched as he slowly brought the cigarette to his mouth, watched his lips curve around the filter. It was an unconsciously sensual gesture, damned near erotic, and Cloud knew that he was just a little bit drunk due to the fact that he was so freely ogling the Turk.

 

He should have been back hours ago, but time had slipped away from him awash in a sea of regrets, alcohol, and Reno's bright blue eyes. Reno had ended up calling in a favour and had convinced Elena to pick them up in Shinra's helicopter. She'd dropped them off in Junon so that Cloud could retrieve his motorcycle and Reno had insisted on hitching a ride, if only to avoid Elena's sharp tongue.

 

Reno wordlessly offered him the half-empty bottle of scotch. Cloud hesitated for a moment and then took the bottle from him. He didn't know how healthy it was to be pouring straight hard liquor on top of his depression but at the moment he didn't care all that much.

 

It was harsh and vile, cheap stuff designed for only one thing, but Cloud imagined that he could taste Reno's saliva on the mouth of the bottle. As intimate as a kiss… God, I'm drunk, Cloud thought.

“What are you gonna tell Tifa?” Reno drawled as he took another drag off his cigarette before dropping it on the ground and stubbing it out with the toe of his boot.

 

“Nothing,” Cloud replied quietly, “She's probably still asleep, doesn't open the bar until mid-afternoon.”

 

“You make a habit of keeping secrets, Strife?” Reno leered.

 

“I make a habit of not being noticed,” Cloud murmured, being a little too honest but it was too late now. He was wide open and Cloud wondered how long it would take before Reno took advantage of it.

 

The Turk laughed softly, and as he took the scotch from Cloud's hand, their fingertips brushed briefly. He took a long swallow of the liquor and shook his head. “Do you wish that you had died in the Northern Cave? Were you saving the world or killing yourself?” Reno mused with startling insight. Cloud hated when he did that; it always forced him to think of Reno as more than the world's biggest smartass and walking hormone.

 

“I did what I had to do,” Cloud replied tersely, “I wasn't thinking about living or dying, just stopping Sephiroth. It's what we were all thinking.”

 

Reno stepped in front him, lips curving into that arrogant, infuriating smirk. “You're full of shit, Strife.” His tongue sharpened and lanced Cloud right where it hurt, “It's kinda funny when you really think about it: You saved a whole fucking planet, thousands of lives, and yet you still punish yourself over one girl. Why do you get to play martyr when she chose to sacrifice herself?”

 

Cloud lashed out before he quite knew what he was doing. It was so hard to face the truth, that he couldn't have saved Aeris even if he'd gotten to her just a little bit quicker. Or if he had managed to save her, he would have been sacrificing the world instead. He struck Reno across the face, right in that pretty, smart mouth. Any further violence was derailed by Reno's sharp laughter.

 

“Brilliant, fucking brilliant, Cloud,” The Turk grinned even as blood dripped from his lower lip. His hands slid along Cloud's hips, up his spine and through his hair. A sudden surge of lust burned away the anger, the frustration, leaving only the intensity of desire.

 

Reno's mouth covered his, sticky with blood and whisky. The flavours of copper and liquor mingled acrid and bittersweet on his tongue, and Cloud was lost, kissing him back. He clutched at the front of Reno's shirt, keeping him close and yet half-tempted to push him away.

 

But he didn't because he couldn't: Just one more moment of weakness among far too many.

 

It was thrilling, as heady as the fiercest battle, and he poured months of need and inexplicable loneliness into this one illicit kiss. He could feel Reno's hands wandering over his body, oddly unhurried, but wholly seductive. One of his hands worked its way under Cloud's shirt and he broke the kiss on a gasp when Reno's fingertips brushed over his sensitive nipples.

 

Blood was smeared across Reno's mouth, looking a bit like badly applied lipstick. He was grinning and gorgeous with an aura of decadence radiating off him in a near-palpable wave.

 

Cloud steadied his hands on Reno's narrow hips and pressed his mouth against the side of his neck. Beneath his lips, Reno's pulse fluttered and he felt fingers in his hair, stroking and lightly pulling.

 

“I want you,” Cloud whispered against his skin, "You drive me crazy and I hate it…I hate you…”

 

“Heh", Reno chuckled, “Don't hold back now, but you knew that I was never looking for love.”

 

Cloud growled, nipping at his ear, flicking his tongue against the little hoop earring. Reno was right in his own fucked up, tactless way, and Cloud wasn't really searching for love either. His love was dead and buried and now he just wanted a little bit of relief. He didn't know if this was right or wrong but….

 

TBC….