Reno knocked the exotic blue drink back in one quick jerk of his head, exhaling sharply as the strong alcohol brought from foreign shores hit his stomach. The glass was discarded tactlessly on the table with a slight 'clink' as Reno took a long drag off of a cigarette.
He sat by himself in a bar in the slums, slumping down on the rather uncomfortable bar stool. The floor was clean, though he could see the glittering remains of broken bottle shards. The loud brawl going on outside in the street failed to capture his attention as did the scantily clad women that swayed past him, looking seductively in his direction, knowing that he was a Turk.
He would just raise a brow and they would continue on walking with a slight pout on their pretty face. He closed his eyes and played absentmindedly with a strand of fiery hair that had come undone from the mass of it tied back behind his head. He wasn't too drunk, but he wasn't sober either. He couldn't stop thinking about the incident earlier in the day with Tseng.
Tseng was one of his best friends; he had never wanted to see the black haired man in a situation like that. He had been in many situations of the same kind, at least where he was forced to do things that he wasn't exactly consensual with. But that was his past; he wasn't interested in continuing that range of thought.
He pondered Tseng. He was aware of certain things, like that the dark haired man had grown up in Sector Five after his parents had been killed in the war with Wutai. Reno knew small fragments of Tseng's past, but not much. The man was very secretive and protected his personal thoughts like there was no tomorrow. If you could crack his impenetrable shell, you were pretty damn good.
Reno motioned for another drink and took a second, long drag off of his cigarette to try and relax himself. He didn't know why his thoughts had been straying to Tseng so much lately - probably because he saw something in the man that was oddly reflected in himself. He didn't know where in the hell the similarities began between him and Tseng as far as inner feelings were concerned. Tseng was cool, calm and collected - a smooth talker and someone who was rarely seen with a single twitch in his facial muscles. Reno on the other hand, had a hot headed temper and a rash way of handling things. He could be just as silent as cold when he felt like it, though usually his face was very expressive if he was pissed off.
Not as much as my mouth, though, he thought ruefully. Reno would have made Satan himself cringe with half of the obscenities that came out of him when he was angry. He knew it was a display of weakness since he couldn't seem to harness his temper, but no one could argue with his abilities as a Turk. He may have had a hot head and a fast talking mouth, but he was damn good at his job.
A self depreciating smirk curled Reno's lips and he knocked back another drink that had been placed in front of him. He knew Tseng was still probably working or doing something as equally as important, and here he was getting drunk and smoking his ass off. Oh well. That's how it had always been; he was a failure and the scum of the earth. Did he fucking care? No. Or at least he didn't think so.
"Hey," a familiar voice said as a hand grabbed Reno's bony shoulder. He whirled around, ready to strike whoever it was who had the audacity to touch him without permission, but relaxed when he saw it was Elena.
"Hey Elena," he said, his voice perfectly calm. The pretty female Turk raised a brow slightly but otherwise didn't comment. She dropped her hand and sat in a prim fashion down next to him at the bar, folding her hands neatly in her lap.
"Could I just have a glass of red wine?" she asked, her voice light though firm. The bartender, who was a burly man with multitudes of tattoos visible on his left arm, looked at her rather strangely but nodded nonetheless.
"Ooh," Reno began, his voice taking on a mocking note, "cultured, aren't we?"
Elena frowned slightly at him, adding in a louder voice, "And put it on my tab."
The bartender nodded without a second thought as he went to retrieve a dusty bottle. Reno's eyes widened slightly, a little taken aback.
"You have a tab? HERE?'
When she didn't reply, he finally smirked cockily and leaned against the bar on one arm, supporting his head while looking at her sideways.
"Yes. What's wrong with that?" she finally questioned rather innocently but a hint of humor fell into her voice.
Reno shrugged slightly and just grinned even more broadly. Elena regarded him with a understated look of slight distaste and finally let her body go a little slack, relaxing.
"What the hell is your problem anyway?" she asked, "the moment I came up I thought you were going to jump me."
Reno's look darkened slightly. "No reason."
"Ah…yeah, right," she said, snorting in disbelief.
"You're a fucking smart ass tonight."
Elena just offered him up a self righteous grin that mirrored his own earlier, and spoke, not at all taken aback by his brash comment.
"Just the way you like it, right?"
Reno finally smirked again. "Uh huh…that's right."
He went to take another drag off his cigarette when he noticed the blond Turk eyeing his glass warily.
"What is that?" she voiced after a moment of silent scrutiny. Reno just pushed the half empty glass of blue liquor in front of her that had formerly been his, offering the strong stuff to her. The brash red head just smirked at her, daring her to try it. Elena could see the challenge in his eyes and she rolled her own.
The difficult red haired Turk was always trying to show her up when they drank together, which was a rare occasion anyway, and she accepted.
"What is it?" she asked again as she daintily gripped the glass with two depreciative fingers, wrinkling her nose slightly.
Reno grinned a cocky grin at her and looked at the blue liquid, "You don't want to know."
Elena looked at him suspiciously and then back at the glass even more suspiciously, narrowing her brown eyes. Without a word however, she drained its contents in one gulp. Reno watched for her reaction as she put the glass back down, facing him again. She didn't say anything.
"Well?"
Finally, a few seconds later, her face finally completely contorted in a look of absolute disgust as she gagged and coughed, sputtering intelligible, long winded intellectual insults in his direction.
"Don't act so weak-"
"Shut up."
Reno snorted with suppressed laughter, knowing that he had won the battle of wits that night, "Okay."
"How can you drink that stuff?" she questioned incredulously as Reno ordered yet another glass of the god awful liquor.
He just openly laughed at her now, raising the empty glass she had almost dropped and feigned a cheers in her direction.
"It's in my blood."
"Oh?"
He nodded in earnest. "Sure. Although, 'Miss Wine',"' he continued, mock bowing, "what you drink isn't too far off of your own personality."
"Reno, you're a prick," she said, scowling at him.
"Now, now…no need to go into pleasantries," he continued. She just stared at him for a moment, and then her face cracked into a grin.
"Shut up you asshole."
Reno smiled a real smile at her and picked up his new drink, clinking it against the wine glass that had appeared in front of her also.
"To the Turks," he said, his voice turning serious.
"Yes, to the Turks," she echoed.
They drank to their toast, each losing themselves in their own private thoughts.
*****
"C'mon, it's closing time!" the bartender shouted at the drunken, and occasional sleeping, patrons. An aquamarine eye slitted open at the call of the brash voice, and his drunken mind began to comply.
"Elena?"
"Over here," a voice called agitatedly at him from the door.
"Oh…where 'sat?" he slurred.
"The door."
"Uh huh…okay," and with that, he slumped back onto the bar. This was a nightly routine for Reno: stay out until all possible hours, passing out and getting drunk, take out the occasional lay and then stumble back to the Shinra Tower to sleep it off whenever the hell he felt like it.
However, Elena was here, and she was one of those odd individuals that didn't see the point of doing what Reno lived off of.
"Alright, alright," he finally said, scowling at Elena's reproving look as he stumbled off of the bar stool. Brushing a few of the wrinkles out of his suit, though the movement was a futile one, he clamored towards a blurry blond female Turk who was looking very tired.
"I passed out," he said intelligently.
"Obviously," she replied.
"Sorry," he fumbled around his brain for the correct thing to say. Elena shrugged with indifference.
"You always pass out," she replied.
"Oh…yeah."
"You okay Reno?" she asked, a touch of concern coloring her voice, "you're usually out of it, but you apologizing freaks the hell out of me."
"Yeah, yeah…," he replied dumbly, trying to get a grip on reality, "I'm just tired."
"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, it's like two-o'clock in the morning," she yawned mid-sentence, "so let's get the hell out of here."
"Umm," Reno seemed to be contemplating this suggestion. There was suddenly a hard slap and his sense sharpened a great deal.
"Snap out of it!"
Reno shook his head a little, raising his hand up to his face to brush the strands of red hair that had fallen haphazardly there.
"Okay!" he said, though his voice held no anger, "I'm awake!"
"That's better," she said strictly, putting her hands on her hips. Reno hated it when Elena became motherly and tried to whip his sorry ass into shape, but right now he didn't know if he trusted himself to make it home on his own so he was grateful for someone to act responsibly.
"Now let's get out of here."
"'Kay," he said, the slur almost completely faded from his voice.
He began to follow her out of the door when his body suddenly jolted to attention, an unusual action for him to make.
"Shit!" he cursed harshly, his body and mind fully awake now.
"What now?!" she demanded, snorting at whatever bullshit it was that Reno was about to spout.
"My electro-mag rod is gone!"
Her eyes widened and her expression immediately became serious. "What?"
"Someone must have taken it while I was out of it…"
"Damn it," she cursed breathlessly. Darting her eyes around the bar suspiciously, they landed on one particular man who was staring at them.
"Have you got something to say?" she demanded rather loudly. This caught just about everyone in the bar's attention, even the barkeep who was just beginning to try and usher people out, and the whole place lapsed into silence.
Everyone knew they were Turks, and for that particular reason a few drunken people scurried out of their path while the prostitutes that hung around immediately recoiled behind whoever had hired them out for the night.
"I said--," she began again, but was cut off by rather brash laughter.
"You lookin' for this?" a large, surprisingly well dressed man, asked lightly. He dangled Reno's nightstick as if it was some sort of twig in his overly large hands.
"Alright!!," an annoyed voice shouted, "take this shit outside! NOW!"
It was the barkeep. Either the man was totally stupid or he was just damn overprotective of his bar. Before Reno or Elena could react, the huge man stepped out the back door that was directly behind him with an indifferent shrug.
The two Turks immediately bolted into action after him. When they finally reached the outside, they stumbled into the dark alley that the man had obviously exited into. However, it wasn't completely blackened by the night due to a flickering, yellow street lamp that was nailed haphazardly above them onto a building.
The brick walls that surrounded them were dirty, and the sound of dripping water could be heard from some sewer grate that was most likely at the edge of the street. It had been raining and the black pavement was slick with water and debris of the slum dwellers. A few people had huddled against the dumpsters that were parked against the buildings, and a barrel fire or two burned.
The two Turks stood unmoving by the door that led back into the bar, daring shadows in the darker regions of the alley to move. The people who had taken refuge in this particular alley however, immediately recognized the blue suits. If anything, they curled even more closely into where ever they happened to be while some flattened themselves to the wall.
"Where is he?" Elena whispered almost inaudibly into Reno's ear.
The red head shrugged as his sharp eyes darted around, their brilliant aquamarine color practically glowing in the darkness from the mako treatments he had received.
Suddenly, a black figure stepped from behind one of the dumpsters to completely reveal himself, apparently not at all nervous of the fact that he was dealing with two Turks.
"Well, well, well…," he said, his voice mocking and low, "if it's not the famous Turks."
A few of the people that were crouched around the barrel fire scurried away from the scene to find a safer alleyway to take their refuge in, while the remaining just pulled a blanket or something over their head and took shelter behind any where that was available.
Reno's eyes narrowed visibly, but no other part of his body moved.
"Gimme back my fucking weapon," he demanded tonelessly.
The man just grinned at him, mocking his request as if he was just some kid was begging him for money on the street corner.
"No," he replied simply. Elena immediately reached for her gun, but gripped only fabric. She gritted her teeth; she had anticipated her weapon would be gone by now.
"What the hell do you want?" she growled in a lower voice than usually befitted her normally light, feminine drawl.
"Oh," the man began, leaning his weight onto one leg in a casual motion that spoke of how trivial he was finding this entire situation, "well, there's drugs, alcohol, sex, hmm…,"
He snorted as if the entire scenario was immensely amusing to him. "Of course, you," he said jovially, motioning to Reno, "look as if you have a ready supply of the first two."
Reno set his jaw in order to prevent a barrage of angry curses from spilling out.
"And you," he said, pointing to Elena and letting his eyes rove her up and down, "would do for the second. And as much as I would enjoy that," he continued as Elena's eyes burned with unrestrained fury, "I'm not here for any of those things."
When there was no answer, the man continued as if having a conversation with an old friend. "Now, my little blue suited friends," he let a grin slip that just further infuriated both of the Turks and accosted their pride, "I do have one thing I want."
Reno raised a brow as Elena spit back, "And what would that be, you ignoramus?" her voice tight with anger.
His amicable expression suddenly grew dark and his voice turned so black that it sent a chill through the surrounding people, excluding the two heated individuals standing lividly in front of him.
"Revenge," he said simply. With that, his hand darted at an inhuman pace to level a gun with ease at Reno's head. Reno's eyes didn't widen and he didn't gasp; he merely narrowed an aquamarine gaze that mocked the gunman.
"Yeah? What for, you crusading asshole?" he quipped at the man who looked a little taken aback at the Turk's sudden calm.
"Well, since you're going to die anyway," he said, his voice devoid of any emotion, "simply because your friend is a traitor." He grinned darkly at Reno. "It's a hell of a lot more painful to have all of your friends die because of you than to die yourself. A merciful death is too good for that traitor."
"And who the hell would that be?" Reno continued, milking him for information. The gunman raised a brow, though other than that his face didn't flinch.
"You're pretty damn curious for someone who is going to--," the statement was cut off as a bullet was imbedded into his forehead. Reno straightened his suit and grinned at Elena who was tucking a pistol back into her sleeve.
"And Tseng says that thing never comes in handy," he said, smirking smugly.
Elena just rolled her eyes. "C'mon, let's get our weapons and get the hell out of here before the police show up."
Her eyes darted around the surrounding people, daring them to comment or tell the police anything.
"f anyone says anything about what went on here tonight,"she warned, "'ll hunt you down like the dog you are and rip your face off."
Reno nodded silently, knowing the barrage of paperwork that would have to filled out due to protocol if the local police got involved.
He bent down to check the corpse and recovered his electro-mag rod and Elena's gun. As he stood up however, he followed a gut feeling. Bending back down and kneeling on the ground next to the corpse as Elena was replacing her weapon, he fished a piece of paper out of one of the pockets. Palming it, he stood up and tucked his night stick back into his belt.
Turning to Elena, she had a questioning look on her face. "Just checking for a pulse."
She shrugged in agreement, seemingly accepting that as a just reason for Reno to lean back down and examine a man she had shot. With that, the two Turks walked out of the alley way towards the Shinra building. Elena, to fall into her bed and sleep for the next 20 years. However, Reno had one last stop to make before turning in.
*****
He stood outside the door nervously, clutching a piece of paper in his hand and re-reading what was on it over and over again.
"Damn it, what does this mean?!" he thought frustratedly.
The man he currently sought was not going to be inside of the office he stood in front of right now. Of course not! All he had to do was turn around and forget about what had happened - just another brawl that he had gotten himself into, no different from any other. The hour was 3 am by that time, and he sure as hell wasn't going to wake up…
"Reno?" a voice questioned hesitantly as the red haired man could hear Tseng cock his gun inside of his office.
Shit. Too late for excuses.
"Yeah, it's me," he said, pushing the door fully open. He sauntered into his superior's office casually, noting that Tseng had undone his tie and looked incredibly tired. Mountains of paperwork littered his desk as did balls of crumpled up paper on the floor that had missed the trash by a few feet. A monitor glared harsh light onto Tseng's face as the fan inside the main computer tower buzzed a mile a minute, obviously overworked during the course of the night.
"You still recognize my footsteps, huh?"
Tseng offered up a small tired smile and nodded slightly. "So, what brings you here at," he glanced at his watch and his chestnut eyes widened a fraction, "three thirty in the morning?"
Reno nervously combed his hands through his hair and finally chose to collapse into a chair opposite Tseng's desk.
"This," he said simply, letting a slip of dirty paper fall casually onto Tseng's desk where there, amazingly enough, weren't any papers.
Tseng uncharacteristically sighed inaudibly, staring at the paper; it was as if its very existence was mocking him. He didn't move for a moment, though finally leaned forward to pick it up as if it had jaws that were going to clamp down on him and never let go.
His eyes scanned it, though his face didn't move.
"Where did you get this?"he asked tonelessly.
Reno wrung his hands even more nervously at Tseng's dead voice and shrugged a little. Tseng finally looked up as if broken from a trance and half-glared at Reno.
"Where?"
Finally Reno spoke, biting his lower lip in his patented nervous habit, "Some asshole. Tonight, at the bar…,"
As he explained, the look on Tseng's face grew more and more grave until Reno reached the end and he grew silent.
After a few moments, he spoke again, "And I got that off of him." Before Tseng opened his mouth, the red head continued, "No one knows."
With that confirmed, Tseng almost seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "Thanks Reno," he said for the second time that day.
"Tseng," he began carefully, not wanting to piss the dark haired man off, "what the hell is going on?"
Tseng sighed a little but other than that, his composure remained firmly in tact, as always. "I guess I owe you an explanation--"
Reno held up his hand before he could continue.
"You owe me nothing. Damn it Tseng, I just want to know what's going on. If you trust me, tell me. But don't tell me because you," he said, emphasizing the words bitterly, "'owe it' to me."
Tseng looked at him for a moment without speaking as Reno's green eyes burned with the emotion of his words, probing Tseng for some answer or feeling. Finally, the almond shaped eyes closed wearily and Tseng lent himself the rare moment of relaxing. He slumped backwards and flicked off the computer monitor so the only illumination in the room was that of the dull desk light that he had on.
Reno stared past Tseng's closed eyes out onto the beauty of the darkened city. The office was medium sized and had huge bay windows around the entire length of it, leaving nothing on the horizon that couldn't be seen. Midgar was sprawled before them in all of its lighted splendor, the ugliness and dirty streets hidden by the darkness that claimed the city for itself when night came and swept the world against her velvety black cheek. Even the stars could be seen from this height, and looking out from the middle of the Shinra building was like living in a parallel universe; one where the sky and ground reflected each other in some sort of strange paradox that a human mind could never even hope to comprehend.
It had been two years since Meteor had struck. Shinra still existed, though not in the same sense it had in the past. Reeve now ran it, and although Reno personally thought that sometimes his heart was just too big, he had done a fantastic job at rebuilding Midgar and making it a better place to live.
In those last few years, the Shinra Tower had been rebuilt, though the black skyscraper that seemed to prick the sky was no longer in tact. Hojo's labs had been destroyed after every last record had been removed and given to the appropriate test subject that they were written about.
Reno could care less however; most of this had been done for Avalanche and its cause. He wasn't involved with them and only knew Reeve who was an executive to begin with, so was most suited to running things. The Turks, however, still worked for Shinra and did as they always had. The only difference between the way things had been and the way things were was that Reeve and President Shinra were complete opposites. Reeve ordered the Turks to investigate legitimate crimes; the President had ordered them to go out and kill his personal enemies. They were still revered as being feared however, and although they were generally disliked, Reeve had always known Tseng personally. Today had been a rather nasty mission however, and as materia was hard to come by nowadays due to the lack of mako reactors, the stuff had been valuable.
Thus, the Turks remained a prevalent force. Reno shook his head to remove the old memories as he stared vacantly at the city and turned his gaze back to Tseng who still had his eyes closed.
"So?"
Tseng opened his dark eyes and looked at Reno for a moment before speaking. "I trust you with my life everyday Reno. I can trust you with my past."
Reno's eyes widened a little, though he remained silent. He hadn't expected something of this magnitude to occur tonight.
"Yeah…you can."
Tseng gripped the arm of his chair tightly, but did not offer up any other body language. However, that was enough for Reno to read into and know that his whatever his friend was about to tell him was highly classified personal information.
"Okay…well, to begin with, I grew up in Sector Five," he spoke blatantly, his voice not secreting anything, "and in the slums, as I'm sure you know, you have to make a living. I became a mercenary because I'm a good shot and some people took an interest in me."
Reno nodded, taking this in. It was pretty much what he had been expecting, though he knew there was some ugly surprise waiting at the end of the tunnel.
"So, here's me, a young mercenary. I…," he took a sharp breath, "…I had to get my kicks somewhere I guess. I was young and stupid."
Reno titled his head in question to the secret that Tseng was trying to spit out.
"I slept with a prostitute named Valuz. A boy of about seventeen many times," he said quietly, his voice devoid of emotion or tone, "I won't go into details, but I developed feelings for this boy."
His voice sounded clinical and sterile now, as if he was detaching himself from the situation completely. Reno's eyes widened slightly but he didn't dare speak and Tseng refused to look at him, keeping his eyes fixed vacantly on some foreign point.
"To make a long story short, he was killed. The man that you saw today, and the assassin that tried to kill you tonight were both friends of Valuz. They think I killed him. I don't know why they decided to surface now, but they have."
With that, he clamped his mouth shut and finally looked at Reno, expecting disgust to be burned into a pair of disdainful green eyes. But all he found there was hidden compassion, and if he wasn't mistaken, understanding.
"Shit Tseng, I-I," he stuttered, unsure of how to reply.
"You don’t need to say anything," the dark haired man said quietly, regaining his broken composure quickly. Reno slowly stood up and walked towards Tseng, unsure of what to do. The raven headed man didn't move as the red haired Turk reached across the expanse of desk to pick up the piece of paper.
"Is this what that means?"
"Yes," he answered stoically.
Reno just stared at the soiled piece of paper clenched in his hand for a minute in silence. Finally, it crumpled miserably in his fist as he tossed it scornfully back onto the desk.
"Why in the hell did you let those bastards push you around then, Tseng?" Reno demanded, his voice growing furious as the image of a disgusting man forcing his friend into an undesired kiss worked itself into his mind again.
"I deserved it," he answered blatantly.
"Godammit Tseng, that's bullshit," he cursed, the anger in his voice obvious as his volume level rose with every word.
"It is not bullshit," he answered calmly, quite used to Reno's angry outbursts.
Reno growled and punched the desk with his gloved fist, moving in so that his face was inches away from Tseng's.
"Yes," he hissed, his tone tight with fury, "it is."
"Why do you care so damn much?" Tseng questioned quietly, his voice going down to a slight whisper.
"Because I…," Reno said, fumbling for words. "You're my friend…and…,"
Tseng's eyes questioned him as he searched for what he was trying to say, knowing that he couldn't say it because he didn't even know what he was trying to express.
He turned away sharply, biting his lip so hard that blood began to run down his chin. He wiped it away angrily and stared at his crimson stained palm, shadowed by the dark room.
"Tseng…," he began again, trying to calm his temper down, "shit!"
His reverie was startled as he turned around to find Tseng standing directly in front of him, scrutinizing him. He was the same height as Tseng, but the man had so silently come to stand behind him that he was still surprised.
The dark haired Turk didn't move and his face didn't flinch, merely regarding Reno silently. Reno stared at the silent raven haired man for a few moments, not uttering a syllable.
Suddenly, his body broke into motion as his arms raggedly wrapped tightly around Tseng and he pressed his lips doggedly to his friend's. He could feel the small gasp that issued from Tseng's mouth, but he didn't let up, crushing his body against the silent Turk's rigid one.
When Tseng didn't protest, Reno brutally assaulted the full lips with his own bleeding ones. Tseng could taste the metallic flavor of blood that Reno had created, but he still didn't stop.
Reno's tongue slowly worked its way into Tseng's mouth as the full lips parted purely due to surprise and the red head explored the inner regions of his friend's mouth hurriedly. The heat of the moment, the flames coursing through his body; it all threatened to destroy him.
Tseng finally wrapped his arms around Reno's slender body, albeit hesitantly, and eventually gripped his arms desperately around the red head who had one of his hands pressed against Tseng's spine and the other entangled in the silky ebony hair that tumbled straight down his back.
And then it was over. Like a clap of thunder, the kiss was broken by Reno who quickly darted away to leave Tseng with his mouth hanging open in shock.
"I'm sorry," he muttered quickly, refusing to look at Tseng and backing away the entire time towards the door at a rapid pace. Tseng slowly brought his fingers up to his lips where Reno's had been moments before and breathed a breath of incredulous realisation.
"Shit…," and that was the last thing the red haired Turk said before darting out of the door in a rush.
Tseng moved blindly at his desk and fell into the chair, his face still frozen in shock. His eyes scanned the room blankly, until they fell upon the piece of paper that had caused Reno to enter the room in the first place.
"All because of that," Tseng mused numbly, "all because of that piece of paper."
Kill the murderer's friend - the one with the red hair. For Valuz. Revenge is sweet, no? That whore will get his…someday. And then he'll be begging for mercy when all of his friends are dead.
