Like a Cherry River

When the next morning had finally come to greet Reno, he was woken up quite rudely by his cell-phone ringing loudly from it’s place upon the nightstand set neatly next to his bed. Giving a groan, he rolled his eyes and shivered when the breeze from the open window rolled over his still naked, sweat and cum encrusted form.

He gave an unhappy stare to the phone as he remembered the night before, but he quickly shook it away and reached for the phone, flipping it open and pressing it to his ear.

“Yo?”

“Reno…You’re sleeping late again,”

Just like Reno might have expected, it was Rufus.

Turning his eyes, he stared at his clock.

11:00 AM

Well shit.

“Yeah, Sorry boss. I’ll be there in a little while…okay?”

“Don’t bother,” Rufus cut him off quickly, Reno shut his lips obediently and looked down as he used one hand to push himself up, pushing the wild strands of untamed and uncontained hair over his shoulder, “You’ve been distracted lately Reno, I’m not the only one who’s noticed.” Rufus spoke up once again, idly staring out of the nearest window from his perch high above Midgar, “Rude’s pointed it out several times by now, But I doubt he really knows anything about what could be distracting you, isn’t that right?”

Reno gave a thick swallow.

Rufus was right. Not even Rude knew, even if he knew almost every other detail about the Turk’s life, he didn’t know this, he didn’t know what was bothering Reno.

Zack, that bastard.

“I just…I don’t know boss. I’m fine…” He pushed himself to his feet, and forced more confidence into his words, “I’m fine,”

He lied.

“Your tab from the Honey-Bee inn is less than a fourth of what it usually is,” Rufus clarified quickly, “You’re not fine,”

Reno scowled, and shook his head. Wait. How the hell did Rufus know that?

Shrugging it off, he trudged into the bathroom, after throwing the pair of boxers into the wash, not even caring about the rest of his clothes or sheets. “Shit boss, I’m not even gonna ask how you know that…but seriously, don’t get all paranoid on me, just…” He groaned as he stretched his arms out, “Tell me what I need to do and I’ll get it done. Where’s Rude today anyway, yo?”

Rufus sighed in annoyance, “He’s on a mission with Elena, It’s nothing that you need to be concerned with…however, there is something that you could do for me,” A tiny break of silence passed as he heard papers ruffling in the background, “I need you to go to Seventh Heaven, There’s something that I need you to pick up from Cloud, some very important documents that I have arriving from Junon,”

Reno furrowed his brow as he turned on the water. What the hell? Why was Rufus sending him on stupid little errands like this. He was a Turk for Shiva’s sake! He was no delivery-boy! That was Cloud’s job.

“What?” Reno curled his lip, “He’s a delivery-boy, isn’t his job to deliver it to you?”

”Yes, but since you aren’t in today…you’re going to have to do something to keep yourself out of trouble. Besides, you just said to me that you would do what I told you, you said that you would get it done.” Reno could just feel the smugness emanating off of Rufus, “I expect you do to so,”

And with that, Reno was left, standing stark naked in his bathroom with an electronic voice telling him that the call had been dropped.

--

The shower had been soothing, but in the long-run, it had done him little good…other than make him smell much better of course.

Mmm, Mango, he noted absently.

He didn’t even know how long he’d been in there, but the entire time, he was just thinking about having to go over to Cloud. Definitely not one of his favorite activities. In fact, he damn-well just didn’t know if he wanted to go. Cloud wasn’t a bad person, by any means, after all…he’d saved the planet, and defeated Sephiroth only Odin knew how many times by now, but still…

He was cold.

Cold and distant, and waaay too quiet to ever make Reno happy.

Cloud was like Reno’s polar opposite.

That’s exactly what they were.

Reno said what he wanted when the hell he wanted to, he liked his work and he liked to see just how many ways he could kill a man with a fork, his weapon was his best friend other than Rude, he couldn’t seem to get enough of sex and booze, and he just…he was just Reno.

But Cloud…Cloud was a different story.

He barely said a word, he stayed away and didn’t make close connections to anyone…ANYONE! He always acted like he held the entire fucking world on his shoulders, acted like there was always a stick up his ass, he never relaxed, never laughed, never smiled…and was just too…Cloud-ish.

Maybe that was once of the main things that Reno just didn’t like about Cloud, the guy never smiled.

Sometimes, he even wondered if Cloud was human.

Human?

Reno laughed at that thought.

Cloud was no human.

Probably not to himself anyway. He could just imagine Cloud saying that he was some kind of monster…then again, that was exactly what Zack used to say…

Except for the fact that it was the other way around.

Everyone else had been saying that SOLDIER was full of monsters, but Zack…Zack wouldn’t allow that. To Zack, they weren’t monsters…they were there to protect the people. That was one of the things that made the overly silly SOLDIER so dangerous. He had way too much faith and confidence in SOLDIER, he just couldn’t see the evil that laid beneath the surface. Maybe that was one of his greatest weaknesses too?

Reno gave himself a sour look as he stared at himself in the mirror. Shit. Just shut up, just shut up!

Why the hell was he still thinking of Zack after so many years?

Well duh, he knew why.

He loved him.

He fucking loved him.

Giving one last huff, Reno pulled on his clothes, pulled his hair back, fixed his goggles back on top of his head and snatched up his keys as he left his apartment.

He already knew he was pathetic for ever caring about Zack like that, but dammit, he wasn’t going to let it drag him down…not anymore…

He just couldn’t afford to do that anymore.

He couldn’t keep risking it.

--

It didn’t take Reno long to get down to Seventh Heaven, luckily, it wasn’t really all that far. But as far as Reno was concerned, it was still a pain. Sure, Tifa was easy enough to deal with, and hell…the kids there; Denzel and Marlene even liked him. Only Shiva knew why though.

But even if part of Reno was dreading going down there, it really wasn’t all that bad. After all, Rude and him had made several rounds down there; shootin’ the breeze with Lockhart, playing around and teasing the kids, trying to make amends with Cloud…but totally and utterly failing. That’s probably why he gave up.

Oh well…

He was there now, and there was no turning back.

After parking his car, he found his way to the front of the building, pondering over it idly as he lifted a brow to it in challenge as if they had some sort of silent rivalry going on between them.

--

“Oh…hi Reno,”

Tifa’s voice greeted the red-headed Turk as soon as he opened the door. She was standing there, lightly dusted by the rays of light that were coming in through the window, cleaning off glasses behind the counter as she lined them up side-by-side and upside down to dry.

“Yo Lockhart,” He said easily, soon finding a pair a young hands tugging at the side of his slacks. Looking down, he found Marlene’s smiling face, “Hey there kid,” Crouching down, he ruffled the hair on the top of the girl’s head, “You seen Cloudy around here lately?” He asked, obviously making slight fun of Cloud by using such a preposterous little nickname, even if Tifa couldn’t help but smile at it before going by to rinsing off the glass in her hand.

“Uh-huh!” Marlene answered with a smile and a giggle as she swatted Reno’s hand away, grabbing his other hand as she quickly led him off, “He’s been in there for a while, we haven’t seen him all morning, I hope he’s okay,” She half-whispered in worry as she took him up to Cloud’s office door. She waved him off and ran off when she heard Denzel calling her.

Reno examined the door for a moment, scratching at the back of his head before he knocked on it lightly with his knuckles.

No answer.

He gave a melodramatic sigh and slowly turned the knob, glancing inside.

The light’s were off, but it definitely looked smaller than he’d thought it would be, even for Strife. Furrowing his brows, he looked around the office, catching sight of a desk scattered with papers and a phone, a closet for clothes, a small nightstand and a cot that could definitely only fit one person.

On that cot…was Cloud.

Or at the very least, a lump that resembled Cloud.

He was tangled in thin sky-blue sheets, only the top of his head was visible, along with the forearm that peeked out when he shifted his hand to cover the top of his head.

Reno looked over at him in confusion and gave something of a low laugh.

He didn’t know if Cloud was sleeping, or sick…But hey, Reno had a job to do.

The Turk made his way over to the side of Cloud’s cot, kneeling down as he grabbed a fistful of the sheets and tugged them lightly. Cloud’s eyes were closed and he looked exhausted. It was written all over his face.

Reno sighed out lightly. Just seeing Cloud like this, he didn’t want to bug him, or wake him up.

He pushed himself to his feet and wandered over to the desk, maybe he’d get lucky and he’d find what he was looking for.

Letters to grandma, notes to a nameless father, Lovenotes to old-time sweethearts, Invitations to birthday parties that occurred two weeks ago…nothing for Rufus Shinra…

Giving up, he went back to looking around the room, looking back at Cloud, but…that was when something caught his attention, it was a calendar. It was almost completely covered by snapshots of Tifa, Denzel, Marlene, and Cloud all together as a ‘family,’ a few of Yuffie, Cid, Vincent, and Barret, and a few other people that Cloud must have met on other occasions.

But right there, underneath all of the photographs, Reno found something interesting…

One of the date boxers was circled with a line of bright red ink, as if it had been done in a fit of angered haste. There were words scribbled in the box, written in Cloud’s hand-writing.

It wasn’t a reminder for a birthday, or a social-date, a get-together, or an important meeting, it wasn’t pay-day, and it wasn’t the day that he was quitting his job, or the day that he was finally paying a high-class whore to get him off of his mopey little blond ass…

Nope…

It was an anniversary.

Written right there and circled in red was

‘Zack died,’

--

Reno forced himself to reread the words over and over, his throat going drier each time his eyes scanned over the colorful scribbles.

The anniversary of Zack’s death…

It was yesterday…

Yesterday?

And Reno hadn’t even known,

He’d had no idea what exact day it was, and when he thought about it, he actually didn’t know what month it happened in, even if he’d had the feeling that that day was getting close. But still…maybe this explained why he himself was pining over the other so much more than usual.

So…that’s what had Cloud so upset.

Reno frowned slightly, no matter how hard he tried to force a grin.

Kneeling back down by Cloud’s side, he stared at the sleeping blonde. No wonder why they hadn’t seen him, he must have been sulking in bed all day, then again…maybe Reno really couldn’t blame him? But…maybe he could, Cloud didn’t love Zack like Reno had. Reno would have expected this from himself…had he known about the specific day, but still…

Well…that wasn’t fair.

It just wasn’t fair.

Cloud deserved to be depressed over this, he had a reason. After all, Cloud had been there when Zack died, he watched him, talked to him, heard Zack’s last words…Cloud had been the very last person to touch Zack before he died.

Someone, Reno was jealous of that.

It would have been hard, but maybe if Reno had been there when Zack was dying, maybe he really could have told Zack that he’d been madly, insanely, crazy in love with him?

Would he have been able to do it?

Reno couldn’t say, Reno didn’t know.

Letting out a sigh, he pulled the blanket back up and over Strife, only earning a small groan as the blonde turned onto his other side, the covers mussing as Cloud moved. The sheets shifted and spilled off of Cloud’s back, revealing a sweaty canvas of tight skin. Reno sighed out and watched Cloud’s back move with each breath he took.

He wondered idly if Cloud was dreaming of Zack.

Reno knew that he was thinking of him.

--

Absently, Reno moved a hand, wanting to reach out and touch the other, wanting to give him some kind of comfort. But…what was wrong with him? That wasn’t all at like Reno. He must have been going delirious, or something.

Shaking his head, he rolled his eyes and dropped his head.

Well, what do you know?

‘To Rufus Shinra,’

A manilla envelope stared up at Reno from just beneath Cloud’s bed. Exactly what he was looking for. Snatching it, he stood up and didn’t even bother to dust off his slacks as he moved to the door, whispering out one thing before he closed the door behind himself, “Thanks Strife,”

He bid his farewells to Tifa and Marlene, leaving behind Seventh Heaven and leaving behind one very sleep-ridden and dream-haunted blonde, kinda wishing that he could just go back to Cloud…

Maybe, if he had, they could mope together?

It would certainly be appropriate, no matter how awkward it was for him to be wishing that.