Summary: When Reno is off duty their is nothing more he like doing better than going out and having fun, but recently he's noticed something strange, someone's watching him, following him, someone who envies him. They don't realise though that Reno isn't exactly as carefree and happy as he appears and in the end it may be that they end up helping him instead of the other way round (confusing I Know but it will make sense eventually.)

Disclaimers: I do not own FFVII or any of the characters in this story.

Warning: This is the first fan fiction I've posted for a long long time and I've got no proof reader so I will say sorry now for any mistakes. The characters personalities etc my seem a bit off, I've just based them around how I see them after playing the game and watching the movie etc. I will try to update as much as possible, it just depends on how many university projects I've got on the go.

Setting: A couple of years after Advent children

Anyway on with the show…..

Chapter One

Red hair became slick with sweat as his body moved with the beat, nothing mattered except for that night, the music, the drink, forgetting everything that he ever was and becoming nobody. He barely noticed the eyes that were transfixed by his every move, never heard the sighs his very presence elicited. He did not know that night to somebody he was so much more than just a nobody, he was beautiful, he was perfect, he was unreachable.

Light filtered unforgivably through a tiny crack in the dirty curtains, and this path of light just happened to happily land on the tangled bed sheets where a lone body slept, well tried to sleep. The bright unthinking morning light tauntingly shone directly into his tired green eyes making him curse as he pulled the thin duvet over his head which was soon thrown off as its owner gasped for air. It was a sunny day outside and the temperatures were reaching record breaking heights, in other words it was not a good day to have the ultimate hangover from hell.

Sighing the occupant of the squishy bed sat up and worked his way through the difficult task of removing himself from the tangled mess of bed sheets and towards the en-suite bathroom. Luck just had it that as he turned on the shower and stepped into the cubicle the phone back in the bedroom began to ring. "Damn it" a growl escaped his lips as he stalked back into the bedroom just in time for the answering machine to pick up the call.

"RENO WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!" The man in question cringed at the sound of the high pitched, angry female voice. "The rest of us have already been here for hours working ourselves to death, so it would be very nice if you joined us you lazy bum!" He had been making his way back to the bathroom until he had heard that last comment which in turn caused him to rush back to the phone and grab it from it's receiver "Lazy bum, you'll be lucky if I even bother turning up now!" He then returned the phone to its rightful place maybe a tad to aggressively and finally managed to have a much needed shower in peace.

On the other end of the line a petite blond woman was staring bug eyed at a telephone headset. "I can't believe him, the nerve, the cheek. When he finally gets here he'll be sorry." She slapped her hand's onto the desk she sat at sending paper work flying in every direction. "Its like he doesn't even care about the rebuilding of Shinra, like he's not even proud to be to be apart of this great organisation!" She finished on a shrill note and shot a look that could kill to the bald guy lounging on a sofa on the other side of the office "Rude back me up would you!"

The man on the other end of the death glare just grunted, lazily waved an arm towards the desk and uttered a single word. "Phone."

The woman blinked and then noticed the ringing that had been drowned out by her ranting. She dived a little to enthusiastically across the table scattering more paper work and grabbed the receiver.

"Department 201, Elena speaking. Oh yes Sir, of course Sir, right away Sir, I'm on my way." She placed the phone back in it's cradle, grabbed her black jacket off the back of the desk chair and made her way towards the door.

Rude sighed and settled further into the sofa as she left, last nights shift had been a tough one and all he wanted to do now was sleep, it seemed though today lady luck was not on his side. Just as he was starting to doze off a red blur came streaking into the office slamming the door shut in its wake.

" She's not here right?" Reno had finally made it into work but sadly his hangover had decided to tag along and the last thing he needed was Elena nagging his ear off about job dedication and punctuality.

"Your safe" His bald partner announced and sat up so the other could sit. "Rough night?"

Reno slumped down onto the sofa and sighed in relief "No great night the morning just came to soon."

"Elena's really pissed off this time you know." Rude got up and made his way to the coffee machine near the front of the room.

"I know, I know you don't have to tell me." Reno took the mug of strong black coffee that the other offered him and sipped it gratefully. "All because she loves to suck up to Rufus and work all day and night doesn't mean she should expect me to. Fair enough when I'm at work I do my job and I do it well but when I'm off duty its my time and in my time I party." He scowled into the dark spiralling depths of his coffee, wishing his mug was big enough to drown Elena in. "Nah that would make my coffee taste bad." He mused to himself.

"Hm?" Rude sat back down and gave him a questioning look.

"What oh nothing." Reno came back to reality feeling relief wash over him as his hangover started to subside.

"So talking of work, what we got lined up for today? More paperwork?" He pulled a sour face at the thought of another day stuck in the office.

"No we've got to pay a visit to someone." Rude smirked as he saw his partners eyes light up. "What you mean we get to escape, we actually get to go into the outside world? It's a miracle." The red head sang out sarcastically.

"Yes and Elena's busy else where" This news was music to Reno's ears "

"Oh there really is a god," He put his hands together in mock pray. "and he loves me." Today was just getting better and better.

"So who are we going to grill, torture, bribe. Anyone I know?"

Rude reached and picked up a manila file off the coffee table and passed it to Reno. "No torturing today just a meeting and yes we are quite familiar with him. Strife, Cloud Strife." Rude caught a flash of something strange in Reno's eyes as he mentioned that name. "Reno, are you alright?"

He felt it only for a split second, if it wasn't for the large amounts of alcohol coursing around his body he would have noticed it much sooner and done something about it. Someone was watching him, there eyes burning into his back. He spun round but it was too late, and he was too drunk distinguish anything strange within the sea of faces, the only thing he did notice was a flash of blue, bright brilliant blue. Thinking nothing more of it he carried on dancing forgetting the strange occurrence almost immediately.

"Reno, Reno?" The red head blinked and then noticed a hand waving in front of his face.

"Huh what?" He blinked once more and the world around him came back into focus, and he realised the hand belonged to Rude who was now looking at him with concern.

"You just spaced out." He lifted his dark shades up so he could look into the dazed green eyes. "Are you okay?"

Reno nodded dumbly "Yeh just remembering something that happened last night."

"Nothing bad happened did it?" Rude now looked even more concerned, he knew how drunk Reno could get, and he knew that he usually didn't have much control over what he did when he was in that state.

The red head finally noticed his partners growing concern and snapped out of it flashing him a big smile. "Nah nothing bad, nothing at all really, don't even no why I spaced out so much." He stood up hastily and stretched. "Right then can't sit around all day need to go before the wicked witch of the west returns." He laughed standing up and throwing the file playfully back at Rude. "Come on lets go." He made his way out of the office, leaving Rude to try and figure out what exactly he had missed, something had happened last night, but what? Pushing the thought to the back of his mind for now he got up and followed his friend out of office, not quite sure if he was ready for what the day ahead might hold.

TBC

Chapter One done, so what did you think? Hopefully things will start to become more clear in the upcoming chapters. Thanks to all that read the above chapter and reviews are very welcome and appreciated.

Cheers, Kitty (aka Milly)