Disclaimer: Still don't own any of these characters.

AN: Sorry for the long wait on getting up another chapter to you guys, I was gonna wait till after my hiatus of finding work and acquiring work to post this among other chapters I might write sooner or later, but I figured I'd just update fanfics that are WIP and keep fanfics that aren't on here such as new ones that are multi chaptered till after the Hiatus. Check you all later.

Dubois, the studious last name of the man's sadly departed former wife; she had made a claim to the man that it only seemed right that her last name be their last name, and thankfully it stayed with her and her son. It would help for her young son to have a connection with the first true last name he would ever hold to his heart and would die with and it was liable to die with him at the rate the young man was drinking himself into a frenzy to annoy his Stepmother. A Stepmother who had become the fret and every waking worry of his Mother until her saddened departure from a world of the living; she had heard the gossiping going on that her husband may have strayed and was in the bosom of another woman. She had thought nothing of it at first, but as the rumors became more and more vicious, her skin became thicker and thicker with each obscure word that was thrown about. It was distasteful that a woman should just stand by and let her husband deal in infidelity, but the former Ms. Dubois had grown up in an infidelity household but that never stopped her or deterred her Mother. Ms. Dubois' end had come when she had walked out into a frigid cold lake that was none too far from their home. The caretaker of the nearby Cemetery who had watched the woman take her frozen lake stroll would later remark to the weeping youth that had been Reno Montclair Dubois, his Mother had gone in with a smile. It was as if there was no fear on her face; she wanted the cold death that the frigid lake had brought upon her frail form, even if the cold had caused her to shiver and cause icicles to clutch about her simple petticoat…

She had gone with a smile on her face.

That's how Reno wanted to go, but right now, with his Father staring his sobering form in front of him as he lay on the floor at the man's feet in his half drunken stupor; he had to stay alive for her sake. He was a Dubois and a Dubois he would be when he died, if and when hopefully the man that was his Father didn't strike him dead down first where he stood.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself, Renton?" Mr. Shinra glowered down on the youth as the nearby maids fidgeted with the frilled pattern about the aprons on their uniforms, "Well? Speak up boy!"

~XXX~

From the time Reno had been born; he had despised his Father. His Father would never refer to him by the name his Mother had given him, Renton was considered a more distinguished name and it meant that he was of stature and power. He hated the name. He loved his Mama and the name she had given him and he would, on occasion, growing up on the school grounds of the Boarding Schools his Father would send him away to; he would shortly be home within a matter of weeks because he had picked fights. The children grew giggly when they hear his name being called on Role Call by the Class Headmasters then at the time the children would have to be children, the fights would ensue. And then he would find himself in the Dean's Office, facing a hard crack whip Dean with a foot long yard stick that smacked like a death march's drum play against the old man's calloused hand. Mr. Shinra's hardened glare on the smug grinning faced man in front of him was like seeing that Dean staring at him as he gave the man the same smug grin that all Teachers and Dean's of the Schools he had been to had seen before punishment was delivered. Even when he would be punished, his smug grin would stay and not a single tear would grapple from his eyes.

He saved those for home.

~XXX~

"I'm giving you an order young man!" Mr. Shinra reared his hand back as if to smack the young man, but when he saw the mask and a hand shift, "If you are disrespecting my orders, young man you know that only punishment lays ahead."

Reno's piercing emerald green eyes were highlighted by the red marks under the cat like eyes as the mask sat an awkward angle against the left side of his face and his right hand was raised. The palm of it was facing the floor, but the hand itself was tilted at an angle. A salute.

A sneering grunt came from Mr. Shinra, "That's better."

But Reno wasn't finished as the hand slid down and its fingertips pads brushed gently under his Father's chin till the other hand reached up and cuffed the man up the right side of his face; sending the man reeling slightly, "No, that's better."

The Maids stood at the attention they had been since their Master had returned home, but inside, they were rejoicing that someone was willing to take the man down a few pegs. Unfortunately, the silence didn't last long. Reno accompanied his action with a chortling laughter as he hid himself again behind the mask as two man servants walked up, cuffing their hands up under the man's slouching shoulders. His sobriety didn't last long as his Father came up screaming while all the Stepmother could do was to stand down and watch the man reprimand his son.

"You listen here to me, you little upstart…I brought you into this life and I could just easily take you out of it, but…"the man's fingers had fisted into the front of the youth's shirt; he could still hear the chortling behind the plaster a Paris mask, "…Then how I would explain your disappearance?"

A flick sound of a fan opening as air currents brushed over its movements had a voice speak out from behind it, "You could tell your friends…and anyone who inquires of him that he was called to the Front Lines and would return at best next summer," the Stepmother's scarlet painted lips caressed into a hard lined smirk as she watched for a change, "What do you think?"

Mr. Shinra simply sneered as he let go of the youth's shirt front, waving the man servants and Maids off as he moved away to a mirror on the wall, "No…War is not a good enough punishment for him; he's getting an ice bath and then tomorrow," his eyes turned back to his new wives form, taking in how layered petticoat dress hugged her in all the right places; leaving her a ravishing look piece of work, "I'm taking him with me to find him employment. He has too much free time and work makes a young man a boy because no Squadron would take him…He's an aloof fool that would just as easily give his Squadron away to the enemy."

"That is true, but at least we would be free so that a true heir to your fortune and everything in this home could be created…"the woman's dainty fingers caressed themselves against her stomach as she watched her husband, her husband moving towards her, "Don't you think that is a splendid idea?"

A soft purr of lust came from the man as his arms wrapped about her frame, inching her back towards a long felted sofa in the Living Room till the man was all but mockingly straddling the woman, "…Care to take a test run at that suggestion, my love?" the man's hips mockingly bucked down upon her gartered and corseted form as the woman squealed, screamed and laughed with mock joy of the man truly doing what he was proposing.

"Aaah! Aaah! Y-Yes!" her cries were filled and flittered with laughter as the man settled his face into the crook of her neck, leaving his teeth to gently brush in against her delicate neck, "…Mmnh…that son of yours shall find himself out on his own and penniless once I bear you a child to take on for you the continuing name of Shinra…"

"I can't wait…" the man deflated down upon her form; their giggling laughter matching with one another.

~XXX~

Reno's demeanor changed from the chortling happy fool to a somber and quiet man as he felt the ice bath overtake his body; the mere cold wrapping around him like a cold blanket that had been left out during a Winter Storm and placed onto a man who had fallen into the pond during the coldest part of the Winter. It was inhuman for this kind of thing to happen as he was left to sober up in the ice bath. Once he was found to be of a sober manner, the man servants helped carry his cold form out of the porcelain tub and carry him to his chambers. There, he was undressed of the wet and cold clothing and redressed with warm clothing and bundled up in warm blankets; it was hard to see the young Master endure such torture for becoming sober.

But Reno never let it get to him.

He would always have a smile on his face from the start of it and the start of it afterwards; he was slowly breaking his Father like his Father had broken him. Not much more then a year or year and a half after his Mother's death when he had taken up the bottle; his Father had taken to punishing the boy. But the ice bath was not ideal for a boy his age; the mere cold would surely kill him. No, there was a way to kill him slowly. He had barricaded the boy's head inside of a box that was placed upon his head so that when he did arouse from the drunken stupor; he could awaken to the fear of being in the dark. For nights afterwards; he had cried in his sleep. So began their game to break one another; the next time he had seen his Father come home in a drunken stupor of his own kind, Reno had employed a few of the servants to help him carry his Father out to the barn where they then stripped the man. A young woman was paid in full for her services beforehand, was instructed to 'have some fun with the gent, showing him some jollies'.

That night hadn't gone well.

When his Stepmother had been brought to the barn to feast upon the sight of her husband being seen with an employed for money services young woman; she knew exactly right away who was behind it. Thankfully for the stars up above for Reno; all he had received that time was a nasty thirty whacks to his posterior with the backend of an oar.

"…If you need anything, young Master, we shall be right outside your door," the man servants called out to the conscious to unconscious young man as they bowed, taking their leave.

Reno seemed to scoff in his head, If I need anything…I just need to be left alone to join my poor Mama…Mama…it's getting harder here to live without you…Papa has moved on without you and I know that they mean to push me out of here…Wait for me, Mama…any day now…any day now I'll be out of here and back in your arms.

Dubois' forever.