A/N: well, I think we all knew this was going to show up eventually. I'm too much of a Rude/Reno shipper to ever manage to let the plot-bunny sleep forever. I actually started on this just before Christmas, though the idea had been rolling around in my head since the Hinder single "Lips of an Angel" hit the radio. The song just oozes Rude/Reno undertones to me.
So, special thanks to Hinder for the inspiration. You might go listen to the song before, during or after reading the fic, so that you can get a little bit of the feel I was having while I was working on this.
Hope you enjoy!
Eerian
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE FINAL FANTASY FRANCHISE, OR THE CHARACTERS THEREIN. I AM NOT MAKING MONEY OFF THIS WORK OF FANFICTION, NOR DO I HAVE ANY INTENT TO DO SO. THIS STORY, AND THE CHARACTERS MIA AND CERA, DO BELONG TO ME.
His break-up with Reno had been hard. They'd really had something going between the two of them, and he had died a little inside when it was over. For a long time, he spent too much time missing his partner for it to be healthy.
But in the silent moments of the night, Rude could admit to himself that it had been a mistake. He could admit that he had loved the red-head.
Could admit that he still did.
Their relationship had put too much of a strain on their work lives—it was hard to stay cool under pressure when it was your lover being beaten bloody—so they'd let it go. It had been Reno's idea, a surprisingly mature move from him, and Rude had agreed readily. He had only realized what he was missing after it was gone.
Rufus reassigned him to the reconstruction work in Edge two days later. Shinra was still trying to make up for the mistakes the company had made, and he was finally tired of hiding in the shadows to do it.
Rude had gone through the post break-up mourning phase, buried himself in his work and moved on. He made new friends among the other workers—both Shinra employees and WRO. With one of those friends, a woman named Mia, he had found something more.
He didn't love her the way he did Reno, but she made him feel alive. He thought that might be enough.
He had tried to move on after his break-up with Rude. Sometimes, he even convinced himself that he had. Most nights thought—as he lay in bed next to whoever he had picked up at the bar that night—he knew it wasn't true.
They'd had magic together. They'd been in love, even if neither of them knew it.
The break-up had been his idea. When he had completely lost it when Rude was shot in the field, Reno knew something had to change. There was no choice if they wanted to keep living.
He had suffered what Elena called "Don't Know What You Got Syndrome" after Rude transferred to Edge for a few weeks. Then, he just shut off his emotions and buried himself in work. At the end of his shift, he would find a bar, get tanked and stagger home—alone or with a "friend" for the night. He never tried to make anything work—and didn't want to—until he realized that he had picked up the same guy every night for a week.
His relationship with Nik was tenuous at best. The sex was great, but they fought every night, and his work and home lives were suffering.
He and Rude may have had some work stress, but at least they had been happy.
Mia had been talking marriage again. Not with Rude specifically, just in general, but it still made him uncomfortable. He didn't care how old he was or how secure his job was, he wasn't ready to be married. He had tried to be non-committal without bursting her bubble, but she had still gone to bed looking a little disappointed. He supposed he understood, but he just didn't know how to explain his feelings to her.
He was just turning off the lights to go to bed when his phone rang. Quickly, he picked it up before the noise could disturb Mia's sleep.
"Rude." He tried to keep his voice as quiet as he could.
There was a long pause before a choked voice answered. "Shit, man. I didn't think you'd pick up."
The bald man suddenly knew with certainty why he didn't want to marry Mia. "Reno, its late. What's wrong?"
"Sorry." Reno sounded depressed—and like he was crying. "I shouldn't have called."
"Don't hang up!" Rude winced at his raised voice and dropped it to a softer tone again. "Tell me what's wrong."
"Its stupid. I shouldn't have bothered you."
"Is it Nik?" he wasn't stupid. He knew, thanks to Elena's gossip chain, that his former partner was having problems with his current lover.
"I don't…Yeah. It is." The redhead sounded completely defeated.
"Tell me." They may not have been together anymore, but Rude still cared too much to let Reno suffer alone.
In the short silence before he answered, the bald man could almost hear Reno shaking his head. "Not on the phone. Can we meet somewhere?"
"Reno, I'm in Edge."
"So am I. Just started driving this morning and wound up here. Please?"
In that one work, all the moving on that Rude had done in the last two years was undone. "Yeah, baby. There's a bar called the Sleeping Chocobo close to my place. I'll meet you there."
"Thanks, Rude."
As he snapped his phone shut, Rude had the good grace to feel guilty about sneaking out to see his ex in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, though, he knew his relationship with Mia would never survive after the phone call—even if he didn't meet Reno at the bar.
As stupid as it may have sounded, the Sleeping Chocobo wasn't the worst name for a bar that Reno had heard. That was reserved for the Holy Ancient in Midgar. The drunkard who had associated alcohol with the Cetra in general—and Aeris Gainsborough in particular—should be beaten. But the bar's stupid name had given Reno something to rant about in his head as he waited for Rude. Something to distract him from thinking about the 'boyfriend' he had left passed out on the floor this morning.
The Turk stepped inside the Sleeping Chocobo and sat down at the bar. The place was nearly empty, and the bartender materialized with Tifa Lockheart-like efficiency.
"Get you something to drink, cutie?" she asked.
He hated pet names from strangers, but he let it slide and ordered whiskey. Wordlessly, he paid for the drink, not wanting to start a tab and get drunk if Rude was coming.
"Please, baby, don't stand me up," he said to himself as he waited.
Five minutes passed without anyone entering the bar. Reno downed his whiskey and debated ordering another. Deciding to go with his first decision, he stared morosely at the empty glass rather than have another.
Five more minutes passed before the door opened.
"Evening, Rude," the bartender called. "Little late for you, isn't it?"
Reno looked over at Rude and saw him smile at the bartender. "I'm meeting an old friend."
The sound of his voice—real, not transmitted over phone lines or satellites—made him feel like a teenager with his first crush. Suddenly, he couldn't breathe, and it wasn't because of the smoke in the room.
Rude walked up to him, giving him an appraising look through those damn sunglasses.
"I wish you wouldn't wear those things," Reno heard himself saying. "Your eyes are too beautiful to hide."
The bald man quirked an eyebrow, but his reply was directed to the bartender. "Two of what the redhead's having at my usual table."
He didn't say anything else, and Reno took that as a sign that he was supposed to get up. When he did, the other Turk led him to a booth near the emergency exit.
"Some habits never die," the redhead remarked as they sat.
"I am still a Turk," Rude replied, pulling off his sunglasses and tossing them on the table.
The bartender whistled as she set their drinks down on the table. "Rude, honey, he was right about those eyes."
"Put the drinks on my tab, Cera," he replied.
Cera shrugged off the fact that he had ignored her compliment. "No problem, honey. Holler if you need something."
When she was gone, Rude gave Reno another searching look. "He made you cry."
"God, Rude. He's done more than that." Reno rubbed exhausted, red-rimmed eyes. "I don't even know where to start."
"Tell me how you met. Elena didn't give me details, just said you were with someone else."
"Yeah. She did that with me, too. Does Mia treat you right?"
Rude sensed the question heading into something. "Yeah. We're good together."
"Me and Nik aren't. I was so drunk most of the time that at first I didn't notice, but he's damn abusive. And controlling." The redhead stared down into his whiskey. "I think it'd be a lot worse than it is if I wasn't a Turk.
"He doesn't hit me, but I think that's just because he knows I could kill him with one hand if he did. But there's a lot of psychological abuse, and he maps out everything I do. Clothes, shoes, friends, all of it. I almost can't take a piss without permission."
Rude was absolutely stunned. "Reno, how--?"
Reno held up a hand to forestall the question. "I have a problem, Rude. And its not just Nik. I let him get away with it because I was so focused on the other thing that I didn't even notice for a while." He fell silent, taking a drink of his whiskey, then ran frustrated fingers through his spiky hair.
"Reno, is your being here going to cause more problems?"
"It would if I were going back. He was passed out on the floor when I left. Just the escape I was looking for. Threw the house key on his chest, called in sick and started driving. Didn't even know where I was going until I ran out of gas here in Edge."
Rude's eyes were full of pain as he looked at Reno. A single tear trailed down his right cheek. He opened his mouth to speak, but it was a long moment before anything came out. When it did, the words were a death toll for his relationship with Mia.
"Come home with me, baby."
"What about your girl?"
"I spend a lot of time wishing she was you."
Reno didn't have a reply for that.
When Rude opened the apartment door, he hadn't been expecting the living room light to be on. He stepped inside, followed by Reno, to see Mia sitting on the couch.
"I thought you were asleep," he said, trying to mask his surprise.
Mia shook her head. "I woke up when you left. Is everything all right?"
"I went to the Chocobo to pick up Reno. He needs to crash here for awhile." The bald man indicated the redhead. "Reno, my girlfriend Mia. Mia, my ex-partner Reno."
She nodded. "I hear about you all the time. Its good to finally have a face to go with the name."
"Same here." Reno gave her a broken grin.
"I'll go get the spare sheets. You'll have to sleep on the couch until we get a bed for the spare room." With that, Mia stood abruptly and left the room.
"Elena didn't tell me she was such a looker," Reno told Rude. "You sure its okay for me to stay here? She didn't look too happy…"
"Nobody's happy to have an unexpected guest at one in the morning. Its fine if you stay." Rude tossed his keys and sunglasses on the shelf by the door. "She knows about our relationship, by the way."
"Oh, that's great. I can see this working out already." Reno looked like he would rather be somewhere else.
"Don't worry," Mia said, coming back into the room and handing Rude the sheets. "I'm not the jealous type."
Rude looked at her quizzically when he realized she was wearing her jacket. "Are you leaving?"
"Yeah. I'm gonna go back to my place and get some sleep while you two catch up. I'll never get any with you two out here talking." She kissed Rude on the cheek, did the same to Reno, grabbed her keys off the shelf and left. The door clicked shut with an odd finality behind her.
"I don't think she's coming back," Rude said into the accompanying silence.
"If she does, it'll just be for her stuff," Reno replied. "I'm sorry, man."
"Don't be. I think this was coming anyway. She was ready for something permanent and I wasn't even all the way over you." Despite his words, something inside Rude felt strangely empty without Mia. It wasn't the aching void that was left when Reno was gone, but he knew he'd miss the woman.
Reno startled him out of his thoughts by taking the sheets from him and going over to the couch. With the ease of someone long used to crashing on his friends' couches, he began making up his bed for the night. Rude watched for a moment before asking, "What are you doing?"
"Going to sleep."
"The bedroom's down the hall."
Reno looked up sharply, surprise written on his face. "Rude, your girlfriend just left you."
The dark-skinned man sighed. "I know. But I can't sleep alone anymore."
"If I get in that bed with you, there's no going back. I'm not being stupid enough to let go of you again."
"I know. I'm counting on it."
Rude didn't know if it was a tribute to the abuse he had suffered, or if Reno was simply relieved, but the redhead sat down on the couch abruptly and started crying. He joined his lover on the couch and pulled the smaller man into his arms. Reno clung to him like a heart-broken child, sobbing until he couldn't breathe anymore.
When he finally quieted, Rude kissed the top of his head and said simply, "I love you."
Reno sagged into his embrace, relieved. In a choked voice he replied, "Love you, too."
"Let's go to bed."
Reno nodded and they stood. Rude locked the door as Reno got the lights and they made their way to the bedroom, feeling complete for the first time in two years.