Title: Ordinary People
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Characters: Reno, Cloud
Author: naboru
Rating: T
Warnings: dark
Disclaimer: I own none of the Final Fantasy characters and I don't earn money with this story.
Summary: It's not the world which is cruel, it's the people living on it…

Note: I have always wanted - for years - to write a story that featured _this_ sentence - in exactly this context…

Also… written fort he German adaptation of LJ's 7_deadly_sins (7_suenden) and the prompt: oo9 - Ruhmsucht (thirst for glory), which was an optional sin.

Thanks to chaotizitaet for the translation.

Ordinary People

Cloud didn't hear it when the door of the 7th Heaven opened, and only when someone sat down on the bar stool next to him he looked up in surprise.

"What would you like?" He asked without a greeting and more by way of habit since he hadn't really expected anyone coming in this day.

Reno ran his hand languidly over his eyes before answering: "A whiskey…" His voice was raucous.

Silently Cloud nodded and got up, stepping behind the bar and took a glass from the cabinet. Just at the moment when he wanted to fill it from one of the upside down hanging bottles, Reno adjusted his order: "Wait… better gimme a whole bottle…"

Cloud furrowed his brow but didn't say anything in reply, simply shrugged his shoulders while grabbing at a lower shelf to pull out a new bottle.

He filled the glass with the first serving and then set both of it on the counter in front of the redhead.

Reno downed the content.

"Quite empty today…", Reno remarked after a while, after Cloud was once more sitting on the stool next to him and was going over bills – seemingly. Next to the papers lay a hand calculator that kept being fed with numbers by the blonde.

"Yes…" Cloud's answer was monotonous. "There is some sport event today… It is always empty here on such days…"

Reno nodded.

"And Tifa?"

"Upstairs in bed. Ill, Marlene infected her…"

"Ah… good…" Reno drank another glass.

The blonde was confused at the interest in Tifa and the bar, but he didn't say anything, didn't inquire further.

Reno kept silent while Cloud continued feeding the calculator with numbers.

"Hey, Strife… What would you do to become famous?" Reno suddenly asked.

Cloud raised his eyebrows. "I would do almost everything not to become famous…"

The redhead laughed softly and grinned because of the answer.

"What would you do?"

There was a moment of silence before Reno replied: "Nothing… If I were famous, I couldn't do my job any longer…"

"Most likely…" Cloud's voice didn't really sound interested and he didn't hear Reno's next remark.

"… even though, on days like this, it wouldn't be the worst to pack in the job…"

Cloud took the last sip of his mineral water and got up to go back behind the counter. He opened the fridge and refilled his glass, looking at Reno while doing so, who in turn had already downed one third of the whiskey. Reno furrowed and looked confused at the blonde.

"Since when do you wear glasses?" He sounded surprised.

Cloud flinched slightly, barely recognisable, and removed the oval glasses with the tin wire-rims, placing them on top of the papers next to the calculator. Embarrassed he cleared his throat and murmured: "Only when I am reading…"

"Aha…" Couriously, the redhead seized the glasses and looked through them. "Truly reading glasses… quite surprising…"

Cloud tried to hide his awkwardness and sat down again.

"Tell me, Strife…", Reno's voice was quiet and pensive, "… did you notice the women who disappeared over the last few weeks?"

Puzzled because of the sudden change of topic, Cloud nodded. "Yes, marginally."

"A few days ago another one turned up missing… The police called us in for help – unofficially of course." He swallowed dryly and continued. "We found them today."

"Oh." Cloud raised his eyebrows. "But that's good. Why were you able to find them so quickly?" Actually the question was superfluous since the blonde knew how the Turk approached things sometimes and Reno's answer only seconded it.

"We have our… own methods."

Reno didn't bother any longer to fill his glass, but drank straight from the bottle.

There were a few minutes of silence till the small lamp, which was standing on the counter next to the bills, suddenly extinguished.

Cloud hissed something under his breath which most likely was a curse and once more got up.
Seemingly disinteressed Reno watched him try to remove the bulb.

"Damn!" The blonde mumbled softly and pulled back his hand from the glass. He hadn't considered the bulb being hot.

"Use a towel…" Reno advised and took another swig from the bottle.

Grumbling, Cloud followed the advise, got a towel and a new light bulb and replaced the old one.

The redhead grinned for a moment, doubting that Cloud was usually the one to do the minor repair works in the 7th Heaven. But the smirk quickly vanished and was replaced by a pensive-gloomy expression.

"They were all dead…"

Cloud interrupted his futile attempt to find the mistake in his calculations and looked up.

"What?"

"The women… they were all dead", Reno repeated and received a confused stare from the blonde.

"Oh… ahem…" Not really knowing what to say, Cloud pensively scratched his neck and again remarked: "Oh…"

"There were twenty-four women… Twenty-four. And all of them died in the same room, the corpses being left there…"

Cloud noticed that Reno had turned unnaturally pale. Meanwhile there was only half the contens left in the bottle, but apparently it had little effect on the redhead since he continued drinking the high proof liquor.

"Imagine it… First you are kidnapped and then you are locked into a room full of corpses. Some were nearly decayed, others only a few days old at best… And while you are being killed you have to lie between the dead bodies yourself and you know you will be left there likewise… You have to stare at the corpses, while dying …"

Cloud felt nauseous.

Old memories, buried for years, resurfaced. Memories of cramped rooms, the stench of Mako, of the dead people whom he had but seen shortly before, who had suffered was much as he had. The memory of the feeling to be imprisoned. The memory of the feeling to be completely helpless and to be at their mercy.

The blonde drank a sip of water. He would have loved to drink whiskey himself, but he knew he couldn't handle it. It wouldn't have helped him with the memories anyway.

After a few moments, when the nausea had diminished, Cloud asked: "Why are you telling me all that?"

"I don't know…" Reno shrugged. "Perhaps I need someone to talk to."

"Why don't you talk to Rude or Elena?"

"… hm… Rude turns to his familiy. He has a wife and a child who'll most likely help him to forget today's events… And Elena… She goes to Tseng, where she'll certainly fuss and rant a bit, but when they are lying together in bed the world is looking fine again…"

"Aha…" Cloud took a deep breath. "But… I am not good at… this. I mean… I am no one can have a word with. So, what do you expect from me?"

Reno rolled his eyes. "I know that it is not your greatest talent. And I don't expect anything from you. Simply stay here and listen. Or simply stay, even if you don't wanna listen – honestly, I would really understand it – but stay seated… please."

Almost unnoticeable Cloud nodded. It wasn't like he was really eager to listen to the other, but he could quite understand his need.

And now he understood why the redheaded Turk was glad that the bar was empty and Tifa not here…

Outside a heavy rainstorm had started. Louldy, the drops beat against the windowpane and during these minutes both kept silent.

Only when the noise outside diminished, Reno spoke once more.

"Do you know why that guy killed the women?" It was a rethorical question to which Cloud did not know the answer, so he said nothing.

"He wanted to be famous… He wanted to make it into the news and was almost disappointed that he wasn't found earlier." The grasp around the whiskey bottle got tighter. "He laughed at me, when I mentioned the women to him."

He took a swig. "He laughed till I shot him right between the eyes…"

Cloud's eyes widened in surprise, but all he said in a monotonous voice and without judgement: "The death penalty is prohibited…"

Reno gave a dry laugh. "I know. But firstly we were only there inofficially and secondly: Since when do Turks abide by the law?"

In his mind, Cloud agreed with the redhead.

"What really pisses me off with that whole thing is the fact that this guy still will become famous! Most likely newscast will have breaking news about it by now and everybody will be exclaiming how horrid the things he did are… But still they'll be talking about it for months to come. And any psychologists will try to analyse his behaviour." Disgusted, Reno shook his head. "Absolutely sickening! So hypocritical. Everybody will declare it atrocious, but still will gloat over every bit of news related to the case. And after a few years nearly everyone will have forgotten about it and some youths will wear t-shirts with his likeness simply to shock their parents… This is absolutely sickening!"

Cloud tried to imagine what Marlene would look like in a few years wearing such a t-shirt, simply to shock Barrett, Tifa or him. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

As long as she didn't wear a shirt bearing a likeness of Sephiroth, he propably wouldn't really care.

Once more silence settled in between the two men.

At times Reno took a swig from the bottle, which by now was down to a quarter, the alcohol slowly taking its toll on the Turk. His talk was still clear and articulate, but his movements seemed a little uncoordinated.

In the meantime Cloud once more tried to check the bills and finally admitted that he didn't really come to grips with Tifa's calculator, and would have been better off by getting his own one from upstairs.

The gloomy atmosphere which had prevailed while they were talking had nearly vanished, and the blonde had almost banished the topic and the resurfacing memories when Reno started again.

"Do you know what was personally worst for me, Cloud?"

The Turk sounded broken and hoarse.

"What?" The blonde asked when Reno didn't continue, but even then a few moments passed before he answered.

First he drank some more from the bottle, looking dully at the counter. "The faces of the women… Their faces…" He paused and gave Cloud a sideway glance who returned the stare with a mixture of confusion and concern.

"Their eyes were open."

Thank you for reading. ^^

The sentence I mentioned before was the last one.