tir_synni

Title: Reflection in the Water
Fandom: FF7
Pairing: one-sided Reno/Cloud
Warnings/Tags: Post AC, fun with inner canon
Rating: PG
Summary: They would never be just memories.

Reflection in the Water

In hindsight, Reno thought Rufus caught on first.

xoxoxox

“Where do these guys keep coming from?”

“Below! Below!”

“Cloud, watch out!”

Reno knew he should be in the fight, but he also knew a Turk’s primary job. Curiosity also won out over fighting more of Hojo’s annoyances.

Really, the guy had been dead for years. How many more monsters could there be?

Cloud’s laughter was far more interesting.

Open and happy, he sounded more like he was in the middle of a game than a battle. He shouted encouragement to Avalanche and yelled, “Let’s mosey!” at Cid when the battlefield moved. Cid snarled and Cloud grinned, bright as the sun on his damned blond spikes.

Reno surreptitiously took pictures of that smile. Most went into a folder marked ‘classified.’ He kept the rest.

xoxoxox

Cloud drank Rude under the table. Tifa could do it, too, but Cloud did it with a strange, wistful look in his eyes. Their glow dimmed.

Even with all of Reno’s skills, he couldn’t get Cloud to talk about it. Fortunately, he didn’t need to. He knew what Cloud thought about in those moments.

Tifa rested one hand on Cloud’s arm and grabbed his mug with her other hand. Reno watched them both and drank Rude’s beer. Rude snored into the table.

“Do you want --”

Tifa’s soft question faded under the roar of her patrons. Her body pressed into Cloud’s with a casual intimacy. Not lovers, Reno knew. According to the reports, Cloud had no known lovers. The pre-Nibelheim reports were sketchy, Cloud Strife interesting but mostly below notice. Hojo had notes which the Turks still worked to decrypt.

Whatever Tifa asked, it made Cloud smile, something startled and small. He caught Tifa’s gaze and then immediately looked away, sweeping the room with his electric eyes. Reno focused on Rude before Cloud could catch him staring. After a moment, Reno looked up through his eyelashes.

Tifa was speaking directly into Cloud’s ear. Cloud nodded but didn’t look at her. He didn’t look at anyone. Shoulders hunched and eyes distant, he looked smaller than his blade.

Reno finished Rude’s beer and stood up. It had been at least an hour since he last tried to grope Cloud’s ass.

xoxoxox

“Sir.”

“Reno.”

“Time to ready the big guns.”

“Is he doing it then?”

Reno leaned against the doorframe and stared into the church. The holy rain had left a shining pond in the middle that frankly disturbed Reno more than any of Hojo’s monsters. Cloud stood in the ruins beside it. The glow of his eyes reflected oddly in the water, an imperfect picture which wouldn’t make sense almost anywhere else.

When those sullen, intense eyes flicked Reno’s way, Reno knew better than to flinch away.

“Yeah,” Reno said. Cloud looked away and paced, muscles fluid and perfect and inhuman as they flexed under his worn uniform. The pond shuddered. Reno thought he heard whispers and swallowed. “Definitely.”

Cloud looked at him again, eyes shifting. Green reflected and Reno saw Death.

“Sephiroth’s on his way.”

xoxoxox

When Cloud walked into the Mako pond like it was water, Reno dived forward to yank the psychotic idiot out. Rufus’s arms around his waist stopped him.

“That’s not Cloud,” Rufus said. Cloud ignored them and calmly gathered the glistening materia in the middle of the pond. Reno froze, understanding hitting him like a stampeding chocobo. Cloud looked back at them with a boyish grin.

Zack’s reflection in the Mako pool grinned back.