Episode 21
Mar. 23rd, 2009 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaded_grinWell, I've driven over 800 miles and spent over 12 hours in a car coming back, but I am finally out of the military and back to being a civilian! I apologize that I haven't been online much--I have no internet access myself and I don't want to be intrusive where I'm staying, so sporadic it is until I can get something worked out! I hope you like this episode, I struggled quite a bit with it and wrote the bulk of it at about eight in the evening last night :D As always, feedback is much appreciated!
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Reeve was a man plagued by many things, but he never thought he would ever be plagued by his carefully hidden love of Yuffie Kisagari.
In Wutai he’d been flattered by her love of his art—a passion they shared—and he’d slowly but surely developed a crush on the entrancing, if not just a bit clumsy, young lady. He’d assumed she was wealthy, and had heard it whispered that she was The White Rose of Wutai, but to this day he had no idea what that meant and it didn’t really matter.
Because in the world of humble, neurotic artists, well-bred young ladies did not get romantically involved with men of his ilk…
But then, well-bred young ladies also did not drink like a fish, pull impromptu strip-teases, or hang around with date-raping, drug-toting directors. And he didn’t give a flip how famous Genesis Rhapsodos was, in Reeve’s book he was categorized under The List of People to Henceforth Avoid.
He made it home to his hotel on his borrowed twenty and carefully set aside the remainder, intending to send it back to Mister Rhapsodos in the morning. Weary and still angry, he wet a washcloth with warm water and cleaned the ketchup elephants from the mirror, grumpily growling, “They’re not mammoths—anyone with sense could see that! Of course, anyone with sense wouldn’t be carrying around a tin of drugs!”
He stopped scrubbing and glared at himself, angrily reminding, “Anyone with sense wouldn’t take a pill offered to them by a total stranger!”
Disgusted, he tossed the soiled washcloth into the laundry bag and flopped down on his mussed up bed, feeling more hung over than anything. The terrible part was, he didn’t remember a thing about it, and that Yuffie had been a part of it only made things worse. He remembered how she’d smiled at Genesis, as if she’d already known what would happen…
Reeve had seen a lot more of Yuffie in the last few days than he had in the entire history of their friendship, and he wasn’t sure that he was impressed. He’d dreamily imagined her as wholesome, innocent, playful, fun to be with and looking for someone to match her.
He really hadn’t counted on what she was in truth.
Reeve felt a sick churning in his stomach and realized that he was truly disappointed by everything that had happened. Yuffie was not the young lady he’d thought she was—she gave every appearance of being a tramp with a drug and alcohol habit. He wasn’t sure that he could love that side of Yuffie, wasn’t sure that he even did love her. It had been infatuation since they met, dreams built around an ideal of what he’d wanted her to be, and the reality was so divorced from his imaginings that he found himself rather adrift. After having secretly pined after her for so long, the truth rather disturbed him and left him floundering.
As much as he’d come to care for Yuffie, he simply couldn’t accept the type of lifestyle she obviously preferred. He didn’t want loud parties with loud, obnoxious people. He didn’t want trolling the alleys of a city to find trouble, no. He just wanted Yuffie…only now, he ruefully realized, he didn’t want Yuffie, but a perfect dream of her.
“Well,” he breathed, looking at his paint-stained palm and thinking of how it had rested on her narrow waist just a mere thirty minutes before. “That’s hardly fair to her, Reeve, wanting her to be someone she isn’t.”
He didn’t want to give up hope of eventually sharing something meaningful with Yuffie, but their lives simply wouldn’t mesh—he liked peace and quiet, she liked parties and noise. They were fundamentally incompatible people and he had nothing to offer that could either compare to or woo her away from her glamorous life…
Saddened by the necessity of putting away foolish hopes, Reeve shoved himself up off of the bed and headed to his studio. At least his jumbled emotions would fuel his creative drive, so maybe he could get something worthwhile out of his disappointment.
“I’m sorry I’m so late.”
Ronald ShinRa smiled to hear the soothing, velvety purr of his ex-wife’s voice. She always had a way with words, and he still remembered the first time he’d heard her voice—the sultry, low throb of it as she crooned a love ballad in that smoky, packed lounge down in Southside, back before Midgar had become the metropolis it was today.
“I’m just glad you could make it,” he said, swinging away from the restaurant window’s excellent view to stand and greet her. “Scarlet, you look fabulous.”
“You say that as if you’re surprised,” she smirked, and leaned in to kiss first one ruddy cheek and then the other. He waited until she was seated before he sat back down himself. “You’re far too thin, Ronald. What on earth has that tramp been doing to put you off of your feed?”
“Elena?” he questioned, as if he had thousands of tramps running around. “Nothing, my dear lady. She wouldn’t do anything at all to me if I didn’t request it.”
Scarlet laughed a little and shed her light wrap, letting one of the waiters take it.
“This place is quite grand,” she remarked, her light blue eyes taking in all of the details, a smile on her lips. As always, she wore red—red dress, red choker, red earrings, red lipstick that made her full mouth look wet and kissable, red mules that made the muscles in her strong calves stand out starkly against her white skin. “I hear it’s very exclusive, just opened last night as a matter of fact. However did you get reservations on such short notice?”
“The owner keeps a private booth on hold for me,” he answered, hoping she wouldn’t press it. His dealings with Reno never left him feeling at ease, and he disliked having to rely on the dangerous, wily man any more than he had to.
Scarlet arched a perfect eyebrow at him but said nothing, merely lifted her wineglass and took a small sip.
“How’s the boy?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Rufus is quickly becoming every bit as selfish and ignorant as I was at his age,” he sighed, shaking his head. “I’ve no idea how to stop it. It’s all I can do to get him to come in to work and he has no interest at all in the future of either the country or the company.”
She cocked her head, tendrils of her blond hair falling over one creamy white shoulder. For all that she was feminine, she was still sharply angular and Rufus looked surprisingly like her with her same blond hair and big blue eyes.
“Well,” she slowly said. “Perhaps leaving you your heir wasn’t the smartest move I ever made.”
Ronald smiled sadly at her, remembering all too well how hard she’d fought to take Rufus with her when she left.
“Perhaps not,” he murmured. “But the divorce certainly was.”
She laughed a little and clinked her glass against his when he raised it for a toast.
“To good decisions, then,” she sighed, and they both drank to their long, turbulent past.
Kadaj was too content to be troubled as he rode back to Reno’s house. Tseng had arranged for a car to take him back and had gracefully conceded to keeping Kadaj’s lavish presents for him at his condo…for now. He candidly informed Kadaj that when he returned to Wutai the gifts would go with him and the only way the boy would see them again was to come claim them in the flesh.
That suited Kadaj just fine.
‘I’m eighteen now,’ he thought, giving Reno’s towering, busy house a long, thoughtful look. Everything could change, he knew it. He’d left here this morning as one person and returned as another, and he wasn’t sure if his future in Reno’s household was as certain as it seemed.
Slowly, he made his way inside, idly wondering why so many of Reno’s beauties turned tail and ran before he could reach them. They were reacting so strangely that he didn’t know what to make of it, and unlocked the door on autopilot.
When he pushed to open it, however, it stayed firmly closed.
“What in the hell?” he hissed, and shoved it harder.
It didn’t move.
Scowling, he called, “Reno? Why is the door bolted?”
There was a muffled, drunk-sounding reply and he pressed his ear to the door, first paling and then flushing in a fury to hear the unmistakable sounds of sex floating through the thick wood to reach him.
“Open this fucking door right now!” he snarled, and started kicking it, hammering his fists against the solid wood while Reno’s babies scattered to the four winds, frightened into hiding. If there was one thing that scared the occupants of Reno’s house as much as Reno’s temper, it was Kadaj’s. “You open this fucking door, Reno, or I swear I will burn this fucking house down!”
The racket alone should’ve clued Reno into the fact that he was in seriously hot water, but Kadaj received no reply other than those infuriating noises.
Seething, the boy strode down to the bar, grabbed two bottles of Reno’s finest, highest-proof alcohol, and stomped back upstairs with dozens of pairs of frightened, morbidly curious eyes watching him from behind cracked doors.
“I warned you!” he growled, and spun the tops off of both of the bottles.
“Kadaj!” Neala cried, coming at the racket and at the insistence of a few scared workers. She was in her pajamas and a long robe and had clearly already been in bed when the ruckus started. Terrified to risk his temper but afraid to let him run wild, she nervously approached him and said, “Calm down! It’s nothing to get upse—”
“Shut the fuck up!” Kadaj snarled, and yanked at the sleeve of her robe, tearing it free when Neala stumbled back with a startled, outraged yelp.
He shredded the cloth into two strips and stuffed them into the mouths of the bottles, his lips twisted with a malicious smile.
Neala took one look at the bottles and bolted for Zack’s suite, hoping the larger, heavier man could do what she could not and manage to keep Kadaj from burning the whole house down.
“You fucking cocksucker!” Kadaj shouted, and lit the cloths with his lighter, his grin widening when they caught and flamed up brightly. Shrieking insults, he threw first one bottle and then the other with all of his strength and watched them smash against the wood, the old and oiled surface of the doors quickly catching fire.
Yazoo was pleasantly tired and still flushed as he made his way into his suite, not even checking to see if Rufus was home. Customarily, he would stop to say goodnight but lately he hadn’t really felt like even seeing his husband, and in his current frame of mind Rufus was nowhere near his thoughts.
Reno was.
He hadn’t known someone’s role in his life could change so abruptly. When he’d first met Reno years ago, he’d never once dreamed that the man would ever be anything more than a sometimes-friend and a visitor in his home. His girlish daydreams had centered around Rude because Rude was the only man he’d had regular contact with, and the unnerving aura of danger constantly encompassing Reno had always made Yazoo feel uneasy. He hadn’t understood how it was a large portion of his draw for many women, hadn’t ever looked at him and thought of how handsome he was—Reno had always just…been.
And yet, in the matter of a few days, the man had somehow changed in Yazoo’s thoughts. Now he saw the handsome grins, the twinkling blue eyes. Now he noticed the lazy grace of him, the muscled feel of his body, the delicacy of his fingers and the soft set of his mouth. Now Reno was anything but a sometimes-friend.
Yazoo’s grasp of sex was rudimentary, but he recognized the strange tingling in his lower belly for what it was. He was undeniably attracted to Reno and he hadn’t even meant to be. He wasn’t even sure how such a thing would work, he only knew that if he was to ever take anyone for a lover, he would chose Reno first.
‘I wanted to…back at the cages.’
It still made his cheeks flame with mingled embarrassment and excitement, still made his heart flutter nervously to know that he hadn’t been the only one affected in that moment. He still didn’t know why Reno hadn’t kissed him, but it was enough to know that the man had wanted to.
He’d wanted to. He’d wanted Yazoo.
Not Mrs. ShinRa, not the wife of the president’s son, not the daughter of Premier Jenova, not the Cetran Swan…just Yazoo, in a faded old ball-cap and jeans with his hair a mess.
Rufus would’ve had apoplexy to see Yazoo in such a state, but Reno had wanted to kiss him.
Yazoo dimpled up in a wide, helpless smile and hugged himself, biting his lip a little to keep his happiness contained. Whatever may happen after this, he was sure of one thing, and that was that he wanted to be with Reno.
He wanted to be Reno’s lover.
Scarlet laughed again at Ronald’s witty observation and sighed a little, giving him an assessing look from the tops of her eyes. Though it had been the better part of fifteen years since they’d been nominally civil to one another, she hadn’t forgotten a single thing about him. They’d been married for a long time prior, and she knew whenever Ronald had something weighing on his mind.
“So,” she said, watching the last of his smile fade from his round face to leave him rather solemn and sad. “What is it, Ron? I take it something has happened, you wanting to see me and all. Is it to do with your weight loss? Before the divorce your were positively portly!”
She still remembered him when he was young and ambitious, thin as a reed and wild with passion for politics and business…but not for his young wife. Time had made him heavy—heavy with responsibility, heavy with pressure, heavy with weight. She’d liked the roundness it had given him, she’d enjoyed how very solid he’d become, and her unexpected appetite for his new and enticing shape had resulted in their only son. Unfortunately, sex didn’t make a marriage, and she’d lost the battle for her husband. It had been a bitter defeat to lose him to his own ambitions, and she’d lost her son in the process, but she never could classify what she’d done as being selfish. She’d fought to have Rufus with every available Gil she’d had, enlisted the aid of every lawyer willing to take the case, but Ronald had won in the end. He’d had more money, better lawyers, crooked judges…Scarlet had eventually resigned herself to losing both of them, and had found comfort in religion. While the gods might not answer prayers, might not restore lost loves or estranged children, they at least listened and sympathized.
It was more than Scarlet had gotten from the people around her as she’d struggled with her divorce and the loss of her child.
Ronald shifted across from her, his eyes suddenly shuttered.
“Ron?” she asked, feeling unwelcome concern. She’d only been joking, really. She knew he’d always hated his extra weight, no matter how much she’d told him it flattered him. “Are you…are you well?”
“No,” he softly said, and finally lifted his blue eyes to hers. “No, Scarlet. It’s why I wanted to see you…You’ve always been so practical, so honest. I knew if anyone could listen, understand, and comfort me, it would be you.”
Scarlet swallowed hard and smiled, unexpectedly moved.
“Scarlet,” he said, and glanced around the restaurant from habit, scanning the crowd for possible paparazzi. “I…I’m ill. I’m…”
“Ill,” she softly said, urging him. “How ill, Ronald? Is it serious?”
“Yes,” he said, and his voice fell into a whisper so that she strained to hear the sad, frightened words, “I’m dying.”
She didn’t even realize she’d dropped her glass until the sound of it hitting the plate startled her out of her shock.
Kadaj was still laughing with half-mad glee when Zack came running headlong into the chaos he’d caused, bare-chested from bed and his bare feet skittering on the polished floor.
“Kadaj! Wh—get some water!” he shouted, and yanked what was left of Neala’s robe off of her to pound out the flames.
“Stop it!” Kadaj snarled, and started to pummel him, yelling, “Let it fucking burn! Burn this whole fucking house down!”
“Kadaj, stop it!” Zack shouted, smothering the flames while two young ladies ran up with vases full of water, tossing them on the burning doors with terrified, high-pitched shrieks.
“Damn you! Damn you!” Kadaj gasped, breathless in his anger when Zack managed to beat the flames into charred wood and smoke.
Zack shrugged him off as if his fists made no impression, coughing a little as the smoke cleared and snapping orders at everyone to get back to business.
Kadaj got into his space to give him an ass-chewing but paused when the bolt was thrown with a creak and one smoking door opened wide.
Reno stood there in the doorway, barely able to keep his feet, his white skin shining with a sheen of sweat and his fiery red hair plastered to his head and throat. His high cheekbones held a pink flush and he was naked to the soles of his feet.
“You mother-fucking son of a b—”
Kadaj shut up abruptly when Reno snatched him close and tried to haul him into the room.
“Don’t!” the boy ordered, Zack hovering in concern, still angry about the fire and the subsequent drama. It was pretty clear that Reno was Blitzed out of his head—his blue eyes were dilated widely and he probably had no idea what was happening around him. And floating atop the scent of sweat and sex was the coppery, thick smell of blood.
Kadaj’s concern blew all anger from his mind because when Reno was high on something—drugs, booze, whatever—he tended to forget his limits. He’d play rough with the roughest and never cry off, a dominant’s dream bottom turned into their worst nightmare.
“Reno,” he whispered, afraid, trying to see where he was hurt, how bad it was.
Zack came closer, bewildered by Kadaj’s abrupt shift from shrieking pyromaniac to tender, concerned lover.
Reno caught the movement and his blue eyes shifted to him. One long, strong arm shot out and caught Zack by the wrist, startling the dark-haired man into trying to draw back.
“Easy!” Kadaj cried, latching onto both of their arms—Zack by the forearm, Reno by the wrist. Gently, he crooned, “Not Zack, Reno, okay? He doesn’t want to play your games.”
It dawned on Zack why Reno was slowly but steadily drawing him into his suite and he found himself blushing. Trying not to rouse the man’s more violent instincts, Zack just as slowly and steadily pulled backwards, the match in strength leaving them both stalled in place.
“Reno,” Kadaj soothed, and saw the rivulets of blood trailing down Reno’s back when he turned, his dazed blue eyes still vaguely fixed on Zack, still slowly pulling the other man towards him as if he didn’t quite know what he was doing but knew exactly what he wanted. “Who gave you Blitz, anyway? Come on, you don’t even like Zack, just let him go, okay? Come on, come with me…”
“Reno,” another voice said from inside the suite—a little girl’s soft, giggling soprano. “Come back, my darling boy.”
Kadaj felt a shiver course through Reno’s body and he just as abruptly released Zack’s arm, sending the man stumbling backwards. Two tiny, dainty white hands slipped around Reno from behind his back and pulled him backwards, blood-red fingernails sinking deep into his white skin.
With his blue eyes still fixed oddly on Zack, Reno cocked his head, tightened his grip on Kadaj, and vanished back inside his suite.
The charred door gently closed and the bolt slid home with a distinct click, leaving Zack breathless with endorphins and staring stupidly at the perfect red imprint of Reno’s fingers on his wrist.
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In Wutai he’d been flattered by her love of his art—a passion they shared—and he’d slowly but surely developed a crush on the entrancing, if not just a bit clumsy, young lady. He’d assumed she was wealthy, and had heard it whispered that she was The White Rose of Wutai, but to this day he had no idea what that meant and it didn’t really matter.
Because in the world of humble, neurotic artists, well-bred young ladies did not get romantically involved with men of his ilk…
But then, well-bred young ladies also did not drink like a fish, pull impromptu strip-teases, or hang around with date-raping, drug-toting directors. And he didn’t give a flip how famous Genesis Rhapsodos was, in Reeve’s book he was categorized under The List of People to Henceforth Avoid.
He made it home to his hotel on his borrowed twenty and carefully set aside the remainder, intending to send it back to Mister Rhapsodos in the morning. Weary and still angry, he wet a washcloth with warm water and cleaned the ketchup elephants from the mirror, grumpily growling, “They’re not mammoths—anyone with sense could see that! Of course, anyone with sense wouldn’t be carrying around a tin of drugs!”
He stopped scrubbing and glared at himself, angrily reminding, “Anyone with sense wouldn’t take a pill offered to them by a total stranger!”
Disgusted, he tossed the soiled washcloth into the laundry bag and flopped down on his mussed up bed, feeling more hung over than anything. The terrible part was, he didn’t remember a thing about it, and that Yuffie had been a part of it only made things worse. He remembered how she’d smiled at Genesis, as if she’d already known what would happen…
Reeve had seen a lot more of Yuffie in the last few days than he had in the entire history of their friendship, and he wasn’t sure that he was impressed. He’d dreamily imagined her as wholesome, innocent, playful, fun to be with and looking for someone to match her.
He really hadn’t counted on what she was in truth.
Reeve felt a sick churning in his stomach and realized that he was truly disappointed by everything that had happened. Yuffie was not the young lady he’d thought she was—she gave every appearance of being a tramp with a drug and alcohol habit. He wasn’t sure that he could love that side of Yuffie, wasn’t sure that he even did love her. It had been infatuation since they met, dreams built around an ideal of what he’d wanted her to be, and the reality was so divorced from his imaginings that he found himself rather adrift. After having secretly pined after her for so long, the truth rather disturbed him and left him floundering.
As much as he’d come to care for Yuffie, he simply couldn’t accept the type of lifestyle she obviously preferred. He didn’t want loud parties with loud, obnoxious people. He didn’t want trolling the alleys of a city to find trouble, no. He just wanted Yuffie…only now, he ruefully realized, he didn’t want Yuffie, but a perfect dream of her.
“Well,” he breathed, looking at his paint-stained palm and thinking of how it had rested on her narrow waist just a mere thirty minutes before. “That’s hardly fair to her, Reeve, wanting her to be someone she isn’t.”
He didn’t want to give up hope of eventually sharing something meaningful with Yuffie, but their lives simply wouldn’t mesh—he liked peace and quiet, she liked parties and noise. They were fundamentally incompatible people and he had nothing to offer that could either compare to or woo her away from her glamorous life…
Saddened by the necessity of putting away foolish hopes, Reeve shoved himself up off of the bed and headed to his studio. At least his jumbled emotions would fuel his creative drive, so maybe he could get something worthwhile out of his disappointment.
“I’m sorry I’m so late.”
Ronald ShinRa smiled to hear the soothing, velvety purr of his ex-wife’s voice. She always had a way with words, and he still remembered the first time he’d heard her voice—the sultry, low throb of it as she crooned a love ballad in that smoky, packed lounge down in Southside, back before Midgar had become the metropolis it was today.
“I’m just glad you could make it,” he said, swinging away from the restaurant window’s excellent view to stand and greet her. “Scarlet, you look fabulous.”
“You say that as if you’re surprised,” she smirked, and leaned in to kiss first one ruddy cheek and then the other. He waited until she was seated before he sat back down himself. “You’re far too thin, Ronald. What on earth has that tramp been doing to put you off of your feed?”
“Elena?” he questioned, as if he had thousands of tramps running around. “Nothing, my dear lady. She wouldn’t do anything at all to me if I didn’t request it.”
Scarlet laughed a little and shed her light wrap, letting one of the waiters take it.
“This place is quite grand,” she remarked, her light blue eyes taking in all of the details, a smile on her lips. As always, she wore red—red dress, red choker, red earrings, red lipstick that made her full mouth look wet and kissable, red mules that made the muscles in her strong calves stand out starkly against her white skin. “I hear it’s very exclusive, just opened last night as a matter of fact. However did you get reservations on such short notice?”
“The owner keeps a private booth on hold for me,” he answered, hoping she wouldn’t press it. His dealings with Reno never left him feeling at ease, and he disliked having to rely on the dangerous, wily man any more than he had to.
Scarlet arched a perfect eyebrow at him but said nothing, merely lifted her wineglass and took a small sip.
“How’s the boy?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Rufus is quickly becoming every bit as selfish and ignorant as I was at his age,” he sighed, shaking his head. “I’ve no idea how to stop it. It’s all I can do to get him to come in to work and he has no interest at all in the future of either the country or the company.”
She cocked her head, tendrils of her blond hair falling over one creamy white shoulder. For all that she was feminine, she was still sharply angular and Rufus looked surprisingly like her with her same blond hair and big blue eyes.
“Well,” she slowly said. “Perhaps leaving you your heir wasn’t the smartest move I ever made.”
Ronald smiled sadly at her, remembering all too well how hard she’d fought to take Rufus with her when she left.
“Perhaps not,” he murmured. “But the divorce certainly was.”
She laughed a little and clinked her glass against his when he raised it for a toast.
“To good decisions, then,” she sighed, and they both drank to their long, turbulent past.
Kadaj was too content to be troubled as he rode back to Reno’s house. Tseng had arranged for a car to take him back and had gracefully conceded to keeping Kadaj’s lavish presents for him at his condo…for now. He candidly informed Kadaj that when he returned to Wutai the gifts would go with him and the only way the boy would see them again was to come claim them in the flesh.
That suited Kadaj just fine.
‘I’m eighteen now,’ he thought, giving Reno’s towering, busy house a long, thoughtful look. Everything could change, he knew it. He’d left here this morning as one person and returned as another, and he wasn’t sure if his future in Reno’s household was as certain as it seemed.
Slowly, he made his way inside, idly wondering why so many of Reno’s beauties turned tail and ran before he could reach them. They were reacting so strangely that he didn’t know what to make of it, and unlocked the door on autopilot.
When he pushed to open it, however, it stayed firmly closed.
“What in the hell?” he hissed, and shoved it harder.
It didn’t move.
Scowling, he called, “Reno? Why is the door bolted?”
There was a muffled, drunk-sounding reply and he pressed his ear to the door, first paling and then flushing in a fury to hear the unmistakable sounds of sex floating through the thick wood to reach him.
“Open this fucking door right now!” he snarled, and started kicking it, hammering his fists against the solid wood while Reno’s babies scattered to the four winds, frightened into hiding. If there was one thing that scared the occupants of Reno’s house as much as Reno’s temper, it was Kadaj’s. “You open this fucking door, Reno, or I swear I will burn this fucking house down!”
The racket alone should’ve clued Reno into the fact that he was in seriously hot water, but Kadaj received no reply other than those infuriating noises.
Seething, the boy strode down to the bar, grabbed two bottles of Reno’s finest, highest-proof alcohol, and stomped back upstairs with dozens of pairs of frightened, morbidly curious eyes watching him from behind cracked doors.
“I warned you!” he growled, and spun the tops off of both of the bottles.
“Kadaj!” Neala cried, coming at the racket and at the insistence of a few scared workers. She was in her pajamas and a long robe and had clearly already been in bed when the ruckus started. Terrified to risk his temper but afraid to let him run wild, she nervously approached him and said, “Calm down! It’s nothing to get upse—”
“Shut the fuck up!” Kadaj snarled, and yanked at the sleeve of her robe, tearing it free when Neala stumbled back with a startled, outraged yelp.
He shredded the cloth into two strips and stuffed them into the mouths of the bottles, his lips twisted with a malicious smile.
Neala took one look at the bottles and bolted for Zack’s suite, hoping the larger, heavier man could do what she could not and manage to keep Kadaj from burning the whole house down.
“You fucking cocksucker!” Kadaj shouted, and lit the cloths with his lighter, his grin widening when they caught and flamed up brightly. Shrieking insults, he threw first one bottle and then the other with all of his strength and watched them smash against the wood, the old and oiled surface of the doors quickly catching fire.
Yazoo was pleasantly tired and still flushed as he made his way into his suite, not even checking to see if Rufus was home. Customarily, he would stop to say goodnight but lately he hadn’t really felt like even seeing his husband, and in his current frame of mind Rufus was nowhere near his thoughts.
Reno was.
He hadn’t known someone’s role in his life could change so abruptly. When he’d first met Reno years ago, he’d never once dreamed that the man would ever be anything more than a sometimes-friend and a visitor in his home. His girlish daydreams had centered around Rude because Rude was the only man he’d had regular contact with, and the unnerving aura of danger constantly encompassing Reno had always made Yazoo feel uneasy. He hadn’t understood how it was a large portion of his draw for many women, hadn’t ever looked at him and thought of how handsome he was—Reno had always just…been.
And yet, in the matter of a few days, the man had somehow changed in Yazoo’s thoughts. Now he saw the handsome grins, the twinkling blue eyes. Now he noticed the lazy grace of him, the muscled feel of his body, the delicacy of his fingers and the soft set of his mouth. Now Reno was anything but a sometimes-friend.
Yazoo’s grasp of sex was rudimentary, but he recognized the strange tingling in his lower belly for what it was. He was undeniably attracted to Reno and he hadn’t even meant to be. He wasn’t even sure how such a thing would work, he only knew that if he was to ever take anyone for a lover, he would chose Reno first.
‘I wanted to…back at the cages.’
It still made his cheeks flame with mingled embarrassment and excitement, still made his heart flutter nervously to know that he hadn’t been the only one affected in that moment. He still didn’t know why Reno hadn’t kissed him, but it was enough to know that the man had wanted to.
He’d wanted to. He’d wanted Yazoo.
Not Mrs. ShinRa, not the wife of the president’s son, not the daughter of Premier Jenova, not the Cetran Swan…just Yazoo, in a faded old ball-cap and jeans with his hair a mess.
Rufus would’ve had apoplexy to see Yazoo in such a state, but Reno had wanted to kiss him.
Yazoo dimpled up in a wide, helpless smile and hugged himself, biting his lip a little to keep his happiness contained. Whatever may happen after this, he was sure of one thing, and that was that he wanted to be with Reno.
He wanted to be Reno’s lover.
Scarlet laughed again at Ronald’s witty observation and sighed a little, giving him an assessing look from the tops of her eyes. Though it had been the better part of fifteen years since they’d been nominally civil to one another, she hadn’t forgotten a single thing about him. They’d been married for a long time prior, and she knew whenever Ronald had something weighing on his mind.
“So,” she said, watching the last of his smile fade from his round face to leave him rather solemn and sad. “What is it, Ron? I take it something has happened, you wanting to see me and all. Is it to do with your weight loss? Before the divorce your were positively portly!”
She still remembered him when he was young and ambitious, thin as a reed and wild with passion for politics and business…but not for his young wife. Time had made him heavy—heavy with responsibility, heavy with pressure, heavy with weight. She’d liked the roundness it had given him, she’d enjoyed how very solid he’d become, and her unexpected appetite for his new and enticing shape had resulted in their only son. Unfortunately, sex didn’t make a marriage, and she’d lost the battle for her husband. It had been a bitter defeat to lose him to his own ambitions, and she’d lost her son in the process, but she never could classify what she’d done as being selfish. She’d fought to have Rufus with every available Gil she’d had, enlisted the aid of every lawyer willing to take the case, but Ronald had won in the end. He’d had more money, better lawyers, crooked judges…Scarlet had eventually resigned herself to losing both of them, and had found comfort in religion. While the gods might not answer prayers, might not restore lost loves or estranged children, they at least listened and sympathized.
It was more than Scarlet had gotten from the people around her as she’d struggled with her divorce and the loss of her child.
Ronald shifted across from her, his eyes suddenly shuttered.
“Ron?” she asked, feeling unwelcome concern. She’d only been joking, really. She knew he’d always hated his extra weight, no matter how much she’d told him it flattered him. “Are you…are you well?”
“No,” he softly said, and finally lifted his blue eyes to hers. “No, Scarlet. It’s why I wanted to see you…You’ve always been so practical, so honest. I knew if anyone could listen, understand, and comfort me, it would be you.”
Scarlet swallowed hard and smiled, unexpectedly moved.
“Scarlet,” he said, and glanced around the restaurant from habit, scanning the crowd for possible paparazzi. “I…I’m ill. I’m…”
“Ill,” she softly said, urging him. “How ill, Ronald? Is it serious?”
“Yes,” he said, and his voice fell into a whisper so that she strained to hear the sad, frightened words, “I’m dying.”
She didn’t even realize she’d dropped her glass until the sound of it hitting the plate startled her out of her shock.
Kadaj was still laughing with half-mad glee when Zack came running headlong into the chaos he’d caused, bare-chested from bed and his bare feet skittering on the polished floor.
“Kadaj! Wh—get some water!” he shouted, and yanked what was left of Neala’s robe off of her to pound out the flames.
“Stop it!” Kadaj snarled, and started to pummel him, yelling, “Let it fucking burn! Burn this whole fucking house down!”
“Kadaj, stop it!” Zack shouted, smothering the flames while two young ladies ran up with vases full of water, tossing them on the burning doors with terrified, high-pitched shrieks.
“Damn you! Damn you!” Kadaj gasped, breathless in his anger when Zack managed to beat the flames into charred wood and smoke.
Zack shrugged him off as if his fists made no impression, coughing a little as the smoke cleared and snapping orders at everyone to get back to business.
Kadaj got into his space to give him an ass-chewing but paused when the bolt was thrown with a creak and one smoking door opened wide.
Reno stood there in the doorway, barely able to keep his feet, his white skin shining with a sheen of sweat and his fiery red hair plastered to his head and throat. His high cheekbones held a pink flush and he was naked to the soles of his feet.
“You mother-fucking son of a b—”
Kadaj shut up abruptly when Reno snatched him close and tried to haul him into the room.
“Don’t!” the boy ordered, Zack hovering in concern, still angry about the fire and the subsequent drama. It was pretty clear that Reno was Blitzed out of his head—his blue eyes were dilated widely and he probably had no idea what was happening around him. And floating atop the scent of sweat and sex was the coppery, thick smell of blood.
Kadaj’s concern blew all anger from his mind because when Reno was high on something—drugs, booze, whatever—he tended to forget his limits. He’d play rough with the roughest and never cry off, a dominant’s dream bottom turned into their worst nightmare.
“Reno,” he whispered, afraid, trying to see where he was hurt, how bad it was.
Zack came closer, bewildered by Kadaj’s abrupt shift from shrieking pyromaniac to tender, concerned lover.
Reno caught the movement and his blue eyes shifted to him. One long, strong arm shot out and caught Zack by the wrist, startling the dark-haired man into trying to draw back.
“Easy!” Kadaj cried, latching onto both of their arms—Zack by the forearm, Reno by the wrist. Gently, he crooned, “Not Zack, Reno, okay? He doesn’t want to play your games.”
It dawned on Zack why Reno was slowly but steadily drawing him into his suite and he found himself blushing. Trying not to rouse the man’s more violent instincts, Zack just as slowly and steadily pulled backwards, the match in strength leaving them both stalled in place.
“Reno,” Kadaj soothed, and saw the rivulets of blood trailing down Reno’s back when he turned, his dazed blue eyes still vaguely fixed on Zack, still slowly pulling the other man towards him as if he didn’t quite know what he was doing but knew exactly what he wanted. “Who gave you Blitz, anyway? Come on, you don’t even like Zack, just let him go, okay? Come on, come with me…”
“Reno,” another voice said from inside the suite—a little girl’s soft, giggling soprano. “Come back, my darling boy.”
Kadaj felt a shiver course through Reno’s body and he just as abruptly released Zack’s arm, sending the man stumbling backwards. Two tiny, dainty white hands slipped around Reno from behind his back and pulled him backwards, blood-red fingernails sinking deep into his white skin.
With his blue eyes still fixed oddly on Zack, Reno cocked his head, tightened his grip on Kadaj, and vanished back inside his suite.
The charred door gently closed and the bolt slid home with a distinct click, leaving Zack breathless with endorphins and staring stupidly at the perfect red imprint of Reno’s fingers on his wrist.
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 02:24 pm (UTC)Poor Shinra Senior, I like the old man more and more and now he's dying. Not fair.
Kadaj still needs to get his head fixed, he will screw himself up one day. Lucky enough that Zack is around to save his ass.
And Reno high on drugs is scary.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-24 01:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 02:27 pm (UTC)I'll leave a better comment when my boss isn't just walking through the door... but wow!
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Okay, lunch time is here! (comment first, food second)
Reeve's sad self-discovery--because it really is hard to admit that the person you love is a fiction you created for yourself, flows into Yazoo's growing excitement about his possible future relationship with Reno. Sure, Yazoo's delusion is being deliberately fostered but it's still essentially the same thing. The people they are infatuated with aren't what they are imagining/hoping they will be. They are just at either end of the process (Reeve 'waking up' and Yazoo being dazzled by dreams).
I can't imagine going to my ex- for comfort if I found out I was dying but I know people do. But it sounds like ShinRa Sr and Scarlet had a long run together, and we all know his relationship with Elena (the skank) isn't a good one. He can't talk to his son. Who has he got left? Scarlet, the wife he practically threw away. Pretty sad for the richest, most powerful man in the world.
Kadaj and Reno... freakin' scary. It's obvious Kadaj sees his time with Tseng in a completely different light from Reno's infidelities. Whether that's teenage blindness or an innate belief that the world owes him 'things' we'll have to wait and see. He's such a complicated character, I sometimes think even he doesn't know what drives him. However, I don't think his obsession with Reno is good for his mental health... Burning down the door (and possibly the whole building) is not a good reaction to have.
Reno stoned and strung out on pain was... um ,yeah. I agree with Zack, no WAY I'm going in that room. i don't think he would respect anyone's limits even if he knew what they were which, since his brain isn't processing right, is doubtful. Maybe one of them can 'accidentally' kill Mei Li? That's about the only 'good' outcome I can envision as a result of that little episode.
Damn. I have to wait a full week to find out what happens. *goes away muttering*
no subject
Date: 2009-03-24 01:17 pm (UTC)Kadaj just gets more and more convoluted. In the manner of a typical narcissist he doesn't feel that anything he does is wrong if it makes him happy, and his issues are due to his early life before Reno found him...not that Reno is helping any. Since Reno doesn't really set limits for him or correct his outrageous behavior, Kadaj just continues to act as impulse dictates. And we'll find out next week what is going on in that room :D I don't think Mei Li getting tucked will factor into it, but we never know!
Glad you liked it!
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Date: 2009-03-23 08:35 pm (UTC)I can't believe old man Shinra is dying. Now that I have some sympathy for him, that's awful, and I my one hope if it happens is that he doesn't leave everything to Elena. (I'm so mean!)
Reno, poor boy! I told you he needed a good therapist! And the shame that the one person who knows him well enough to know his secrets and protect him even now is the one person Reno consistently pushes away.
Awesome!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-24 01:19 pm (UTC)Reno definitely has some issues, and Kadaj knows MOST of them, probably more than anyone else. I'm not sure if there's a single character who REALLY knows this Reno...except for one, and I've given hints!
Stay tuned! I hope next week's is a corker!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 08:44 pm (UTC)Reno high on sex and drugs and blood and pain makes some very questionable wheels in my head turn in even more questionable circles because somehow I find that very ...arousing. Yeah, sometimes I scare even myself *grin* For some reason I really want to know what happens behind that closed door...
And Zack... I'm so obsessed with him at the moment it's not even funny! I simply can't have enough of him, and he's just so incredibly adorable in this. Handsome and manly and a genuine good guy! I can't wait to learn more about his past. Mmmh, lots of creepy skeletons in the closet I guess?
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Date: 2009-03-24 01:23 pm (UTC)Zack IS a genuinely good guy! I want to get this moving back to shorter segments so that I can involve him more, but his story is linked to Kadaj's, so we have some time! Sometimes it's a bit frustrating to have all of these characters so linked, it makes it impossible to get anything done :D
Glad you're still enjoying it!
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Date: 2009-03-23 09:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-24 01:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-24 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-24 04:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-23 11:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-24 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-24 03:34 am (UTC)Zack is such a hero! I love him and I can't wait to find out his backstory. I'm going to reread chapters to look for hints.
Old man Shinra is dieing? Omg! I wanted to hate him, but I don't. Him reaching out to his ex wife Scarlet (brilliant by the way) because he has no one else to turn to made me want to cry!
I love this so much! I can't wait for the next episode :D
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Date: 2009-03-24 01:30 pm (UTC)Thanks about Scarlet! She was the natural choice for this part. ShinRa Senior is trying to set things right with everyone, and you're correct in that he has no one else to turn to. Rufus wouldn't listen, Elena wouldn't care, and he doesn't want to cause Yazoo more grief than his decisions already have. I hope to get more into his story next week, so enjoy, and thanks again!
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Date: 2009-03-24 07:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-24 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-25 07:09 am (UTC)My, Kadaj has a temper... He seems to have forgotten where he just came from, eh? Spoiled brat^^
Yazoo´s cute, just like a teenage girly with a first crush :) Ah, but I´m afraid he´ll wake up to an even harsher reality than Reeve did...
Awww, poor Shinra sen. Maybe these news will pull Rufus out of his conceited selfishness?
I never heard of a drug like 'Blitz' (though I like the name, it´s very graphic). Did you make that up yourself? And if I´d been Zack I´d have slapped Kadaj, to get him out of his hysteric fit^^
Awesome chapter!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-25 02:50 pm (UTC)I made up Blitz, I figured they'd have their own drugs :D Zack isn't much of a slapper, but he was still worried for Kadaj even despite the drama. And in typical teenaged style, Kadaj just didn't even think about what he'd just done--all he cared about was that someone was playing with his toys and it pissed him off.
Glad you liked it!
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Date: 2009-07-24 03:49 am (UTC)Oh, and I love the Tseng/Kadaj so hard. NEVER would have thought of that pairing, and I LOVED it. Although really I never liked Kadaj until I read him in the soap. XD And I still love Genesis. Will we find out what really happened to Reeve? XD
no subject
Date: 2009-07-25 11:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-25 11:53 pm (UTC)Yeah, I'm afraid for Kadaj, though, but it's still enticing ;) I'm madly in love with Zack. He's like, the ONE nice person in the story other than Rufus' father. And then I'm in love with Reno but that was going to happen anyway.
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Date: 2013-06-11 09:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-11 09:31 am (UTC)