LeoOsaka

Antagoshipping Challenge 05., 06. & 07.

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:21:56 GMT

05. Seeking Solace

06. Break Away

07. Heaven

“Hey Seto,” a sultry voice interrupted the darkness. Lying beside the rich man was the snuggled form of the albino thief.

A lazy reply came, “Hm?”

“Do you believe in heaven or hell?” There was a strange curiosity in that voice that made Seto focus more and roll to face the man dressed in his pajamas and sleeping in his bed.

“I believe in there being something after death. Why?”

“Because I have a feeling I’m going to hell…”

A dark eyebrow arched and those blue eyes searched Bakura’s face to see what the motive in the topic was, “why do you say that?”

“Because I’ve committed every sin there is. Pride, Greed, Envy, Gluttony, definitely Wrath, probably Sloth somewhere, and Lust without a doubt…I’ve killed people in the past…and I’m sleeping with a guy… I mean that’s like every infraction the bible has in it…Plus or minus trying to destroy the world and summon a creature strangely resembling a satanic spawn…”

“…Bakura...would you like me to punch a puppy to even the score?”

“Jounouchi might try to hit back though…”

“As long as he doesn’t chew my slippers…I don’t care.” Seto chuckled. “And for what it’s worth…let’s hope we both go to hell...because then we won’t have to deal with the friendship circus in the afterlife.”

“You make a good point…Heaven doesn’t sound nice anyway…with all those angels and stuff…I mean, so much white…not enough fire and eternal misery in heaven.”

“There you go. That’s looking at the bright side.” Seto mumbled and wrapped his long arms around Bakura, cherishing the warmth amongst the cold night. “Now go to sleep.”

“Kay, kay…” Bakura mumbled, already following orders to nod off to the dream world.

Suspicions were the biggest concern of the white haired thief as he paraded around with the riches game CEO of all time probably. Personally, he didn’t care who knew or what they thought, but he didn’t want Seto’s reputation to go through the wringer. He didn’t know what Seto thought about it, but he never bothered to ask. He was an icon to the gaming community and no matter what the popular assumption was, if Seto Kaiba had a ‘boyfriend’…there would be an uprising.

He perched on the window sill of Seto’s room. He didn’t particularly enjoy the view. He thought trees were so…bland, but he liked the fresh air that poured into the room. He sometimes wished though, that they would do what normal people do…well…in his world of normal it would constitute picking fights with the little people and scorning them for their weakness…a game the Kaiba was all too good at.

“I heard a sigh.” Seto said, picking up the waves of anxiety. He was clacking at his computer mindlessly. Bakura was totally okay with it, he liked being there even if he wasn’t doing anything.

“Naw, just thinking…”

“I bet th—”

“Yes, it does hurt.” The thief smirked and shot the brunette a look. He knew the joke before he’d even said it. “And it’s nothing. It just kinda sucks we can’t do things like other people. Hey maybe you could buy me a sex change then people wouldn’t think anything of it.”

“…Please…dear god, get that image out of my head.” The CEO said, rubbing his forehead in hopes of wiping that thought out. I prefer you the way you are.”

Bakura tilted his head back and frowned, “Yeah but if I was a girl then people wouldn’t be like ‘ooooh there’s the gay kid that corrupted Lord Kaiba.’ Or ‘Lord Kaiba, why have you gone to the dark side…they lied about the cookies…and the cake!’”

Seto snorted, “If showing you off is going to get people to call me Lord then let’s do it.” He laughed out loud, “and yes…both the cookies and cake were lies…but I think there are more benefits then cons.” He stood up and stretched his long legs. “Let’s go somewhere Bakura.”

“Huh!?”

“You seem determined to think I care about those peons. If you want to go do something, then we will. Let’s go devastate some lower classed people. Arcades are torture chambers for masters like us to domineer.”

“Who are you and what have you done with Seto?”

“Let’s call it breaking away from the norm. Now hurry up before I change my mind and make you do your biology homework.”

Bakura jumped up quickly with a mockingly polite bow, “coming Lord Kaiba!”

“I’m so getting you a slave costume.”

He sat at the empty desk jamming to the music flowing from his CD player. Call him old fashioned, despite his knack for electronics, he loved the nostalgia of his ten year old player. Three repairs and it still played CDs like it was new. It was his way to drown out the rest of the world long enough to work on his physics assignments. The rest of the class left for physical education; a class he gladly skipped. Here in the dead silent, he had a little time to himself. With Mokuba, his company, and school he didn’t get it that much. He came here when he was seeking solace from the reality.

He stared down at his physics work, wondering why in god’s name a student would need to know how to calculate the specific heat of anything…let alone some asinine metals that he would probably never personally sit down and stick a thermometer in anyway. Of course, it wasn’t nearly as amusing as chemistry…There he got to learn how to balance chemical formulas because would definitely be mixing molecules in the near future. Yeah…Certainly. There was nothing worse than wasting time and by needlessly writing all this crap, he was wasting time.

Sitting back in the chair, the sunlight danced over his features and his brown hair seemed lighter than when he was crouched low, huddled over his papers. His blue eyes blinked slowly. There was a momentary consideration for going outside, but it was brushed off. There was no way he was going to be seen throwing a basketball around with those lower life forms. He needed something other than a stuffy room, but instead he turned back to his work.

The door quietly creaked and he didn’t bother to look up until a hand dropped down on his desk and right over his papers. “Miss me?”

“Hardly,” He replied, halfheartedly.

“Oh come now, Mr. Kaiba. How would you not miss this dashing Thief?” A feral grin plastered itself across said thief’s face.

“You’re skipping class.” Seto replied, ignoring Bakura’s irrefutable ego.

“So are you.”

“But I have money.”

“And I have you.” Bakura’s brown eyes sparkled in victory.

“…Touché.” He eyed Bakura. He preferred the thief with his shirt unbuttoned, but he could work on that later. “You’re interrupting my solitude.”

“Can’t you just jump into my arms for a change and say something like ‘never let me go!’ Would that kill you?”

“Yes, it would. Now sit down before I kick you out of the classroom.” Seto pretended to continue looking at his papers. But it was clearly not going to happen. He had already messed up one equation where he got ten degrees Kelvin equaling five thousand degrees Fahrenheit…which was not the case in reality. Maybe that’s how it worked in his jumpy little mind when Bakura came around.

Scratch that: Mokuba, work, school and Bakura kept him from his solitude…but Bakura was an exception…So the laws of physics said in the same universe where temperatures convert in impossible ratios. Yep. Seto’s heart had it’s own set of rules.

TotSK - Getting an update soon?!

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:29:44 GMT

Two of the Same Kind is going to be getting an update soon. ^^; For those of you who still remember it, It's going to take a particular turn that would have made sense if you paid attentiont o the hints. I'm not closing it at chapter 30, but there will only be a few more after. I want a few serious chapters before I break off into the silly ass Bakura mode.

As for my others,

He Wasn't Always Insane: Will get updated in the near future. I've started on the chapter, but I need to go back and read it to remember where I was going with it. Somewhere along the way I stopped liking the particular pairing as much as I did before. That and I kinda dislike how I portrayed Cloud, but I'm going to finish it.

Mission: Pimp My Hikari will be finished by chapter ten. It was a dorky story anyway, but mindless fun.

There are some other I'll be working on bit by bit, but I'm also going to be editing some work too. So, don't mind if I take a while on some things ^^;

Fanfic Writer's Epic Poem

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:16:34 GMT

Fanfic Writer's Epic Poem
Once upon a time...

There was a fanfic writer...
That fanfic writer wrote a ton...
And updated frequently...
And oh what great fun...

Then half a year later...
The writer seemed to have died...
But really, truth be told...
That author's brain had fried.

The author couldn't keep up...
With the endless works of fiction...
With tradegy of writer's block...
Had almost been a prediction...

And now that author is sorry....
For the long ass fucking wait....
Please be patient...
She has a lot on her plate....

But when she kicks Physics's ass...
And throws her chemistry books away...
She shall return victorious...
With plans to save the day....

And finally finish a story...
And update once in a while...
Because she sure has built it up....
A huge ass freaking pile...

And maybe everyone will have....
A chapter there or here...
Posted more often...
Than once a freaking year....

And now this gay ass poem...
Is coming to a close...
I can't think of anything to rhyme....
Other than 'bitches and hoes.'

Good God

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:02:01 GMT

Yeah...I've like completely vacated this account and not only that but fanfiction for the time being. D: It's not my fault my writing muses have turned me toward my own characters, rather than fanfiction, but I'm not giving up on ANY of my fanfiction and I will one day finish it, but for now, I guess I'm on a hiatus until I finish more of my original story.

Updates April 2nd

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:58:57 GMT

Yep, so I like dropped off the face of the fanfiction world again. Gaia Commissions and practicing with my fancy new tablet have me side tracked.

But I have plans to update a chapter for No Sound in Space and The Fragile.

He Wasn't Always Insane may come sooner than expected. XD I promise not to let it go for 6 months again.

That's just rude of me.

Keith/Bakura = NONCON CH. 1

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:27:58 GMT

Yeah...I do it for you sm-exery *smooch*. Completed the chapter Darling.

Til I collapse

Chapter One

“Hikari, why on earth do I even have to be here, you know the only thing I will do is crawl into a dark corner and cease to exist for the next four hours…” Bakura grumbled as they walked along the sidewalk toward the Domino Mall. Ryou had asked him, in that ever so sweet, pleading voice, if he would go with them. Surprisingly enough to himself, Bakura agreed. He knew it would be immensely boring and most likely involve a multitude of eye rolling. And gagging at the public display of affection he knew his hikari and Malik would smother each other with, as well as make him want to suffocate himself with a glamorously decorated silk handkerchief that happened to be on display in that particular section of any given store.

He folded his arms, huddling up in his heavy red jacket as he kicked the snow off his legs. He internally damned himself for even thinking to say yes. He was lagging behind while Ryou, Malik, Marik and Yami walked ahead talking about what ever they possibly could. And most of it didn’t involve Bakura in anyway. He was the odd duck tagging along on what was essentially a double date. Why they’d even suggested he come was beyond his ability to even mentally grasp.

“Bakura, why don’t you walk up here with us?” Malik had turned his head as he stopped, which inadvertently stopped the other three. Bakura looked up and brushed back his silver hair, shivering as the action caused him to move his freezing hand away from the warmth of his jacket.

“Because I don’t belong here, and the only reason I agreed to come was to avoid the guilt trip scenario.” He replied curtly, and bluntly, as if no one’s feelings might get hurt in the process, when quite possibly Ryou might have been upset by such a brash comment.

“Oh come on Bakura, you belong with us just as much as any.” Marik commented, but earned a steaming glare from Bakura and a sharp lash of the thief’s tongue.

“Yeah, right. Let’s see I’m the only one who’s not participating in any form or fashion. Does it look to you like I belong?”

“Bakura, if you didn’t feel comfortable you didn’t have to come, I’m sure Ryou would have understood.” Yami groaned at the irritation level he was seeing rise up in Bakura. He glanced over at the thief’s placid hikari and caught the tail end of a nod at the completion of his last statement.

“Yami, if you don’t want to come, you don’t have to…I just thought you might like to be out and about with us…I didn’t want to feel like we were abandoning you or something…” The dove-like hikari spoke in such a soft manner that it lightened the thief’s mood.

“Hikari, I think I can’t handle being alone in the house for a few hours. You guys go, I’ll go back to the apartment.”

“Are you sure, yami?”

“Yeah Bakura, are you sure? We’d really like you to hang with us.” Malik gave a small smile, to make it seem like they weren’t casting him aside. He knew they weren’t but the two of them, being Ryou and Malik, tended to get a guilty conscience over virtually everything.

“I’m sure, damn it, what are you like a pair of echoes? Besides…I have a date with VH1.” Bakura snorted.

“It’s unhealthy how much you watch that stupid channel.” Yami rolled his eyes.

“It’s unhealthy how your hair points in five directions, plus. But I don’t bitch about it.”

“Yes you do.”

“Okay point…But I’m going back. Back to where it’s warm. Have fun, and Marik, do make sure to keep Pharaoh away from the ferrets when you walk by the pet store, you remember what happened last time?”

“Hey, that’s not even funny! They attacked me! I couldn’t help that!” Yami threw up to his own defense.

“Whatever Pharaoh, catch you girls later!” Bakura, victorious in his own mind, turned to leave with a silent ‘thank you god’ that he managed for the first time to get out of having to go. Granted he was about four blocks away from the apartment in the freezing cold, but at least he didn’t have to watch the two other couples acting all, couple-like. That irked him more than anything else.

He was alone on the street. No one else was stupid enough to want to walk out in the cold if they didn’t have to. He didn’t care. He had no where important to be and the cold didn’t bother him all too much for as much as he complained. He decidedly wanted to just go back home and curl up under a blanket. Facts being, he really did watch VH1 a little too much. But he couldn’t help it. Something always peaked his interest about the way that channel did docu-comedies. Not only did he learn everything he needed to about the last 30 years on earth, but he was entertained as well.

He wasn’t that far away from home. The limp he’d been covering over the last hour while his hikari and co were planning on what activity they were going to try to kill him with had finally become to much to hide away. He scowled at it. He hated the reminder.

Home was in sight. So close. So close…

Just get the key into the lock…

Turn…

Freedom is right…

“Hey there.” A gruff voice destroyed his hopes for tranquility. A large masculine hand rested casually against his front door. Bakura stood there with the key in the door, turned and unlocked. He had been so close to salvation. He had been just moments from being able to sit quietly at home, having gotten out of a shopping torture, and nurse his hidden wounds that he was too proud to tell anyone about. Some dangerous thief he’d have been then.

“Keith…” Bakura muttered. “I thought I told you I’d cut your hand off if I caught you around my house.” He threatened. There was no substance in the threat. Thanks to Yami and his magical ability to make sure his life was miserable, his shadow powers were restrained. He was half of Keith’s size. There was no fending this man off if he decided he wanted something.

He learned that last time.

“I was bored, baby. And I think I need someone to entertain me.” He grinned in such a manner that made Bakura want to crawl away.

“Haven’t you had enough?”

“Oh no, not after you tried to sneak away from me with your friends as an excuse. Then ditch them to come crawling back home by yourself. That’s just fucking rude, now.”

“Can you blame me…” Bakura muttered under his breath but regretted it and the painful tug of his silver hair.

“What was that? I think I heard some negativity.”

“I’m surprised you know words that big, Keith.” The thief spat. A large hand held firmly to his jaw in a manner that almost made him want to cry out.

“You’re a glutton for punishment aren’t you? I think you are! And what do you know. I’m the kinda guy who likes to hand out some divine justice.” Keith said mockingly. “Open the door.” He commanded.

Bakura begrudgingly allowed the front door to swing open. I should have gone with them! He said to himself. He had thought he would have more time than that, but he mistook Keith’s intelligence for that of a sponge. That was his miscalculation…He should have known the man’s intelligence would be more comparable to a worm. Not much of a step up…but when you consider Bakura was talking about a kitchen sponge…at least the worm was a comparison to a living creature and not an inanimate object.

“Why are you doing this to me?” Bakura asked. He was more curious than anything else. This wasn’t the first time Keith had intruded upon him in a moment of lonely helplessness. Probably wouldn’t be the last one either.

“I don’t got a reason.” The bastard grinned. He pushed Bakura away from the doorway and the white haired thief plunged to the floor unceremoniously. “Now look at that…you’re a clumsy little shit aren’t you.” He chuckled and slammed the door shut, locking it with the twist of his wrist.

Bakura stared at the carpet and crunched his fist into a painfully tight ball. He wanted to jump up and deck the fucker in the head repeatedly. Only problem with his brilliant desire…Keith was probably strong enough to snap him like a glow stick. And damned be Bakura’s luck he would probably die as slow as a glow stick too. “You’re just a pushy bastard.” He spat back. “Don’t you ever fucking watch the Life Time channel? They call people like you rapists.”

Keith stood over Bakura for a second before he knelt down closer to him. He took his shades off and clipped them over his shirt collar. “You’re not very smart yourself for talking to your ‘abuser’ that way. Fuck, if you ask me…it sounds like you’re asking for it.” He grabbed a fist full of white hair and yanked the body attached closer to him. He lifted him off the floor and threw the smaller body hard against the closed door, very much pleased by the loud grunt of pain that erupted from Bakura.

Bakura held back a disgusted gag. He could feel the bastard’s hands on his body. He shuddered involuntarily. He’d never been one to show his displeasure, but in all his life he’d never felt as used and filthy as when that man’s hands were on him. Yami had accused him of being a whore once…and when Keith was around him he almost felt like Yami was right.

The buttons of his red jackets began littering the hard wood floor below him. Keith didn’t care. He wasn’t going to waste time undoing the buttons and Bakura knew that. He was stupid to think that dressing heavy would make a damn bit of difference. He whimpered against his own will while Keith’s bigger body crushed his against the oak door. He clawed at the grooves at the edges of the door. He didn’t want to be at the front door like this. “At least have the fucking decency to take me to my room before you violate me.” He muttered lowly.

“Now why would I wanna do that?” The American man held one of Bakura’s arms behind him almost painfully hard.

“Look, you fucking bastard, you can fuck me until I’m stupid and bleeding profusely, but don’t do it where I’ll be left for the other occupant of this house to find me! Or are you going to fuck me out of my dignity too?”

The thief suddenly found himself spun around and slammed back against the door. His head smashed into the wood painfully. Keith didn’t look as amused before. He looked more offended than anything and Bakura knew that he had run off his mouth too much by that point. He closed his eyes tightly when he saw the fist coming at his face. A brief flash of white, black and various illusionary colors flashed behind his eyes when the fist connected. Those knuckles connected with the bone under his eyes and his eyes watered as a natural reaction.

“Ahhh…auww….” He breathed and coughed through his whimper.

“Now, you should know better than to run your pretty fucking mouth.”

Bakura swallowed his pride in the face of that arrogant prick. “Please, Keith…” He pleaded. “I don’t want him to find me… used by you…”

“Aw, you break my heart, you little whore.” He cackled loudly. “Fine. If that’s your wish, then who the hell am I to deny you?” He shoved Bakura away from the wall and paid the smaller man no mind when he tumbled back to the floor and against the bottom steps of the staircase. “It was your fucking request. The least you can do is walk.”

“I’m trying to without you throwing me around like a fucking doll.” Bakura muttered lowly. He walked the steps as slowly as he could get away without the lurching freak job saying something. He felt like he was on death row walking to his demise. Which…in a sense he felt like he was walking to his demise. He couldn’t turn to anyone to get him out of this and he was the unfortunate bastard to cross paths with the renegade criminal to begin with. How was he supposed to know that running into him on a cold rainy day would result in him becoming a long term tool? That’s not the kind of thing you just predict.

He was a notorious criminal himself. He supposed, for a split second, that this was his punishment. Despite outward pleasantries he shared with the Pharaoh on behalf of their hikaris, he was sure that the smug royal bastard would find the thief’s situation ironically fitting considering the kind of person Bakura was.

His brain couldn’t help itself, as he wondered how Keith would humiliate him this time. Last time he’d pinned him helplessly against a cold wall after dragging him half way across town and down into the tunnel by the river. He could still feel the freezing stone beneath his fingers if he imagined it. He had never been as mortified of his own existence as that moment when he was thrown face down on the concrete, holding in his pain while that sadistic fucker ‘made use of him’.

“Changed your mind?” That voice snapped him back into reality and he shivered against his own will. He didn’t want to show any weakness…but this was becoming less and less easy to accomplish. He didn’t want to use the word ‘fear’, but he couldn’t lie about what Keith’s presence was making him feel. He hadn’t even realized he’d stopped until a hand shoved him up the last few steps. He toppled over and his shins raked against the edge of the top stair. He groaned lowly in pain. He knew he would not only have a giant bruise on his face, but matching shins to go with it.

“Get up, you’re wasting time, ‘sweet cheeks’.”

Bakura crawled to his knees at the top and stood shakily. All he had to do was get into his room. Then that man could do what he wanted and go. He didn’t have to fight back, he didn’t have to respond. Just let him do what he wanted and let it all go. Forget it happened and smile when Ryou came home. He could make it. He didn’t need anyone else. He didn’t want anyone’s help. Keith was his own problem. Not Ryou’s. Not the Pharaoh’s. Only his.

Only his.

He stepped into his room, leaving the door open for his ‘guest’ to come in. He didn’t turn around. He feared he’d snarl at the man if he did and he knew it was stupid to antagonize his rapist. It would only make it worse. God forbid he ever get his fucking shadow powers back. Keith would be the first and possibly only person he would mind fuck until the end of time. He wanted that son of a bitch to rot in hell.

“Now, I don’t care what you do. Make sure to lock the door when you let yourself out afterward.” Bakura scowled and stood with his arms at his sides. He didn’t bother to face Keith. He didn’t need to in order to know what Keith was going to ‘use’ him for.

“Well, since you asked so nicely.” He stepped closer to Bakura and yanked the light hair back, forcing the thief to buckle under the man’s strength.

‘So the floor it is’, Bakura thought. His eyes were closed tight. He couldn’t see him anyway, but he didn’t want to be visually aware of his surroundings. It was bad enough his sense of touch was sensitive enough to pick up every little touch, every little graze, and every little movement that he was begging his body not to feel. The button of his pants unlatched with ease and his belt unlaced from the hoops of his jeans. On the bright side, it didn’t seem that Keith was going to strip him completely naked this time. His jacket was hanging off his body by the arms, but nothing was done about it and his jeans pooled around his knees, but Keith seemed to have no intention of making it more…degrading than it already was.

“AH!” Bakura gasped and bit his tongue to avoid making a louder sound come from his mouth. Pain flooded his senses. Normally he would have been okay with a little bit of masochistic pain…but this wasn’t the same, this was violation. He never wanted to use the term for it…He always thought it was weak…something that women who walk down dark alleys were asking for…and something that he could never associate with himself…but this was, without a doubt, rape. He didn’t want it, it was repulsive to him and it made him want to curl away from anyone’s touch, much less the attacker himself. He wished he could hide or curl up and die.

“The more sound you make, the more I’ll make it hurt.” Keith threatened in Bakura’s ear and he fought back a desperate whimper. His body overrode his mind and he couldn’t stop the responses that came of being assaulted. His eyes watered beyond the simple reaction to being hit in the face. Salty liquid pooled around his closed eyes and he growled to himself. He refused to let them spill down his face. He could take this.

He was a fucking liar. He hurt. He wanted to fucking scream out, but that threat lingered in his brain. There was already a trickling down the inside of his leg that indicated he would have to clean a blood stain off the carpet. He didn’t want to make it worse. The large hands gripping his hips were so tight he knew there would be hand prints in the form of bruises later on. Luckily, those bruises would be easy to hide.

‘How much fucking longer!’ His brain screamed over and over. His fingers furrowed into the deep carpet and he pressed his face down against the floor. He thanked the gods his bedroom at least had carpet. This would be unbearable looking down into a polished wood floor and being able to see himself getting fucked by the last person on earth he wanted to have behind him like that.

It felt like a whole fucking eternity. Eternity that never seemed to stop. And in his mind, he knew it wouldn’t. Keith would be gone and hours later he would still be scrubbing his body red in the shower.

“You were a good boy this time, slut.” Keith’s voice rang in Bakura’s ears before he realized that he was flat against the carpet with the large man hovering over him. His senses were too fucked to recall when Keith had finished with him…Somewhere in the middle of that eternity, he’d disassociated himself. He may have been a scum bag himself…but he was human too. He was vulnerable as any. He hated himself for this vulnerability, but he couldn’t be denied it either.

“I hate you.” The thief whispered so quietly that he was sure that the bastard didn’t hear him.

“Until next time. Let it be a warning to you. Avoiding me will only hurt you more. Next time I’ll draw pictures into you with a knife. Understood?” The blonde son of a bitch forced Bakura’s head up and the victim muttered a yes. Keith straightened himself out and replaced the shades on his face. “Later bitch.” He finally left.

Alone. So utterly…

Alone.

Bakura curled his body up and crawled as best as he could. He was bleeding, bruised, his face felt swollen, his shins and ankles felt like they’d been hit with hammers. He wanted to disappear. But he had to clean himself up before Ryou came back. They were still at the mall, he knew. He had time. It would take them about four or five hours to do whatever it was that they did in the mall…That was about how long it would take him to scrub his body clean enough so that he could stand being in the same room as himself.

Preview 2 - Bakura/Yami

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:23:37 GMT

Welcome Home, Singapore

Bakura tapped on the open door to Ryou’s room. His hikari was awake softly typing on his laptop. He hadn’t expected Ryou to be sleeping. He knew better than to think that Ryou would actually sleep in on a Sunday morning. He was always up early doing what ever it was that hikaris do. He didn’t question it and he never intended to. But nevertheless Ryou turned to look at him with a bright and cheery smile as if the ‘morning irritability’ didn’t exist.

“Oh, good morning Bakura. You’re…awake…That’s amazing!” He giggled softly.

“Yeah, yeah…Laugh it up, hikari. I came to tell you that I’ll be leaving for Singapore this after noon.”

Ryou blinked a few times and after a long moment of silence the wheels of reality started to turn again. “What?”

“Kaiba is going to oversee construction of a KaibaLand over there and he personally asked me if I would take a job in helping clean up the mess of security work they have over there…Apparently, since they started building some of the tourists have been sneaking in a robbing his commodities. His argument is, ‘who better than a thief?’ Not to mention he said I can act as a personal body guard since I’m fairly harmless looking when I want to be.”

Ryou silently let his brain wrap around this. It made a lot of sense. Bakura was one of the best choices Kaiba could have made. The thief was good at his…profession…and street smart, fast and intelligent—though many weren’t aware of that or chose not to acknowledge it. But…Singapore? That was so long away….Granted…it could have been worse…it could have been America, but still! It felt far away when he thought about the fact that he wouldn’t be able to actually see Bakura. He looked at his yami again. He could see the look of renewed excitement in the thief’s eyes. Perhaps it was the best thing for him.

“How long will you be away?” Ryou asked.

“Only two or three months at max. And Kaiba gave me with really kick ass phone.” He said pulling the expensive toy out of his pocket and showing it to Ryou. It was sleek looking with a silver cover and folded out into a keyboard. “I can text and even use MSN and Yahoo! on this thing. So I can chat with you while I’m away. I know you like to get on your computer at night. So it’s not like you’ll never hear from me. With the keyboard on this thing, it won’t take me ten years to send you a note.”

“No…” Ryou said softly, then chuckled, “I’ll only take you five.”

“Hey, I may technology deficient, but you have to think about how we didn’t even have light bulbs in my time. I’m still freaking out about the automatic clock for gods’ sake!” Bakura frowned, but the frown softened and he moved closer to Ryou, close enough to place a hand on his shoulder. “You’re okay with this right? I mean, I didn’t think it would be a problem…Because I know I cause a lot of problems around here. Your friends don’t really seem to like me, not that I really urge them to. I don’t want to have to pretend to be nice to them, but I think it will do everyone a little good not to have to deal with your shadow every time you come around.”

“Don’t say it like that, Bakura!” Ryou protested, “They don’t have a problem with you! You have played a civilized game with Jounouchi the other day.”

“By civilized, you mean I arm wrestled him of the table before nearly breaking his arm.”

“He was significantly weaker than you! You can’t help it!”

Bakura laughed loudly. “It’s sick you defend me like that Ryou. I’m corrupting you badly.” He shook his head and gripped his bag over his shoulder. He was already dressed to leave. Though, Ryou wondered if it was appropriate to be wearing a shirt that had—in large white letters on black—the words Insanity Virus on it. He wondered where the hell he got that shirt.

“Well…have a safe trip yami…” Ryou said softly. “Don’t forget to message me!”

“I won’t! And I promise to send ya some souvenirs. Kaiba’s planning to make a stop by Beijing to talk about future plans for expansion, so I’m sure there will be lots to see! I’ve got a camera on this thing…when I figure out how to use it.” He said looking at the little electronic creature in his hand before snapping it shut and slipping it back into his khaki slacks. “Thank you for understanding why I’m going, Ryou.” Bakura looked back at Ryou before he gave him one more smile.

“It’s all good, yami.” Ryou waved and watched his yami disappear out the door and on his way out of Japan and seemingly out of his life for a few months. Suddenly it seemed lonely. He turned back to his computer and stared at the screen. He looked down at the keyboard then hit a few keys.

Bakura’s leaving Japan. He typed and hit enter, waiting for the recipient of the message to read it and reply.

Leaving Japan? The response came from an MSN contact nicknamed MajesticMagician.

AlbinoHikari: He just told me Kaiba offered him a job.

MajesticMagician: Does it bother you? You should be happy…It’ll give you a little bit of peace.

AlbinoHikari: It should make me happy….but I don’t know…it’s hard to imagine him not being here. I’m being silly… So, what was that card you were talking about?

“You’re late.”

“Sorry. I was telling Ryou I was leaving. I think it’s fair to the boy. Don’t you? After all, this was a spontaneous request of yours.”

“This is true. And I appreciate you coming.”

“Seto Kaiba doesn’t appreciate people! That’s a load of bollocks!”

“You’re not British, Bakura.”

“Doesn’t hurt to pretend.” Bakura scoffed and allowed one of Kaiba’s lower ranked lackeys to take his bags. He didn’t really have much, but he didn’t like the idea of them confiscating them. Though, he did think he was safe from having anything stolen. It wasn’t uncommon for Kaiba to punish his employees for their misdeed. He knew all about Kaiba’s step father’s so called accidental death. The rich CEO had a wicked streak.

But he also had a soft spot. And that soft spot bounced out in a flurry of poofy black hair, large eyes and smiles. Bakura was very familiar with this kid.

“Heya Bakura!” Seto’s little soft spot beamed.

“Hi, Mokuba. Are you coming to Singapore too?” Bakura asked, though he knew the answer to that question. Where there was one Kaiba there was definitely another. They were attached at the hip most of the time. Unless Mokuba was getting kidnapped…which was probably going to go on the boy’s resume for job status one day. Assuming he ever needed to write a resume.

“Yep! Big brother said I could home school on the go!”

“Defeating the purpose of ‘home’ schooling, but I suppose it’ll do.” Bakura snorted.

Preview 1 Bakura/Yami

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:54:48 GMT

Et Tu Bakura?

“Man…this sucks…” Sighed Malik as he stepped into the class with several people in tow.

“I know…I can’t believe they’re making us do plays! That is more lame than Sunday TV.” Malik agreed.

“But,” Yami pointed out from the back of the group, sure to keep his distance from Marik. He didn’t mind Malik…but Marik creeped him out. “The girls have to do one too.”

“They got stuck with Romeo and Juliet…” Bakura snickered. “I wonder what they’re making us do?”

“I don’t know…but I’d rather not do it at all.” Kaiba muttered.

They settled into their seats and waited for the teacher to approach the subject. The school had thought they weren’t getting about arts into their schedules and so all of the literature classes were required to prepare a drama for the school. That was four classes and four dumb plays. No one was happy.

“Okay class…You’re all aware of what’s going on…The girls of this class and the 193 class decided do to a gender specific play with Romeo and Juliet. So this play is all for the boys, since you’ve all been moved from your class to here for this.”

“Oh will you just bloody tell us what the hell play we have to waste our lives on?” Bakura grumbled loudly, jumping out of his seat.

“Settle down Bakura. We’re doing Julius Caesar…So you don’t have to kiss other men in public this time, okay?” The teacher said with a smirk.

“I hate you.” Bakura sat back down and sulked. “I want a small role!” He declared.

“I’ll be getting to the roles soon enough, Bakura. Now I want you all to understand, I picked the roles for you because I think it will end in a much better production. That and if the option was given, Bakura would pick the bad guy and kill everyone…am I wrong?”

The white haired thief grumbled, “You’re not wrong.”

“Heh…and if there was an ambiguously gay character…” Marik started, but Bakura turned around and smacked him across the head.

“Don’t even say it!”

“Anyway, the role of Julius Caesar goes to Seto Kaiba.” The teacher started.

“This fucking sucks.” Kaiba grumbled. I have to get the character that fucking dies brutally?”

“I think it suits you.” Yami taunted.

“I’m going to kill you.”

“Seto, what did I say about swearing in class?”

“Fuck you.” He glared out the window. The teacher said nothing, but sighed. If he hadn’t been a huge benefactor to the school, then he probably would have gotten more reprimand than that.

“The role of Brutus will go to Yami.”

“Sweet!” Yami pumped his fist. I get to help betray and kill Kaiba.”

“Julius Caesar you jackass. Not me.”

“In my heart it’ll be you.”

“Okay calm, down you two. Cassius will be Marik’s role.” The teacher paused, but there was no response other than a wide grin from the crazy haired blonde. “Antony will be played by Bakura.” He paused again. He knew there would be a response this time.

“WHAT THE BLOODY HELL!?” Bakura jumped out of his seat and made a dash toward the teacher, getting close to the man’s face. “Why the hell would you make me the bloody good guy!”

“He’s not technically a good gu-”

“The bloody hell he’s not!” Bakura shrieked. “He started a revolution against the conspirators because Julius was his friend! Blasphemy if that’s not good guy material! The bloody bastard was trying to be charismatic and righteous! Not of which are me! None! Not a damn one!”

“Bakura…when you talk in that accent that thick…no one can understand you.” Yugi whispered.

“Oh bugger off! I’m British, leave me the fuck alone!”

“You’re not even British…You’re Egyptian.” Malik snickered.

“To hell with you! I’m not playing the role!” Bakura declared, folding his arms. He was not going to play a damn good guy. He had limits and revenge themed roles based on friendship made him want to retch.

“You get to help in the demise of Yami.” Seto said suddenly amidst the quiet.

And a little pang of realization sounded in the thief’s head. He hesitated for several moments. “That’s right…Yami is Brutus isn’t he…” Bakura’s anger melted into sickening glee.

“Oh great…” Yami cringed and shot a look at Kaiba. “Thanks.” He said sarcastically.

“You’re welcome.”

“Anyway, class, calm down. Thank you for your outburst Bakura. Now Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife, will be played by Jounouchi.”

Jounouchi fell stupidly out of his chair and erupted with a loud shrieking of, “WHAT!?” Yami snickered, and Yugi and Malik just plain out laughed.

“This could not be worse…” Kaiba put his head on his desk.”

“Portia, Brutus’ wife, will be played by Otogi.”

---end preview---

Updates March 13

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:01:31 GMT

Two of the Same Kind as been updated, but I'm eager to start on the next chapter.

I'm making it my goal to get No Sound In Space and He Wasn't Always Insane updated within the next week.

I have 3 pages on The Fragile, so that one may be on a wait. But I will update that one soon.

---

Stories in the Making:

3 One shots and a 2 parter. (Yugioh Related.)

I've gotten 4 drabbles of my Antagoshipping theme done. (This is going to be a long project.)

ALSO! I've drawn the msot super special awesome picture of MY LIFE. Inspired by my Two of the Same Kind fic:

Fic Related Sketches - Yugioh

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:44:08 GMT

First one is related to one of my fics that hasn't actually come to a close yet...So I don't wanna say much...Yami's hair is a whore.

The second on (with Kaiba and Bakura) kinda goes with my theme challenge.

Antagoshipping Challenge 03. & 04.

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:19:55 GMT

100 Theme Challenge
Antagoshipping (Seto/Bakura)

03. Light

There was a faint glow from the last window on the second floor. Bakura knew this light all too well. It could only be noticed in the pitch black of night and Bakura was exceptionally alert anyway. He knew what this meant. The source of that very faint, faint light. Seto and that damn computer box. He was almost jealous of the lifeless piece of electronic parts.

He snuck over the fences that blocked the world out of the Kaiba mansion. They weren’t even an obstacle to Bakura, who had hopped them like he was a grasshopper or something that could make a comparable metaphor. Nothing in the modern world could keep a thief of his caliber away from his prize. Except maybe a Pharaoh with a hand ready to mind crush. Even then, he was counting his trips to the shadow realm these day as short vacations.

Slowly he crept up the stairs, easily passing that doofus standing watch over the front doors. Man…he opened the door and slipped in…and no one saw him. God, it was too easy. Hell, he managed himself all the way into Seto’s room and closed the door and no one was the wiser.

There is stood in Seto’s shadow. He was sitting in front of that damn light box with tiny little text that was probably making him go blind. Oh well…at least then he wouldn’t have to actually use a blindfold…

“I know you’re there.”

Bakura was startled. Seto had never noticed him before. He had always been so engrossed by his work and that damn light box. “I’m surprised you noticed. You’re always so busy with that damn thing.”

Seto turned around slowly, the light created a silhouette of his form. “Heh, this thing is more useful than you think. They’re called security cameras. I’ve been watching you make your way to my room.”

That clever bastard.

“Though…I don’t have any cameras in this room.” The CEO grinned almost wickedly and seductively beckoned Bakura in his direction with a finger. “Come here, Bakura.”

The thief was not one to spoil the fun and smiled, “Yes master.”

04. Dark

“I do not like the dark, Bakura.”

“Aw, what’s so bad about it Seto?” Bakura asked from his place next to the agitated CEO. They were sitting in the park. The broken streetlight was a testament to Bakura’s random moods and exceptional aim with a rock.

“Because it’s devoid of warmth.”

“But it’s summer!”

“I mean figuratively!” Seto replied.

“Seto…baby, you realize I am probably the most nit picky bastard in the world. You’ll have to be more specific than figurative speech.” He replied, poking the brunette in the shoulder.

“Because darkness reminds me of space and space is cold, empty and dark…”

“It reminds you of that stone cold heart of yours, doesn’t it?”

“Now I’m definitely not giving you sex.”

“Awww….” Bakura pouted. “I was kidding! Besides, the only cold thing on you is your damn hands…Which reminds me, next time you wake me up by rubbing those ice picks you call fingers all over my body, I’ll bite you in the face.”

“Oh give me a damn break…I only do that because you insist upon cocooning us beneath thirty pounds of blanket in a room that’s already pitch black…I feel like you’re suffocating me.”

“A little every day.” Bakura smiled sweetly, but the innocence was so far lost on Seto. He knew better.

“Now can we please go somewhere where you haven’t vandalized public property?” He said looking at the glimmers of light barely reflecting off the broken glass thanks to a distant light post.

“You realize that I will vandalize what ever is at the place we go to right?”

“As long as it doesn’t leave of sitting in the dark like morons…I don’t care.”

Antagoshipping Challenge 01. & 02.

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:42:35 GMT

100 Theme Challenge
Antagoshipping (Seto/Bakura)

01. Introduction.

There was no way this could possibly be real. But it was. It certainly was, and he was not the type of person to dwell on it, even as he watched his lover roll haphazardly around on the bed next to him. And to think it had all started with an aggravated introduction. The brunette shifted in place, letting the thief consume more of his bed in the process. A simple introduction.

Bakura had been moodier than hell that day. It was easy to see. The CEO wasn’t stupid, nor was he particularly interested in messing with someone who looked like he could rip someone’s face off with his teeth. Or worse, kidnap his brother again. He scowled every time he thought about that. But he’d never had to actually talk to the crazed thief and he’d never intended to until Ryou pleaded with him to come to that blasted Christmas party that Yugi and his half wit dweeb friends were throwing. He promised he’d come…but only for Mokuba’s sake. He would have rather been any other place in the world.

Especially knowing that the moody thief was eyeballing his presence.

“What, pray tell, would bring you to a little shit gathering like this?” Bakura had asked, seemingly amused, but probably not.

“I’m here because of my brother.” Seto replied, ignoring the tone of voice.

The white haired man laughed, “Is that so? That’s almost absurd.”

“You’re Bakura, aren’t you? The thief? The one that Yami wants to kill so badly, probably with good reason?”

Bakura stopped laughing, “No. My name is ‘Go fuck yourself and die.’ How bout you?’

“I’m amused. Yami must be a touchy subject for you. Since you seemed to take offense to his name being mentioned.”

“I’m going to hit you, Kaiba.”

“Hit the right side please.” Seto smirked back to the mood-swinging challenger.

Bakura paused and glared Seto down for a few moments. He was confused by the way Seto egged him on. He was too used to being directly banished by Yami. His life was too dull because he had to behave on behalf of the fucking pharaoh. Now this arrogant bastard was trying to show him with a bigger ego. It was hard to say who had the bigger ego here though…

“What are you doing?” Bakura asked heatedly as he watched Seto push a chair against the window next to his little hiding spot from the rest of the happy morons.

“I’m sulking in the corner with you. Misery loves Company. My name happens to be Company. And you look like a Misery to me.”

There was no clever retort to that. Seto won that battle. Bakura sat in that corner criticizing the do-gooders to a pair of ears that were actually listening.

Seto always smiled thinking about that. Who would have thought that Misery really would love Company? And perhaps, Company needed a little Misery too.

02. Love

He never thought he’d use the word so flippantly…Well, not flippantly, but rather…openly. He had always assumed he would be alone or never find it in himself to actually care about someone more than as a pawn. But for the first time ever, he certainly felt like he did love someone.

He watched the object of his affection out of the corner of his eye. There was a quality the man had that fell so much in line with his own.

“Hey Bakura…are you paying attention?” Marik interrupted his train of though. The crazy haired hikari of Malik was turned around in his seat and clicking his pen relentlessly.

“What do you want?” Bakura asked, covering for his obvious blunder of staring far too long at Seto.

“I wanted to ask you how the fuck you pronounce this, but you looked into glaring down Kaiba’s ass like he was a plague. He do something to piss you off?”

“No. shut up and turn around.” Bakura barked. He was thankful his eyes were just naturally shaped in a way that made him look like he wanted everyone to die. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen if others found out about his…relationship with Seto Kaiba. It was almost funny to him. The biggest prick in the modern universe together with the biggest prick in the ancient universe. Man…The irony.

“Marik, stop clicking your pen before I jam it up your nose, yank your brain out and put it in a pickle jar.” He threatened halfheartedly and glanced back over to Seto, as if on instinct.

Aw fuck…he really did love that modern prick.

Updates 2-26-08

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:09:53 GMT

Okay to let everyone know, I am working on fanfiction. In fact, I'm trying to update everything soon. Here's the break down:

He Wasn't Always Insane: 3 Pages (not much but I need inspiration for that.)

No Sound in Space: 6 Pages (almost 7 really. This one will get updated soon.)

The Fragile: 3 pages into it. (I just started up this chapter, but I know where I wanna go with it.)

Two of the Same Kind: 4 pages. (Originally it was going to end at chapter 30. But I think now I have at least 6 more chapters for it.

Any others haven't been started yet, but I am brainstorming.

---

I'm working on two new Yugioh fics, but I don't plan on posting them on ff.net for a while. But I'll post snippets here and there. One is a Bakura/Yugi and one is a Seto/Bakura. It should be fun.

I'll update soon, once I've gotte more done!

Backlash Chapter Five - HWAI Sequel

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:21:01 GMT

Title: Backlash - Sequel to He Wasn't Always Insane
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII (After Advent Children)
Pairing: YAOI RenoxYazoo, VincentxCloud (reminiscent RenoxCloud, Reno+Sephiroth)
Summary: Found alive, Yazoo is taken into Reno's care by Rufus's order, much against Cloud's wishes. Over time Reno starts to get attached to Yazoo, and that brings him to swords with Cloud and the rest of those against Sephiroth. At the same time Yazoo has a secret he's not telling.

Backlash

Chapter 5

I should be thankful that the phone rang, because I was about to do something so very stupid. Not that I’m saying it wasn’t like me to do something that ignorant, but this was a special case. Yazoo coughed and I backed off to grab the phone. Yeah, I was a bit irritated. You would be too. I sat on the edge of the bed and Yazoo crawled back to lean against the wall, looking like he was trying to cool his face down. I flipped open the phone.

“Yo?” I greeted in my own special way.

‘I can’t believe you’re still awake, and that you answered. And here I thought you were going to be a lazy ass like usual.’ I identified the voice as Tseng, my overlord. Literally. The man practically owns my soul as a sort of stock.

“Thank you for pointing that out boss. What’s up?”

‘I need you to log on your computer. You did get your terminal set up in there yes?’

“Yeah, though I’ll be damned if I can figure out why the back light still blinks.” I slid off the bed and stood up and turned to motion for the silver haired clone to follow me, “Come on Yaz. So what’s this about? You usually don’t call this late unless it’s serious, or you’re drunk. Are you drunk?”

‘Hey, I only had five glasses tonight.’

“Five he says! Forgetting you’re a lightweight are we?” It was clear he was joking, because without a doubt he’d be impossible to understand if he really had drunk all that.

‘But seriously, you need to log on to my name.’

“Your name? Why on Gaia?” I asked pulling up a chair for Yazoo, then taking my place in the chair before the computer.

‘Because that’s the network I saved it on. I’ll tell you where to go when you’ve logged on.’

The screen came on as the computer whirred alive. I’m not a fan of computers, but I can work them just fine. Actually I’m better at most everyone else at using them. The only reason I got such a good paycheck before getting promoted to Second in Command was because I ‘fixed’ it that way with the help of the computers. The log in screen finally showed up and I typed in his name.

“I need your password, Tseng.”

‘…Reno.’

“Yeah, I’m listening.”

‘No, that’s my password.’

“WHAT?! No wonder I couldn’t figure it out!…You clever bas-…I never tried to hack your account, I swear.”

‘I’m on to you Reno. Why do you think I chose you as my password? Elude the stupid and make it obvious.’

“Well I know it now!” I snorted. Good job boss, give away your password to the last person in the world you want to give it away to.

‘Oh I’ll be changing it once you log off. I’ll make it even more obvious this time.’

“You suck.” I submitted the log on information and his screen came up. The background took me by surprise. It was a picture of Elena, Rude, Tseng and I. It was kinda heart warming really. “Cute background boss.”

‘I think this is an appropriate time to steal one of your catch phrases. Blow me Reno.”

“Whoa! Getting saucy boss!” I grinned internally. I guess he was finally realizing he needed to loosen up. “What now?”

‘Okay, there are four folders on the desktop, click the third one down. There’s a password on it. It’s 315476. You may want to write that down you’ll need it to access everything in that folder.’

“Yaz, can you grab me a pen from the counter?” I turned to the clone, who nodded. He was being placidly helpful. I was thankful for it. I searched for a loose sheet of paper next to the laser printer. Technology amazes me these days.

‘The remnant is with you?’

“Not a remnant!” I heard Yazoo call from half way across the room.

“His hearing is remarkable…oh, and he doesn’t want to be called a remnant.”

‘Duly noted.’

“Oh and Tseng,” Yazoo called, before finally deciding to snatch the phone away. It appears he remembered my boss’s name. “Yes, yes…I stole the phone from Reno… I’ll let you beat me with a stick if you take a second to hear me out…. Yes, I realize you’re probably not happy to hear my voice considering what my brother and I did to you… No, I’m not out to taunt you… Yes, I realize you have every reason to detest me… Actually no, I was trying to apologize… Fine, I’ll let you beat me with two sticks if that makes you a little less irritable with me… You should be happy; you’re getting the last laugh now. Okay, if your dignity needs it: I’m sorry. Next time I see you I’ll even get on my knees and beg for your forgiveness… No, I wasn’t making a Sephiroth joke. I’ve never met the man. Okay. Yes. Damn, are all of you Turks so uptight?… Sir, I don’t think your boss would allow for that…Yes, I will give Reno back to you now.” He covered the speaker and looked at me. “Your boss has a very short temper.”

“Tell me about it.” I rolled my eyes and took the phone again. “Yo.”

‘What shit is he playing Reno?’

“Whoa boss, down boy. I said the same thing. Hold on a minute.” I turned to Yazoo, “Hey can you go grab my headset?” He nodded compliantly and headed back toward my room, being sure to be quiet so as not to wake Rude. “Okay, I don’t think he’s really conspiring anything, boss. I think he’s the only one of the three that has any sort of idea what was happening at all. He may be able to lead us to Hojo’s labs.”

‘You really think? What’s to say he’s not playing you? You’re not exactly known for being able to see through deceptions.’

“Has anyone told you, that you’re not really a nice person.”

‘No one who’s alive to speak the words, no.’

“Figures.” I snorted as Yazoo came back into the room, holding out the item of my desire. I gotta say I love having a headset. It makes it easy to play video games while your boss thinks you’re actually paying attention.

‘Are you ready now?’ He asked, switching subjects with that freakish ease he’s always had.

“Ya. Hit me.”

‘If only I could.’ The longing in his voice was just his cruel way of taunting me. The bastard.

“Jerk. Now what is this important shit that I’m supposed to look at?” I asked, turning to thank Yazoo silently as I plugged in the phone.

‘It’s in the third folder from the bottom.’

“You mean the one that says, ‘don’t click here?’ Boss, what kinda name for a folder is that!?”

‘I’m not worried if people look. I get the laugh because they can’t figure out what they’re looking at. But that’s off topic. Click it and type in that number I gave you.’ I complied. ‘Now you’ll see about 13 more folders. There’s one in there that says, ‘blank’ on it. Click that. You have to do that in three more folders before you get to the right archive.’

“Damn man, you really got this thing secured down, huh? I mean I wouldn’t waste this much time looking, let alone the time you must have taken making all this!”

‘Just look in the damn folder.’ I did as he requested, clicking on the folder, which displayed a series on images. The thumbnails showed very little but from what I could see of the tiny versions of the images, they contained images of a person, or person’s.

“Which ones am I supposed to look at?”

‘Click the slideshow option at the top and look at them all. You might find yourself in recognition of a few of them, perhaps.’

I did as such and the first picture showed on my wide screen. It was a picture of a boy, or rather a man who just looked very young. His hair was draping over his shoulder, and into his eyes. The dark black of his tresses and tan of his skin starkly stood out against the white lab coat that he was wearing buttoned down the front. Two grayish eyes had a sense of mirth in them from behind the stylish frames of his glasses. The image was clearly taken by choice. The picture’s date was displayed below and it bewildered me, for the image was almost fifteen years old. In a sudden burst of realization I noticed that the background was Hojo’s laboratory. I’d been there a few times myself, seeing as how the Turks were initially created to protect ShinRa’s science department. I’d seen him before too. I knew it. Who he was, or his name I could not for the life of me conjure, but I knew.

“He was with Hojo!” He said after a moment. “I remember that face! But it’s still fuzzy…”

‘I remember that face too, but like you I can’t piece it together. The memories are still seeping back, but just not quick enough.’

I nodded in understanding. Many of the people I’d been either close to or acquaintances of Sephiroth were in the same boat. Those who saw what we saw, or were involved in what we were involved with were made certain that we could not remember. It was clear that it had something to do with Jenova, because the purified rain had drained away the block on all those forgotten memories. After all, the mind never forgets, it just stores it away. With all these memories flooding back, you can imagine we were having a hard time trying to piece together our messed up lives. It’s sad when you can find plot holes in your own life. There was much that we were working on clearing up. And for some strange reason there were some memories pouring out faster than others. Cloud would, of course, understand this way better than any one else. After all Cloud and I were forced to forget more than possibly anyone else.

I shook myself out of my reverie and clicked to the next image.

Backlash Chapter Four - HWAI Sequel

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:18:58 GMT

Backlash

Chapter 4

Yazoo is a particularly mystifying creature. He toggles himself just enough to keep me in the dark on whether or not I should approach or hold back. I don’t particularly like being challenged in such a way. That’s the kind of thing Sephiroth and Cloud enjoyed. Not me. But then again, with this being a Sephiroth clone, it made that a pretty elementary discovery. I discreetly tried watching him from the corner of my eye as I continued playing. I think if my instrument hadn’t created some sort of backdrop noise then we both might have gone nuts, or possibly just me. Yeah most likely just me. If he was anything like Sephiroth, he could sit in a silent room for hours and not even notice it.

“So, Reno, why exactly are you so depressed?”

I stopped playing my guitar altogether and looked up directly at him. I wasn’t so much mystified by the fact that he asked me a personal question so nonchalantly, or that he had absolutely no sensitivity, but more at the nature of the question. What was he trying to do now?

“What makes you think I’m depressed?” I proceeded with caution.

“Many things give you away. Your music is very dark and moody, lyrics included. You’re short tempered and easily flustered. Apparently your partner thinks something is wrong with you. And when a partner suspects something, it’s usually a sign that something is out of place.”

“Perceptive are you? Well you got it all wrong. I’m not depressed. I don’t get depressed and I never will. Are you done having your fun with me?”

“I’m not having any fun now. I’m being serious. Don’t you know that the most depressed people deny it outright?” He curled his feet under him and leaned back against the plush backing of the chair that never gets used.

“Then I have no chance of winning! Damned if I admit something I’m not and damned if I deny it because it’s wholesomely false!”

“It’s not that you denied it, it’s the way you denied it. I’ve lived with scientists and an innumerable amount of doctors. I know certain things.”

“Well apparently you don’t know me.”

“I know you better than you think, red head.”

I looked up in confusion and fell short of a reply, which only contorted into muttered garble, when Rude opened the door and stepped in. He looked like he’d been on a short personal assignment and even though barely time consuming, we as a pair of straight men-…okay he’s straight, we’ll leave it at that, find shopping to be one of the most daunting and evil tasks known to…well everything! For once I thank having to baby-sit.

“As you can tell, I picked up a few things.”

“Barely noticeable. I wouldn’t have guessed. So wadja buy me?” I hopped up, bouncing over to him.

“Here,” He sighed, tossing a box to me.

“Holy hell YES! If you were gay Rude I would throw myself at you!” I hadn’t even thought about the fact that Yazoo did not know I was gay. Not that it wasn’t obvious or anything. I stopped caring about what people thought years ago. Then again, Yazoo would be likely to use that against me if I let him have time to sit on it.

“Blessed be that I’m still straight then.”

“Oh Rude, you know you secretly want me!” I snorted, flicking my hair like a common teenage girl. At three years shy of thirty you’d think I would be a little bit more grown up…Oh my god…I’m almost thirty!

“Right, and Rufus isn’t an unrelenting bastard.”

“You’re so mean to me….” I pouted. “But then again the opposite is true…Hey! Yaaaaaaz.” I drawled jumping over the back of the couch, and finding myself about a foot away from him. He looked startled by my sudden perkiness. The distraction of Rude helped massively.

“What do you want?” He snerked at me. ‘Snerk’ isn’t a word, but in my dictionary it’s perfectly acceptable.

“Maybe you’ll get that damnable bitch bug out of you if you actually enjoy something for a change. So try this!” I opened the box and pulled out one of its contents and tossed it at him.

He caught it easily. “What the hell is this? It’s cold.”

“We of the normal world call it a Popsicle man.” I tore into one of my own. I love grape, man. I don’t care what anyone says!

“Otherwise known as Reno’s comfort food, and would you bring the rest of those back in here so they don’t melt?”

“They’re not a comfort food! And I am not depressed!”

A simultaneous resound of “Right,” invaded the apartment and suddenly I felt teamed up on and that I didn’t like very much.

“So, you’re over your shyness I see.” Rude commented idly to Yazoo, who replied with a simple ‘hm’ sound effect. I knew he wouldn’t openly challenge me when there was another person here. “Reno can be trouble, I hope he didn’t cause you too much grief.”

“I am not trouble! And I’m right here you know!”

“Oh yes Reno, you’re hard to miss. Not that it would matter, you seem well able to insert yourself in a conversation even when you’re not right ‘here’.”

“You’re not even funny.”

“He doesn’t agree.”

I turned and scowled at Yazoo, snickering me. He was nursing his orange Popsicle and probably making mental cracks at me. He raised an eyebrow in a challenging way. I was mentally perturbed for a moment, by that action. Sephiroth used to do that a lot. He had a way with making full threats and even carrying out arguments just with the expressions of his face. The more I looked at the clone, the more I kept seeing Sephiroth. And every time that happened that familiar ache got worse.

I stood up. “I’m going to go lay down for a while. It’s your turn to watch him anyways.” I left before any protest could be made. I knew Rude would question why my sudden departure. That was very unlike me. But if I stayed, the sight of Yazoo might have unglued me and my room was my safe haven. Rude could take care of a barely mobile remnant, and probably better than I could. He looked like a big scary guy. I was more like a ‘redheaded pixy in a man’s suit’, as Sephiroth once put it. So I didn’t feel one bit bad about bailing on him.

I leaned against my bedroom door and exhaled deeply. I’d been given way too much time to think and too many catalysts making me think more. Damn it. The less I remembered the better. I swore silently to myself and snatched my phone off my dresser. I hopped into the center of my bed and dialed a number I didn’t think I would willingly dial again. I waited for someone to pick up but, much to my chagrin, I was greeted with a damn voice mail.

‘You’ve reached Cloud Strife, I’m not available for a number of reasons right now, I’ll return your call when I can.’ Followed by a beep.

“Go figure, anytime I actually want to talk to you you’re unavailable…Anyways, I know I’m probably the last person you want to talk to right now but I think this concerns us both and honestly, Spiky you’re the only person who can relate with me here. Whatever, anyways, call me back if you give much a damn.”

I flipped my phone closed and rolled over on my stomach on my bed, letting my arm hang over the side on to the floor. I drifted for a while. In that uncomfortable state of needing sleep and not being allowed sleep. My dreams plagued me a bit, yet I needed to get some real rest so badly. Right about the time I was seriously close to falling out, my phone shook in my hand. For whatever reason I hadn’t let go of it. I sat up and flipped it open, expecting to hear Rufus’s bossing voice, but I was shocked.

‘Hello Reno,’ Cloud’s smooth voice greeted.

“Damn, I didn’t think you’d respond. But I suppose I sounded desperate enough. I was almost considering beating myself with a bat and sitting on your front step with a bow and sign that says, ‘love me’ on it.”

‘You never cease to have something characteristically asinine to say.’ If not for the additional snort, I would have thought he was being condescending, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Surprising, after all, it’s pretty much told him to go fuck himself less than twelve hours before.

“You never cease to tell me when I’m being a dumbass. I guess you probably really don’t wanna hear what I have to say…”

‘I figure if your conniption fit from earlier is through, you might be tolerable. You usually are unless you’re feeling particularly depressed at that given moment.’

“I’m not depressed! God you all are teaming up on me!” I whined.

‘Not teaming up on you, you’re just an easy targe-….’ He trailed off when he realized how familiar that line sounded.

“This is what I was calling you about. But that answered my question. You’re remembering as much shit as I am.”

‘Yes…It’s all coming back too fast.’ He paused. He was as uncomfortable as I was. I knew the question I wanted to ask, but saying it and not feeling either stupid or perverted was the difficult part.

“…Um…damn, I feel like really retarded, but I have a question to ask and I’m not sure whether or not it happened…I know I’m gonna feel like really humiliated if it didn’t….” I stuttered uncharacteristically.

‘…By any chance did it involve us?’

“…yeah…”

‘In a bed?’

“Together?” I added.

He paused. ‘Not wearing clothes?’

“That’s the one…” I was thankful for the physical distance. That would have been horrifying if he’d been standing right there.

‘God… that did happen then…’ He sounded as embarrassed as I felt and with good reason. For the last five plus years we’d thought we were just really good at irritating each other. Yet the entire time without realizing it, we had once actually…

“Makes me wonder what else we’re not remembering…” I spoke after several minutes.

‘Oh god knows…I can’t imagine what else could have…happened. I wish Hojo were alive just so I could kick the shit out of him for doing this to us.’

“For once I really agree with you.” I sighed.

‘Hey, sorry about what happened with the remnant. Sephiroth coming back really had me concerned and I still think you need to watch him closely. We can’t have a repeat performance. We just can’t Reno, I don’t think I have anymore strength left to fight him if he came back again. Vincent says he wants to talk to him as soon as he can.’

“Vincent? Why on earth would Vincen- oh because he was associated with Hojo? I don’t know how much Yaz will talk, but we can try. He’s every bit as much a manipulator as Sephiroth was. It’s almost eerie, you’ll have to see for yourself.”

I was surprised that he’d apologized, but I wasn’t going to mention it. The less distress between parties, the better. After all, I’d decided while talking to Yazoo that I would need Cloud’s help. If I wanted to figure out any of the mystery that had become my chaotic life, then I would need him as a large piece. He knew it. I knew it. We were mutually using each other for our own objectives. Not much different than we were before it seems. Given time to cool down, we were both good at putting aside our personal problems with each other.

‘Obviously now isn’t the best time for it, but as soon as you can find it convenient to talk with him, I’d like to know.’

“Yeah, it may be a few days though. I’ll try to find time tomorrow, but with Rufus breathing down my neck to take care of his prize that may not be likely. Then there’s Rude. I’m not sure how he’d feel about my going against Rufus. Personally I don’t care, I’ve saved Rufus’s ass more time than I care to count, but that doesn’t change the fact that he could order Yazoo out of my hands. Then if that were to happen we’re back to square one.”

‘That wouldn’t help at all…We need to know what Hojo did…I’m sure that if we do that we can find a way to reverse some of Hojo’s plague.’

“Not to mention it might lead us to the lab where he held Yazoo and the other two. Yazoo is the remnant we have if you couldn’t tell.”

‘I figured. And what do you mean? We found Hojo’s lab and we already got what we could out of it.’ He replied. I hadn’t gotten the chance to tell him about the brothers being in Hojo’s care.

“I don’t think that was the only one he had, Cloud. That lab had no area that might have been passable as living quarters for three living beings. Not to mention doctors and scientists. Yazoo said that he, Kadaj and I think he called the other one Loz, were all held by Hojo in a lab of sorts, and there were lots of doctors and other people around. We saw no indication that anyone other than Hojo was there before. And I’m sure if Hojo was holding them, there must have been more victims. Like Vincent…”

‘More…Like Vincent…God, how could one man be such a monster…So you’re telling me that the three existed before Sephiroth was killed? Is that possible?’

“It has to be, the remnant has a good poker face, man, but I can tell the difference between truth and dodging a question. According to him, they were all clones, which explains the similarities. But I just can’t figure out why the hell he’s so alike Sephiroth in personality. I mean the three had never met Sephiroth.”

‘Can we be sure of that?’

“What?”

‘That they never met Sephiroth. I mean Sephiroth was gone from us for a long time. And who’s to say he didn’t know about them.’

“I don’t know…This one doesn’t seem to know anything about him. But that could be a side effect of the whole rain fiasco. I don’t know, but we need to sort this mess out as soon as possible. Because I don’t know how long I’ll have Yazoo.”

“All right, do you want us to come to you? I mean I’m pretty sure Vincent can get into ShinRa property without being noticed. I, on the other hand…”

“You can send him if you really want, but I’d rather you listened in somehow. Cornering Yazoo is definitely not the way to go though; he’ll close up really fast that way. He’s smart.”

“And so is Vincent.” He replied almost snappily.

“Yo man chill, I wasn’t denoting Vincent or anything. I was just telling you. Yaz’s like talking to a less friendly, and less psychotic Sephiroth.”

I heard a soft knock on the door. Damn it. Rude would think I were insane if he’d discovered I was having a casual conversation with the person I been mentally screaming to go fuck himself. And I have a feeling that Rude can hear me telepathically. Dude, he’s just really kick ass like that.

“Damn it Spiky, I gotta go, I’ll call ya back first chance.” I hung up the phone, knowing that there was no protest. After all the conversations I’d had to have with that man, I’d learned that extended goodbyes are about as pointless as a female pole dancer to a gay guy.

An utterance of “Reno?” came from the other side of the door.

“Hold on, I’m comin-” I cut myself off when I realized that wasn’t Rude’s voice. I quickly hopped off the bed and made a fantastic leap toward the door (which was actually me just tripping and trying to catch myself). I opened the door and Yazoo was standing there silently.

“I couldn’t sleep, and I didn’t want to wake Rude.” He quick to learn names I’ll give him that.

“Sleep? Wait what time is it?”

“It’s after midnight.”

“Holy fuck…I didn’t realize I dozed off that long. Damn I hope Rude’s not mad a me.”

“I don’t think he is.” He replied stepping into my room. I closed the door. I don’t like open doors. Ever since Hojo I’ve subconsciously kept my doors closed and locked.

“Yeah…you never know with him though….” I sighed.

“You hate me because I resemble Sephiroth, don’t you?”

The straight forwardness of his question caught me off guard. Sephiroth had been the same way in how he would just come out with his questioning. Whether or not he had the right time set to say it or not.

“I don’t hate you. I just don’t understand you. Every time I get any thought process going I get this weird feeling of familiarity. It must be awkward as shit to be here, and yet you’ve sort of melded yourself in. It’s like you forgot entirely that you’re supposed to be my enemy.”

“Reno, you said it yourself. You’re not my enemy. And so what good would it do to make myself an enemy to a man who has no intention of fighting me? I’m not like Kadaj. He was brash, grudge bearing and adolescent. And Loz, Loz was loyal to Kadaj to an extreme. I’m different than they are. I’m more sensible. I realize I can’t get away from ShinRa. Because even if I tried to leave I would have Cloud hunting me down. I miss my brothers, but I can adapt. I won’t lie and say I didn’t hear your conversation with Strife. I’ll talk to Vincent. But I will have nothing to do with Cloud if he has any intention of killing me because of my non-consensual likeness to Sephiroth.”

“Well said. So we’re calling a truce?”

“I suppose so, but only if you let me call Cloud a dick to his face.”

“I think that can be arranged.” I smiled. So he really wasn’t too bad of a guy, but I was planning to watch him carefully. God knows he could probably be a good actor if he wanted. “Oh hey, how are your feet?”

“Sudden concern? Well that’s amusing. But if you must know my feet feel like they’re on fire.”

“Well then sit down stupid!”

“Don’t call me stupid, you moody Turk.” He retorted with an indignant frown.

“Don’t call me moody, you irritating bitch.” I slung back. There was no real insulting going on. Just a heartless flinging of words to entertain ourselves.

“Takes one to know one!”

“You can’t reply with that! I mean that doesn’t even make any sense!”

He hopped into the center of my bed and leaned against the wall. You see I have a habit of catapulting myself off my bed in the middle of the night, so Rude made sure that my bed was against at least two walls. That way I only have one open corner of which to fall off of.

“So what do you wanna talk about Yaz?” I asked sitting on the floor and resting my head on the edge of the bed.

“You’re perceptive when you’re half asleep.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. God knows I don’t get enough compliments.” I snorted.

“What do you think is going to happen to me?” He asked after a second or so of silence.

“I’m not sure really…At first I wanted you to just disappear, but now I’m thinking that maybe you have a chance of being a decent person. Granted you could be playing me for a fool and you could slit my throat while I’m sleeping…but I’ll go with my choice instincts. I think you’ve got a lot in common with the early Sephiroth. You’re just being categorized now because of what you and your brothers did. No one taking into account that you were Jenova’s fucking puppet.”

“You talk a lot you know that?” He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Yeah, I’ve been told.”

Yazoo crawled toward me and I suddenly realized that I was sitting on the bed. In the light from outside cast a halcyon light over Yazoo. And damn it all I realized just how beautiful he was. I recognized that look in his eyes. It was hard to miss, because I know it must have replicated my own.

Lust.

And of course, lust makes you take things too far.

Backlash Chapter Three - HWAI Sequel

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:16:03 GMT

Backlash

Chapter 3

I’m sure I shouldn’t make so light of him, after all he did nearly kick my ass, but looking at him it was hard not to. He’d alternated between being conscious and unconscious several times on the way to the flat I shared with Rude. Rude had gone on his merry way to do whatever the hell he does when I’m not around, so I was left taking care of Sephiroth’s remnant. I managed to force the door open without dropping him, and for all intents and purposes I was damn proud of that achievement… After all I’m the same person who’d spent five years living in a Soldier building without a lock on my door. For me to tackle a locked door is a big step!

As I walked into our apartment I couldn’t help but let out a sigh. Everything was clean, hardly used anymore. After the scuffle against the three brothers, I’d done everything in my power to avoid being here alone. I didn’t need any extended period of time to think over the last week. I’ve a hard enough time trying to keep myself together without a rush of memories eating away at me. I wished I’d just done what I really wanted to do and decked Cloud in the face.

“Hey Yaz, you awake?” I called over my shoulder. The response was small but I got confirmation, followed by a very hushed whisper.

“What did you call me?”

“Just a nickname man…I feel stupid calling you Yazoo all the time.”

“Much appreciated.” His tone was sour, and he’d apparently taken that as an insult. Talk about moody. But I guess he had a good reason. He didn’t know my habits of nicknaming people. Frighteningly enough though he was very difficult to give a name to. It was easy with Sephiroth, Zack and Cloud, but he was different. Strangely and almost frighteningly different…

“I didn’t mean it like that. Damn are you always so temperamental? Damn…if you’d listen to me you’d understand what I mean.” I rolled my eyes.

“Oh then please, enlighten me.” His sarcasm was making me want to punch him so badly. It would take a lot of personal restraint not to kill him, or worse, call Cloud to come get him.

“Well, you irritating sour puss, I don’t like to call people by their names. It lacks endearment, not that I feel you need it, or anything. Personally, I could careless if you freaking get hit by a car or drown in the bathtub, but do me, and yourself, a favor and chill the fuck out. It’ll make the experience all the more tolerable.” I dropped him on the couch, and he gave me this wonderfully repetitive ‘eat shit and die’ look. “And quit looking at me like that. I’ll get in trouble for kicking your ass, and that may happen if you don’t stop being a dick.”

“I’m the dick? You’re the one losing your cool because of Strife.”

I fought a twitch as he touched on a particularly sensitive cord. “What the hell do you think you’re going to get out of antagonizing me? You can’t escape. So what’s you’re fucking problem?”

“Why should I cooperate? Besides, don’t you think saying ‘please’ once in a while might get you something?”

I ground my teeth due to his stupid mind games wearing me thin. I don’t have the patience required for this job. I’m a Turk, not a fucking babysitter! I glared down at him and he seemed to have worked up the strength to return the glare with his own icy one, waiting for a moment to cut in with a new verbal lashing. His body may have been worn to bone and weaker than shit, but his intellect was apparently just fine and despite the previous appearance of semi-consciousness, he seemed much more alert, and I didn’t like that at all. My first impression of him being a helpless puppet now seemed a little brash in assumption…even for me.

“Okay fine, Yazoo. Please, tell me what fucking mind game you’re playing before I get sick of you.”

“I’m not playing a game, no less a ‘mind’ game. You lack an important aspect to play that game.”

I was so close. Soooo close! I wanted to thrash him right there, but I knew that would give him the satisfaction of having one up on me and as much as my desire to make him a punching back pleased me more and more, the will to win was an even greater force.

“Okay, you little bastard, what’s your problem?!”

“You’ve such a short fuse. How have you survived so long?”

“Gah! Would you knock it off?! I liked it better when you didn’t speak. Rude leaves and suddenly now you wanna talk! Well stop it!” I growled. This creature wouldn’t last if he didn’t shut his mouth.

“That’s what Hojo used to say you know. Hypocritical bastards you are. Tell me to talk, then get upset when I do.”

My frustration drained when I realized what he’d said, whether intentional or not he’d just handed me valuable information. If he was in the care of Hojo…then he was around before Sephiroth was killed…was that possible? I tried my damnedest to read the look on his face, but he was too good at hiding the meaning behind each expression and that smug look on his face was not helping keeping my irritation level down either.

“You were with Hojo?” I continued cautiously.

“Oh where else would I have come from? You’re not very quick are you?” I think the thing that set me off with this guy the most was that he wasn’t taunting. At least with taunts I could retort. His responses were monotone and cold, like he could care less whether or not what he said was an insult, because to him…well I imagine he probably thought what he was saying was true.

“No, I’m not, if that makes you feel better. So I guess you’re not going to tell me anymore then.” I sighed, slumping my shoulders.

“Hm, at least you’re less persistent than Hojo, or maybe less driven. Whatever the case you’re a degree more pleasant, though not a great deal. I’m sure if you had a scalpel you’d even out with him though.”

“Yeah, probably, because I’d be rearranging your face!” I hissed, wishing he’d go back to being unconscious.

“My point exactly.”

What that…a sense of humor? “No wonder that freak of a scientist lost his mind with you. You dance around the point and ignore questions!”

“Well, what would you like to know?”

I blinked. He was confusing me…A lot. First he wouldn’t talk, then he talks to much, dancing around the truth then suddenly he’s willing to cooperate? Why is it that I get all the complicated and wearisome assignments, and why wasn’t Rude forced to stay! If he were there, I would have bet my life that the remnant wouldn’t have tried his mind fuck games, even though he said he wasn’t playing one.

“Okay…not that I think you’ll answer, but why were you with Hojo?” I tried. He looked at me, and blinked slowly. I knew he wouldn’t answer me. “Never mind, you’re just doing this to fuck with my mind.” I exhaled and turned in the direction of my kitchen.

“I figured my reason for being in Hojo’s possession was obvious. I’m a product of his insane need to feel like god. Humans can create life from existing sources you know.”

“Wait…” I stopped, looking back over my shoulder. “You’re saying…you’re a clone?”

“The best word for it I suppose.” he replied nonchalantly.

“Of who?’

“Of ‘whom’ and isn’t that obvious? I mean, you admitted to being slow, but this is ridiculous, Reno.”

I opened my mouth to snap a retort, but my mind finally wrapped around what he’d said. Ignoring his correction of my grammar, and plainly showing me up for stupid, I realized he actually addressed me by my name…that I wasn’t expecting.

“You actually remembered my name, and here I thought you didn’t know how to listen, but that wasn’t what I was talking about. Don’t you need two sources to clone?”

“Like two DNA samples? Obviously a clone only needs one.”

“No, no, like a DNA sample, and a subject to grow it, like a surrogate mother type of thing.”

“He knows his sciences too! Perhaps you have some potential after all. But to answer your question, no. Kadaj, Loz and myself were Hojo’s little test tube subjects. Heart warming isn’t it?”

“Quite…and can I ask you another question? Why do you take such pleasure in insulting me? I wouldn’t have thought it to be your style to trash talk your captors.” I leaned against the counter, facing him.

“It makes me feel better.”

I almost fell forward in disbelief of that answer. That was so something I would say. To hear it out of an individual with clearly no sense of humor and an inability to act normal…it was weird.

“And I take a sick pleasure in frustrating you. I did that to Hojo countless times, it’s my form of entertainment, since Hojo wouldn’t let me be with my brothers much. I needed something to keep me occupied. You’re much less violent than Hojo, so it only makes me want to press you more. It’s a habit of sorts.”

I snorted, getting my own personal amusement watching his expression turn to one of question. “So in reality you’re just a blabber mouth.”

“…Is it annoying you yet?” He hinted a small grin.

“Not as much as before, but if you keeping on mind fucking me, it will. I’m not your damn enemy you know. It’s Cloud who hates your guts.”

“With good reason I’m sure. Sephiroth must have really been a horrible creature. He sure didn’t care that he took my brother from me.” He looked off to the far end of the room, watching the rain pound against the window.

“Sephiroth wasn’t bad. Hojo was bad and Jenova was evil, and he was just a victim of the two. Cloud didn’t think he could be saved, and he was probably right.”

He said nothing. It was hard to imagine what he was thinking. His view of Sephiroth wasn’t quite like mine. He never knew the Sephiroth I knew. The joking bastard who spent half of his time amusing himself by picking on Zack, creating fun new ways to deny me, and loving up on Cloud when he could. He never got to meat the man that the legends never told of. Everyone knew him as the General who went crazy and killed things, no one knew the real thing. Back before ShinRa’s under forces fell apart when the Turks took a hard blow and Hojo lost his last restraint from madness. God, things changed so much from then.

I stared down at the floor as my mind recalled all the memories I wish I hadn’t gotten the chance to recover.

‘Reno, in ten years what do you think you’ll be doing?’ Sephiroth’s voice was so clear.

‘I don’t know, I figure I’ll still be with ShinRa.’

‘Why? Don’t you have any important things you want to accomplish?’

‘Well…I hadn’t thought about it…you know? And what about you, man? There must be something you want to do?’

‘Even if I wanted to…ShinRa will never let me go. I’m a testament of its sins and when you’re a sin, you linger. I’m tied to this life forever…’

I looked up at Yazoo who was back to watching the rain on the window. Perhaps he’d been right. Maybe I should have handed him over to Cloud. As opposed to the new life he would lead…it would have been justified in calling it a mercy killing. Subconsciously he knew he would never get out of ShinRa’s grasp unless he died. Just like Sephiroth.

“I’m going to run you a bath, pick a color.” I finally said, pushing myself from the counter and standing straight despite the kinks my back had developed.

“Pick a color? …why?”

“Just do it man.” I sighed. I was too tired for more dancing around the point.

“Blue.”

“Good choice, that about the only color I have in my closet.”

“I’m wearing your clothes?” his tone wasn’t condescending, but he clearly was not pleased at the idea.

“As opposed to what you’re wearing right now?” I raised an eyebrow and he averted his gaze, knowing I was right, when it’s a rare day when I’m right about something. SCORE! “Anyways, I’ll be right back once the water’s warmed up a bit, god knows you’ll never make it to the hallway let alone the bathroom on your own feet when they’re as raw as they are.”

“I’ll have you know, I can take care of myself just fine without your help.”

“That’s not the point there, Yaz. Now shut up and let me do my job.” I grinned; highly amused at the flustered and confused look he had when I winked at him, before disappearing into the darkness of the hall.

I stepped into the bathroom taking a split second to think about the last two seconds I’d been in the living room. ‘What the hell are you doing Reno? Did you just wink at him?’ I taunted myself. ‘He’s not Sephiroth you know.’ I scowled. My sub consciousness was playing mean jokes on me. ‘Even though he looks so much like him…and acts like Sephiroth used to- NO!’ I screamed to himself. Comparing him to Sephiroth wouldn’t make it any easier to do anything.

I cursed loudly when I realized the bathwater had already spilled over the edge. I unplugged the drain and waiting for the water level to drop again. That’s what I get for being to air headed…not unusual of me at any rate.

“For a second I was worried you’d drowned yourself…I mean I knew I was bad, but not that obnoxious for a suicide attempt.” The voice startled me and I jumped up stupidly, not taking into account that the floor was still wet, so naturally I wound up on my ass in a puddle of water. I cursed more.

“Do you kiss your mother with that mouth, Captain Vulgar?”

“I don’t know about you Yaz, but I didn’t kiss my m…” I stopped in mid sentence. Freaking Jesus where had I heard that before? I know I had.

I closed my eye ignoring the questioning I was getting from the remnant. I recollected bits and pieces of memory lost to me. God where had that line come from?

It was Cloud’s face. Wait…Why was he next to me? “Do you kiss your mother with that mouth, captain vulgar?”

“I don’t know about you Reno, but I don’t kiss my mom.” I remembered the smile. He was in a bed, next to me? What the fuck?

“Helloooooo!” I woke back into the real world to find Yazoo waving his hand in from of my face.

“Uh…” I felt my face heat up. The implications of that sudden memory lapse were leaving me less than rational. “I’ll, uh, bring you some clothes…yeah you can take your time.” I brushed passed him feeling like a moron.

I needed a drink. Or something. Realizing it would be ignorant to even attempt alcohol, what with a Sephiroth clone less than twenty feet away I reached for the only other creation known to man capable of relieving my stress: my trusty guitar. My little secret hobby no one knew about, save for Rude.

I plucked a few string getting into a calming rhythm. ‘Stop thinking about what you imagine in that flashback dip shit, think about the song, the song!’ I ran my fingers along the frets, carefully picking them for the right tune when I strummed with my right hand on the strings. It always sent a wonderfully pleasant hum through my body. A ripple. The same kind you may see when you set a glass of water on a guitar’s soundboard and plucked a string or two. Perfect ripple. Fascinating really.

I mindlessly kicked off my shoes and moved to a comfortable place on my small couch. It was perfect because it was a low set couch, which made it so much nicer to lean forward with. Rude used to tell me I should have joined a band rather than becoming a Turk. Rude was out of his flipping mind. Besides I play acoustic, not electric. Electric doesn’t have the same harmonious feel as an electric…God that sounded gay. My ability to sound or even pretend to be straight has diminished over the years…

I continued my favorite self-composed piece. It probably really did sound like shit but I liked it. Here’s the fun part, trying to make up plausible lyrics! Oh for joy! I truly suck at lyrics…

Well…dark lyrics for dark pieces I supposed as I formulated the beginning. After several very long moments I started a very low hum, which eventually led to words.

“Forget your heaven

Embrace your hell

Look up to god

Scream and yell…”

I plucked some more strings…and paused, fuck what next? I’m so not good at this…Not to mention when I ever DO pop out good lyrics they’re dark and depressing as shit.

“Be damned with creation

Fuck the sky

Look down on life

Ready to die…”

I played a little louder to suit the mood. My mind had already temporarily moved on from what I was initially running from. (Which might I remind you half of the reason I hate being alone is because it gives me too much time to think!)

I must have missed a beat because the tune fell off it’s course, but was miraculously saved by a second soft voice…Wait a second voice?

“Why does it always seem to fall on me

The darkness looming, a splintered pill

Takes or casts it away with me

But I’m looking onward still…”

I looked up, wide eyed and surely looking stupid (I’ve a habit of doing that after all). Yazoo was leaning against the wall at the opening to the hall. He’d hummed along with my tune, but I couldn’t keep it up and my fingers stopped moving.

“Though you could use assistance with a few lyrics, hope you don’t mind.” He stretched. “Oh and I snuck into your room and picked out what I wanted to wear, since you’d lost yourself in your music. I didn’t figure you would mind.” He slowly walked toward the chair that sat opposite of me. He was trying to be light on his injured feet.

“You okay?” I asked, finally reassessing myself to act normal again, as normal as I can be anyways.

“Peachy.” He replied in a monotone, lifeless voice that he’d had at the beginning. HE was beginning to confuse me again. First he’s passive, then he’s almost aggressive and once again he goes back to passive? Freaking hell he reminds me of Sephir- ….

I watched him for a moment. It was true though. It was like looking at a younger version of him. The similarities were uncanny. He definitely looked more like the General than the other two had.

“Why is it that you keep looking at me like that Yaz?” I finally asked.

“Like what?” He was back to short quick answers.

“Like you’re trying to chose the words you say…Like you’re afraid you’re going to slip something you’re not supposed to.”

“Simple. You’re not ready for my truth.”

I didn’t know what he meant by that, but for a second I seriously considered it for a song lyric as I continued to play my instrument to fend off the deafening silence that was preparing to loom over us otherwise.

…to be Continued…

Backlash Chapter Two - HWAI Sequel

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:13:09 GMT

Backlash

Chapter Two

“Yazoo Eh? I thought you weren’t going to tell us your name?” I snorted and leaned back into my seat. “Yazoo…That’s a weird name. So what was the bigger one’s name eh?” I tilted my head back to look at him from an angle.

He simply looked at me with a silently dead look. That look that never seemed to change, and I mentally questioned why he had absolutely no expression or other ‘symptoms’ of humanity at all. He tilted his head slightly sideways and let the silver strands fall over his eyes and shoulders, probably as a means of escaping my questioning. This only pissed me off more, because he was doing the silent act again.

“So we’re back to that huh? You know you’re lucky that we have to bring you in alive, because with the way you’re acting I think I might have left you in Strife’s care after all.” I scowled resting my head back against the seat and fully knowing that what I said was a blatant lie on my part.

“That would have been so much more merciful of you.”

His voice again brought surprise to me. His voice was quiet yet clear and while toneless it held the feeling his eyes were in absence of. I turned on my side and leaned my head back between the small, open, area centered between the seats.

“What is your deal? Do you only speak when you have something as a sort of retaliation? Because either speak or don’t say anything at all, because all your choosing of what you say is pissing me off.” I snapped irritably.

“And you expect me to willingly respond to the very person that resulted in my brother’s death?”

“Look that wasn’t MY fault, you can blame Strife for THAT move, I wasn’t even there when it happened. And you SHOT the bastard, doesn’t that make you feel ANY bit better?”

“I’m not talking about Kadaj.”

“Oh you mean the one in the trunk? That wasn’t because of the bomb and don’t even try to tell me it was. That was because of the rain. Which leads me to question why exactly YOU’RE still here?” I stared down at him and he turned his head away and it was clear his lips were locked and he was going to say nothing.

“Stupid bastard.” I turned and propped my head on the headrest, not wanting to look at him for another minute. “Just don’t speak anymore, because you never say anything relevant and you’ll only succeed in pissing me off more than you already have.”

“Reno.” Rude single wordedly scolded me.

“Yes Rude I’m finished okay?” I leaned against the window and glared out it at the stripes on the asphalt. “Let’s just take that damn rem - YAZOO, back to Rufus.”

I didn’t bother with him for the rest of the trip, but occasionally I did glance back in my mirror and every time he bothered me more and more. What makes a person so dead, yet alive at the same time? Even with all the shit I went through I still retained myself in spite of it all. Was it that he had ALWAYS been this way? He was just another clone, so it was likely that he had no real childhood or experiences from which he could learn how to be normal…yet still…Sephiroth cells or no, he was still human…Sephiroth was still human…even if tainted by that alien freak. So what would make him different?

The truck stopped and I stepped out almost irritably, scowling as I felt the first few drops of a fresh rain shower. Rain in Midgar was more like standing under a shower of filth. Or at least that’s how it HAD been. Now the rain was clear, almost clean, but you could still see the traces of the true hellhole the city had been. I took my coat off and mumbled random obscenities as the rain stained my white shirt turning it, to the very faintest, a shade darker. I knew that even after a week the rain was still saddled with the water from the church and that seemed only to harm the clones of Sephiroth.

“Come on, hurry up. If it starts pouring and you’re outside that’s likely to be a bad thing I’m sure.” I hotly addressed the effeminate silver haired man, as I held the truck door open with my foot while holding my jacket over as an umbrella. It would have been so much easier if our truck wasn’t a piece of shit and the door would stay propped open by itself, but we were never gifted with a new transportation device after we single handedly destroyed a major traffic pass way. Damn bridge.

He slid out and stood warily on feet that were probably sore and bruised from being barefoot for a week out there alone. There really wasn’t much left to his attire actually. The leather was so cut up and ragged that all that really seemed to remain of it was his pants and the part that zipped up to his neck. The arms and legs, from the mid thigh down, of his outfit were gone, leaving nothing but deathly pale skin. Despite that he walked without an utterance of pain, save for the occasional twitch as a stray raindrop hit him. I noticed after we made it a few yards away from the truck that he was doing the best he could to make himself seem smaller by crossing his arms and standing at an unusually straight yet concealed angle.

Half way there the rain started seriously pouring and my jacket wasn’t going to cut it any longer.

“Damn it, can you run?” He looked at me with slow blinks that told me that he couldn’t. “Shit…fine. Rude?” I turned my head back and he waved me off.

“Yours is still alive go on ahead, if you get that one killed to the boss will not be happy.”

“Fine fine.” I looked up into the gray eyes of my ‘enemy’ so to speak and he seemed to understand perfectly fine what I was intending to do. He didn’t try to fight it and I wasn’t taking no for an answer, so in the end it was best that there was no struggle.

“Rude, jacket, now.” I held my hand out and he grudgingly obliged me by throwing his already somewhat wet coat to me. I quickly wrapped the clone’s upper body with mine and made him hold Rude’s. He seemed already in tune to what I was doing, which was nice because at that moment I would have been very short-tempered. I lifted him up the best I could, considering we were equal height and I’m not exactly the strongest guy I know.

His hands clutched the jacket over his legs and I made a dash for the covering. The rain was heavy by now and I could feel the shudders run through his body as the purified water began to soak through. Apparently we had been a lot further from the covering than I’d thought. I knew that it was getting risky when I started seeing pale hues of green glowing from under the navy blue material.

“Damn it, don’t you dare die on me.” I hissed as I reached the clearing, where the heavy tarp protected by standers from the pouring rain.

“I wouldn’t give you the pleasure.” He replied and I surely wasn’t expecting it and if it weren’t for the fact that his head was right next to mine I might have never heard it.

“Look Mister Smart Ass, you’d better watch yourself because I’m in no mood for your cocky mannerisms, when you DO decide to talk that is.” He snipped and he went quiet again, which made me growl in frustration.

I shook my hair free from the loose drops of rain and set him on a makeshift bench. He jerked weakly away from me as I moved closer to him aimed at retrieving my lost article of clothing. Not that I gave to shits about the jacket, but he had Rude’s too and Rude still hadn’t forgiven me for smacking him in the face twice and breaking his glasses, so my thoughts were that he might forgive me if I returned his jacket in one piece.

“LOOK,” I started angrily but the glare he returned with, shut me up but quickly. Out in the natural light I could see that his eyes weren’t gray at all, like I’d thought they were…they were green…Like Sephiroth’s.

He removed the jacket from around him and shaking them both off by batting them together a few times. It still didn’t help the fact that they were completely soaked, but it was the action itself that caught me off guard.

“Take them.” The soft tone snapped me out of my temporary daze and I grabbed the coats he was holding out to me.

“I see you didn’t have much trouble.” My partners voice was crystal clear under the covering, where the sound of the rain was dimmed. He was standing just inside the dry area with the body of the bigger brother over his shoulder.

“…Loz…” A whisper at my side caught my attention and I turned to the owner of the voice. Eyes dead as ever blinked a few times and he turned to face away from me and the apparent sight of his dead brother, or whatever they had referred to each other as.

“What’d you say?” I carefully questioned. I was all but astounded that he looked back up at me and replied slowly, in quiet words.

“Loz. That was my brother’s name.”

“Loz eh? I take it you guys were close. Sucks, huh? Well who knows what will happen to you now, but I’m sure your brother’s in a better place than you’ll be, not to give you a grim outlook on your future or anything, but at least you’re not plagued by ‘mother’ anymo-”

“JENOVA.”

He hadn’t yelled or snapped, but his voice raised a considerable handful of octaves as he stared directly into my eyes with a stone like glare. Apparently he didn’t quite view the situation the same as he had before. I held up my arms as if to apologize, but I would never actually say it. It seemed that gestures and looks were more of a communication with this one anyways. He was an incredibly difficult person to comprehend and I sort of felt like I was walking on eggs shells with him and I never knew when I would step on a fragile section.

“Okay, JENOVA then.”

“Jenova was not our mother.”

“What do you mean? Did you know that she wasn’t your mother? If so then why did you go through hell and creation for her?”

Silence.

“Oh come on don’t start this again! You can’t just start a conversation and then quit in the middle of it!”

“Reno, getting angry at him will not make him talk any faster.” Rude said walking passed me toward the main building. I sighed and followed; taking Yazoo by the shoulder, as I’m sure he wouldn’t have appreciated me pulling him around by his hand.

We had another long bout of silence as he took the elevator passing the security locks with specialized key cards and landing ourselves directly at Rufus’s door, so to speak…Well he really didn’t HAVE a door, but that’s kinda voiding the point.

The elevator door sung as it opened…Not literally, but I think the chime it has when it opens is the gayest thing I’ve ever heard…Then again with Rufus…who really knows…I’d have to ask Tseng about that one…He’d know.

“Hey Pres. we brought your little experiment, or whatever he is I really don’t care, but he’s alive at least.”

“Yes well I can see that Reno…I’m going to cut to the quick I suppose, I have much work to do,” Rufus stood up and walked over to Yazoo very casually. With a single hand he tilted the silver haired man’s head up, forcing him to look at him. “Here’s your new assignment.” Rufus nodded to Yazoo and Rude and I kinda just…well…stood there…

“Come again?” I asked hoping there was an underlying joke or maybe a better explanation as to what he meant by that.

“You brought him back, and I need him around for a while, you’re to look after him and at the same time I want you to open him up. If he knows what’s best for his own welfare he’ll cooperate…If not, then well, do whatever gets information. What ever he tells you I want you to make a note of it.” He let go of Yazoo’s face and the silver haired man dropped his gaze back to the floor.

“Wait, wait, WAIT! Talking to him is like talking to a brick fucking wall! You’re telling me that now we have to BABYSIT? The FUCK, Rufus? Why can’t you get Tseng or someone to do it!”

“Because Reno, you’re best to handle a job like this…Just think about it all you have to do is make sure he doesn’t leave our sight for a few weeks until I’m able to uncover the hidden details on Hojo’s activities.”

“WEEKS? Why do we need to spend that long looking for a DEAD guy’s things? Besides what do we need a remnant for in order to look for Hojo’s shit?!”

“All in due time Reno. I’ll tell you when it’s deemed necessary…anyways, I’ve a ride waiting for me, and a big meeting to discuss closing down some reactors. Just do your job Reno and you’ll get a reward that will make it worth your efforts.”

“So what is he supposed to be living with US now? Rude and I are already crammed into a small damn apartment, now we have to bring in someone who may just decide to kill us in our sleep?!”

“Reno, I’m sure you and Rude can handle one single, and very weak individual. Besides I think he’s more looking ready to pass out than attack you. You’d better get started, because if he dies in your care I won’t be happy with you.” The shorthaired blonde made a motion toward Yazoo and I THEN caught the fact that he was swaying as though he were about to collapse. I sighed.

“Fine, but I’d better get a NICE bonus for this.” I pulled Yazoo by his shoulder and his legs gave out. I cursed under my breath and maneuvered him into my back and carried him toward the elevator piggyback style. I’m not strong enough, like Rude, to go throwing people over my shoulder. “We’ll be back to bitch at you more President SIR.” I mumbled and Rude stood at my side with his hands casually clasped together in front of him. Always looking so damn professional.

“Hey where will you put the other brother?” I asked at random. I didn’t really care…I was barely even curious, but anything is better than complete silence in my opinion.

“Away.”

“I guess I’m not worthy of a straight answer hm?”

“Not really,” Rufus smiled, the bastard. “Oh and before anything else, clean him up. He looks like he’s half dead, and caked in blood. Make him presentable if you will.”

“Fine, fine, but I better get a nice reward for freaking playing babysitter!” I complained before I stepped into the elevator. I had this irresistible urge to scream and yell and kick something. Leave me with the shitty job. Rude had night duty for the next few days I so would be left with the damn clone!

‘Fuck you Rufus, fuck you Yazoo, fuck you Rude, fuck you Cloud, just fuck you all!’ My brain repeated over and over as I mindlessly followed Rude, who had left the bigger brother behind. And god only knows what they would do with him.

Rude’s pace slowed but mind stayed the same, I wasn’t in the mood for pace games. He slowed up next to me and gave me a questioning look that only I would have been able to identify. You spend years and years with a guy and you can tell his expressions, even through black shades. I knew trying to ignore him wouldn’t work, because despite what everyone else thinks, he can be persistent, at least when it comes to me. Sometimes I appreciated the little brother kinda way he treated me, but now was not one of them.

“What Rude, just fucking ask already.” I growled. He bore not surprised reaction or any indication that my sudden outburst had surprised him, because chances are it didn’t surprise him in the least.

“I was just wondering what your problem is, that’s all.”

“Well don’t wonder! I’m fine! Just ginger fucking peachy!”

“You do a magnificent job of convincing me, Reno. Well whatever your problem is, figure it out and fix it, because you’re driving me crazy.”

“I do that anyways.”

“Point, but most of the time it’s intentional. I don’t like being around you when you’re locked up on your own head, doing that ‘thinking’ business. Not only does it worry me, but it’s dangerous for you to have so much brain-processing going on at once. You’re not accustomed to it.”

“Oh you know what…” I couldn’t help but snort a laugh at least a little bit. He’s not much of a comedian but he has his funny moments.

“Fine…I’ll try to chill out, but you’re asking a whole lot of me Rude.”

xXx

Backlash Chapter One - HWAI Sequel

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:09:53 GMT

Backlash

Chapter One

The two of us stood, scanning the settled ruble from the collapsed bridge…Okay well more or less the bridge that was blown in due to my partner’s over zealousness for flashy explosives…Okay maybe I enjoyed it too, but if I’d known I was going to have to go back and search the area I probably would have protested. I’m kinda lazy like that I think. I stepped over a large chunk of what was probably the bridge support, noting mentally as the spiky haired blonde followed me. Why the hell I’d had to have HIM accompany I was unsure and actually quite pissed off. And I’m thinking he could tell.

“So when are you going to get over your problem Reno?” He asked after nearly an hour of silent searching for something we weren’t even sure was really going to be found. Go figure, ONE person makes a claim of a sighting and the whole damn ShinRa department has to flip out. And to top it off Spiky HAD to join us, for the sake of closure, or so he said.

“I’ll get over my problem when you, a. stop being a dick, b. stop rolling in self depressive angst, and c. when you finally change your fucking hair. Man I’ve had to deal with that damn hair for too long, ya know. It’s graining my nerves.”

“Nice Reno. Avoid your REAL problem by covering it up with half hearted bullshit. You know staying mad at me sure as hell won’t bring HIM back.” He sneered and I turned in a quick spin, facing him with a fierce glare.

“Fuck you Strife! I feel bad for what happened and I’M not even the one who killed him. Do you even feel bad at all? I thought there was something stronger between you, but I guess I was mistaken.”

“You’re a bastard, Reno.” He glared at me with only the slightest sign of hurt. Tch, not enough to convince me.

“Is that your ONLY defense? I lost BOTH of them because of YOU! One died protecting YOU and the other was killed by YOU! You are the source of all of my problems you always have been! Why don’t you just LEAVE! I can find the damn remnant by myself assuming the sighting was even true!”

“Not like you to get so emotional, I thought you didn’t give a shit about anyone, Reno.” Strife retorted as we continued our search, only with me walking backwards to face him.

“Very cute, you son of a bitch, why don’t you crawl back to the bitch at the bar and keep yourself OUT of my life!”

“WATCH your mouth about Tifa, and you never had a DAMN problem until we got our memories back!”

“Yeah, because some where in the process of forgetting I managed to forget how much of an ASSHOLE you are!”

“FUNNY coming from the master of ASSHOLES himself!”

“Strife I suggest you leave before I beat the shit out of you.”

“PLEASE, you’ve never beaten me before.”

“Oh? I beg to differ. And you don’t have your precious sword this time, and you can’t street fight for shit, you little punk. Just do us all a favor and stay out of ShinRa’s and MY way, you’re not needed her-” I was cut off mid sentence when I fell backwards over an inclined hunk of rock, scraping the back of my heel quite deeply, which only added to my declining mood..

“Nice.”

“Shut up fucker.” I snapped picking myself up off the floor, dusting off my pants. It was as we were walking on, that I heard the movement. The sound of ragged breathing and the scraping sound of rock on rock.

I turned and looked around. Strife had stopped and given me a curious look but I ignored him. He was already on my ‘shit to kill’ list, I didn’t want to have to add him to my ‘shit to torture THEN kill’ list. I stepped down from the rock I’d stood on and realized that just below me was the sign of life I’d heard. A single pale hand was reached out in the open, fingers dug into the sand weakly, and silver strands of hair splayed out all around the upper torso of the figure trapped beneath the rock.

“Ho shit.” I gasped hopping down. It was true, someone had spotted a survivor. I worked to lift the rock up but it was too heavy for me to slide it back. “Spiky, damn it, help me.” I grumbled not really wanting to resort to asking for HIS help.

“We should just kill him an be on our way. He’ll spell out trouble for us in the end if we don’t.”

I stopped and looked at him with a mixture of utter disgust and repulsion. He made me SICK. Maybe it was because mentally I was thinking of how good of a Turk he might have made. He was supposed to be the one who forgave people and yet he was unwilling so at least let the subject LIVE long enough for us to get any important information out of him.

“Look Strife I have my orders, you’re technically not even supposed to be here, this is a marked off SHINRA area. Help me or get out. He goes in alive, when ShinRa’s done with him you can feel free to kill him all you want.”

“Assuming he lives long enough.” He mumbled but helped me slide the rock off the lithe, bone thin body. The silver haired man tensed, I could see it in the way he held his head up off the ground, but he still didn’t look up, using his hair as a blanket to hide his face.

I looked down at him and made the executive decision that he wasn’t going to be getting up anytime soon, and so I pulled my cell phone from my slack’s pocket and flipped it open, voice dialing Rude’s cell, and leaving it on speaker phone.

“What Reno?” The voice of my uptight partner sounded loudly through my phone.

“Damn Rude, do ya gotta be so harsh? I bear good news, we’ve found him.” I replied as I ran a hand through my morbidly uneven hair. And uneven hair that I LIKE. That’s right ShinRa I don’t give a damn if you think I look unprofessional.

“The remnant? But, we just found one.”

“Say what?”

“Yeah we found the big one. Is yours alive?”

“Surprisingly,” I lifted the silvered haired man’s head with my foot and made a mental note of how he made all attempts to avoid eye contact with me, “He’s alive, but not looking too happy.

“Well at least we’ll be able to bring in ONE alive.”

“…Aw man you’re telling me the other one’s dead? Damn it…So much for a healthy bonus.” I heard a very faint whisper and looked down to see the remnant laying his head on the ground. His expression had not changed nor had the dead look in his eyes, but I had the distinct feeling that the news of the other one was taken hard.

“We’re on our way to find you. Keep your cell signal on and we’ll track you with the GPS.”

“Done.” I flipped my phone closed, leaving only the signal open and replaced it in my pocket.

“What do you plan on doing with him?” Cloud asked as he stood over the longhaired man with a slight growling sneer. I could tell he wanted him dead. I suppose he wanted to rid ALL traces of Sephiroth.

“Who knows maybe I’ll take him home. Generally slavery isn’t allowed but I think ShinRa would make an exception.”

“I’m serious Reno.”

“Seriously? I don’t care WHAT happens to him. He’s not going to be causing much trouble. Not looking like THAT. And his brothers, or whatever are dead so what difference does it make if you send his ass back to the life stream or leave him to suffer in the hands of humanity. Either way it’s gonna suck for him and it won’t make a dent to your conscience.”

“You don’t know what I’ve had to go through Reno.”

“Oh please, spare me you bastard, you killed your lover, when it was JENOVA that should have died, watched the younger brother DIE in your arms and you still wallow in self pity about that chick getting killed by Sephiroth when YOU didn’t even do THAT one! Personally this is just another grunt work case for me. If you want him when ShinRa is through then you’d better fight with Rufus for him. Because I’m not handing him over to YOU.”

“You know I liked you much better before you became a grudge bearing asshole.”

“Oh yeah, because I was oblivious to how you REALLY are…You used to be cool Cloud, what happened? Was that before or AFTER you got Zack killed?”

“Are you two done screaming?” I turned to face the familiar voice of my partner.

“Yes, Cloud was just LEAVING.” I shot a look at him. “Lets go, I’m getting sick of this damn bridge.” I carelessly scooped the remnant into my arms and carried him away from Cloud, happy to have my back facing him so I wasn’t tempted to lash at him more.

“Put him in the back of the truck with the other.”

I kicked open the lazy lock on the back of the truck latch and set him next to the body of his brother taking barely a moment to take in the thinner one’s reaction before closing the latch. Without even turning to look back I hopped into the passenger’s seat and waited for Rude to follow suit on the driver’s side.

I glanced in the side mirror and caught an astonishingly desolate sight as I saw the living brother emotionlessly curled against the other, not so alive, one. And I swear that I heard him whisper something, but it wasn’t too quiet to understand. I shook my head free of it though, once they were out of sight they would be out of mind and I could go back to my life without Cloud, Sephiroth or any of that shit in my life.

“You look happy.” Rude spoke simply, like a smart ass.

“Ah, you gotta go an point out that fact, don’tcha? Man you’re more of an asshole than I thought.” I snorted.

“Hm.”

“Man, this is shit…I’m getting too old for this crap…”

“You’re not even thirty.”

“Just shut up man. You’re making my bitching seem obsolete.” I sighed resting my head against my arm that was propped up on the passenger door.

The engine roared to life and we left in a cloud of dust and I didn’t even bother to look in the mirror, because I didn’t even want to see the expression that that stupid blonde would have on his face. I didn’t care, or more or less I didn’t WANT to care. I stared out the window mindlessly until I was snapped out of my trance by a loud groan and my head being violently smacked against the window.

“Aw FUCK RUDE!” I grabbed the side of my head, feeling the knot form. “Why the hell’d ya stop like that?”

“If I hadn’t we’d have rear ended Tseng.”

“Man I knew that bastard couldn’t drive! I TOLD Elena…Yo, why aren’t we moving?”

“I don’t know but check the remnant, I heard him cry out back there. I’m going to find out what’s going on.” Rude unbuckled the belt (yeah the same one that I refused to wear) and he got out of the truck. I sighed again and crawled over into the back seat and leaned over to the large…I guess you could call it a trunk, over the edge of the seat.

“Hey, you okay?” I spoke after a moment. What exactly DOES one say when they’re talking to their enemy. He just looked up at me with dead eyes. “…Well?” I asked but the power behind my voice was lost. I hadn’t time to try to figure out what the look in his eyes meant, because without any warning at all he reached up and took a fist of my hair yanking on it hard enough to pull me down and also lift himself up, giving him the chance to climb over and throw me against the back of the seat. I was too dazed to fully respond and he opened the door and fell out, hitting the ground with an almost painful thud.

It took him effort to stand. His body was down to skin and bones and his infected wounds left him little energy to try and make a REAL escape. I figured he was merely doing it as a last resort. I crawled out and grabbed him before he got ten feet away from the truck. He put up little to no effort, but instead looked back at me with a loathing that I think only could be compared to my current hate for Cloud. SO that’s what it was like to be on the receiving end of THAT look.

“Look, you know it’s pointless…why even bother?” I asked holding him in place by his wrist. He only looked back at me, but said nothing. His eyes spoke paragraphs all by themselves.

“What’s going on?” My partner asked as we walked back.

“Don’t worry about it Rude. It’s nothing to worry bout.” I replied pulling the remnant by his arm back to the truck. I didn’t even bother putting him in the back, which was much more convenient of a place to lay down in, in my opinion, what his having much more flat room, but instead I pushed him into the backseat. If he was well enough to try and escape be my slamming my head against the leather seat, then he was well enough to sit upright.

He avoided my gaze from there on, as I made a motion to lock the door so he couldn’t open it. God bless the bastard who made the child safety lock. I walked back to the front passenger seat and climbed in, and Rude started the engine again.

“So what the hell happened?” I asked as I blatantly ignored the seat belt. That fucking thing can bite me. It mocks me I swear.

“A civilian wreck. Lucky for us Tseng stopped.” I didn’t wait for him to elaborate, because I knew he had no intention of doing so. He was just like that. Just like I was a loud, obnoxious, overbearing, drunk most of the time and very impatient brat to him. It was a mutual thing…Yeah mutual agreement.

“So,” I directed at the passenger in the backseat, “care to tell us your name?” I turned slightly to meet somewhat eye to eye with him.

He said nothing but simple stared at me numbly. He was starting to piss me off. I mean I’d heard him speak before. While he and the bigger one were TRYING to kick our asses. Note I said TRY, they so did not kick our asses…I’m telling you WE were winning…But it wasn’t like he could convince me that he was mute, because he seemed pretty bent on defending ‘mother’ before, using words.

“Look, you’re going to tell me your name. It’s not like I’m asking you to date me, or become my new best friend. I mean fuck, it’s a NAME. Here if it makes ya feel better, my name’s Reno, this bald guy here, that’s Rude, he’s my partner.”

Silence.

“I don’t think he’s going to reply.” Rude pointed out oh so perceptibly.

“Thank you, I appreciate the commentary Mr. States THE OBVIOUS.” I grumbled.

“Why don’t you just leave him alone. It’s not our job to get to know him. We’re just supposed to bring him back.”

“I know that! DAMN IT! What is with you people thinking I’m fucking stupid!!” I growled and crossed my arms in front of me turning to face the front and keeping the silver haired man out of my line of sight.

“It’s not US that’s thinking of you in any way, Reno. It’s YOU who’s acting differently…”

“What the FUCK is that supposed to mean?”

“You’ve changed a little.”

“Whatever…” I snorted and looked out the window as we trailed behind Tseng’s vehicle. “Let’s just get the fucking remnant to Rufus.”

“Yazoo…”

The faint voice pulled my attention from the absent scenery and to the person in the backseat. I blinked at him, wondering if maybe I’d imagined him speak.

“Don’t call me a remnant…my name is Yazoo…”

xXx

He Wasn't Always Insane, Uncensored Chapter 14

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:01:05 GMT

He Was Always Insane
Chapter 14

My shock was probably priceless as my focused finally settled on a semi-sloshed up Reno. His eyes should have been unfocused, but instead they were angry and directed at me. I had this impression that, despite the radiating scent of alcohol, he knew exactly what he was doing. He was straddling my chest with his hands on each side of my head, fists clenching and unclenching, his teeth were grating and he had this certain unrestrained fury about him. I think Zack had underestimated Reno’s rage, but how was I supposed to know?

"Reno…"

"Shut up!" He hissed before I could make any attempt to calm him, he was virtually unreachable. "Just Shut the FUCK up. God, I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but everything was JUST fucking fine before YOU showed up!"

I said nothing. I know when it’s futile to try. He was in such firm belief that I was the problem that he wouldn’t have listened tome no matter what I said. Perhaps in a sense I was the problem, but even still, he’d never figure out what he wanted if he held on to the way it was before. I didn’t know what he wanted.

"You try and mess everything up! I don’t know if you’re just fucking with me or you’re really out to cause some damage but STOP! Just fucking STOP! Every time someone NEW comes in I lose another person I care about! First Pharallah now YOU! Just go away!" His voice came out loud and racked with a passionate rage.

So that explains it.

"Reno…"

He was still sore…About Marka…and Pharallah…who took Marka away from him…He thought I was going to be the next Pharallah…

"No, I don’t give a damn what you say! You leave them BOTH alone! Sephiroth and Zack!"

"You don’t even know what the fuck you want Reno." I got brave and gave up the idea of being civil with him.

"Oh? And you think you know me so much better? You think you know Zack or Sephiroth any better?! You’re NEW around here do you remember that?!" His eyes narrowed as he sneered through his teeth.

"Maybe I don’t know you guys well, at all, but I know bullshit from the truth quite easily. And I know that you’re full of the former."

I hadn’t expected his reaction to be so quick, what with being intoxicated and all, but the fist that locked with my face came faster than I realized and at such an angle that I knew a bruise would form on the bone of my cheek. It was a moment before I realized what had happened and I glared up at him with blurred eyes from the sudden impact.

"What do you know…" He whispered. "What do you fucking know!" His fist came down again and I lifted my arm to stave off the blow but he aimed well enough to catch me in my eye.

"I know more than you think!" I replied under the protective veil of my arms. Zack was full of shit when he said Reno wasn’t that strong.

"Oh? Well if you know so well, if you know I LOVE ZACK so much then why the FUCK would you molest him in PLAIN FUCKING SIGHT OF ME?! What kinda moron ARE you!?" His voice was so loud I could feel my head pounding. Of course that could have been the near concussion he gave me from slamming my head against the wall.

"Well at least you’ve figured something out for yourself." I grumbled, defiantly.

"When I knock your fucking lights out, I’m sure you’ll be running that goddamn mouth of yours." He retorted grabbing a handful of hair and yanking on it. I winced at the additional pain added to my poor skull.

"You’ve got to be THE biggest fucking dumb ass I’ve ever met Reno!" I growled loudly, wincing from the pressure he was forcing on my head. "I’m not kidding! Do you even know what the hell goes on around you?! Do you have trouble understanding a simple concept?! You spent so much time shit faced for Sephiroth when the one who worships you like you shouldn’t be worshipped has waited patiently on you and you KNOW it! That’s truly FUCKED up! You obviously share mutual feelings yet you don’t even know how to fucking address them, so you turn your attention on someone ELSE? I bet it pissed the fuck out of you when you saw me sharing tongue with Zack didn’t it?! IMAGINE how Zack felt when you were stupid over Sephiroth!" My face felt hot from how loud I was yelling and how much the blood was flowing.

Reno was quiet for a moment and that worried me. It worried me a lot actually. When he’s quiet it means he’s thinking about something, and if you give a drunk person enough time to think, it doesn’t usually end well. Especially not with violent drunks. And he was clearly a violent drunk.

"…Reno?" my voice seemed loud in the silence, while he was taking what I had said.

He looked down at me, and the clarity that was there, wasn’t there anymore. Instead his eyes were welling up as if perhaps maybe something had finally clicked in his mind. He hung his head low and slid off me, giving me the chance to sit up.

"Reno…I’m sorry…I…I know you’re confused, but I’m really not trying to get in your life. Mine’s been confusing enough, I don’t wanna mess yours up…" I spoke softly, it was true, I wasn’t exactly having an easy time myself… coming to terms with the very thing I’d whole heartedly denied as a child while being picked on at school. That wasn’t easy, well actually around these people it was too easy, but that’s another reason to question myself.

"Shut up Cloud, I hate you innocent types." Reno looked up at me, his eyes were glazed over, but it wasn’t from the misty look he got when I’d told him off. This was a much less controlled look.

"Why are you looking at me like that Reno…?" I whispered backing away as much as I could while being cramped in the small hallway by the door.

Reno crawled toward me, his long ponytail undone and his shirt opened down the middle. He reeked of alcohol, yet still seemed to maintain some sort of conscious awareness of what he was doing. That worried me more than anything. ‘Reno don’t do something you’ll regret.’ I pleaded as the space between him and I closed. I was back against the wall, so I was stuck, not to mention my head was pounding and everything seemed to swirl, so protest looked like a feeble option.

"Just stop talking, period." He growled pressing his hand against my chest and pushing down with an almost oppressive force. ‘Weak my ASS, Zack.’ I winced trying to move under that hand that was putting pressure on my sternum.

He pushed my head back and I found myself staring at the ceiling, wondering what the fuck was happening. The warm, wet feeling of his tongue on my throat sent a shiver through me that didn’t go unnoticed. His right knee settled into the space between my thighs in an attempt to settle himself closer to me.

"Stop it Reno," I rasped, but the pounding in my head wasn’t the only thing that stopped me from protesting.

"What did I tell you about talking?" He growled as his teeth nipped into my collarbone. I could feel the warm oozing of blood as he punctured my skin. That shouldn’t have evoked such a reaction but it did and I squirmed. "Well?" He asked again, a single lithe hand pulling my gaze to his. He was serious. "What did I just say?"

"To stop." I choked, almost feeling violated. "You said to stop…" I felt so pathetic when that came out as a harsh whisper.

"Good, you were listening." I was confused when he stood up, leaning over me. At first I was almost thinking he was giving up and going to leave me be, but I was sorely mistaken. He was stronger than he looked, I’ll give him that, because he lifted me up by my arm and forced me back against the wall again.

The last lingering chance my mind had to tell him to stop left when he forced his mouth over mine. My mind blanked and I made a very bad decision when I responded to his advance. Now unlike Sephiroth, who was dominant with restraint, and Zack who was playfully dominant, Reno had this weird mix that almost seemed like unrestrained dominance and willingness to submit at the same time, though at that moment I think I was feeling more of the dominance from him than anything else. His tongue fought with mine and his hands worked on pulling up my shirt. His hands were cold and teasing, and I squirmed all the more as he traced my ribs one by one.

‘What am I doing, fight back!’ My mind screamed, but my body was humming a different tune, the same one that Reno’s was. His sinuous body pressed against mine and all chances of still denying enjoying what was happening, flew out the window.

The first igniter of the flame was my fault. In the combination of his mouth and his roaming hands, I let out a low moan. I couldn’t help it. My mind wasn’t acknowledging my body anymore. And trust you me, Reno got enjoyment out of that.

"Innocent hmm? I beg to differ…" His voice was tantalizing, and he licked his tongue over my abused lips. I was hardly even aware of the shirt he’d pulled over my head and the shiver of the icy air didn’t even faze me at the time. My skin felt so hot that it wouldn’t have mattered, regardless. He looked at me for several moments and I suddenly felt impatient.

"You started this Reno, finish it." Yeah, I was feeling real brave.

"If that’s what you want, but I won’t go easy, not even for a little virgin like you." His gaze had not faltered as if he thought I might change my mind and fight against him, which of course would have been pointless; he was at the point where it wouldn’t matter if I said no. He’d proved that several minutes before.

"Good." I responded quickly and simply, no more words were needed. His mouth started on my collarbone again and he expertly led me toward his room. I was grateful I hadn’t tripped walking backwards, because that would have left for a very awkward moment. It was my impression that my response had only made him more eager. Way to go Cloud, entice your would-be-rapist-if-you-hadn’t-invited-him.

The door to his room got in the way, but he had no quarrel slamming me up against it to make reaching the door handle easier. He pushed in the door and with no support we both toppled over in a heap, but that didn’t have much of an alternating effect on anything at that point in time.

Reno’s shirt didn’t have a long way to go before it plain fell off him, so I helped it a little, pulling off the two layer clothing combination one at a time. He was mindlessly working on my belt, only moving his arms in order to allow me to free him of his clothing.

"You’re very gutsy Cloud," Reno smirked as he pulled the belt from my pants, "You have no idea what I’m going to do to you and you let me."

"What’s the worst you can do to me, Reno, hurt me? Haven’t you ever heard that pain is one of the greatest pleasures?" There went my innocence with those words. I didn’t even hesitate before, undoing the buttons on his slacks. I just didn’t care anymore. These assholes had teased me enough and I needed relief. Reno was using me, so I was using him back. It was a mutual benefit.

"Glad you think that way…You little masochist…" He sat back on his feet and pulled my pants down my legs, as gracefully as a half drunk person can. My face flushed, but that went away all too quickly.

I shimmied back into a sitting position, with my back leaned against the side of his bed, the very bed we never made it on to. He moved toward me, his cold hands brushing along my jawbone. Both of us were freed of our clothes, hot with lust and not really giving much of a damn if anyone happened to walk in and find us that way.

"You’ve got five seconds to change your mind Cloud." Like he would really let me up and walk away now.

"Fuck me." I whispered hoarsely and he didn’t pause before complying to my wishes.

"As you wish." He breathed, moving closer to me until his hands touched my chest. His tongue licked down my neck and his hands kneaded whatever tender flesh he could, seeming to know what muscles created what sensation. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like it. Or it wasn’t turning me on so fucking much.

His teeth grazed my chest. Until his hot mouth settled on terrorizing my left nipple, with one of his hands repeating the action on the other. I let out a less than manly moan. But I didn’t care. His hot mouth was getting reactions from me I never thought my body could get. His tongue flicked back and forth like an expert, and I wouldn’t deny the possibility. His teeth pulled at my skin almost to a painful point. His fingers raked fine lines down my chest as he trailed lower. He reached my hip and I felt the sharp pang of skin breaking and the sound of blood being lapped up. It was too much of a sight for anyone. I mean not everyone gets the chance to have a very hot redhead abusing his or her body.

I looked down at him. Goggles tossed aside and hair undone and splayed across flushed shoulders. He wasn’t going to have all the fun. I may have been inexperienced, but lust will make you learn and do things you never knew you could do and do them remarkably well. I pressed the palm of my hand under his chin and tilted his head up to look at me. Leaning down, I occupied that mouth of his that he liked to run so much. This gave me the perfect chance to press him back with my unoccupied hand and focus my attention on what I could be doing to all that exposed flesh of his. He protested momentarily, but shut up quickly as my tongue ran a warm trail along his ribs. I’d had a feeling he was a ‘chest’ kinda guy. I guess I was right.

The very faint and short lived moan I’d gotten out of him was just enough to entice me to see what other noises I could get out of him. I trailed lower. He knew where I was going. I knew where I was going. There was no protest on either side.

I was feeling a little bit nervous. I mean, hello, I was still categorized as a virgin, despite my teasing and habitual making out with random guys through out my life and it’s safe to say I’ve never had much experience putting my mouth to better use than talking you know? So this was one of those, ‘let’s hope I don’t fuck this up’. No pun intended.

I looked up seductively, and trailed my hand lower to get a bit of a head start. The look on his face was intoxicating and so much of a turn on that nervousness all but vacated. He had this magnificent blush across his cheeks that almost matched his hair from an odd angle. God, I love redheads. His blue eyes were watching me, accompanied by a slight smirk. I turned my attention back to my target, but knowing he was watching made me all the more willing to please.

He shivered visibly when I brushed a cold hand down his hardened length. I had bad habits of using my body’s ability to soak up the cold to my advantage. This was one of them. I was reeling inside my mind when he moaned out loud at the moment my mouth took place of my hand. I breathed hot air heavily and flicked my tongue teasingly. He was looking so ready to jump up and pounce me it was unreal. A smirk touched my lips when I looked up at him and saw the hazy look of lust that had settled in his eyes. I got even greater satisfaction when I parted my lips and took him into my mouth. He rolled his head back and gripped the back of my head.

I placed my hands down on his hips. I was going to torture this sexy bastard by preventing him from moving against me. That was the little bit of sadist I have in me coming out. I couldn’t help but find myself getting significantly aroused by his short coming moans after I rolled my tongue against his swelled flesh. I was just beginning too. I took more of him in, but slowly, so as to avoid being gagged, which I can’t imagine would be very much of a ‘hot thing’ from either point of view.

With all probability, he was most likely holding back considerably. Because despite his claim of not going easy on me, I got the feeling that he wouldn’t push me too far when I’d never had the experience of ‘sucking off a guy’, to put it in Renoistic words. Though I gotta say it wasn’t as hard...Well you get the idea of where that joke was going.

Getting the hang of it, I pulled back slowly, immediately followed by taking him in again. It was the oddest damn sensation I’ve ever felt. Having a significantly sexy person underneath me, an amateur, and making them actually experience some pleasure from it, but I’m sure that Reno was even more turned on by the fact that I was a little virgin boy. Makes you laugh a little to think someone like me could get the idea pretty quickly. Well mom always said I was faster learner, of course I realized, while I was sucking in lightly on a particularly excited area of a guy I’d met only a few days before, that this was not what mom meant.

"Cloud…" He whispered heavily and I swear I almost lost it myself. Hearing someone moan your name is a certain glory in a category all on its own.

Obviously I couldn’t reply in words, but I think the tongue can talk in more way than verbal. I pulled my head back, breathing in for a moment, exhaling slowly and teasing the tip, slowly going down once more. His hand was gripping my hair so hard I thought my head would bleed and it only made me shiver. I wanted to feel that pain. It was so exhilarating.

But he let go. That hand moved from the back of my head and to my face. His hands were cold, like mine, and it send a quiver through me when those icy fingers brushed my cheek. By his guidance, I pulled back and away from him, not even bothering to wipe my mouth of saliva, both his and mine. I was, in part, confused as to why he didn’t let me finish what I was doing, but that answer became obvious within a minute of regaining any sort of coherent thought. What fun would it be if I finished him now?

"You’re naughty Cloud." He whispered in my ear in such a husky and sex laced voice that I felt like just screaming, ‘Take me now!’

"I’m waiting for my punishment." I replied, nipping at his ear before he forcibly pulled me into another kiss. That, I’ll verify, was something he was very good at. The man knew how to kiss.

"You’ll get your punishment, Spiky. Patience is a virtue." He replied in between our sloppy kisses.

"Says the man who’s about to take me on the floor because he was too impatient to throw me somewhere where it wouldn’t hurt." I snorted.

"Touché Spiky. But," I started, and trailed one cool finger along my jaw, "I wouldn’t complain considering the position you’re in."

"And what are you going to do?" I dared, puffing up at him. "I’m not afraid of you."

The back of his hand connected with my face in such a way that I knew it would leave a large red spot. My left eye was temporarily knocked blurry, but that was thrown aside due to the fact that I was so turned on. He grabbed my face in such a hard and unforgiving way, yet I knew he wasn’t taking an angry turn. He loved it as much as I.

"What was that you said, Strife?" His other hand managed to strike my cheek again. "You don’t fear me? Oh but you should." He grinned maliciously.

"Oh I do…I do." I played into what he wanted to hear. "Hit me again."

"Hit you again? Now why would I do something so cruel and sadistic?" He wasn’t fooling anyone, because even as he said it he was pushing me up against the side of the bed, back handing me once or twice. This sick fetish of mine was going to hurt in the morning. But I didn’t give much of a damn at that point. Don’t stick a sexually frustrated young possibly/probably gay male in a room with three very lustrous sexy men and not expect him to accidentally fall into a sexual encounter with at least one of them. That’s like asking Hojo not to dissect a mutated mako experiment. It will happen, no matter how many times you tell them no.

"God yes…" I gasped. I knew he was having some massive reactions watching me get all hot and bothered because he hit me a few times. The stinging sensation left by his hand was incredible. I can’t even begin to explain why. Something about it was just alluring. I was fascinated by this abuse.

He grabbed my hair hard and covered the yelp that was coming up from my throat by pressing his mouth to mine. This nervousness that had reformed in the pit of my stomach was dissolving faster than I thought, considering what was coming next. I wanted pain, and he was about to give me what I wanted.

"We’re done playing games, I think." He whispered in my ear, sending shiver down my shine. His cold hands brought chills to my skin in the places he touched. I didn’t need to reply. I’d given my consent long before.

He pushed my back flat against the side of the bed and settled himself between my legs. I was above eye level with him now and looking down. His eyes were so hazed over he looked drunk, but a different kind of drunk. The way he had his hands on my hips made it certain that he was in complete control of everything. I kinda liked that. Being dominated.

I closed my eyes and breathed slowly as he pulled my body closer to his and he finally pushed into me and with a quickened thrust he was buried, leaving me to try and adjust and comprehend what had just happened. At first my brain seemed to log off and leave my body stranded. The wave I was hit with felt like it was twenty feet tall and made out of fire. That was a pain that I wasn’t anticipating. I leaned my head back on the bed and panted. He seemed to be waiting and I can’t say how thankful I was. Masochist that I may be, there are certain times where a little bit of adjusting is necessary.

The pain slowly numbed and instead became this unbearable pleasure, so much in fact if he didn’t move I was going to lose my mind. I picked my head up and leaned forward, pressing my mouth against his. It was just enough for him to get the hint. The unmerciful rhythm he began was what my body was screaming for. I didn’t care if it hurt. Yes, it hurt, so much. I wanted more. I trailed his jaw line, finally receding to tender flesh and I bit down on his neck. He let out a wild moan while I was lapping up the traces of blood. He’s not the only one with an affinity for blood. He responded by forcing my head back against the bed and terrorizing my throat while he pounded into my poor body.

I could still smell the alcohol on him, but that didn’t seem to affect him every much at all. He seemed more alert than before, by far.

"Harder…" My voice wasn’t loud, but it was all I could manage at that moment, while I was being pretty much fucked senseless.

"What’s that?" He breathed. "Does my bitch want more?’

"Yes…" It was almost hard to even form a word when I was breathing so hard, face so flushed and mind so screwed, no pun intended, but I found a way to manage some more vocal activity. "I want more…"

"Say it louder, Cloud," He was teasing so seductively and cruelly while he was slowly rocking his hips against mine. He was intentionally slowing down now. He wanted me to tell him what I wanted. He was just egotistical enough to have to hear it.

"More…" I tried for more, but my mind stopped forwarding calls.

"I know you want it more than that now…" I couldn’t see it but I knew there was a sly grin on his face. His face was so close to mine, and I still couldn’t see passed that incredible haze of pleasure mixed with pain. Those kids who teased me at school would have had a field day with this. And I would have told them to kiss my ass if Reno wasn’t having his way with it.

"HARDER GOD DAMN YOU!" I finally screamed, and gasped for air. It took all of the lung power I had to scream that.

He was more than willing to succumb to my request. My heart pounded in my chest, and my breath was still severely lacking but I had no problem pushing myself away from the bed enough to land on the floor on my back. I wrapped my legs around his waist when he moved to lean over me. His hair was long enough in the back that when it spilled over his shoulder it draped all over my chest. I could not fight a forceful urge and I pulled his head down by his hair. He let out a small gasp, but more so in surprise than anything else.

His mouth reached mine at about the same moment that I lost myself in my own little moment of transcending bliss. It hit me like another wave. A very powerful wave that rocked my whole body. This was a feeling in it’s own damned category and it was something I wasn’t familiar with. So when is happened it was mind blowing. And he, himself, was not far off from that state of being that I had just entered and his ragged breath against my ear was the clearest proof. I could feel him finally release and he panted, much like I was still doing. His head settled in the crook of my neck and I really didn’t even care. I felt like I was glowing and I was certain he was relishing in his own glow at that moment.

I wasn’t around long though, because before I could will myself to get up, roll over or even do anything, I blacked out.

I don’t know how long I was out, or when I was moved but after hanging on this edge of asleep and awake for a while I finally stirred to life. Hazy and temporarily confused I laid in wonder for several moments. "Tell me I did not just dream that," I muttered out loud unintentionally.

"Fraid not, Spiky." I heard a voice next to me and it was in that sudden moment that it hit me. I was in a bed! I hadn’t been before! And it wasn’t my bed. Curled comfortably under the warm blankets, my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, and I was able to make out the details of some of my surroundings.

"Your room’s surprisingly not cluttered." I mumbled.

"Shocking no?" The distinct sound of a lighter flicking followed up with more light added to the room and even though the voice and obvious circumstances gave it away, I was met with assurance, that it was indeed Reno.

"Yeah…" I wasn’t quite willing to get out of his bed. Between how fucking cold I was to how much pain walking would be, I was unwilling to part with that mattress.

"I’m sorry…"

"What?" I did a double take. Did Reno just apologize to me?

"I said I’m sorry. I hadn’t meant to jump you like that…Or act like a prick really…I feel like an absolute bastard."

"It was equally my fault as it was yours Reno. Besides, you’d be lying if you said you didn’t like it." I snorted.

"So would you, little masochist." He chuckled breathing out a heavy cloud of smoke. All I could really see of him now was the glowing end of his cigarette. "I guess I’ll have to explain this to Zack…oh…and Sephiroth…He’s going to skin me alive…"

"Don’t worry about it…I’ll explain it…to Zack…and Sephiroth."

"I wouldn’t want you to do that Cloud, I should because it was my fault."

"Remember, dual blame here? Besides, aren’t you scheduled for morning shifts this week anyways? You won’t be here when Zack comes back. I will.

"You’re too forgiving for you own good Cloud…"

"Yeah I know, but if it’s any consolation you DID, in fact, rock my world. Though it’ll be kinda awkward sitting straight for a while." I laughed.

"Cloud…"

"Oh chill out Reno, it’s not like you to be so…caring…At least not the Reno I know. Granted you never gave me a chance to know anything about you at all." I stretched my arms back and bent one knee, shocked with the painful reminder of the happenings on the floor. "And you better be thankful I’m slightly masochistic, because that no lube thing might have been a problem otherwise."

"Slightly he says…Are you sure you were a virgin Cloud? Because you sure as hell didn’t come off as the innocent, never been touched kind…"

"Mentally no, I’ve had some very questionable friends who’ve influenced my way of thinking…and acting for that matter…"

Reno moved to flick the cigarette into the ashtray on his bedside table. "So you’re not being exactly straight with us now are you? No pun intended mind you. You weren’t hetero to begin with…were you?"

"In my mind yes, or at least I tried… my parents are a little…homophobic…I was bent to their will…They decided to ‘convert’ me to normal when they caught me making out with my neighbor’s eldest son…That was by all means awkward…"

"And so you tried to make them happy by liking girls? Even though it’s so very obvious to a group of GAYS like us? Cloud, you didn’t have to lie…Not to us, or yourself. We wouldn’t care if you were gay. Hell did I look like I cared when I was having my way with you?"

"No…but it’s a habit…pounded in by six years of strict parenting. I was honest when I didn’t say I knew which side I was on…I’m more confused than I should be…"

"Oh please! That’s plenty normal! Do you think I started out thinking, ‘Oh yeah I’m totally gay!’ I was weirded out by it at first. Hell I got picked on a lot too. ‘There goes that faggy little red head again! Looking like such a cheap whore!’ God knows I heard that line enough. I had to prove my masculinity so many times, just to keep them from kicking the shit outta me. Why do you think I got these retarded marks on my face? Tattoos of my once retarded need to feel manly by comparison. I learned not to feel awkward about it, because of Marka and Sephiroth. You’re a lot like me if you think about it."

"If you’d been nicer to me, I would have known that a long time ago." I chided.

"Touché, Cloud." He snorted and pulled himself up under the covers next to me. "Seriously though. I don’t really hate ya as much as I’m confused. I hate to admit you’re right, but I’m not that kinda dick to ignore someone when they’ve showed up my intelligence, or the like. I’m misdirecting my affections…but I don’ even know what to do. I don’t want to feel awkward around Zack."

"He does love you, you know…" I turned on my side to face him. "I wasn’t just saying that to try and prove a point to you. If I wanted to do that I could have bitch smacked you and fucked YOU, instead of the other way around…"

"Very poetic Cloud…"

"Thank you. But seriously, you need to open your eyes a bit more. He’s crazy about you…I only gave him the tongue to try and get some reaction out of you…Even Sephiroth can see the chemistry between you…"

"Look at you, the voice of reason…God, I just don’t know what I’m doing anymore…Maybe I was hoping that pouring my heart out as if I really were obsessed with Seph, would make Zack do something…Damn it man, I’m a little on the stupid side…And let me guess, Seph knew all along?"

"The whole time…but if it’s any consolation he’s totally rooting for you and Zack!" I gave him my most sincere smile, knowing that he would barely see it.

"Well shit…I suppose tomorrow after I get off from work I’ll talk to him. I don’t know how he’ll like this situation…." He moaned at the idea of breaking news to Zack that he had something akin to casual sex with me. (If by ‘casual’ we really mean ‘sadomasochistic hungry animal’ sex).

"Let me handle it Reno, unlike you I was actually sober…"

"HEY!"

"What? I was….You were…well sloshed a bit, but we can stretch the truth a little and say you were just fucking brain shatter slammed." I snickered.

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth, captain vulgar?"

"I don’t know about you Reno, but I don’t kiss my mom."

"Very funny Spiky." He snorted and mauled me with a pillow. I curled up under the covers, cowering from the onslaught.

"Oh and Reno you have such pretty hair, it goes so well with those gleaming blue eyes and pretty face, not to mention your girlish figur-"

"Shut up! You little weenie. Making fun of me because I’m beautiful! You’re a jealous, jealous man! And damn it, I’ll tell you one thing I am DEAD sexy in a dress. So don’t hate!"

"You’re such a fun person when you’re not being a dick you know. You wouldn’t mind calling a truce would you?" I finally conceded, staving him off with the up held hands of ‘okay, you win man, chill’. "Granted this is AFTER the fact, can we call ourselves friends?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me, Spiky. I think you’ve earned my respect."

"Damn good thing. Otherwise I don’t think my ass would appreciate it much."

He snorted a laugh and found a comfortable position under his heap of blanket (the man likes thick blankets that’s for sure). It wasn’t a long time before I heard the steady rhythm of him sleeping. I wasn’t too far behind either, because sleep sounded really good.

To be continued…

NC-17 RenoxCloud S&M Themes in here guys.