Title: Unusual Friends
Fandom: Final Fantasy: Advent Children
Characters: {Characters}
Prompt: 021 - Friends
Word Count: 2136
Date finished: 06/04/2006
Rating: PG
Summary: Reno has had a bad day, and when he visits Seventh Heaven, it gets even worse. Sort of.
Author's Notes: I'm not sure where this came from, and I'm pretty sure it's mostly OOC for everyone involved. Happens post-AC.
Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Square Enix and Sony Pictures as far as I know.

It wasn't too much of a surprise to see Reno in Seventh Heaven; he came in once or twice a week, leaned against the bar, and played with his glass. He rarely drank all of what he ordered; in fact, Tifa had only seen him drunk once, and she'd used his phone to call Rude to come and get him. The bald man had been helpful, and surprisingly gentle with his partner. Reno had been so drunk, he'd barely been able to say anything, never mind actually walk, and when she'd asked later what the problem had been, he told her bluntly to mind her own business.

She knew better than to take offense.

But he usually came in on days that Cloud was far out of reach - if not out of touch - and today was no exception. She'd never quite managed to ask Cloud if he asked Reno to check up on her, not sure which answer would disturb her more.

Having him buy a woman a drink also wasn't unusual, although rarely did he follow it up. Tonight, he did. Reno had barely looked at her, but there had been something… desperate, feral in his eyes, and she found herself checking her own phone - which now had Rude's number on it, too. He'd given it to her for the next time Reno got himself drunk, if it happened again. She had the feeling something was going to happen tonight.

But when he asked, Tifa took the drink over to the woman sitting quietly at a table by herself in the back, indicated who it was from, and left. She saw Reno acknowledge the woman by raising his own glass, then he stepped from the bar and approached the table. He passed her with a glance, and that strange, disturbing, and hauntingly familiar look was still in his eyes.

She wished she knew where she'd seen it before.

To her surprise, when she glanced over at the table, Reno and the woman seemed to be deep in conversation. She even caught a laugh from him, which had happened seldom enough lately. And later, when her duties took her to the back, to clear a table near them, she caught some of the conversation.

"But I assumed you wouldn't be interested in me," the woman said.

"Why not?" He'd drunk a little of the alcohol he'd ordered, but he set the glass down now.

"Well, you have a partner…."

Reno snorted softly. "I don't mix business with pleasure," he said. "Besides, Rude's not exactly my type."

Tifa had never exactly thought of Reno as having a 'type' and wondered what it was.

Apparently, so did his companion. "What's your type?"

"Female," he said, so blandly that the woman didn't seem to get it.

Tifa nearly choked, trying not to laugh, gathered the last of the glasses, and fled. Once she'd regained her composure, she glanced back at Reno, and he winked at her as he held up his glass for a refill, and indicated a second for his companion.

As the night went on, the bar filled, and then a large man stepped in, and Tifa sighed. Cliff was a regular, but she wished he'd go elsewhere. Maybe she could talk Cloud into sticking around for a week or so to play bouncer, and see if he could convince the man to find another bar to frequent.

Cliff's eyes fell on Reno and the woman who kept him company. He strode toward the table and stopped, glaring at the two of them. Tifa slipped from behind the bar with an apologetic look at the person waiting for his drink, and started over.

"What do you want with her?" Cliff demanded, loud enough for everyone in the bar to hear him.

Reno set his glass down. "I'm having a drink with her," he said evenly, and looked up. "What's it to you?"

Cliff ignored him, and reached a hand to the woman, taking her arm. "Come and have a drink with a real man," he said, starting to pull her to her feet. "This one's got his own."

Reno stood, slowly, languidly, and Tifa recognized that. It was the way Cloud moved when he was angry and was trying to control himself, to keep from getting violent. She moved faster, pushing through the patrons almost rudely. "Let the lady go," Reno said, his voice mocking. "If she wants to go with you, fine, but there's no reason to drag her off."

Cliff smirked as he turned toward Reno again, his grip tightening on the woman's arm. "Go find your partner and get what you need from him." With his free hand, he pushed Reno away. The redhead stumbled over his chair and went down, but he was back on his feet in an instant as his companion gave a pained cry.

Tifa grabbed her phone and started to look for Rude's number on it as Reno's baton snapped to full length and he brought it down on Cliff's arm. He let the woman go, and she fell back into her chair. Almost immediately, she grabbed her handbag and fled the scene.

Tifa was not sorry to see her go.

Reno pinned the bigger man against the wall, baton at his throat. "Say what you want about me," he growled, "but leave Rude out of it."

And just as the phone connected, Reno dropped his baton and she had a serious brawl on her hands. Hanging up in frustration, she dove into the fight, striking at both combatants, anything to get them apart. But Cliff was so big, nothing she did made any difference, and Reno, it seemed, had been looking for a good fight for a while. She finally had to get out of it, and began to pull patrons, tables, and chairs from the center of the fight. If it hadn't been her property that was being destroyed, she'd have been astonished at how controlled it was; they never left that corner. And she'd never seen Reno fight without that thing in his hands; he was pretty good, if not as good as Rude.

"Reno!"

The shout from the doorway made everyone turn - except the combatants, of course. Most of the patrons froze, eyes wide, and Tifa understood their reactions when she turned around herself. In the doorway stood not only Rude, but Tseng, of all people, and Elena. The leader of the Turks strode to his still-fighting underling and easily separated the two combatants by knocking the other man out.

Reno turned on him with a raised fist, saw who it was, and plastered himself against the wall. "What is going on?" Tseng asked, his voice low and dangerous.

"I'm sorry, Tifa," Rude said softly, pulling her attention from Tseng and Reno. "I was in a meeting when you called, and I figured it had something to do with Reno. But I couldn't get out without an explanation."

"…if you hadn't been drunk," Tseng said, sounding furious. The bar was much emptier; gil rattled on the tables as people paid for their drinks and fled.

"He isn't drunk," Tifa interrupted, and Tseng turned to her.

"Not drunk? How do you know?" he demanded.

Her eyes narrowed, and she advanced on him. He was not going to intimidate her in her own place! "I run a bar, if you hadn't noticed. I know what it takes for Reno to get drunk. He wasn't even close."

He tilted his head. "How often does he get drunk?" he asked with deceptive calm. Behind him, Reno looked like his life had just ended. Or gotten much worse.

"Once," she said flatly. "It took steady drinking for more than four hours. He's had three drinks, and he's been here a couple of hours."

That seemed to have thrown him, then he nodded and turned back to Reno. "You'll pay for this mess out of your own pocket," he told the redhead.

Reno straightened, standing free of the wall. "Naturally," he said insolently. "And if you'll go, I'll even help clean up."

Tseng watched him for a moment, then turned and stalked from the bar. Elena followed, and most of the tension left with them. Reno picked up his baton, collapsed it, tucked it into his belt, and looked around for a place to start. "Uh, Tifa. Got a broom?"

She blinked. "Sure. Hang on." She went to retrieve it. When she came back, Reno had started to pick up the larger pieces of what was left of the table and chairs he'd smashed. Most the patrons who hadn't left had returned to their tables, and conversations made a dull roar. Rude leaned against the bar, and gestured for her to join him.

"What set him off?" he asked her as she sat on the stool.

She had to stop and think for a moment. "I think it was something the guy said about you."

Tifa had never seen Rude surprised before. He stared at her in disbelief, and she nodded. "The guy was trying to pick up on the woman Reno had been talking to, said something I didn't quite hear, then Reno had him up against the wall and looked like he was going to kill him. And then he… backed off, and they were fighting." She shook her head. "Strangest thing I've ever seen. Did he have a rough day?"

Rude watched his partner deftly sweep the floor. "It was a tough one," he said slowly. "He had a meeting with the President, and that always makes his day bad."

Tifa snorted softly. "It'd make my day bad, too," she said.

"You don't work for him."

"Thank goodness."

By the time she was ready to close, Reno had finished cleaning the corner of the room, and the other man had regained consciousness. Tifa confronted him as he got to his feet. "You'll be paying for half the damage," she told him firmly. "If it happens again, you will not be welcome back here."

Cliff grumbled something she didn't understand and lurched toward the door. He paused suddenly, catching sight of Rude at the bar, and a vicious smile crossed his face. "You shouldn't let him out after dark. He needs to be tied down at night." His tone was obscene; there was no doubt what he meant.

Rude lunged forward, stopping Reno before the redhead could go after the man. "Let go," Reno growled, so furious he couldn't even put up a defense. Tifa gave the man a kick out the door, and locked it.

Reno stopped fighting, then shrugged his partner off. "I'm fine," he muttered, and glanced around. "Need help finishing up?" he asked.

Rude looked surprised, then shrugged. "I'm off. See you tomorrow, Reno."

"Later."

They worked silently side by side for a while, before Tifa finally asked, "What was that all about?"

Reno shrugged. "Rude is the closest thing I have to a friend," he said.

Tifa nodded and put away the glass she'd been cleaning, then reached for another one.

"Do I get the same warning the other guy did?" Reno asked after a moment.

Cloud came in through the back door. He hesitated, then walked around the bar, took up a station next to Tifa, and joined in cleaning the glasses. "Bad day?" he asked neutrally.

Tifa chuckled. "Sort of," she said. "And no, Reno. I don't keep my friends out of my bar."

"Good thing, too," Cloud added, without missing a beat, and Tifa could have kissed him. "Otherwise we'd never see them."

Reno had stopped, staring at them like he'd never seen them before. Then, slowly, he smiled, almost shyly, and went back to cleaning.

Rude came in a few days later and leaned against Tifa's bar, between two patrons that looked nervous to have him there. "What did you say to Reno?" he asked. The two men on either side took their drinks elsewhere.

"What about?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't ask."

"When?"

He considered. "That night he got into the fight."

"Oh." She smiled at him. "That I don't ban friends from my bar."

Rude considered her seriously. "Thank you."

She blinked. "For what?"

"Reno's my partner," he said. "That doesn't usually mean friends. But he's the closest thing I have, and I worry about him sometime."

Tifa smiled. "He said you were the closest thing he had to a friend, too."

He didn't exactly smile - but Rude never did. He pushed away from the bar. "Thanks again, Tifa."

"You're welcome. And Rude - you're welcome here any time."

He hesitated, nodded, and walked out as Cloud walked in. He paused by the bar, reached out, and smoothed her hair. "Another one of your lost sheep?" he asked gently, and smiled at her.

She'd never loved him more.

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