Haven

After all this time
We are the only two
Here in this world
A love that time forgot
But darlin' we will not—John Hiatt, After All This Time

It was a long motorcycle ride from Reno’s condominium to the jail cell where he had been held hostage, used as bait to fulfill the dreams of a madman in a town so small he couldn’t find it on a map. His boss and fellow Turks had taken extreme exception to their friend and colleague being kidnapped, imprisoned, and generally mistreated; they had visited murder and mayhem upon the parties responsible, upholding their reputation as bad people to piss off.

Turks: We Fuck You Up And Look Good Doing It, the poster in Reno’s own office proudly proclaimed.

Not to mention, there was undying love and devotion of one batshit crazy Cloud Strife. It hadn’t worked out well for the madman in question but had also been tiring for Reno’s rescue team. Rude had secured lodgings in a nearby town so they could rest. The villa belonged to some “associates,” which given the mysterious past of Reno’s partner, could mean damn near anything. No one was asking. Cloud, Vincent, and Reno were taking a few days so Reno could recover from his ordeal. Rude and Tseng cited an oncoming storm as their excuse, but privately Cloud suspected that they too just needed a break. The strain had been hell on them all.

The villa had seen better days. Still, it was clean and comfortable, even if the full staff of servants was down to only a cook and a maid. None of them cared. Reno was happy to see a bed and any food that didn’t have bugs in it. He groaned as he leaned back in the old claw foot tub, dunking his head under to wash his hair. “This is gonna be a pain in the ass without a shower.”

“I’ll help.” Cloud said softly, never really making eye contact. He soaped his hands and rubbed them through the tangled knotted mess, soon working it free in the warm water. Now that the drama was over, the desperate prayers that Reno was alive, prayers that would be suddenly swallowed up in despair the next moment, Cloud felt awkward.

“Babe?” Reno took his hands. Held them tight. “Please, talk to me. I was scared too. I thought if they…”

One of the damn servants knocked on the door to let them know dinner would be ready soon.

“Why don’t you clean up? We’ll talk after dinner, ok?” He ran his hand through Cloud’s hair, nearly as dusty as his own had been.

The mood at the dinner table was one of exhausted relief as they ate a simple local meal of beans and corn cakes with soft cheese. Wine from the villa vineyards relaxed them. They compared notes of the mission as the predicted storm raged outside.

“That was probably the one conversation in my entire career I wanted to have the least,” Tseng recounted. “I mean, it’s always one of the worst duties, to tell anyone their loved one has been taken but damn, all I wanted to do was go running down there and find you myself but I’m the boss, I have to sit there and tell Cloud you’re missing and then coordinate your rescue mission.” He rubbed his forehead. “How did it even happen?”

“Last I remember, I was walking to work, as usual. They shot me with some kind of tranquilizer, next thing I know I’m in some south town jail. Not a very secure one, thank Gaia. Damn near went madder than a shithouse rat, though, till Cloud came riding in on that damn bike of his. First time in my life I think I ever loved it as much as he does.”

“All for some illusion of power, just to be king of a stupid backwater town,” Vincent mused over his glass of wine. “A dead one, now.”

Rude shifted uncomfortably. Execution always left him feeling a bit sketchy, if only because a part of him really enjoyed it. There was something wrong with that. He looked across at a very alive and safe Reno, though, and was damn glad he’d pulled that trigger. He wished he could do it a few more times.

“I’m beat, yo. I’m gonna turn in.” Reno turned to walk upstairs. Cloud watched him go; of the entire group, only he and Rude had remained utterly silent through the entire dinner. After a few minutes he gave up the charade of spreading and respreading cheese onto a corn cake he had no intention of eating, and followed him.

He knew Reno was tired and had no intention of disturbing him. He had only intended to see him, to verify for himself that after days of riding, worrying, hoping against hope, Reno was actually alive. He leaned in against the old fashioned four poster bed and watched his husband sleep. His hair, left unbound to dry, dragged against the floor.

Reno’s eyes opened. He reached out in invitation. Cloud slipped in beneath the covers, the only protection against the night desert chill. They kissed, hard.

“I was so afraid. I was so angry. They took you to get to me. And I killed them. Every last motherfucking one of them, except the one Tseng left for Rude. I killed them. What does that make me?”

“Human. I sat in that jail cell, planning the same thing, hoping I didn’t run out of bodies before I went too mad to kill myself, if they did the same thing to you. Gods. It’s okay, Cloud. We aren’t normal people. For us, this is normal. Hell, maybe it is for other people too and they just don’t admit it. You aren’t a monster. Or if you are, so am I and we’re meant for each other.”

They held each other, kissing away tears and doubts until old terrors became passion. Reno forced Cloud’s mouth open against his own until he felt him grinding up against him. Gods it felt good. It felt…alive.

Too lost in their desperation for each other to bother with gentle foreplay, Reno dug quickly in Cloud’s first aid kid for the small “emergency” package of lube he knew he carried. It was a joke between them, but neither laughed now. He gently turned Cloud so that his back was to him and he could cradle him in his arms, reaching nearly every inch of bared warm skin. He pressed one, then two fingers up into Cloud until the gasps and sighs satisfied Reno that he was ready.

The intimacy was nearly overwhelming after their separation. Cloud cried out at the intrusion as Reno entered him. “Too much, babe?”

“No, just…no. Don’t stop. Touch me. Everywhere.” He did, and it comforted both of them. He kissed everywhere he could reach, ear, neck, shoulder. He stroked Cloud’s chest and abdomen, finally settling on his nearly painful erection. Cloud reacted by thrusting himself back, harder on Reno. The result was agonizingly pleasurable for both of them. Reno tried to still Cloud’s thrusting hips, give himself more time, but changed his mind. What the hell. Instead, he redoubled his efforts pumping Cloud’s shaft and brought them both to a swift peak. He felt the shudder pass through both of them, curled as they were around each other.

When he could move again, he raised his head to kiss Cloud on the cheek. “Well that was different,” a muffled voice drifted up from the pillow.

“I didn’t spend all my time in that jail cell thinking about how to make wooden knives, yo. My imagination did go other places.”

Cloud got up, returned with a bottle of wine and a warm towel for the two of them. Reno stretched. “I could get used to this.”

“I’m only doing it because you’ve been kidnapped and shit, don’t get too comfortable.” He crawled up Reno’s body and kissed him thoroughly. “My compliments to your imagination, by the way. I liked that.”

“Good. I wasn’t sure it would, yanno, work. But I swore that if we both survived this I was damn sure gonna give it a try.”

“Gods, Reno. It worked. Did it ever work. You’re a fucking genius. Literally. I’m just glad we are both alive. What now, when we get back? Is there going to be some kind of hyped up security around the building? Do you have to have a bodyguard?”

“Don’t know. I’m sure there will be a shit ton of paperwork.” Reno took a swig of wine from the bottle and handed it to Cloud who looked a hell of a lot less haunted than before. The brew was heavy and sweet and likely far exceeded the normal alcohol content of anything found in Midgar. “Maybe you can guard my body, baby.”

Cloud smiled as Reno leaned up to lick a drop of wine that still clung to his lower lip. In a few days, they would be back home. Life would eventually get back to normal, though not really. It would never leave their minds that they weren’t like everyone else. Because of what they did, because of what they had done, there was always some asshole who thought they were worth something to their petty little plans. They would always have to walk carefully.

Loving each other would always be dangerous. But wasn’t it always? Wasn’t it a lie, anyway, to think it was safe?

But here, now, in a run down villa only miles from the end of the world, his face tucked into the curve of Reno’s shoulder, the room lit only by the ghosts of the lightning outside, Cloud felt as safe as he ever wanted to be.