Reno liked Strife. He didn’t know why exactly. Rude thought that it was because he respected the man, and he did. It awed him, sometimes, how much the man had done, how much he had given, how much had been taken from him, but he kept going, kept giving. It was hard not to respect him, but that wasn’t it.

Elena thought that maybe he pitied the man. He knew enough about the man’s past that pity didn’t cover it. Horror didn’t either.

Rufus thought it was guilt. Reno knew that that was what made Rufus wary of Cloud. Rufus was old man Shinra’s heir. The son of one of the man that had allowed the Jenova project to be born. The son of the man who had allowed Sephiroth and Zack to be ordered to Nibleheim. Rufus himself had ordered AVALANCHE chased across the Planet, had tried to hamper their efforts, adding to the events that had led up to Aerith’s death.

Reno had done a lot of shit in his life that made his stomach turn, but he couldn’t remember doing anything too terrible to Strife, so it wasn’t guilt, either.

Tseng thought it was a crush, another one of Reno’s brief infatuations. It might have been, at first, but he’d known Strife for five years now, so surely the infatuation would have passed. Not that he didn’t still think Strife was hot. You’d either have to be blind or have the sex-drive of a rock to not be attracted to that man. Or be Barret Wallace. That would do it too.

Not knowing why he liked the man didn’t really bother Reno. If he’d been the type to obsess over things he’d have drown in a bog of his own guilt long, long ago. He liked the man, it was that simple.

Or it had been, before he made the mistake of hitting on him in front of Tifa.

Reno was an intelligent man. He was told that he didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. This was unfortunately often true. He was not often known to piss off people who could kick his ass. There was a list of people he tried to avoid provoking. Strife and Valentine were second and third on that list. He greatly respected Strife’s combat abilities, knew that the man could cleave him in two before he realized what he’d said to offend him, and hoped that he would never push the man that far. He was intimidated by Valentine. He was legend among the Turks, sported a vicious golden claw and could his eyes get any freakier?

Lockheart had been somewhere down near twelve or thirteen, but the way she had smiled when she slipped on her gloves had made her jump to number one.

“So, Reno, tell me.” She said sweetly, passing him a drink. “Why are you interested in Cloud?”

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Author’s Notes: I wrote this because a friend of mine requested Reno/Cloud. It’s my first time writing this pairing, so some feedback would be nice.