Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Now, Tomorrow, Always ❯ Chapter II ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Reno had always been a master of "The Grand Entrance.".
How it happened, he never knew. He maintained that the dustbin had been blocking the doorway, and that it was someone else's stupidity and carelessness that caused it.
In fact, the chair was a full three feet to the left of the door.
In fact, there was a mirror above it on the wall, and Reno was, in fact, like a budgerigar: drawn to mirrors. Though he still maintained his defence.
He collided with the rickety chair and ended up on the floor.

"The Grand Entrance."

Nobody else in the pub had really noticed, though. Reno's sense of humiliation wasn't noticably developed, so it wouldn't have bothered him if they did.
Picking himself up, Reno strolled through the smoky pub towards the bar. The floor was always filthy here, and the furniture was run down. There was graffiti on the walls, the bartender had never heard of a coaster, and the music was awful. In short: it was a dive. This place wasn't a favourite venue of his, there was no shortage of pubs in Midgar. There were much nicer places scattered around the huge city, but Reno usually stuck to this one. He had a good reason. He was too lazy to head on into the others.

The drinks here were cheaper, too.

Reno was still brushing the dust and grit off of his shirt as he sat on a rather hazardous looking stool at the bar. Since Tifa had cut back, the owner had found himself having to bartend a few nights. He was sliming around at the other end of the bar at this moment.

"Hey." Reno called.

The barkeep looked at Reno as if he'd interrupted something important, but greased his way towards him.

Reno ordered, and noticed the filthy look on the barkeep's face.

"What? I'm paying." He said.

When Reno had once again managed to get his drink without arguing with the bartender, he swiveled round on his stool, and surveyed the pub.
He hadn't been joking with Tifa. The idea popped into his head when he'd mentioned the pub. Reno's forays into the pub were many, but travelling into the no-man's land of sex was a little rare. Something else he could only be bothered with every now and then. When he could ]i1 be bothered, on the other hand...he could really have anyone he desired.

Four drinks later, Reno was still keeping an eye out for someone to play with.

Reno was a master of the one night stand. He was a greedy perroo by nature, but he did manage"to make sure nobody else had any regrets. Well, while they were with him, at least. The might be beating themselves up after they walked out of his door, but certainly not before.
Tonight, however, the pickings were slim.
The smoky hell was mostly inhabited by paunchy laborers tonight.
So Reno downed his sixth and seventh drinks.
On the eighth, someone showed up. He'd actually appeared around the fourth drink, but Reno's reactions were already a little slowed by that point, so it took another four drinks to notice.

This particular character was sitting in the furthest corner of the room. Long dark hair. Headband. Black button-down shirt. Staring into his drink. Reno was shocked at how pale he seemed. His face was almost glowing through the smoke.
Overall, very nice.
And very fuckable.
So good things did come along in this place if one waited long enough. Reno had waited long enough to down nearly nine drinks before things finally got interesting.
Reno stood up and walked toward the character in the corner, thinking how lucky it was that those drinks were cheap.

The stuffy and vile odor of sweat and smoke did not mix well with the cheap swill this bar was passing off as wine, Vincent noted. He was already nauseated from the first sip of the wine. He wasn't about to let it go to waste, though. He had paid for it, Vincent figured he would be able to stomach it, if he held his breath.

Sitting in the darkest corner of the bar, in hopes he would be able to escape the horrid stench, with no luck. His eyes had already scanned the people when he entered, recognising most of them from around town, when he left the house during the daylight hours. He had slipped past one in particular, not wanting to be noticed or wanting to be disturbed.

The better part of Vincent's day had been taken up with reading, trying to figure out what had gone wrong with Cloud's bike. Even with a new battery, the engine wouldn't click over, and seeing as Vincent didn't have much to do with his time, he offered to read up about them and see if it was stated in a book somewhere.

On the plus side, it gave him a reason to really not interact much with the other occupants of the house he was living in. Vincent had no problems with any of them, except Cid's gutter mouth and his total disrespect to almost everyone. Since he had started the orphanage, Cloud was around even less. The only half way intelligent conversation he had was with Red, otherwise known as the pet.

Vincent adored the children, though babysitting was not for him, at least not large periods of time. Even though it was easy to keep the two of them entertained at the same time. Marlene would play with his hair, while he played toy soldiers with Denzel.

Vincent's attention was drawn to the bar as the person he didn't want to notice him, as he slammed his glass down and shouted, "Boo-yah!"

Raising an eyebrow, Vincent was not sure if he wanted to know what the redhead was drinking or what 'Boo-yah' meant. He lowered his gaze back to the hideous looking liquid in his glass again. Does cheap have to mean bad? he wondered as he took another sip. He inwardly flinched as the drink seemed to sink to the bottom of his stomach.

Dispite not wanting to draw attention to himself, Vincent looked back over to the tipsy redhead at the bar as he lit a cigarette, as a fresh drink was placed in front of him. Vincent almost smirked when the lit cigarette was dropped into the new drink and the look of utter dismay upon the face of the redhead. It didn't last long, as the man lit a new one, unfocusedly glancing around the room, getting ready to take a gulp of the cigarette infested drink.

Knowing he wouldn't be able to keep his own drink down if he saw the man swallow, Vincent went back to looking at his drink. His attention was drawn to the light reflecting off a clear button of his shirt. He had no idea why he actually dressed up for this little outing.

Taking a deep breath, Vincent took another sip of the wine and closed his eyes. They opened when someone shouted. His eyes went instantly to the man at the bar, seeing that it wasn't him - and being a little surprised by it - he scanned the room, seeing it was a drunk that fell over.

Taking another quick glance at the redhead, Vincent was vaguely astonished to see he was staring back. After a second, Vincent averted his eyes back to the glass and he noticed a stain he never saw before. It turned him off the drink and he pushed it away. Watching the glass slide along the tabletop, a movement, other than the dirty glass, caught his attention. He had a sinking feeling as he saw it was the redhead making his way towards him.