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Reno was the sort of person who was extremely competent at his job, yet didn't want anyone to know it. He often took up his smirking, lazy mantle in order to disguise this fact from his colleagues, yet there was one man he couldn't possibly fool and that was Rude.
Rude was Reno's partner, his best friend, his only friend. Despite the fact that he often remained silent, Rude was always there for Reno when he got himself into trouble. Which was incredibly often. The bald man knew for a fact that Reno kept a large bottle of alcohol hidden in his desk for the long nights of paperwork. Reno despised paperwork, so much so that it was often Rude who did it all for him when he was too drunk. There were some especially late nights where Reno would get so polluted he could hardly stand.
On those nights is when Rude would help his partner make his way home. Rude had given up long ago trying to count the number of times he had had to do so.
On this particular night, Reno had clocked out early, leaving his bald partner a large stack of mission reports to go through. Rude rolled his eyes. Sometimes the redhead could be such a pain.
The large man jumped slightly when his phone began to ring.
"Hello?" he answered gruffly.
"Hey, uh Rude? This is Tifa Lockheart down at Seventh Heaven." Rude's heart skipped a few beats. Tifa? Calling him? There had to be some reason for this, she couldn't possibly just be calling to talk to him. "Your, uh, partner's here. He's kind of acting funny. I think he might have had just a bit too much to drink."
'And there's the reason,' he thought, rolling his eyes. Such a pain, such a pain.
"All right," Rude said. "I'll come get him."
"You might want to hurry," Tifa said in an odd voice. "He's sort of- Reno no, don't! You have to stay here!"
Rude had heard enough. He hung up and left the office, putting the phone back into his pocket.
"Rude, where are you going?" his boss Tseng called out after him as he made his way to the elevator.
"Reno," Rude grunted as the elevator door closed.
When Rude reached Seventh Heaven, Reno was not inside, but standing outside staring at the night sky. That was one of the big differences about Edge as opposed to Midgar: you could see the sky.
"Hey, partner," Reno said. "You must hate me, huh."
Rude approached the man and noticed that tears were streaming down his face. Rude shook his head. Reno was really, really drunk this time.
"I'm such a horrible person. You shouldn't have to deal with me, yo."
"Reno, just exactly how much have you had to drink?"
Reno shook his head and sat down in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Does it even matter? I'm still a loser."
Rude looked at his partner, exasperated. There was a certain line Reno passed when he was drunk when he just became a weepy mess, and it was when he was like this that he was hardest to deal with. He pulled the redhead up by his arms and began to walk him to the train station.
"Rude, you're always so nice to me, yo," Reno said as he stumbled along side his partner. "I'll never understand why." Rude rolled his eyes. Sometimes he didn't either. "I'm such an ass. I'm mean to everyone. I'm mean to Elena, I'm mean to Tseng... and look what I make you do. You should just leave me here to rot, yo."
"I wouldn't do that," Rude said as they finally reached the railcar that would take them to Reno's apartment. It wasn't far, but when Reno was like this...
"I don't see why after what I've done."
Now this concerned Rude. This was beyond what Reno normally said when he was like this. Usually he just went on about how he was an asshole.
"What have you done, Reno?"
"I dropped the plate on Sector 7."
Rude bit his lip. He hadn't realized that his partner had been carrying that burden with him all this time. He hadn't realized Reno even felt remorse about it. Reno had always appeared to have an "orders are orders" feeling about the whole ordeal, even though he had effectively killed thousands of people.
'Maybe that's the reason he drinks all the time,' Rude mused as he sat with the sobbing man in the railcar. By the time they had reached the right stop, Reno had passed out. Rude shook his head as he threw his partner over his shoulder. The redhead was heavy for a man so skinny. 'The things I do for this guy.'
Rude carried Reno up to his apartment and lay him on his couch. He thought about just leaving, but he worried that Reno might throw up and choke on his own vomit or something like that. Instead, he pulled up a chair and sat in it, closing his eyes. He could at least get some sleep if he was here.
The next morning, Rude awoke to the sound of Reno moaning in pain.
"My head," he said. "It hurts so much." Reno was covering his eyes, writhing in pain. Rude almost laughed. This was why he didn't drink. However, he rose and went to get his friend a glass of water. "Thanks," Reno said groggily as he took it from him.
"Do you remember last night?" Rude asked. Reno nodded as he took sips from the water. "You, know I think... everyone's forgiven you. They know you didn't do it because you wanted too."
Reno looked up at Rude, smiling sadly.
"Yeah, I... figured that, yo," he said. "Thanks. For everything."
Rude nodded.
"Only for you," he said.
