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FFVII Rarepair Week

Prompt: Free day/ combo day

Sherman, set the wayback machine to - childhood adventures.

Er, this one has more swearing than the others towards the end. Nothing too ridiculous, but just so you know

- - - - - - -

One dusty boot stuck straight up in the air as far our as she could stick her leg, and still she couldn’t quite reach the next ledge. The little girl with a bow in her long hair and a smudge on her nose huffed, scowling at the shortness of that leg and blew out a huff of air to move her long bangs out of her eyes.

“Just a little bit more,” she squeaked, straining until her toe finally barely touched the step on the other side. “Ha! I did it. I’ve touched three sectors now!” She crowed. “And mom thinks I can’t handle myself.” She pulled her leg back before she fell and pulled her knees up to her chest, gazing at the plate above her and the sky beyond the shorn of plate. Voices rose out of the ground here, sad voices. That was one thing that actually hadn’t been anyone’s fault, even the voices killed by it told her that. She pushed a pebble around with one finger and listened for a while. Some had been there for a while, some were new. Most had been robbed and murdered, some had been attacked by the monsters, one had been trying to get away from - the hunters? She had fallen in one of the broken buildings. They asked her why a girl who was so little had to hear about them dying, and she shrugged. It was who she had been made to be. “It’s time for you to go home,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry that these things happened to all of you. Rest now.” The voices all slowly died away, and then she got to her feet, dusting the pebbles from her knees and from her skirt. Mom was such a worry wart, and she was going to start worrying pretty soon.

Aerith picked her way down the rubble toward the path. Mom didn’t have anything to worry about, she was old enough. She could take care of herself. Besides, she never saw monsters around here, not usually. Even if she did she - she heard a squelching and a gurgling somewhere to her left, and her eyes widened. Whatever it was, it was close. She looked to her right, but the rubble rose too high. She chewed on her lip. Maybe she should go back until the monster went away. Or… maybe it was just a small monster. Maybe she could sneak past it.

“Bad idea, yo.” Aerith stopped dead in her tracks. The voice had come from above her, but it was a human voice, not a soul voice. It was the voice of an older boy, an mom had told her time and time again to watch out for older boys. She didn’t have any other choice but to follow the sound of the voice and look up. She wasn’t sure exactly what she had expected to see but a suit certainly hadn’t been on her list. The boy had a lanky leg slung over the half crumbled cinderblock wall, the other was folded up almost to his chin, and his arm rested lazily on it. She stuck her chin in the air.

“I’m going home now.”

“You think you can take on a porkpie all by your lonesome, huh?”

“I -“ she hesitated. Yeah, he looked like maybe he was one of the Turks, but he was so young, maybe just a few years older than herself. A big red pimple even sat at the tip of his nose and several more sprinkles of teenage acne blotched his pale skin. Don’t trust teenage boys. “I don’t need anyone else. I’ve been to three different sectors by myself just today.”

“Wow. Three sectors, huh? That’s cute, yo.”

”I can take care of myself!” She insisted, remembering to be quiet. The teenager chuckled as if she had said the funniest thing in the world, but he didn’t laugh outright. He probably didn’t want to bother the monster either.

“Yeah. Sure ya can, yo. Here.” A long, slightly rusted metal pole was pushed at her and she glared at him. He rolled his eyes. “C’mon, take it. I’d say ya look to scrawny to be any good in a fight, but I got nothin’ to crow about, yo.” She reached out cautiously, testing the touch of the metal before she took it. It was lighter than it had looked. He chuckled again and dropped from the wall with a strange ease of grace. She had never seen anyone quite like him before. He grinned when he got to his feet, and she saw that what she had thought was his ridiculous spikes of red hair curling beneath his eyes were actual two symmetrical crescent the color of blood. He seemed to flinch when he saw that she was staring, but quickly replaced that shock or unease with a slow, easy grin.

“Like ‘em? The boss says they’re stupid, but the chief says… chief says that I needed to take something back for myself, yo.”

“Are you… from around here? Some of the gang boys talk like you do.”

“Huh? Yeah. Well, not here. I - I don’t wanna talk about it. Do you wanna help me take this monster out or what?”

“Me?” She squeaked.

“Hey, I thought you were miss I-Can-Take-Care-Of-Myself.”

“Well, I can.”

“Sweet. Come on,” he said, with a somewhat crazy smile on his face. Aerith hesitated for a moment before she decided - well, he was a Turk. He wouldn’t be down here if he couldn’t handle one little monster, right? She followed, staying a strategic several feet behind him. He looked back once and rolled his eyes before rounding the corner, flicking out a small cylinder into a long rod as he did so. The monster saw him and lashed out with its tongue - a mistake, it found, when the young Turk zapped it with the rod thingy he had. Aerith could smell it, and didn’t think she could ever forget the first time she had literally smelled electricity. The monster shrieked and charged at the Turk - and Aerith realized that she had no idea what his name was. If he died, what was she going to tell Tseng? The teenager cackled and sent several glowing shots of electricity at the monster, catching it off guard and killing it without anymore trouble. Aerith coughed out a gasp and crept up closer. She’d never seen anyone kill a monster before, just scare them off. “

“You had to kill it?”

“What, did you wanna keep it for a pet? Nah, these suckers get big and they just get more dangerous. Better to take ‘em down before they eat someone, because you never forget what that looks like.” He shuddered at the thought and forced a grin. “Okay, princess. Where to from here?“

“Well, I should go home. Or to the church, but I would kind of like an adventure, maybe this time I could help kill a monster. What do you say? We’re almost in Sector Six, and I’ve never been.” The boy’s eyes widened when she said that and he cast about frantically, a strange contrast from his bravado of a few moments ago.

“Damn it, we’re on the freakin’ border of Six, and it’s late. The Hunters are probably already out, shit. Tsneg is going to have my hide if - if someone else doesn’t get it first.”

“Wait, hunters? You mean monster hunters, right? Why would you be afraid of-“

“Not monster hunters,” he hissed, his eyes manic now as he looked around them again. “Corneo’s hunters.”

“Who’s Corneo?”

“Oh shit, you are so in over your head, princess. They’re looking fer people. Pretty people, with green eyes, or with red hair. You know what a brothel is, at least?”

“Mom said never to go in one,” she ventured, wrinkling her nose at the look of disgust Elmira had had on her face when she had asked what the HoneyBee in was. The boy seemed to be done waiting and grabbed her hand, tugging and pulling her along, back to the heart of her own sector.

“Yeah, well, if these guys find us, you won’t have a choice. They’ll knock you out, and the next thing you know you’ll be working in that brothel. Corneo’s a pig, treats his people like trash.” The boy shuddered, but didn’t stop moving.

“Please, you’re going too fast.”

“Huh? Oh. Sorry. I forget that-“ He cut himself off, his eye widening at what she couldn’t tell as yanked her down behind the nearest pile of rubble. He didn’t say anything, and despite everything that she had been thinking about him before, she didn’t try to fight him or get away. His whole body trembled.

“What-“

“Shh,” he shot back. The girl would have turned to scowl at the boy, but his breathing scared her. She was about to speak again, find out what on earth had terrified him so much, when she heard footsteps. Only footsteps? Of what? The boy continued to breath raggedly behind her and a few moments passed before she heard - voices? Oh. The hunters.

“Yeah, I know I saw something,” a rough voice drawled.

“Sure it wasn’t a damned cripshay again?”

“Yes, I’m sure it wasn’t a cripshay. They don’t wear dresses.” Aerith’s eyes widened. Where had they been watching from that they had seen her? Maybe mom was right after all. “And this one looked like a cutie. The don would like another one that’s more on the cute side. Sells well, you know.”

“Yeah, and you wouldn’t mind testing the merch before delivery, either.”

“Like you’ve never done that before.”

“What the don doesn’t know won’t hurt his business,” the other man said with a shrug. “But I still say you were seein’ things. People know better than to come here anymore.”

“Not top siders. And I know what I saw,” the man defended himself and lowered his voice as he did so. They were close now, maybe thirty feet away. Too close to run. The boy hadn’t let go of her arm, and his grip had gotten tighter. That same guy leaned down and scooped something up, displaying it with a throaty chuckle to his colleague. “Porkpies don’t wear ribbons, do they?” Aerith reached behind her head with a silent gasp. The materia was locked away in her dress’ secret pocket today, but her ribbon had fallen out. She dared a glance back at the boy, shocked by how much paler he’d become. He looked like he was about to lose his lunch. He shook his head and hunkered lower into the debris, but the two men had started their search, they both knew it was only a matter of time now. They would have to run, it was their only chance. Aerith pointed at him and then at herself and made a little running motion with her fingers. The boy nodded, though she wondered how well he could run when he was breathing like that. Both of the men stayed close together as they searched, nosing their way gradually near them. The boy crouched now, balancing on the balls of his feet, and Aerith tried to mimic him. Eight feet. They would be discovered any moment now.

“Go!” The boy choked out, leaping to his own feet in a ready sprint, his hand still wrapped around the arm of the girl in a death grip. But it was the same as last time. She couldn’t keep up with his quick steps, his long strides. Even though his breath labored like he couldn’t breath his feet moved. Behind them the Hunters shouted. The boy staggered only a moment before pelting off as fast as he could, nearly dragging Aerith behind him.

“Please, I can’t keep up!” She gasped. The boy didn’t seem able to hear, but the shouting behind made his hand hold on her shaky, until she realized he wasn’t holding her arm anymore and probably didn’t even realize it yet. “Wait!” She tried to call out to him, but between not having enough breath to actually shout and the fact that he didn’t seem to be able to process anything outside of escape right at the moment, he didn’t turn back. She tried to keep up. Tears poured down her cheeks and a meaty fist grabbed her other arm, making her drop her pole. She screamed and fought back, but whatever this don person fed his men down here, they were big.

“Hoho, feisty! The don’ll love you! And dainty too. I like ‘em dainty. What do you think, sweetheart? Want me to be your first?” Aerith didn’t dignify his question with a response, just with a scream. Really she only had a vague notion of what that meant - but not so vague that she was willing to give it a shot. She was aware of the mechanics, just not the particulars. The man laughed at her terror, but stood and waited for his partner, ignoring the kicking, screaming girl in his grip. Aerith hoped that the boy had gotten away, but she wished that he had come back for her. Mom would be so sad to find out that she’d been kidnapped, and not even by Shinra. A high, pained grunt sounded several yards off, but Aerith didn’t hear. She wouldn’t have known what it was anyway until the second Hunter came back with a mark across his face and a hyperventilating redhead grabbing weakly at the hand that grasped his collar.

“You’ll never believe who I just found,” the man laughed, yanking the redhead to his feet. The skin around the boy’s right eye was red, like he’d been hit.

“Well, if it ain’t the don’t Ruby boy! Thought he’d know better than to come around here.”

“The don don’t own me anymore,” the boy blathered out.

“You think he cares? It’ll be fun, like a rental car. You’ll come back a few days, he’ll whore your ass out until the Turks figure it out, and then he’ll just pretend like he never knew we brought you in. You’ve got a lot of customers who miss you,” his captor taunted him. Aerith stared at the boy’s face, seeing the terror and finally, for a moment, the look of defeat.

“Please,” she whispered. “I just want to go home to my mom. She doesn’t have anyone else.” The men laughed at her, but the boy seemed suddenly to come back to life. His face changed one more time, only this time it had become an unbridled rage.

“You let her go!” he screamed, rounding on his own captor. The man was big, but he wasn’t as fast as the redhead, and he hadn’t expected the shivering, blubbering boy to fight back. Aerith had never seen anyone move so fast.

“Hey! Stop it! You can’t win, kid.” The other man bellowed and was utterly ignored by the redhead who looked like a dozen wild cats all fighting at once. The grip on her arm loosened. She scooped at her metal pole with her boot and reached forward only just enough to grab it while her jailer was busy cussing the boy out. She gripped the cool metal. It was lighter than it looked. the boy was holding his own, but he’d been hit several times, this last one landing him on his butt.

“Had enough, kid?”

“Not on your life!” He shouted, leaping to his feet in a fluid motion, driving forward with a flash. A literal flash.

“What the-“ her captor began, just to be cut off when she smashed him in the face with her metal pole. He staggered back immediately, and, mirroring the boy, she kept on him, stabbing at him and swinging the end away from his reaching grasp.

“And stay down,” the boy voice growled, followed by a surge of electricity. Aerith was pretty sure that she would be sick later, but right now she didn’t have time to be. The man grabbed her pole and started drawing her toward him. She yelped, but the thought to simply let go of the pole didn’t occur to her. A hand touched her elbow. Trembling, gentle. “Let go for a minute,” the boy murmured. The man on the other end of the pole laughed, glaring at the boy.

“You think this is the last time we’re coming after you? The don only sold your skin to Shinra because the old man ordered him to. If you think he’d forgiven you for running away, you’ve got another think coming, you skinny little asshole.” The boy merely smiled, but it was the sort of smile that caused Aerith to back away from him. That seemed to have been what he wanted anyway, because his body moved like lightening, and the next minute his rod was shooting lighting down the length of the pole that the Hunter was still grasping and now didn’t appear to be capable of releasing.

“S-stop it. Please. That’s enough,” Aerith pleaded, swallowing the bile in her throat. The boy rounded on her, his face incredulous.

“Enough? Do ya know what these guys do ta people? You know how many they ‘test’ out and leave bleeding in a garbage heap? Huh? Ya know… ya know what that one did ta me? ‘Cause trust me, you don’t wanna know.” A tear streaked down the boy’s face, muddling with the dirt and the blood already smeared across you. “You should never hafta know, yo,” he whimpered at last. She didn’t say anything, she simply took his hand and made him release the charge, letting the now very electrocuted beast of a man fall to the ground.

“Come on. Mom’s making soup tonight. Come on,” she whispered, doing the only thing she could think of to get his mind on something else. He followed numbly, collapsing his rod and hanging it on his belt almost reflexively. He limped slightly as they went, but by the time she had gotten him back home he was barely able to put weight on the ankle and still his eyes didn’t lose their listless glaze.

“Mom! I’m home!”

“Aerith! Thank goodness, I’ve been worried about - what is he doing here?”

“He, uh, saved me,” Aerith mumbled, only now realizing that the trials of the evening had only just begun. She was going to have to explain to her mother what she had been doing anywhere near Sector Six - though hopefully first they would have to call Tseng or Veld and wait for someone to come and get their half catatonic teenage colleague.

“What happened to him?” Elmira murmured, waving a hand in front of the boy’s face. He didn’t react, and his breathing had taken on that frantic gasping again.

“We were attacked by two guys he called hunters. Um, Corneo’s hunters?”

“Those bastards are in Sector Five now?” Elmira said to herself. “If he’s acting like this he may be badly hurt. We should see-“

“I don’t know, mom. He started breathing like this before they even attacked us. They seemed to know each other? They both called him ‘Ruby Boy’ and one of them said that the don had sold his skin to Shinra. Do you know what that means, mom?” Elmira now had gone pale, as pale as the boy standing in her kitchen.

“Aerith, get the PHS and call Veld. Now.” Aerith obeyed without a word, watching as her mom did her best to get through to the red-haired boy. She returned only minutes later with Veld on the line wishing to speak with her mother. Elmira had already gotten the boy to sit and to drink something out of a mug though his hands trembled so badly Aerith was afraid he would drop it, and it was her favorite mug. Elmira continued running one hand over the boy’s shoulders - covered with a blanket, again, her favorite blanket - while she took the PHS from Aerith and began asking questions and demanding that they be answered in full. The boy still didn’t seem to be processing much of anything.

“Hey,” Aerith chirped, dipping her head down in front of his face, trying not to laugh when he startled. He did look funny at first, but the longer she looked, the more she realized that he hadn’t stopped being scared. “Thanks. For saving me.”

“Y-yeah,” he managed. “Um, I had to. I know what would have happened, what he woulda done to ya. I couldn’t let that happen,” he whispered.

“Veld? Aerith has gotten him to talk a little, but please don’t take long.”

“But…mom warned me that boys in the slums are usually abused, and abused boys usually hurt other people to make themselves feel better.”

“Um, yeah. I do.”

“But you-“

“…Did ya see what I did to those guys? Know how I can do it? I use it on people who deserve it instead ‘a making more victims. That’s how the chief says to do it. He’s right,” the boy said, still whispering.

“Alright. Reno, is it?” Elmira enquired. The boy nodded. “Reno. Veld is on his way to bring you home, alright?”

“Okay. Thanks.”

“I am indebted to you for saving Aerith. Thank you.” The boy - or Reno, she guessed - just nodded dumbly this time. “Let me get you some ice for that eye,” the murmured, bustling out to the kitchen.

“Reno. I like it,” Aerith chirped. “It’s very you.”

“Yeah? Corneo hated it. I like using it again, kinda also because it pisses him off when I gotta do missions at the Bee.”

“They make you-“

“I don’t wanna talk about it, ‘kay?” His eyes pleaded desperately, and she was wise enough to let him have it.

“I don’t want to talk about it either.”

“Veld will be here in ten minutes, Aerith. Keep him talking in case he has a head injury.” Reno and Aerith both snorted in laughter, somehow the idea of a head injury seeming ridiculous, if only because she had not actually seen him get hit.

“Let’s talk about - my metal stick. I’m going to learn how to fight with it, and you’re going to teach me.”

“I am?”

“Of course you are! What else are friends for?” She grinned, and Reno cocked an eyebrow incredulously at her statement.

“…Ya think that friends are punching bags?”

- finis -

#ffviirarepairweek #Reno/aerith #aerith/reno

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