[FFVII] The Morning After (Reno/Rude, SFW, T for alcohol use)

[wallwalker]

Title: The Morning After
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Characters: Reno/Rude
Rating: SFW (alcohol use)

Originally written for fic_promptly some time ago. I keep finding things there that I'd forgotten about writing.

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Reno woke to the sounds of his phone ringing and his own pulse pounding in his head. "Dammit," he muttered, pressing his palms against his temples to try to hold the pain inside. It didn't work, but it made him feel a little bit better; at least he was doing something. Hangovers were always a bitch to deal with. He'd tried every damned hangover remedy that anyone had ever come up with, and nothing ever helped.

His phone kept ringing. Then it stopped, and he sighed with relief and dropped back onto what he was fairly sure was his own sofa. He was just about to doze off again when it rang again, starting the pounding all over again.

"All right, all right," he muttered to himself. "Fine. You bastard." He had no idea who was calling, not yet, but he wasn't sure he cared, either. He grabbed for the phone, made it after three tries and hit the speakerphone button after four, not even bothering to look at the caller ID. "Yeah?" he asked, falling back onto the sofa and dropping the phone next to his head.

"Hey." The voice was distorted slightly, for some strange reason, but Rude's basso grumbling was unmistakable.

"Rude, c'mon," Reno said, closing his eyes. "Give me a break. My head's about to fall off."

"I know. Mine too."

Reno snorted. "You're shitting me. You sound fine."

"Of course I sound fine. I'm on duty, remember?"

"Oh. Right." Reno blinked. "I'm not supposed to be on duty now, right? Because we're usually on duty together, and... shit!" He sat up quickly, grabbing for his coat.

"Relax, Reno. I'm training the new kid, remember? Lie back down."

"Oh... yeah. Right." He winced slightly and did what Rude said. The sudden movement had not been kind to him. "So why are you calling me?"

"I want to know if I remember last night right."

"Fuck if I know. I don't remember a damn thing." Which wasn't totally a lie. He remembered a few things, but nothing he felt like saying to Rude. He was pretty sure that Rude would kick his ass if he'd known about the dare, or the fact that the two of them had ended up getting kicked out of a bar because Reno had gotten a little too drunk and started trying to make out with his sometimes-partner. Not that Reno was the slightest bit ashamed of himself, and in fact mostly wondered why it happened sooner, but he wasn't sure where Rude was at with that sort of thing, so maybe it was better if he kept it to himself. "It's all just a big, alcohol-soaked blur."

"You sure about that?"

"Positive." He smiled wryly. "Now, maybe you oughta hang up before you give the new kid ideas about making personal calls on the job, yeah?"

"Guess so." He cleared his throat. "Just got one thing to say first."

"Shoot."

"Next time you do something like that, I want us both to be sober. Forgetting it takes all the fun out of it."

Reno's eyes snapped open. "Wait a sec, what??"

"You heard me." And the phone went dead before Reno could do anything else but groan and cover his face.

Well. On the bright side, he figured that at least answered that question.