Midgar High School

It was nice to just be HOME for a change. So nice to sleep in his bed. So nice to go to school again like normal. His mom hadn't taken the stitches lightly, but the way things panned out, everything was back to normal.

Well as normal as they could be, sneaking into Sephiroth's room at night or vice versa.

But he was good at sneaking, especially now. And Seph? The man never made a sound.

Well, he did, but not while sneaking.

So his mother being home when Reno got back from school and Sephiroth at work didn't bother him too much. "Reno, honey, you want to talk to me?"

Reno blanched, then tried to look as if he hadn't. He opened the refrigerator and side-glanced at her, but he couldn't read anything into her expression.

"Uh...what about?" he asked, trying to sound confused as he reached for the orange juice.

What does she know? Could she have heard us? Did she find out about how that fucking stupid vase got broken?

Shit.

Her back was to him then, doing something at the stove, making dinner probably, bringing a reminder of a failed attempt at making chicken parmesan. Not so much a failed attempt as a "forgotten about when other things came up" attempt.

She wiped a bit of hair from her face. "Is there anything you want to tell me, honey?"

Reno scratched his nose, acting like he was thinking. He hated, HATED lying.

Especially to her.

"Ah, nothing really. Why, Mom?" he sipped and the tangy juice attacked the inside of his cheeks. He forgot how much he hated orange juice.

She turned down the heat on the stove and crossed back over to the table and sat down. Reno had his father's eyes, his mothers were a pale green. "Well, just, you're finally thinking about college, and all this. I just want to make sure everything is alright." She smiled. "Your mommy worries, you're my only boy you know."

Reno felt his heart clench. This was going to be too hard.

"Um...I think so?" He clenched his teeth, still smiling. That sounded so stupid, so unbelievable. He felt his heart beating too hard, too hard, like a bird beating on his ribs.

"I mean..." he ducked his head.

Sipped the orange juice, made a face.

What was she worried about? His grades? They were good. How he never had a girlfriend? Maybe that was it...

"Are you worried that...I've never had a girlfriend before?" he asked, and that blush was back again, and he couldn't bring himself to look at her.

His mother raised a red eyebrow at him. "I wasn't going to go there…but since you did, is there anything you want to tell me?"

Reno swallowed. Hard. Shit. Trapped by himself. Worst kind.

What to say? "Uh...I guess I just wanted to tell you not to worry about it..." He ducked his head again, knowing that that he looked incredibly suspicious when he lied.

Should I just tell her? Sephiroth told me I could if I wanted to. Am I ashamed of him? What is my fucking problem...

"I...uh...do have one, mom."

Oh, shit.

"I mean..." Blushing, hurting his cheeks. "I mean I...don't have a GIRLfriend...but I..." The countertop was very very interesting. "...do have a...boyfriend." And then waited, for whatever reaction she could give him.

There was a little snort from his mother, something that sounded like "figures". She tapped her hands against her glass. "And this boyfriend wouldn’t be the reason you are going to Junon is he?"

Reno looked up at her, shocked. "I...yes." A moment. "You're not mad at me?"

She fixed him with a firm look. "I don't care what you do with your personal life, Re. But college is important and shouldn't be chosen because of a fling with some cute boy."

"I..." That was not what he had been expecting. At all. "Well, yes...." he trailed off and felt as if his mind was congealing like jello.

"You're YOUNG Re, and I want you to remember that just because you have someone NOW doesn't mean you will you're whole life. Look how many boyfriends your sister's gone through? And every one is like the love of her life. I just want you to make RENO'S choices, not…" She moved her hand. "I mean, just cause your father and I met in HighSchool and lasted through college, not everything works that way."

Reno rubbed his face, grinning. Damn, what a crazy lady his mother was. "No, don't worry about that, either. Aeris, Loz and Nan are going to that school too. Plus, it's the best photography school I could get into."

He set his glass down. "But you're right. I wouldn't be going there if it wasn't for him. He was the one that told me about it." He trailed off, twirling his glass.

"So how long have you been seeing Seph and is that why you brought him here?" She used THAT tone. The "I don't want you having sex in my house" tone.

Reno put his hands up defensively. "Ah, no. At first, it was just because he needed a place to stay, really. And it's been for a ...couple weeks, I guess."

Oh, shit. Please don't ask if we're having sex. That would be so, SO awkward.

He winced internally, trying to think of something to distract her with, but came up with nothing.

"Are you being careful?" His mother asked. Yup, she went there, slam dunk, right where he didn't want to go.

Blushing scarlet, he almost choked on his tongue.

Way to get straight to the point

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, we are." The way he said "we" made him blush even more, blood rushing through his ears until he couldn't hear. This conversation was so surreal.

She sighed, seemed…well, not pleased be appeased. "Not in my house." She said firmly as though she knew every little detail. "And you may want to tell your father before you two move into a dorm room together. I don't want you’re your grades to suffer. Understood?"

He heard nothing but the word "father". "Ah about dad. How will he…" he trailed off, blushing harder than before. "I mean, do you think he'll…kill me?" Reno finally made eye contact with her, trailing his fingers over the glass.

His mother stood up and walked over to him, pulling him into a big hug. She was so damned, LITTLE, funny how she could make him feel safe. "Honey," she patted his back and tucked a bit of hair behind his ear. "Honey, we love you, anything that makes you happy makes us happy. We just want to make sure you don't do something to hurt yourself in the long run."

Reno half laughed, half choked. So his fears were unfounded. "Thank- thank you, mom."

He held her for a few moments, small in his arms, feeling dominant and comforted and so strange. “This has all happened so fast…I had no idea what you guys would think..."

She sighed. "I mean… it's not what we expected. Your little friend Tseng had a crush on you for ages…" His mother crossed the room and dug in the cabinets, pouring milk in a pan and making cocoa, her answer to everything. "Don't expect your father to, ah, not be shocked, Reno. But he loves you, he does."

She leaned back on the table. "I don't know how he'll like your boyfriend living here though."

"Ah…" Reno blushed. There really was no getting around that part. "I guess not… sorry. I wonder where he's going to go, though."

"I'll talk to him, but you have to promise me to behave in the house, and we can leave out the other details, alright? He's a good boy, I like him, but this isn't something I really expected and I KNOW your father isn't. He still thinks you have a thing for Elena."

Reno burst into nervous laughter. "Elena!?" He laughed too hard, choking for breath. "I guess I might have at one point but now that just sounds rediculous."

He looked at her, coming back around to the point. "And don't worry about us, alright? I really like him, and it's going to be fine."

His mother laughed back. "Well dear, you have to agree that she looks nothing like Seph. So I suppose she's not your type."

Reno shook his head in disbelief, not truly believing that his mother could be comparing Sephiroth and Elena as lovers for him. It was really...really surreal. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

What would Sephiroth think about the way he was talking? He would probably be slack-jawed in disbelief, but Reno had never treated his mother with the caustic tongue he gave everyone else. She was different, and he couldn't be like that with her.

She frowned. "Alright then. I trust you." She stood and patted his arm. "You should talk to your father soon." With that she turned and went back to cooking. "Oh and be grateful your dad is a much deeper sleeper than I am."

Reno hurriedly swallowed the rest of his orange juice, not wanting to waste the nasty stuff, dimly noting how his cheeks were burning inside and out. He stood up quicky, almost overturning the stool, and escaped, calling a muffled, "Okay," over his shoulder at her.

Reno hurriedly swallowed the rest of his orange juice, not wanting to waste the nasty stuff, dimly noting how his cheeks were burning inside and out. He stood up quicky, almost overturning the stool, and escaped, calling a muffled, "Okay," over his shoulder at her.

Shit. Dad. I can't talk to him, I can't talk to him about this. Mom was wrong. How in the hell would she know how he would take it? He's going to sucker punch me.

He leaned against the wall, mouth open.

Or something like that...

He felt an overwhelming panic set in, like he was about to take a test that was impossible to prepare for. "Shit," he mumbled, "Shit, shit shit...shit..."

Cussing did nothing to bolster his spirits, so he closed his eyes, a bit overwhelmed. Everything was going to change. He hated that.

Seph, why aren't you home? He frowned at himself, thinking that sounded a bit needy. Shit, who am I kidding? I'm a fucking uke. He laughed nervously to himself. Didn't see that one coming...

Well, that doesn't make you anything less of a fucking awesome kid, does it? He asked himself. If anything, you're more awesome now. I mean, you're not a virgin anymore. You have a beautiful boyfriend. You're going to go to college. Everything's going to be fine, right?

He opened the door to the basement, trying to remember again why he was gay. He set up the reasons in his mind, trying not to feel as if he was setting himself up so his father could knock him down.

The door creaked open, that same creak as every time. And his dad was there, looking up at him and wiping his forehead because the basement never got good air. Reno's heart clenched and he knew he must have looked like a scared little shit, like Sephiroth always said he was.

He made himself walk down the steps, walk to the old desk where his dad was making a model car. And he tried not to stare at anything too long, tried to be natural. It was difficult, more so than it should have been.

"Hey, dad. Which one is that?" he asked, trying to smooth his voice into some semblance of normalcy.

"How you doin, son?" He looked over the car with a smile. "Its a Shelby Cobra. Maybe after you graduate from college and are a famous photographer ya can buy me one eh?" He laughed then. He'd been very happy to hear that Reno was going to college.

Reno tried to force a laugh and it sort of worked and sort of left him with no defenses. "We'll see, old man."

He scratched his neck, desperate for an easy way into it. He could never think of something when it really counted to say things right...

"Hand me that red paint there?" His dad made a motion for it and adjusted glasses over his blue eyes. He tipped the brush into the water, it always amazed Reno how good the colors looked. Reno supposed maybe the eye for color came from his father too. "You look upset? Got woman problems or something?"

Reno started coughing, then got a hold of himself. "Um...not exactly, dad."

"Good to hear, women are trouble." He wasn't watching Reno while he painted. "So you just come down here to laugh at an old man painting toys or what?"

"Um, no, dad. Not really..." he trailed off, breathing out in a rush. "I came down here to tell you that I'm gay." For a moment, he could feel the world kind of spinning under his feet, but it was probably just the rush of blood in his ears. He was sort of proud how it came out so smoothly, listened to it flow past his ears and to his father like flowing water.

His father started and fumbled with the car a second before managing to place it back on the table. He coughed and cleared his throat. "Ah, son? Did you just tell me you were gay?"

Reno clenched his teeth, breathed through his nose, and nodded. "Yeah, I did."

His father nodded and still focused on the car. "So when did you decide this?"

He scratched his head, avoiding having to look at him. "A month ago."

"So what if a pretty girl comes along next month?" Still his father focused on the car.

"I probably...wouldn't even see her, actually," he responded quietly.

"Not even that cute little brunette girl that was by… you aren't seeing that gothic kid with the long hair are you?" Finally he turned and looked at Reno.

Reno shook his head emphatically. "No way, that guy's a bitch." Seeing his father's face turn into a scow, he quickly inserted, "Um...I mean, no. I'm not seeing that guy. Him and the brunette girl, actually..." He put two fingers together and sighed.

"No...I'm actually seeing Sephiroth." And now he probably would explode all over him. Reno tensed.

His father looked at him blankly for longer than was comfortable. Reno couldn't read the expression.

Reno swallowed quickly and turned away, trusting to his stupid mouth. "But that's not the reason why he's here. He really did need a place to stay. All of this stuff sort of happened after that, and um..." he trailed off, scratching his head. "Sorry."

His father remained quiet for a long while. "Heh, never would have pegged him as gay."

Reno stared at him in amazement, wondering dimly why he wasn't getting punched in the face. "What?"

He frowned. "And this is what you want?"

Reno nodded, unable to say anything for once.

His dad ran a hand through his hair. "Well I suppose it's not all bad. At least I don't have to worry about ya getting' knocked up now do I?"

Reno choked, laughing nervously. "Uh...no. I guess not..."

"Just… don't do anything like that in front of your sisters… I don't want to confuse them, alright?" He turned back to the car for a long while before taking another deep breath and turning to look at Reno again. "I'm not disappointed in you Reno, a little shocked, but it's your life."

Shocked, Reno could only nod. "Ah, of course not, Dad." He swallowed and bit his lip. "Uh...thank you. Thanks."

"At least it's not that gothic kid. Christ what a fruit." His dad turned back and kept painting. "Always thought you had a thing for that Elena girl too. She's real cute, let me guess, all three of you are gay huh? Se, Elle and you?"

Reno coughed and laughed at the same time again. "Actually, you're right. I don't know how you know that, but you're right."

"Figures. Just don't start getting into fights about it, alright? Yer boyfriend's built like a mac truck, let him do it."

"Uh...I'll try not to, dad." He rubbed his nose. Both his parents took it so strangely. Not bad...but not like he had expected.

"And you don't like dress up like a chick do you?" His dad asked and then quickly added. "Not that there is anything wrong with that if you do but it creeps your old man out."

Reno shook his head, eyes wide. "No way."

His dad looked relieved. "Good. So I can still say I've got a son then."

Reno nodded. "Yeah, definitely a boy still."

"Don't worry about that."

His dad nodded. "And he can stay, alright? Just... just don't let me know about anything alright?"

"He can stay!?" Reno tried not to sound as incredulous as he felt. "Really?"

"Yeah, he can stay. Just… don't forget college is for school, Reno."

Reno nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, I won't."