@magrods said: an impulsive kiss, to cloud!
What is this, week seven? Cloud lines up the shot at the dartboard, squinting with an eye to kill his depth perception as he mimes throwing the little object at the target on the wall. Week seven of being too much of a coward to ask Reno hey, what's going on with this and us? Sometimes Cloud thinks he's come pretty far from who he was when he followed around Zack like he was the sun and he stared at propaganda-filled magazines outlining SOLDIERs as if they were heroes... and sometimes he thinks he's the same as he was before. Well, in Cloud's defense, it's scary!!! And he hasn't exactly had the best track record with developing crushes on people, what with two-out-of-three of them ending up in the Lifestream. Not that this is a crush or anything.
Another thing: getting used to throwing the Buster Sword around does not make one good at throwing darts. The dart sails from his fingertips and bounces uselessly off of one of the small metal pieces separating square from square. It falls, rather boringly, on the ground. "...Damn." The pinch of his brow creases for a moment. Cloud stands fully upright, rubbing the hand that had just been holding the dart over his mouth, chin, jaw. "...I dunno how I'm still so bad at this."
Reno says something back but Cloud doesn't really hear as he turns back around to grab his next dart from the little tin bucket--not that it matters because it's probably some taunt anyways--as the redhead circles around behind him to grab Cloud's elbows and mime lining up a shot. "Hey, what are you--," he flinches beneath Reno's touch but it's because he wasn't expecting anything like this, such direct immediate contact, because, hey, it's week seven and they still haven't had a real talk--eyes going wide against Reno's smug but indifferent ones, Reno who just kinda shoots a 'don't kill my vibe' look as he acts like this is nothing because it is nothing. Cloud wills himself to relax which is nearly impossible given who he is as a person and given that Reno's chest is so close to his back as he pushes Cloud's elbows together and moves his stance a bit. The blush shoots straight into Cloud's cheeks and it's embarrassing as he can feel the warbling of his chin as he presses his lips down together furiously into a thin line, willing himself to be normal. Embarrassing, embarrassing! Cloud Strife is nothing but embarrassing.
This is why he tells himself Reno is just doing this because Cloud's thrashed his sorry ass in a fight every time the Turk -- ex-Turk? what's going on with THAT now too? -- tried to get in his way. That it's an easy leg up on one of the so-called heroes of the planet as the redhead moves a hand as if to cup the opposite side of Cloud's face and not-so-gently tilts his face towards his own, the distance zeroing impossibly fast, their lips pressing together. It's more like a smak! than a proper kiss. And Cloud feels kind of ripped-off as the warmth in his cheeks colors him as red as a tomato, mouth hanging slightly ajar, like Reno just told him some scandalizing secret about Rufus Shinra and not like Reno just unceremoniously kissed him. Reno just unceremoniously kissed me.
Cloud's confused; which was probably Reno's goal, because if they're not going to talk about it Reno can weaponize it like he does with all other things that are chaotic and Cloud's not very good with unknown variables. As Reno pulls away he gives the swordsman a sort of 'go get em tiger' kind of clap on the back. We're not going to talk about this either? Pathetically, Cloud tries to zen-his-focus back to the dartboard, knowing it's a lost cause, that he's not going to play well at all anymore. The dart lobs forward like a dying bug--
--And it collects a perfect bullseye as recompense for whatever the hell that was.