Next Time You Call
Chapter 22: Dalliance Word Count: 94,931 (total) Fandom: Final Fantasy 7 (post Advent Children) Pairing: Cloud Strife/Rufus Shinra Rating: Explicit
“Shit!!”
“What?” Reno asks dumbly just as Cloud’s legs finally regain some mobility.
He stumbles forward, falling to his knees to crawl into the gap under the desk where the basket should be. It’s a completely superfluous act, but his brain feels like sizzled meat and he can’t seem to get enough oxygen into his lungs.
“It’s–”
He clambers around, presses a cheek to the floor just so he can double check under the bed. Nothing there but the sword Rufus gave him what seems like eons ago.
“Fuck!”
“Oh, this doesn’t sound good,” Elena blurts out from somewhere up above.
Cloud stands, searching furiously in every corner, every nook, every cranny. He throws his little closet door open, knowing it won’t be there but looking anyway.
“It’s gone, holy shit, it’s gone,” he finally utters aloud as he tries to keep himself from fainting.
“What do you mean, gone?” Reno barks at him, but Cloud already has his phone in hand as he sails out the door and down the hallway, leaving the two Turks befuddled in his bedroom.
As he tosses his old office and even peeks into the other bedrooms, Reno and Elena catch up to him, their candor less desperate but increasingly uneasy. The basket wouldn’t have been moved–the kids don’t bother with his space and he’s been keeping the door locked lately anyway in case Tifa passes through to clean up or poke around for something if she takes a call on his behalf while he’s out. Even so, the minute hope that it was simply misplaced has him frantically scouring until, with a heavy feeling in his chest, he has to meet the two Turks back out in the hallway where they wait with arms crossed. It’s clear they’ve already recognized the gravity of the situation despite allowing him his spiral from denial to acceptance.
“It’s gone…” Cloud remarks a final time, his gaze distant and cast down at the floor between them.
“Yeah, you said that already,” Reno quips unhelpfully. Cloud is too anxious to care.
Without answering, he pushes past the both of them and rushes downstairs, completely oblivious to Lucy’s concerned reaction from behind the bar as he visually combs every inch of the bar and dining area. Suspicion has his senses sharpened, his blood pumping fast and hard. Suddenly, he’s out on the front stoop, scanning the intersections and alleyways, the neighboring buildings, the few people walking the street. He turns back to face the front of 7th Heaven, half expecting to see a shadowy figure perched on the roof or disappearing behind the back. It’s not until Reno and Elena appear in the doorway that he’s able to take a deep breath and pull himself together.
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