In a Quiet Town
Chapter 1: Lost and Found
Yuffie groaned for what had to have been the fiftieth time in the last hour. Her head lolled back against the seat of the car.
“If you’re lost again, so help me…” Her threat went unfinished as another wave of nausea hit her.
“I’m not lost… And by the way, green is a really good color for you,” Reno said, grinning as he glanced at the sickly pallor of her face.
“Shut up, Turk-boy,” Yuffie replied, turning her head away from him to look out at the scenery as they drove past. ‘Oh… bad idea,’ she thought, squeezing her eyes shut to block out the movement as her stomach lurched again. Reno turned his gaze back to the road. Yuffie’s motion sickness had been a constant source of amusement for him ever since he’d discovered her hiding in the trunk of his car. Served her right, the little stowaway.
“Aww… Is my poor little Yuffiekins not feeling well?” he cooed, taunting her.
“I thought I told you to shut up,” Yuffie said wearily.
“It’s your own fault, you know… No one asked you to come with me.”
“Well, I didn’t expect to be driving around for hours on end with an idiot who has no sense of direction!”
“For the last time, I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING!” Reno yelled, purposefully speeding up to take a sharp turn on the road. Yuffie groaned in misery.
“Yeah… right. Why is it that men have to drive to Hell and back before they’ll stop and ask for directions?” Yuffie whined.
“‘Cause we like the scenery,” Reno said nonchalantly. The road began to twist and turn through the thick trees, winding back and forth, and Reno flew over the bumpy road with glee, watching Yuffie out of the corner of his eye and chuckling softly as her face blanched.
“Ooooh… Reno, stop,” she pleaded, covering her mouth with one hand.
“Aren’t you having fun?” he snickered.
“Reno, I’m… urp… serious… Stop the car,” she moaned. Not wanting to see what would happen to the interior of his car if he didn’t do as she asked, he hit the brakes. The second the car stopped, Yuffie jumped out, making a mad dash for the bushes. A moment later, Reno could hear her gagging. A few minutes more, and Yuffie slowly walked back to the car, hand clutched to her stomach.
“You alright?” asked Reno. For an answer, she simply plopped down in the passenger seat and went limp. Reno reached over her, pulling the passenger side door shut and headed off down the road again, slower this time. He couldn’t help but feel a little guilty over purposefully reducing the young ninja to such a state. He hated feeling guilty… so he decided to take his mind off of that annoying feeling. He mentally went over his assignment one more time.
Word had gotten out that a small town named Duraman on the western continent was allegedly stockpiling vast quantities of materia. To what purpose, no one seemed to know… or at least no one was willing to say. He was supposed to find out what was going on. What remained of Shin-Ra, Inc. was interested. The company was regaining its power, albeit slowly, under the direction of Reeve, and ironically enough, with the aid of AVALANCHE. At the moment, most of its resources were concentrated on the rebuilding of Midgar… minus the Plate and Mako reactors. Reeve called it a “reclamation project”… Reno just called it a job. As long as he was getting paid, he was happy… though having a less heavy conscience these days didn’t hurt either. Unlike the previous executives of Shin-Ra, Reeve was not a cold-hearted, power-hungry profit-monger.
Reno dared a glance at Yuffie… She seemed to be recovering a bit, staring up at the roof of the car, her face less pale than it had been a few minutes ago. He never should have mentioned this trip to her.
“You alright?” he repeated.
“Better… A little anyway…” she replied, “Are we there yet?”
“Uh… no,” he said as they came to a very familiar-looking fork in the road.
“Reno… Weren’t we just here an hour ago?” Yuffie asked, accusingly.
“Quiet, brat,” Reno replied. They’d gone right before, and come full circle… That meant they should go left this time. Simple process of elimination. Who needed a map? Reno took the left fork.
“Gawd… I’m going to be stuck out here with you for the rest of my life,” said Yuffie.
“I. Am. Not. Lost,” Reno stated in measured tones.
———-
Two hours later, the engine sputtered and died, the gas tank empty.
“… Alright, dammit, I’m lost!” Reno cried in response to the glare he was receiving from Yuffie.
“I don’t believe this!” Yuffie replied. Reno shoved the door open, grabbed his electro-rod from the back seat, and climbed out, “Hey! Where are you going?!”
“Where do you think I’m going? I’m going to Duraman,” Reno retorted, stomping off down the road.
“Hey, wait for me!” Yuffie whined. She sprinted to catch up with him, “How are you planning to find this town? You don’t even know where you are!” Reno muttered something under his breath that she didn’t quite catch. They walked until the sun began to set.
“Ya know, it’s gonna be dark soon…” Yuffie said to her scowling traveling-companion.
“I’m aware of that,” Reno hissed back through clenched teeth.
“So… um… What are we gonna do?” she asked. Reno stopped dead in his tracks and shot her an icy look.
“Uh… nevermind,” she squeaked. They walked in relative silence for awhile, except for the occasional complaint from Yuffie. Soon they were traveling by moonlight. As they reached the top of a hill, Reno suddenly laughed triumphantly.
“Ha! I knew I’d find it eventually!” he said, pointing down the slope. Sure enough, the lights of a little town could be seen amongst the trees.
“Great… Let’s go find the hotel,” Yuffie responded, yawning. The local inn was not hard to find, and soon they each had a room. They headed upstairs, both desperate for a little rest.
———-
Yuffie stretched and climbed out of bed as the sun peeked through the windows. She looked around the room and a sheet of paper on the floor near the door caught her eye. Picking it up, she struggled to make out the chicken-scratches that Reno passed off as handwriting.
“Gawd… He’s got the worst penmanship I’ve ever seen,” she complained, squinting at the words, finally managing to make out the scrawled message:
Dear Yuffie,
I’m going to see what I can find out
about this huge supply of materia
that’s supposed to be here. Stay out
of trouble. In fact, just stay in your
room until I come back.
Love,
The Turk of your dreams
Yuffie rolled her eyes and crumpled the note, tossing it over her shoulder.
“Stay here? When there’s a ton of materia somewhere in this town? I don’t think so, Turkey…” she said to herself. She grabbed a quick shower to be rid of the previous day’s grime, and headed out of the hotel, trying to decide where to start looking.
———-
Dressed in a white tee-shirt and jeans, rather than his usual uniform, Reno sat in a small bar, a beer in one hand, the chair he sat in tilted back precariously on its back legs as he propped his feet up on the table in front of him… but for once, he wasn’t drinking for pleasure. He was easedropping on the two men who sat in the corner of the nearly-empty bar.
“Just brought in a few new ones,” said the taller, thinner of the two, brushing a few strands of blond hair out of his eyes, “Some Alls and a mastered Transform.”
“Have a look at this,” the other man replied, wiping the sweat from his balding head with a handkerchief. He reached into his pocket and produced a small, red stone, holding it up for the first man to see.
“Hey, that’s a nice one, Lars,” the taller man said.
“Yup… The mayor’s gonna like this one… We don’t have too many Summons yet.”
“Better take it to him soon… Wouldn’t want anything to happen to it.”
“Yeah, I’m on my way there now… Just thought I’d show it off a little before it ends up in the vault.”
The first man nodded, understandingly, as his friend stood up and left. Reno drained the contents of the bottle he was holding, and casually strode out of the bar, tailing the man.
‘Vault, huh?’ he thought, ‘Sounds promising…’
He followed the man to a large house at the opposite end of town, watching him stroll past the guards at the ornate front gates and up the path to the door, materia in hand. He was immediately let inside. It was only a few minutes before the man reemerged, an idiotic grin on his face. He was no longer holding the materia. Reno made his way back to the hotel. He’d have to check out that house soon… but it would be easier at night. He climbed the stairs to his room, but as an afterthought, turned to Yuffie’s door instead, knocking loudly.
“Yuffie, come on… Open up!” he called when she didn’t answer. Sighing, he pulled a lock pick from his pocket, relatively certain that he’d find her gone.
“Dammit!” he cursed at the empty room, as his suspicions were confirmed. He saw his note lying in a crumpled ball next to the bed.
“I don’t even know why I bothered to tell her to stay here,” he sighed as he walked back out of the hotel again.
———-
“Grr… Not one person in this town has any materia… What a waste of time,” the materia thief muttered to herself as she walked down the street. Everyone she’d talked to was the same. She’d ask if they knew where she could find some materia, and they would graciously direct her to places like Nibelheim, and Costa del Sol, and even as far away as Mideel. The only thing she’d learned was that this town was a lot bigger than it had looked from the top of the hill last night… Her feet hurt from all the walking.
She decided to take a shortcut back to the hotel, slipping into a narrow alleyway between two buildings. She hadn’t gone far when a strong hand suddenly grabbed her harshly by the wrist and spun her around. Instinctively, as soon as she was facing him, she brought her knee swiftly upwards between her attacker’s legs with as much force as she could muster, and was rewarded with a howl of pain. She grinned with satisfaction and drew her Conformer, falling into a defensive posture as she looked down at the man, who was now writhing on the ground, hands between his legs.
“That’ll teach ya to mess with Yuffie Kisaragi, ninja extordinaire!” she declared.
“I am going to kill you, Yuffie,” a strained voice addressed her, and she suddenly noticed the bright red hair framing the familiar face that now looked up at her.
“Reno!?”
He scowled at her, and he lay doubled over on the ground.
“A-are you alright?” Yuffie asked, hiding a giggle behind a facade of concern.
“What do you think?!” Reno whined. She moved forward to help him up.
“Just stay away from me, Yuffie…” he warned.
“Gawd… I’m not gonna hurt you,” she said, taking hold of his arm and dragging him to his feet.
“Not gonna hurt me?!” he exclaimed in disbelief, “What the hell do you call what you just did?”
“Well, I’m sorry! How was I supposed to know it was you? You just grabbed me out of nowhere!”
“If you had stayed in your room like I told you to, I wouldn’t have had to come after you at all, now would I?” Reno said, closing his eyes and drawing several deep breaths, hoping the pain would fade soon, “Let’s just go back to the hotel.”
‘Consider that payback for the car ride up here, ya jerk,’ she thought smugly.
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