Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Interludes – Scene 26

Scene Notes:Elena learned that Reno’s been arrested at least nine times since becoming a Turk… but she’s only heard the story behind three of those incidents.

From Chapter 38: Restoration:

“Just how many times have you been arrested as a Turk?” Elena asked, somewhat incredulously, and judging by her tone, the redhead got the distinct impression that she’d heard tell of other such incidents. Reno’s grin widened.

“Oh, let’s see,” he replied, thinking, “Eight? No… nine. Almost forgot about the time I… uhh… yeah… nine. Ya know, unless there are some more in the last couple of years I can’t remember right now. Doubt it, though. It was mostly back when I was a teenager.”

“… Nine times?!”

---

“Can’t we just watch Chocobo Chainsaw Nightmare? You’ve been wantin’ to see that for weeks. Why the sudden desire to subject me to a chick flick?” Reno pleaded, shuddering slightly at the thought of having to sit through the endlessly boring romantic comedy Elena was presently shoving into the DVD player.

“Because,” she stated, a note of finality in her tone. “I need a break from the carnage tonight. We can watch Chocobo Chainsaw Nightmare this weekend… Tonight we’re watching The Diary.”

Reno leaned back against the couch cushions, audibly groaning. “‘Lenaaaaa…” he whined, “Don’t do this to me…”

The rookie gave him a catlike grin and took a seat next to him, cuddling up to the reluctant redhead. “You might like it if you gave it a chance…”

“Not likely.” He stubbornly folded his arms over his chest and glared at the screen, which was, by then, running the opening credits. “The last time someone dragged me out to see some stupid girly movie, I ended up sharin’ a cell with a guy named Lester… who was about three times my size, drunk off his ass, and convinced I was a chick. Had a definite thing for redheads, too…”

Elena stared at him for a moment, not quite sure how to respond to that declaration… before finally opting to break down laughing. It took her several minutes before she sobered enough to say anything coherent.

“Okay… I’ll tell you what…” she said, still snickering as she paused the movie, “You tell me that story, and I’ll watch The Diary some other time. On my own.”

“Deal,” Reno replied, grateful for the reprieve. “So… It all started –”

“Oh, wait… Hang on!” Elena cried, cutting him off and dashing into the kitchen. She returned seconds later with the bowl of popcorn she’d made in preparation for movie night, and rejoined him on the couch. “Okay. Go.”

Reno rolled his eyes and helped himself to a handful.

“Anyway… I think I was probably around eighteen at the time. Had a date with this girl from the marketing department. S’posed to have been a real animal in bed, if rumors were to be believed… but she made a guy work for it. Figured I’d give it a shot,” he began, “I’d already been out with her a couple of times and the best I’d managed was a little makin’ out in the car before I dropped her off at home. By date number three, I was plannin’ on either makin’ it into her bedroom or givin’ up and findin’ someone a little more willing, ’cause honestly… she was hot as fuck, but she didn’t really have much going on upstairs. Which, ya know, I can deal with if I’m gettin’ some, but when you’re spendin’ two or three hours alone with a person and not fucking… it, uh… kinda becomes an issue.”

The rookie cast him a slightly disgusted look.

“What? I’m not gonna pretend I was out for anything more sex before we got together…” he said, grinning. Elena shook her head.

“Alright, fine… but do you really have to be so… crude… about it?”

“Yep.”

The woman laughed in spite of her annoyance, and threw a handful of popcorn at him. “You’re such a jerk sometimes,” she giggled. Reno grinned in reply.

“So… third date, and she wanted to go see a movie. Some stupid thing about beach house. The guy’s dyin’ or somethin’ and the girl… decides to open a restaurant. For some reason. I wasn’t really payin’ that much attention. Anyway, we get about halfway through, and needless to say, I’m just about bored to death. But she’s lovin’ it, and I can tell it’s puttin’ her in the mood, so I figure I’ll suffer through it, ’cause this shit’s finally gonna pay off.”

He reached for some more popcorn.

“So what went wrong?” the rookie prodded as he stuffed the handful into his mouth. Reno swallowed sharply and continued.

“Pretty much everything…” he chuckled. “First off… movie ends, and all of a sudden, she can’t keep her hands off of me. Which was great… but it made it a little hard to drive her home. Ended up parkin’ and climbin’ into the back seat instead of headin’ for her place. Fine by me… Not so fine with the cop that came drivin’ by.”

Elena snickered. “So he arrested you…”

“No. He just kinda smirked and told us to take it somewhere more private. Cool guy, actually. Nah, it was the next cop that arrested me.”

“I take it you didn’t take the first cop’s advice and find somewhere private for your… date?” the rookie giggled.

“Tch… I was tryin’ to,” Reno replied, in an irritated tone, “Driving with a girls’ head in your lap while she’s doin’ stuff to very sensitive parts of your body isn’t the easiest thing to do. And for future reference… don’t ever do that to me, ‘Lena. Some guys might consider that a great way to go, but it’s not how I wanna die.”

She laughed set the popcorn bowl aside before snuggling against him. “I’ll try to control myself…” she teased, “So… the next cop?”

“Yeah. As ya might imagine I was a little… distracted. Kinda missed the fact that the traffic light ahead of me turned red and slammed on the breaks a little too late. Hit the car in front of me. Not real hard but… yeah. He noticed. And that was right about when I noticed that it was a cop car.”

He wrapped an arm around her and gently pulled her onto his lap. Elena sighed softly and leaned her head on his shoulder.

“Knew that hittin’ a cop was probably gonna cost me, but I was hopin’ he’d see what was goin’ on and maybe cut me a break like the last one did… or at least just write the damn ticket fast and send me on my way so we could finish what we’d started… so I didn’t try ‘n hide what we were doin’ or anything. Guy walks up to my car and suddenly my date’s lookin’ up at him with this horrified expression on her face. She practically screams ‘Daddy?!’ and next thing I know, I’m starin’ down the barrel of her seriously pissed off father’s gun.”

Elena groaned and shook her head. “You’ve got to be making this up…”

“Unfortunately… no. I just have really shitty luck,” he smirked, “I didn’t even try and talk my way out of it by tellin’ him who I was… I just cut my losses and let him take me in for reckless driving. Kept me in a cell ’til morning before they let me call Rude to come spring me.”

“And that was when you met Lester?” Elena giggled, poking him in the ribs. Reno snorted softly.

“Yeah… That’s when I met Lester. Spent the rest of the night bein’ told how beautiful I was and tryin’ to avoid bein’ molested by a very large, very drunk man.”

“Well…” the rookie said, in a teasing voice, “You are awfully pretty…” She kissed him playfully and laughed. “I think I got my romantic comedy tonight after all…”

Reno smirked. “That mean you’re ready for Chocobo Chainsaw Nightmare, now?”

~fin~