Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Interludes – Scene 29

Scene Notes:There’s a very good reason Rude vowed never to go furniture shopping with Reno ever again…

From Chapter22: Moving Day:

Rude glanced at his watch and grinned. “Thank Odin… Almost said no when Reno asked me to come along for this.”

“Why?” she asked, a little shocked. Elena had never known Rude to turn his friend down for much of anything.

“Because he talked me into coming with him after he murdered the waterbed. Took hours… he had to try everything. Twice. In three different stores,” he groaned, “It was torture.”

---

The redhead flopped to one side, curling into a ball, and frowned.

“I don’t like it.”

Rude, who had been holding back for well over four hours now, finally groaned. He walked up to the bed, arms crossed, and stared down at the younger man.

“What’s wrong with this one?” he sighed.

“It’s too bouncy.” Reno sat up, sitting cross-legged in the center of the bed and bounced slightly, as if to demonstrate. Rude rolled his eyes.

“The last two weren’t bouncy enough. The one before those was too soft. The six before that were all too hard. And… I don’t even remember what was wrong with all the others we’ve looked at. What exactly are you looking for?”

“Somethin’ kinda between soft and hard, that’s bouncy, but not too bouncy… Obviously.”

The bald Turk snorted. “Obviously…” he echoed. Normally, he’d be content to simply sit back and observe… but this was getting ridiculous. “Reno… We’ve been looking all afternoon. We’re on our third store and you haven’t found anything you even sort of like. Just… get another waterbed.”

The redhead’s shoulders drooped slightly. “I can’t. Someone narked on me. One more ‘disturbance’ and that asshole landlord of ours is gonna kick me out. I mean… probably not real good odds I’ll shoot the next one, too, but… face it, I can do some pretty stupid shit when I’m drunk. And Tseng’ll fuckin’ kill me if I manage to get myself evicted.”

Rude sighed and shook his head. The redhead had only moved in upstairs from him about two months ago… The guy who managed their apartment building had been gunning for Reno almost from the moment he laid eyes on him. One of these days, he was going to have to find out what his friend had done to piss the man off so badly.

“Come on… Think they’ve got some more back here…” he replied, resigned to his fate. At the rate they were going, Reno was going to be sleeping on the floor tonight. The two men wandered past a large collection of arm chairs and into a smaller showroom in the back of the store. “Hmph… must be the extra expensive stuff…” Rude said, noting the distinct lack of anything resembling a price tag. Reno shrugged.

“Tch… So what? I make more in a month at Shinra than I made in a fuckin’ year at the bar… Think I can afford to treat myself once in awhile.”

Rude smirked. “You also pay rent, utilities, and cable subscription now… plus extra for the porn channels. Thought you were saving for a car.”

“I am. But this is a necessity,” he replied with a grin and hopped onto the nearest mattress, settling into it and closing his eyes. He cracked one open again. “And so are my porn channels, so shut it.”

The bald Turk snickered, but didn’t comment. “So? How’s this one?”

“Ya know? It’s actually not bad… but I’m just not sure,” the redhead said with a thoughtful frown. “Hey, do me a favor… lay down, will ya?”

“… Why?” he asked, suspicious.

“So I can see how it feels with someone in bed with me.”

Well… That was definitely not something he wanted to explain to some poor unsuspecting sales associate.

“I’m not getting into bed with you.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. You’re not my type…” the younger Turk deadpanned, before his earlier grin returned. “Come on,Rude… Help a guy out, huh?”

Rude rolled his eyes and looked around, making sure they were alone before he sat down on the edge of the bed. Reno obligingly moved over, and he laid down next to him.

“Huh…”

“Now what?”

“Not bad…” The redhead suddenly rolled over and let his head rest on Rude’s chest, one arm draped over his torso.

“What the hell are you doing?” Rude queried, a tired note in his voice.

“Well, maybe you and your dates sleep on opposite sides of the bed and never touch, but I don’t…”

In retrospect, he probably should have expected something like this. In the relatively brief time they’d known one another, he’d learned that Reno could be a bit… uninhibited. And as much as he liked his new teammate, it was something Rude was still getting used to.

“Do you like the bed, or not?” he asked. He was growing weary of humoring his fellow rookie.

“Tell ya in a second…” Reno replied, and without warning he rolled himself on top, straddling Rude’s hips and sitting up, a somewhat pensive expression on his face. He bounced slightly on his knees, testing the give of the mattress. Rude glowered at him… that was taking things just a little too far. He moved to shove him off. Before he could, however…

“I… uh… can I… help you?” a voice from the showroom doorway inquired, and Rude quickly turned his head to see a young saleswoman staring at the pair of them, with a somewhat awkward expression on her face. The redhead’s grin widened, noticeably.

“We’ll take it.”

“Er… Yes, sir… I’ll just… go ring you up,” she said, hurriedly, and vanished around the corner, her face a somewhat unnaturally bright shade of red.

“What’s up with her?” Reno asked, innocently, not quite able to suppress the laughter in his voice. Rude glared up at him.

“You do realize I have to kill you now, right?”

~fin~