Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Interludes – Scene 38

Scene Notes: We all know Reno has been arrested at least nine times since he moved from the Slums to the Plate (for setting off an explosive in his apartment, for joyriding in Tseng’s car, during an unfortunate encounter with a date’s father who happened to be a cop, and while running away naked from a one night stand’s none-to-happy fiance). Four down… five to go.

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“Alright. In you go.”

Reno growled in annoyance as the officer escorting him gestured to the small cell in front of him. The redhead begrudgingly stepped inside, and the barred door shut behind him with a loud, metallic slam.

“You’re gonna be sorry when you find out who I am,” he muttered angrily. Though… it was kind of was his own fault for heading out without his company ID. At sixteen… and still easily mistaken for someone younger… he should have known better than to expect anyone to actually believe him when he told them he was a Turk. Particularly given that he’d been drinking at the time. Tseng had warned him that the bars topside weren’t as lenient as the ones in the slums… but the Wutaiian son of a bitch hadn’t said a damn thing about the liquor stores!

Though, in retrospect, that probably should have been obvious…

“Oh, really?” the officer replied. “Something tells me, you’re the one who’s ‘gonna be sorry’… when I get ahold of your parents. Now… are you going to give me their number, or are we going to do this the hard way?”

Reno folded his arms over his chest and scowled.

“Suit yourself. Just means you’re going to be in there even longer while I run your prints,” the man said with a shrug, and turned on his heel, striding back down the hallway.

“H-hey! You can’t just fuckin’ leave me here! Don’t I get a damn phone call?!” he called after him. That’s what he’d always seen on TV, anyway. He’d sort of been counting on it, actually… If he could just get ahold of Rude, his new friend would definitely come get him. He could be out of here, home before curfew, and Tseng would never know. Hopefully…

“Soon as you’re sober,” the officer responded, not bothering to turn back.

“I’m not drunk, goddammit!” Reno retorted, but by then he’d already slipped through the door at the end of the hallway and back into the station. The redhead groaned. “Well, that’s just fuckin’ terrific…”

All he’d had was half a beer and a few hits from a bottle of vodka. Sure, he’d rather stupidly been drinking it while waiting in line to pay for it – hence the call to the cops – but he most certainly wasn’t drunk. Not even close.

Tseng was gonna kill him when he found out about this.

With a sigh, Reno took a seat on the uncomfortable little bench that was attached to the wall. No… Tseng wasn’t gonna kill him. He was just gonna put him on the first train back to the Sector Two slums. For Ifrit’s sake, the redhead hadn’t even been a Turk a full two weeks yet, and he was already sitting in a fucking jail cell. The Turk lieutenant had even told him, explicitly, within hours of bringing him up, that if this happened he wasn’t going to be happy about it.

Reno had gotten the biggest break of his miserable, worthless little life, and he’d just fucked it up for some cheap booze. As the full weight of that reality settled on him, he felt his stomach turn. He didn’t want to go back. Sure… he didn’t have to stay in Sector Two… but the slums were the slums, no matter which of them he moved to. He hated it down below. Especially now, after seeing what he could have up here on the Plate.

The sixteen year old Turk pulled his legs up onto the bench and hugged his knees to his chest, burying his face against his arms. He was so fucking stupid! Tears of anger, fear, and frustration prickled at the corners of his eyes, and he willed them back. He was not going to cry over this. He’d found a way to live down below before… he could do it again. It wasn’t the end of the world.

… It was just the end of his dream to get out of there and never go back, that was all. Because he had no illusions that he was ever going to get a second chance at escape from that hellhole.

A quiet sob finally escaped his lips.

---

Tseng stepped into the police substation in Sector One, half expecting his new charge to be waiting defiantly at the door for him. Likely in handcuffs, but still… He approached the desk just inside where an officer was seated, shuffling through a pile of paperwork.

“I was notified that my ward is in custody,” he stated, doing his best to keep the extreme irritation he felt out of his voice. After all, it wasn’t local law enforcement’s fault that his rookie had decided to ignore his warning and go out drinking. No… The blame for that lay squarely on Reno’s shoulder… and the little redhead was going to bear the full brunt of Tseng’s displeasure just as soon as they got home.

The officer looked up, setting the folders aside.

“Redhead? Arrested for underage drinking?”

“That would be him, I’m afraid,” the Turk sighed. The man nodded and turned toward the squad room.

“Hey, Parkins! The kid’s guardian is here!”

An older police officer made his way to the front, holding out his hand in greeting. Tseng shook it, and followed him to his desk.

“How much trouble has he caused?” he asked. The officer chuckled slightly.

“To be honest… I wish all my arrests went so easy. He’s a nice kid. Little bit of a mouth on him, but… that’s pretty normal for a teenage boy.”

Tseng resisted the urge to sigh in relief. At least he wasn’t going to be dealing with assault charges, or something equally as problematic.

“Now then… it’s a three hundred and fifty gil fine. He can appeal it if he wants to… but just so you know, I make it a special point to show up for underage drinking cases, and he’s on camera at the store where he was arrested.”

“Oh… he’ll pay the fine,” Tseng stated, with a note of finality. “Every last gil of it.”

That would be most of Reno’s first paycheck… which he would be receiving tomorrow. Or, rather, not receiving tomorrow, as the case may be, given that it was now already spent.

“So… I gotta ask. Kid tried claiming he was a Turk when I picked him up. Didn’t believe him, of course. He’s just a kid. Then I ran his prints and they come back as not only a Shinra employee but a ward of the company, and I got to wondering. Is he… really?”

Tseng smirked slightly. At least Reno would be learning a lesson tonight about carrying his credentials with him whether he was on duty or not. “He… will be. Assuming I can survive his training with my sanity in tact… May I have him back now?”

“Oh, right… of course. This way,” the officer replied, shaking his head… likely at the thought of having just arrested a Turk and lived to tell the tale. Tseng followed him into the cell block at the back of the station, and moments later found himself standing in front of a small cell containing one rather miserable-looking redhead. The Turk Second folded his arms over his chest and stared him down.

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”

The rookie swallowed sharply and almost immediately dropped his gaze to the floor. Tseng rolled his eyes. The officer unlocked the cell, releasing him to his mentor’s custody.

“Let’s go, Reno,” Tseng said, sternly, and placed a hand between the teenager’s shoulder blades, guiding him down the hall.

---

The drive back to his apartment was short and spent in silence. Reno, for his part, barely even moved, save to fasten his seatbelt. Tseng parked out front and ushered the young man inside. When he gestured for him to take a seat on the couch, the redhead nervously complied.

“I’m quite certain I warned you that there would be consequences if you did something foolish enough to force me to come and retrieve you from a prison cell…” he began, “And I believe I also warned you that the rules regarding the legal drinking age in the slums… or more specifically, the lack thereof… do not apply on the Plate.”

Reno seemed to shrink in on himself.

“I trust you’re prepared for those consequences?” the Turk lieutenant added.

“… Yes, sir,” his rookie said, remorse more than apparent in his voice. He dared a glance up at the older Turk, uncertainly. “C-can I at least stay the night?”

Tseng blinked in surprise at the request, not following the teenager’s train of thought.

“What in Leviathan’s name are you talking about?” he asked, confused. He shook his head and sighed. “Nevermind… You’re restricted to the apartment this weekend. Which is just as well, given that you will have no money for any of the activities you may have been planning anyway. Your first paycheck will be going to pay your fine. And… just because I’m extraordinarily annoyed with you and know how much you dislike getting up early… we’ll be heading into the office at five tomorrow morning for some extra sparring sessions and a mile run.”

He suddenly realized that Reno was looking up at him, thoroughly mystified.

“You’re… not gonna send me back to Sector Two?”

“Of course I’m not,” Tseng replied, his tone softening slightly, and the redhead’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Reno… one, admittedly irritating, but relatively trivial infraction is hardly enough to warrant your dismissal.” He gently placed a finger under his chin and lifted head so that he was looking at him again, and was more than slightly concerned by the amount of uncertainty he saw in the teenager’s eyes. “… though perhaps I should have made that a bit more clear.”

The next thing Tseng knew, his rookie had thrown his arms around him, hugging him tightly. The older Turk tensed as his rookie unexpectedly attached himself to him, awkwardly patting Reno’s back. It was right about then that Tseng realized, for the first time, that with a rookie as young as the one he’d chosen… he was going to have to be a bit more than just a mentor.

~fin~