Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Interludes – Scene 42

Scene Notes: Poor Tseng… Raising a teenager isn’t easy. Raising a Turk is even harder. Reno has been a Turk for a about a year at this point.

From Chapter 33: Crash:

Rude shook his head. “I think she’ll get over it pretty quick.” He grinned. “She’s been working with Reno so long, she ought to be getting used to it by now, anyway…”

“Hmm… You do tend to become a bit numb to personal humiliation if you spend enough time with him, don’t you?”

Rude raised an eyebrow. “Roller skates,” he said, simply.

The Turk leader cringed. “You both swore to never speak of that incident again,” Tseng replied, feeling his face heat up slightly. The other Turk only chuckled.

---

Tseng watched from outside of the rink as his young rookie made another lap, surprisingly graceful as he wove in and out of the other patrons. He grinned widely as he passed the Turk lieutenant with a wave. The Wutaiian Turk shook his head and chuckled. Twenty minutes ago, Reno had never even seen a pair of roller skates, let alone worn them. Now, he looked like he’d been doing it for years.

His gaze shifted to the other rookie. Rude… well, Rude didn’t seem to have achieved quite the same level of skill as his friend, but he appeared to be managing just fine. The redhead sped past him, cutting uncomfortably close, and Rude pinwheeled for a moment before regaining control.

“Hey, Boss!” he shouted as he approached his mentor once again, “You gonna join us, or what?”

Tseng sighed and made his way over toward one of the openings in the wall that separated the rink from the observation area. This wasn’t going to be pretty. He’d only ever done this once, and that had been years ago. And it certainly hadn’t been pretty then. He was still trying to figure out how Reno had talked him into this in the first place.

Apparently, he had a date tomorrow night, and she wanted to go skating. Reno had – rather wisely, in Tseng’s opinion – decided that it might not be a terrible idea to learn how to do it first. Somehow, that had translated into the three of them arriving at a popular skating rink in Sector 4 shortly after work to give it a try.

Reno looped around the rink again and this time glided through the gate, coming to a stop next to his mentor, an eager expression on his face.

“Come on, Tseng… What’s the hold up?”

The Turk Second flashed him a slightly annoyed look. “Reno… This is not something I’ve ever been especially good at, and I haven’t attempted it in a very long time. I would appreciate a little patience.”

“I get any more patient, it’ll be time to head home before you get out there…” the redhead snickered, giving him a light shove onto the rink. “Move it!”

He very nearly fell, but managed to catch himself on the wall and glared openly at the teenager as he shot past him with a laugh, beginning another lap. Tseng shook his head and took a moment to get his feet back underneath himself before tentatively gliding away from the wall and joining the current of skaters circling the track.

It wasn’t as bad as he remembered. In fact, after a short distance, he finally felt comfortable enough to move out of arms reach of the wall. A blur of red shot past him again, laughing maniacally, and out of curiosity Tseng glanced over his shoulder… only to spot Rude doing his best, though not really accomplishing his goal, to close the distance between them, looking distinctly annoyed. He had no idea what the redhead had done, but clearly his mischievous rookie had found it intensely amusing.

“Ha! ‘Bout time,” a familiar voice crowed, and a moment later Reno had zipped past him yet again. This time, though, he slowed and spun around, skating backwards directly in front of the senior Turk, a wide grin on his face. “This is awesome, Boss!”

“I’m glad to see you’re enjoying yourself,” Tseng responded. Reno was about to reply when several things happened in quick succession.

First, a young girl, perhaps seven or eight years old, darted in front of Reno, and the surprised redhead went down, hard. Tseng instinctively tried to avoid him, but the rookie apparently had the very same idea, rolling to his left in a bid to get out of the other man’s way… which unfortunately for them both was the same direction Tseng had turned. He only just missed colliding with the younger Turk and falling himself by making a desperate, last minute jump over the redhead’s sprawled limbs.

By then, however, he’d lost any semblance of control of his skates and had also picked up some speed in the process. Tseng careened into a large group women who appeared to be paying more attention to their conversation than their surroundings. He mentally groaned, picturing what was about to happen well before it actually did.

Two of the women at the back of the flock gave a surprised yelp as he slammed into them. The collision had a domino effect, and all Tseng could really do was let himself topple along with them. He shut his eyes, anticipating his inevitable impact with the floor. To his immense confusion, it never came. Instead, he found his landing cushioned, his face impacting something soft instead of the unyielding polished wood of the rink.

A moment later, he heard an indignant scream. The Turk sat up, and suddenly realized that he had faceplanted directly into a very well-endowed middle-aged woman’s ample bosom. His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to apologize, only to be silenced by a stinging slap to his cheek… which hit him so hard he collapsed sideways. Face first into the lap of one of the woman’s cohorts.

“PERVERT!” someone screamed at him, and the next thing he knew he was caught up in a flurry of shouts and kicks and slaps as at least six more of the womens’ friends joined in the fray. He had only one option… and that was retreat.

Tseng somehow managed to get to his knees, and began to crawl toward the nearest point of refuge, dogged the entire time by irate women.

---

Rude rolled to a stop next to his fallen comrade, who was watching the spectacle in shock from the floor.

“He’s gonna kill you,” he stated.

“Yep,” Reno replied, unable to take his eyes off of his besieged mentor. Tseng, by then had made if off of the rink and regained his feet, skating unsteadily away from his attackers. He made a beeline for the men’s room, disappearing inside, and, judging by the angry shouts of the women pounding on the door, locking himself in.

“Should we go help him?”

“Pretty sure that’d just get me killed sooner.”

“… Wanna hit up the bar before you die?”

“Yep.”

Rude pulled him to his feet, and the pair quickly skated off, away from the fracas.

~fin~