Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 10: Rude

Izzy grinned as she tucked her blouse back into her skirt and smoothed down her hair. She leaned in close to him and kissed him.

“Anytime you’d like to do that again… gimme a call,” she whispered in his ear. She kissed him again, and slipped out the door. Reno listened as the sound of high heels on tile faded.

“Fuck, I love this job…” he breathed, wondering just how many more Izzys there might be upstairs. He hurriedly pulled on and straightened out his own clothes, then glanced at the little clock on his new phone… and grinned. He still had a few minutes to kill before Tseng would start wondering where he’d disappeared to.

He was planning on seeing what sort of ‘convenience items’ the shop on Three sold. He had no idea whether or not this kind of thing was going to be a regular occurrence… but just in case, it never hurt to be prepared.

Reno opened the door a crack and furtively peered out. Once he was satisfied that the coast was clear, he slipped into the hallway and headed for the elevators, hitting the button for the third floor. A few other people boarded as it descended, most getting off well before he reached his destination. At last it arrived, and he stepped out onto the walkway that encircled the central atrium encompassing the first three floors of the building. He walked into the shop, listening to the quiet music playing over the speakers on the walls.

He hadn’t had much time to browse earlier, so he took the opportunity to take a quick look around. There really was a lot of stuff for sale. Beyond the cheesy gift items – of which there seemed to be an absurd amount – there were socks and ties, little travel kits, gym bags, workout clothes, swimwear, cigarettes (under a very prominent sign reminding him that smoking was strictly prohibited inside the building), laser pointers, sunglasses, watch batteries, phone chargers… it just went on and on. It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for.

He started for the register, but paused in front of a display of sunglasses, and picked up a pair of particularly stylish ones. At thirty-five gil, they’d put a hell of a dent in his fifty gil a month allowance… but they were pretty cool. And he had the money to spend… why not enjoy it a little?

A few minutes later, purchases made, he was back aboard the elevator, heading upstairs again. He grinned as he put on the sunglasses and studied his reflection in the mirrored wall. Satisfied, he pushed them up onto his forehead. As an added bonus, besides just looking cool, they also sort of kept his permanently unkempt hair out of his eyes.

The elevator deposited him back on fifty-eight, and all seemed quiet. He wondered if Tseng was talking to Veld… or if he’d escaped his wrath by now. They hadn’t quite finished the tour of headquarters, so Reno wasn’t sure which office might be Tseng’s. He supposed he could ask Saya… assuming she was still here. But she’d probably gone off to lunch herself at this point.

He opted to return to the lounge. Tseng had to head back in that direction eventually. As he slipped inside, he discovered that the lounge wasn’t as empty as he’d left it an hour or so ago. Another Turk sat silently at the table in the corner, writing up what looked to be some sort of report.

He was broad-shouldered and bald with the build of a brawler. If the rookie’d had to guess, he would have put the man’s age at awfully damn close to his own. Maybe older… but not by much. He glanced up as the redhead entered, and surprisingly warm brown eyes met Reno’s. The Turk nodded once in acknowledgment and then went back to his report.

“Um… You haven’t seen Tseng around by any chance, have ya?” he asked, a little hesitant to interrupt. The other Turk didn’t look up again.

“Nope.”

“… What about Saya?”

“Lunch.”

“Oh.”

He supposed he could just call Tseng and let him know he was back. Though, if he was still getting reamed out by Veld, he might not appreciate the interruption. He sighed and took a seat at the table. At least he had some company.

“I’m Reno, by the way.”

“Rude,” the other man responded, and the redhead blinked, wondering if his interruption was really annoying the guy that much. It took him a moment to realize the ‘Rude’ was his name… not commentary on the rookie’s social skills.

“You… don’t talk much, do ya?” he replied. Rude glanced up briefly and shrugged, then went back to his report again.

“… If I’m buggin’ ya, feel free to tell me to fuck off.”

The steady, methodical writing abruptly halted.

“You’re not.”

Reno grinned and ducked his head trying to catch the other Turk’s eye. “You ever say more than two words at a time?” he teased. Rude turned his head, looking away awkwardly.

“…”

“Heh… Guess that’s a no.” Reno snickered. “Don’t worry about it. I talk enough for ten people.”

That drew a quiet laugh from his new acquaintance, and Rude finally focused on him directly.

“So…” the redhead continued, “Been a Turk long?”

“… About five months.”

Reno’s grin widened. “Oh, thank fuck… I’m not the only new guy. Relatively speakin’. Gotta tell ya, this is a lot to take in all at once. And I didn’t exactly get a whole lot of notice beforehand. But… I guess you’d know all about that, too.”

Rude shook his head.

“Not exactly.”

Reno cocked his head to one side, curious. “What’dya mean?”

He cleared his throat, shifting in his seat. “… I was in the recruiting program for almost a year before I was promoted.”

“Recruiting program?”

“That’s how it usually works. You’re a special case.”

“… What’s so special about me?” he asked, somewhat taken aback. Rude only shrugged and looked down again, obviously somewhat ill at ease over revealing information that Reno hadn’t known anything about.

Reno ran his fingers through his hair, huffing in irritation as they knocked the sunglasses he’d forgotten he was wearing askew. He pulled them off and set them on the table in front of him.

“So… you’re tellin’ me that the Turks don’t typically just show up at your door and tell ya that they’ve been watchin’ you want you to join ’em?”

“…”

Reno sighed quietly. Apparently direct questioning wasn’t going to work on his new friend. The redhead actually got the impression that it was more than just a fellow rookie being careful about talking about things he might not supposed to be talking about, though. Rude seemed… a little shy. Time to change tactics.

“You ever been down to that shop on three? Place has everything,” he said, picking up his new sunglasses, “Got these down there. Tseng’s gonna kill me if he finds out I blew through over half my limit on my first day… Couldn’t resist, though. First time I’ve ever been able to just do shit like that and not worry about it. Here… try ’em.”

He held the sunglasses out and after a moment, Rude took them and obligingly slipped them on. He snorted softly.

“Spent half my paycheck down there my first week without even realizing it. I try and stay away from it now.”

The redhead laughed. “Yeah… Tseng warned me about that. And then he put a 50 gil limit on my account so I couldn’t do that. Whiiiiiiiich I probably woulda.”

“… A lot different from the slums, isn’t it?”

The rookie froze, suddenly on edge. “… How’d you know I was from the slums?” he asked, uncertain of Rude’s opinion on slum rats.

“It’s what I do,” his fellow rookie replied.

“What’s that mean?”

For the first time since they’d started talking Rude grinned back at him and then flashed him a somewhat smug smirk.

“Your name is Reno James Donovan. Sixteen years old, from the Sector Two slums. No living family, but you spend a lot of time with a woman named Lira who recently moved to Wall Market to work for Don Corneo. Before Tseng recruited you, you worked as a bartender at the Lonely Dragon in Sector Three. You’re afraid of needles, you don’t know how to swim, and you prefer to smoke Plate’s Edge brand cigarettes.” He paused for a moment, and then added, “You also skipped out on lunch to fool around with a girl from forty-eight this afternoon.”

Reno could only stare at him, slightly dumbfounded. Which only seemed to embolden the other man more.

“My specialty is intelligence and surveillance.”

The redhead suddenly laughed, shaking his head. “Yeah, well… you’re fuckin’ good at it, man. Uh… How’d ya know about what me ‘n Izzy got up to earlier, anyway?”

“Hmph… Building has cameras in every hallway, and lot of other places, too. I just happened to be down in Security watching at the time. Saw you two sneak off from the cafeteria and kept an eye on you.”

Reno smirked. “Enjoy the show?” he asked, teasingly. Rude flushed bright red and looked down at his report again.

“I wasn’t watching that.”

“Relax, I was just kiddin’ around. Who’d put a camera in a closet, anyway?” he snickered. “Uh… heh… Could ya maybe do me a favor and not mention anything about that to anyone else, though? I’m not sure me spendin’ my lunch hour gettin’ laid in a supply closet would go over so well with Tseng…”

“Mention what?” Rude replied, chuckling a little.

“Thanks, man.”

They fell into a short silence, until Rude at last ventured, “… You doing anything after work?”

The other rookie shook his head.

“Not as far as I know… Ifrit only knows what Tseng’s got planned, though,” he replied, folding his arms behind his head and leaning his chair back so that it was teetered on its back legs.

“I had intended on taking you on a tour of the city after work, actually.”

Both men jumped slightly at the unexpected interjection… but Reno, in his reclined position, quickly lost his balance, the chair toppling over and spilling him onto the floor with a loud crash. He heard a snort of laughter from Rude’s general direction and glared up at Tseng.

“Would you quit doin’ that?! You’re gonna give me a fuckin’ heart attack!”

Tseng chuckled and helped the younger man to his feet. “Veld would like to meet you,” he stated. “And if you would prefer to postpone exploring Midgar in favor of getting to know one of your teammates better, that’s fine by me. Both are equally as important.”

“Meet you here at five?” Rude asked, offering him back his sunglasses.

“Keep ’em. They look better on you anyway,” the redhead grinned. “See ya then.”

Rude slipped the glasses back on and gave him a wave before returning to the report he’d been working on when Reno had come in. Tseng escorted his rookie out into the hall and around the corner, past Sato and Saya’s office.

“This is my office, incidentally,” he said, gesturing to to a door, “I don’t believe we made it quite this far earlier.” He turned and took a few steps across the hall, knocking on a second door. “And this is Veld’s office.”

“Come in,” a voice from within called. Tseng turned the knob and pushed the door open, and Reno hurried to follow him inside. The redhead glanced around. The office was a huge room that took up one corner of their floor. They probably could have fit four or five desks in there if they’d wanted to, and still had ample space. The walls were lined with shelves containing an odd collection of everything from weapons to more decorative pieces. He paused briefly in front of an intricately carved figurine of a little girl and her mother before continuing on and at last arriving in front of the large mahogany desk near the far end of the room. Tall windows stood directly behind him, their blinds open, leaving the Turk leader little more than a silhouette.

Tseng took a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk, and Reno, after a moment’s hesitation, occupied the other. Veld leaned forward, looking him over.

“You’re out of uniform.”

“Uhhh… Y-yes, sir,” the redhead stammered, nervously. “I… um… met Rufus Shinra this morning.”

“I see. And what was your impression of our future Vice President?”

Reno glanced over at Tseng, hoping for a clue as to what the man wanted to hear… but the Wutaiian Turk was utterly inscrutable. Fuck it… if he was going to fuck this up anyway, he might speak his mind.

“Guy’s a real dick.”

Veld studied him for a moment, frowning… and then laughed. Tseng, meanwhile, was pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head.

“Well… at least you’re honest,” Veld commented, still chuckling. “I’m not going to mince words with you, Reno. I’m not nearly as certain as Tseng seems to be about you. But… I do trust my lieutenant implicitly. If he thinks you’ll make a good addition to the team, I’m inclined to give you the opportunity to make me eat my words. Don’t waste it.”

“Yes, sir… er… no, sir. I won’t.”

Veld nodded. “In that case… Welcome to the Turks.”

---

The remainder of the day went far more quickly than Reno would have thought possible. He and Tseng had continued the building tour all the way up to the sixty-ninth floor. The seventieth, he was told, was taken up entirely by the President’s office and private rooms. Tseng hadn’t specified what, precisely those rooms included, but Reno got the idea that they were largely for entertainment purposes… both for the president’s own benefit, and for that of any VIP guests he happened to be meeting with.

They’d briefly explored the rooftop, where two helicopters sat, fueled and ready. One was the official transportation of the president and the other executives. The other belonged to the Turks. Reno had been particularly interested in that one… and Tseng had promised him that he could eventually be certified to fly it.

By five, the redhead was starving, tired, and a little sore from all the walking around… but looking forward to meeting up with Rude again. He found him, along with Saya and Kai in the Turks’ lounge… still wearing his new sunglasses.

“Hey,” he said, stepping inside.

“Survived yer first day, did yeh?” Saya snickered, “What’d yeh do ta the poor thing, Tseng? He looks half-dead on his feet.”

“Seventy floors is a lot to explore,” the Turk lieutenant replied, before returning his attention to his charge. “I’ll see you tonight. By ten.”

Kai suddenly cackled. “Our new little Turkling has a bedtime!”

Reno scowled at the woman, heat rising rapidly in his cheeks.

“Our new Turk is sixteen, and thus has a curfew because I will not have him wandering an unfamiliar city at all hours,” Tseng retorted, though it didn’t silence her snickering. “Is that a problem?”

“Not at all, sir. I think it’s adorable.”

The redhead suddenly wanted very much to sink into the floor. An arm encircled his shoulders, and he found himself drawn close against Rude’s side.

“Be quiet, Kai.”

To Reno’s surprise, the woman did at last go quiet, staring up at the pair of them.

“The silent rookie speaks…” she said, with feigned astonishment, and grinned. Saya calmly reached over and smacked her on the back of the head.

“Ah, quit teasin’ the rookies, yeh little pain in the arse. They get enougha that durin’ training.”

“You are just no fun at all,” Kai replied, and stuck her tongue out at the other woman.

“Let’s go,” Rude said quietly, while the pair was preoccupied with one another. Reno smirked and joined him in his bid for the door, and before he knew it, they were aboard the elevator, heading downstairs to the parking deck.

~end chapter 10~