Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 35: Dance Lessons

“One, two, three… One, two, thr– Reno, are you even paying attention?”

The rookie shuffled awkwardly, trying to get back into step. He succeeded only in trodding on his dance partner’s foot. Again. Rude grunted loudly and glared at him.

“Sorry…” the redhead muttered for what had to have been at least the twentieth time.

“… Can we take a break? Before he breaks something?” Rude asked, pleadingly.

Tseng sighed and switched off the music. “Alright. I suppose a brief rest won’t hurt.”

The two rookies broke apart and Rude limped off to one side of the room, taking a seat and pulling off a shoe to massage the abused appendage. Reno shook his head and made his way over to Tseng instead.

“Boss… Can’t someone else take this assignment? I already told ya… I can’t fuckin’ do this shit. Rude knows what he’s doin’. Send him!”

“I’m afraid I can’t. The president requested you personally.”

Reno blinked, surprised. “Why?” he asked, his tone bewildered. He was just a rookie. And he certainly hadn’t done anything in particular that would have brought him to the attention of the president. Hell, he’d only even met the guy once… and that interaction certainly wouldn’t have left much of an impression, given that he’d spent the majority of the assignment with Rufus rather than his father.

“He didn’t say… Though given the assignment, I would suspect it’s because you’re young and attractive and… noticeable. You stand out in a crowd, as does your date. Should the press take an interest in the young lady, they’re not as likely to make the connection between her and President Shinra with you standing next to her.”

“… Uh… He knows I’m only seventeen, right?”

“His current mistress is only eighteen,” his mentor responded.

“Yeah… Okay, thanks for that image.” Not that it was any of his business what people got up to in the bedroom. But, hell… Shinra’s own kid was only a couple of years older than the chick the old bastard was fucking. That… was a little creepy in Reno’s expert opinion. “Hang on a second… I thought the guy was doin’ that new executive he promoted… ya know… Scarlet.”

Rude snorted softly.

“He is. New girl’s his side action. Tres says Scarlet doesn’t know about her yet.”

“Which is another reason why he can’t be seen with her at the party, apparently,” Tseng replied, shaking his head. “Alright… That’s enough company gossip. Back to practicing. Rude? If you would?”

Reno distinctly heard his fellow rookie groan. He really couldn’t blame him for being less than enthusiastic about this. They’d been at it since lunch time. Tseng seemed bound and determined that his protege master the waltz before the end of the workday… or at least he had been when they’d started four hours ago. The rookie could see the frustration building.

“Perhaps if you lead for awhile…” the senior Turk said to Rude, as he started the song over again. At this rate, Reno mused, he was going to be hearing that music in his dreams tonight. Or his nightmares. Whichever he ended up having after this disaster. He really didn’t know why this was so fucking difficult. He had no problems following Tseng’s example in combat training, and he’d tended to do exceptionally well in other training that required agility and coordination. One would think dancing would come naturally to him. But something about trying to move in time with a rhythm other than his own natural one threw him. Every time.

“…” Rude remained silent, but moved into position, grasping Reno’s right hand with his, while the other settled on his upper back. The redhead sighed in resignation and let his own free hand rest on his partner’s shoulder, already dreading the attempt.

“And… One, two, three…” Tseng began, as Rude took a step forward.

He tried… he really did. But unfortunately, he started out immediately on the wrong foot, which inevitably resulted in the now-familiar panicked shuffle to correct the mistake. Reno cringed empathetically as his foot came down hard on Rude’s again. Tseng roughly pinched the bridge of his nose, and murmured something the redhead didn’t quite catch… though he was fairly certain it had been in Wutaiian, and if he’d had to venture a guess he’d have bet it was something along the lines of a plea for patience.

Rude’s patience, meanwhile, seemed to be wearing thin… though to his credit, he continued on for several more minutes, trying to guide the younger man into the proper rhythm. Right up until one of his fellow rookie’s missteps caught him by surprise and sent him stumbling forward himself. Reno staggered back, trying to restore both men’s balance, but it was too late. The pair crashed to the floor, in a tangle of limbs.

“Oh, for Leviathan’s sake…” Tseng sighed, as he picked his protege up bodily before offering a hand to Rude and pulling him to his feet as well. “I think you may actually be getting worse.”

“Have a heart, boss… I’m gonna end up cripplin’ Rude at this rate. Assumin’ he doesn’t just kill me in self defense first…”

The Wutaiian glanced at his watch, and cast the pair a defeated look. “Perhaps I am pushing you too hard. I expect you’re both getting tired by now. It’s nearly the end of the day. You’re dismissed. Rude… you may leave a bit early if you wish.”

“Thank Shiva,” Rude said under his breath.

“We’ll pick this up again first thing in the morning,” he continued, before turning on his heel and exiting the training room. The two rookie Turks looked at one another.

“Feel like callin’ in sick tomorrow, pal?”

“… Definitely think I’m coming down with something,” Rude agreed.

“I heard that,” Tseng’s voice called back to them. “Don’t even think about it.”

The only answers he received were twin groans. When he was gone, the pair headed for the locker room to change back into their uniforms.

“Hey… uh… I really am sorry. I wasn’t doin’ it on purpose, I swear.”

“Hmph… At least you don’t weigh much. I hate to think what my feet would feel like right now if it’d been Tseng stomping on ’em for the last four hours,” his friend chuckled.

“Ha, ha.” Reno stripped off his sweatshirt and tossed it into his locker. “Hey… I keep meanin’ to ask. You hear anything new about those three guys I ran into during survival training?”

Rude shook his head. “Just that Remy’s in charge of the interrogation and she’s going to be in Junon for a few more days, at least. If Tres has heard anything else, he hasn’t told me.”

The redhead shrugged. The three men had been whisked away pretty quickly once forces from Junon had arrived to pick them up. And since one had been unconscious, another had still been having trouble breathing, and the third had decided to clam right the fuck up once he was in handcuffs, the Turks hadn’t gotten much of anything out of them while they were waiting.

What they’d found when they searched the campsite, however, had been a little chilling. The crates near the tent had, indeed, been full of explosives. Powerful ones. They’d also found diving gear. Tseng had ventured a guess that they were planning on targeting either the underwater reactor at the base, or the support pillars for the base itself. To what end, they still didn’t know… or if anyone did, they hadn’t bothered to share that information with the rookies on the team.

Veld was certainly taking it seriously, though. By the time the training group had returned to Midgar, Remy and Luca had already been dispatched to Junon. They’d been gone for three days already, and weren’t expected back until the beginning of next week.

“So what do you think’s goin’ on?” Reno asked. He had his own ideas, but was curious to hear Rude’s thoughts on the matter.

“Tres thinks the Wutaiian government sent ’em,” he replied, “Shinra has been leaning on the Wutaiian head of state to let them build a reactor in the sacred mountains for years now and Godo won’t budge. Tres figures they were there to send a message to get Shinra to cut it out.”

Reno nodded. “Could be a possibility,” he agreed. “Personally, though… I think the fuckers were just hired mercs. They went down way to easy to be any kinda professionals. And everyone knows Shinra Company and Wutai are pissed at each other. Bet there’s plenty of assholes out there who’d stand to gain somethin’ if they two of ’em really started goin’ at it.” He paused for a moment and glanced up at his friend. “You… think there’s really gonna be an all out war? Is shit really gettin’ that bad?”

“Don’t know… Maybe.”

“Guess time’ll tell. You doin’ anything tonight?” the redhead asked.

“…”

Reno rolled his eyes and groaned.

“Oh, not again…” Margaret. Rude had been out with her damn near every night for the past two weeks. “Fuck, man… I like gettin’ some ass as much as the next guy, but take a break once in awhile, will ya?” he snickered.

“… That’s not all we do…” Rude replied, defensively. His cheeks flushed, and he hurriedly finished changing.

“I’m startin’ to think you like spendin’ time with her more than me,” the redhead teased, “What do I gotta do to get some attention here? Strip for ya?”

Rude rolled his eyes and pulled on his jacket. Reno grinned evilly as he hopped up onto the bench that ran between the rows of lockers.

“I really don’t want to see this…” Rude deadpanned, as soon as he realized what his friend was up to. Reno, however, was already getting into it, slowly moving his hips to his own internal rhythm, and grabbing onto the support rod that ran from the ceiling to the floor. He smirked and wrapped a leg around it, twirling around once before pausing to snicker at his friend’s rapidly increasing discomfort.

The bald Turk snorted. “Figures… you can’t waltz, but you can pole dance like a pro.”

“And just how would you know how a pro dances?” the redhead smirked, as he gripped the support and arched over backwards until he was eye to eye with his friend. “You been hittin’ up the strip joints without me?”

“Hey, rookie… ya still in… here… ?” Tres’ voice slowly trailed off as he rounded the corner, and stopped short at the sight of the half-naked redhead perched seductively on the bench. Both of the rookies froze in surprise. “Yeah. Okay… I’m not even gonna ask. Rude, when you’re done with… whatever the hell this is… I got a quick errand I need ya to run. It’s on your way home.”

Rude’s face reddened noticeably, as Tres quickly turned tail and departed. Moments later, Reno was laughing so hard he had to sit down. Rude smacked him roughly on the back of the head… which did little to stem the flow of mirth from the younger man.

“Thanks a lot, Reno…” he muttered, and hurried after his mentor.

---

“Remy is convinced of it,” Veld said, a dark note in his voice. “And she’s one of our best interrogators. If she were anything less than certain, she would keep going.”

Tseng frowned. The Turk leader was right… but somehow, that thought wasn’t especially comforting at the moment… because what Remy had discovered had rather dire implications for Shinra Company. The three men they’d unexpectedly encountered during their recent survival training had taken some time to break… but when they finally had, the information they provided was disturbing.

According to Remy, their intention had been to bomb the massive support pillar that held a large part of Junon aloft over the little town below. The village would have been eradicated… nevermind the loss of Shinra personnel and equipment up above. That particular part of the base housed a busy repair and maintenance bay, along with support personnel barracks. Hundreds of people would have been killed or injured.

But perhaps more disturbing was the would-be bombers’ employers. They hadn’t explicitly claimed that the Wutaiian government had sent them. In fact, they’d gone to great lengths to deny it, even under Remy’s experienced interrogation methods, claiming that they’d been hired privately by an individual or individuals who went to great lengths to conceal their identity. But one of them had let it slip that their leader was once a member of Lord Godo’s personal guard. It was unlikely, in Tseng’s opinion, that the man wasn’t still taking orders from the Wutaiian head of state… even unofficially.

Plausible deniability. They adamantly claimed they didn’t work for Wutai, and Shinra couldn’t prove that they did… even though that was almost certainly the case. If not for Godo directly, then for one of his ministers.

He didn’t relish Veld’s position now. Obviously, the board would have to be informed. Heidegger had been chomping at the bit for months to taken military action against Wutai. Planchett… the head of Urban Development, seemed equally as enthusiastic, as new reactors meant a new revenue stream, and a larger budget for his department. Palmer, the head of the space program, probably couldn’t care less… but he was a textbook yes-man, and would go along with anything the President thought was a good idea. Scarlet… well, he hadn’t yet had time to get a good handle on her… but he suspected that, being new in the position, she wouldn’t want to rock the boat too much.

Which meant that If President Shinra thought that it was time for a show of power, the Shinra army would almost certainly be dispatched to Wutai in the near future. Perhaps not a direct attack… but there were hundreds of islands off the Wutaiian coast. Establishing a base of operations certainly wouldn’t be out of the question. And if that happened, it was only a matter of time.

Tseng had no overwhelming loyalty to Godo or even to his homeland in general… but he didn’t want to see Wutai fall, either, nor did he want his family, most of whom still lived in or near the village he’d grown up in, to be placed in harm’s way. And quite frankly, though it might take some time, that was what would eventually happen. He had been hoping for a peaceful resolution to the dispute, but that was looking less and less likely.

“When will you tell the board?” he asked at last.

“They’re meeting this evening,” Veld replied, “I’m heading upstairs as soon as we’re finished here.” He paused a moment, and he dropped some of his authoritative stance. “Tseng… I want you to be careful. We may well end up going to war with your homeland. As far as I’m concerned, your loyalty is above reproach… and not a single other Turk would think to question it, either. But not everyone knows you as well as we do. The fact is, you’re Wutaiian, and to many people, that will make you suspect… particularly given your position in the company. Watch yourself.”

“Yes, sir,” Tseng nodded, grimly. The thought had, of course, occurred to him long before now. But hearing it put into words somehow made it far more real than he would have liked. Veld nodded and turned to leave his subordinate’s office… only to be nearly bulldozed by the rookie who came flying through the open door at just that moment.

“Heh… Sorry, sir,” Reno said with a slightly lopsided grin. Veld glanced back over his shoulder at his lieutenant.

“Your rookie seems to be eager to get home,” he said with a faint chuckle, before brushing past the redhead and walking towards the elevators. Tseng raised an eyebrow in his general direction, and Reno grinned sheepishly.

“… Rude might be just the tiniest bit annoyed with me at the moment,” he admitted, “Kinda thinkin’ I should make myself scarce before he comes up with a way to get me back.”

Tseng snorted softly. “I somehow doubt a hasty retreat will save you. I’ve noticed that he tends to hold a grudge. What did you do?”

“Uh… nothin’, really…” the redhead replied, shrugging before adding very hastily, “Treskindacaughtmedoin’astripteaseforhiminthelockerroom…”

“… Forget I asked.”

“It was a joke!”

“I said forget I asked,” the Turk lieutenant chuckled. “In any case, you’re right. We should go. The weather is supposed to turn rather nasty tonight, and I for one would like to be safely at home when it does.”

The rookie beamed and was only too happy to follow his mentor towards the elevators. As they descended to the parking deck, he glanced up.

“So… uh… Do I really have to keep doin’ this dancin’ shit tomorrow?” he asked. Tseng only smiled.

---

“OW!” Reno glared at his dance partner and shoved him away. “Come on, man… enough already! I said I was sorry.”

Rude smirked and reached for him again, pulling the redhead back into the now-familiar routine. Step… step… step… stomp. He chuckled as his friend yelped again.

“Alright! I get it! I crossed a line! I won’t do it again, ‘kay?”

“Promise?”

Reno scowled faintly, but grudgingly nodded. “I won’t do it again,” he repeated. And then grinned widely, “This week.”

Rude blinked and then laughed, shaking his head. “Alright… I’ll quit trying to cripple you,” he snickered, and offered him his hand again. Reno sighed and resumed the lesson. He was, admittedly, improving… or at least he’d learned to avoid mangling his partner’s feet every three seconds – though that may have had more to do with the fact that Rude had swapped his usual shoes for steel-toed boots this morning.

“Are you two quite finished?” Tseng asked, regarding the pair with stubbornly masked amusement. “As entertaining as this is,the party is in a week, and quite frankly I don’t want to have to explain to President Shinra that the Turks were unable to accommodate his request.”

“Yeah, okay… we’re done. Right pal?” his rookie replied, his face taking on a serious expression. It lasted all of five seconds, before the grin returned. Tseng crossed his arms over his chest.

“Take this seriously, or I’ll pair you up with Kai.”

The grin quickly fell and Reno groaned. He didn’t know for sure what that would be like… but if it was anything like survival training or gauntlet training… or just about any other training he’d done with Kai… the woman was sure to go overboard. He’d be lucky if he’d be able to move by the end of it.

“Geez, alright already. I’ll quit screwin’ around. Ya don’t have to threaten me…”

The lesson, however, was interrupted yet again, as Shay poked his head into the training room. He smirked slightly at the pair of rookies, before turning his attention on the Turk lieutenant.

“Sir? Veld asked me to come get you. Remy and Luca are back.”

“So soon?” Tseng replied, an eyebrow rising in curiosity. “Has something else happened?”

“Sorry. I’m just the messenger.”

Tseng nodded. “You two keep at it. If I’m not back before then, you may break for lunch in thirty minutes.”

“Yes, sir,” the two rookies chorused. Once Tseng and Shay had disappeared into the hallway, Reno glanced up at Rude, slightly concerned.

“Think they found out somethin’ big? Those two weren’t s’posed to be back ’til Monday…” he asked as they glided across the floor in time to the music. Rude shrugged and spun his dance partner.

“Don’t know. Maybe they just got all they thought they could out of them and decided not to waste their time beating a dead horse.”

The redhead nodded, somewhat distractedly and Rude cocked his head to one side.

“Something wrong?”

“Nah… not really. Just can’t help thinkin’. What if Wutai really does decide to start a war. Or Shinra, for that matter. Would… we be fightin’, too?”

Rude frowned thoughtfully. “I… guess we’d probably have to,” he said at last. “Probably not with the army or anything like that. But… there’s a lot of things the Turks are better suited to than the military. If they need us, we’ll be called in.”

“That’s kinda what I figured…” the redhead said, softly.

“You scared?” Rude asked as they continued across the dance floor. Reno never missed a step.

“Kinda,” he replied, “I mean… Not of fightin’ ‘n shit. That doesn’t worry me. I’m just kinda scared for… everyone else. People fuckin’ die in wars. I-it hasn’t even been a year yet since…”

“… Since Aaron,” Rude finished for him when it became clear that the younger Turk couldn’t quite force the words out.

“I don’t wanna lose any more Turks,” Reno continued. “This is the first time in my life I ever felt like I belonged somewhere. Other than Lira, you guys are… about as close to family as I got.” He swallowed sharply, and looked away, no longer able to meet his friend’s gaze. Rude was silent for a moment. He knew exactly what Reno meant. He had his father back in Rocket Town, but to be honest, they hadn’t been close in years. Not since his mother had died. The Turks were like a second family to him, too. And he knew that was true for all of them. It had even been true for Aaron, who’d had a bigger family than all the rest of them combined. He suddenly smiled widely.

“Hmph… You dance a lot better when you’re busy worrying about something else.”

“H-huh?” the redhead stammered, looking up at the unexpected non sequitur. Rude snorted a quiet laugh.

“You didn’t step on my feet once during that whole conversation.”

Reno managed a small laugh himself, and shook his head. “Here I am pourin’ my heart out, and all you care about are these fuckin’ dance lessons,” he teased. Rude sniggered and and grabbed the smaller Turk, easily putting him in a headlock. Reno squirmed ineffectively in his grasp.

“Hey!”

“Come on… No way Tseng’s coming back before our thirty minutes is up. Let’s go grab some lunch.”

“Fine with me… but you’re not really gonna drag me to the fuckin’ cafeteria like this are ya?” he queried, his voice slightly muffled by his present position. Rude didn’t answer the question.

“Come to think of it… I’ve always wanted a little brother…” he replied, escorting the redhead towards the door, the other rookie’s head still tucked firmly under his arm.

“Seriously, Rude… Let the fuck go of me!” Reno protested, though his own voice was tinged with laughter. He groaned when his friend refused to let up. “Tch… ya know… I’m startin’ to think older brothers kinda suck.”

---

The rain had started sometime after lunch. Reno was staring out at the glum-looking view of the city from the Turks’ lounge. Rude strolled over to him and handed him a cup of coffee.

“Late fall in Midgar,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s depressing.”

Reno shrugged. “Ah, fall’s not so bad. Kinda damp, but at least it’s not freezin’ cold yet. Winter though… now that sucks. ‘Specially when your building’s piece of shit furnace goes out on ya for a couple weeks.”

Rude was silent for a moment as realization set in.

“… This is the first time you haven’t been down in the slums this time of year, isn’t it?”

“Yeah… Why?”

The other rookie smiled slightly. For some reason it had never really occurred to him until now, but… the slums really wouldn’t ever have weather, per se. About the only difference in the seasons came in the way of temperature changes, and the occasional flood from the Plate’s drainage system. A lot of the things that he took for granted, his younger friend had simple never experienced.

“I liked fall better back in Rocket Town. Trees all changed color… the nights got cool. And we didn’t get all this damn rain, because the mountains blocked a lot of it. Midgar, though… just weeks of gray skies, and then it starts raining until it gets cold enough to snow.”

“I’m not a fan, either,” a voice behind them stated, and both rookies jumped, startled. Tseng smirked as he approached the pair, and continued as though he hadn’t noticed. “Wutai would still be quite warm right now… though to be fair, it doesn’t get nearly as cold there as Midgar does at any point during the year.”

“A least we have the holidays to look forward to,” Rude offered.

Tseng chuckled softly. “If you look forward to such things. To be honest, between the weather, the crowds any time you wish to go anywhere, and the ridiculous number of extremely tacky decorations that pop up around the office, I think I could survive without them.”

“You don’t like Christmas?” the redhead queried, somewhat wide eyed.

“It’s not widely celebrated in Wutai, so my personal experiences are limited to my time in Midgar… I’m not overly fond of the blatant commercialism that seems to be associated with it.”

“… Oh,” Reno said, almost sadly.

“Sir? Remy has the video of the interrogation ready for you,” Shay interrupted, poking his head into the lounge.

“I’ll be right there,” the Turk lieutenant nodded, and the younger Turk hurriedly vanished from the doorway. Tseng turned to Rude. “How much progress has he made?”

The bald rookie laughed softly. “Well… I can still walk, so I guess that’s an improvement over yesterday.”

“I see,” he chuckled, “Keep at it, then. I’ll check in on you later.”

As their superior departed, Rude turned to glance back at his friend, intent on hauling him back to their training room, but the somewhat pensive – and slightly depressed – expression he now wore gave him pause.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. Reno tossed back the rest of his coffee.

“Nothin’… Guess I’m just a little disappointed that Tseng’s not really into the holidays. Down in the slums, I always looked forward to ’em. It was about the only time of year kids like me didn’t get treated like we were invisible. Even after I left that Shiva-forsaken youth home, I could usually count ongettin’ some decent food ‘n some new clothes ‘n shit from someone who was feelin’ generous.” He set his mug aside and sighed. “Thought it must be even better up here.”

Rude rolled his eyes slightly, and prodded him towards the door. “Just because Tseng isn’t a big holiday person, doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t. Quit acting like he told you you’re not going to have a Christmas. Besides… it’s still over a month away, anyway. Now, come on… You still have to learn to dance.”

The redhead groaned loudly. “How the fuck did I get roped into this shit, anyway?”

“Easy. You’re too pretty for your own good,” Rude snickered. Reno flipped him off, and headed out the door. His friend followed, still chuckling to himself.

---

Sato was snickering loudly as he peered over Tres’ shoulder, watching the security cameras intently. The monitors were presently set to display one of the smaller training rooms on thirty-three.

“Would yeh look at ’em go,” he laughed. Tres was sniggering at the sight, too.

“Think those two missed their calling. Shoulda joined the fuckin’ Midgar ballet, not the Turks,” he replied.

“Move yer arse over, yeh bloody nitwit. I wanna see, too, yeh know!” Saya cut in, elbowing her cousin off to one side so she could get a better look. “Oh… Now that’s just adorable.”

“Yer recordin’ this, aren’t yeh, Tres?” Sato piped up.

“‘Course I am. This is golden blackmail fodder.”

Saya swatted her colleague on the back of the head.

“No blackmailin’ the rookies.”

“Says who?”

“Says me, yeh nosy bastard,” she replied with a grin. “And I’m pretty sure Tseng would agree if he heard yeh talkin’ like that.”

The door to the tiny security room opened – or rather attempted to open… It smacked into the back of Sato’s foot – and Kai wriggled her way inside.

“What the hell are you assholes all doing in here?” she asked. “We’re in the middle of a potential international crisis, and you’re hiding out in a closet? You do know these rooms are made for like… two people at a time, right?”

“We’re spyin’ on the wee rookies…” Sato replied, “Tseng’s got ’em dancin’ with one another.”

“Oh. Well, in that case… move the fuck over. I wanna see.” She pushed her way to the front, unabashedly climbing into Tres’ lap to get a decent view of the screens, and snickered.

“Aww… Turklings dancing. We should take ’em on tour…”

“Take who on tour?” new voice prodded, and Tres managed to glance over his shoulder in time to see Shay working his way into the security station as well.

“What the hell, Sato? You invite the whole team or somethin’?” he demanded, glaring at the Mideelian Turk. Sato merely shrugged and turned his attention back to the show.

“Hey! What’s going on in there?” a muffled voice shouted from outside, and the door opened yet again. This time, however, the room was stuffed to capacity, and whomever was attempting to gain entry only managed to open it a crack before Shay stumbled backwards and slammed it shut again. “Tres?!”

“Tch… We’re full up! Come back later!” Tres yelled back. The doorknob rattled and a moment later, Luca shouldered the door open enough to get a good look inside.

“What in the nine hells… ?” Remy’s voice from beyond the other Turk muttered. “… What a bunch of idiots.” Her footsteps quickly faded down the hallway. Luca, meanwhile, remained outside, trying… and apparently failing… to join the party.

“Oh, for Ifrit’s sake…” Tres muttered, annoyed now. “That’s it. This is gettin’ ridiculous. There isn’t enough room for every goddamn Turk in the building in here. Someone’s gonna have to leave. Shay… You’re closest to the door. Get the fuck out.”

“Oh, oh… Look!” Kai suddenly exclaimed, cackling, “Rude fucking dipped him!”

Saya giggled softly and shifted position, vying for a better angle.

“Yeh know… Reno’s not bad on his feet,” she chuckled.

“Rude ain’t exactly terrible, either,” Tres concurred. Kai suddenly leaned forward, driving her knee into his crotch, drawing a sharp yelp from the other Turk. “Goddammit, woman! Watch what you’re doin’!”

“ALL OF YOU!” a familiar voice suddenly boomed from out in the hall, causing all of the Turks to jump in surprise, “Get out of there and get back to work!”

The demand was met with a large amount of grumbling, but slowly, the Turks shuffled their way past one another, slinking out into the hallway one by one. Tseng stood near the door to the security room, arms crossed over his cross and a decidedly irritated expression on his face. Remy was just behind him, smirking smugly at her comrades as they exited.

“Tch… Lousy snitch,” Tres muttered as he strolled past her.

“Lazy slacker,” she shot back.

“Ya know, someone really needs to pull that stick outta your ass, Remy.”

“Hmph… It’s called being professional. I’d say you ought to try it sometime, Tres, but it’s probably a bit beyond you.”

“That’s enough…” Tseng quickly cut in before things could escalate. “Everyone back to work. Now.”

The gathering quickly began to disperse, and the Turk lieutenant watched solemnly as they others went back to their assignments. Once they were gone, he double checked that no one had lingered nearby, and then silently slipped into the security station himself. He sat down at the console, chuckling softly as he watched the team’s rookies on the screen. They seemed to be far more relaxed when they didn’t realize anyone was watching them. If was the perfect opportunity to get a better idea of Reno’s progress on this odd little assignment.

And besides… there was nothing wrong with a little entertainment now and then…

~end chapter 35~