Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 48: Ups and Downs

Reno’s hands curled around the bars of his cell, and he watched nervously as his jailer escorted a familiar figure down the corridor. The pair came to an abrupt halt outside of his cage.

“Tseng, I –”

“I don’t even want to hear it right now. I didn’t get home until nearly ten. I’m exhausted and very angry at the moment. You can explain this idiocy in the morning,” the Wutaiian swiftly cut him off. The police sergeant unlocked the door, releasing the redhead into his guardian’s custody, and Tseng firmly gripped him by the elbow, marching him out of the station.

Reno remained silent until they were on the freeway.

“… So I should probably tell ya that I got evicted…” he said, and then flinched as if expecting a physical blow.

“I’m aware.”

“… And that I kinda destroyed half of Rude’s apartment, too.”

Tseng said nothing. He simply took the turnoff into Sector 1, and Reno easily recognized the route back to the Turk lieutenant’s apartment.

“I’m grounded for life, aren’t I…”

Tseng sighed as they pulled up to a stop light, and roughly pinched the bridge of his nose. “We will discuss this in the morning, Reno. I spent most of the afternoon and this evening personally evaluating the hand to hand combat skills of sixteen potential new recruits. It has been a very long day for me and I simply don’t have the energy right now.”

Reno guiltily sank down in his seat and didn’t say a word for the remainder of the trip. When they reached Tseng’s apartment, he followed him inside.

“Go and clean up and then some sleep,” Tseng said, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“… ‘Kay.” Reno headed off towards Tseng’s bathroom. He could feel the itchy plaster dust still clinging to his skin, and a shower sounded pretty good to him at the moment. Still, though… he was uneasy. Normally, when Tseng was angry with him, he made it known. Tonight, his mentor seemed subdued almost to the point of disinterest. Even if it was just because he was tired, it was unnerving, and he couldn’t help but worry that maybe he’d finally crossed a line.

Back when he was a kid, the worst little shits in Sector 2 weren’t kids like him – the ones with no one looking out for them… They were the ones who’s parents let them get away with anything; who just didn’t give a crap what their obnoxious little hellspawn got up to. He remembered Kel’s mother telling him once that she felt sorry for them… because most of them did it in a misguided attempt to get just a little bit of attention. But their parents had already put up with so much from them, they were beyond caring by that point.

He suddenly understood how those kids must have felt… because the idea of Tseng suddenly considering him too far gone to even bother yelling at him inexplicably terrified him.

He stepped into the shower, rinsing the grime from his skin and hair, and forcibly dismissed the thought. He had to stop thinking the worst every time something went wrong. Sure… he knew he could be a pain in the ass sometimes. But Tseng was like… the most patient person on the planet.

Still… his latest fuck up was pretty bad. He didn’t think it quite came to the same level as what had happened with Heidegger, but… it was definitely up there. And if Tseng hadn’t called it quits over that mess, he wasn’t going to do so over a little thing like blowing up an apartment. Right?

Rude, though… he might still kill him. Reno had a feeling it was gonna take a whole lot of effort – and possibly some begging, pleading, and bribery – to get off of his friend’s shit list. Not that he could exactly blame him. The redhead hadn’t just fucked up his evening. He’d obliterated his ceiling… and fuck only knew how much other damage he’d done to the apartment. And his friend’s relationship. He was just lucky no one had gotten hurt.

He sighed as he let the water wash over him. There wasn’t a damn thing he could do tonight. Hell, he didn’t even have his PHS at the moment to call Rude and apologize. It was – at least he hoped it was… he hadn’t exactly had a lot of time to survey the full extent of the damage to his own place, after all – still sitting on the kitchen counter in his former apartment. And that was assuming Rude was even speaking to him at the moment. On second thought, maybe it was betterhe didn’t have his phone. Getting screamed at, either by Rude or by his girlfriend, wasn’t likely to help much.

At last, he twisted the faucet handles and shut off the water. The redhead dried himself down and trudged off towards his room for the night… and groaned softly as he realized that he was, essentially, homeless. Hopefully Tseng wasn’t so peeved with him that he’d kick him out before he found a new apartment. Reno shut off the light and flopped naked into the bed, dragging the covers over himself, suddenly feeling very tired.

“You are a fucking idiot, Reno…” he muttered to himself.

---

It was still dark when the redhead woke to the sensation of a hand stroking his hair. He gasped softly, eyes going wide as he looked around the darkened room, his heart pounding in his chest, pleading words still on his lips. He swallowed, his throat abnormally dry, as he realized that he wasn’t where he’d thought he was.

“Reno?”

His half-awake gaze finally focused on the source of the gentle touch, and he blinked several times, trying to clear the sleep from his vision.

“Are you alright?”

He breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, not quite able to formulate a coherent sentence just yet. Tseng was frowning thoughtfully at his bedside, a vague look of concern in his eyes. Reno groaned internally as he realized what must have happened.

Just a moment ago, he was being collectively – and brutally – reamed out by Rude, Margaret, Veld… and an assortment of other familiar faces. The only one not screaming at him had been Tseng, and only because the Wutaiian Turk had turned his back on him and walked away despite the rookie’s desperate pleas for him not to go.

A dream. A nightmare. One that, not unexpectedly, had seemed entirely too real. His dreams always felt real. Most of the time, it was quite enjoyable… except when they turned less than pleasant. And of course, it just figured that he’d managed to wake up the real Tseng, to boot.

“… Sorry,” the rookie eventually managed to murmur, looking away.

The worried frown remained firmly in place as the Wutaiian Turk turned his ward’s face back towards him. Tseng shook his head and sighed.

“I really should know better by now than to let matters like this lie until morning where you’re concerned…” His fingers trailed along the redhead’s cheek for a moment. “Though, as far as that goes, I would hope that you know me well enough by now to realize that I’m not about to reject you. Incidentally… you talk in your sleep.”

Reno could feel an uncomfortable heat rising in his cheeks in the darkness, more than a little embarrassed considering what he recalled calling out after his mentor in the dream, but a moment later relaxed a bit and leaned into the touch.

“You are indeed in trouble, however,” Tseng continued, “and we will be discussing your transgression in excruciating detail after we’ve both gotten some sleep. For now, though, just rest. There’s no need to worry yourself to the point of nightmares.”

Tseng untangled the teen from the sheets, and carefully smoothed the covers out over him, tucking them tightly around him. He let his hand rest on Reno’s chest for a moment.

“Go back to sleep.”

The redhead’s eyelids seemed to weigh a ton, and he found himself complying with Tseng’s command in spite of the strong desire to do the exact opposite. He was asleep again well before his mentor left his side.

---

Tseng could have kicked himself… had he not been so dead on his feet. He stayed, unmoving, crouched beside the rookie’s bedside until he was absolutely certain he was asleep again, and then silently crept out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.

He was a little surprised Reno had woken him at all. Tseng had been out as soon as his head had hit the pillow, and had expected to remain so until well after sunrise. He’d been more than a little mystified when he’d found himself awake barely two hours later. He hadn’t even been entirely sure what had roused him. He was only aware of the impossible to ignore need to check on his ward.

He’d found him tangled in the sheets, fingers twisted into the fabric of his blanket, tormented by his dreams, and begging him in a quietly desperate voice not to go.

Tseng had wasted no time in waking the teenager… though he was surprised at how difficult it had been. Normally, it took almost nothing to jar the young man from a sound sleep. Whatever he was experiencing in his slumber, however, seemed to have had a strong grip on him.

The Turk lieutenant sighed and climbed back into his own bed. He’d overestimated the confidence his ward had gained over the past several months. It was a little disheartening to realize that Reno still harbored such doubts… though, in retrospect, his own behavior tonight might have contributed to that. Rookies needed a great deal of attention and occasional hand-holding even at the best of times. Reno had the added burden of having already been utterly unwanted and abandoned by virtually everyone who’d ever been in a position to be responsible for him. That was, Tseng suddenly realized, something that could take a person years to move past completely. Simply being told that his life was different now and expecting that to be enough to undo a lifetime of neglect was… unforgivably naïve on Tseng’s part.

A part of him wondered if these incidents were Reno’s way of proving to himself – albeit probably on an entirely subconscious level – that his life was different now and he wasn’t disposable to Tseng or any other Turk.

Another part of him wondered if, perhaps, in his exhausted state, he was over-analyzing his young ward, and it was just the somewhat irresponsible mindset common to teenagers that was to blame. Regardless of the truth of the matter, he resolved to pay more attention to the cues of distress, which in hindsight were rather obvious, that Reno tended to exhibit in such situations.

But for now… he desperately needed to sleep.

---

The following morning, Reno woke long after the sun was already up. He found clean sweats folded neatly on top of the dresser for him, and realized that Tseng must have left them there sometime that morning. He was relatively sure they hadn’t been there last night. He sighed as he slipped into the fresh clothes and yawned before quietly making his way out of his room.

Last night had been… less than restful. His first nightmare hadn’t been the only dream he’d had, though those that followed hadn’t been nearly as bad. By the time he’d awoken, however, he was half-convinced that the conversation he’d had with his mentor was among them. He cautiously stepped into the kitchen, finding the senior Turk enjoying his breakfast.

“You made the morning paper,” he commented as Reno approached, and offered him the document, open to one of the interior pages. The article made note of the police response to an explosion in Sector 5. The redhead cringed as he skimmed through it. “Sit down,” Tseng added, his tone leaving absolutely no room to disobey. Reno sat.

“It was just s’posed to be a joke. On Rude. I was just tryin’ to freak him out a little. Sato said it’d just make a lot of noise. It wasn’t s’posed to… ya know… actually blow shit up,” he said, preemptively explaining before Tseng had to go to the trouble of asking.

“Hmm… I suppose that answers my next question, as well. I was wondering where you got your hands on a bomb. It seems the conversation Saya and I had with Veld on Friday regarding Sato’s inappropriate use of explosives was a bit overdue. Just what did you tell him it was for?”

“… I didn’t really get into specifics,” Reno admitted. “I just told him I wanted to play a prank on someone and I needed somethin’ that’d make a lot of noise but wouldn’t be… er… dangerous.”

Tseng sighed in exasperation. “And I expect he made little to no effort to dissuade you.”

“Well… no. But it was my prize.”

“Prize?” the senior Turk asked, an eyebrow rising.

“Ya know… from the Christmas party. That’s what was in the envelope he gave me. It said it was good for one free ‘Custom Sato Special’.”

The Wutaiian Turk stared at him for a moment. “That is what that lunatic considers an appropriate gift for a seventeen year old!?” he groaned in disbelief. He shook his head, as though trying to come to grips with an idea so moronic it defied all logic and common sense. Reno gave him a few more seconds to ponder their fellow-Turk’s sanity before asking the question that was at the forefront of his thoughts.

“… So… how mad at me are you?”

“Not as mad as I would probably be justified in being,” the Turk lieutenant said with a sigh, “Your recent run-in with Heidegger puts this in a slightly different perspective for me than it might be viewed otherwise,” he replied, “Even so… I’m certainly not pleased. And you will be punished, beginning with spending your weekend cleaning up the mess in Rude’s apartment as best you can and replacing anything that can’t be salvaged. I’ve already spoken to him. He’s expecting you after lunch.”

“How mad is Rude?” the redhead hesitantly queried, dreading the answer.

Tseng shook his head, smiling faintly. “It’s difficult to say… though I didn’t get the impression that he has plans to immediately eviscerate you.”

“Heh… maybe not immediately. He’ll probably let me clean shit up first. Then he’ll kill me. Or turn Margaret loose on me… I’m actually not sure which would be more painful.”

“There’s also the small matter of your living situation,” Tseng continued, ignoring the commentary. “I’m afraid your former landlord is quite adamant about you not returning. He’s given you three days to remove your belongings from the premises and turn in your keys. I did,however, manage to convince him not to pursue criminal charges.”

“How the hell’d you do that? Guy wanted ’em to charge me with everything under the fuckin’ sun,” Reno replied, somewhat shocked. Tseng chuckled.

“Being a Turk has certain… benefits… when it comes to city law enforcement. I simply made him aware of who you were and that attempting to have you prosecuted would be to no one’s benefit. I don’t suggest you make a habit of relying upon that status, however. Both Veld and myself take a dim view of Turks who abuse their authority. I trust I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sir.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I kinda feel like I’m gettin’ off way too easy here. Aren’t you gonna yell at me or tell me I’m back on an eight o’clock curfew or… fuck, I dunno. Take away my video games? Somethin’?”

Tseng smirked. “This may well be the first time a subordinate has ever complained that I was being too lenient in his punishment,” he replied, clearly amused, “Rest assured… you’re not getting off quite that easily. I have something particularly unpleasant in mind for you on Monday.”

“Oh… great. Now I feel much better,” the redhead groaned, wondering what the hell had ever possessed him to say something like that.

---

By Monday, Reno had done his best to fix the results of his ‘prank’. It had, in the end, involved helping Rude move to a recently vacated apartment on the sixth floor of his building. In addition, he’d had to move his own stuff out, and back over to Tseng’s apartment… though most of it had ended up in a storage unit he’d had to rent with money which came out of his car fund, meaning that, combined with anything he had to spend on replacing what he’d broken at Rude’s place, it would be awhile longer than he’d originally hoped before acquiring a vehicle of his own.

For most of Saturday, Rude had refused to speak to him, save to give him instructions. By Sunday, though, he’d forgiven his friend at least enough to resume conversation… though, as Reno discovered while they were sitting at his kitchen table enjoying Wutaiian take-out from down the street, Rude hadn’t been angry enough even immediately after the ill-fated joke to completely fuck him over. Apparently, Reno’s former landlord had been hellbent on simply chucking all of the redhead’s worldly possessions out into the dumpster after the police had hauled him off. Rude had quickly put a stop to that.

As Reno and Tseng made their way up to Turk headquarters, though, he couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive. His mentor had made it quite clear that additional punishment was looming on the horizon, but had neglected to inform him what it was or when to expect it. The thought was pushed from his mind temporarily, however, when they stepped out onto the fifty-eighth floor, only to encounter Sato strolling merrily along the hallway. He grinned at the redhead as he approached.

“Good weekend?” he asked. Tseng glowered and before Reno could answer, he’d seized the Mideelian Turk by the ear and begun to drag him off in the direction of Veld’s office.

“Let me tell you about Reno’s weekend…” he hissed, angrily. The rookie watched them disappear around the corner, and then hurried off to the lounge. Saya greeted him with a warm smile.

“Good weekend?” she asked, echoing her cousin’s earlier query.

“Tch… Not exactly,” he said, shaking his head. He heard a snort from behind him, and turned to see that Rude had followed him in.

“To put it mildly,” the other rookie concurred. Saya eyed the pair of them in curiosity.

“And just what’s that s’posed ta mean?”

Reno sighed and sat down on the couch by the window. “Oh… nothing. I just got it in my head that Sato wasn’t completely insane and ended up blowin’ up Rude’s apartment. And… my apartment. And gettin’ arrested. And now I’m homeless ‘n Rude’s still kinda pissed at me.”

Saya choked on the sip of tea she’d just taken and stared at him incredulously.

“… Yeh did what?!”

“Don’t make me say it again,” Reno groaned. “I feel stupid enough as it is.”

The senior Turk set her mug down on the coffee table with a loud thunk and stood up, storming off in the direction of the door.

“That bloody idiot,” she muttered as she went, “It’s not bad enough he’s gotta drive me nuts, now he’s draggin’ the wee rookies inta his madness…”

Reno blinked. “… I think Saya’s kinda ticked off.”

“What was your first clue?” Rude asked. Reno snickered and sat up, looking up at his friend.

“So am I still on your shit list?”

“… You blew up my bedroom ceiling,” his fellow rookie stated blandly.

“Yeah,” Reno sighed.

“You know I’m gonna beat the crap out of you in the training hall today, right?”

“… Yeah.”

Rude nodded. “Lunch at The Happy Moogle after?”

“Heh… Long as ya leave me with some teeth,” the redhead snickered.

“No promises. And you’re buying,” Rude replied with a small smirk. “Come on. Briefing’s starting soon.”

Reno flashed him a smiled and got up, following him out into the hallway.

“So’s Margaret still pissed, too?” he asked.

“Hmph… Let’s just say I don’t think you’re going to be invited on any more double dates for awhile. For your own safety.”

---

His fellow rookie hadn’t pulled any punches. Reno made his way back to his office with an exaggerated limp following his training session with Rude and Luca and lunch out at little cafe a few blocks from headquarters. Rude snickered and elbowed him as they stepped off of the elevator.

“Knock it off. The others are gonna think I tried to kill you,” he teased.

“You sayin’ you didn’t?” Reno retorted, grinning. “So… just in case I haven’t said it enough yet, I’m really sorry about Friday night.”

Rude shook his head. “Quit apologizing. We’re even. Time to move on.”

The redhead shook his head. “Ya know… I really can’t believe how easy I’m gettin’ off over this. You’re not pissed… Tseng’s not pissed… I’m mean, not really. Not like… hate-my-guts-forever level pissed.”

The other rookie snorted quietly and looped an arm over his shoulders.

“Can’t hate your guts forever. You’re my best friend,” he said, “Even if you are a giant pain in the ass most of the time.”

“Hey!”

Rude merely paused in the middle of the hallway and folded his arms over his chest, staring at him, an eyebrow rising to challenge him to refute the claim.

“… Yeah, okay. I’m a giant pain in the ass,” Reno laughed.

“So long as you admit it…” Tseng’s voice interjected as he rounded the corner, walking towards them. He came to a halt mere feet from the pair. “There’s been a change of schedule for you, Reno. You’ll be skipping your afternoon range practice today, and joining me on the roof instead.”

“Uh… heh… I’m not gettin’ thrown off the roof, right?”

“Tempting… but no,” Tseng chuckled, “Actually, you’re finally going to be putting all that time you’ve spend in the flight simulator to good use.”

Reno froze, eyes going wide as a wide grin spread over his face. “R-really? Now?!”

“Yes, now…” the senior Turk confirmed, “Unless you’ve changed your mind about your pilot’s certification?”

“Not a chance in hell… Let’s go!”

Rude snorted in laughter and shook his head. “You’d almost think he was excited about this or something…” he teased.

---

A short elevator ride later, Reno found himself seated in the co-pilot’s chair of the Turks’ helicopter on the roof of the Shinra Building, eyes roving the controls in front of him. It was a little different from the simulator… but after a little study, he was able to pick out the important instruments. Tseng strapped himself in beside him.

“The wind around the building can be tricky to deal with this time of day… so I think I’ll handle the takeoff,” he said, as he flipped several switches in sequence to start the engines and set the rotors spinning. Reno watched the rooftop slowly slip away as the aircraft climbed higher and higher, above even the large communications array on top of the building.

Midgar was incredible from the air. It was pretty fucking impressive from the ground, too, but from above, you could see the true intricacy and beauty of the suspended city. It left the redhead breathless every time he saw it. It was hard to believe that underneath it all was a whole other city. One of dim twilight and decay.

Tseng aimed the helicopter out towards the city’s eastern edge, flying towards the lowland plains between Midgar and Kalm. Reno spotted a small pack of animals racing across the ground in pursuit of a bright yellow chocobo, hunting it, and was a little surprised when the bird unleashed a series of violent kicks that sent two of its harassers flying before fleeing towards the mountains. He pulled his gaze away from the scenery, and turned it on his mentor instead.

“Come on, Tseng… When the hell do I get to fly it?”

“When we’re safely away from anything you might crash into,” Tseng responded.

“Tch… For fuck’s sake. I know what I’m doin’. I’ve been in that damn simulator for ages. I’m a goddamn expert by now.” The helicopter was simply hovering now on autopilot, easily a thousand feet in the air, and the Turk lieutenant looked over at him.

“Oh, really?” he replied, and Reno nodded. Tseng suddenly smirked and flipped the switches to disengage the autopilot and transfer control to the co-pilot. “All yours, then, Mr. ‘Expert’.”

He calmly released his own grip on the stick and leaned back in his seat. The redhead sat frozen for a split second before the copter began to move of its own accord, and he reached for the controls out of sheer self-preservation.

He swallowed, panicking and feeling as though every last shred of knowledge he had about piloting a helicopter had suddenly drained from his mind. What the hell was Tseng doing?! He was just goddamn kid! He didn’t actually know how to fly this thing!

Reno looked around the cockpit, desperately trying to orient himself to the system, but he couldn’t concentrate on anything but the very real possibility of ending up a large, bloody smear on the ground. A gust of wind rocked the craft and slowly began to nudge them back towards the city. His deathgrip on the control stick tightened until his knuckles went white. What the fuck was he supposed to do?!

“Calm down,” Tseng’s voice prodded over his headset, breaking through the haze of panic. “Level out and correct for the wind.”

“I-I… I can’t…” Reno stammered, his mind still a blank.

“Yes, you can. You know how. Calm down and focus.”

Taking a somewhat shaky breath, the rookie eventually managed to do as his mentor commanded, stopping the slight spin the helicopter had begun, and easing forward against the wind that was blowing them backwards. As he regained control of the aircraft, he began to regain control of himself as well, his lessons in the flight simulator filtering back into his conscious mind. Once they were stable, he reached over and turned on the autopilot.

“… What… the… HELL… was that?” he demanded, turning to face Tseng. The Wutaiian Turk chuckled softly, and gave him a patient smile.

“That’s what you get for being cocky. I won’t apologize. This is something you need to take very seriously, and not allow yourself to get over-confident. Unlike the simulator, this craft has no reset button, should something go wrong twelve hundred feet in the air. You will simply die. Don’t act as though you possess an expertise in something when you’re barely more than a novice. Am I clear?”

“… Yes, sir,” Reno replied, chastised. He took a slow, calming breath before switching off the autopilot and taking back control of the helicopter. “Couldn’t you have just told me to stop bein’ a dick?”

Tseng smiled.

“I suppose I could have. But it wouldn’t have left nearly the same impression. Now… take us towards Kalm.”

The redhead angled them toward the little village, and eased them into a steady clip forward.

“So… was that what you meant the other day when you told me you had somethin’ ‘particularly unpleasant’ for my punishment?” he asked. His mentor snickered.

“Hardly. You’ll find out what that is after we return to headquarters.”

---

The helicopter touched down once more on the roof of the Shinra Building, and Reno breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Piloting the thing had been amazing… but he was kinda glad to be back on solid ground again after Tseng’s little ‘reminder’ that he didn’t know as much about flying as he’d thought he did. Even so… he was still eager for his second lesson.

The redhead trailed Tseng back into the building and stepped aboard the elevator. It was almost five. Time to head for home… or… Tseng’s place, he supposed, seeing as he was presently apartmentless… get some dinner, and relax. He grinned silently to himself. Given that it was nearly quitting time, whatever Tseng had in mind to teach him a lesson about setting off explosive devices indoors was going to have to wait until tomorrow.

Tseng glanced over at him and seemed to read his mind.

“I wouldn’t start planning your evening just yet,” he chuckled. “I told you there would be consequences for your ill-conceived prank… and there are going to be. You’re going to be working late tonight, as is Sato.”

Reno groaned and leaned back against the wall of the elevator car.

“Shoulda known…” he sighed in resignation, “So? What’s it gonna be?”

“Guard duty. You and Sato may work out the shifts between yourselves, but you will both be here for the next forty-eight hours. One of the biologics labs is undergoing an unplanned security upgrade to accommodate a new specimen. The system must be disabled to make the necessary changes, which means a round the clock guard will need to be stationed outside as a precaution for the next two days. And nights.”

“Man… When you said ‘unpleasant’ you weren’t fuckin’ around,” the redhead replied, cringing slightly. Guard duty. Two fucking days of it. Two days of basically doing nothing but standing at attention and checking IDs to make sure no one entered who wasn’t supposed to be there. He’d only ever done it once before, and that time, it had only been for a couple of hours outside of board meeting. And he’d at least had Kai to talk to. It sounded like this time, he and Sato were going to be switching off to accommodate the longer timeframe.

Tseng smirked as the elevator arrived at their floor.

“I trust you’ll think twice before blowing up your next apartment after this…” he replied in a somewhat teasing tone. He shook his head. “And with any luck, Sato will think twice before supplying improvised explosives to minors… though I’m not going to get my hopes up.”

~end chapter 48~