Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 49: Guard Duty

When Reno walked into the lounge, Sato was already there… sulking. He sat at the little table in the corner, arms crossed angrily over his chest, staring at the wall. Saya stood nearby, already bundled up in her coat, ready to head home for the night.

“Ahh… It’s goin’ ta be such a nice, quiet evenin’,” she needled her cousin, grinning from ear to ear. “No whinging ’bout what I’m makin’ fer supper… No havin’ ta listen ta the bloody chocobo races on TV… No explosions… Just me ‘n a nice soothin’ bath ‘n maybe a good book, while I think about yeh stuck here, standing outside one o’ Hojo’s labs all night.”

“Ah, shut it,” Sato muttered. Saya snickered, and turned to the redhead.

“Serves yeh right, too. The only downside is yeh had ta go ‘n drag poor Reno inta it.” She drifted over to the rookie, and ran a hand gently through his hair with a sympathetic smile. “Poor thing… I sent Rude off ta that nice Costan place on 3rd Street ta get yeh somethin’ ta eat, just in case this lout decides ta stick yeh with the first shift tanight.”

Sato suddenly sat up.

“What about me?! I’m hungry, too!” he demanded. His cousin rounded on him, and prodded him sharply in the chest with her index finger.

“Yeh can go ‘n scavenge the cafeteria dumpsters fer yer supper fer all I care, yeh bloody menace.” She turned back to Reno, smiling again. “Yeh try ‘n have a good night, alright? I’ll see yeh later.”

“‘Night Saya… Thanks,” Reno called after her as she headed for the door. Sato glared after her.

“Snubbed by my own kin…” he muttered, and then sighed. “Well… no two ways ’bout it. We’re stuck here tanight. Pointless ta be mopin’ over rotten luck… Since yer gettin’ fed, yeh can take the first shift. I’ll take over ’round midnight. Yeh can come ‘n relieve me at six.”

Reno shrugged. “Fine.”

To be honest, he’d rather have the first shift anyway. It was too early to try and fall asleep. He’d much prefer to stay up late. Speaking of food… the aroma of spiced beef and tortillas suddenly caught his attention. Moments later, the door to the lounge swung open. Rude made his way over to him and set a paper sack, with the familiar Delivery Cactaur logo on the front, on the table.

“Got your usual,” he said.

“Heh… thanks, pal,” he grinned, and dug into the bag, pulling out one of the burritos and inhaling deeply through it’s paper wrapping. “Mmm… Food…”

Rude snorted quietly in laughter. “Later,” he snickered, “Have fun tonight.”

“Oh, I’m sure I won’t…” the redhead replied in a mock-cheerful tone, before unwrapping his dinner and sinking his teeth into it. Rude’s only response was a wave as he headed out the door without looking back.

“Hmph… Don’t s’pose yer in a sharin’ mood…” Sato said, reaching for the bag. The rookie quickly snatched it out of his reach.

“Hell, no. I’m basically homeless ’cause of you. Get your own.”

Sato laughed softly.

“Aye… I s’pose I deserve that,” he chuckled, “Fer what it’s worth, I’m sorry ’bout what happened. Guess I got a wee bit carried away with the mix.”

“Tch… ya think?” the redhead mumbled around a mouthful of meat and beans and cheese.

“Tell yeh what… Ta make up fer it, I’ll help yeh find a new place. Hell, I’ll even help get yeh settled in.”

“As I recall, I’ve already ordered you to do just that,” Tseng cut in, and the Mideelian Turk jumped in surprise at his unexpected arrival.

“Uh… heh… Did yeh, now? Must’ve slipped my mind. Yeh were shouitn’ an awful lot o’ abuse at me, after all…” Sato awkwardly replied, caught out in his apparently rather exaggerated charity. Reno rolled his eyes and finished off the first of the burritos, licking the remains from his fingers before reaching for the second.

“I trust you’ve come to an agreement on splitting up your shifts by now?” Tseng continued, ignoring Sato.

Reno forced down the large bite he’d just taken and nodded. “Yeah. I’m up first. Just lemme finish this.”

He wolfed down the rest of his dinner. Tseng shook his head, but said nothing as he led the rookie back to the elevators and down to the fortieth floor… the medium security biologic labs. Nothing highly classified down here, but from what Reno had been told, there were a lot of live specimens kept within its confines. As they stepped out, the strong scent of of unnatural cleanliness hit him almost immediately.

“So… what exactly’s in this lab I’m guardin’, anyway?” the redhead asked.

“A number of living experiments. Mostly rats and mice and other small animals used in testing, I believe… none of which are to be removed from the lab by anyone but employees with level six lab clearance or higher. As the security system is down for upgrades, the head of the department has decided that, for the time being, no one who doesn’t have at least level six clearance is allowed in at all. Which makes your job far simpler, as you’ll only need to check IDs upon entry.”

“Sounds exciting…” Reno deadpanned. Tseng chuckled and motioned him down the hallway.

“Mmm… I don’t expect you’ll be seeing much in the way of excitement on this assignment.”

They stopped outside of a large security door. The scanner, which normally would control access to the room, displayed a large ‘OFFLINE’ message on its screen. Reno glanced around and sighed.

“I don’t even get a chair?” he asked, plaintively. Before Tseng could answer, however, the large electronic door to the lab opened and a slightly hunched, bespectacled man with long and somewhat greasy-looking hair emerged. He paused in front of the two Turks, looking at them appraisingly.

“Hmm… Genetic mutation for red hair,” he said, stepping up to Reno and apparently talking more to himself than to either of them. “Interesting…”

He reached out and roughed seized the rookie by his chin, sharply turning his head to get a better look. A moment later, he was unabashedly poking and prodding his ‘subject’.

“Fair-skinned, good muscle tone… I’ve been looking for a potential breeding specimen for project seven twenty-one…” he muttered, and then looked up at the rookie. “You’re not impotent, are you?”

Reno took a slightly shocked step back and opened his mouth to vehemently deny that, but Tseng quickly intervened.

“Whether he is or not is immaterial. He is a Turk, and will not be participating in any experiments at this time. He’s here to guard your lab.”

“Hmm…” was all the man said, before shuffling off down the hallway toward the elevators. Reno eyed him suspiciously as he went, and once he was out of sight, he turned to his mentor.

“… Who the fuck was that weirdo?”

The Turk lieutenant gave a long-suffering sigh. “That was Professor Hojo.”

“That’s Hojo?” Reno replied. “Fuck, man… everyone keeps tellin’ me the guy’s a little out there, but… Who the fuck just walks up to a guy and asks him somethin’ like that?”

Tseng laughed softly.

“Frankly, it seems like something you might say, if only for the shock value,” he snickered, “but besides you… not many people, I would surmise. Hojo is very dedicated to his work and doesn’t care much for social niceties. He views almost everyone in one of two lights. As a potential specimen, or… expendable. You get used to it after awhile. To some extent.”

“Uh… I’m not gonna have to be dealin’ with him much tonight… am I?” Reno nervously asked. Something about the guy – more than just his suggestion that he breed as part of some sort of science experiment – made him uneasy.

“I doubt it,” said Tseng. “He generally works in the high security labs on sixty-seven and sixty-eight. I suspect he was only down here to ensure things in the lab remained undisturbed until we arrived.” He paused for a moment. “Should he give you any trouble, though, contact Sato immediately. Hojo can be very persistent once he latches onto an idea, and I’d prefer not to come in tomorrow and find that you’ve been… harvested for breeding.”

“Ugh… I’m not gonna try very hard not to think too much about that…”

Tseng smiled. “Likely a wise decision. I’ll check in on you tomorrow. Good night, Reno.”

“Yeah… ‘night.”

Tseng retreated to the elevators himself, leaving the redhead on his own. Reno leaned back against the wall and let his gaze roam over his surroundings. Just down the hall was the little lobby that housed a small reception desk and the elevators… but for the most part, he was just standing in a hallway full of doors, each labeled with the purpose of the room. Having little else to do, he started reading the signs on the doors. ‘Supply’, ‘Lab 003’, ‘Lab 004’, ‘Biohazard Disposal’… and on and on until he couldn’t make out the lettering at the far end. It killed all of a minute and a half.

Reno sighed and let his head thump back against the steel-paneled wall behind him.

“… It’s gonna be a long two days.”

---

Reno glanced at the clock on his PHS and yawned. Midnight. Sato was supposed to be relieving him any second now… and the senior Turk couldn’t arrive too soon, as far as the redhead was concerned. Aside from a couple of scientists leaving late around seven-thirty, and the security patrol at nine, he hadn’t seen another living person all night. Standing around for hours on end with no one to talk to sucked.

In addition to being bored out of his mind – he’d counted the ceiling tiles in the hallway seventy-three times, and the floor tiles an additional sixty-eight – he was getting sleepy. He was looking forward to crawling into one of the beds in the Turks’ sleeping quarters. Plus, he seriously had to pee.

As the minutes ticked by, the rookie grew more and more impatient. Finally, seven full minutes after he was supposed to have been there, Reno heard the elevator chime in the lobby. A moment later, Sato rounded the corner into the hall, yawning widely as he made his way towards him.

“I miss anythin’ excitin’?” he asked.

“Oh… just the strippers and beer,” Reno shot back, “You’re fuckin’ late.”

Sato held up his hand in surrender. “Not my fault, kiddo,” he replied, “Got cornered by a lass from security on the way ta the lab. Likes ta gab somethin’ fierce, that’un. Took a bit ta get away.”

Reno snorted derisively, and gestured to the door.

“All yours,” he said, “Enjoy. I’m goin’ to bed. Oh… and If Hojo shows up ‘n tells ya he’s lookin’ for ‘breeding specimens’ feel free to take him up on the offer. I’m not interested.”

Sato let out a loud cackle, and slapped his knee. “Met our resident genius, did yeh?”

“Yep. And I’m hopin’ it was the last time,” Reno called over his shoulder as he started towards the elevators, leaving Sato to handle the lab.

“No Turk’s ever been that lucky,” he heard the other man laughingly reply. “See yeh at six!”

Reno boarded the elevator and hit the button for headquarters. When he arrived, the first thing he did was hightail it to the restroom, groaning in relief. Nearly seven goddamn hours was a long fucking time to hold it. Thankfully, the overnights were the only time he’d be stuck there that long. Standard procedure was to switch off every three hours when no one needed to sleep.

That taken care of, he headed for the sleeping quarters, set the alarm on his phone for twenty to six, and stripped down before he flopped into bed, planning on being dead to the world for the next six hours or so.

---

Five seconds after Reno’s head hit the pillow – or what felt like five seconds, anyway – the painfully loud blaring of his alarm unceremoniously jerked him back to the land of the living. Groggily, he rolled over, groping blindly for the phone. When his fingers at last encountered the accursed piece of technology, he forced his eyes open and stared blankly at it for a moment before finally silencing it.

“There’s no way in hell it’s mornin’ already…” he groaned, and sat up, rubbing tired eyes and yawning. He looked at the clock on the phone again. “Ugh… somebody just kill me.”

It was time to get up. Sato was expecting him to take over in twenty minutes, and he wanted to grab something to eat before heading back to his post. The redhead unenthusiastically staggered out of bed and into his uniform before dragging his still half-asleep carcass down to the restroom to clean up a bit. He very nearly walked directly into Tseng.

Reno yelped in surprised, coming dangerously close to tripping over his own two feet and quickly backpedaling to avoid the collision. His mentor eyed him with a thoroughly amused expression.

“I supposed that’s one way to greet someone in the morning…”

“If you moved any fuckin’ quieter, I’d swear you fuckin’ hovered instead of walkin’. The fuck are you doin’ here so early, anyway?”

The Turk lieutenant held out a small cardboard box stamped with the name of a nearby bakery.

“You’re punishment does not entail starvation. And as I suspected you wouldn’t be awake until the last possible moment, I thought I’d spare you the building cafeteria’s idea of ‘breakfast’. Besides which, I’m due in Junon at eight this morning and it’s a forty-five minute flight.”

“Which still puts ya like an hour and a half ahead of schedule.”

“… Not that I have any reason to offer an explanation of how I use my personal time… but Viridia’s duties begin seven-thirty.”

Reno smirked slightly. “Heh… Ooooh. That explains it. Don’t let me keep ya, then…”

“I trust there were no issues last night?” Tseng asked, pointedly ignoring the innuendo dripping from the redhead’s words.

“Aside from me slowly losin’ my mind down there all by myself? Nope. All quiet.”

“Good,” he said with a nod. “Incidentally, I’ll be back later this afternoon. If there’s anything you need from home, I can retrieve it for you then.”

“Yeah… Actually, about that…” the redhead said, somewhat awkwardly. “Could you just bring that whole bag of stuff with ya? I… um… I’m gonna stay here ’til I find a new place.”

The Wutaiian Turk glanced up in surprise. “May I ask why? If you’re concerned that I’m still upset with you –”

Reno quickly shook his head. “Nah… It’s nothin’ like that. I just… kinda had a lot of time to sit around ‘n think last night, and it’s not fair that I’m always relyin’ on you to fix shit every time I do somethin’ stupid. This was my fuck up. I should be the one fixin’ it. And, I mean, it’s not like I’m gonna be livin’ under a bridge ’til I find a new apartment. The sleeping quarters are actually pretty comfy.”

“You’re sure that’s what you want?” Tseng asked.

“… Yeah. I like stayin’ with you. A lot, really. But… I think it’s maybe time I stopped actin’ like some dumbass kid ‘n took some responsibility. Or at least tried to.”

Tseng chuckled quietly. “As you wish. I’ll bring your things back to headquarters for you.”

“Thanks,” Reno replied, and then grinned. “Heh… Ya know, if you’re plannin’ on gettin’ it on with Vir before you two gotta go to work, ya might wanna get movin’. Don’t wanna have to rush that sort of thing…”

“… And there goes any shred of maturity I may have thought you’d acquired overnight,” Tseng replied with a sigh, before turning on his heel and walking off, back down the hallway.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Reno teasingly called after him.

---

Some time later, Tseng breathed a contented sigh against his lover’s hair. It was going to be a painfully boring morning… first getting the preparations underway for the new Turk offices in Junon and then acting as security and escort for an arriving VIP en route to a meeting with the President in Midgar. But it was worth it to be here right now, the early morning light peeking through the curtains, holding a warm and willing body close to him.

“What are you thinking about?” Viridia murmured as she curled against him.

“Absolutely nothing for a change… and it’s wonderful,” he replied, smiling. She laughed in her pleasant, but no-nonsense way.

“Ever the romantic…” she teased.

“Says the woman who considers a one-on-on materia-based sparring match to be a suitable first date…”

“And don’t you forget which of us won that date,” she snickered.

“How could I? I still have a scar from where you skewered my shoulder with that ice spell,” he chuckled.

“Just a little scar…” She tenderly kissed the site of the old injury. “And it wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been so intent upon trying to recruit me for Veld instead of paying attention to your blocking.”

Tseng laughed, and left his fingers trail along her bare arm.

“You know… if you finally did take me up on that, we could do this a lot more often…”

Viridia looked up at him, smiling, and pressed a kiss to his lips.

“Tseng, I’m a military brat through and through. My place is in Junon. I couldn’t leave it anymore than you could leave Midgar.”

“Mmm… I know. But that’s never going to stop me from asking. Maybe one day you’ll finally break down.”

Viridia snickered. “Then maybe I should start asking you to transfer to this new Junon office of yours…”

Tseng couldn’t help but grin. “I… very briefly…considered it, you know.” He sighed softly and shook his head. “But you’re right. My place is in Midgar.” He snickered and rolled onto his back, bringing her with him. “Besides… I think Remy would legitimately begin plotting my untimely demise were I to take this away from her.”

Viridia leaned in and kissed him. “And poor Reno would be all alone. Or were you planning on bringing him along?” she giggled.

“And listen to his ceaseless innuendo every time he saw us together?” Tseng snorted, “I get quite enough of that in Midgar any time I so much as mention visiting Junon.”

“First rookie proving to be more trouble than you thought?” Viridia teased.

“Far more. But… it’s oddly satisfying to watch him progress. He has so much potential. And I want so badly to see him realize it. Even when he does something ridiculous… like blowing up his apartment and getting thrown out on the street in the middle of the night.”

“I hope that’s a hypothetical…” the woman replied.

“No… Unfortunately, that was last Friday.”

“That redhead is quite the little handful…” she laughed.

“Little handful? I’ll be lucky to still be sane by the time he’s promoted to full Turk status…” Tseng grinned, as he raised her hand to his lips and gently kissed each of her knuckles. “Given that he’s begun working on his pilot’s certification, even survival isn’t entirely guaranteed…”

Viridia giggled softly and leaned down, claiming his lips with her own.

“You complain… but you love that boy like your own family. I can tell from the way you talk about him. You’d do just about anything for him.”

Tseng sighed as her kisses trailed down his throat and along his collar bone.

“Just now, I’d willingly give him up in exchange for a bit more of your undivided attention,” he replied.

“No, you wouldn’t,” Viridia snickered, “But… Lucky for you, I’ve never been the jealous type.”

---

Mid-morning found Reno, once again having completed his shift and left Sato in charge of their post, calmly stripping out of his clothes in the men’s locker room outside of the building’s swimming pool. Because of his ‘assignment’ and because he was technically on-call in case Sato needed backup, Veld had given him leave to direct his own training today… and the first thing he wanted to do was jump in the water.

He enjoyed swimming… possibly more than any other form of exercise his training had thrown at him. It was soothing and relaxing and peaceful… but it still let him burn off some of the excessive amount of energy singing through his veins at any waking moment. Plus… just hanging there, suspended and weightless above the bottom, sort of made him feel like he was flying. It was a fleeting sense of complete and total freedom. He could lay back and just float for hours, if he had the time.

He started out with laps, racing against himself back and forth across the pool, until he was out of breath. It was a good kind of tired when he finally stopped and rolled over onto his back, floating silently and staring up at the ceiling. Reno leaned his head back into the water and closed his eyes, letting the water hold him up. He’d swear he could easily fall asleep like this.

His near-zen-like state was unexpectedly interrupted as a shriek loud enough to reach him even half-submerged jarred him back to attention, and a split second later, a small tidal waved doused him from above. The redhead sputtered and struggled for a moment to right himself, wiping chlorinated water from his eyes, and glowering in the direction the attack had come from.

A dark shape lingered beneath the surface, only to shoot upwards almost as soon as he spotted it.

“Wakey, wakey, baby Turkling!” Kai cackled, grinning widely as she appeared from the depths. Reno rolled his eyes.

“Fuck you, Kai… Can’t a guy swim in peace?”

The diminutive Turk paddled over to him, still grinning.

“Not when he’s being disciplined…” she snickered. “But actually, I’m here to exercise, too. Did a hell of a number on my ankle yesterday and decided to forego the track for a bit. So… how’s guard duty? I hear you met the professor.”

Reno snorted in contempt and somersaulted in the water.

“Yeah… I met the weirdo,” he said when he resurfaced. “What a nutjob…”

Kai giggled. “Did he want to make you one of his experiments?” she teased, and the rookie shook his head in disgust.

“Asshole said somethin’ about breeding specimens…” he replied with a faint shudder. The senior Turk laughed and sent a wave of water in his direction.

“I would’ve thought that’d be right up your alley, you little horn dog…” she snickered.

“Tch… I’m not lookin’ to make a kid any time soon,” said the redhead. He smirked slightly. “Besides… Don’t you think I’m in enough trouble as it is? Just imagine what Tseng’d do to me if I got some girl knocked up. And even if he wasn’t pissed beyond belief, Lira would fuckin’ murder me for not bein’ careful.”

Kai laughed again. “… You are so weird,” she teased. “You’ll happily set off a bomb in your living room and blow up half the building, but start talking about unprotected sex and suddenly you’re Mr. Careful.”

“Okay, first of all… It was one room’s ceiling. Or… floor. Ya know… depending on which side you’re standin’ on. And second, fixin’ an exploded ceiling’s a hell of a lot easier than havin’ to take care of a kid,” he said… and then paused before adding, “My mom got stuck with a kid she wasn’t planning on, and it fuckin’ killed her. I’m not about to do that to some poor girl I don’t even know.”

Kai studied him appraisingly for a moment.

“You know… I think that the first time I’ve ever heard you say anything about your mom.”

The rookie looked away and rolled onto his back, swimming off a short distance.

“… I don’t like talkin’ about her.”

Kai caught him by the wrist and pulled him back over to her. “And I’m not going to make you. But… listen. If you ever want to… come see me, okay? You’re not the only orphan around here. Sometimes it’s easier to say certain things to someone who’s been there.” She let go of him and her grin returned. “Annnnyway, I’ve got laps to swim, so… you can go back to pretending to be a chuck of floating seaweed or whatever it was you were doing when I got here.”

Reno watched her for a moment as she headed off to one of the roped off lanes at the far end of the pool and started her own workout. He’d never known that Kai was like him. She hadn’t said anything about it before now. Neither had anyone else. But then… why would they have? It’s not like it was something that was likely to come up at the morning briefing.

He laid back, sinking down into the water again and closing his eyes.

He wondered what it had been like for Kai when she was little. He knew that she was from Lower Junon originally, but that was about it. She never talked about her family… and now he knew it was because she didn’t have one.

---

Day two of guard duty was about as interesting as day one had been. Sato had told him that Professor Hojo had ventured down at one point, but had largely ignored the Turk. Reno hoped that the odd little scientist didn’t decide to make a habit of it. The guy seriously creeped him out, and his last overnight shift was just about to start. Thankfully, building maintenance would be finished some time tomorrow morning, and things could go back to normal.

Except, of course, that he still didn’t have a place to live.

Well… technically, that wasn’t entirely true. He’d made himself right at home in one of the sleeping quarters on their floor. It was a little cramped, but… it wasn’t so bad. Actually, he was sort of looking forward to tomorrow night when he’d have the full run of the building and nothing better to do. He couldn’t exactly get away with skinny dipping in the company pool or using the office chairs to take a little joyride down the hallways during the workday… but at two in the morning, who the fuck was gonna know?

The elevator dropped him off at his post, and he cracked his neck as he stretched.

“Hey, Rookie! Hurry up, will yeh? It’s past my bedtime,” Sato called out, grinning, as the redhead rounded the corner.

“Tch… past mine,too.”

Sato snorted in contempt. “Please… Yer one o’ them types that stays up half the night anyway.”

“Yeah… when I have somethin’ to do that isn’t gonna bore me to death,” he returned, “Anything interesting goin’ on?”

“Nope. Been quiet since six or so. Security’s made their evening rounds, and the floor’s been empty fer hours. Enjoy.”

“Hmph… yeah, right. ‘Night, Sato.”

The Mideelian Turk left with little more than a wave, disappearing into the lobby. Reno heard the elevator chime as it opened and then swish shut again, leaving him on his own on the empty floor. The redhead sighed and leaned back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, and zeroed in on the first row of ceiling tiles at the far end of the hallway.

“Tch… One… Two… Three… Four…” he muttered. He already knew there were exactly two hundred and sixteen of them. Seventy-two rows of three, one tile that was rotated ninety degrees and broke the continuity of the faint, lined pattern of the center row, and two that had mysterious, blotchy, rust-colored stains on them that looked like they’d been painted over at least once. He tried not to spend too much of his time thinking about what might have caused that. Likewise, there were three hundred and twenty floor tiles, in eighty rows of four.

He’d lost track of how many times he’d counted them all… but it was something to do.

Reno paused in his count for a moment and yawned. He definitely preferred the first night shift over the second. He may have been a night owl… but he still had to work in the morning. And it certainly didn’t help that it had taken him ages to manage to fall asleep while Sato had been on duty. He just hadn’t been tired so early. Tseng really knew how to torture a guy.

He couldn’t exactly say he didn’t deserve it, though. To be honest, he still thought he was getting off pretty easy, all things considered.

The rookie sighed and rolled his neck, tying to work out the kink that had developed while he’d been asleep earlier. He was still getting used to not sleeping in a little ball under the covers. Apparently his neck didn’t much like it. Or maybe it was just that he really missed his waterbed.

Without warning, the redhead felt the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as the unsettling sensation of being watched crept over him. He glanced down the hallway towards the lobby, and then back the other direction towards the other labs, listening for the slightest sound… but there was nothing.

Still, the feeling that he wasn’t alone lingered. He shuddered slightly. The last time he’d felt like this was the time he’d made his way home from his job at the Lonely Dragon through a part of Sector 3 he didn’t typically frequent. He’d subsequently gotten jumped by three men twice his size, who’d taken his pay for the week, his cigarettes, and, just for good measure, his shoes. He hadn’t taken that route ever again.

Who the fuck would be up here in the middle of the night, though?

Reno cast a cautious look behind him, and then set off down the hallway, heading for the lobby. He hadn’t heard the elevator… but that didn’t mean someone couldn’t have taken the stairs. He occasionally glanced back, just to make sure no one was sneaking around the corner at the other end of the hall. When he reached the lobby, he found it empty.

With a frown, he continued on to the corner, and peered around it. Nothing there, either. He repeated the process for the far end of the hallway, and still found himself alone. That was the extent to which he was allowed to investigate. He had to remain within site of his post at all times, unless something actually happened. Still slightly unnerved, Reno walked back to the lab and resumed his position, leaning against the wall.

He briefly considered calling Sato to come check things out. Of course… if the floor turned out to be completely empty, he’d never live it down. So instead, he stood there, utterly silent, straining to hear even the slightest, most miniscule noise from elsewhere on the floor. After almost twenty minutes, he still hadn’t head a damn thing besides the barely-noticeable hum of the fans in the ventilation ducts circulating warm air throughout the building.

Eventually, the uneasy feeling went away. Reno shook his head and sighed. Guard duty was starting to get to him. That was the only explanation. He was glad it was almost over.

~end chapter 49~