Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 60: Light in Looming Darkness

“Ugggggh…”

When his pained moan was met with no response, he tried again. Louder.

“UGGGGGGHHH!”

“I’m not switching jobs with you,” Rude said, not bothering to look up from his present task.

“… Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

Reno sighed and sat up in his chair. “Tch… fine. Be that way.”

The other rookie smiled slightly, but said nothing. He didn’t really blame the redhead for trying, even if only half-heartedly, to get out of the assignment. None of them wanted it, and it had only fallen to Reno after Rodney had unexpectedly ended up in the medical suite earlier that afternoon. Something about an allergy, apparently. Rude was still working on finding out what exactly had befallen their fellow rookie.

But… Rodney’s absence had – rather conveniently for Rodney, all things considered – left Shay without a partner. Veld had put Reno on the job.

“Hey,” Shay called out, poking his head into their tiny office, “Ready to go?”

Reno snorted softly. “No… but since me not bein’ ready to go trudgin’ through the sewers for the rest of the afternoon isn’t gonna get me out of it, let’s just get it over with,” he said, sourly. Rude repressed the urge to snicker.

“I’m not exactly looking forward to it myself, you know,” Shay acknowledged, “But Tres says there’s reason to think the sewers might be their avenue of attack. That means it has to be checked out.”

“Yeah, yeah… I’m comin’…” Reno stood and grabbed his jacket, shrugging into it, before following the senior Turk out into the hallway. Rude smiled faintly to himself as they left. He felt a little bad for the redhead, but, hey… at least it wasn’t him.

A moment later, his friend peered around the doorframe and glared at him.

“Just so ya know… the next time you get stuck with a job that’s literally shit, I’m not switchin’ with you, either, Rude.”

Rude at last deigned to look up from the stack of folders he was leafing through and gave him a little wave goodbye and a wide smirk.

---

At the sound of a sharp knock on his door, Tseng set aside the latest intelligence summary from Tres and looked up.

“Come in.”

The door opened and a moment later, a familiar figure slipped inside, hurriedly closing it behind him. The Turk lieutenant’s eyebrow rose in curiosity.

“Sir?” he queried. Rufus breathed a loud sigh and took a seat in one of the chairs across the desk from the Turk.

“I apologize if I’m interrupting… but I am slowly going mad in my own offices. This matter with the Wutaiians has driven my staff utterly out of their minds. Their paranoia-induced gossip never ceases, and I’m sick of listening to it. I needed to get away from it.”

Tseng chuckled softly. “I see. Well… I suppose there’s no harm in you hiding out here for short while.”

Rufus straightened in his chair, defiantly. “I am not ‘hiding’. I’m simply… taking a much-needed break. Where very few people would be able to locate me.”

“Of course, sir,” Tseng said with a barely concealed laugh. The Shinra heir sighed again and let his body relax into the seat.

“Tell me… are you as worried about this alleged plot as everyone else seems to be?”

“It’s part of my job to worry about such things.”

Rufus snorted in contempt. “Yes, I know that. But I mean personally… Do you really think they would risk it, knowing Shinra will retaliate?”

Tseng slowly exhaled and let his elbows rest on the desktop as he steepled his fingers in front of him. The vice president frowned deeply.

“It’s never a good sign when you take that stance…” he commented before Tseng could speak, and the Turk smiled very briefly before resuming his more serious attitude.

“Rufus… At this point, I do not think it’s a matter of if Wutai will attack. It’s a matter of when. I still have my doubts as to whether it will be officially sanctioned by Emperor Godo… but it will happen, whether it’s the Wutaiian government giving the orders or merely a terrorist cell, or some combination of the two.”

Rufus was silent for a very long time as the other man’s words sank in. At last, he dropped his gaze to his lap.

“Would you think less of me if I admitted that… I’m scared?” he asked, hesitantly.

---

“… Yuck.”

Reno grimaced as he lifted his foot out of the puddle of sludge he’d just stepped in. Shay glanced back over his shoulder, and shined his flashlight at the rookie.

“I thought you of all people would be used to this sort of thing,” he commented. “It’s not that much different from some parts of the slums, after all.”

“Tch… first off, I never made a habit of crawlin’ around in raw sewage, even as a kid. Second… You really don’t get down below much, do ya, Shay?”

The senior Turk shrugged. “Well… no, I suppose I don’t, to be honest. What I’ve seen of the place has been more than enough to tell me that I prefer the Plate, though.”

“Yeah, well, for the record… the slums aren’t just one big shithole. ‘Least not in the literal sense,” Reno said as his boot squelched unappealingly in another deceptively deep pile of muck. “Ugh…”

“Duly noted,” Shay snickered.

“How did you manage to wrangle spendin’ most of your time topside, anyway?” the redhead asked, curiously.

“I’m more valuable topside,” Shay answered, “So that’s where most of my assignments are centered. My family connections can be invaluable at times.” He paused for a moment and cringed slightly. “Er… Did that come across as stuck up?”

“Heh… maybe a little,” Reno teased.

“It’s not that I’d refuse an assignment in the slums. Or anywhere else, for that matter. I don’t think I’m better than any other Turk,” he quickly explained, “I just… well… The plain and simple fact is that my family is undeniably well-off. And that status gets me into places and gives me access to people that other Turks might have a greater difficulty with, because that segment of society knows who I am. It’s not because I’m stuck up about having money.”

The rookie held his hand up in surrender. “Easy, Shay…”

“… Sorry,” he replied, shaking his head. “I… got a lot of grief about that as a rookie from some of the others. And not wholly undeserved at times, I’ll admit. I always felt like I had so much more to prove than everyone else, because I came from such an easy life.”

The pair continued on through the tunnel until they came to a junction. Shay aimed his light at the wall up ahead, where a large neon orange arrow stood out sharply on the concrete, pointing to the left. As they approached, he reached out and ran his fingers over it.

“Looks pretty fresh,” Shay said. Reno turned his own light in the direction it was pointing, but all that was there was more tunnel extending into blackness.

“Pointin’ towards Sector 7, I think… You think someone’s leavin’ markers for later?”

“Could be… Let’s see if it leads us to another one.”

He headed down the tunnel, the rookie trailing behind him.

“So…” Reno ventured after a few more minutes, “They hassled ya for bein’ rich, huh?”

“Not everyone,” Shay admitted, “Actually… It was mostly just Tres. He hadn’t even been with the Turks all that long when I was promoted, but I was just a rookie and he was my superior. And Tres can be… a real asshole sometimes.”

“Seems like ya get along fine now…”

The senior Turk barked a laugh and paused. “Now, yes. And it only took getting stranded in the Nibel Mountains, alone with him, for three days. Worst assignment ever. But… it gave us a chance to talk a few things out, and we both came to the realization that there were some misconceptions between us. I think he tries a little harder not to be so judgmental about people now. And, I guess, so do I. Or at the very least, I’m a lot more aware that some of the things I say without thinking might seem like I’m judging.”

They rounded a bend in the pipe and were suddenly face to face with arrow number two.

“Well, shit,” said Reno, “That’s probably not a good sign.”

“It seems we’ve stumbled onto a trail of breadcrumbs,” Shay agreed with a nod. The redhead sighed.

“We’re gonna be down here awhile, aren’t we?”

“Probab–” Shay began, only to pause mid-word. The tunnel was… rumbling.

“Uh… what the fuck is that?” Reno asked, in a worried tone.

---

Tseng leaned back slightly in his chair and regarded the young man for a moment.

“Rufus… if you weren’t scared, I’d think you were a fool,” he said at last. “You have a target hanging over you, simply due to who you are. Anyone would be concerned.”

“… Did you know that Father wants to send me to Junon?” the young executive asked. He crossed his arms over his chest and snorted in irritation. “He wants to lock me up inside a fortress to prevent anything from befalling me.”

“Junon is exceptionally well-guarded, sir…”

“It’s little better than a prison,” Rufus shot back, “I wouldn’t even be permitted to visit the village, I’d be guarded at all hours, and I wouldn’t have anyone to talk to. I’d be safe. And miserable.”

“Is this going somewhere, sir? Or are you merely using my undivided attention as an opportunity to vent?” the Turk asked, with a faint smile. Rufus responded with an annoyed glare, but eventually shook his head.

“I’m not going to Junon. Not if I can avoid it, at any rate. But my father will take some convincing. That’s why… as much as it pains me to say this… I would like to resume training with the slum rat.”

Tseng blinked in surprise, thoroughly caught off-guard by the request. Before he could reply, though, Rufus continued.

“I do realize that the Turks have their hands quite full at the moment… and… I understand that you likely would be unable to accommodate such a request personally. But surely someone still in training themselves would have a bit more flexibility in their schedule? Even if only for a few hours a week…”

Tseng was silent for a moment. It was true… the Turks did have their hands full. But Rufus was correct in assuming that they could probably spare the rookie for a training session now and then, even with with added complication of trying to prevent a war that was probably unpreventable. And in the long run, those training sessions might prove very valuable indeed.

“I… will have to clear it with Veld first,” he finally said, “but I have no objections. Though I must admit, I am a bit surprised. I was under the impression that you and Reno had little more than an uneasy truce preventing you from attempting to superglue one another to various office fixture and the like.”

A truce he was grateful for. He could certainly do without the constant threat of having to deal with the aftermath of a poorly time prank. Rufus squirmed somewhat uncomfortably in his seat.

“That rookie of yours is an obnoxious pain,” he replied, haughtily, before conceding, “… But, he’s also a fairly good instructor, and loath as I am to assign any more redeeming qualities to him… I feel that I can trust him.”

“I… see,” Tseng managed somewhat in a state of shock as he wonder how in the nine hells that change in attitude had come about.

---

“Any news?” Saya queried upon locating Tres in the lounge. The other Turk poured himself a cup of coffee.

“Some. I think. Shay and Reno might’ve found something. They’re on their way back now.” He raised his mug and smirked. “So… If ya want any you’d better get it before the redhead gets here and we have to wait on makin’ more.”

The Mideelian Turk snickered and helped herself to a cup as well.

“Now why d’yeh have ta go ‘n talk like that? Reno’s a sweetheart,” she chuckled, adding a little sugar to her drink.

“Tch… Yeah… A real sweetheart. Just ignore the fact that the goddamn coffee fiend never brews a new pot when he finishes it off. And he eats everything in sight.”

“Oh, so yer just salty ’cause got ta the last donut this mornin’, then,” Saya replied, smiling over the rim of her mug. “He’s shapin’ up ta be a damn good Turk, ‘n yeh know it.”

“… It was my donut. I called it before he even got here,” Tres muttered, and Saya laughed loudly. She shook her head and raised the mug again, inhaling deeply… and promptly gagged as her nose was inundated by a stench so foul she very nearly dumped its contents out.

“What in Titan’s name… ?” she finally managed. Tres, too, seemed to have recoiled from the odor, and she quickly followed his gaze to the door of the room where the aforementioned redhead was now standing, looking soggy and pissed off. “What in the nine hells have yeh been swimmin’ in?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to think about it,” Reno replied in a disgusted tone. He strolled over to Tres and handed him a roll of film. “Here. Got some photos of what we found. Shay says you can deal with this. I’m goin’ down to the showers to try ‘n scrub the stink offa me.”

“Ugh…” Tres groaned, tentatively accepting the film, before waving a hand in front of his face, trying to dissipate the smell, “You might wanna try bathin’ in some bleach instead, kid. And for Ifrit’s sake… burn those clothes.”

Reno wordlessly turned and walked back out of the door, his footsteps fading in the direction of the elevators. Saya glanced over at Tres and shook her head with a quiet laugh.

“Poor thing… I wonder how he managed ta –” she began, only to be cut off by a loud voice from the hallway.

“Oh, sweet Shiva… What stinks?!”

“Don’t even fuckin’ start with me, Kai…” the rookie’s voice responded.

---

Reno closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, allowing his lungs to fill with sweet, sweet nicotine. He leaned back against the little railing that ran the perimeter of Tseng’s back porch and slowly exhaled, breathing out a long plume of smoke. It had been a long day. And he could swear that he could still smell the sewers on his skin.

It could have been worse, he supposed. He and Shay hadn’t exactly been expecting to be swept up in a sudden deluge of murky, stinking sewer water… but at least they’d both managed to come out of their little adventure with nothing but a few bruises.

He had taken Tres’ advice and burned his clothes, though. There was no saving them.

The door behind him opened and he glanced over his shoulder, spotting Mayu as she emerged from Tseng’s apartment, smiling widely.

“Rude says dinner will be ready in five minutes,” she informed him. Her eyes fell on his cigarette. “Um… Can I?”

Reno raised an eyebrow in surprise, but wordlessly handed it over to her. She took a long drag off of it… and immediately choked and started coughing violently. The redhead stood, concerned, and grabbed the lit cigarette before it could do any damage, before patting her on the back until the coughing fit passed.

“Yep… Smoking is definitely not for me,” Mayu wheezed, “Good to know.”

Reno snickered. “Ya usually don’t start out tryin’ the smoke the whole thing in one breath,” he teased.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she replied, “But I think trying it once is going to be more than enough for me.”

“Heh… why the sudden desire to take up a bad habit?” he asked, grinning. Mayu took a seat on the steps leading down to the sidewalk, and he quickly joined her.

“I’m all about trying new things. Some people find a few things they like and get stuck in a routine for life… I want to experience a little of everything.”

“Can’t fault ya for that, I guess,” the rookie laughed. “That why you’re comin’ here for school?”

“Well… that’s one reason,” Mayu giggled. “Honestly… my parents would rather I go to school in Wutai. And teach in Wutai. And never leave Wutai. I’m the baby of the family… and their only daughter. I love them both dearly, but it can get a little… er… smothering? I just… want to spread my wings a little. Without them watching over me every second.”

“Not concerned about Tseng smotherin’ ya?” he said, jokingly. Mayu giggled.

“Oh, no… of course not. Tseng’s been my best friend my whole life. He’s the reason they’ve finally let up a little on me. They never would have signed off on me going to school here if he weren’t here already. Especially my father.” Her grin quickly widened. “And then, when I finish school, I’m going to travel for awhile. I’ll find places where I can teach along the way… see the world… maybe fall in love… And when I’ve finally seen it all, I’ll find someplace beautiful – someplace where I’m needed – to settle down, and I’ll have my students to look after. That’s the sort of life I want. And Midgar is my first major step towards it.”

“Sounds like ya got it all planned out,” Reno said, and he laughed. “My biggest plan in life was to somehow end up on the Plate one day. At this point, I’m just kinda wingin’ it.”

“What? No dreams of high adventure and storybook romance?”

“Well, I’m already a Turk, so I think I got the adventure thing covered,” he smirked. “Not really that big on romance… unless your idea of romance is a three-way. That I would totally be into.”

Mayu rolled her eyes at him and lightly flicked him in the center of his forehead with her index finger.

“Cissnei was right. You are a pervert,” she teased.

“Never claimed otherwise,” Reno said, proudly. Mayu ducked her head, shaking with laughter.

“You’re lucky you’re as cute as you are,” she said at last, before getting to her feet. “Come on. Dinner should be just about ready by now.”

The redhead scurried to follow after her.

“So ya think I’m cute, huh?” he repeated, eyebrows waggling suggestively. The comment earned him a smile… followed by a not so gentle punch in the shoulder.

~end chapter 60~