Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 1: It Starts…

Author’s Note: The Taking Care of Reno series was my first foray into the world of fan fiction, the first chapter having been written over 14 years ago while I was still in college. It’s still a series that is very dear to me, so I’ve decided to update the older entries to reflect my current, hopefully more matured, writing style, add more to the character development, as well as clean up a few minor things that, frankly, didn’t make much sense in order to improve the continuity between chapters. Some chapters have been almost entirely rewritten… others just have added scenes and dialog. But the main plot remains the same. I’ve chosen to leave the old versions up for comparison, rather than simply overwriting them, but from this point forward, any new chapters will be added here.

It should also be noted that most of this was written long before Before Crisis was a thing. Some of the later chapters do make brief reference to it, as information was just starting to come out about the game at the time, but on the whole, it’s AU from Before Crisis, and will stay that way. I do plan to keep things cannon to the original FFVII and Advent Children, however.

Please review and let me know what you think. Knowing people are still reading this series is what motivated me to update it in the first place. 🙂

---

It was early Tuesday morning. So early, in fact, that Tseng was moderately surprised to find that Rude had beaten him into the office today. It was rare he didn’t walk in to find the entire floor empty. His subordinate seemed so engrossed in whatever was on his computer monitor, the leader of the Turks wasn’t entirely certain he’d even noticed his arrival. He strode up behind him, and glanced over Rude’s shoulder.

“Anything important?” he asked, a little louder than strictly necessary. Not so much as a flinch from the other man. So he had been noticed… just not acknowledged. Tseng shook his head, unconcerned. Rude was a man of few words.

“Not really,” he answered, “Just starting to get behind.”

Tseng could relate. Few people realized just how detailed the records the Turks kept actually were. Incident reports tended to pile up quickly if one failed to keep on top of them. And of course, it was far too easy to not keep on top of them… everyone, from Tseng down to the new rookie, absolutely loathed them, even if they were a necessary evil. There was always a backlog.

The door to the Turks’ main office squeaked slightly on its hinges, and Tseng made a mental note to notify maintenance about that, as he half-turned his gaze at the morning’s next arrival. If he had been only moderately surprised to see Rude in early, seeing Reno walk in nearly an hour before he was officially almost late was a veritable shock to the system.

And when Reno staggered and leaned against the door frame for support, Tseng sighed, forcing himself not to roll his eyes. Rude glanced up briefly from the report he was working on, but upon seeing the state his partner was in, wisely said nothing. Gone were his usual goggles, replaced with sunglasses… which were over his eyes rather than perched atop his head, leaving his hair far more unkempt than usual, with stray locks hanging haphazardly over his face.

“Rough night?,” Tseng asked, less than pleased, as he folded his arms across his chest.

Reno swiped absently at one particularly annoying strand of hair, wincing in response to both the very obvious annoyance that underlaid his boss’s tone, and the relentless throbbing in his temples that seemed to amplify Tseng’s voice tenfold. ‘What in the nine hells possessed me to get out of bed this morning?’ Reno thought, desperately trying to ignore the splitting headache long enough to deflect Tseng’s wrath.

“Not exactly…” the younger Turk began, mumbling the words, and then promptly collapsed at Tseng’s feet. ‘Right…’ Tseng thought, with uncharacteristic sarcasm. It didn’t take years of Turk training to deduce what Reno had been up to last night, and Tseng was not happy about it. Reno knew better than to put himself into such a state when he was expected at work the next morning. Upon hearing the thud of his partner hitting the floor, Rude looked up again. Tseng just shook his head, as if to say ‘I’ll handle it’. Rude shrugged and went back to his work.

The idea of simply leaving Reno right where he lay briefly entered Tseng’s mind, but he decided against it. The Turks’ headquarters within the Shinra Building received few visitors, but those who did venture into their domain tended to be of the high-ranking variety. Picturing the image – and the fallout – that such a scene would put forward was enough to convince him to move his miscreant of a second-in-command somewhere less… publicly visible… where he could finish sleeping off what Tseng suspected to be the results of last night’s barhopping. Silently rehearsing the lecture he was going to give Reno when he woke up, he rolled him onto his back none too gently.

Tseng was so intent on carting him off to the archives room – where there was virtually no chance of anyone stumbling upon him – he very nearly failed to notice just how pale his lieutenant really was this morning. Granted, Reno was naturally very fair-skinned, like most redheads tended to be, but something was definitely off… Today his pallor was downright ghostly. A night of binge drinking wouldn’t do that… not to Reno at any rate. His tolerance to alcohol was almost legendary around the Shinra Building; a reputation that Tseng had long ago learned first-hand was well-deserved, bordering on inhuman.

Almost reflexively, he placed the back of his hand against Reno’s forehead, frowning as he found it to be unusually warm. His previous annoyance now replaced with a nagging sense of concern, Tseng lifted him from the floor, eliciting a soft groan from Reno, and set him down on the couch that sat against one wall of the office.

“Reno?” he ventured, lifting the sunglasses from Reno’s face and wondering just how out of it the younger man was. Now that Tseng was paying closer attention, he had to admit… he certainly looked terrible. Reno shifted slightly and turned away from him, curling up on his side, facing the back of the couch.

“Mmm… Five more minutes…” came the slurred reply. Tseng shook him lightly by the shoulder and Reno’s eyes slowly fluttered open as he turned back toward Tseng.

“Something wrong?” asked Rude from across the room. His report seemed to have been abandoned in favor of observing this new development. His ever-present shades masked his expression, but Tseng could hear the note of tension in his voice. Rude could be incredibly protective… in his own way… and he and Reno had been close friends for years. Tseng was just preparing to respond when the door to the room opened, admitting their newest member. While still a probationary Turk – and with quite a lot still to learn – Elena was well on her way to becoming a valued member of the team, having been promoted out of Shinra’s recruitment program a few short weeks ago.

“Good morning, sir,” she all but sang out, smiling at Tseng, “Morning Rude…” Her smile faded slightly as she caught sight of Reno lying on the couch. “What happened to him?”

Tseng was spared from having to answer that question right away as Reno managed to find enough energy to sit up just long enough to glare at her… before immediately falling back onto the cushions, panting softly from the effort. ‘Great… now the rookie’s here. Dammit, I should have just stayed in bed,’ he thought.

“He’s sick, Elena,” Tseng supplied for him, noting with some concern that that small action seemed to have used up any reserves Reno may have had. He had also begun to shiver slightly, and droplets of sweat beaded his forehead. That was all Tseng needed to see to make up his mind. “Do us all a favor and take him home.”

Elena positively beamed. ‘He asked me to do him a favor… me!’ she thought to herself. For weeks she had been striving to make an impression on her new commanding officer… striving and apparently failing – due in no small part to a certain redhead’s constant criticism and snarky commentary. Now was her chance.

“Y-yes, sir.” she replied, doing her best to sound confident all while glancing at Reno’s unfocused, fever-bright eyes and pale complexion, and wondering just how she was supposed to accomplish that. Much to her relief, Tseng had apparently already thought of that, and solved the minor dilemma for her, gently hefting Reno into his arms and carrying him toward the door. Elena hurried to follow, waving a silent good-bye to Rude before the door closed behind her.

Reno let his head hang limply over Tseng’s arm, too fascinated by the wall panels that seemed to be moving past him of their own accord to worry about just how craptastic he felt at the moment. “Hey Tseng… The walls are movin’…” he drawled tiredly as he tried to lift his head… but that only seemed make the pounding and throbbing worse, so he quickly laid back and closed his eyes.

“Just relax, Reno… Elena’s going to take you home to rest. What on earth were you thinking even coming in today?” he lightly chastised the younger man.

“Fuck if I know…” Reno managed, with awkward shrug, before lapsing into silence. By the time they reached Elena’s car, Reno was asleep again, and still shivering. Tseng took care arranging him in the passenger’s seat.

“I’m sure it’s nothing serious. Reno virtually never gets sick. However… I’m not certain I like the idea of leaving him on his own in this condition. He seems slightly delirious,” he paused, considering his options. “Elena… I realize it’s somewhat outside the scope of your duties… and that you’re really not very well-acquainted with Reno as yet,” Tseng said, closing the car door, “But would you mind staying with him? I’d do it myself if I could, but I’m afraid I’m needed here today… especially with Reno indisposed.”

“Y-yes sir… I mean no, sir… I-I mean… I’d be happy to stay with him, sir,” she replied, annoyed at her own stammering… but she hadn’t expected that. She stomach twisted nervously over the unusual request, but she smiled slightly at the thought of Tseng asking her instead of just ordering her. How could she say no – even if it was a man who seemed to live to make her life hell that she was being saddled with?

Tseng nodded, and, she thought, looked somewhat relieved. “I’ll stop by to check in later if I get a chance,” he said before casting a final glance at his second and disappearing back into the Shinra Building, leaving Elena to look after her ailing teammate. She climbed behind the wheel pulling up directions to Reno’s apartment on her GPS. She had been given contact information and addresses for each of her fellow-Turks in case of emergency, but had never had cause to actually visit any of them at home.

She sighed in resignation as Reno’s limp form ended up pressed against her after every right hand turn. ‘Why’d it have to be you, though,’ she thought, a little unkindly. Reno had been making her life difficult from the moment she’d been promoted to probationary status. He seemed to find fault with everything she did – though she grudgingly had to admit that sometimes he did have a valid point. Still, he didn’t have to be such an asshole about it. She was getting a little tired of being told that she talked too much… or worse, that she was “acting weak”, which seemed to be one of his favorite insults. It wasn’t so much that she thought he didn’t like her personally… he could actually be quite friendly, if a little too casual in his comments, towards her when he felt like it. It was more that she got the distinct impression that Reno thought she didn’t deserve to be a Turk; or at the very least wasn’t fully convinced of her qualifications yet.

Her musings were interrupted as she suddenly realized that he was drooling on her shoulder.

“Eeeeeww… You’d better appreciate this, Reno,” she muttered with no small amount of disgust, shoving him away and reminding herself that she was doing this because Tseng had personally asked her to… and she desperately wanted to earn a few bonus points with the Turk leader to make up for what she lacked in Reno’s eyes. At last she turned into the parking lot of Reno’s apartment complex. Finding a space near the entrance, she got out and walked around to the passenger side, opening the door.

“Come on… If you think I’m going to carry you up to your place, you’ve got another thing coming, mister,” Elena said, poking Reno until his eyes opened. Reno groaned, sleepily glaring up at her.

“Home sweet home,” she said, finally having his attention, “Let’s go.”

Reno slowly dragged himself to his feet, almost immediately stumbling as his head began to spin in protest. Elena gasped and grabbed hold of him before he could hit the ground, pulling his arm around her shoulders to support his weight, feeling the tremors that wracked his frame. She was a little surprised by just how light he was… She’d always thought he was kind of scrawny, but it was still a bit of a shock. Then again, Reno tended to rely on speed and agility over brute force… and no wonder. His whole body was built for it, and he seemed to have boundless energy. Usually.

Yet here she was, half-carrying him into the building. For the first time since seeing him in the office that morning, she felt a twinge of real worry for her compatriot. He may not have been her favorite person, but she certainly didn’t want to see any harm come to him. Seeing Reno so insensate and listless was unheard of… it just felt wrong. Making her way to the elevator, she hit the button for the fifth floor.

By then Reno was already breathing somewhat harshly from the exertion. He let his head rest on Elena’s shoulder, wanting nothing more than to crawl into the nearest bed and fall asleep for a very long time. A moment later, Elena was forced to take his full weight as his body went limp.

“Reno?!”

The only reply she received was a soft snore. She sighed, in both exasperation and relief that he’d simply fallen asleep again, and poked him hard in the ribs. Reno yelped.

“What’d ya do that for?” he asked drowsily, pouting as the elevator pinged and the doors slid open.

“Just come on.” She guided him out of the elevator and down the hall, stopping at Reno’s door… and then she realized, much to her chagrin, that she didn’t have the keys… and mentally groaned as she realized how she was going to get them. She quickly shifted Reno’s weight and leaned him up against the wall, running her hands over his body, checking his pockets.

“Heh… Never knew ya cared. Plannin’ on strip searchin’ me, too?” Reno murmured, his head lolling to one side, as Elena finally found what she was looking for.

“I-I… n-no, sir,” she stammered, trying to ignore the half-smirk that now graced his face, along with the heat the had risen in her own cheeks at the comment. She really hated it when he said things like that. Not that she was a prude, or anything… but he was supposed to be her superior, and that was getting just a little too casual, in her opinion. She inserted the key into the lock and opened the door, maneuvering them both inside, looking around the apartment and shuddering. The man was a complete slob.

The cold, and possibly petrified, remnants of a pizza sat in an open pizza box on the couch. Discarded clothing seemed to mark a trail that led from the bedroom to the front door… or perhaps it was the other way around. Dishes were piled precariously in the sink in the small kitchenette, and the counter that separated it from the living room was littered with beer bottles and take-out wrappers… and she was relatively certain that she didn’t even want to know why a pair of boxer shorts were slung over one of the blades of the ceiling fan. The bedroom, she discovered, was no better. She navigated Reno to the bed, pointedly not looking down at whatever had just squished underfoot. Elena dropped him into the rumpled blankets, wondering how anyone in their right mind could live in such a disordered mess… she couldn’t stand it if she let the recycling pile up too long in its bin. Reno immediately pulled the blankets close, still shivering as he tried to bury himself under the covers.

Elena bit the inside of her check to prevent herself from laughing at the sight of Reno groping for something underneath the pillows and pulling out what looked like a bedraggled stuffed rabbit, hugging it to his chest. He was gradually becoming more and more tangled in the bedsheets, already half asleep. She tugged the shoes off his feet, and tried for his jacket as well but only managed to get hold of the electro mag-rod in the interior pocket, as he seemed intent on burrowing himself more deeply into the covers. Ultimately, she gave up trying to untwist him, tucking him into bed as best she could, and left him to get some much-needed rest.

“Ugh… This is disgusting,” she said to herself as she looked around the living room, avoiding the worst of the mess. Surely not all single men lived like this… she couldn’t picture Tseng, or even Rude, tolerating such a mess. She huffed in irritation, as the realization set in that she’d have to clean things up a bit just to find a relatively acceptable place to sit down. It was either that, or stand where she was, not moving and not touching anything for the next few hours.

Making her way into the kitchenette, she managed to find a roll of garbage bags stuffed underneath the sink. The beer bottles, wrappers, pizza, and countless other things that looked as though they should have had bio-hazard labels on them went into the bag. She shoved the clothes that littered the floor into a pile in the corner. She glanced upward, and then gave her confiscated mag-rod a flick, extending it to its full length before fishing the underwear down from the ceiling fan and flinging them onto the pile as well… for some reason, feeling supremely justified in using Reno’s preferred weapon for that purpose. Finally Elena sat down on the couch and flipped on the TV, deciding that if Reno wanted the rest of his filth cleaned up, he could do it himself when he recovered.

---

Reno yawned and rubbed a hand over his eyes, grimacing at the greasy, sweaty feel of his own skin. ‘Mmmmph… How long have I been out?’ he wondered, rolling to one side and reaching a hand down alongside his bed to search for his alarm clock, finally unearthing it from beneath a discarded t-shirt. Two in the afternoon. He sat up, grateful that the splitting headache he’d woken up with that morning had been reduced to little more than a dull, throbbing pang behind his eyes. He stretched his arms over his head and arched his back, working out the stiffness his muscles had acquired from being in bed for the better part of a day.

A sudden sound from the other room startled him into alertness, and instinctively, he slid his hand under one of the pillows, fingers curling around the sidearm he kept there just in case of an emergency. He thumbed the safety off, and tensed his finger on the trigger.

The door to his bedroom slowly creaked open, and he laid back against the pillows with the intent of surprising the intruder.

“Er… Reno? Are you awake?” a familiar voice asked softly. Elena. Not a threat. He reset the safety, the soft click muffled from Elena’s ears by the pillow, and released his grip on the gun as well as the breath he’d been holding.

“Yeah, ‘Lena… I’m up,” he replied. Reno wondered if she’d been ordered to stay with him. Tseng did tend to be a bit of a mother hen at times – god help you if you ever pointed that out to him, though. He smirked slightly as he saw her frown at him. Elena absolutely hated it when he shortened her name like that, and he knew it. Which was why he did it as often as possible. Aggravating the rookie was one of the highlights of his day… more to the point, though, it gave him an idea of just how far she could be pushed, which, in their profession, was always good information to have.

“Well it’s about time. You’ve been asleep all day. Um… Are you feeling any better?”

He sunk farther back into the pillows. ‘Heh. Well… long as she’s stuck here takin’ care of me, I might as well enjoy it…’ he thought.

“Ugh… Kinda…” Reno said with a slightly exaggerated whine.

---

Some time later, Reno found himself stretched out on the couch in his living room, contentedly flipping through the cable channels. He took a bite of the sandwich Elena had been kind enough to make for him, as he finally settled on the Chocobo Racing Network. A moment later, the door opened, and the rookie entered, holding a bag of groceries.

“They were out of sour cream and onion chips but I got everything else you wanted, Reno,” she said, setting the bag down on the now-spotless counter. Thus far Reno’d manged to get her to not only clean most of his apartment, but also make him lunch, and do his shopping. He hadn’t had any luck convincing her that she should do his laundry for him as well, but all in all, he felt that he’d managed to make the most of having Elena as an indentured servant for the day. ‘I should get sick more often,’ he mused silently.

“Thanks ‘Lena,” he replied in soft voice. He was keeping this act up for as long as she’d buy it. After all, it wasn’t his fault she was still a little gullible and naive, now was it? And it’d be a good lesson for her, to boot. Never take things at face value. “Hey ‘Lena? Could you maybe rub my back for me? Please?”

Elena inwardly groaned. She’d been waiting on Reno hand and foot since he’d woken up… not to mention, she’d been biting her tongue on correcting his stupid nickname for her all day, something she would normally have gotten on his case about after awhile – not that it ever seemed to make a difference.

She was tired… no, forget tired. She was practically dead on her feet. Which hurt, by the way, seeing as she hadn’t sat down for more than five minutes in hours. And to make matters worse, what had started as a minor headache an hour ago was rapidly approaching migraine levels. ‘Tseng asked me to look after him…’ she repeated to herself for the hundredth time that day, as she sighed and walked over to the couch. It had become something of a mantra. Reno grinned happily and rolled onto his stomach, and she gently began to knead her fingers into his shoulders. She desperately wished Reno would just fall asleep for awhile. She wanted so badly to lay down, even for just a few minutes… and she silently prayed she wasn’t coming down with whatever Reno had.

A sharp knock on the door gave Elena an excuse to end Reno’s backrub. As she stood up, a chill raced down her spine, and she wondered when it had gotten so cold in the apartment. She made her way to the door, opening it to find Tseng.

“Oh! H-hello sir,” she said, glad to finally have some company other than Reno.

“Good evening, Elena… How’s Reno?” he asked, eyes scanning the amazingly clean room – he’d never seen Reno’s apartment in such order – before settling on the couch where Reno was now stretched out on his back, looking rather smug as he flipped through the TV channels… a look that quickly faded when he turned away from the television and noticed who was at the door. Reno sunk into the cushions, somehow doubting that Tseng was going to be as easy to fool as Elena had been.

“I see you’re feeling better, Reno.”

“Uh… Yeah, a little, I guess…” he said, as convincingly ill-sounding as he could manage. Tseng’d never buy it. The son of a bitch could see through a lie faster than anyone Reno had ever met. He was screwed.

“I see… Alright, you can cut the act now, Reno,” Tseng replied, staring him down. Reno grinned sheepishly, and gave Tseng his best please-don’t-hurt-me expression.

“ACT?!” Elena shrieked, a murderous look in her eyes, “This was all an act?!” She grabbed the nearest object, which fortunately for Reno, happened to be a throw pillow, because she then flung it at him full force, nailing him in the face.

“Hey, in my defense, I really was sick, ya know… this morning…” he protested, holding his newly-acquired pillow in front of him as a shield.

“You… !” Elena growled, as she tried to run at him, but Tseng was faster, arms wrapping around her waist to prevent her from reaching him. She attempted to twist away, but between her single-minded fury and Tseng’s higher level of experience, he held her fast. “Let me go, sir… You have no idea what my day has been like… I’m going to kill him!”

“Calm down, Elena,” said Tseng, slightly taken aback by the venom in her tone. What had Reno done to warrant that, he wondered. After a moment the irate woman stopped struggling. Elena glared at Reno, suddenly not having the energy to do anything more. Yelling had only made her headache worse. Fighting Tseng’s grip on her had sapped what strength she had left. And seriously… this apartment was like a damn meat locker! She silently conceded defeat, ignoring the fact that her eyes were slowly closing.

“Elena?” Tseng’s voice prodded, jarring her back to reality. She snapped to attention, cheeks flushing in embarrassment as she suddenly realized that she’d been leaning back against the Turk leader.

“I-I’m sorry sir… I’m just a little tired…” She felt herself being steered towards the couch… heard Tseng order Reno to move… and was set down on the soft cushions. A cool hand rested lightly on her forehead.

“She alright?” asked Reno. Elena thought she must really be out of it. Reno actually sounded a little worried.

“I’m guessing she’s come down with the same thing you had this morning…” Tseng replied, looking pointedly at his subordinate. Reno had the good sense to look appropriately chastised, as Tseng continued., “Since she spent the day taking care of you… and I hesitate to ask just what you’ve had her doing all day… it seems only fair that you should return the favor. Tomorrow.”

“What? Whoa, wait just a minute, boss. She probably won’t even be sick by tomorrow morning… I was over this in a matter of hours!” Reno protested.

“I’m not giving you a choice Reno… I’m ordering you to do it. You took advantage, and now you get to reap the consequences. I was, of course, going to stipulate that any punishment inflicted does not result in serious injury – but if you’d prefer to simply deal with Elena directly…” Tseng replied, lips curving into what was an almost sadistic smile as he let the sentence hang, “However… If that’s your choice, I feel I should remind you of Elena’s score on her marksmanship qualification. As I recall, she not only beat your record, she also beat mine.”

“Yes, sir. Slave for a day. Got it,” Reno sighed, noting the smirk on Elena’s face as she fell asleep on his couch. ‘That’s it… I’m never getting sick again,’ he thought, as he shuddered, imagining what was in store for him come tomorrow.

-fin-