Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 4: Winter Fun and Back to Work

Tseng left for Junon early Friday morning. A part of him had wanted to go over and check in on Reno one last time before his did, but he settled for merely calling the younger Turk. So far as he could tell, he seemed fine… which had made the Wutaiian Turk feel much better about leaving town for a few days.

Still… by the time he actually arrived at the military installation, his thoughts were definitely drifting back to the redhead.

“You know… I really thought you’d be happier to see me…” Viridia said, arms crossed over her chest as she paused on the way to his temporary quarters. “You’ve hardly said two words to me.”

Tseng shook his head an smiled at the woman.

“I’m sorry, Viridia,” he replied, “I am happy to see you. Very happy. My mind is just… elsewhere… at the moment. Reno had an unfortunate run-in with a board member a few days ago. I’ve been a bit more concerned about him than usual.”

“Is everything alright?”

“Yes. At least I think so,” Tseng replied, “You know Reno, though. He has an irritating tendency not to ask for help when he thinks it will cause undue burden.”

Viridia chuckled softly. “And I just wonder where he gets that from.”

“I’m sure I have no idea.”

The security officer laughed and took hold of his arm, guiding him down an alleyway as she shook her head.

“Well… I hope he’s not going to be on your mind all weekend. Because I have plans for you, and they don’t involve that little protege of yours.”

Tseng smiled and gladly followed her lead.

---

Reno let out a shriek as he plummeted, the sudden drop leaving him with that familiar falling sensation in the pit of his stomach. Moments later, he grunted upon impact with the ground… and then began the downward slide.

“Holy shit!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, as his velocity began to steadily increase. “Rude, head’s up!”

He sailed downwards, completely out of control, feeling himself start to spin slowly, until he could no longer see where he was going. The next thing he knew, he was tumbling head over heels. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally slammed to a stop, flat on his back, body nestled in a the divot it had dug through the snow. Footsteps crunched towards him in the icy cold air, and he quickly sat up as Rude joined him.

“I’m goin’ again!” he cried, grinning widely. Rude snorted in laughter and hauled the redhead to his feet. Reno grabbed the sled and hurried off to climb back up to the top of the incline.

This was getting to be something of a tradition for them, Rude mused as he quickly followed his friend. He hadn’t been around for Reno’s first Christmas in Midgar, but he’d stuck around last year… and that was the year he’d introduced the former slum-dweller to the joys of sledding. To say that he’d enjoyed it was an understatement. In fact, Rude had hardly been able to drag him back inside, even once the younger Turk was half frozen. It had finally taken the lure of pizza and hot chocolate to convince him that he needed to thaw out for a little while.

The Plate’s runoff channels made for impressive sled runs in the winter – this one, with it’s three foot drop off into a steep slide was especially thrilling – and the pair of Turks certainly weren’t the only ones out today. Rude watched as a couple of younger teens sailed by in much the same way Reno had just a few short minutes ago.

“Hey, Rude! Hurry up! I wanna race!” the redhead called from the top of the run. Rude shook his head and quickened his pace slightly, joining his cohort at the starting point.

“Hmph… We ought to go stay at Icicle Inn for a few days sometime. Something tells me you’d love doing this on the Great Glacier…”

“Heh… When’s the best time to go? I’ll start savin’ up my vacation time again,” Reno replied, still grinning.

Rude returned the smile. “Early spring’s pretty nice. Or we could hold off a little longer than that and go for your birthday.”

“Now that sounds like a plan…” the redhead eagerly agreed, hopping onto his sled again. “On three… One…”

“Hey! I’m not ready yet!” Rude protested.

“Two…” Reno continued, snickering, and the bald Turk rushed to clamber onto his own ride. His friend smirked and pushed off, starting his downward plunge. “THREE!” he called back over his shoulder.

“That’s cheating!” Rude laughed and pushed himself into the chute as well.

---

Reno made his way into headquarters just before eight on Monday morning. Normally, he put off leaving home until the last possible moment… but the snow had started again before dawn, and the last thing he wanted was to get stuck on the way in. He loved his new car, but honestly… it didn’t handle the snow so well when it got too deep. Even leaving almost twenty minutes before he normally did hadn’t helped much, though. It had been slow going, getting here.

He glanced at his watch and shrugged. He was just in time to be slightly late.

“Hey! Reno!” a voice called out as he was stepping into the elevator. The redhead turned and spotted Sykes heading towards him, so he held the doors while the rookie caught up. “Phew… Thanks. Thought I was gonna have to wait for the next one. Glad I’m not the only Turk running late today.”

“Heh… Trust me, rookie. We’re not gonna be the only ones walkin’ in a little behind schedule. Roads are a fuckin’ mess this mornin’. Tseng ‘n Remy’ll probably be the only people who actually got here on time today, and only ’cause they’re both obsessively punctual.”

The redhead still felt a little odd calling someone almost three times his size “rookie”. Actually, it had taken him awhile to get comfortable calling anyone “rookie”, because he’d still felt so much like one himself for so long. But he was getting used to it.

He drew the line at “Turkling”, though. It had annoyed the crap out of him before his promotion. He didn’t feel like inflicting that name on anyone else. Besides… Kai had practically turned it into an official title as often as she used it. The newbies would be hearing it more than enough from her.

Hell… he still heard it from her on occasion. She never had completely abandoned his “baby Turkling” nickname. Thankfully, she only seemed to pull that one out these days when she really wanted to annoy him.

Speaking of…

“Morning, Reno! Good morning, Sykes, my little Turkling!” Kai said, grinning as the elevator deposited them at Headquarters. Reno rolled his eyes as Sykes groaned quietly. “I hope you’re ready for Monday morning training! I get you rookies first today…”

“Heh… nice knowin’ ya, Sykes,” Reno chuckled, hurrying off towards his and Rude’s office. “Kai’s been deprived of her precious gauntlet for a whole week now. It’s gonna be bad.”

Kai merely flashed him an evil grin as he rounded the corner. Reno made a quick detour into the lounge for coffee and then resumed course to his own desk. A small cardboard box was waiting for him.

“Fuck, yeah…” he said to himself, rubbing his hands together. He slipped a finger under the strip of tape holding it shut, and dumped his new PHS into one hand.

“As promised,” Tseng’s voice chuckled from behind him, and Reno turned to find him standing in the doorway.

“Thank Ifrit… ’cause if I had to put up with the old one ‘n it’s piece of shit battery any longer I’da chucked the damned thing off the roof.”

“Hmph… I suppose I can’t blame you, really. Yours has been rather unreliable lately. Though perhaps if you hadn’t taken it swimming…” he said, pointedly. “Incidentally, I’m told this model has a built in camera… and is water resistant. Try not to kill it too quickly this time. They’re becoming rather expensive.”

“Camera, huh? Sweet!” Reno replied, looking the handset over in an attempt to locate the feature and ignoring the rest of Tseng’s commentary. It wasn’t like he’d intentionally jumped into the company pool with the damned thing. Overall, it didn’t seem that much different from his old flip phone… but, as Tseng had noted, one side had a small lens embedded in it. “Got any idea how ya make it take a picture?”

“Try reading the instructions…” his mentor suggested, chuckling.

“Eh… easier to just ask Rude,” the redhead grinned back, “If it’s got a camera in it, he’ll have it figured out in no time flat.”

Tseng shook his head, smiling slightly. “At any rate, I thought I’d give you a bit of a heads up. Rufus will be traveling to Mt. Corel to tour the new reactor this afternoon. I know for certain I am assigned to his security detail, and I’ve asked that you join me, as well, if Veld has no specific need for you today.”

“This afternoon? Leavin’ kinda late for a trip like that. We stayin’ overnight, then?”

“Almost certainly,” Tseng confirmed, “I… would suggest bringing a bathing suit, just in case. Rufus has hinted that he is planning on staying at the family vacation home in Costa del Sol once the tour wraps up.”

“Heh… Oh, so that’s why we’re leavin’ so late. His royal highness wants to try ‘n sneak in a mini vacation on company time.”

“I won’t complain to anyone if you won’t,” his mentor chuckled. “Frankly, I wouldn’t mind a break from all this snow, however brief it might be.”

With that, he withdrew, leaving Reno to his new device. The redhead shrugged and flipped it open. He smirked as the easily spotted the narrow button near the top of the keypad labeled “Camera”.

“Tch… who needs instructions?” he said, with a faint snort. He turned at the sound of footsteps behind him and aimed the phone’s camera at the door, pressing the button. The tiny captured image flashed briefly on the screen with a message stating that the photo had been saved. “Mornin’ Rude!”

“Hmph… new toy, huh?” his friend replied, eyeing the phone with a vague look of envy.

“Yep. They upgraded me to the super fancy version.”

Rude held out his hand, and the redhead obligingly handed it over. The other Turk studied it intensely for a moment, testing out a few of its features, before finally handing it back.

“Jealous…?” Reno teased.

“… Yes.”

The redhead laughed and tucked his new phone into a pocket.

“You could always conveniently lose yours.”

“Hmph… or take it for a quick swim?” Rude said, jokingly.

“That was an accident,” Reno shot back, “… Mostly. Anyway… sounds like I’m gonna be headin’ outta town later. You okay with doing range practice with the rookies on your own this afternoon, or should I see if I can get someone to cover for me?”

Rude shrugged. “I got it handled.”

That was another thing Reno’d had to get used to. He and Rude had both, for the last several months, been tapped to take a much more active part in training the newbies. So far, they were mainly in charge of seeing to it that the rookies could shoot straight a couple of times a week and helping Remy with hand to hand practice when asked. Rude hadn’t fully warmed to the idea yet, but Reno… he really enjoyed being a trainer instead of a trainee once in awhile. It was something he could definitely see doing more of.

“So… what’s the big out of town assignment?” Rude queried, taking a seat at his desk and logging in to check his email. Reno leaned back, propping himself up on the edge of his desk.

“Eh… nothin’ major. Rufus is just goin’ out to see that new reactor.”

The bald Turk snickered. “Glad I’m stuck here with the rookies,” he teased.

“Ah, come on. Rufus isn’t so bad.”

Rude looked up at him and laughed. “Two weeks ago, you were calling him a spoiled little dick under your breath every time anyone so much as mentioned his name…”

“That’s ’cause the spoiled little dick thought it’d be cute to make me chase his goddamn limo around parking deck instead of just lettin’ me get into the damn thing… I was about five seconds from shootin’ out the tires outta spite. But, yeah… I mean, he’s mostly a dick, but he can be decent. Sometimes,” Reno replied, grinning. “He’s even almost likable when he’s actually in a good mood.”

“Likable?” Rude repeated, raising his sunglasses to eye the redhead.

“Yeah. Almost.”

Rude snorted softly and turned back to his email. “You’re a real masochist sometimes, you know that, right?”

Reno sniggered. “Hey, Rufus is an asshole, but there are way worse people I could be stuck guardin’. I’ll take our resident spoiled pretty boy over Heidegger any day.” He shuddered slightly, “Or Hojo. Or Scarlet. Ugh…”

“You do realize that’s about half the executive board, don’t you…?” his friend responded in a highly amused tone.

---

A short while later, Reno had settled into the chair next to Rude as the briefing room started to fill up. Conversation buzzed through the air as the Turks caught up with one another after several days apart. The redhead spotted Sato as he made his way inside and waved. The Mideelian Turk grinned and made his way over to the pair.

“Hey, Sato… have a good trip?” he asked.

“Aye… ‘Twas good ta see the kin again. Been away from home too bloody long,” he replied, “Thanks, by the way. A wee birdie told me that yeh volunteered ta make sure I wouldnae have ta work the executive party. I owe yeh.”

Reno shrugged. “No problem. You’da done it for me.”

The senior Turk ruffled the younger man’s hair and grinned. “Aye… I woulda,” he said, before taking a seat a little further down the table. A moment later, Cissnei took the opportunity to squeeze in beside the pair.

“Hey, guys,” she said, warmly. “So… do either of you two know what a zenene is?”

Reno raised a curious eyebrow. “… Uh… why are ya askin’, exactly?” he queried, suspiciously. He hadn’t heard mention of those creatures in quite some time… though he still very clearly remembered Hojo’s “demonstration” of the vicious lab specimens in the early days of the war with Wutai. He was certain that Rufus did, as well.

“I heard Veld talking about them with Remy a few minutes ago. He said something about zenenes escaping into the mountains and sending out a group to go after them.”

Reno barked a quiet laughed. “Man… am I ever glad I’m babysittin’ Rufus today…”

“… What are they?” Rude asked.

“Some experiment of Hojo’s. Ugly fuckers… Mean, too. They look kinda like a big cat that got cross-bred with a nibelwolf, a dragon, ‘n a whole fuck ton of spikes. Hojo tried to talk Rufus into gettin’ the President to use ’em in the war against Wutai’s ground troops. How the fuck’d they get out?”

Cissnei shook her head. “No idea. But… I guess that means someone’s going to be doing a little hunting.”

“Tch… yeah, well… watch yourself if you end up with that assignment. Saw one of those bastards rip a fuckin’ nibelwolf to shreds. It wasn’t pretty. Seriously. Be careful.”

“Hmph… great,” Rude groaned. Reno grinned.

“Gettin’ stuck spendin’ the day with Rufus ain’t soundin’ so bad now, is it pal?”

“… I’ll take my chances with the zenenes,” Rude replied, teasingly, drawing a giggle from Cissnei.

“Oh, come Rude,” she said, smiling warmly, “Rufus is alright. I actually kind of like getting assigned to his security details. He’s very intelligent.”

“And handsome…” a soft voice sighed, behind them, and Reno twisted in his seat just in time to see Petra drift past them. She didn’t stop to chat, instead continuing on towards her fellow rookies. Cissnei bit down on her lower lip trying to stifle her laughter.

“I guess I should mention… Petra seems to have developed a little bit of a crush on the vice president.”

“Oh, terrific,” Reno snickered. “Just what Rufus needs… someone new to inflate his already over-inflated ego.”

Cissnei elbowed the redhead, and nodded toward the door, where Tseng and Remy had just entered. Veld wasn’t far behind.

“Alright… Quiet down, everyone. I know we’re all eager to be back at work…”

“Aye… all that rest ‘n relaxation ‘n not workin’ fer days on end was just terrible…” Sato piped up from the far side of the room, eliciting a ripple of laughter from the rest of the Turks.

“Well, you’ll be glad to know that we have plenty to keep you busy then, Sato,” Veld replied. “First and foremost… Tseng and Reno. Rufus is traveling to Mt. Corel for an inspection of the new reactor facility. You’ll be joining him.”

“Any chance we can stop by the Gold Saucer while we’re there?” Reno asked, grinning.

“Not if I have any say in the matter…” Tseng deadpanned, looking vaguely concerned that he might try to talk Rufus into just that… The redhead’s grin widened. The Wutaiian Turk wasn’t what one might call a fan of the loud, flashy amusement park… even if he had voluntarily taken Reno there for his seventeenth birthday. Normally he might be willing to argue its merits with his mentor… but given that they were likely getting a free trip to Costa del Sol on this assignment, he wasn’t going to complain. And to be honest, as much as he loved that place, the prospect of a couple hours on the beach actually sounded a little bit more appealing than roller coasters and cotton candy right now.

“Sykes, Petra and Liam… you’re with Sato this morning for demolitions training, and Rude will take you for range practice later this afternoon. Sato… keep the explosions minimal. I’d prefer that no rookies be rendered eyebrowless.”

“Oy… I havnae blown the eyebrows off a wee rookie in years…”

“Let’s keep it that way, shall we?” Veld replied. “As for the rest of you… we have some escaped lab specimens to track down. They’re part of one of Hojo’s experiments, and were last seen heading towards the mountains south of the city. Hojo would prefer to have them back alive, if at all possible. It’s a relatively small group – only six animals in total – but I’m told they are extremely dangerous. A full dossier from Biologics should be available shortly. Any questions?”

There was a faint murmuring amongst those assembled, but no one spoke up. Veld nodded.

“In that case… dismissed.”

“Well… have fun playin’ with the monsters, guys,” Reno said, getting up from his seat, “I’m off to pack for an overnight.” He paused and turned back to his friends. “Seriously, though. Zenenes aren’t somethin’ you wanna fuck around with. Be careful out there.”

“We will,” Cissnei replied, and Rude nodded.

~end chapter 4~