Room 429, Monday Evening

[raspberryturk]

Reno was going to sit on his bed and eye his cellphone. Dojima was right, really. If he couldn't understand the concept of giving people time, he should at least call Rude and tell him that he wasn't five anymore, and all reports for the time being would be typed up in a semi-sane manner.

And that would be why he was eying his phone.

He wasn't, however, reaching for it.

It was just fine where it was sitting. He could call Rude up any time, take the heat for getting him in crap with Tseng or whatever, and maybe he'd have things sorted out a little better by then. There were, after all, a lot of things to sort through.

Yeah. Yeah, he didn't have to pick up the phone after all. Save Rude the trouble. The big guy would appreciate it later.

[ooc: The door is open a crack, and the post is totally open for invasion from random persons. Oooooo.]

Comments

[withoutverona]

It seemed worth checking in on Reno today, especially with the host club skippage. Hence the Romeo tapping on the door after he got off work. "Reno?"

[raspberryturk]

At the knock and the voice from the doorway, Reno might have jumped. A little. And shoved his phone off the bed. Out of sight, out of mind, there. All good.

"Yo, Romeo! Come on in, man."

[withoutverona]

Romeo came in and flopped to sit down on the bed. "Good e'en, sorry I didn't come to kick your ass at pool again yesterday."

[raspberryturk]

"Eh, it was a slow day anyhow, yo." Reno smirked. "Spent most of the meeting clinging to the pool table. As much as I liked the little Lego brick things, it's mostly good to not be five anymore."

[the_merriest]

That was his door. That was totally his door.

She had a nifty new shirt and some capris to go with it. Jeans. The jeans were nice. And some of those funky espa-whatever that she couldn't pronounce the way Dōjima did.

She also had a black miniskirt but that was really, really weird to wear to someone if you were just going to yell at them. Um. Right? Which she was. Going to yell at him.

In a minute. When she knocked. Pacing, first. Pacing was good.

[withoutverona]

"I rather liked being eight," Romeo confessed. "Things were so much easier."

[raspberryturk]

"Easier, yeah, but I had a big mouth when I was five," Reno mused.

Which was different from the norm... how?

"How you been, man? S'been a while."

[withoutverona]

"Is that how the ... thing with Rikku started?" Romeo asked. "I ... well, I was a newt. That was rather the low point of my week. And the girls invaded Pixie Dust today."

[OOC: Heading home from work, back in 2-ish hours.]

[raspberryturk]

Pacing was good in that 'lets the guy inside totally see you're walking back and forth in front of his door' sort of way.

Which, depending on your viewpoint was good, sure.

Reno gave up on the phone altogether and stood up, wandering toward the door to investigate the aforementioned pacing. He pushed open the door and...

... Oh. Well. This was unexpected.

"Hey?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku jumped. That was stupid. She didn't know he was there? His door was cracked, for crying out loud.

"Hi," she said. "I was just ..."

Vague gesturing.

[raspberryturk]

"It's kinda how the thing with Rikku started," Reno explained with a shrug. "The boss phoned, had a good, long talk with me as a kid, and it kinda snowballed from there. But it started more when I met her and didn't... you know. Come out with it, up front. Kinda couldn't, yo. But I should'a."

He looked at Romeo oddly for a moment.

"You were a newt?"

Weird status ailment he hadn't ever heard of, maybe? It seemed something like Toad. And was possibly easier to talk about than the girls going shopping, which was win.

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah, I see that." He made a bit of a mimic gesture with one hand before slouching sideways against his doorway. Casually. See how casual he was? Oh, he was casual, alright. "How's that goin' for you?"

[the_merriest]

"It's ... going," she said. She nodded. "Okay, then. Uh. See you around?"

[raspberryturk]

Reno straightened up quickly and stepped out into the hall.

"You don't gotta go, Rikku. I mean. You're down here, gotta be down here for... something? Maybe. I could be wrong, zoto. Have been before."

He was rambling. Excellent.

"Why were you down here?"

[the_merriest]

"I was gonna ..."

Blink.

You see, everyone keeps telling me I'm repressing things, so I was going to come down here and yell at you. Where would you like to start?

Blink.

"... Dunno. Think I forgot," she lied. Badly.

[raspberryturk]

"Oh."

He stuck a hand into a pocket and chewed the inside of his lip for a moment.

"Well, can I get you anything? I got, uh. No, you probably don't want a drink. But we can... talk, maybe?"

[the_merriest]

"That always kinda goes bad," she said. "The talking-thing. When we do it, lately."

She jammed her hands into her pockets. See, now they matched.

"I'm not ... judging you. Am I?"

[raspberryturk]

"Judging me?" He looked confused for a moment, then gave a shake of his head and a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't think so, zoto. It's a lot to swallow, or somethin'. You need space, I'm good with that, that doesn't mean you're... judging. Right?"

He didn't feel entirely sure, himself. But would she actually have to ask, if she was?

[the_merriest]

"I don't hate you," she said, shaking her head. She frowned. "And I don't hate them, either. The Guado. I don't hate. If I let myself hate them, I'm just doing what they did to us. Next time it'll be Guadosalam. Someone has to stop it, and if I don't, no one will."

There was an oddly bitter note, lurking there.

[raspberryturk]

"You don't have to act on somethin' to hate it. And you don't have to hate somethin' to act on it. And you don't have to do either, to judge someone, zoto."

He took a step backward and leaned in the doorway again.

"If you gotta feel somethin', I don't think tellin' yourself not to is gonna help."

Feel it. Try for ten minutes. If you can't handle ten, try five, or one.

"All things considered, even if you're not judgin' now, you have every right to let yourself feel it, Rikku."

[the_merriest]

"If I hate them --" Rikku folded her arms, nearly angry. "You don't get it. They thought we were nothing. Just stupid heathens. Worthless. It didn't matter what anyone did to us, because we were just the Al Bhed. Everything was our fault. If I hate them, then I start doing that, too. It's too easy. I'll believe anything someone tells me about them. I can't do that any more. We can't do that any more. I don't get to hate them, or you. Not if I ever want things to change."

[raspberryturk]

"You don't get to? You don't get to hate me, Rikku? Are you listening to you? It's not like I'm an entire group of people, here. I'm one guy, and I did bad shit and lied to you about it, and you're saying you don't get to hate me. Like you would if you could but someone's told you not to."

He stuck his other hand into his pocket.

"Which is it, Rikku? You don't want to hate me, because you just don't feel up for it, or you don't get to hate me, because you're not lettin' yourself. Because there's a difference, zoto."

[withoutverona]

"Detention," Romeo scowled in explanation. "It was be King Arthur, fight a knight, talk to a mad Frenchman, blow up a killer bunny, get the Holy Grail, then get turned into a newt. A very strange way to spend a Saturday morning."

He added, "We got better."

[raspberryturk]

"Man, they just had me run a military obstacle course when I had detention," Reno mused. "Wasn't so bad. I might have to try harder not to get another one, now that I know they break out the weird stuff too, yo."

[withoutverona]

"And being a lizard is a small price?" Romeo asked. "I should rather have had the obstacle course."

He started fiddling with his watch, mostly for something to do with his hands. "About Rikku," he said. "I couldn't manage to tell Yurika about my marriage, and yours is even bigger. I'm the last person to lecture anyone for not wanting to say something."