raspberryturk | A Quiet Corner of the Dorms Roof, Wednesday Night

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A Quiet Corner of the Dorms Roof, Wednesday Night

Reno really should have known better than to spend so much time with his co-host (the rum, not Jenny) after the radio broadcast last night. He'd felt like crap in the morning, and spent a good piece of the day continuing to feel as such. So he'd stood up Rikku, who he was supposed to spar with. And he'd avoided pretty much anyone else for the rest of the day because he was damn sure he'd be biting off someone's face if he didn't keep to himself.

Killing his roomie because of a rum-induced snit wasn't a good idea, he realized when evening rolled around. So he had found his way up to the roof before any interaction with Tamaki had occurred, too.

There was a sky out there, full of clouds though it might be, and he was perfectly content to sit on the roof and look up at it, letting the chill of the night air bite at his face. Reminded him that he was alive.

Good to be, after feeling like the bottom of someone's foot all day.

[[Shoved off in a wee corner of the roof so I'm not monopolizing it, as this post is for one person in particular. <3]]

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She still smelled like chocolate syrup. Mmmm. Which made her want to lick her own skin, which sounded way kinkier than it should.

She wasn't sure why she was wandering up on the roof in her pajamas. Just kinda couldn't sleep. Weird.

Oh, hey. She knew that hair. "You must not have wanted to get your ..."

Blink.

"... butt kicked? Uh. You okay?"

Reno glanced over his shoulder, even if he did know that voice well enough by now to be able to tell it was Rikku.

So much for picking a quiet corner to avoid confrontation from.

"Never better, yo."

It was unfortunate, perhaps, that Reno was a lousy liar.

"Any reason you weren't out in the preserve, yo?" She raised an eyebrow. "Could've called to tell me it was off."

"Didn't feel like smashin' your skull in today," Reno replied with a shrug before he turned his eyes back toward the clouds. "Maybe some other time."

"Gosh, that's nice of you," she said dryly. "I'm certainly gonna hang around the preserve hoping you show up next week. It'll be like a little adventure."

"Think of it like gambling, yo. Maybe you'll roll lucky and I'll actually show up or something." He wasn't turning around. No freakin' way.

"Right. Sounds like fun. You know, I should've known your ego couldn't handle you getting your ass kicked by a cheerleader."

She waited. Come on, was he just gonna let the bait sit there?

...

Yep.

"Guess not."

He shrugged his shoulders.

Okay. So much for that.

"Bad day? Or ... you just felt like coming up to the roof and feeling sorry for yourself?"

That got him to turn around.

"Don't ever bother feelin' sorry for myself. Doesn't do any good anyhow, yoto. Better things to do than sit around gettin' snot all over myself cryin' a river over shit I can't do anything about."

"So ... you're sitting out here why?" Rikku asked, arms folded. "No, I get it, you had a crappy day and you still don't want to be here and everything sucks and that gives you the right to be a dick to people. Their fault, certainly not yours, and hey, they should suck up and deal. Is that about it?"

"Was sittin' up here to avoid bein' a dick to people." Reno lifted a shoulder and turned around again. "Wasn't anyone here to be a dick to until you came up."

"There we go," she said, rolling her eyes. "Knew it was my fault somehow, just messed up the details. You could have left a note on my door. HEY BLONDE GIRL - CAN'T SPAR, TOO EMO - OFF TO DRINK MORE. But that would've messed up the whole dick aura, right? Can't have that."

"Wasn't drinkin' today. Still not feelin' sorry for myself." His shoulders rose and sank again as he drew in a breath and exhaled it in a bit of an annoyed, tired sigh. "Was thinking, okay? Started the day with a hangover and spent it tryin' not to kill people. Came up here to cool off."

"What happened?" she asked, tone oddly neutral.

"Nothing. Just sometimes you have to deal with crap that's not gonna go away anyhow. Today seemed like a good day for it." He tossed his head a little, pointing his face to the clouds. "Nice view."

Rikku took a deep breath and let it out, slowly.

"You know," she said softly, "'nothing, butt out' has less syllables."

Reno turned around again, his expression as hard as he could manage to make it for a few moments. Right up until he found her eyes with his, and he sighed again. He didn't seem half as frustrated as he had the time before.

"Isn't nothing. Don't necessarily want you to take off, either."

Rikku stood there a long moment, considering it, and then walked over and sat down, cross-legged, next to where he was seated on the roof.

"Okay," she said. "You feel like talking?"

"Feeling like it and bein' able to do it are two totally different things, yo." He shrugged his shoulders again. "Today's one of those days where there's lots to be pissed off about, and knowin' that none of it's gonna change just pisses you off more."

Rikku leaned back, looking up at the sky.

After a few moments, she said, "Like with the Al Bhed? I could get really mad about how we're treated, and none of it's gonna make anybody think any different about us. That kinda thing?"

"Kinda. Not really." He shook his head a little. "Can't blame yourself for any of that, yo."

He didn't want to expand on that. He really, really didn't.

"Didn't used to see a sky like this often where I came from. The view sucked."

So this was stuff he did blame himself for. Rikku filed that, but didn't press him on it.

"One thing you can say about the desert," she said, looking up with a light smile. "Amazing view. Here you've got the city lights causing a bit of a glow. Out there? Just ... darkness, miles and miles of it, and you can see all the little twinkling dust scattered between the stars, you know?"

Reno had to actually smile a little at that thought. Dust between the stars. What a notion. Smog between the stars, maybe. City lights killing the stars entirely. Big-ass chunk of plate between you and whatever the hell stars actually are. But stars on their own were quite the sight. Twinkling dust made for an interesting mental image.

"Not really. Mostly I find myself doing double-takes when I notice that the sky's got clouds, yo."

Rikku gave him a confused look, and laughed, hesitantly, thinking it was a joke she didn't get.

"Clouds?" she asked. "Your sky doesn't have clouds?"

Reno raised an eyebrow and glanced at her, that smile still on his lips.

"Sure it does. Wouldn't believe how many people out there take 'em for granted, yo."

"Are you being weird again?" she asked, raising an eyebrow with a teasing smile.

"Depends what you think is weird," he answered with another shrug of his shoulders before he stretched out backward so that he was laying on his back, looking up at the sky. "Do you take the clouds for granted?"

Rikku considered the question, and then laid back, staring up at the sky. "I hope not," she mused. "Sand, probably. There's a lot of it, just lying around, clogging up engines and causing sun glare, it'd be hard not to. Sand gets old pretty fast. But when the ground's all boring like that, you appreciate the sky more, I think."

Reno nodded, glancing at her from the corner of his eye before turning his gaze back up to the clouds overhead. "Didn't used to get much sky where I was from. You never really bother to get all weepy about it, you know? Doesn't change anything. I didn't give a shit what it looked like when I couldn't look up to see it. But damn, when it's right there, you kinda gotta notice."

"We had sky," Rikku said, mulling it over. "But we probably didn't have some things you take for granted. Probably none as pretty. But I think it's all a trade-off, sometimes."

"Can't argue with that," Reno decided. "Always somethin' standing on the sidelines to smack you around until you appreciate it, anyhow. Sometimes it just feels like it's gotta smack a little harder than others, I guess."
He snorted and sat up.
"When it does that, I just do my damnedest to be a bigger ass about it. Screw it, zoto. Not gonna stop me from livin', no matter how rotten it turns out to be."

Rikku stared for a long moment before she sat up, too.

"Is everything a competition with you?"

"When wakin' up tomorrow depends on whether or not you were better than the rest today, everything had damn well better be," he replied bluntly, looking back at her with one eyebrow raised. "That so wrong?"

Rikku sighed and stood up, shaking her head. "No, I'm sure that's great. Have a ball with that. Enjoy your drinking, yoto. I'm gonna go see if I can get some sleep."

He watched her stand up. He listened to her words. He only winced a little.

"Yeah. G'night, Rikku."

Maybe he'd just sit there until she left. And then maybe he'd lay down and watch the clouds some more.

He still had some tequila in his room. Maybe later.

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A Quiet Corner of the Dorms Roof, Wednesday Night

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