Room 501, Monday morning-ish

[raspberryturk]

Reno did not want to wake up. Reno was wide awake, laying there in his bed, his face shoved as far into his pillow as he could manage without asphyxiating himself, but this did not yet mean that he had actually woken up.

Between stealing his own wallet, making large areas spontaneously combust in a psychopathic rage, and having casual conversation with a lion over the course of the weekend, he figured that it was well within his rights to not have to wake up just yet.

Also, his hair had been huge. And he'd drank all his own tequila. And waking up meant that he'd have to start on his overdue report to Tseng. And any such report, after this particular sort of weekend, was going to have to begin with, "No, really, boss. I'm not drunk, but..."

Reno hated this place all over again.

[[Open!]]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

"Except that now you're convinced I was whorin' myself out for crack," Reno replied, an eyebrow raised somewhere underneath the red mess of hair that was hanging in his eyes. "Which I wasn't, yo."

No, really.

[the_merriest]

"Fine." She shrugged. "People who eat regularly don't look like that, you know. I mean, you're --"

Probably a mistake to look down while gesturing, as he was still slouching there, shirtless, pants messy, and she lost her train of thought for a second.

"-- thin now, and you've gotta have twenty or thirty pounds on that picture. Could you count your ribs? Have you heard of sandwiches?"

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah. Two pieces of bread with stuff in the middle, yo." Reno rolled his eyes. This simply called for a good eyeroll. "Put 'em in your mouth, chew, swallow. I'm familiar with 'em."

It was a very, very not flattering photo.

"Nothin' to worry about anyhow. I'm better now. Eatin' and everything, zoto."

Which, of course, suggested that maybe he hadn't been doing well in the first place. Dammit.

[the_merriest]

"You ... really weren't eating?" Rikku asked. She didn't sound that surprised, exactly, but she was concerned. "If ... you were working for them, they had to pay you, right?"

This life-under-a-huge-plate thing didn't sound like it was for rich people, exactly, so maybe ... uh. Yeah.

[raspberryturk]

Reno was starting to get a headache, here. He wasn't sure what tangent she was taking this on, now, but he was almost certain that he might have preferred to be thought of a nasty street-whore crack-addict.

"The pay's just fine," he said, eying her warily. "It's the mako you gotta be careful with, yo."

[the_merriest]

"Mako?" Rikku chewed on her lip. "I, uh. Is that ... why you weren't eating?"

She wasn't too sure if this mako was a different street drug or some sort of anti-eating cult, but maybe she should let him talk, this time.

[raspberryturk]

"I was eating," Reno insisted. "Mako's one of those- if it doesn't kill you or reduce you to a freakin' vegetable, it'll only make you stronger, yoto."

She... had no idea what he was talking about, did she?

"Think radiation."

Did they have radiation in Spira? Maybe?

[I love this icon to an unhealthy degree.]

[the_merriest]

They didn't, but she'd been in Fandom for a year, with all sorts of people with interesting radiations and mutations and ... yeah.

"Isn't that ... kinda like poison, though?" she asked nervously. "Did they ... just, 'here, let's find out if it trashes you or not!' ... Because that's kinda ..."

[raspberryturk]

"Not in those same words," came the reply with a nonchalant shrug. "It's no big deal, yoto."

No. Really. Small dose. No coma. It was win-win.

[the_merriest]

"It is a big deal," she said, frowning. "You look ... they just did that to you? It's not right."

[raspberryturk]

"It's not like they tied me up and forced me, yo." Another nonchalant shrug. His shoulders were going to get a workout this morning. "Not like it matters anymore, does it?"

[the_merriest]

"Does it?" she echoed softly.

[raspberryturk]

"I'm fine," he insisted. "All here, in one piece, runnin' laps and keepin' food down." He had to pause to grin. "And with the prettiest pair of blue eyes you're ever gonna see, yo."

[the_merriest]

Rikku leaned forward, trying not to stare at the unnaturally-blue depths of his eyes, the way the colors swirled around in some deep turquoise pattern, like the sea.

She flushed before leaning back again. "Is ... is that because of the ... the mako thing?"

[raspberryturk]

"Mako eyes," Reno confirmed with a nod. "Everyone who's been mako-treated has 'em. The mark of ShinRa, or whatever."

He hadn't at all taken advantage of her staring at his eyes in order to get a better look at her Al Bhed swirly-things.

... Maybe he had, actually. It was fortunate that she pulled away. They were kind of oddly hypnotizing.

[the_merriest]

Rikku fussed with her hair. "Yeah. So. Anyway. You ... I gave your wallet back so we're ... all good. Uh. Right?"

[raspberryturk]

He was going to clear his throat. Yes. Throat-clearing was good.

"Yep. We're totally good, yoto." And then, because Reno's brain doesn't work nearly as quickly as his mouth, sometimes? "Offer still stands." And a wink.

Why did he throw in the wink? He ought to go back to bed. No. Maybe. No. Why did he wink?

[the_merriest]

Rikku opened her mouth, closed it again, and tried opening it one more time.

Nada.

She flushed bright red and narrowed her eyes. "I am leaving now," she announced. Maybe this time she'd get the dramatic exit? There was a nice flourish to it, even.

[raspberryturk]

Well, that had gone rather well.

"Have a good day, Rikku," he said pleasantly, giving a nod of his head. "Thanks for returning my wallet."

No, really. Why had he winked?

He was going back to bed, dammit.