raspberryturk | Rude's Apartment, Edge, Thursday Evening

Rude's couch was lumpy and hard to sleep on.

Rude's couch was lumpy and hard to sleep on, Rude's booze was running low, and the lighting in Rude's living room sucked.

All that, and Reno had more reading material than he could have ever hoped for. And a bean sprout in a plastic cup sitting in some wet paper towel. And a pair of cacti that he hadn't managed to kill yet. And an anxious ferret, attempting to help him either with the booze, or with the reading, whichever Mako happened to be able to reach more easily at the time.

As such things went, after a week and a half back in Edge with no outlet to the real world, it was time for Reno to take a break. He'd written a letter earlier in the week in reply to one that he'd gotten last week Thursday, which was all well and good... but dammit, he needed to hear a voice that didn't belong to a Turk, a member of the WRO, or some random person living on the street corners in Edge.

Spare Gil for the homeless, they'd beg, and he'd toss them a few, just because he had a few to spare. But not without a mumble and a frown.

Yeah. You an' everyone else, yo.

He needed to make some freaking phone calls, or he was going to go out of his mind, damn it.

[NFB for distance, open to anyone who thinks that Reno would have a reason to call them! Or, heck, open to anyone. He's bored, he'll probably just hit buttons until he hears familiar voices, at this point.]

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"You sure they weren't just gawking at your hair?" she taunted.

"If they can't handle the hair, Doji, then they ain't even worth tryin' to break in. No challenge at all."

Reno was not easily taunted, dangit.

"It's not a matter of handling the hair, Red, it's the mental puzzle of 'is that natural?'" Dōjima pointed out. "Not everyone can be as easily fantastic as you."

"It takes a lotta work to be this amazing," Reno decided, rolling over onto his back and staring up at the ceiling with a grin on his face. "I mean, for anyone but me. For me it just comes natural, zoto."

He was so humble.

"Just like the hair."

"If you're that fantastic, then, why are you still on Rude's couch?" Dōjima shot back. "Get off your butt, Turk, and either get him a less-bumpy couch, or go buy a sleeping bag and air mattress that you can hide in the closet."

"I had the money to buy myself somethin' like that," Reno mused, "but I passed it off on the WRO. I owe Reeve a new overpass, yo."

He'd kind of flattened the last one, and all. Oops.

That? Was the sound of Dōjima's head hitting her wall. Repeatedly.

"You flattened the overpass in the name of Great Justice, moron," she pointed out. "Yeah, you should replace what you break, but you gotta take care of yourself too."

"That's what the couch is for," Reno pointed out, chuckling a little. "It ain't so bad. I slept on a lot worse, before I joined the Turks and while I was one, yo. I think I'm just bitchin' for the sake of hearin' myself talk. Edge is quiet."

Too quiet. Still.

"If Rude isn't taking good care of you, I will kick his ass," Dōjima informed him sweetly. "Too quiet to sleep? I can start calling you at four in the morning. You won't complain about the quiet after a week of that."

"Eh, I used to wake up about that time just to get ready to train with Ghanima," Reno mused, sounding almost nostalgic or something. A lot. "Trainin' with Rude ain't the same. He's slow. Always has been."

"That's because you're a masochist," she said slowly. "I get not getting to bed until four, but willingly getting up that early I will never understand."

"I could always send you more horrible romance novels. I seem to remember you boys enjoying Amber's stash at one point?"

Could she hear the shudder? It was perfectly audible, damn it.

"That Fabio book? Tseng might like that kinda shit, Doji. An' I think Amber's still got some of my porn mags, come to think of it. Does Romeo still have that weird-ass pirate book? I want my titties back, zoto."

They were the most tasteless magazines in the universe. Just like Reno liked them, thank you very much.

"I am not sending you crappy T&A shit, Reno," Yurika lectured. "Ew. No."

Maybe some classy erotica photography books if he was a Good Reno, but it was like her fight to try and get him to drink booze that was not drain-cleaner...

She knew it was probably impossible, but the fun was in fighting about it.

"But it's my crappy T&A shit," Reno reasoned. And then shrugged and rolled over again to poke at his bean.

The one in the plastic cup.

"But I guess I could'a got my shit together before leavin' if I wanted that stuff back, huh? At least I still got my movies, yo."

Those were the important part.

"I should get you decent movies," she laughed. "Or something completely horrible from home. There's some fucked-up stuff out there."

"Or, you know, reading material that doesn't have naked girls or sex. I hear they do have not-dirty books. Maybe ones where shit blows up."

"Ooo! I like books where shit blows up!"

This was purely speculation. Reno didn't read books, when he could avoid it. But he might start. He had poetry to read, too, after all. "But the dirty stuff's more fun, you know."

"You're hopeless." Judging by the laugh in her voice, however, Yurika didn't mind. "What else are you up to, besides bothering people when you're bored?"

"Growin' beans in plastic cups," Reno replied with a grin. "Somethin' green growin' near Midgar, Doji. It's like a friggin' miracle or somethin'."

It helped that he was using the miracle rainwater that had pooled in the church. He was allowed to cheat a little, right?

"Mostly just botherin' people when I'm bored, though."

He'd done a lot of whining to Rude this past week and a half.

"Note to self: send condolence booze to Tseng, Rude, and Elena," Dōjima commented. "Plants? Seriously? Your furry rat hasn't eaten them yet?"

"I keep 'em outta reach of Mako," Reno noted, looking at the bean plant that was there on the floor beside him.

See? Totally out of reach. Kinda.

"Or, at least, I just toss a sock at him when he gets too close to the bean, yo. It's important research, believe it or not."

"Oh, I believe it," she replied. "Why a bean?"

"It's easy, and it's food," Reno replied, sounding a little proud of himself, there. "Fresh food, yo. That's a huge deal lately. All the food Edge sees is brought in from somewhere else. An' since I took out the overpass with Rude, that's been shot half to shit worse'n it was before."

Rude's Apartment, Edge, Thursday Evening

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