Room 504, The Arms Hotel, Friday Evening

[raspberryturk]

Damn, it was good to be on the island.

Daaaaaaaamn, it was so good to be on the island. And sure, the room he'd grabbed at The Arms wasn't his dorm room, but he had a real, honest-to-gods bed here, instead of the lumpy couch Reno had been sleeping on for the past little while, and that alone made the whole trip worth it.

Well, the bed and the minibar. He was going to have to coordinate some kind of drinking outing with the guys before he took off again, maybe. In the meantime, he'd pick up his cellphone and leave some handwavey messages telling his buddies on the island where he could be found.

And then? Then he was going to flop backward on that amazing friggin' bed and just sprawl.

Oh, hell yeah.

[Door's open, and if you figure you'd get a call, you totally did. Mmmm, feels like home.]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

"MMPH!" That was not an 'mmph' of protest in any way, shape, or form. That was the 'mmph' of a man who hadn't been tackled and kissed like that in at least a couple of weeks, and this was therefore the greatest tackle-kiss he'd had in just as long, and wow, did his face ever need to be eaten.

That was the 'mmph' of a guy who was totally going to take a moment to eat face right back, yes.

[the_merriest]

He smelled like Reno. He should bottle it up so she could keep it, when he was away. Maybe she'd steal some of his shirts. Maybe she'd buy him extra shirts, make him wear them, and then steal them back.

Okay, Rikku was going to try to behave herself, dammit. Which, sadly, meant ending the kiss, since ... the door was open and ... you know. There might be people hanging out. She hadn't really checked.

She nuzzled against his nose with a laugh. "Missed you."

[raspberryturk]

"Missed you too, yoto." That was damn near a purr, right there. "You been takin' care of yourself, babe?"

[the_merriest]

"You bet," she said, nipping at his nose and sitting up straighter. Right. Behaving herself. More or less. "I have a draft going, of those letters. I'm gonna show Yunie once I get back. I really think we can do this, you know? Ooooh, how are your beans??"

It was dorky, how much she wriggled for beans, yes.

[raspberryturk]

"Yellow," Reno reported, and proudly. "They make yellow beans!"

This meant that they weren't dead. This was a freaking miracle.

"Tell me how them letters work out, huh? Sounds like a damn fine idea to me."

[the_merriest]

"Your beans are yellow?" Rikku bounced. "That's so great! How many beans are there now? Have you thought about going bigger? Like, if you can get one bean to sprout, then start a row, or a few rows, and on and on outward? You'll have crops in no time."

[raspberryturk]

"I got plans for a greenhouse," Reno announced. The pride hadn't left at all. It was there and going strong. "Asked one of the local rookies for 'em. Gonna see if I can grab some of the soil from that church in the slums, if I can sneak in past the locals. It's kinda like holy ground to 'em, almost. But it'd be put to better use feedin' hungry people than cultivatin' flowers, and bein' sneaky is somethin' I do well, so I figure it's worth a shot."

[the_merriest]

"I'm sure they can share a little soil," Rikku nodded. "I mean. Beans. Real food. Flowers are pretty, but you can't eat flowers. People are starving. There has to be enough to go around, yeah?"

She grinned, reaching over to boop his nose. "I wanna see your greenhouse, when it's all set up. It's gonna be amazing."

[raspberryturk]

Awwww, noseboops. He'd missed those!

"It'll be green," he allowed. "We'll see how amazin' it is once I manage to get real food growin' inside of it, yo."

He'd have to find a place to put it, first. On the roof of Rude's apartment, maybe? At least that way it would get some of the sun through that midday haze. Kinda.

[the_merriest]

"You will," she nodded. "You got beans. Real, actual, edible beans. The only difference between your little bean plant and a huge field of beans is scale, that's all. You know how to do it. It's just a matter of making it work."

She gave a happy shiver as she watched him. "Food. Right there in Edge, where nothing's supposed to grow. And you're gonna get food for people that are starving. That's ... that's just amazing."

This wasn't quite a noseboop; it was more pressing her finger to the tip of his nose thoughtfully, and smiling. "I'm ... proud of you," she said gently.

[raspberryturk]

"I'm... kinda proud of me, too," Reno replied.

He sort of sounded surprised at that, too. Huh. He hadn't been able to say that in a while.

"Weird what bein' out and tryin' to fix things'll do, huh?"

[the_merriest]

"Really is," she agreed, leaning in to curl up against him. He was cozy. They should do this more often, really. How was now? They could probably find pillows ...

"I feel ... older? Not in a bad way, though. Like I'm making things happen. Like I'm gonna make a difference, between things getting messed up again and everything being okay. Like I have a purpose."

[raspberryturk]

"Like maybe tomorrow's got a point to it," Reno added.

That was his big thing, really. He'd felt it for the first time in a long time at Fandom, but this was different. This wasn't just that tomorrow had a point, this was that tomorrow had a point and he could contribute to it.

Totally different.

[the_merriest]

"We're ... doing some great stuff, aren't we?" she mused aloud. "I mean, check us out, here. It's ... saving the world, that was hard, and scary, but ... rebuilding afterwards? That's harder, somehow. You can't just wave a weapon around and kill things. It's ... it's always easier to destroy something than to create."

Destroying just required force, applied in the right places. Anyone could destroy.

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah," Reno agreed. Sigh. "Always easy to obliterate somethin'. You can't always pull it back outta thin air once it's gone."

The world was obliterated, and they were the obliteraters. ShinRa. Him. There was that usual pang of guilt. He swallowed it back quickly enough.

"Good to be movin' forward again," he said. "It's about time, right?"