raspberryturk | Room 504, The Arms Hotel, Friday Evening

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Room 504, The Arms Hotel, Friday Evening

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.]

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Well, cute wasn't the word that Reno would have used to describe Rude, anyhow.

"He ain't bad, I guess," Reno laughed. "So, how 'bout you, Ino? You been takin' care of yourself lately? I don't gotta find any of them gators or whatever it was that invaded so I can kick their scaly asses ten ways to Mideel, or anything?"

"Meh," Ino said, tugging her legs up onto the bed and hugging them. "No gators, or nothing."

Huh. That response earned a bit of a headtilt.

"Just 'meh' anyhow, though? People ain't been givin' you a hard time again, have they?"

Look, he was a Turk. He was also nosy. They went hand-in-hand, sometimes.

"No one has said anything 'bout my job. Pretty much meh," she said, wriggling her toes and making a bit of a face at him. "Nothing I can beat up anyone 'bout though, so it's a pain."

A beat.

"Nothing you can beat up either."

"We could beat up each other," Reno offered, thoughtfully. "Think that'd help you vent some? Do Ghanima and Durden still got that fight club thing goin' on on Sundays, do you know?"

"Shrieking didn't help much," she said dryly, "but maybe, I dunno. Can't work up a real bit of mad when I get the reasoning."

"Yeah, they do." Even if Ino kept managing to miss it for various reasons.

"You busy this Sunday?"

Look, Reno hadn't had a good spar in a while, and Ino looked like she kind of wanted an excuse to just punch somebody in the face, for whatever reason. It kinda killed two birds with one stone, that way.

"Guess I am now," she said, smiling slightly. "Whatever will I do?"

Ino was so going to lose. She knew it. Ow. But it was almost a good ow, thinking about it.

She sighed. He kinda deserved a reason for giving her that.

"Ichigo left," Ino mumbled, "had to go fight a war, and he's not coming back." Which she couldn't argue about, but still. It sucked.

Reno had to take a moment to draw in a slow breath between his teeth. Oh, shit. Yeah, he didn't blame Ino one bit for needing to vent, there.

"He gonna keep in touch, at least?"

She shook her head. "Can't," Ino said, "it's not just a physical war, so he's not going to be in his body much. Spirits can't make phone calls."

Reno had to take a moment to kind of parse that. Okay. Spirit-war-thing. The concept of spirits was kind of fuzzy to him, but he'd roll with it as best as he could.

"Guess not," he agreed, frowning thoughtfully. "He give any kinda odds?"

He really didn't feel as though he had to clarify what odds he was talking about here.

"Not much," she said, "but it didn't sound good. He's too much the--hero-type to tell me just how bad they were off."

Nod. Frown. Reno would have to let Ino bloody up her knuckles some on his face if he felt like she still needed it come Sunday. He'd brought potions.

"That's kinda how heroes are," he agreed. And then added another nod for good measure.

"Heroes suck," she muttered viciously. "And I can't to nothing for him 'cause I can't do the spirit thing, and I don't think I'd want to try. Too much going 'round in my brain anyway."

And her dad would kill her.

"I think you do people plenty more good while you're still stickin' around in your own body," Reno noted. Partly because he was half-petrified that something would go wrong, and partly because the thought of somebody leaving their body in the first place just weirded him right the hell out. "An' you're still a student here for a while, right? Might as well focus your attention on the stuff you got goin' for you."

She actually grinned slyly up at him. "But Reno," Ino said, wide-eyed, "I leave my body all the time for work."

A beat, while he was figuring that one out.

"And, yeah. Two more years. Just, I don't know, I miss the people who're gone."

That look? That was Reno's, 'I'm going to make sense of that if you just give me a moment, honest,' look.

Honest.

"I'm plannin' on keepin' in touch," Reno noted, moving right along. "I can't be the only one, can I? Fandom's too much like home for too damn many people to really just go an' never look back."

He hoped. Maybe he was the weird one who couldn't let go.

Her lips twisted. "Most of my friends that left last year didn't keep in touch," Ino said. "Which puts you way up on the scale of friend-ness right there."

Yep. Reno was totally the weird one who couldn't let go.

... Actually, he was fine with that.

"Well, I ain't plannin' on cuttin' my ties with the people around here unless they decide they wanna go cuttin' 'em with me, first."

Considering some of the secrets he was keeping, he wouldn't be surprised if they did.

"Now why would I do that?" Ino asked, glancing sideways at him. "Cut ties with one of the few people who gets where I'm coming from?"

Reno gave a wry little grin.

"Because I'm a professional asshole, Ino. Get paid for it an' everything."

She smiled up at him. "Guess that makes me one in training then," Ino pointed out. "I can deal."

Well. She thought she could, anyway.

There was a difference between being a jerk and withholding truths. Certain truths. But that wouldn't really be an issue for anyone for a couple of years, at least.

Reno would keep right on withholding, and he'd face the backlash when it got to that point.

Yeah.

"You got a good head on your shoulders, Rookie," he decided. "You'll make a kickass asshole someday."

"One day," she said, feeling pleased at the compliment. And it was a compliment, the way she understood it. "Did I tell you? Sakura's talking 'bout us taking the Chuunin exam, and Dad sent me new things to study."

Because he totally knew what you were talking about, Ino.

"Chuunin exam is a rank advancement exam," Ino added.

"Oooh, promotion time!" Reno was grinning a little, again. This was a nice change of topic if ever he'd heard one. "What's the next step up, if you don't mind me askin'? Or is that one of them things that they tailor to what you're capable of, once they assess where you're sittin'?"

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NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!

Re: NFB, please!