raspberryturk | The Seventh Heaven Bar, Edge, Wednesday Night

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The Seventh Heaven Bar, Edge, Wednesday Night

Admittedly, a Wednesday night was a pretty shitty night to go to any bar that didn't actually have something going on. And, in a place like Edge, it wasn't just Wednesday nights that were like that, even at the most popular stop for alcoholic swill in town. It wasn't as though people were going to get together and sing karaoke. Name that tune was pretty much a thing of the past, too. Trivia night? Not so much. But if you got Cid Highwind drunk enough, he'd tell you all about that time he spent about five minutes stuck outside of Gaia's atmosphere.

Word to the wise: Don't get Cid Highwind drunk enough to tell you all about that time he spent about five minutes stuck outside of Gaia's atmosphere.

Fortunately, Reno didn't come to the bar unprepared. He was a Turk. He came prepared for anything, thank you very much. There was a stun baton hidden up his sleeve, extra money for booze tucked away in one pocket, and a deck of cards in one hand. Tifa even tolerated his presence here because he was more or less good business, and he tended to handle her cutting him off when she'd decided that he'd had enough with... minimal leering. Which made him significantly less obnoxious than some of the folks that stopped in for drinks.

And anyhow, kicking the asses of the bar's other regulars at poker? Totally made hitting this place up on his evening off worth any unpleasant aftertaste that his allotted few servings of Corel Ale left behind.

Hey, it wasn't Reno's fault that Barrett was shit at calling bluffs.

[Open for anyone who might want to give Reno a phone call, or what-have-you. He'll probably gloat at you relentlessly, just to rile up the big guy some more.]

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"Eh, it's just another stripe on your shoulder or whatever," Reno pointed out. "Maybe some better work, but you ain't back in your own world to be able to put all your focus on work anyhow. An' besides, if rank means bein' in command of people under you, how're you supposed to do that from Fandom?"

See again, Reno wishing that he was there, where all of his Rookies were, so that he could feel as though he was actually doing his freaking job.

Ino sighed because, oh sure, he was applying logic to it. Logic didn't have that much to do with her feelings, after all.

"Rank don't always mean bein' in command," she said, knowing she was just nitpicking. "But yeah, I know. I ain't sayin' it's a bad thing, exactly, just..."

She shrugged, knowing he couldn't see it.

"It just kinda sucks too. My teammates are both Chuunin and I've got the skills to be one," had had them since she'd been fourteen, even, "so it's not very fun to get a call sayin' you're forbidden to try, yeah?"

"It's a matter of pride," Reno replied, picking his words carefully. "I get that, Rookie. Ain't no fun bein' left behind when your class is movin' on without you, yo."

See, he could slap some sympathy in there whenever he damn well pleased.

Ino chewed her lip at that.

"Guess it's--fair, though?" Ino said fair like it was a dirty word. "I mean, I ain't been there. But it don't mean I haven't been training or working hard or nothing so it's kinda like a--you aren't good enough, anyway. Even though my clearance is going up like it would with the rank, you know?"

She had words, they maybe made sense.

"Slap in the face," Reno sighed. "Shit, Rookie, I'm sorry they're puttin' it off that way."

A beat.

"You bein' in school gettin' in the way of you doin' your job at all? That why they're holdin' you back?"

"Dad said something 'bout it being 'cause of the exam length," she explained. "Chuunin exam is a month an' a half in total--counting time between the last two to scope out the competition. It ain't something that'll be scheduled 'round the needs of a hopeful either. It's an international exam."

A substitute for war and a chance to see what sort of talent other villages had in case it came to war.

Ino gave it a little more consideration. "School might be a factor. I know I'd have more missions if I were home--but they ain't going to pay portal fare to drag me back and forth for every mission I could do, you know? Not at my level."

"Nah," Reno agreed. "An' Fandom has invasions, but nothin' near enough to have 'em be much use for trainin' yourself up or anything like that."

Yeah, he'd totally danced that dance before.

"Ever give any thought to comin' out to Edge now an' then? I can spring for portal fare, yo. All I gotta do is play poker against the schlubs who hang around this joint."

Cid was going to bust Reno's nose the second Tifa's back was turned. It was official.

"Yeah--so I get missions that require my skills and some others when they figure that they'd better make sure I don't forget how to be a shinobi, you know? And half the time Fandoms invasions are more fun than real." Ino shrugged a bit, using the time it took to answer the first part to think about the second.

"I--" Have been spending extra time in Midgar? Which wouldn't go over well, she thought, even if he seemed alright with the idea in the very abstract of treasure hunting missions. "Not really," she admitted, "I know Edge is in a bad way so I weren't sure how well it'd go for a Rookie tagging 'round after you sometimes? I wouldn't mind, though, if you don't?"

...When she wanted to be, Ino was pretty good at spinning truth and lies together, yes.

"Well, a run around, takin' on Boundfats an' Kalm Fangs? Couldn't do no harm."

This was almost cruel of Reno, really. Boundfats were far meaner than Kalm Fangs. But at the same time, it seemed like an effective way of figuring out just how much use Ino was putting that materia of hers to.

He could be sneaky with the best of them, here.

"Wouldn't be takin' you along on any of the missions Tseng hands me, of course. We'd just be makin' the usual rounds, securin' the area. Sorta like the Turks would do with Sector Eight, back in the day."

It was nearly symbolic, that way. The first mission any new Turk had was to secure Sector Eight, after all. Not that Reno was going to share that point.

"Weren't expectin' you to let me go on a real mission," she said, only a smidgen sulky. Ino knew the rules, after all. Even if it was Totally Unfair that no one was letting her play with things that she wouldn't be able to handle.

Yes, Ino, how dare they protect you? What?

At least the whole security clearance thing made sense to her.

"I'd like that, though," she added quickly, in case he changed his mind. "Doing a round and stuff." Turks in Sector Eight meant she'd have to play the 'see if she could spot them' next time she went to Midgar. No one would think it weird for someone who hadn't been there much or often to be all wide-eyed and checking things out.

"Well, you pick a weekend or whatever that works for you, then," Reno replied. "I'll handle the rest from there, yo. Ain't like I got anything big goin' on around here lately."

No, really. After the better chunk of a year stuck in Edge, Reno was finally realizing that most of the missions that he went on were really just him running in place, pretending that there was progress to be made.

...

That would be the sounds of Ino wriggling over to peek at her calendar.

"Next week, maybe? Break starts on the twenty first, I think? But I got the few days before that off from everything 'less home drops something in my lap."

Ino was not optimistic about that, no.

"What, you wanna spend your whole week here?" This was Reno, sounding vaguely bemused. "Pretty shitty way to spend your spring vacation, Rookie, trust me on that one."

"Nooo," she said, making a face at him. Well, at her phone. Shut up. "I didn't say that! But, vacation starts on the twenty-first, you know? And once I'm off work on the seventeenth I'm free? So that's a few days between work and vacation that I don't got nothing going on, see?"

"Okay, okay," Reno chuckled. "No hoggin' the Rookie for a week for wacky misadventures or whatever."

Yes. Reno just totally said 'wacky misadventures.'

"So, the seventeenth until when, then?"

"You'd strangle me if I kicked 'round for a whole week," she insisted, laughing. "Um. I don't know? A few days? Or something?"

"Well, the school goin' off on its usual trip or anything like that you might wanna take in?"

Reno had been a student of Fandom long enough to remember the trips, okay. He got fake-married on one of them! As Sven Higurrnurrhurrdurrson, or something like that.

"To some beach thing," she said, wrinkling her nose. "But I don't know yet if I want to go. I always get bored halfway through with all the relaxation stuff going on."

There was only so much time that she could spend on a beach or wandering and she wasn't old enough to go drinking anywhere off Fandom...

"Fair enough," Reno replied, giving his shoulders a shrug. "How 'bout you show up, hang around, and I kick your ass outta Edge whenever I get sick of you?"

He was joking. If they went that route, he'd try to recruit her to the Turks, and then he'd never let her leave.

She laughed.

"Depends on if it'd take more than a week for you to get sick of me or not," Ino answered. "I don't think I'm supposed to just up and take as long a vacation as I want, you know."

"I guess they'd miss you if I went around tryin' to keep you tied up in Edge, huh?" Reno chuckled some, at that. "See, your vacation totally ends once I sign you on to the Turks, yoto."

Dastardly schemes were afoot! Apparently!

Ino's eyes narrowed contemplatively even as she laughed a bit.

"I'd hope they'd miss me, at least. My feelings would be hurt if they didn't." True enough. Ino liked to think she mattered on some level to people.

"And I thought Tseng was all reluctant to hire people, yo?" With an amused lilt in her voice.

"He is," Reno sighed. That was a sulk, shut up. "So I guess that means I'd have to sneak you onto the payroll, yo."

And that would work for a whole... what, three minutes? Seconds? Less?

"Rookies are important in this line of work too."

She smile softened as she realized he was a bit more serious about it than she'd first given his idea credit for. "Missing having Rookies?"

Ino rested her head against her pillow. "I'll try and come by more often, okay? You can show me some ropes, even if Tseng wouldn't hire me, yeah?"

Ino had clearly never gotten an opportunity to see Reno in his element, back in the days when he'd take Rookies out on their first runs of Sector Eight. He was so missing having Rookies.

"You know, I think I'd like that?"

How was that, for a weirdly serious note from a slightly tipsy Reno?

"Ain't much to keep a guy goin' in a place like this. Showin' someone the ropes would be at least a little like old times again, zoto."

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