raspberryturk | Junon, Gaia, Thursday Afternoon

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Junon, Gaia, Thursday Afternoon

Junon, Reno supposed, wasn't half bad. Sure as hell better than Edge, which he couldn't wait to get the hell out of, especially after that weird-assed argument in Tseng's kitchen.

Tseng's ex-kitchen, Reno supposed.

He was sitting in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant on one of the city's lower levels, the world's crappiest coffee slowly dissolving a coffee mug in one hand, waiting for somebody in particular. He'd left Edge a little early, dragged a few of the boxes of paperwork along with him so that Rude wouldn't have to haul it all here, and then he'd started to poke around.

Yeah, Junon had suffered a bit since WEAPON's attack. But then, where the hell hadn't?

... Besides Kalm. Lucky, lucky-assed Kalm.

[Open for anyone who might want to call, or who has reason to be in Junon!]

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"Here?" She blinked at him. "Yeah, he did. He's sleepin' right now."

She probably should be, but Ino doubted it would happen.

Reno nodded, lifting the coffee to his mouth and taking a sip.

He only kind of made a face.

"You didn't need to crash out? My room's yours for the takin', yo. I don't mind sleepin' on the chair."

Or the floor. Or outside in a hallway somewhere. Really, that was one of the great things about being Reno. Being able to sleep anywhere. Through almost anything.

"I wouldn't be able to sleep," she admitted, honestly. "And we--we can get our own room, if it's a hassle. We've got the Gil."

No, really. They had the Gil.

They had enough Gil to buy the Inn.

Or possibly a private villa in Del Sol.

"Nah, it ain't no hassle," Reno replied, shrugging. "If you can't sleep, hey, ain't no problem. I ain't plannin' on doin' much sleepin' myself, yo. The company can't hurt."

She looked down, peered at him through her eyelashes while thinking, not sure what to say or where to start just glad as hell to be--where he was. He was one of the few people she felt safe around, in this particular way.

"D-Does--" she shook her head and cleared her throat. Tried again. "Does it make me a bad person to have left as soon as we could get a portal out of--?"

Konoha? Home? It hadn't felt like home even before things had gone to hell.

Oh, oh Rookie. Reno wanted to give her another hug or something, but didn't want to crowd her or anything, and really, Reno instigating a hug was just... a weird thing. At least in his own mind.

"Honestly? I don't think it's got nothin' to do with the kind of person you are," he noted. "Plenty of people made their way outta Midgar, headed to Kalm first chance they could get. Kalm ain't never been more successful, yo. I would'a joined 'em, too, if I could'a got away with it."

Reno had his reasons for being so comfortable on Fandom Island, not the least of which was the view that he'd had while living in Edge.

"But you couldn't," she said, sounding a bit--dull. "And I shouldn't have 'cause I wear a hitae-ite and am counted as a shinobi of Konoha."

And then she'd run away.

"Yeah, and I wear a black suit," okay, so it was dark blue at the time, "and I'm a Turk. Difference is, my only way out was in a body bag, yo."

... Okay, apparently all it had really taken was for Tseng to pitch a fit after the Remnants of Sephiroth trashed Edge. But still.

"People can't run on just loyalty, Rookie. You stop and think about why you took off?"

She studied the table--not in the best repair, but sturdy enough--and didn't look at him.

"Ain't really--thought."

That was... partly a lie. It was an answer that didn't need a great deal of thought on her part.

"Nah, can't imagine you did." That was his 'I don't buy that for a second' tone of voice. "Maybe now's a good time to start thinkin' on it, then. What'd keep you there? Where do you figure you're needed most. Who needs you most, yo."

And then, after a thoughtful pause.

"And who and what you need, too. More'n anything."

But if she was anything like him, being needed always managed to come before having a need.

Ino glanced up at him, a world of emotions swirling in her eyes.

"That ain't even something that needs thought."

Reno didn't bother fighting back that small, wry smile on his lips there.

"You wanna fill me in?"

Not that Reno had to make her tell him. He could guess.

"It sounds so stupid," she sighed, closing those eyes of hers and looking tired, beyond tired, for a moment. "Followin' love, no?"

See? Totally called it.

"Ain't that stupid," Reno noted, idly. "You wanna know how many times I told Tseng to shove it, when he tried pullin' me away from Rikku?"

Hint: Lots.

"Why--why would he do that?"

Ino was... sort of suspecting she'd gotten the job offer he wasn't going to hear about because of Zack.

Reno just shrugged. Took another mouthful of coffee. Made another face.

Eugh.

"Well, she's an anti-government ex-con for a start. At least, technically. Didn't much care for my bein' a Turk. I guess Tseng saw her as a threat, yo."

Not to ShinRa, not even to the Turks, but to Reno's own loyalty. Or, at least, his usefulness.

Ino chewed on her lip. It was going to bleed if she kept that up.

"Weren't--Weren't he right, though?" she asked, tentatively. "He don't got you the same way he did...?"

And lookit Ino sneakily steering the conversation away from her own issues. Oh, Ino.

Well, not that sneaky, really. But Reno shrugged and went with it.

"There's a lotta things he don't got the same way he did," he noted. "ShinRa's gone. The Turks are just four people in suits. What's the point waitin' hand and foot when we ain't nothin' but glorified bounty hunters in fancy uniforms, now?"

Even to Reno's ears, that sounded damn near like blasphemy.

But the more he fought with Tseng... The more need for him that he found on the island? The more true it felt.

Ino just... stared at him. That was, really, another shock, to hear him talk like that.

"But you're a Turk."

Sneaky was relative when you'd been through as much as Ino had in the last week and a bit.

"Yeah," Reno agreed, not so much as missing a beat. "But the Turks ain't Turks. Each one of us... Tseng, Elena, Rude an' me? Yeah, sure, we're Turks. I'm damn friggin' proud of bein' one. I earned it."

Damn, the more he sipped at this coffee, the more he wanted to see what kind of use he'd get out of it on the battlefield.

"But we don't stand for what we used to, no more. It's gettin' hard to be proud of the work, even if I'm damn proud of the job."

He hoped to the gods that Rude never heard this. The poor man would probably cry or some shit.

"Oh," Ino said, looking down. "I guess that... makes sense?"

And yet, she made that a question.

"I can see how you're totally followin' what I'm sayin' here," Reno sighed. "What I'm sayin' is... Sometimes you gotta follow what you feel like you gotta follow, zoto. I got Rikku. You got your puppy."

He could not believe that he was being an advocate for True Love. Especially not True Love with Zack.

"Home's where they need you to be, yeah?"

"Ain't thought that far yet," she admitted, downcast. "Just--home weren't there."

It was a pretty lie, no?

It was. Maybe next time she'd wrap it up for him in a cute little bow.

"Was at one point," Reno noted, carefully.

Ino looked around the restaurant for lack of a better way to avoid his gaze.

"Started school four years ago," she answered, feeling more than a little odd about it all.

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