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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Reno had left them with an address. That was good, that meant they didn't have to get a room of their own, and Ino had fussed around there for a while, before Zack shooed her out to go and see Reno and promised he was going to crash out on the floor for awhile.

Truthfully, that bothered her too. Zack had to be tired if he was crashing out like that.

So was she, but it wasn't so much a tired of the body, though that was part of it, and so she found herself walking through Junon, trying to get a feel for what the city had been like, once upon a time, and taking more pictures.

Until, finally, she'd made her way to the restaurant he'd told her to meet him at. Ino fidgeted in the entrance, being here, now, she wasn't sure how to react...

"Rookie!" Reno was on his feet and waving her way the moment he spotted Ino in the doorway. He'd made a point to get a table with room for three, but he really couldn't deny just how thankful he was that she hadn't decided to bring her puppy along for this. "I see you made it, yo."

And damn, did she ever look worse for the wear. To be expected, he supposed, after seeing your whole damn home go up like that.

"Coffee? It tastes like coeurl shit."

Mmm.

Seeing her home go up, seeing Mideel, Gongaga, Corel...

It had been a very bad holiday, all around. She made her way over to him, promising she'd answer his question with a witty answer to show she was okay, when, no, the part of her that was deeply, horribly upset decided that there was a better way to deal with this.

By flinging her arms around him and trying very hard not to burst into tears.

... Sorry, Reno.

... Well, this was new.

New, but not exactly impossible to fathom. Reno only hesitated a moment before lifting an arm up to pat her on the shoulder. For all that he was a shit-disturber and an all-around pain in the ass, he knew how to handle his Rookies. Especially when they were like this.

"You're hangin' in there," he noted, his voice a few shades gentler than the norm. "You're still standin', yo."

Ino knew better than to say anything like 'I shouldn't be' and 'why aren't I dead too' because those, at least, had been entirely up to luck.

She'd done nothing to cause the disaster, nothing to be blamed for. Luck, and her father for protecting her.

And now she was clinging and trying not to sniffle too much because somehow, even when all she wanted to do was cry forever it was... too embarrassing, in public. "S-Sorry," she mumbled, "for th-this..."

But she wasn't letting go just yet.

Reno just shrugged. Shrugged, and rubbed gently at her back, and took the sniffling clingy girl thing like a man.

Really, around here? It was nothing that people weren't used to seeing, whether there was a Turk involved or not.

"You're my Rookie, Rookie. S'what I'm here for, yo."

She nodded and buried her face against him and gave herself the time to just--breathe and try and find some sort of stability again before trying to say anything further.

Not full out crying, but shaking and just clinging and a few tears snuck out anyway.

Eventually, she loosened her grip on him and pulled away slightly. "I..."

"You...?" Reno pursed his lips in thought, and then nodded down at his table. "C'mon, take a seat. Take it easy, yo. They don't got hot chocolate here, but if you don't want to drink the tar, I'm sure they can dig up some tea, yo."

Yes. Tar tea. Welcome to Junon, Ino.

She sat.

Because sitting sounded at about the perfect speed for her to do right now. And toyed with her hair and tried to figure out how tar and tea worked together and came up with...

More questions than she ever really wanted to think about tea.

"I'm okay," she said, muted and it was so very obviously not true that it was pathetic.

Kinda pathetic. That was fine. Reno handled pathetic well, too.

"Long week? Was kinda expectin' your call to come sooner, yo." He quirked a shadow of a grin at her, sitting and reaching for his coffee mug.

He'd have spiked it by now to hide the taste, but the booze around here amounted to... Corel Ale. Never the same twice, but he suspected that the bottle he'd picked up had been made with carrot scrapings and seaweed, add dirt to taste.

Long forever.

She hitched her shoulders because it was better than her breath hitching. "Sorry," Ino fumbled, "didn't mean to... take so long."

"Hey, I ain't angry," Reno replied, shaking his head. "You got a lot on your plate, zoto. I been there."

Possibly far more thoroughly than he realized, considering the little Gaia grand tour that was going on.

"Sorry we had to do the meetup in Junon, yo. Didn't know if Rude had enough room on his floor for three of us crashin' in."

And also, Edge: Not a great place to send the Rookie right after her home blew up, Zack or none.

Ino blinked at him. "You were going to be here anyway, right?"

She was pretty sure she remembered that.

"It made sense."

"Yeah, yeah we were," Reno agreed, quirking his crooked little smile again. "And anyhow, I suppose your puppy knew his way around easy enough, anyhow."

For all of the destruction and loss of life, at least the levels of Junon that did survive had cleaned up well enough.

"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."

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Junon, Gaia, Thursday Afternoon

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