Office Hours, #7, Wednesday

[raspberryturk]

... Aw, shit. It had been so long since Reno had spent time in his office. He'd gotten kinda familiar with it, what, back when the parents were on the island, way back? But he'd gone and told the Rookie's Rookie that he'd be here today, in case she wanted to talk. And anyhow, there was always shit to do.

Maybe he could hammer out lesson plans that would give him some kind of edge over that jerkass in the red coat.

Yeah. And he could write it in the dust that had settled on his desk over the months, too. Jeez.

[Reno's door is open!]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

"Well, jeez, she's lucky I showed up, then. Otherwise, she might'a been way under-quota, yo."

And that would have been a very, very sad thing.

"Wasn't entirely plannin' on goin' to the dance at all, yo. But I needed to stretch my legs, get my exercise, that kinda thing. It didn't suck too bad without me, did it?"

[withoutverona]

"It was horrible. I wept an ocean every second I was there," Romeo teased, then relented. "In truth? I think it did Yurika some good to get away from Tokyo. Things have been difficult for her at work of late. It did well to be elsewhere -- especially an elsewhere with schnapps and snowballs to throw."

[raspberryturk]

Oh, jeez. That didn't sound good.

"Yeah?" Reno frowned thoughtfully. "What's been goin' on over there? Or is this one of them things that you can't really talk about over the phone?"

Reno knew Doji's line of work intimately. It seemed like a good idea to ask.

[withoutverona]

"Some of the people she works with have been hurt," Romeo said vaguely. "She would be better to speak on it than I would. I just -- worry for her. They found a bullet, Christmas week."

Which meant he wasn't sure how much he could talk about, and was limiting himself to the most basic facts.

"She said nothing to you?"

[raspberryturk]

Reno shrugged a little, not that Romeo could see, and shook his head. Also not really visible, he supposed.

"She mostly got to talkin' to me about my bein' an idiot around Ino," Reno confessed. "News kinda spreads fast about whenever I do somethin' stupid, huh?"

He'd definitely have to get in touch with Doji about this bullet thing.

[withoutverona]

"Now I know you aren't dating Ino," Romeo said as he leaned back in his chair, because that would be wrong on about eighteen levels. "And neither of them has said anything to me. The news turned into a slug before it found me. What has happened?"

[raspberryturk]

"... Egh, no. Not about to start datin' the Rookie."

That was Tseng's shtick.

"Ino had a bit of a rough time of it a few weeks back, and she an' I got into a spar." Reno chuckled faintly, though it was a slightly tense one. There was more going on between he and Ino now, since her trip to Gaia with Zack, than there had been before, all of it messy. He wouldn't assault Romeo with that clusterfuck, though. There were some things that people just didn't need thrown at them. "She got a little carried away, an' I made a misstep. Gashed my thumb open on a poisoned weapon, zoto."

It had been an adventure.

[withoutverona]

"Is that a bit like saying I used to get in the way of Arthur's fists when we trained?" Romeo said, in a dry tone that couldn't cover his genuine concern. "Are you all right? Is she?"

[raspberryturk]

"Well, I could'a avoided it," Reno noted. He was plenty faster than some thrown kunai when he wanted to be, after all. "But yeah, I'm fine. She had the antidote on her. I just spent the day feelin' like I had a nasty hangover, yo."

Well, okay, it had been nicer than some of the hangovers that Reno was used to.

"She's doin'..." He winced. "I dunno. Her break didn't go all that hot, but it ain't really my place to go talkin' details about it. I wanna say she'll be okay."

He was talking pretty flatly, now. There was more than a little guilt involved, and Reno didn't want to let that seep into his words.

[withoutverona]

"If you could have, why didn't you?" Romeo asked, more because the news upset him than because he wanted to bait Reno. Poisoning was a sensitive subject with him, still. "And ... oh no. Ought I to call her? It's been months."

[raspberryturk]

"Went to catch it instead," Reno sighed. "Didn't think it was tipped, and my hand slipped. I just got cocky, that's all."

Really, Reno did cocky like it was going out of style.

"You know... I think hearin' from a friend who ain't a part of the whole mess might do her some good, too. I don't know if she'll be real forthcoming with what's eatin' at her," because, really, it was pretty heavy stuff, even for Ino, "but... hey, never know, right?"

[withoutverona]

"But why was she using deadly weapons in a friendly spar?" Romeo asked tightly. He thought it was silly that Reno was making it his responsibility. "It's as if I asked you to stand by the paper the next time I practice with my guns. I could shoot around you" -- because cocky was a Romeo thing, too -- "but if I misaimed by even an inch..."

He trailed off. "Tell me how to talk to her without making of it a lecture, and I'll call."

[raspberryturk]

Reno sighed a little. Right...

"She just went through somethin' real rough at the time. Came back beat up half to shit," he explained, because that left out the specifics of things like 'kidnapping' and 'torture' nicely. "It was supposed to be a friendly spar, but I went in knowin' that she was half out of her head, yo. She probably didn't think she'd slip like that, but I..."

Another one of those invisible shrugs.

"I'm a Turk, man. I see this all the time."

[withoutverona]

"As did I," Romeo answered quietly. Guns or poison or knives or fast cars -- none of it was good to have on hand when tempers were high. "I doubt she knew what she was doing, if it's half as bad as you tell it. You were lucky it wasn't worse. I suppose Rikku told you as much."

[raspberryturk]

"Nah, she kinda... Didn't," Reno admitted. "Maybe I sorta didn't tell her the details? A bit?"

Because then she would have smacked him. As he very well deserved.

[withoutverona]

"How did you manage that?" Romeo asked, envy tinting his voice. "Yurika would have the whole story out of me before I said 'I feel ill.'"

[raspberryturk]

Reno managed a kind of tinny little laugh, there.

"I might'a sorta made a point to stay out late? And then played the hangover card, yo."

Because Reno was so, so responsible that way and they didn't thread that day.

[withoutverona]

Both of which made sense from Reno, so all Romeo could do was cluck his tongue. "She won't hear it from me," he said, off-handedly. "How is she, these days? Is her shop going well?"

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah, her shop's goin' good," Reno replied, grinning a little. He appreciated that he could trust Romeo not to spill the beans about the poison thing. "I'm thinkin' of pickin' up a shift there, too. Just to keep busy around teachin', yo. She's got her own class too now, you hear about that?"

[withoutverona]

"Not much about it," Romeo said. "May I say it's adorable that the two of you are old schoolteachers these days?"

[raspberryturk]

"Hey! Who you callin' old?"

You were over twenty, Reno. That was old, at least to the students you were teaching. That had to count for something.

[withoutverona]

"You, old man," Romeo said breezily. "You'll be 21 in a bit. Then you'll need a cane."

Of course, Romeo would also be 21 before the year was out. Hmmmm.

[raspberryturk]

"Hey, yeah," Reno laughed, "and then I can shake my cane at you when you shuffle by with your walker, right?"

Reno understood how this 'getting older' thing went! He knew that he wasn't the only one in the world who did it!

[withoutverona]

"I'd have a special walker that made rude noises at you," Romeo said, undaunted. "Perhaps with racing stripes painted on the sides."

[raspberryturk]

"Oh, man. Racing stripes? I don't even know how to start to counter that, man," Reno chuckled. "Maybe I'll get a lightning decal to go down the side of my cane, yo. And if it gets bad enough, there are always them motorized scooter things, right?"