Office #7, Tuesday

[raspberryturk]

So, Reno really hadn't been here at all this semester, with a couple of exceptions. It stood to reason, with him, that almost a week before his final class was probably a good time to make an attempt at that.

Not that there was a hell of a lot of paperwork to be done, what with all of the hard work finished with back in Edge. Tseng had been more or less off his case the whole semester, which was nothing shy of a miracle. They weren't exactly going to be able to start anything new next week, and how the hell did you even give a final exam about public service, anyway? So mostly he was in his office because it felt as though he should be in his office, and as for doing actual office work?

Did drinking coffee and flinging pencils up at the ceiling until they stuck up there count?

[OOC: Open office hours! Probably Reno's last for a long, long while.]

Comments

[wish-kebab.livejournal.com]

All things considered, once she'd snuck on over to Fandom Island, it hadn't taken long for Aerith to track Reno down. All of life went back to the Lifestream, and Reno belonged to Gaia, in a way that resonated with her, no matter where he chose to make his home these days.

Aerith drifted through the school invisibly until she found his office (which she went through the wall to get into) and, still invisible, surveyed him curiously. He looked better than he had back when everything was falling apart.

He also looked dreadfully bored in her estimation.

She grinned at him, though he couldn't see it, and called down the rain. Aerith had been able to do this back when she'd been alive. Dying had only made her stronger. But this was just a small, localized rain.

Inside his office. Right on top of him.

[raspberryturk]

The first raindrop hit Reno's face, and he squinted up at the ceiling, wondering if there was a busted pipe somewhere.

The second raindrop hit his face about the same time he realized he couldn't actually pick out a soggy part of the ceiling anywhere.

And then the deluge happened, and his confusion was replaced with irritation and a stream of curse words that wasn't fit for use in polite company.

"--Shiva's tits, Fandom!"

Because of course Fandom was doing this, right? Reno was hurrying now, to pack some of the papers up off of his desk. Most of them weren't important, he was pretty sure, but there wasn't a hell of a lot of time to check before everything would be sodden through anyway.

He barely had time to hiss between his teeth at a deep papercut that his rushing had rewarded him with by the time the rain had already soothed it and healed it away.

...

"You're shittin' me."

So, probably not Fandom, then.

[wish-kebab.livejournal.com]

Definitely not Fandom!

Girlish giggling answered him as Aerith took a seat on his desk. (All right, so she took a seat about an inch above his desk, but that was pretty much the same thing in her opinion.)

She faded into view, translucent and intangible, and familiar.

"Hi," she said, all bright, still-laughing eyes and an unrepentant grin.

[raspberryturk]

Reno let loose a groan as he sank back into his seat with a wet squish.

Well, that was fun.

"Friggin' hell," he complained, because really, he didn't have to keep up a cool-as-hell visage around somebody who was already long dead, did he? "The Ancient? Really? Little far from home, here, yo. Does Portalocity charge extra to open portals for the dead?"

Yep, that was his complaint. Not 'I'm soaked to the bone,' or, 'apparently I'm being haunted today,' or even, 'gods dammit my office.' Reno was clearly concerned about Aerith's travel expenses.

[wish-kebab.livejournal.com]

"Their rates seemed pretty reasonable to us," Aerith said easily. She tilted her head slightly, pretending to think about things, and then said, "Who knows, maybe we got a discount and the living will have to pay more to make up for it!"

[raspberryturk]

"Us?" Reno wrinkled his nose a little. "Don't tell me you-"

Another familiar voice cleared his throat from the doorway.

"I'm not even turning around to look. I'm just letting you know that, right now. Not even going to dignify that with a glance, yo."

He should've taken more rum from the squirrels this morning.

[wish-kebab.livejournal.com]

Aerith giggled again, covering her mouth with one hand, and smiling past Reno to Zack.

"It's really your fault," Aerith said, not even the slightest bit apologetic. "We wouldn't be here if not for you."

[dead-dogs-fly.livejournal.com]

"That's right," Zack said, grinning over Reno's head right back at Aerith. "You guys are doing our work for us, so we can actually afford to take time off. You brought this on yourself."

It was also Reno's own fault because Turks were just fun to tease. That was just how it was. Sorry, Reno.

[raspberryturk]

"So, to say thank you, you... flooded my office."

Reno was not following your crazy dead person logic, here.

[wish-kebab.livejournal.com]

You meant sorry-not-sorry, Reno, Zack. That's what you meant.

"Exactly!" Aerith said, because the logic was perfectly sound to her. "And we were curious about where you kept popping off to, especially since you've been bringing a bunch of kids around lately."

Of course they'd noticed that.

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah, well, Edge needed water. More water than that muddy puddle in the church you're so fond of," Reno mumbled. "Seemed worth makin' a project out of it, yo. Did some gardening while we were at it. I'm thinkin' Edge would be real appreciative if you'd let some useful plants grow along with all them flowers of yours."

Aww, lookit the little Turk, trying to atone!

Crankily!

[wish-kebab.livejournal.com]

For the first time, Aerith's smile faded into something a rather more serious.

"We're trying," she said. "But there's not much life in Edge yet, and flowers always came more easily to me. As the flowers die, there will be a little more life in the soil, slowly but surely. It's going to take time."

Aerith leaned forward, towards Reno. "We really do appreciate your help. It's going to do a lot of good! It already is, even, but it's going to be a while longer before the ground is viable for much more than flowers."

[raspberryturk]

Reno sighed as he leaned back in his chair (with another squelch), thinking back on the work Karla had done with Aerith years ago in the church. He could see improvement in little ways all over, but the going was slow, and people were still suffering, and, so help him, he was going to take his frustration out somewhere.

Probably on himself, later. What the hell did he really expect the dead to do to fix the problems of the living?

"Should'a stuck with beans, is what you're sayin'," Reno muttered.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

So. So.

Karina had gotten that voicemail and, yeah, okay, so she was planning on ditching school for the rest of the week--Heroing obligations--but she supposed she had time enough to drop by and see what he wanted.

Like, it couldn't be about next class since he'd threatened to keep her back at the end of it, if she didn't show up now.

And he'd sounded angry.

Karina didn't like that, since she had no idea why, so she wasn't exactly at her most cheerful when she leaned in his doorway. "Hey. You wanted to talk to me?"

[raspberryturk]

Reno was still somewhat damp by the time Karina stopped by - he was offering no explanation for that one, no - as was his office. But at least he'd managed to rescue (or not throw at the ceiling) a single pencil, which he was rolling between his fingers when Karina showed up in his doorway.

"Yeah, yeah I did," he agreed. "Come on in, rookie."

Uh-oh. Lowercase R.

"I wanna talk to you about how classes have been goin'. Think of it like a refresher in the class rules."

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Karina gave him a doubtful look, because she wasn't stupid and actually did have self-preservation instincts that were clanging loudly that she was in trouble.

Because of that, she looked back down the hallway before stepping inside.

"Are we waiting for Kathy, then?"

Was this a TA thing? She kinda doubted it, but it was nice to pretend.

[raspberryturk]

"Nnnnnope."

So, yeah. If your 'in trouble' senses were tingling before, Karina, they ought to be clanging double by now.

"Pop quiz," he said, with a lazy little smile. "What were the rules I gave first day I took you guys to Edge?"

It shouldn't be difficult. There weren't many.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Dammit.

And, yeah, now she could tell where this was going. Ugh. What a pain in the ass. That had happened ages ago.

"Never go to Edge alone," she recited for him. "Stay together. Don't wander off."

[raspberryturk]

"Good job," Reno said, with a little croon that was maybe just a tiny bit patronizing. It was a wonder he wasn't clapping his hands, really. Reno was behaving himself. "Now, second test question, pay close attention, here. Which one of those haven't you broken this semester?"

Trick question. This one wasn't multiple choice.

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

You know what Karina was terrible at? Faking submission. Of any sort. He was trying to pull shit like rank on her, or something, and all it did was irritate the crap out of her.

But since her instincts were shrieking 'DANGER, DANGER' at her, she wasn't going to go with her first thought, which was to roll her eyes at him.

Instead she shrugged. "We both know the answer is 'none of them'."

[raspberryturk]

Funny thing about him being the teacher and her being the student -- Reno did have rank, here. It was a good thing her danger senses were tingling, because he wouldn't have taken well to an eyeroll at all.

"You wanna tell me why that is?"

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Karina actually had to take a few moments to think about that, since, really, it had happened a while ago and she'd thought she'd gotten off scot-free and unnoticed about it.

"You got turned into a bird or something," she said. "And it fell on me to teach the class. I knew basically what you wanted us to do, so I figured that I'd just pop over for a couple of minutes and see the sites before taking everyone else over."

She'd been nervous about teaching and so had wanted to be extra prepared for it, and that had meant getting a grasp on things before showing up.

"Anyway, turned out the sites had been trashed. I spent a while there getting an idea of how badly, then went and brought the class over for clean up rather than new work."

[raspberryturk]

"And you didn't think to bring somebody with you? You got classmates you could'a brought," Reno pointed out. "You got any idea why I might be upset with you right now?"

You know, for blatantly breaking the rules, and all?

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

"I didn't think about it," she said, keeping her voice mild with an effort. "And I figure you're mad because I broke the rules."

Obviously.

[raspberryturk]

Now Reno was rolling his eyes.

"Come on, Karina. You can do better than that, yo. Why do I have those rules in place, hm?"