Reno's (& Elena's) place, Edge, Gaia, Wednesday Evening

[intraspective]

Ino would be lying if she claimed that she hadn't told Reno the wrong time to expect her.

So she had absolutely no plans to actually let anyone know about that tiny insignificant fact. Especially not Reno. Fully armed and wearing leggings and a turtleneck rather than anything like she fought in at home, but that she'd found more comfy for dealing with Midgar's weather, and so had figured the same would apply roughly to Edge's weather, Ino's gaze when she stepped through the portal was scrutinizing. (You try staying warm in the middle of winter in what basically amounts to a short skirt with slits clean up the sides, a tank top, and a bunch of bandages wrapped around your torso and see how long it takes you to find something warmer to wear.)

She had a bit of time to kill. A few hours before Reno would even think to wonder where she was.

Plenty of time to explore Edge on her own. Reno would… probably not approve. He didn't need to know. Making sure she knew which direction his apartment was in, Ino darted off on silent feet.

Edge was, she determined a few hours later, making her careful way to his place, a lot worse off than Reno had told her. Despite the fact that some of the areas she'd snooped through had made her, well, violently ill (Ino had not been prepared for the number of starving people, of homeless people, of hopeless dying people she'd seen living on the streets in conditions she'd only vaguely grasped before), Ino was tentatively calling her snooping a good idea.

Also, mints were amazing things. Shut up. She was a ninja and a Rookie. He absolutely didn't need to know she'd gotten sick over some of what she'd seen. Ino had no intentions of telling him anything at all about that. Need to know basis said he totally didn't need to know. She found the building he lived in and headed up the stairs exuding an air that said she totally belonged here no really.

So, it was a pale (but for the colour quickly pinched into her cheeks) and rather wide-eyed Rookie that rapped smartly on his door at exactly the time she'd told him she'd be there.

[For the Turk expecting her, zoto! NFB due to distance!]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

See, if Reno ever found out about this, he'd shake his head, make 'tsk' sounds at her, and then inform her that from now on, he was picking her up at the portal. So there.

As it stood, Reno didn't know, and so he was looking more or less relaxed as he answered the door, jutting a foot into the doorframe to keep the excited ferret from bounding out into the apartment hallway.

"Rookie!" Weird how seeing one of his Rookies could make Reno go from looking 'half dead and probably starving' to 'worrisomely skinny, but still pretty okay!' in two seconds flat. "How you doin', kid? Have a good trip in?"

[intraspective]

"Kid?" she protested, smiling anyway. He was--well. Ino wanted to feed him. Understood a little better why he hadn't been feeding himself but, still... "Since when am I kid?"

Reno's were not supposed to be that skinny.

"It was a portal," Ino continued, raising her eyebrows at him. "Portals are easy."

The side trip hadn't been.

[raspberryturk]

"You were a kid at least since you were in diapers, yo," Reno replied, waving a hand dismissively before bending over to scoop up Mako.

Mako honked merrily. Person! Person who wasn't the big bald guy that visited lots! HI PERSON HI!

"Never know when Portalocity'll screw somethin' up. I'd say just head across the Causeway here instead, but that'll usually leave you way the hell out on the Edge of Edge, and you never know what kinda nasty shit'll be waitin' out that far." A pause for consideration. "Okay, I guess that's partly what I got you out here for, yo. You wanna meet the nasty shit an' try out that materia of yours. But you get what I'm sayin', here."

[intraspective]

"Hiii Mako," she said, holding out her hand for him to sniff, chew on, whatever. "Are you keeping Reno company? I bet you are!"

That was about the closest Ino got to baby talk, okay? Mako was cute. And dim. She was pretty sure he was dim.

Ino snickered. "That is some of the reason I'm here, yeah. But all the same I ain't dumb enough to go wandering where monsters can kill me when I don't know what monsters there are." Monsters, mind. Not people. Ino was perfectly willing to go exploring where the people were.

"So no worries 'bout that at all. Rookie likes living, promise." Just a bit dangerously but, again, Rookie.

[raspberryturk]

"An' Reno's a fan of living Rookies," the redhead replied, holding out the ferret in case Ino was interested in holding him.

Careful, Ino. He's wriggly.

"So, you wanna take the evening to just settle in an' get used to Edge, or you wanna set out tonight and try to beat down some monsters on the outskirts? Or I can pull out some food an' try to toss supper together, if you ain't eaten yet."

Instant ramen. Delicious and nutritious kinda. There were a few veggies, here and there, but mostly the chill in the apartment had made growing food into a challenge, and so there were quite a few pots of dirt sitting about.

[intraspective]

Oh, like Ino was going to turn down an armful of wriggly ferret? She reached for him, grinning.

"Monsters!" she cheered. "'Less you think waiting for light is better? I can wait, I suppose?" But she wasn't really going to suggest he take her exploring more in Edge right now. Ino didn't want to go see things like that right this second. Apartment or monsters it was.

"And I brought ration bars, if we get hungry while killing stuff."

Also, they were healthier than instant ramen. Less tasty, however. And less warm.

[raspberryturk]

In a toss-up between healthy and warm, it was clear that Reno had been opting for the less chilly meal quite a bit, this winter.

He'd work on that.

"Monsters it is, then. C'mon in first, zoto. Get your shit together, toss your stuff somewhere. I managed to get most of the crap offa the couch, so, lady's pick now before we come back an' collapse later. Couch or bed?"

Really, Reno could sleep anywhere, but he figured he'd give her the option instead of just insisting that she take the freaking bed on the grounds that it had better blankets and he was used to sleeping in the cold.

Mako didn't seem to care about the cold. Mako was busy attempting to devour Ino's thumb. Omnomnomnom!

[intraspective]

Yes, yes he would. At least while she was around.

"Couch," she said, frowning at him while stalking past him and trying to keep Mako from devouring her thumb. "I ain't kicking you out of your bed."

Ino got her hand away from the ferret. Annnd then had to give it back as she shifted arms so she could get her bag off her shoulders. "What do you think you're doing, you dork?" She didn't expect an answer, really, not unless it was a honk or some such thing, but it was the principle of the matter. Ino's bag landed on the couch and she shrugged, looking down at Mako.

"I'm pretty much good to go, now." She travelled light, what could she say?

[raspberryturk]

"Good, good," Reno replied, and, in the true nature of the Reno, it came out more like a smug coo than as any actual sort of phrase. "Anytime you're done havin' quality time with the weasel-goose, we can be on our merry way, zoto."

It should be noted that, no matter how done Ino might possibly be with Mako, Mako was now quite bent on keeping her forever.

[intraspective]

Ino looked dubiously at Reno. Then at Mako. Nom nom nom?

“... Right,” she said, kneeling and beginning the attempt to pry the determined to keep her animal off of her and out of her arms.

Not funny, Reno.

It was still not funny ten minutes later when she finally managed to stand back up again sans Mako. Totally not funny. Except for the fact that she wasn’t particularly grumpy. It was hard to be grumpy at a ferret that seemed to want to never ever let her go.

“Lead the way, yoto,” she drawled. Eyeing Mako. “He’ll be fine here?”

Mako lived there, Ino. Where else was he going to go?

[raspberryturk]

"Oh, he'll be great," Reno smirked, casually working on tightening the strap with which he fastened his EMR to his wrist. "It's the rest of the place that's gotta survive Mako, yo."

Mako honked proudly. He had totally found a bag! That bag hadn't been there before! Oooooh, he bet there were places in it to hide!

"I'd put your stuff up a little higher, if you don't wanna accidentally end up smugglin' a weasel outta Edge at the end of the week," he added, bemused.

[intraspective]

Choices, choices. Should she grab Mako or her bag? Ino went with her bag after a second of deliberating--she didn't really need to spend another ten minutes prying Mako off her person, no.

At least, not right now. She glanced around, looking for a place to put her bag.

"I might start to accidentally smuggle him out of here," she noted. "But I bet you'd notice real quick that he were gone."

There. A hook. That would work, right? Mako couldn't climb up walls.

[raspberryturk]

Mako couldn't! He could run into walls really good, though!

"I'd tackle you in the street before you reached your portal," Reno laughed, shaking his head and then tucking his EMR up one sleeve. "Ain't nobody goes nowhere with my ninja-weasel but me, yo."

He gestured to the door.

"Ladies first."

[intraspective]

She gave Mako a long look--seriously?--before brushing by Reno and out into the hall.

"First I'm a kid and now I'm a lady?" Ino didn't bother to wait for him to shut the door and just kept walking. "Make up your mind," she added, over her shoulder.

[raspberryturk]

"Nobody ever tell you that makin' me make up my mind is a lost cause?"

Reno slipped out the door behind her, not particularly worried about her getting too far ahead while he locked up. It wasn't as though he couldn't catch up, after all. "This is gonna be an interestin' few days, ain't it?"

Door? Locked. Reno stretched, tucked his key into his pocket, and then jogged down the hallway to catch up.

[intraspective]

"Somehow," she said, bouncing down the stairs lightly. "I think the next few days are going to translate to a lot of pain for me and a lot of mockery coming from you."

Ino was rather certain of that, actually. She was just glad she was going to be higher levelled stronger than he was probably expecting.

"And I don't think I ever heard that, 'bout you making your mind up."

[raspberryturk]

"You ain't never heard it, because I only just decided about it now," Reno teased, sticking his tongue out at her before oh so very casually opening the door to the building and heading out onto the street. "So, what you in the mood to beat on first? There's always Kalm Fangs prowlin' on the city's edge, or we can wander around a bit an' see if anything interesting showed up lately."

A pause.

"The most freakish shit is whatever makes its way in from Midgar, usually. There's still slow leaks from some of the reactors, zoto."

[intraspective]

"What's the least likely to kill me off the bat?" she asked archly, looking around as she followed him. "Take that then kick it up a notch or two on the difficulty scale and we can go try."

Well, Ino would try.

[raspberryturk]

Reno would give it dirty looks and it would roll over.

"A 'notch or two,' huh?" Reno pursed his lips thoughtfully. "I think I heard word of some worms crawlin' in a couple of days ago. Seemed tougher'n the usual shit that wiggles its way into town from that area."

And you could get there without visiting the nastiest corners of Edge. That was definitely an upside to the whole thing, if you asked Reno.

"You ain't got any kinda aversion to big-ass freakin' bugs?"

[intraspective]

"I spent five days living in a forest full of man-eating leeches an' shit once," Ino said very dryly. "I can handle giant bugs. Worms it is, then."

The blonde tilted her head at him. "Age before beauty, yo. I want to see."

She hadn't fought worms before! It was exciting! For all her Super Casual words, Ino was kinda bouncing on her feet. Kid. Candy. Mooonsters.

[raspberryturk]

"Hey, do I look like I'm makin' to hold you back?" Reno reserved holding Ino back for moments when he was certain that she was about to do something stupid. Thus far, there wasn't really a call for it. "Ain't too far from here, anyhow. Twenty minutes walkin', I can get there in two, but I got my doubts you can keep up."

Oh, yes, be smug at her some more, Reno.

[intraspective]

Ino's eyes narrowed at him slightly.

"I ain't bad at speed, you know."

[raspberryturk]

"That so? Think you can reach the city limits in two?"

Reno was grinning, yes. Why the hell not?

Challenging the Rookies was fun.

[intraspective]

... No.

But she could try. And she really was pretty damn fast.

"Sure," she said, eyes bright. "Why not? You doubtin' me?"

[raspberryturk]

"What, me? Never."

Just this once. Maybe. A little.

"Straight thataway," Reno said, pointing ahead of himself. "There ain't no shortcuts, so don't bother lookin'. Stop when there ain't no more buildings, yo." A pause, and a grin. "I'll be waitin' for you there."

... And that blur, there? That was Reno, starting to run.