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]

"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.

[intraspective]

"Hey!"

Unfair! Unfair! Augh!

Ino flung herself after him, channelling chakra to her feet to bump her speed up faster than she could go without it (cheating, yes, but it was cheating for a good cause) and ran, hair streaming out behind her.

She wasn't as fast as him, but Ino was determined to prove she wasn't slow either.

[raspberryturk]

And that was good enough for Reno! All he really cared about was that his Rookies were putting forth their best effort, which was part of the reason that he challenged them this way, anyhow.

He dodged sideways to avoid tripping over some guy who was sleeping on a curb, and then he jumped to keep from bowling over some old lady, and, when he could have just as easily sidestepped to get around that building, there, he was going to have to scramble straight up the wall and over.

He wasn't showing off at all, honest.

[intraspective]

He seriously was.

Ino was, for the moment, less concerned with the showing off and more concerned with the keeping up as much as possible bit.

Which was, she supposed, darting around two men (talking? arguing? low voices anyway), it's own way of showing off.

See? See? She wasn't worthless!

And, well, it was fun.

[raspberryturk]

Of course it was fun! Reno wouldn't be racing her if he didn't think it would be fun!

Probably!

He pulled on ahead, putting on another burst of speed until he was veering quite out of sight.

About fifteen seconds later, Ino may or may not notice him casually propped up against that wall around that corner there, enjoying a smoke.

Now he was showing off.

[intraspective]

Ugh ugh ugh.

When Ino got there--not that long after! Maybe a minute or so!--she was bright-eyed and not breathing hard.

Please, like she'd be breathing hard after three minutes of running. Asuma-sensei would kill her if she got that badly out of shape.

"Smokin' kills your lungs," she said idly, wandering over to him. Trying not to sulk about her loss too obviously.

[raspberryturk]

Reno exhaled lazily, and then stubbed his cigarette out on the side of the building, pocketing the rest for later.

Yes, the butts were nasty when you lit them a second time. No, he didn't care. He was living on a budget, here.

"No Turk's ever lived long enough for that to be an issue, Rookie. I ain't about to start givin' a shit now, yo."

[intraspective]

She wrinkled her nose at him.

"Aren't sayin' you ought to stop or nothing," Ino pointed out. "Asuma-sensei smokes, in fact, and he's a lot older than you."

A beat.

"And more badass."

Braaat.

[raspberryturk]

"Well," Reno mused, seemingly unbothered by this revelation. "I guess someone's gotta be. Maybe he just ripened into it, yo. I'll catch up if I ever live past 25."

Which he couldn't see happening, but he didn't seem too terribly torn up about that.

"You ready to hunt down some worms, Rookie?"

[intraspective]

"Worms!" she said, way too perkily. Because, honestly, she didn't have much to say about expecting an early death thing.

Really, as far as her world was concerned, Ino was already more than half-way through her average life-expectancy as an active shinobi. Dying young was... well.

Was.

"And no dying," she added, "because then you'd have Rookies with no Renos and how would that work?"

There. Hmph. She could say that.

[raspberryturk]

"If you were a Turk, that'd just mean you'd be gettin' a promotion," Reno said, shrugging. He let his baton drop from his sleeve, catching it again in his hand before giving it a casual tap against his shoulder.

And then he was going to saunter along, looking around for signs of monsters.

"Ain't all that complicated with us, yo."

[intraspective]

"You're an idiot, Reno," Ino informed him blandly.

Because, well. Way to miss the point, much?

Her gaze was sharp and looking for monsters but Ino wasn't entirely sure what to look for with worms or nothing so...

Well, she could find Fly Eyes. And Hell Houses. And things like that.

Worms, though? Nope.

[raspberryturk]

Worms were easy to hunt down, really. Just look for slithery-looking tracks in the sand. Or people screaming and running the opposite direction. That was always useful.

"Yeah. But I'm a lovable idiot," Reno grinned. So far, there was a deficit of screaming, running people, and so he was looking downward to see if the dirt had been stirred up lately.

[intraspective]

"Mako's a lovable idiot," she retorted, copying him and looking at the ground, searching for, well, anything interesting. "Not you. For one, you're far less cuddly."

[raspberryturk]

"I can be cuddly when I wanna be!"

Cuddly like a porcupine, sure. Cuddly like a miniature Behemoth with less terrifying teeth, certainly. Cuddly like a--

"Worm!"

Up ahead. There were two of them, actually, just barely visible around the other side of a half-finished building project that would probably never see completion.