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

[intraspective]

It was kinda funny how she was getting used to being cold.

Not that she'd complain to Reno about it—what the hell was he going to do? Give her another blanket? As if she was going to let him do that when he was the one that was painfully thin and had to feel it more—or anything but, still. She was pretty sure she hadn't been properly warm since getting to Edge and that? That was totally not cool.

Ino was glad, at least, that it wasn't too windy right now. Drafts were demon-things. She tucked the blanket she was using around her feet more securely and went back to her reading, on the couch, while Reno played with Mako. (Or, well, Mako waged war or something and Reno didn't seem to mind. Ino wasn't paying that much attention to them, honestly; her book was pretty good.)

As far as she was concerned they could totally do this for a little while longer before going to look for fun. Mako wasn't tired yet. Ino was cold and didn't feel like moving.

Which, of course, was when someone knocked on the door.

Ino turned the page in her book. "You get it, yo," she told Reno impishly. "Rookie is lazy."

[For the one she's talkin' to! NFB due to distance.]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

Reno's lips quirked slightly at that, and he let go of a sigh.

"Lots to say about my Midgar," he noted. "Was a city built on the backs of smaller cities. Forgot too many people on the underside, but was proud. Fuckin' strong. Took a rock bigger'n the moon and a monster the size of Junon to tear it apart, anyhow."

He shrugged.

"It was home. Whaddaya wanna know about it?"

[intraspective]

"I don't know," she said honestly. Ino had her lists and her questions and notebooks full of things to write out.

But right now, she wasn't asking for any of that.

"Anything you want to talk 'bout?"

[raspberryturk]

He watched her for a moment, and then gave his shoulders a shrug, looking back toward the curb.

"Too much of them ruins are my fault," he offered. "I bet nobody spared any breath tonight to let you know all about that, too. Midgar was home, an' Edge never will be, but here I'm tryin' to make up for what people are feelin' out there, and they got every reason not to want it from me."

He plucked his cigarette from his mouth, eyed it for a moment, and then flicked what was left to the road before reaching into his pocket to dig out another.

"I wish that," he nodded toward the ruins, "would just fuckin' collapse the rest of the way."

[intraspective]

"So nobody's got to look at it so much?" Nobody meaning him, but she wasn't up for going down that conversational path. "You're right, no one spared any breath. Got a lot of people saying things that weren't very--"

Fair. Life wasn't fair, why did that bother you, Ino?

"Impartial."

[raspberryturk]

"They got a right."

He'd say that until he was blue. It still wouldn't make him hate it any less.

"Ain't easy to be impartial when the whole damn world's given you a reason to be angry, yo."

[intraspective]

"No," she admitted, playing with a bit of her hair. "Can see how it'd be hard."

Ino could. It didn't mean she liked it being directed at him. At her when no one here knew anything about her except that she was better off than them.

"How were the kids?"

[raspberryturk]

"Cold," Reno replied. "Hungry. Had a few of 'em try to frisk me for candy, yo. The gummy vitamins were good enough, they don't know the difference."

Another shrug. There was plenty of shrugging to be done, apparently.

"I gotta get the fuck outta this place."

[intraspective]

"You could come back to Fandom?" she said, making it half a question. "Or--Or go visit Romeo and Dojima-san or something?"

Better that than thinking too hard about kids who didn't know the difference between candy and vitamins.

[raspberryturk]

"Or Rikku," he agreed with a bit of a nod. "Maybe not forever. There's still a lotta work to be done around here." A pause. "Was talkin' with Elena about what she figured it'd take to convince Tseng we'd be more productive in some other city, like Junon."

Possibly nothing short of a miracle, he realized.

[intraspective]

"Is that plausible?" she asked, not knowing enough to make a judgment either way. "That might be a good thing? If it could work?"

[raspberryturk]

"Only way to find out is to try," Reno replied. "Junon was hit in the crossfire between ShinRa and WEAPON, so there's pickin' up to be done there. But the upper parts of Junon were mostly ShinRa. They're less likely to hold a grudge, especially since they ain't sufferin' quite as bad as Edge."

Which sounded suspiciously like he was talking about running away.

He wouldn't deny it.

[intraspective]

"I think it's a good idea," she said quietly, leaning into him a bit. "There's not a lot here for you to do that's useful. And giving something to direct peoples' hate isn't a good thing."

[raspberryturk]

"I don't wanna leave the kids behind," sighed Reno.

It was a bunch of little Renos, all running around and starving, with no hope of a real future.

He hated it.

"Fuck, Fandom made me soft."

No, Reno. Life did that.

[intraspective]

Ino agreed with him, though, about Fandom making people soft.

"You could stop by and visit them," she suggested, almost gently. "But you won't do any good living like this forever either."

[raspberryturk]

"Nah," Reno agreed, and this time when he sighed, he was sighing as his free hand reached for the vodka. "It's just doin' more damage to me than I'm doin' good for it."

It wasn't like he hadn't noticed the looks that people from Fandom gave him when they saw him, lately. He knew he looked like shit.

He knew he looked better than he felt, most of the time.

[intraspective]

"There's a rule back home," she offered, saying nothing about the vodka. "'bout medics. Medics come first. Putting something back together means you got to be together in the first place."

[raspberryturk]

Reno quirked a smile at her for that, and then he was working on getting the cap from the bottle.

"You sayin' I ain't got it together?"

[intraspective]

"Do you?" she asked, glancing sideways at him. "You don't look it."

Oh Ino, why so blunt?

[raspberryturk]

To Reno's credit, he totally managed to refrain from flinching at that. Didn't slow him down from opening that bottle, either. He wasn't taking a pull from it just yet, though.

Soon, probably. Not just yet.

"So, I lost weight. Ain't nothin' to eat, here."

[intraspective]

"There'd be more to eat if you didn't give it all away," she said softly. "I know all your Rookies been sendin' you stuff. You think none of us worry 'bout what you're doing to yourself? You think it's fun for us to know what we send you is going to be picked at, maybe, and then given away when it was meant for you?"

She looked down at the ground.

"I ain't sayin' that giving things away is bad," Ino continued, "but it's like you don't care 'bout what happens to you and that's bad."

[raspberryturk]

Now? Now Reno was taking a mouthful. Not really a desperate one. Just a thoughtful one. Something to think by.

"Thinkin' of headin' back to Fandom," he admitted. "Don't know what for. Dunno what I'd do there. Get more soft, probably. But it'd keep people from worryin'."

[intraspective]

She was just going to fiddle a bit with his sleeve, if he let her, and consider what to say to that.

"Get healthy," she said quietly. Softly. "Time to figure out how to help without--without living here. There's jobs you could take in Fandom--maybe even your old job, just pick it up again."

There was that urge to cry again. Ino wasn't going to let it win now more than it had when she'd been dealing with Edge's people.

"It would keep people from worrying." Already she knew she had to visit more often, as long as he was here. Not because she had questions and wanted to snoop (though she did) but because... Reno needed people.

She was a Rookie. Her visiting made sense.

[raspberryturk]

Having his own space while Elena was at school was well and good, but it meant that he was pretty starved for human companionship. For his own mental health, crashing on Rude's couch had been better. Hell, Rude had pretty much taken to thumping him upside the head until he agreed to eat something, while he was living there.

Here, it was him, Mako, the shadow of Midgar at three in the afternoon, and whoever was starving outside. He was free to fade away at his own leisure.

"Wouldn't want people to worry, zoto."

[intraspective]

"Liar," she accused. "You don't even think 'bout those who care 'bout you while you're here. Too busy giving way to dyin' just like the rest of this place. Being here don't make you wanna live none."

Did he think she couldn't see that?

"People're already worried. People who care 'bout you no matter what you did. Bet Rude ain't happy with what you're doing. Bet Elena ain't. Bet Tseng ain't. He needs the Turks and he's got a Turk here who is just letting himself go. What 'bout Rikku? How does she feel 'bout you dying an inch at a time? What 'bout Romeo? Dojima-san? What 'bout me, Reno? You think I don't care?"

And now she was shaking, a fine trembling in her body from the effort of saying something like that and not yelling it.

[raspberryturk]

Another mouthful. This one was deliberately slow. So that he wouldn't be downing it was desperately as he wanted it.

Of course people cared. He would care, too.

"... Back to Fandom," he said again, furrowing his eyebrows and staring at the gravel at his feet. "Or Junon, or somewhere. I ain't made to roll over and give up, neither."