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

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

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.]

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She could only repeat what little she'd picked up from Reno about the WRO's efforts--bits and pieces of life stories swirled around in her head as they moved on and she went on to her next person. Her next little battle.

Distantly Ino wondered, as she watched a mother pull her child away, both of them holding heating pads, if this was crueler than having just let them handle the winter as they had been. Was giving a little bit of hope worse than letting them struggle without it?

Ino didn't know. There weren't answers to how long it would take to get things on track, have things better, have people be able to live. Maybe hope was cruel. Maybe it wasn't.

She went on.

All too soon her bag was empty and Ino knew she should be heading back to Reno's apartment. He'd no doubt go looking for her if she was too late. Already it had been a few hours--Ino had no idea how long he'd spent dealing with the kids, he might already be looking for her if he'd gotten it over with quickly--but she didn't turn around and head for his place quite yet.

Her fingers itched to heal and yet she didn't quite dare. People here didn't trust materia or magic. Her potions they'd take and her potions she was more than willing to give away.

But she didn't dare use her chakra here. It wasn't magic the way they thought but... it was better to be careful about it. Careful didn't stop her heart from twisting uncomfortably as she kept walking.

And walking.

It was night. It was dangerous out. Ino knew that. Knew she was supposed to have gone back, turned around and went back to the relative safety of Reno's place, but she didn't want to go back. Every step she took gave her a better understanding of just how many people there were in Edge--more than several times her home she thought, feeling sick; Konoha wasn't a small village by any means--and just what they dealt with on a daily basis.

The lack of light meant she couldn't see the details as well. Ino was glad for that. For this trip, she didn't want everything remembered in the detail she normally used. Bad enough with the silhouettes and the sounds. Bad enough.

Ino wasn't sure where she'd wound up, all of the streets blended together, especially at night, for all that she could still tell where Reno's place was (if she wanted to go back, all she had to do was walk in that direction). It was the work of seconds to climb up a building, one that looked so lopsided, so unstable, that she wasn't sure how it was still standing, and to sit on the roof carefully. Silently. She could feel the muted presences of people inside. Ino hoped they had blankets but wasn't going lie and think they did for sure.

Wrapping her arms around her knees, Ino thought. Blue eyes staring over the sprawl of Edge and giving away nothing of what, exactly, she was brooding about.

It was hard to be cheerful knowing that more people than her home had were living here and dying even as she thought.

After a while, far too long—Reno was going to kill her—Ino got to her feet and began the walk back to his apartment.

Reno hadn't expected Ino back right away. Reno knew what these streets were capable of, knew exactly how the people of Edge could chew away at bits of your soul and then hock it back out again, until you felt like you were pieced together with spit and bubblegum.

He could be patient.

Patience, this evening, meant sitting outside of the building he lived in, staking out a spot on the curb with his EMR in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

Patience meant that, by the time Ino made it back, there was a small pile of cigarette butts underfoot, and an unopened bottle of vodka sitting beside him on the curb. He had a notion that she might appreciate a mouthful, after whatever it was that she'd seen out there.

"It ain't Sector Eight," he said as he noticed her approach. The cigarette stayed in his mouth as he lifted the bottle toward her. "But it might as well be, Rookie."

Edited 2010-02-21 20:26 (UTC)

Ino didn't even try for a smile as she ignored the bottle and sat down next to him. If it had been anyone else, she might have leaned. With Reno she didn't.

That was her own bit of pride, really. Rookie.

"Turk's turf," she echoed, idly fussing with her sleeves. Something to do. "I think you'd offend almost the entire population sayin' that."

Anti-ShinRa was putting it lightly, really. It was just sort of words to her at the moment. Ino was tired. She was... something. Muted.

Reno considered that for a moment, and then shrugged, setting the bottle down between them. He didn't need it right now. Not if she didn't.

"I probably would, Ino. But this is the closest I got anymore. Somethin's gotta be."

Ino had the awful feeling that booze would lead to her either crying or to her finding everything hilarious and neither were things she wanted to deal with right now.

"I know," she said quietly. "It's just..."

Huge. Complicated. So different.

"Welcome to Edge," he sighed, glancing sideways to look at her. And then he shrugged and reached to sling an arm over her shoulder.

It was a Reno thing. This was Rookie treatment, like it or not, Ino.

"Keep it in mind when you go hang out with your SOLDIER friend, zoto. Playin' in Midgar's all fun and games, unless you know what's waitin' around the corner."

That husk over there was Reno's home.

This wasn't. And if there was even an edge of jealousy in his voice when he spoke to Ino about Midgar, it was because he wasn't even trying particularly hard to hide it right now.

He'd moved first. She could deal with the contact. Lean into it, even. She was tense, not relaxing, her stomach in knots.

Fun and games until you knew what was coming.

"I'll keep it in mind," Ino answered, sighing. "Reno..."

She lapsed into silence, not sure where to go with her thought. It might hurt, probably would. He'd say no, not possible. And she didn't want to bring up thoughts of what Midgar was going to turn into. Not when tomorrow meant--facing Zack and having to say nothing. She was sharing a room with him.

So she took a different route. "Tell me 'bout your Midgar?" she asked quietly. Ino didn't know what good it would do, if he did, but... it felt okay, to ask that.

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?"

"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?"

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."

"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."

"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."

"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?"

"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."

"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.

"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.

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

"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.

"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."

"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.

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."

"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.

"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."

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?"

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

Oh Ino, why so blunt?

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