intraspective | Midgar, Gaia -- Saturday

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Midgar, Gaia -- Saturday

Ino had felt—good, stable, all the way out of Fandom, off the island, and into Midgar, which was her own home now (and that was something she still had to remind herself of), even while they stopped to let her change into her uniform.

It was only as Zack pressed a kiss to her cheek, in the lobby of the ShinRa building and headed off for his own orders, that Ino felt the clawing uncertainty come back.

Talk to the receptionist, she’d been told. Ino could do that, though she despised walking into a situation blind. It was a comfort, at the least, that she already had her uniform, her I.D. , and that she was supposed to be here, so far as anyone was concerned.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t nervous, still, underneath the cool demeanour. This was her first time, after all, on the job, in this capacity. Her hair was down, flowing in careful waves down her back and her shoulders were straight as she approached the mission--reception desk.

“Excuse me?”

And Ino ignored the creeping panic that reminded her she had no idea of what else to say.

[NFB, please! For them that're in the building.]

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She was going to lose, Ino had known that from the moment he'd really decided to put on speed, but between her own training and her chakra which was boosting her speed past what she was usually capable of, Ino wasn't so very far behind as all of that.

And she was grinning, still, when she made it down to the bottom, coming to an abrupt halt that had everything to do with her chakra sticking her feet down firmly.

Ino raised her eyes to his, and waited to see what he'd say. She felt--exhilarated, and Silly was grumbling quietly under her hair.

By the time she came to a stop, Reno was leaning back against the door and laughing.

"Well, shit," he replied, somewhere between the heh-heh-heh sort of cackle that more or less passed for his laughter, "looks like we just found the second-fastest Turk, yo."

Which was... really high praise, coming from him.

There were--several things, really, she could say to that.

Ino went with the one that came to mind first.

It was always better to go with the natural reactions, after all.

"And I'll get faster," she promised, with a flick of her hair. "Make you work for your title."

She would, too. Reno, on Fandom, was faster than this one was. He could get better.

And so could she.

"You better," Reno replied, reaching out to give her an affectionate sort of punch to the shoulder. "Somebody's gotta keep me on my toes around here, yo. Gods know Rude ain't gonna do it."

Rude was freaking slow. It was fun to tease him about that now and again, but it kind of made for really frustrating moments when they had to get somewhere fast, and Reno kept having to circle back to wait for him.

She giggled, just a little, both from the comment and the touch. This was... bizarrely nice.

This Reno hadn't--hadn't turned her world upside down.

"I'll consider it a duty," she informed him, a bit impishly. "Onwards to business, then?"

"Damn right," Reno agreed, pushing the door open. "Even easier with you than with some of my rookies I had before," he mused. "Since you already know your way around the sector, yo."

He didn't even have to ask her about that. The Turks had tailed her around this place on more than one occasion, after all.

"What can I say," Ino murmured lightly, slipping past him and outside. "I like to know my whereabouts."

"Yeah, and the hot chocolate ain't all that bad, either."

Yep. Reno had totally had to tail her one of those times, too. She wouldn't take it personally, he hoped. She really was pretty kickass, for a rookie.

"C'mon. We'll head up to the North end of the sector and make a sweep comin' back this way, and go from there."

"We all have our vices," she replied, with a shrug as she followed him. "How long does a patrol usually take?"

"Depends," Reno replied, "on a lotta shit. There's usually trouble. This is Midgar. Wouldn't be Midgar without any, yo."

The day they went out and had an uneventful first run of Sector Eight was going to be the day that Reno ate his own EMR.

She nodded thoughtfully.

"Alright," and her eyes hardened slightly. "To work, then."

"To work," Reno agreed, and then gave his head a shake and loosed a little laugh before taking off at a run, again.

Maybe if they lucked in, there would be some monsters that were more threatening than goblins lurking around, today. Wouldn't that be nice?

That'd be exciting! It really would be!

This Reno had no idea of the way she'd all but danced the first time she'd come face-to-face with a Hell House.

Ino kept pace with him, wondering if he was going to have them run the whole shift, and at the same time marvelling at the anonymity the uniform brought her. If people saw them, they saw two Turks.

Not her. And not Reno. Not really.

"How long have you been doing this?" she asked, curiously.

"Which part?" Reno glanced sidelong at her, skipping sideways to keep from tripping over some dumb kid playing in the street. "Bein' a Turk, or trainin' 'em up?"

'This' could mean so very many things.

"Both," she said brightly, irrepressibly.

Because, who knew, that might get her more answers.

Reno huffed another one of those weirdly soft laughs of his, shaking his head as he ran.

"Wants all the answers at once," he mused, though he didn't really seem to mind. "I've been with the Turks for years, yo. Ain't been around since I was a little kid or nothin' like some of us have, but there are people who'd say I joined pretty young. I don't give a shit. I was old enough to make the decision, yo. That makes me old enough, in my books."

Which didn't answer much of anything at all, but hey, it wasn't like Reno celebrated the anniversary of the day he joined, either. Counting years just seemed like something that other people did. This wasn't exactly a job known for its retirement package or anything, so what good would it ever do him to start?

"Been trainin' up Rookies for about half that time. What can I say? I don't suck at what I do, zoto."

He was so modest.

"And proud of it," she murmured, in a voice that wasn't truly meant for him to hear. Both Renos had always been proud of that. "Why do you get to train Rookies?"

"Because," Reno replied, his smile going a little sharp around the edges, "I don't get 'em killed their first day on the job, zoto."

Which was, in fact, something to take pride in.

"We appreciate that," she said, a touch dryly, for all that it was true. "Death being a thing to avoid and all of that."

All of Reno's Rookies were still alive. That said a great deal about the job that he did, bringing them all up to his very special Turk standard.

"You'll appreciate it more as you settle in better," he replied, and there wasn't even a trace of cockiness in that statement, so much as simple, stark fact. "I ain't trainin' 'em for the same Midgar their folks grew up in. It ain't the same Midgar, no more."

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"'Cause of AVALANCHE?" her voice was low enough that no one but him was going to hear her. She felt it safe enough.

"That's part of it, yeah," Reno agreed, turning a glance her way. "Just part, though. There's always more to it, ain't there?"

Rogue SOLDIERs, Wutaian spies, mechs gone haywire through city streets, monsters, and a bigger, more iron-fisted ShinRa than ever before.

AVALANCHE was a fairly recent development, and, while they were strong, were really only the tip of the iceberg.

She gave him big, wide eyes. Her idiot-persona's eyes, to be exact.

"Is there?"

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