Final Fantasy VII: The Outlaw and The Ninja
By Psyniac
Summary: Pre-AC Reno/Yuffie (Some Elena/Reno, Elena/Rude and even some Reno/Rude XD) When The Turks are relocated to Wutai, Reno doubts everything he has and thought he wanted – especially when he runs into a familiar, young ninja. Only a few chapters long, contains quite a lot of "bad" language.
Copyright: I own nought. It's all Square-Enix, yo.
A/N: This was started before Advent Children but stopped and eventually picked back again, and edited to fit the peroid between VII and AC... at least I hope it fits. It doesn't have to be perfect, right? A great man once said "it's a bit of fun", and that's all it is. Enjoy.
Chapter 1: Breaking Point
"Alright, this is it." The driver called to the three figures in the back. None responded, unlike the van; which grounded to a halt in seconds. The driver sat in silence and waited for the people to move. He looked up into his rear-view mirror to look at them.
The first man sat opposite the others, slouched over himself. He held a water bottle in his hand and a pair of black goggles was resting on his head. The driver thought those were definitely for show, as he had never seen the man actually wearing them. He had thick, somewhat matted, spiked, dyed-red hair with a few large bangs and a long ponytail. What with the perfect hair, normally the man would look somewhat vain, the driver thought to himself, but his posture and silence showed he was in deep thought… about something more important than his hair.
The second man sat opposite him on his right. He also had a pair of sunglasses, but these, opposed to the first man's goggles, never left his eyes. He was bald and had short, yet somewhat messy, facial hair around his mouth. His ears were pierced in several different places. This tough-guy face reflected the bulk of his body also. He looked like an archetypical bouncer, ready to click his knuckles, heave a sigh and beat up some drunken teens… taking pleasure in it all, of course.
The final person was female. She had neat, short blonde hair that stopped just shy of her shoulders and a slender body. Her wide, brown eyes scanned the floor, lost in thought also. All of them were in silence. That's not all they had in common – all of three them wore deep blue suits. However, where the second man and the girl wore their suits properly, the first man's jacket was wide open, his shirt un-tucked and creased, and without the black tie the other two had.
The second man got up and, keeping his head low as to not hit it on the roof of the van, made his way over to the door when he was interrupted.
"FUCK IT!" The first man yelled suddenly, standing up and throwing his bottle at the van wall. The woman dived out of the way as it bounced off the wall towards her and then hit the floor, crumpled.
"Reno!" Elena cried out to him in frustration and shock.
"Rude, the door. I need a real drink. None of this piss-water." Reno mumbled at his co-worker and Rude turned back to the door, opened them both, stepped out onto the sun-baked sand and waited for the other two, straightening his tie.
"Reno!" Elena repeated "No drinking. We need to go and find the place." Reno ignored her and left the van, his jacket whipping upwards in the breeze. "RENO!" She called to him again, but still to no avail. "God dammit, Reno…!" She said under her breath, aggravated. She looked to Rude, who was watching him go.
"You wanna go with him, huh?" She placed her hands on her hips and looked up at him menacingly. He turned back to face her, and the menace she felt coming off of her suddenly vanished. Neither of them spoke. Elena sighed and began walking away towards in the direction Reno had gone. She stopped where the hill they were on began to slant and overlooked the town.
The colourful, oriental buildings of Wutai, coupled with its surroundings, would usually build a beautiful, picturesque image of tranquillity in Elena's mind, but it was no use. She denied it was their new home. She was a city girl… always was, always will be. Staying in a place such as Wutai scared her a little. But they had no choice.
Things were getting complicated with the now severely-damaged, under-ground company of Shinra. It was once a huge tyrant of a company… but now what? Reduced to living in a place so unknown to Elena. She was sure the others felt the same way when three months after Meteor hit, they were told Shinra would have to have a new, definite headquarters, and until that time the remaining Turks would have to live quietly, away from all the hustle and bustle.
But Elena liked hustle and bustle…
Rude had joined her side as she watched Reno, at the bottom of the hill, walk off in search of alcohol. She would say Reno had taken it the worst, and as out-of-control as he was before, he was outrageously savage now. She hadn't known him long, but she grew to enjoy his cocky nature sometimes. But now it had gone.
She would say Reno had taken it the worst, but Rude hadn't even bothered to show an opinion of the matter yet.
"He'll come around. He's going to have settle down some time. We're gonna be here for long time." And with that, he strode off down the sand track. Elena sighed again, and looked up into the sky. It was beginning to get dark, and the sun was sinking behind some nearby mountains.
It was absolutely beautiful. But Elena hated it.
Later that night, Elena sat in the small, more than slightly dilapidated house that was now the Shinra's Turk's new headquarters. The now out-of-use police station was stripped off all personality. The wooden walls were dark, slightly rotted and somewhat damp. The whole house was without electricity, and every room was lit with only a single gas lamp.
The house consisted of a lounge, two converted bedrooms and a toilet, without bath or shower. It was appalling, and was in an appalling state. But the Turks could not complain. After all, they were meant to be keeping a low profile.
"Ha!" Elena thought to herself bitterly. Reno was probably roaming the streets right now, drunk as dog, terrorising the neighbourhood.
The front room of the shack-like house was simply a door, a wooden table, a chair, a small, untidy green rug and a torn sofa; several springs protruding from the mattress, almost comically.
But she wasn't in a laughing mood, or situation, because this could well be The Turks hideout for a long time.
Rude was standing by the door rigidly with his hands behind his back. Elena rarely saw him out of a mission or work and wondered about his personal life. Did he stand around like that all day? Did he have any hobbies at all? As horrible as she felt to admit it to herself, she felt like Rude was a robot – always dependant on orders and his work.
"Rude?" She whispered softly. There was no answer at first, and Elena watched the light of the lamp and the shadows it was creating fight across his defined face.
"Yes, ma'am…?" He replied, clear as the wind.
Elena turned in her chair to face him completely. "Tell me about yourself."
Reno sat on the dirty floor outside the tavern for two reasons. The first; he'd been kicked out… literally. And hard. The second was that he was almost too drunk to get up… or at least too drunk to put the effort in.
He was pissed and pissed off. Stupid fucking Shinra, too cowardly to let them stay put. Shinra used to stand and fight… now what? A bunch of yellow-assed losers. It made Reno look bad that was for sure. So why didn't he just leave? Just kick it in?
He could outrun Shinra and he knew it.
He looked inside his twelfth bottle. Almost empty. Downing the remains, throwing it aside and pulling himself up slowly, one thought came to his mind.
"Where the holy FUCK is the new HQ?!"
"Come on!" Elena smiled at him "Lighten up!"
Rude heaved another sigh "What's there to say?"
"Tell me what you do outside of the Turks?"
"Outside of the Turks?" He repeated, thoughtfully "Prepare myself for The Turks. I exercise a lot…weight-lifting, cycling, running. That's really about it."
"Is that IT? The Turks is your life?" Elena queried, confused and slightly shocked, although she really shouldn't have been. Rude was definitely a devoted man, especially towards his job. It was just the fact hitting home.
The room fell into silence.
"I didn't mean to offend you, Rude. I'm sorry." She admitted fault.
"No, it's ok." He smiled at her. She returned it with a couple of blinks. That was definitely a rare sight. Yet further inspection showed her it was forced… a nervous smile, even. "I'm not offended." Elena pulled a nervous, goofy smile back at him and took his full stance into perspective.
"So I guess that's why you're so..." She searched for the right word. She had found one instantly, but was too shy to say it. The silence was widening. Eventually, Rude interrupted.
"Ripped?" He chuckled.
"Yeah." Elena said shyly. Rude laughed again.
Suddenly, the door was forced open, and almost off it's hinges, as a drunk and clearly aggravated Reno burst in, mumbling under his breath a string of incoherent nonsense and cursing.
"I... I found th-the headquarters..." He said unnecessarily, falling slightly, but propping himself up by putting a hand on the ground. When his equilibrium was as sorted as it could be, he regained most of his usual height and looked around. "What the fuck is this?!"
Rude didn't look at him. He let his head lower slightly. Elena noticed a twinge of disappointment in his face.
"This..." Reno span on the spot, his jacket flaring widely. Elena watched the stains of beer, vomit and what was likely to be a 10gil Chocobo Curry fly around the room. "This is SHIT! FUCKING SHIT!" He said disgusted. He swore a few more times under his breath before turning to Rude, who he clearly hadn't noticed before. "Rude, Rude, Rude, Rude... Rude... Rude..." He repeated again and again, and Rude took the time to let Reno know he had acknowledged him, and then looked away. "This is shit... this is shit... Don't take this the wrong way, yo." He patted his friend on the shoulder "I'm in a shitty place, with shitty bars and SHITTY PEOPLE!" He glanced at Elena, who went bright red.
There was silence again after the outburst. Reno kept staring at Elena, who had looked away. His vision was blurring in and out and had no idea what was going on. Rude looked up at him.
"You should probably go to bed." He put simply. Reno nodded, more than once, and stumbled in the direction of one the connected rooms. The other two watched him go, and looked at each other. The drunken Turk took his time, and before passing through the door frame, stopped and threw up in the corner. His dry throat, and lack of real food, caused this to be fairly painful. Mopping his mouth with his sleeve, he turned back to Elena, with tears of pain in his eyes.
"Fucking Wutai..." He spat, and disappeared into the door less bedroom.