I do not own FF7 or the characters.
Another sheet of paper done, he pushed it away into an unoccupied part of his desk and grabbed another one. Ah a form! Easier than the written reports… he spared a glance at the date and grimaced. It was old now; almost a month overdue.
He rolled his eyes, shook his head in exasperation and screwed the offending piece of paper up before tossing it into the waste bin.
Reno hated paper work, he was a field man! Not some office jockey, but Tseng had been getting on his back since way back when to clean up his desk.
It wasn't that Reno wasn't a good employee, it was simply that he had an unorthodox approach to how to deal with problems. He didn't consider himself a particularly deep minded man but if you asked him how he dealt with life he'd probably have given you an answer like this; the big things in life were unavoidable and had to be dealt with; stuff like death and taxes. The little things in life were avoidable, like arguments, paperwork and unnecessary fights. Then there were the bits that happened in between these two which simply occurred as part of your routine and often took precedence over those two categories.
So if you were smart, you took care of the little things to help the big things take care of themselves and didn't worry about it. But Reno didn't do it like that.
Reno had been accused of being a fool before now, many times in fact, and perhaps there was a bit of truth in that. He waslaid back, sarcastic and blew stuff off by making light of it when it was serious business. But he wasn't an idiot and he took offence at being labelled one, because though he made light of the situations his work landed him in he took his line of work quite seriously. He was proud of who he was.
He took care of the little things in life when he felt they needed addressing because he was a creature of habit who tried to stay in the now and deal with more immediate concerns that rose up before dealing with stuff that could be put off till later, like paper work for example.
The reason he was sat at his desk and doing his paperwork now, was because there were no immediate concerns to address and he wanted to pass the time until the clocking out hour came, which seemed an awful long way away at the moment given it was still morning.
His desk was a messy place, but back logged paperwork had that effect. The only tidy part of it was the area he used to put the completed work into a neat pile for collection. There were few enough items in that particular spot but it was a work in progress.
Tseng walked past with an armful of files larger than all of Reno's assorted paperwork combined. He glanced over his burden at Reno and the Wutain's eyes widened in surprise at Reno's concentrated efforts to finish all of his paperwork given it was such a rare occasion he was found doing it. He paused to walk around Reno's work area to check his progress.
As the boss walked around his area Reno smirked to himself; well he'd caught his attention it seemed. Good, part of the reason he was doing this was to make his superior get off his back about it.
"Having fun Reno?" Tseng asked mildly.
"Mm, you know it yo." Reno replied sarcastically as he filed another report in its proper place.
"And what crisis brought this on?" there was a touch of amusement in Tseng's voice.
Reno glanced up from underneath a raised eyebrow "Just catching up on it. Boredom - it's a horrible thing."
Tseng chuckled and walked away "Yes well, you must be very bored indeed if you have to do your paperwork to relieve it."
Reno smirked and called back "Nah, I'm just turning into Rude! He's a bad influence!"
It seemed on cue that Rude arrived back that moment with Elena and the President.
Tseng put the paperwork down on one of the vacant desks and went over to find out what had happened. There was a brief conversation whilst he and Rufus headed for the Presidents office along with Elena and Rude.
Reno listened in from his desk, Rufus sounded tired but he always looked tired these days. Elena seemed her usual self from how she was talking and Rude didn't say anything at all. No surprise there. So nothing major had happened. Pity, he could have done with a good field assignment to get out of finishing all of this.
The two minor members of the Turks detached themselves from Tseng and Rufus' conversation and they headed back to their own work areas as the Director gathered up his files and followed Rufus into his office.
Reno perked up as he saw Rude pass the coffee machine and he whistled to get the bald man's attention.
"Yo Rude! Grab me one would ya?"
The bald man paused and got Reno some of his desired coffee along with some for himself. Heading over to the red haired man's desk he actually spoke rather than his usual grunts or silent nods.
"You know, it's pretty rude to get someone's attention by whistling at them Reno." The tall Turk gently reproofed the working man.
"And it's also considered rude to not answer someone when they're talking ter ya, but that don't usually stop you doing it does it?" Reno quipped as he accepted the coffee gratefully and took a sip.
"…" Rude thought about that for a moment as he took a sup from his own mug.
Reno waited for the other man to say something with a smirk playing at his lips as the silence dragged for a few seconds.
Rude finally snorted out a grunt of amusement "Good point." he replied before he took his own coffee back to his own desk which was considerably less cluttered than Reno's.
The hours passed, clock out time still seemed too far off and Reno had finished all his work. Now he was bored out of his rather imaginative mind because he had nothing to do and he didn't feel like annoying the others who were tired after escorting Rufus. He needed something to do, he needed to get out of here for a few hours!
He got up and walked over to the President's office to get a hold of Tseng.
Rapping on the door he waited for the summons inside and when he heard the soft voice of Tseng call for him to enter he did so.
Rufus was sat behind his desk and Tseng was loyally assisting his boss, whilst Rufus was typing away into a laptop and studying papers the Director was acting as a kind of PA and fetching Rufus what he needed and taking away that which he was finished with – which must be a lot given how weary Tseng looked after only a few hours of doing it.
Reno had always believe being a PA to someone sounded pretty easy, but what he saw on the President's desk gave him cause to doubt his assumption and made him feel sorry for Tseng.
Rufus seemed to be working non-stop now and it began to make sense to the red haired Turk why the President always looked tired – he must be burning the candle at both ends with this heavy workload.
Though there were two men working hard in here the President's desk was littered almost as badly as Reno's had been this morning, but instead of the small piles of chaos that had been on the formers workplace Rufus was simply burdened by dozens of neatly stacked files and tall stacks of reports that he had either been reading or had yet to read.
Reno paused in the doorway and blinked away the shock he felt at seeing the staggering workload the two men had to deal with. Tseng had reprimanded him for having such a cluttered workplace but compared to this desk's burden Reno's stack of back logged reports was nothing!
But then again Rufus was the boss of all of them… and he no longer had an army of office workers to take care of all the administration his slowly rebuilding company had to go through.
"Yo boss, you got a minute?" He called chirpily as he pulled himself together.
Tseng for once seemed relieved to see Reno and he excused himself to Rufus. Beyond a dismissive wave the President gave no other sign he was paying any attention to what the other man had said.
As the two Turks left the room Tseng closed the door.
As it shut Reno gave a low whistle "Is it like that all the time?"
"What?" Tseng asked him.
"You know, like that…!" Reno pantomimed Rufus typing away and putting imaginary files onto a pile gradually getting taller than he was.
Tseng nodded and motioned for Reno to follow him, as the Director fixed himself a coffee Reno had to say something to lighten his shock. "Man, and I thought I had a high stress job being occasionally shot at! How have you not died from that kind of work load yet Tseng?"
His boss quirked an eyebrow at Reno "Be glad I haven't Reno. If I drop, you have to take my slack." he reminded him.
Reno smiled and patted his bosses arm affectionately "Have I mentioned I've always admired your stamina and ability to cope with impossible odds…?"
"Very funny Reno" Tseng interrupted "But you called me out here for a reason and whilst I'm gone that work load is getting bigger, so can I help you?"
Reno felt a bit childish saying it now but he supposed he had to "I'm… kinda bored Director. I don't suppose you could give me an assignment or something, could ya? I've finished all my paperwork." He winced at how childish it sounded; he reminded himself of a child who wants pudding because he'd cleaned his place at dinner time.
Tseng blinked and let out a slow grunt of annoyance "You called me out here for that?" he groaned wearily "Reno if I had something I'd have given it to you."
"Hey, be grateful for small mercies, yo! I'm saving your health here!"
Tseng sighed and took a sip from his coffee. Reno watched him patiently and after a minute of thought the other man spoke.
"Well…" Tseng mused thoughtfully.
"Well?" Reno grinned.
"There's nothing officially that I can give you Reno, but there might be something you can do as a favour for me. It's something I haven't been able to do myself given the work load. You could run a message for me if you wanted?"
Reno nodded carefully, it wasn't what he'd had in mind but it was still better than being sat around doing nothing.
"What's the message?" he asked.
"Just a basic thank you."
Upon seeing the confusion on Reno's face Tseng took a moment to explain his reasons "What happened at the northern cave with the Silver haired men… Elena and I still owe a thank you to Vincent Valentine for his assistance and I know that the President is grateful to him for that too, but we haven't been able to locate him since the Geostigma epidemic passed. I think he also wants to thank Cloud for his help against Kadaj and his gang, but we haven't said thank you for that yet either."
Reno shrugged "I understand the first but it seems like a waste of time thanking Strife. Cloud didn't do squat for us, he did all of it for those kids he's living with."
"True he did nothing for us, but the President was saved by his actions. I think we owe him a thank you for doing what he did."
Reno made a noise to imply he didn't really agree but Tseng ignored it, Reno's dislike of Cloud went back years and it hadn't gone away just because time had passed. The pair of them would never be friends and would never back down if they provoked each other, but at least these days it took one of them offending the other to spark a fight as opposed to simply the sight of each other.
"Given our past, it seems inappropriate to offer mere words that they would ignore…perhaps we can offer something else as a token of our gratitude."
Reno actually laughed at the notion but he saw that his boss was serious he paused.
"Wait, wait, hold on! We - the Shinra Corporation – are going to reward the people who brought our Corporation down, for simply doing one favour that they wouldn't have intentionally done unless they their own reasons for it? Boss that sounds a bit messed up!"
Tseng looked at him "No it isn't."
"Yes it is!"
"Reno!" Tseng cut in sharply "This message has nothing to do with Shinra or our past; its just a courtesy. Now you told me you were bored and I've given you an option, if you don't want to do it then I will because I don't mind thanking someone for doing me a favour even if I don't like the person who did it. Now the only reason I haven't done it yet is because of that high work load in there. Now if you prefer it, I can deliver my own message and you can take my place whilst I deliver it."
Reno stopped and his eyes widened in horror "No, no!" he quickly back pedalled "Deliver a message – I can do that. It's just a quick 'thank you, is there anything we can do for you', right?"
Tseng calmed down and nodded "Exactly."
Reno grinned "Okay, consider it done boss!"
After Rude dropped him off on the outskirts of Edge Reno made his way to the place he was most likely to find Cloud, the bar known as 'Seventh Heaven'.
Reno didn't mind Edge as much as he'd used to. It used to bother him that people were moving on from Midgar and the glory days of Shinra, but times changed. He'd come to accept this and over time he'd come to even appreciate how unlike Midgar it had been.
For one there were no more plates and pillars.
If Reno had once made a decision that had haunted him, it had been to activate the bomb that had killed not only one, but two entire populaces. The villages beneath and on top of the Sector 7 plate he'd dropped had been much fewer than that of other plates, but in total he'd still taken the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians in that day in order to kill off a small group of people that had then survived his attempt.
And sometimes the reminder of that fact made him sick, it was one of the reasons he hated to see Cloud so much because that Ex- SOLDIERhad been one of the primary targets he'd been assigned to kill even at the horrific cost in human life and yet it still hadn't been enough.
It hadn't been enough to kill Cloud… but it had nearly killed him.
Reno tried not to dwell on it as he walked towards his destination, for the memory was painful but it was not for the reason that it should have been. He often wondered that if he hadn't been hurt so badly during the incident if he could have ended it himself, tracked them all down and tried again with Tseng and Rude whilst they were reeling from shock and SHINRA still had that the last Ancient as a hostage…
The memory hurt him because he felt more sorry for himself for not being able to finish his job and almost losing his life as a result than for killing all those people in trying to do it.
People should feel sorrier for doing those kinds of things than he did… but he wasn't made of the same stuff as other people apparently. Something was missing in him where that was concerned.
He grimaced at the sight of 'Seventh Heaven' and took a deep breath before he entered it, regretting the loss of human life huh? he thought to himself Cloud doesn't even know how lucky he is to be able to do it.
Inside Seventh Heaven the place was unusually empty, Reno didn't frequent it much given the company he often found in there but he had to admit Tifa's place didn't usually lack for custom.
He supposed there were two good reasons for that – one, she had reasonably price beer and two, she poured a great pint.
Oh, and she also had one of the finest racks Reno had ever laid eyes on which could do her business no harm either.
But as he walked through the place was quiet, the door shut behind him and he heard footsteps heading down from the apartment above the bar.
"I'm sorry we're…" Tifa started to say, but as she laid eyes on whom her customer was she paused "…closed…" she finished softly.
"Why, it's barely gone mid day?" Reno asked her.
The dark haired owner raised her hands to the empty space "You see any customers here Reno?" she asked him.
The red head shook his head "Nope."
"That's why." Tifa replied.
"Okay, then why does the sign say 'open as usual' on the front door?" Reno winked as he flashed her a grin.
Tifa sighed "I was about to change that around."
"Before you do, I'll have a drink then!" Reno grinned.
"Reno I'm serious, we're closed." she told him.
"And I'm here on business, I 'ain't leavin' until I've done what I came here to do."
"And what have you come here to do?" Tifa asked him.
"I'll tell ya, but it'll cost you a drink."
Tifa sighed again and hurried around the bar to turn the sign on the door around before she returned to pour him a pint. Reno watched her the whole way and a smirk crept onto his face; he loved it when he got his own way.
"Well?" Tifa asked him as she pushed the drink over to him.
Reno fished his wallet out and handed over a note.
"There's no need Reno. I told you – we're closed."
"And I wanna pay." Reno insisted as he made her take the note "I need this drink more than you know and you don't need people to start thinking booze around here is on the house if you arrive at the right time." he took a sup of the beer as she put his money in her cash register
"Ah! Much better!" he sighed.
"Why do you need a drink so badly Reno?" Tifa asked him with a patient smile at his drama.
"Well because I need to speak to blondie when he gets back and deliver a thank you to him from Tseng."
She blinked in confusion "What for?"
"For helpin' us during that crisis a while back." He delivered that line with as much sarcasm as he could muster.
"Oh."
Reno felt the need to change the topic, talking about Cloud left a bad taste in his mouth. "So, slow business today?"
Tifa wouldn't look at him "Yeah."
Reno had a knack for telling when people were hiding something, being in a job where you tortured people for answers taught you how to do that.
"Been bad recently, huh?" he pressed.
Tifa looked at him with an unwavering gaze "You going to drink that?" she asked him softly.
Reno took the hint and dropped the subject as he took another sup of the pint.
"And how are the kids?" he asked her after a minutes silence.
Tifa smiled "They're fine. They've been a handful lately."
"Mm. Blondie should really do his bit there, ain't the man of the house supposed to help with the raisin' of the kids?" Reno asked.
"Actually we-" Tifa started but then the sound of a motorbike pulling up made her fall quiet.
The door opened and Cloud Strife walked in with Denzel and Marlene.
"Perfect timing!" Reno drawled and raised his half full glass in a mock friendly toast.
Cloud's eyes narrowed as he raised his sunglasses from his eyes "Reno. What are you doing here?" the Ex-SOLDIER asked.
"Can't a guy come by and see his buddies?" Reno teased from the bar stool.
"We aren't your buddies." Cloud growled.
"Cloud, stop it!" Tifa scolded him "He's come here to deliver a message, just let him say what he wants and don't start an argument."
Denzel and Marlene, who had been stood quietly watching the two men from in between them, hurried over to Tifa.
"Tifa, we went to the market! We saw all kinds of great stuff!" Denzel said excitedly.
"Yeah, we brought you some things too!" Marlene chipped in.
TIfa smiled affectionately at them "That's great. Why don't you both show me through here? Cloud and Reno need to talk right now." She escorted them through to the apartment and gave the two men a quick glance which said plainly as any warning not to cause any mischief.
Reno downed the remainder of his drink and rose. "Well, long time no see."
"Mm." came the response.
"Thought I might get lucky and not have to see you for another year at least." Reno jabbed.
"Is that right?"
"Yeah." Reno waited for a minute to see if there was any kind of reaction to his barbed comments, but the blonde haired man simply stood and stared at him in mute disapproval.
The red haired Turk shook his head "Man and I thought getting Rude to join in a conversation was hard! You two should get together sometime."
"At least he'd have some peace and quiet." Cloud replied "All you do is talk."
"Shut it yo!" Reno snapped angrily.
"Behave in there!" Tifa's warned them from the doorway on the other side of the bar.
"What do you want?" Cloud asked.
"Well, I'm here to deliver a message, but don't get your hopes up Strife, I think it's a waste of my time giving it."
"Did Rufus send you?" the Ex-SOLDIER asked suspiciously.
"Nope. Tseng did. It concerns you and Vincent Valentine. I was hoping you'd pass it on to save me the trouble of lookin' for his mysterious, broody ass."
"I'll think about it. What's the message?" Cloud asked him.
"Thank you." Reno bit out sarcastically.
"I'm sorry?"
The red head looked as though he fighting an urge to retch but he took a deep breath before he elaborated "My boss says to say thank you for helping us during that crisis with Kadaj and his gang, though I ain't sure why we're thanking you since you sure didn't do it to help us. He also thanks Vincent for saving him and Laney but you get the idea Strife, it's a basic thank you."
Cloud didn't look impressed "I see. Anything else?"
"Nah, he just wants to know if there's anything you'd like as a…" Reno paused to take another breath there "a tokenof Shinra's appreciation for what you did?"
"I'd like you to leave" Cloud replied instantly "And not bother me again."
"I'd like nothing more believe me." Reno growled and headed for the door "I can't stand the sight of your sorry ass anyway – lookin' at you is makin' me sober."
Cloud held the door open "You stay away from here Reno. You hear me?" he warned.
Reno didn't like that, it sounded like an order. He turned with a smirk "and what if I chose not to?" he drawled "What if I came here every night from now on just to wind you up?"
"I'd kick you out myself." Cloud replied.
Reno sneered at that "You? You ain't got the balls to fight me. Last time we fought you locked me out of the building so you didn't have to fight me."
"I didn't do it for that. I just didn't want to waste my time beating you again."
"Yeah?" Reno snarled "You wanna say that again tough guy?"
"Tifa said no fighting." Cloud warned.
"Tifa ain't my girlfriend." Reno spat "And she ain't my Ma neither! Besides I'm not fighting – this time I'm winning!" and with that Reno drew out his EMR and slammed it into Cloud's stomach.
The mercenary doubled over with a gasp, it was enough time for Reno to set the charge on full and slam it on top of Cloud's unarmoured right shoulder which he also knew was Cloud's more reliable arm when it came to sword fighting.
Cloud gave a cry of pain and the muscles in his arm twitched madly.
A second later Tifa came running through "Cloud! What on earth-!"
Reno turned at the interruption and Cloud used it to full effect. He grabbed hold of the Turk and flung him into one of the tables with their upturned chairs already on it.
Unable to stop himself and with one hand gripping his EMR Reno could only cry out and brace himself for what he knew was going to be sore… and it was.
Turk, table and chairs went flying and all landed in piles and pieces, two of the chairs were broken from the impact and table was overturned. Reno pushed the broken chairs off himself with a groan and shook his head to clear the fuzziness.
"Ahhh…" he hissed "That really hurt! That table's metal dammit!"
He turned to see Cloud glaring at him, he was about to say something more but another noise caught his attention. A kind of snatched breath, like someone was trying to contain their anger and failing…
He turned just as Tifa Lockheart exploded and unleashed all her anger out on the two of them.
"RENO! CLOUD!" she screamed angrily "GET OUT OF MY BAR - YOUR HEAR ME! BOTH OF YOU, GET OUT!" she pointed at the door, her eyes blazing with supressed fury at them.
Both Reno and Cloud had seen this woman fight – she had a punch that professional boxers would have traded anything for, and when the girl was pissed off you did not argue with her!
Reno was first up and heading for the door, Cloud tried to say something but it only made him a target for her ire. As Reno shut the door quickly behind him he heard the sounds of commotion from behind it. Tifa wasn't the type to throw crockery or punches lightly, but from the sounds of things she might be angry enough to consider it right now. Reno was glad to be out of there.
He was so glad that he didn't even mind the fact he would have to make his way back to Healin' on foot now – anything was better than going back within sight of the Seventh Heaven's owner at this point.
It occurred to him that he didn't have to walk though – he'd been paid recently and he had his wallet on him, he could hire a cab to take him back to the Lodge.
But his face and good humour fell as when he patted his pockets he suddenly realised that he'd left his wallet back at the bar…
Okay. First chapter up, this is my first Reno and Tifa fic so any comments would be really appreciated on what you think of it so far, I'm not at all used to writing for Cloud & Co. so comments about if he and Tifa are in character would be really helpful and appreciated by me.
Other than that, I'm planning to put up the next chapter soon.
