"Where's your husband?" Barret asked at breakfast at Tifa and Cloud's.
"Working hard. He was supposed to come home before we left, but it didn't work out." Marlene explained as she checked the diaper bag for the green pacifier for William.
"Daddy is a Turkey!" Addy proudly exclaimed.
"You got that right." Barret muttered under his breath, looking down at his plate to ignore the glaring from Marlene and Tifa. They knew it would take him time for him to accept Reno as part of the family, but their patience was wearing thin. At least he doted over his grandchildren.
"I'm very happy with how Addy and Reno are bonding. He always comes home from a mission with a present for her." Marlene neglected to mention how they usually weren't girly gifts, but their daughter didn't mind. She was equally happy playing with dolls or toy weapons. Marlene hoped Reno was back home safely, Addy had not wanted to leave home without him.
Reno woke up unhappily alone, wishing Marlene hadn't taken the kids to Tifa and Cloud's for the weekend, to show their newborn twin sons off. His Christmas present to Marlene last year had been more successful than either of them knew until Valentine's Day when her present to him was announcing her pregnancy. So Reno decided his Valentine's Day present to his wife would be a vasectomy. He loved his wife and their children, but three was plenty. His stomach started growling, and he looked at the alarm clock on his nightstand. He had slept in two hours past his usual breakfast time, no wonder, especially since he hadn't gotten home this time til around 2 a.m, finding the note from Marlene that she was sorry he couldn't get off work in time to join them.
"Well, let's go fill you up." Reno told his stomach, needing to hear his voice in the unusually quiet house. Without Marlene and their children there for the first time, the place seemed almost like a tomb, and he didn't like it. But he did like not having to get dressed to walk through his own house, just like his bachelor days a lifetime ago. Walking into the kitchen, he suddenly realized that without Marlene there, there'd be no freshly cooked breakfast. He never cooked for himself in his bachelor days either, other than throwing things in the microwave, but his freezer only had ingredients to cook with in it now, no more TV dinners. He went upstairs to get his smartphone and came back to the kitchen, pulling things out of the cupboard, taking pictures of them as he did.
"Sorry, Elena." Rude apologized as he grabbed his phone, finding half a dozen picture messages from his partner, with captions like Is this food? Can I eat this? Do you put this in chili? Dialing Reno's number, he started giving him some easy cooking instructions.
"You cook rice? Really?" Reno was surprised.
"What the hell is it?" Elena moved his hand so she could see his phone.
"Marlene's away for the weekend." Rude reminded her.
Elena frowned. "Order takeout, you idiot!" she snapped into the phone before hanging up and tossing Rude's phone under their bed. Turning back to her husband, she smiled at him as she caressed his bald head and gently drew it back down to her bare breast. "As you were, please."
Reno stared at the phone, frowning himself, feeling a pout coming on, knowing what Rude and Elena must have been up to. He was always hungry and horny himself when he came home from a mission, and Marlene always knew just how to satisfy him on all counts, but he had only himself for company this weekend. "I can do this." Reno looked at all the things he had pulled out of the cupboard. "I'm the best chopper pilot in all of Gaia, second in command of the Turks, and I can disable any bomb in 42 seconds or less. Cooking can't be that hard."