It was a crisp night in Junon. The sky was as clear as it had ever been, with all the factories pumping fumes. All on the streets children pointed up and shouted "Look mummy, look at the stars!" Next to a certain drab grey factory wall another person had their eyes diverted up. Only he wasn't viewing the night sky. He was watching a bill-board.
He wore a crumpled dark blue suit over a shirt with several buttons ripped off and a non existant tie. His crimson haired snaked down his back contrasting to the blue and bright bangs hung over his eyes, the shades on his head not doing much to deter them. His pale face was adorned with twin scars under unnaturally bright aquamarine eyes and a smirk that many women swooned over. The man was so well recognised that even from a distance people could label him. Reno of the Turks.
He grinned at the sign – "Junon Jimmie's Jammy Donuts." It was 2 metres by 3 metres in size and had a comical picture of Junon Jimmy grinning with a large sprinkled donut in hand. Reno glanced at the tool box by his feet and the smile spread.
Junon Jimmie had spent weeks bribing and arguing to put an advertisement up. The owner of the factory produced most of Jimmie's stock and the road next to the factory was quite a busy one. Several business owners had tried to get an advertisement on this particular factory wall but Jimmie had won only by spending quite a lot of gil in bribery. Reno considered it gil well wasted, especially after the job he was going to pull.
When informing his work partners that he was going out for a "mission" Tseng had just shrugged and told him not to get injured, while Rude took one look at the tool box and upon realising what Reno was up to just waved him away grinning.
After a quick scan around to see if anyone was around Reno bent down and opened his tool box. It was quite handy, Scarlet had designed it and Reno had to hand it to her – that woman was intelligent. The small toolbox carried not only drills, screwdrivers and every other tool a man could ever want but Scarlet had somehow managed to compact a ladder into it as well. Ingenius.
Reno hoisted the ladder out of the metal box and began the tedious job of unscrewing the components to extend it out. Whilst occupied with unfolding the carry ladder Reno failed to notice his companion.
"Wotcha doin?" The Turk almost left his shoes on the floor as he leapt out his skin. He yanked his EMR out of his belt and whirled around to face the newcomer. Whirled around to become face to face with.
"Brat? The hell you doin here?" He relaxed slightly, Yuffie wasn't exactly an assailant who would grass to Jimmie his plans. The young ninja grinned impishly.
"Checkin' up on ya." Reno started. Checking up on him? Yuffie checking up on him? He glanced quickly at the mangled compact ladder before growling at Yuffie.
"who sent you to check up on me!" If he had fangs Reno would have bared them at her. Yuffie shrugged nonchalantly replying with a quick "Elena" before diving to the floor and picking up the ladder.
"Whats this?" she asked. Reno was sorely tempted to grab the spanner out the tool box and clunk the girl around the head with it.
"It's a ladder." He sighed, sitting down on the grass next to her. After all, he figured the materia thief could give him a hand with his job. Yuffie raised an eyebrow at the mangled object before dumping it in Reno's lap.
"How? Doesn't look like a ladder." Her childish voice grated on Reno's nerves and he grit his teeth, he was going to kill Elena when he got back.
"Listen brat, if I say it's a ladder it's a ladder! If you wanna help me then shut up." He growled, once again unscrewing the bolts and stretching the ladder out a bit more. Yuffie folded her arms and stuck her tongue out, but in the darkness Reno missed the expression.
"Who says I wanna help ya, what is it you're doing anyway?" The "princess" nudged her chin onto Reno's shoulder and watched intently what he was doing, he was busy unscrambling poles and twisting bolts all over the place, looked very complicated.
"If you didn't want'a help you would have remained hidden, and I'm not telling you what I'm doing." Reno growled, Yuffie smiled, he wasn't wrong.
"Ok, I'll help, but only because you need me." Reno narrowed his eyes. "so tell me what you're doing…Please?" She replied. Reno answered by standing up, a strange mechanism in his hand. He strode over to the wall and flicked a button on the mechanism then stood back. He smirked at Yuffies confused expression.
"I'm stealing Jimmie's sign." A short and simple sentence that left Yuffie grinning from ear to ear as well. She barked a few short laughes before Reno glared at her to keep shush. Yuffie sidled up next to him and studied the "ladder" mechanism.
"Sounds fun, um Reno, I don't think your ladder works." It was still just a mess of metal on the floor, Reno didn't respond so Yuffie had no choice but to keep watching. Suddenly a quick movement and curse made Yuffie flip her head in Reno's direction. He was smacking himself on the head. She raised an eyebrow at him in return which he grinned.
"Ooops, forgot it needed electricity." He dug his hand into his pocket and brought out a lightning materia, whispering something into the orb he became surrounded by a yellow glow then a lightning bolt arched across the grass and struck the metal. He grinned again then went to push the button on it. Yuffie wondered how on Earth he actually found a button, the whole thing looked like something belonging to a scrap yard.
"Dumbass" She muttered as he returned to her side, a few metres away from the ladder. Yuffie watched in amazement as the jumble of mess began to untangle itself, snaking up the wall and straightening itself like some kind of inflatable. Within a few minutes it looked like a real ladder that could hold someone. Yuffie whistled slightly in amazement and Reno walked over to his ladder.
"I'll forget the dumbass comment if you pass me a screwdriver." Reno seemed in a considerably nicer mood with her so Yuffie rummaged in the toolbox for one without a word. She handed it to Reno and with a wink he crawled up the ladder. Yuffie settled back on the grass a short distance away and watched with amusement as Reno fought with the screws holding the sign up.
A thought came to her about what she was witnessing and she stood up to ask him when the Turk called down to her for a drill. Yuffie scowled and muttered something else about being a no slave girl as she passed it to him. Reno managed to get the first few screws out no problem now so Yuffie lay back on the grass and closed her eyes, it was late at night after all.
"oi, Princess brat, wakey wakey." Yuffie mumbled and opened her eyes groggily, she had only closed them for a second hadn't she. Obviously not as Reno had the sign on the ground now and was standing triumphantly over it. The ladder was nowhere to be seen either and that was evidence enough that she really had fallen asleep.
"I was just resting my eyes." She grumbled whilst rising to her feet, the grass was wet with early morning dew and the sun was barely visible rising on the horizon. Reno noticed the sun as well and cursed.
"Don't got much time, c'mere and give me a hand sleeping ugly." Reno picked the tool box up with one hand and grabbed a side of the sign with the other indicating to Yuffie to grab the other. She complied and Reno set off jogging down the hill bank to the road, dragging Yuffie sleepily behind.
Reno dragged her all the way to an alley and dumped the toolbox behind some bins.
"It's a drag to carry, I'll get Rude to pick it up later for me." He explained. The thought occurred to Yuffie again about the events.
"Reno. Why on Earth are we nicking a bilboard!" Reno grinned,
"Noone messes with Reno of the Turks." And that was all he would ever tell her.
Elena later told Yuffie that Junon Jimmie had refused to serve Reno after he hijacked the factory when drunk and tried to eat 12lbs of sugar. When Jimmie had called security Reno had flipped him the bird, grabbed 3 crates of donuts and ran away. Unfortunatley into the wall. He spent 14 days in Junon county jail for that offense, Tseng had found it highly amusing that he didn't punish Reno and Heideggar had favoured the young Turk a bit more when Reno gave him half a crate's worth of donuts he had snuck out with. Yuffie hated to imagine where he hid them from the Junon police.
Reno successfully carted the sign back to his Turk office, Yuffie lugging the back end with aching arms. Needless to say they received many strange stares and Rude had to dash off to a "meeting" when he saw what they brought in grinning his ass off.
Yuffie was undoubtedly relieved when Reno stopped outside his personal office. She was surprised that the Turk had let her come this far, usually he dumped her at the Turk lounge when she "visited" never once letting her in his room. So it was with a great deal of impatience that she waited as Reno unlocked the door.
Dropping her end of the sign as she entered the room Yuffie couldn't help but grin. Every inch of the wall was covered in signs and memorabilia. She noticed a huge collection of Tsengs hairbrushes, Several pairs of sunglasses she knew where Rude's. A dozen or so headless teddy bears hanging from the ceiling and a large sign covering the ceiling which had – "Happy hour at Tifa's seventh heaven" scrawled on it. Reno settled on a chair that looked suspisciously like the presidents and stuck his feet on the desk.
"You wont believe how much shit I got in for that." He smirked, pointing to Tifa's sign. "They spent weeks looking for it." Yuffie smirked as well, she liked Reno's room immediatley, there were so many stories here.
"Why do you steal all this stuff?" she asked curiously. Reno slid his feet off the desk and leant forward in his chair, looking very much authorative if it werent for the huge grin plastered on his face.
"Don't piss me off."
It was then Yuffie noticed a huge cardboard box full of her Shurikens and materia that had somehow vanished a while back.
Rude was still grinning when he returned to the Turk's lounge, Tseng and Elena were sat down, chilling out after a hard mission.
"…He took her to his office?" He asked after a moments silence. he was answered by a crash and bang further down the corridor followed by a cry of pain and a wail.
"Reenooo you bastard!"
Bad? Good? Whaddya think? Review for me please. and for those of you following Crimson Fury, hold tight, the chapter isnt far off and my apologies for taking so long.