Reeve finally moves into a new apartment and begins to sort it out. A follow-up to 48 Exposures
Reeve Tuesti had never realised quite what niggled him about the pictures he had of Avalanche until the day he finally sat down to sort through them. That opportunity only came about once he was finally forced to stop sleeping in his office as a result of receiving threats of violence by a certain loud-mouthed ninja. He'd resisted taking any proper accommodation at first, wanting to leave it available to the hundreds of Edge denizens still crammed into temporary shelters as the fledgling city tried to balance out the displaced Midgar population.
The homeless problem was now reducing significantly and after a lot of persuading and his firm refusal to take one of the luxurious penthouses Yuffie seemed determined to put her boss in, Reeve finally allowed himself to be moved to a mid-range apartment not too far from the main WRO building in Edge. He had politely, but firmly declined the offer of additional apartments near the outlying WRO centres. Reeve had decided he needed one home, not one of many; somewhere to come back to when able to relax and not worry about the future of the world for just a little while. The upshot of this however was that even after moving in, the apartment only began looking like someone's home after a number of months. Boxes lined hallways and filled all the rooms; the messy state always slipping his mind while he was away, but he despaired quietly each time he was confronted with the sea of his belongings when he returned back and had to wade through them to reach the kitchen, the bathroom or his bedroom.
After the first few times he stayed in his apartment he began forcing himself to tackle at least some of the hoard each time he made it back. Slowly passages opened up allowing him to connect the most visited rooms of the apartment together. Boxes filled with lesser used items were shoved into cupboards or stacked more neatly then Yuffie's speedy delivery had allowed for. Gradually character emerged and Reeve was able to use the living room as something other then another storage space.
A spare room became a workshop where mechanisms, components and retrieved remains of Cait Siths lay awaiting his attention and skill to bring back to life once again. Shelves slowly filled with books and ornaments, the boxes and piles dwindling away as order was enforced upon the rooms; the apartment seeming less his place to sleep when convenient and more like an actual home.
His walls remained bare and he found himself wondering what he could use to fill the pale-coloured expanses. A chance visit to the Seventh Heaven inspired him as he watched Tifa carefully pressing a new photo into a frame and hanging it out in the bar. The picture was of three Turks; Reno, Rude and Elena taken by one Aeris Gainsborough in Wutai. Reeve had asked why she was rehanging the photo; he remembered it being on display before. Tifa explained that the photo periodically went missing, usually coinciding with the Turks, or more specifically Reno, visiting her establishment; she suspected that the red-haired Turk wasn't entirely keen on the photo being up for all to see. The thought made Reeve laugh; Reno eschewing the directness of requesting the picture's removal and instead stealing it. He briefly entertained the thought of a pile of framed pictures slowly piling up in Reno's apartment until they consumed it entirely and forced Reno to move to a new apartment beginning the process all over again.
Tifa at least took the repeated theft with good grace, and it presumably did encourage repeat Turk business as borderline welcome as that could be. Reeve let his gaze wonder the walls as the barmaid departed to serve another customer and took in the pictures. A quick glance revealed that one was definitively not on public display; the sole picture anyone had of Aeris herself. Given that it had been taken at Costa del Sol with both the flower girl and Tifa wearing less then typical, Reeve could understand its non-public display. He suspected strongly it was elsewhere in the building; a tribute and a memory of a lost friend. He had his own copy of the same image in one of the multitude of boxes back in his apartment; Avalanche had all received printed versions of the Cetra's photographs.
He recognised some photos from her set on the walls in between other photos Tifa had presumably obtained elsewhere. City views of Wutai shared a wall with a distance shot of Rocket Town and a high-up view of Cosmo Canyon. The Turks caught candidly while drinking were beside an action shot of Yuffie fighting. Inspiration struck and when Tifa next passed by he asked where he could buy some photo frames.
Reeve arrived home that evening with a stack of photo-frames and a new purpose. He hauled out his set of photographs and began flipping through them. He'd forgotten about the very first image he found until he saw it again. The surviving members of Avalanche stood outside the Seventh Heaven prior to the victory celebrations after the curing of Geostigma and Cloud's defeat of the resurrected Sephiroth. He remembered watching through Cait Sith's eyes as Denzel's friend (her name escaped him and as such he settled on 'Moogle Girl' as a place-holder) carefully balanced the camera in her hands and took the picture of the group, copies distributed soon afterwards as they reluctantly parted with a vow to stay in touch more from now on. No one had been in the mood to take a picture the previous time they had been together when paying their final respects to the last Cetra.
That first image was an easy choice, and immediately lead him to his second; Aeris and Tifa at the beach. He paused though, wondering about putting this picture up. He would like to have pictures of all of his friends; this and the first would fully accomplish that goal. But this image? Would his motives be questioned for choosing this provocative image? He felt like he was breaking a taboo, or putting his lusts on public display as he set the photo in the frame and hung it beside the group shot. What might a visitor might conclude (what visitor? No one visited him. Or perhaps a date? He shook his head. He had no time for dating, and even then surely he could explain the photo. It wasn't that salacious) if they saw it? He decided to split the difference. The photo would go up and he'd take it down as and when needed and substitute it for another.
This naturally required an immediate substitution image so that his subterfuge would not be discovered. He elected the less then picturesque image of the Temple of the Ancients in place of it. He leafed through the other pictures, pulling out particular favourites; of course the Turks photo had to go up on his wall. He slowly put them up in little clusters around the apartment, wondering about asking if there were facilities for enlargements for particularly good landscape shots. For now, these photos would do, and he stood back admiring his handiwork. And stopped. In amongst all these pictures, all these smiles, all these happy occasions or off-guard moments, Reeve Tuesti didn't appear once. He'd been there via Cait Sith for a good number of the pictures, particularly Moogle Girl's photography, but in person? He was in less photos then Aeris. He felt suddenly hollow.
Even after everything he'd risked, everything he'd helped with, he had never directly assisted his friends. He'd let Cait's AI handle the fighting and banter with the party. Even when Avalanche gathered to fight the summoned Bahamut in Edge he had sat the fight out, choosing to observe remotely via Cait Sith rather then hitch a ride on the Shera with the others. It was admittedly appropriate that he had not and would not really be counted as part of the group; their friend was Cait Sith, not his maker and sometimes operator Reeve Tuesti.
And now he realised he wanted to change that. He needed to change that. He could count Vincent and Yuffie as closer friends due to their WRO work, but now he wanted a true group photo. He needed to ask for one the next time Avalanche was together. For now, he tried to take solace in his presence with the others in spirit if not in body.
An idea struck him and he delved into a different box, eventually dredging up an older photo; pre-Meteor. This would do for now. Like Aeris's separate photo, Reeve Tuesti included himself with an old picture of his life as a Shinra executive, cradling the first Cait Sith prototype in his arms while the second took a picture of the two of them. Satisfied, Reeve placed the picture beside the other two Avalanche photos and felt somewhat complete.
A/N: This fic makes use of some of the unused ideas that came up when ariescelestial and I were having the discussion that lead to 48 Exposures.