Chapter Two
As she walked down the stairs of the small rental house the three ex-Turks shared, Elena spotted her red-haired housemate sitting on the couch. The sound of digitized gunfire and explosions came from the TV. "Hey, today's not your day off. You get fired again?" she asked from behind him while walking into the kitchen.
"Yep." he answered with unexpected cheer.
"You don't sound hung over. Find a new job already, or are you breaking our tradition?"
"Heh, found myself a new job last night, Laney."
"I think that's a new record for you. Nice." she complimented him, then walked towards the couch while eating a bowl of cereal.
"Got me a date too." he announced.
/That explains his mood. I just hope he doesn't let himself get too involved this time. She'll probably dump him as soon as she recognizes that famous face of his. Last time that happened he was depressed for over a month./ "Well, that's good new... Holy shit! What happened to your face?" she asked as she came around the front of the couch and caught sight of his face. Much of it was covered by bruises that were beginning to yellow and his left eye was partially swollen shut.
"Come on, it's not that bad, Laney."
"It looks like someone ripped the whole ugly tree up by the roots and beat you over the head with it. What happened?"
He laughed at her comment before answering, "It's no big deal. Just got worked over by my date before I asked her out."
She looked at him skeptically. "Right. I see she beat you straight into Stockholm Syndrome. What's under here?" she asked while stepping in front of him and peeling up a corner of the bandage on his forehead.
"Ouch! Hey, thanks for getting Snake killed." Reno complained while he tossed his gamepad down on the couch. "Damn, and I almost managed to kill Volgin with a fork."
"You can fork him later, this needs stitches or it'll scar."
"It'll be fine. Geez, Laney, since when were you my mom?" he joked.
She rolled her eyes. "Is Rude gonna have to hold you down again?"
"Fine, make it quick." he conceded. He followed her into the kitchen where he sat in a chair while she pulled an old Shin-Ra field medic kit from a cabinet. After re-cleaning the small wound, Elena pulled out a suture kit and began to stitch it closed.
"Stop squirming, wuss." she teased.
"Hey, you know I don't like needles, Laney."
She smirked. "Stop being so weak."
"Heh, bet you've been waiting to use that one. Morning, Rude." he called out when he saw his other housemate walk down the stairs.
"The hell happened to you?" Rude asked, looking concerned.
"Laney decided to play doctor. Tell her this doesn't need stitches."
"She's right. So how'd you get the bruises?"
"I met a real hottie last night, buddy. She kicked my ass and gave me a new job."
"As what? A human punching bag?" Rude asked.
"No, I'm a waiter, smartass."
"So, did you get jumped twice yesterday, or is this the same woman you claim agreed to go on a date after beating you up?" Elena asked while finishing the sutures.
"Heh, it's the same babe. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but I'm pretty damned sure she didn't hit me hard enough to make me hallucinate." He then laughed a moment. "At least I hope she didn't. Anyways, remember Tifa Lockheart?" Both his friends look surprised.
"But, why would she do that?" Elena asked.
"Isn't it obvious? She jumped me cause she was still pissed about Sector Seven, then she gave me a job and said she'd go out with me cause I'm so damned sexy." When he saw that his friends looked skeptical he added, "And she liked how smooth and charming I am." A moment later he added, "Plus I... kinda told her about the whole my family being held hostage thing and what happened with their shelter..." The mood in the room turned serious when he mentioned his family. Both of Reno's housemates knew that this was still a sore subject for him.
"So, she believed you, huh?"
"Yeah, Laney, I was pretty convincing..."
"You sure asking your boss out's a good idea?" Elena asked.
"Not really, but that's never stopped me before." Reno joked. "Seriously, I'll be careful. I won't go doing anything that'll cost me the first job I've had in years that doesn't require a fake ID."
"Well, good luck." Rude said
"Yeah, I hope your date goes well." Elena adds.
When she answered the knock on her door, Tifa felt guilt over her loss of control wash over her again at the sight of the bruises on Reno's face. "Hey now, keep looking at me like that and I'm gonna start thinking I'm not wanted here." he joked with a lopsided grin.
"Sorry."
"Don't be. Look, over the years I've been shot, stabbed, zapped by materia, hit by cars, and broken mosta my bones at least once. A few bruises're no big deal. Couple more days and they'll fade enough that it'll be like they never happened. And it's not like you beat on someone who didn't deserve it. Hey, I forgive you, so stop beating yourself up over beating me up." His choice of words brought a hesitant smile to her face. "That's better."
"Come on in, I'm almost ready to go." she invited.
"Nice place. Hey, gotcha something." he said while walking inside before pulling a bouquet from behind his back. He silently congratulated himself on a good choice when he saw her eyes light up. He remembered a time when he would have been absolutely certain of the effect any word or gesture of his would have on a woman, but his confidence had been somewhat shaken during the time he had been living like a fugitive.
"How'd you know?"
"Well, roses're too cliché, so I figured you'd like something from your old home." he said while handing her the bouquet of assorted flowers native to the Nibel mountains.
"Thanks, that's really thoughtful." she said while holding the flowers close. /More thoughtful than I expected./ "My mom used to grow these. After she died, I took care of her flowerbeds. Flowers like this always remind me of her and how carefree I was when she was still alive."
"Good times, huh? Got a favorite?"
"Yeah, I always liked these the best." she said while pointing out a large purple blossom.
"Nice." He then pulled one of the type she'd pointed at from the bouquet and placed it in her hair, above her right ear. "But I think it looks better up here." She giggled. "What, too corny? Don't tell me I've lost my touch." he joked.
"No, it's just that I haven't worn flowers in my hair since my mom was alive."
"Oughta be a good reminder of your carefree days, then. You know, you're not too old to be carefree, at least for a while. Keep it in mind, you'll have more fun that way."
"Thanks. So, feeling any better?"
"Yeah, my face's hardly sore anymore."
"I wasn't talking about your face."
"Oh." His smile faded. "Yeah, I guess so. You don't have to worry about me wandering into traffic, at any rate."
"Hey, sorry for bringing it up. I need to go change, I'll be back in a few minutes." She then disappeared through a door in the back of the room. While he waited, Reno took the time to look around the front room of her apartment, finding it sparsely but tastefully decorated. The furniture consisted of a leather couch flanked by two endtables, a glass-topped coffee table, and a fair sized entertainment center.
He was browsing through the DVD collection shelved in the entertainment center when she returned. "You got good taste." he said while turning towards her. He then grinned and let out a wolf whistle. "Wearing that for me? I'm flattered."
She was wearing a simple sleeveless, knee-length red dress that clung to her curves and he was pleased to note that she still wore the flower he'd placed in her hair. "I bet you say that to all the girls. That suit you're in's not too shabby either. I think it's the first time I've seen you with your shirt tucked in." she said with a smile. "You know, for a while there I was afraid you wouldn't show."
"Well, for a while there I was afraid you were a concussion-induced hallucination. Good thing we got that sorted out." he laughed. "Seriously, though, who the hell would stand you up?"
"It's happened before."
"Shocking. So, where you wanna go?"
"There's a place a few blocks over I like if you don't mind the walk." she said while leading him out of her apartment and locking the door.
"Walking's fine by me." he said while starting towards the stairs. "So it's been, what, almost four and a half years since Midgar?" he asked, referring to the incident where the Turks and Avalanche met in Midgar's tunnel system and decided there was no point in fighting again. "What've you been up to since then?"
"Well, when Reeve re-organized the pieces of Shin-Ra left around Midgar, I joined up to help with the reconstruction. I spent about three years working in Human Resources, giving job interviews and assigning people to where they'd do the most good, but I was never happy there. The reconstruction had gotten far enough that no one needed to live in refugee camps anymore, and I figured they didn't really need me anymore. So I quit and went on a sort of extended vacation."
"I never thought you'd be the type to bum around. Sounds more like something I'd do." he said as they walked out onto the sidewalk.
"I needed time to think, to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. So I caught a boat to Wutai and paid Yuffie a visit. The two of us've always been close friends, and you'd be surprised how much she's matured over the years. I spent a few months there and was feeling a lot better, but I still hadn't decided what to do. I headed to Cosmo Canyon next to visit Nanaki, Barret, and Marlene. Would you believe Barret's studying to become an elder?"
"I guess it makes sense, as much as that guy liked the planet."
"Yeah. That area's real peaceful, a good place for deep thinking. After a while, I realized that the last job where I'd really been happy was running my old bar in Sector Seven. I'd learned a lot about business during my time working for Reeve, so I figured I'd do even better this time. I decided to start fresh somewhere new, so I came to Junon. It took a while, but eventually I found a small bar owner who was willing to sell. I'd spent most of my savings, heh, bumming around as you put it, but I was able to raise plenty of money by selling off my materia. I had enough left to renovate and buy some marketing, and still have a cash reserve. I've been running the Second Chance ever since, having fun and making a nice profit. How about you?"
"First thing we did was cut a deal with Reeve. In exchange for busting him outa jail and setting him up as the new president, he let us retire. We headed out to Kalm to ride out the impact after me and Rude called our families to warn them to get outa town. Laney didn't have to worry, since she's from Junon and her folks still live here. Not long after Meteor blew up, I got the news about my family. Rude's only family was an older brother and, well, you remember how a bunch of people just disappeared in the blast?"
"Yeah." She also remembered very well the vast number of un-identifiable bodies recovered during the reconstruction of Midgar.
"If it weren't for Laney, the two of us would've drank ourselves to death. She's a lot tougher than she looks, you know? It took a lot of work, but she convinced us to pick ourselves up and start over. We all found new jobs and for almost a year life was pretty damned good. Laney and I'd managed to quit smoking, Rude'd cut way back and was close to quitting, we'd all cut back on the drinking, plus none of us needed sleeping pills anymore."
"Sleeping pills?"
"Yeah. They're about the only way to sleep well in our old line of work. Anyways, I'd found a job selling cars and did good enough I got promoted to managing the sales floor. Then I came into work one morning and saw the paper sitting there on the break-room table with my picture on the front page and the headline 'Butcher of Sector Seven Finally Revealed'. It felt like I'd been hit in the nuts with a sack of bricks. You know you've taken a damned hard hit when you can't describe it without mixing metaphors." he said with a sad smile.
"Sorry about that."
"Hey, you weren't the only Avalanche member the reporter interviewed. One less wouldn't've made any difference and a few ex-Shin-Ra troops were interviewed too. All it took was one witness and one reporter looking for fame. When I saw that article, all the air went out of my lungs and I had to sit down. I picked the paper up and tried to read it, but my hands were shaking so bad I had to put it back on the table before I could make out any of the words. Right below my picture were smaller pictures of Rude and Laney captioned 'known associates' and 'probable accomplices'. I don't know how long I sat there staring at the paper before my boss came in. Fired me, of course. Can't have a mass-murderer working for the company, it'd be bad publicity. So I was stumbling down the sidewalk when I decided to call my girl. I'd been dating her for a few months and she'd always been good to me, telling me she didn't care about the past and... well..."
"It was serious?"
He sighed and silently debated how much to tell. "Serious enough that I'd been carrying around a ring in my pocket for two weeks, waiting for the right time to pop the question." Tifa looked surprised. He continued in a bitter voice, "Yeah, that's right. Mr. one-night-stand, the incorrigible womanizer, was gonna settle down. I loved her and... she told me she'd read the paper and never wanted to see me again. Made it real clear she didn't want to hear any excuses."
"Sorry to hear that." She reached an arm around his shoulders and gave a reassuring squeeze as they walked down the sidewalk. "You don't have to tell any more if you don't want."
"It's alright. At least I still had the receipt. Anyways, my knees went out, or maybe I tripped on something, and I kinda... embarrassed myself in public. Luckily there weren't many people around. After I got back up, I dragged my sorry ass to the nearest liquor store. I hadn't drank anything stronger than beer or smoked for months, and I walked outa that place with a case of Vodka and a carton of smokes. I walked back to my condo, and life wasn't done shitting on me cause I found a note on the door from the landlord telling me I had a week to move out. So I called Rude to see if I could crash with him and found out he'd been fired by his boss and dumped by his girlfriend too. We got worried about Laney, so I called her, but she wasn't answering. I called Rude back and said to meet me over at Laney's place."
"We had to let ourselves in, cause she wasn't answering her door. She... Well, you see, she'd gotten engaged. We'd been helping her plan the wedding, it was supposed to be in less than a month. The bastard'd broken it off, and she was taking it pretty hard. She wasn't even in the Turks when I dropped the plate, but my past was making her suffer anyways. Heh, and I thought I'd felt guilty before. I still had the Vodka with me, so we crashed at her place and got trashed, hard. The Vodka let us forget for a while, but when we woke up the next afternoon with killer hangovers, we still had a pretty serious problem to deal with. So we put a pot of coffee on and got to work planning. We all agreed we had to get outa town. Kalm was too small, we needed to go somewhere we could disappear in a crowd. The story was on all the news networks, so we figured everyone in the world knew."
Tifa pointed to a restaurant a block away. "There's the place."
"Never ate there before. So, we had to find a new home. Midgar was outa the question, we probably woulda been lynched. Junon seemed like our best bet. We finally got a break when Laney called her folks. They didn't care what she'd been accused of, she was still their daughter, so they'd help her out. They even offered to let her two shady friends sleep on their couches until we found someplace to live. Damned nice folks. Before we left town, I paid Laney's ex a visit. See, she's like another little sister to me, and I don't like it when some jackass makes my little sister cry. I worked him over pretty thoroughly, he was probably eating through a tube for months and I wouldn't be surprised if he still can't walk. The bastard'll never be able to have kids either. I'll spare you the gory details, don't wanna ruin your appetite."
"Yeah, I'd appreciate if you didn't." she said while walking into the restaurant. "You came a little close there." The pair was seated at a small table in the non-smoking section, at Tifa's insistence. Reno felt tempted by the pack of cigarettes in his pocket, but felt that she was worth it. The waiter handed them menus, took their orders for drinks, and left.
"Our plan was to lie low and let the heat die down. For two years me and Laney dyed our hair brown and Rude quit shaving. It's worked well enough we stopped bothering with dye and Rude went back to shaving. Every now and then someone recognizes one of us, but it's not all that often. A few more years and most people oughta forget what Turks were."
"Sounds like you've really had it rough."
He shrugged. "It coulda been worse. I wasn't exaggerating when I said the three of us're like family. Long as we had each other, we could cope. Lying low and living like shut-ins whenever we weren't working for a couple years was boring as hell, though." The waiter briefly returned and gave them their drinks and a basket of rolls.
"There's something I've been wondering since yesterday, but you don't have to answer. Why didn't you do anything to defend yourself when I attacked you?" she asked after the waiter left.
He sounded tired when he answered, "Well, like I said, it'd been a rough day. I came in there looking to get wasted and you... kinda reminded me of my worst regrets. I... Well, after everything I'd done, you had a right to every swing, and I didn't really feel like trying to stop you."
"No, I didn't have a right to do that to you. The plate dropping was Shin-Ra's fault, and they've been dealt with. They used you, there wasn't anything else you could do."
"Maybe, but it doesn't make my hands any cleaner."
"My hands aren't clean either. I thought about it after you left last night and realized that if I'd been in your position, I would've done whatever Shin-Ra told me."
"You're sure?"
"Yeah. It wasn't easy to admit to myself, but I think most people would've done the same thing as you." His eyes took on a far-away look and he sat silently for several minutes. She waved a hand in front of his face and asked, "Hey, you still in there? Wake up, the waiter's coming back."
His eyes came back into focus and a sheepish expression came over his face. "Heh, sorry, kinda zoned out there..." The pair quickly ordered their meals and sent away the waiter. "I shouldn't be so surprised after last night, but how can you be so... understanding? Over half a million people died because of me and you're somehow symphasizeing with me? You amaze me, babe. Really."
"It's really not that hard. Once I got past my anger and had time to think about it, it was pretty obvious. If you're that surprised, why'd you ask me out? Wait, I didn't mean to phrase it like that. Don't think I'm not enjoying myself or something. I know that's a strange question, you don't have to answer it."
"It just felt right. I do a lot of things on impulse like that. I guess if you want a reason, it was probably your eyes again. So why'd you accept?"
"Well, for starters you weren't looking at me like a piece of meat or fawning over an Avalanche member. It's refreshing to get asked out by someone who's not looking at me like that. Also, you showed me you're deeper than I thought. And like I said yesterday, running a business keeps me busy enough that I haven't had time to date for a while. It sounded like fun, so I gave you a chance."
"Well, th-"
"Bastard!" Reno and Tifa look up at the unexpected voice in time to see a woman throw her drink in Reno's face.
"Not again..." he groaned while reaching for his napkin. "Look, lady, I told you yesterday. I'm not that guy, I just look a little like him. You already got me fired, isn't that enough?" he asked with a grim expression while wiping her mixed drink from his face. Tifa wore a shocked expression.
"Enough?" the angry woman yelled as she threw her glass at Reno. He deflected it with his forearm, causing it to shatter harmlessly against his jacket. "My husband was in Sector Seven, you bastard!"
"And I was in Mideel, on vacation when the plate dropped. Thought I told you that yesterday. Geez, lady, you go around throwing stuff at every red-headed guy you see or something?" The restaurant manager hurried up and pulled the woman aside and they began talking back and forth rapidly in a hushed tone. "Well, that's one way to kill the mood. Just my damned luck..." he complained in a sardonic tone.
"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to get the mood back after she gets kicked out."
"Don't be too sure. She was pretty persuasive with my old boss."
The manager walked to the table. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Reno sighed, not enjoying having been right.
Tifa looked surprised and asked, "What? Why?"
"Because I don't serve assassins here." he answered, unknowingly echoing Tifa's words from the previous night. "I'm surprised you asked, Ms. Lockheart."
"People can change. You really think I'd go to lunch with an assassin?"
"Sorry, but this isn't negotiable. You can stay, but he has to go."
"Fine." Tifa declared angrily. "But I'm never eating here again." She then stood and walked out of the restaurant, followed by Reno.
"Sorry about that." he said with a downcast expression on his face.
"Hey, don't go acting like that was your fault."
"Wasn't it? If I hadn't killed her husband, she wouldn't've had any reason to get me fired or ruin my chance to date you."
"If you hadn't, someone else would have. You and your family would've died for nothing. And don't be so sure she ruined your chance. I decided to give you a fair chance, and that wasn't fair."
"You're too good to me."
"No, you're too hard on yourself. You alright? You didn't get cut, did you?"
"Nah, it's a thick jacket. Got some Tequila in my eyes, though. It's kinda starting to sting. Any chance you've got some eyedrops?"
"No, but we walked past a water fountain about a block away." she answered, noting that his eyes looked very red and irritated.
"Good enough." he pronounced before walking in the direction she'd pointed.
"I didn't have anything else planned before work today." she nonchalantly mentioned.
"I'm sure I could think of something to keep you occupied, if you really wanna spend the rest of the day hanging out with me." he said with a crooked grin.
"I'd like that." She then held the button on the water fountain for him while he used both hands to splash water into his eyes.
Author's Note: As always, thanks go to Noroi for betaing this. Thanks for all the great reviews Savvy Savie, seal-chan, WrexSoul, sylverskyz, shetan83, Shiankra, Soporific, ShadowChocobo, TheDonutMistress, JA-Japster, The Tiramisu Of Impending Doom, AniGirl 7, and Marilee. It's especially encouraging to see positive reviews from experienced ReTi writers.
A few of you mentioned Reno seeming a bit out of character. Hopefully this chapter explains why well enough. If Elena also seems a bit OOC, remember that she's spent the last four+ years hanging out with Reno. For those who didn't recognize it, Reno was playing Metal Gear Solid 3 at the beginning of the fic.
Hey, looks like I'm not the only Trigun fan here. shetan83, I was actually thinking more of Wolfwood towards the end of the series when I wrote that, since Wolfwood, like Reno, had plenty of actual blood on his hands to feel guilty about. Now that you mention it though, taking a beating like that was very Vash-like, so I see how it could be interpreted like that.
New note: Edited again because some site update deleted all the '--' lines I used to use to denote scene changes. So time to slap horizontal rulers into all my fics.