Disclaimer: POOPS! I do not own Scrabble… okay, I own it, but I don't… you know… profit off of it.

Chapter 6

Suzanne didn't wake up to make breakfast the next morning until Sean had thumped downstairs and turned on his morning cartoons. She sat up, briefly confused by her surroundings until she remembered. "I fell asleep on the couch..." she said aloud. Sean turned and looked at her, then the couch.

"Uh huh."

She looked around through squinted eyes. Usually she was asleep a bit earlier than three o'clock in the morning, but thoughts had kept her up later. Reno had his ups and downs, certainly. It was as though he was still in the state of being a teenager, where while he was capable of having real conversation, his mind was only really on one thing. Like he'd never really matured past 15 or 16. In short, she couldn't figure out exactly where Reno stood with her. More thumping snapped her out of her thoughts as Reno stomped downstairs. "Okay, kid. I'm awake, and ready for breakfast. Happy now?" Just like a teenager.

Sean grinned. "Yeah!" He blinked his big eyes and looked to his sister. "What's for breakfast?"

Before she could answer, the Turk started in again. "You mean breakfast isn't even ready and you woke me up?!" He was slowly working off the respect she had gained of him the previous night. Maybe he was only a nice charming guy at night when he was sober. She shut her eyes, straining to keep her good mood.

"Cereal."

"Cereal?" Reno stared at her for a moment, before she glared over at him. "Cereal? I woke up this early for cereal?"

It was probably a fluke, she decided. His sudden burst of kindness and seemingly genuine caring for her was probably some sort of accident. She narrowed her eyes before turning away again, not even acknowledging his loudmouthed comment.

Sean laughed a little and looked at the Turk. "It's not early, silly! It's almost noon! You both slept late today!"

While Suzanne's face immediately adopted a look of shock as her eyes darted towards the clock, Reno looked only mildly surprised. "Almost NOON? You two get your own breakfast, I gotta get over to Cid's!" She darted upstairs and began frantically tearing her clothes off. She may have been a mechanic's assistant (even though Cid only worked on his own projects, and rarely fixed anything for anyone unless it was really important), but she was still a girl and didn't want to be seen in the same clothes two days in a row.

"Hey."

Suzanne stopped in the middle of putting her pants on and turned to see Reno standing in her doorway.

"Just wanted to let you know that I'm sending Sean to his friend's today since I have a meeting." Although he maintained a perfectly calm exterior, she could see his eyes traveling down to look at her butt which was conveniently only clad in a pair of little chocobo-print underwear. She turned seven shades of red before flinging the boot she was holding at him.

"WHAT do you think you're DOING HERE?! I'm CHANGING, you FREAK!!" As the boot hit the wall near him, he bounded away, chuckling lightly to himself. She stared at the doorframe as though he were still standing there for a moment before moving her hand up to cover the beet-red blush staining her cheeks. 'How am I supposed to keep living this way? I can't take much more…' She sighed, cheeks still red before pulling up her pants and retrieving her boot.

Reno sauntered lazily into the bar and immediately saw the other Turks sitting around a table in the corner. He casually pulled out a chair and joined them. Tseng looked up with a quirked brow. "Glad you could join us, Reno. I expected you to be at least two hours late."

"I thought three." Elena chimed in. "Rude had some obscure guess... What was it?"

"Approximately 12:13." Rude silently drew his wrists up to examine his watch. "I win the pool." Tseng and Elena each tossed several gil towards to tall silent Turk before regaining their business-like exterior.

Reno looked between the three of them. The pool was nothing new, though he had no idea why they kept it up, as Rude always knew exactly when he'd arrive (for reasons that couldn't be explained). "So... What's this meeting about again?"

Tseng leaned forward, lightly propping his chin up on his knuckles before beginning. "We've been here for nearly a month, and there's still no sign of AVALANCHE. I called this meeting to ask all of your opinions on the matter. Should we stay and keep watch, should we try somewhere else, should we go back to our recruiting duties...?"

Reno's eyes widened. He had been spending so much time going after Suzanne, he'd hardly even noticed the days pass him by. Usually, if nothing happened after thirty days, they would abandon their posts and move on. Elena started in. "I think we should report back to headquarters and look into a new arrangement. Nothing's happening here, and we could be of use somewhere else. What about you, Rude?" He shrugged.

Reno abruptly stood, knocking his chair over, and slammed his hands down hard on the table. "We should stay!!" Only after the words left his mouth, did he realize how frantic he sounded. The others all looked at him, mild surprise showing on their faces. There was a brief pause before anyone said anything.

"Aaaand do you have a good reason...? For your opinion?" Tseng, Elena and Rude all continued to stare (maybe... Rude might have actually been checking out the woman behind Reno.)

"W-well!" He stammered. I stammered?! He silently thought to himself. He shook his head a bit to regain his composure before continuing. "There's a very good reason." the redhead made sure to sound as self-assured as possible this time.

"... And that reason is...?"

"W-well!!" Dammit... "You see, I..." He trailed off. He literally couldn't think of anything to support his frantic need to stay, except for to be near Suzanne. But it's not like that would help his case.

"The pilot could be a useful ally."

This time, Reno was among the startled ones. They all turned to look at Rude now. The redhead sank back to his chair (which he realized, a little too late, was now several feet away) and fell to the ground. No one seemed to notice. While Reno picked up his chair to sit, Rude continued.

"As it stands, he has somewhat of a grudge against ShinRa. If we convince him that there is still some chance that the Space Program might be started up again, he could be more likely to help engineer some new fighter jets and the like. The President has been looking for a new head of the Department of Aeronautics. Cid Highwind would be ideal."

While Reno stared in awe, Tseng moved on. "Good reason to stay has been presented. We'll maintain our posts, and I'll pay a few visits to discuss the possibility with him. Everyone, get back to work."

They all stood, and the redhead clapped Rude on the shoulder. He mumbled a quick "Thanks, man" before the stoic Turk walked out. Reno now approached Tseng. "Hey, um... this is weird to ask, but I need some advice..."

Tseng looked at him curiously for a moment. "Yeah, about what?"

"Well... you're pretty good with women..."

"...I haven't dated in years."

"Yeah well, they aren't repulsed by your personality."

"I suppose that's true..."

"So... How do you get them to respect you like that?" Reno was in serious need of advice. He was stuck in a terrible place where he could talk to her, and occasionally coax her into kissing and the like, but she never took him seriously.

"You're right, that is weird to ask. Wait..." He narrowed his eyes. "Is this about that woman you're living with?"

"Well... yeah."

"I'm surprised you didn't just take advantage of her like I suggested." He looked away briefly, pondering the situation.

"I couldn't bring myself to do it!"

"Good, I just told you to do it to get you to shut up and stop complaining."

"That was a dirty trick!"

"It worked didn't it...?" Reno silently fumed for several moments, before brushing it off. If he was going to get Tseng's help on anything, he couldn't go around having tantrums.

"Look, are you going to help me, or not?!"

"Alright... I'm no expert, but if you're serious about her, and you want her to understand that, for one, you need to stop acting like a dumb kid all the time. She may be younger than you, but you need to understand that she's a woman. She's not like the girls in Midgar, who are coasting through life on their Daddy's savings. She's living on her own,"

"With a kid." Reno corrected.

"With a kid- ...really?"

"Yeah. Her younger brother." Tseng stared at him for a moment, surprised that he would go after a woman who was practically a single mom.

"Okay, she's raising a kid, working hard to put food on the table, and you need to respect that. If you're treating her like all the other girls you've met, then it's no wonder she doesn't like you. Treat her like a real woman." Reno looked at his feet. When it was put that way, he did seem like a real jerk. "Now go to work."

The hot headed Turk grinned, gave a quick thanks, and briskly walked out the door, mistaking Tseng's command for "go to work to win her back", rather than "go to your post, you lazy dumbass."

Suzanne sat quietly on the wing of the Tiny Bronco, staring off into space as Cid worked, also quietly, underneath the plane. She was lost in thought. Torn between her heart and her head. So she had a bit of a crush. Big deal. It's not like she was going to marry him. He wasn't looking for a real relationship anyway. She was so absorbed in her thinking, that she didn't notice Cid come out from under his seaplane and start cleaning off his face. "You alright, kid?"

She blinked and turned her eyes to the cool blues of the Captain. They reminded her of Reno's... "Huh?"

"Are you alright? Ya haven't hardly said anything since you got here."

"Oh." She stared at him for a moment. He was like Reno in more ways than one. Why did she always end up around the blue-eyed, hotheaded, rude, potty-mouthed, smoking (the phrase "smoking hot" appeared briefly in her mind), yet somehow caring men? Maybe it was, oddly enough, her type. She supposed it made sense... She'd known Cid for years, and look how she got along with him now!

"Well?"

Suzanne snapped her attention back to him. "Huh?"

Cid sighed and scratched his neck. "Never mind... Now c'mon." He walked over and took her hands, helping her down from her perch. "Work is over, so why don't you go home and take it easy, alright?" He wrapped his arm around her shoulder. And walked her towards the gate.

"Yeah, I will..." She let out a sigh. "God, why can't you be my age, and not dating Shera?" Cid's face twisted into an expression of total confusion as he tried to imagine it. He blushed.

"Let's... not even go there." He released her as they reached the gate.

"Sorry..."

Cid ruffled her hair leaving her with a quirked brow and an annoyed expression. "Don't worry about it, kid."

She smoothed down her hair, mumbling "I'm not a kid" as she passed through the gate and began her trek home.

After a brief stop to pick up Sean, Suzanne finally walked through the front door to only have a wonderful aroma immediately fill her nose. After stopping only for a moment to smell, Reno caught her eye. The lights were dimmed, there were candles, a glorious dinner was laid out on the table, and Reno was leaning against it, holding a glass of wine, looking as smug as ever. The expression didn't stay long, when he noticed Sean. It seemed that in his rush to prepare something nice for Suzanne, the Turk had forgotten that there was not one, but two actual residents in this house. Sean cut the silence. "Reno made us dinner!" The redhead made a speedy recovery.

"Um... That's right! Yeah, I guess to thank you for letting me stay here!"

"That was nice of you!" Sean scampered over and pulled up a chair at the table. "Reno, you forgot to set a place for Suzanne!" He grit his teeth.

"Yes… how silly of me…" When Sean wasn't looking, Reno managed to lock eyes with Suzanne. He gave a little shrug of 'oh well', as he headed into the kitchen for extra tableware.

Suzanne was confused. It was like he had MPD or something. At times, he could be a rude, immature, selfish brute of a man, and at other times, he was a kind, loveable, laid-back (but not to the point of aggravating everyone around him), gentleman who seemed to genuinely care for her. Unless… one of those personalities was a front. Maybe he actually was the sensitive human being that shone through on a rare occasion. Or… he was really a huge jackass who thought with his dick rather than his brain, and he was just trying to get on her good side by being nice. 'That sonova…' She cast her eyes back to the table. Reno made eye contact, and pulled out a chair for her. Maybe he was just faking kindness… She sat down and they briefly locked eyes. …but she may as well take advantage of it while she had it… After all… it was kind of comforting to be sitting there with him so close behind her…

Reno was pretty proud of how he was doing so far. He had cleaned up the dining room, the table was set beautifully, there were candles, he had prepared a delicious dinner….. okay, he didn't. He told Elena it was all for the sake of romance, and she took care of it, eyes sparkling the whole way. He sat down in the chair next to Suzanne. "Soo… on the menu tonight, is chicken parmesan, angel hair pasta, peas, and some lovely dessert is in the fridge." He turned to Sean. "Before you get excited, you can't have any of the special dessert."

The boys face fell. "Awwww but WHY??"

Reno quirked a brow. "Cuz it has a lot of booze in it."

Suzanne frowned and Sean nodded understandingly. "So Reno." Suzanne started as she began to serve herself. "What was that meeting about?"

"Well…" Reno began, leaning back in his chair, "it was just regular business matters and all, but then I heard something interesting…"

"Oh?"

"Yeah… Bob… from Accounting… apparently has fallen for this girl he's seen a lot of lately… on business…"

"Hm…" Suzanne narrowed her eyes as she played with her food a little, running her fork through the pasta. "That could be interesting if I knew who Bob was."

"It's very interesting." Reno sat up and took a bite of his chicken. He waited to swallow before he continued. "You see, he's used to acting like a smart-a…" He cast a weary eye at Sean. "… butt. So he's having problems expressing his feelings for her. Without upsetting her, I mean."

Suzanne had a hunch about what was going through his mind, but what he had just said confirmed it. She set her fork down. "Well… maybe she's just confused since she keeps seeing two completely different sides of him. Maybe all this woman wants is to know exactly who the man is?"

Reno sighed. "Well, maybe both sides are his real personality, and she just has to accept that about him. Because you know… no man is perfect."

"Perhaps she could bring herself to understand, if Bob wasn't so schizo about it."

The redhead frowned. "He's not being schitzo! There's a time and a place to be romantic! Maybe he just has a lot of fun teasing her the rest of the time!!"

"Well MAYBE she doesn't want to be teased all the time! Maybe the teasing wears her out! Maybe she just wants a normal boyfriend who will treat her like the woman she is!!"

Reno stood up, glaring. "WELL MAYBE I'M TRYING TO TREAT YOU LIKE-"

Sean stood on his chair and shouted to match Reno's volume. "Maybe they'll get married someday and get a chocobo!" Both of the adults in the room turned to look at the child. He was simply smiling, eating his peas by the piled spoonful. Reno collapsed back into his chair, a hand to his forehead. "Let's not talk about Bob from Accounting anymore…"

Suzanne continued playing with her pasta. "I agree…" She took a bite.

After dinner, they had settled down to watch a movie. Sean ended up picking a cartoon of some sort. It was called "Scrabble-mon: Scrabble Monsters", and both Reno and Suzanne quickly lost interest.

During the course of the film, since Sean was seated on the floor a foot from the TV, Reno had managed to get an arm around Suzanne without causing any trouble. She snuggled against him slightly and they stared blankly at the screen. Reno spent the hour and a half trying to figure out how to win her over, while Suzanne mostly focused on the chocolaty dessert.

"GO S-MON!!"

"ESSSSSSSS!!"

"Tackle 'Diskette'! Earn me 40 more points!!"

"ESSSSSSSSSSS!!"

Sean's eyelids were drooping as he lay curled up on the floor.

"Sean?" Suzanne stood up and patted the kid's shoulder a bit. "Sean, you should go to bed if you're tired." He stood up, said 'okay' in a monotone while rubbing his eyes, and began walking up the stairs. She watched after him for a moment. "Well that was easy."

Reno leaned forward to turn off the TV. "Thank God. What a weird movie."

Suzanne sat back on the couch. "So what were you going to say earlier?"

He quirked a brow. "Earlier?"

"Yeah, earlier." She turned to look him in the eye. "At dinner. Maybe you're trying to treat me like…?"

He lowered his eyes and looked away. "Nothing."

Suzanne leaned forward on her hands, grinning. "No, you have to tell me now. You started the whole 'Bob from Accounting' thing, so you obviously wanted to talk. Now talk!"

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Like… a real woman."

She inched a bit closer. "You were really going to say that? That's so sweet! Reno…" She took his hand and leaned her chin lightly on it. "You can tell me that sort of thing, you know."

He looked her over. He wanted to touch her. Badly. Not just her body… her face. She was beautiful in a way that was difficult to describe. The kind of beautiful that made you feel like you'd finally come home. She was beautiful, and convincing in her words, but probably tipsy from the dessert. Most of what she was saying was probably drunk-talk. "I'm not so sure about that…"

She smiled warmly at him. "Here's something you can be sure about…" She leaned over and kissed him. As she worked her lips around his, she moved one of her hands to run through his hair. He dropped his free hand to run up her thigh and rest on her hip. Her leg slowly slid between his and he twitched slightly, mostly out of surprise. She kissed him for a moment longer, until surprisingly, he broke it off.

"I knew Elena went overboard on the alcohol…"

"What…?"

"You're drunk." He said it a little louder, to make sure she heard him. "Come on, you should go to bed too. You may not be plastered, but I don't know how to resist you if you keep throwing yourself at me."

"Can't we go to the bar instead?"

"No. I think you'd prefer remembering what happened, and knowing I didn't screw you… unlike last time."

"Last time?" This must be how Suzanne felt on the multitude of occasions when Reno had tried to sneak into her bed.

"Go to bed, dammit!" She curled up close to him and gripped his hand.

"Come with me?" He looked into those stunning, longing eyes of hers for what felt like an hour.

"…Sure." She grinned broadly. "But no messing around in bed, okay?" One month ago, if someone asked him if he would take advantage of a willing drunk girl, he would never in a million years thought he would have said no.