At five PM, after a poor excuse for a lunch, another ride on the roller coaster that almost made both Ruby and Reno sick, and an hour or so spent watching Rude in the battle square, the two Turks and the Shinra headed to the chocobo square to meet with Reeve Tuesti.
He was waiting for them at the top of the steps in a blue suit, his dark hair slicked back and his goatee perfectly trimmed. He smiled warmly as they climbed the stairs to meet him.
He greeted Ruby first, kissing her cheek and hugging her tightly. "I didn't get a chance to speak with you at the meeting. Everything was so hectic anyway without your arrival," he squeezed her shoulders. "We thought you were dead, you know."
Ruby was smiling from ear to ear. It was certainly the warmest welcome Reno had ever seen her give any Shinra employee.
"I should have written you," Ruby said. "I just didn't want to risk it. Tseng was the only one I…" she shook her head. "I really missed you, Reeve."
"I'm glad you're alive and well," he patted her back. "When you disappeared…well, you were one of the only good things about the Shinra family. I can't say I agree with the decisions your father made regarding the Sector 7 plate…or the decisions your brother is making."
Reno cleared his throat. "I didn't know this was a family reunion. I thought we were here on business."
"Right," Reeve muttered an apology. "Follow me."
The three of them followed him inside the betting center and up an escalator into a private room overlooking the finish line. Inside the room was a large sofa, a mini-fridge, and two end tables. The focal point, however, was a large stuffed mog toy with a small black and white cat sitting atop it.
"What is that?" Reno stepped forward.
"I call it 'Cait Sith'," Reeve pulled a small phone from his suit pocket and spoke into it. "Nice to meet ya," he said. The cat atop the mog toy spoke the same words in a thick brogue and moved enthusiastically, offering up a paw for a handshake.
"This is your spy device?" Rude looked skeptical.
"I'm going to have him meet AVALANCHE when they arrive here."
"If," Reno interjected.
"And when they arrive I'll convince them to let me join them. Act sympathetic to their plans. They could use any help they can get, more than likely. From there we can keep an eye on them. We might get some useful information along the way."
"I have a question," Ruby said as she poked the cat robot. It felt just like a real cat and even swatted at her when she poked it.
"What's that?" Reeve asked.
"If you want to ambush AVALANCHE by finding out where they're headed from the Gold Saucer…why don't you just ambush them at the Gold Saucer?"
"Too public," Rude shook his head. "Too much of a chance for civilian casualties."
"Oh, I'm sorry, since when did Shinra worry about killing innocent civilians?" Ruby spat.
"The point is," Reno said. "Too many people around here would make a fuss. It would be a big mess to clean up, yada yada. We'll ambush them somewhere less crowded."
Reeve nodded. "The Gold Saucer isn't the ideal venue. And supposing the Turks fail in their mission to ambush the renegades, which really isn't much of a stretch…"
"Hey!" Reno clasped his stun rod. "You wanna go, old man?"
"…we'll have the spy system to continue following AVALANCHE and gathering information," Reeve finished. "So, Ruby. Are you just following these two around now?"
"I'm their boss now," She grinned. "They have to do what I say."
"That's not true," Reno protested. "We do what Tseng says…Tseng just has to do what she tells him."
"As I understand it, Ruby has full control over your entire department," Reeve said. "Anyway, I have a few more adjustments to make before I'm done with this little toy of mine and from what Heidegger was reporting, AVALANCHE are still probably a day or so away from reaching the theme park."
Rude had been scratching the robot cat's ears and it purred in response, which led him to marvel at the strange creation, but when he realized Reeve was no longer talking, he rose to his feet. "I'm going to call Tseng and see what he wants us to do until we find out more about AVALANCHE's plans," he pulled his phone from his pocket and stepped outside the room.
Reeve bent down to tinker with the robot and Ruby and Reno took a seat on the couch overlooking the finish line of the chocobo racetrack.
"You and Reeve are sure buddy buddy too, hm? Got a history with him too?" Reno raised his eyebrows.
"First of all, ew," Ruby held her finger up. "Second of all, are you jealous again? Jealous of Tseng, jealous of any man I say two words to besides Rude. I thought you didn't care."
"I don't! I just think it's gross. Reeve's way older than you."
"Yeah, it is gross. Because Reeve is like a father to me. Not every single person of the opposite sex is a potential sex partner, you know."
"Maybe to you," he shrugged.
"Anyway. Reeve was always nice to me when I was little and he used to let me play with his model of Midgar and take me around the city when my dad was too busy, which was most of the time. He was more of a father than mine ever was. It stands to reason my brother doesn't care for him. He was used to being everyone's favorite but I was Reeve's."
"What's it like to be practical royalty? Everyone in the company bowing down to you." Reno pulled his nose up.
"Shut up. You're such a dick," she shoved him.
He stood up and stretched, his joints cracking as he did so. "I'm going to go and see if Rude's done and maybe place a bet."
"I'll be here. I don't need to follow you everywhere."
"Yeah, yeah. Good riddance," he waved her off and left the room.
Reeve looked up from his robot. "You and Reno seem quite cozy."
"Pfft," Ruby snorted. "He's as cozy as a porcupine."
"You've always had a soft spot for the Turks," Reeve chuckled.
"Quit saying that! Everyone has been saying that. One little fling with a single Turk doesn't make a 'soft spot'. Reno is infuriating. I'd kill him if I didn't…"
"Didn't what?" Reeve raised his eyebrows.
"What do you care?"
"I worry about you. Not to suggest you can't make the right decisions. You got on for seven years while we all thought you were dead. And I'm not going to insult your intelligence by telling you that Reno Sinclair is nothing but trouble. I just wonder what you're doing with the Turks. You're a smart girl, Ruby. You ought to put that brain to good use."
"I'm working on it," she promised.
Outside, Reno had placed three bets and was now sitting outside the door to the room waiting for Rude to finish his conversation with Tseng. It took him nearly ten minutes before he finally hung up and walked over to Reno.
"Tseng wants us to lie low until we get word on AVALANCHE. Stay in the area and be ready to take off."
"Well I'm not staying here," Reno picked at the dirt beneath his fingernails. "This place is already grating on my nerves," he lit a cigarette.
"You're not supposed to smoke in here," Rude reminded him.
"Do I look like I care? We've been here all day, I haven't had a single smoke. I'm getting shaky."
"What did you and Ruby do all day?"
"I took her to the hotel and we made sweet sweet love," Reno flicked his ashes onto the floor. "We went on the roller coaster and ate some shitty food."
"Didn't convince her to ride the gondola?"
Reno took a long drag from his cigarette without saying anything. "If I was going to waste my time convincing her to ride something, it wouldn't be the gondola."
"You're gross," Rude kicked his side. "Come on. Let's tell Ruby the plan."
"Did we have a plan?" Reno rose to his feet and stubbed his cigarette out on the wall, leaving the butt to fall to the floor.
"We'll stay here tonight and then we'll just find an inn or something south of here and stay in the area until we get new orders."
"Don't tell Ruby that or she'll start giving us orders to tie our hair in bows or drown ourselves in the lake or something."
Rude blinked at him. "Right…well I'm going to tell our boss what the plan is."
"Quit calling her that," Reno rushed after him into the room.
Ruby and Reeve looked up at their entrance. "What did Tseng say?" she asked.
"No official orders until we get news from AVALANCHE. He wants us to lie low," Rude explained. "I thought we could head south tomorrow and get out of the desert and find a town to stay in until we get word on where to head next."
"As long as we're not staying here, that sounds okay," Ruby nodded.
"We'll stay the evening at the hotel here and take off in the morning. Reeve," Rude nodded. "I'm sure we'll be in touch."
"I'll be updating Heidegger and Scarlet on my progress. Tseng will probably send you the order to move."
"Scarlet," Reno and Ruby both sneered.
"Anyway," Rude looked at the two of them sideways. "I'm going to grab some dinner. Don't follow me," he pointed a warning finger at Reno and Ruby before backing out of the room.
"What did you do to him?" Reeve asked.
"We had the audacity to exist," Reno curled his lip. "I'm going to go somewhere where I can smoke in peace."
"You don't want to get something to eat?" Ruby cocked her head.
"Nah, go on and catch up with Tuesti. I'll manage on my own." As he left the room, he pulled another cigarette from his pocket and lit it, ignoring an angry employee warning him that he could be kicked out for smoking inside.
He flicked some ashes at the employee and made his way out of the building to the tunnel stairs. He wasn't feeling hungry and in fact nothing much sounded very appealing to him. Normally he would quench his particular current thirst with any girl that was willing, and there would be plenty at the bar in the round square, but he didn't feel up to it. The fact that having sex with a stranger didn't seem remotely appealing agitated him. And he blamed Ruby Shinra.
Instead of heading to the bar, he sauntered down the tunnel that led to the hotel. He passed the gimmicky robots and costumed employees making ghoul puns and trying to scare him and flicked his cigarette against the wall, rubbing the butt in with his thumb and continuing on up the stairs. The room had already been prepared for them on Rude's orders: three twin beds beneath ugly fake cobwebs and a faux-aged ceiling.
He fell onto the bed and stared at the ceiling and tried to think about anything but Ruby. The longer he lay there, the angrier he got. What right did she have to make him feel the way he did? He had always made sure he never let girls frustrate him. If they weren't interested, he moved on. That wasn't so easy to do when the girl in question was technically his boss and currently traveling with him indefinitely.
After an hour or so, he peeled his suit off and climbed beneath the covers and tried to get some sleep.