A/N: If you've read my fic "Christmas Shopping," the same rationale for the holidays applies here as there. If you haven't, just assume that I put a bit of thought into giving their world roughly the same holidays as ours. And I hope Reno's characterization is okay; I keep seeing him as my ex-roommate's husband, so Reno may be in character for that guy rather than for himself.
He showed up the next day, at five, which was early for him even on a day that I got off early. "You feeling better?" he asked.
"Yeah. Really, I am," I added, since he looked doubtful. Not that adding 'really' to a statement ever convinces anyone.
"Well, good," he said, still a bit doubtful-sounding. "You'd tell me if you weren't?"
"Of course I would!"
"Okay," he agreed. "Better order... Scotch, I guess. Straight up." I just blinked at him. "What?"
"Well, um..."
"Oh. Business," he clarified.
"Okay. You aren't going to kill anyone in here, are you?" I asked, trying to sound jaded rather than, say, stomach-churningly nervous.
"No, of course not. Too many witnesses." I think he was joking, but he kept a completely straight face, so it was hard to tell.
He was soon joined by a tall, heavyset man with a full head of gray hair. Rude greeted him as Fred, and Fred asked my breasts to bring him a whiskey sour. They didn't say a word to each other while I was within their hearing, though Rude did give me a tight smile while ordering his second scotch, and after finishing those drinks they left together. Kiri kept staring at me wide-eyed for the rest of the evening, but she was also a lot more respectful, so I didn't complain.
After a few more days of the bitter cold, we had one miniature snowstorm; it dusted the buildings with white, rendered the sidewalks slippery, but didn't even close the schools, let alone providing any sort of enjoyment. I've never learned to drive, so I like snow. It's the only good thing about cold. But it melted with indecent haste and the weather warmed up to mild; I didn't even need a light jacket. And I started getting good tips again. But there was no sign of Rude.
A few days later, Elena turned up at the bar alone. It was a slow night, and I was decorating the tree in the corner. Tir doesn't believe in decorating until the first of December, if then. He'd started quoting statistics about holiday suicides, as if some lights on the windows would push our regulars over the edge. When I asked him if he really didn't want us to decorate, though, he'd just say "No, no, it's fine." Eventually the waitstaff had collectively shrugged and started hauling everything out of storage anyway.
Elena dithered about for a bit, then chose a table, and waved at me when she saw me looking her way. I got up, dusting off my knees, and came over to take her order.
"I don't know... just coffee? Wait, no, this is a bar."
"You can order coffee," I reassured her. "No one cares."
"Yeah, but I might as well go for a drink. Uh. A strawberry daiquiri?"
"Sure," I said, trying not to grin as I went to get it for her.
"Sit, sit," she said when I came back, making little gestures at the empty chair for emphasis.
"Well...." I looked around. One of the regulars, a guy named Finn, was at the bar, and over in one corner we had a couple of guys Kiri had been serving. Nothing for me to do. "Just for a little while."
"That's fine," she said brightly, took a drink and scrunched up her face.
"Don't like it?"
"I'm still adapting to this 'drinking alcohol' stuff," she admitted.
"We saw you in that bar in Wutai..."
"Yeah, and I was drinking about the most rum-free piña colada the world has ever known. A piña colada! It came with one of those cute little umbrellas! I hid the umbrella before you guys came up, but still. I try and try, but I'm just not cut out to be a hard-drinking cold-blooded bastard!"
I was having a hard time keeping a straight face at the idea of Elena ever being any of those things. "If it helps any, Rude seems to mostly just drink beer."
"Yeah, or nothing at all. But on business, he can drink whatever and not make faces all the time. Do you know how seriously everyone doesn't take me?"
"Well, no, but I'll take your word for it." Actually, I did know, from personal experience, but I didn't think it would help her mood any to hear that.
"Yeah," she said, and pouted at her glass. "So anyway. How're you and Rude getting along?"
"Fine, I guess. I mean, I haven't seen him in a couple of days..."
"You guys get in a fight?" she asked with mild alarm.
"Not really. I sort of brought up the Shinra stuff, but I don't think he's staying away because of that." I hoped not.
"Yeah. I guess I shouldn't ask about the Shinra stuff you talked about, right?"
"I'd rather you not," I admitted, tracing the fake woodgrain of the table with my fingernail. One of those moods a week was enough.
"Did he tell you how he got recruited into the Turks?"
"Out of college, right?"
"Sort of. He was falsely linked to some anti-government stuff... didn't actually do it, but he had the conviction on his record, so he couldn't get a decent job, I guess, even with a degree. He was working as a bouncer and he ended up fighting Reno."
"He didn't tell me all that..." It would explain why he's so conservative, though.
"I think he's kind of ashamed of it. Not the fighting Reno part, his record."
"So basically that's the criteria for getting into the Turks? Beat up on Reno?"
"Yeah, like an audition. Maybe that's why he's got those scars. I don't know how they did it before he joined." I grunted thoughtfully. Apparently encouraged by that, she continued. "They recruited all of us because of capacity for violence, I guess. It's Reno's main qualification. But he grew up in Little Wutai, in Sector Three, so he's pretty fluent. I guess that's his other thing, they all each had two. Rude's is research. Me, I'm a fluke. I think they were desperate. Actually I know they were desperate. I don't stand out as much as the other two, but that's all. They didn't give me any special undercover training, so I don't know why they had me."
"You nearly kicked my ass that time we fought."
She looked delighted. "Really?"
"Yeah. Kind of surprised me. I mean, you're tiny! You're littler than me."
"I know!" she said proudly. "I really almost kicked your ass?"
"Yep," I agreed. "Does Reno really cook?"
"Loves it. If you let him he'll talk about spices for hours. Anyway, about you and Rude...."
"I don't talk about that stuff!" Except to Aerith, and that's not an option now. "I mean, the first date wasn't really a date, and the next try got cut short, and..." And I should shut up before I completely put the lie to what I just said, I thought. "It's personal!"
"Have you guys even kissed?" she demanded. Maybe 'personal' meant something different in her language.
"Um, not really. Oh, I think I need to wait on somebody!"
"Tifa! Stay! That bleach-blonde has it. Sit."
"I'm not a dog," I grumbled, but I sat back down. It was kind of nice to have someone prying into my personal life, in a weird, reminiscent-of-high-school way.
"Come onnnnnn," she whined. "Rude won't tell us a thing, we have to have some source of gossip!"
"We? Reno's in on this too?"
"Did I say 'we'?"
"Yes. You did."
"Oops."
"There's nothing to gossip about, anyway," I protested, and stood up, administering a vigorous and unneeded wiping to the tables in the immediate vicinity.
"See, we need to fix that."
"It'll fix itself in its own time. You don't rush things." I rushed things with Cloud, and look where that got me. Alone in Junon, being interrogated by a pocket-sized Turk.
"So there's something that could be rushed?" she asked hopefully.
"Elena? You. Me. Outside."
"No no no no no. I'll leave that alone," she said, with a dismissive little wave.
I let the gesture slide. "Good. Why are you trying to get all... in the middle of this?"
"Well, it's not that, exactly. I just want it to work out with you guys, because he's crazy about you, but he's so shy! And you're not helping, I'm sure. If you just sit around waiting for him to make all the moves, the continents will be in different shapes by the time it happens. You have to encourage him."
I blinked, trying to decide if she'd come here with a mission or if she were just letting things slip again. "Well, I think it'll be okay," I said lamely. He had asked me out to dinner, after all.
"You want to hear about his crush on you?" she asked, eager again. Yes, she probably did have a mission. I wondered if it were Rude's idea, Reno's, or her own.
"Elena, I think it'd mean more coming from him... Okay, I definitely have to wait on those people."
I did. And then I found my way into the women's room, and then I covered Kiri's tables while she did the same. By the time I got back to Elena, she'd finished her drink and turned maudlin. "Am I completely annoying?" she asked me.
"Elena, of course not!" I said indignantly, picking up the empty glass. "You're just a little bit annoying." That turned out to be a very ill-judged joke.
"You hate me!" she wailed, then burst into big messy sobs. I patted her shoulder and insisted I didn't, and then Rude and Reno walked in. They drew some of the stares away from the two of us, and then people lost interest because they weren't shooting anyone. I waved at them, and they headed our way.
"Thank God you're here," I greeted them fervently. "I made Elena cry and I can't get her to stop."
"She thinks I'm annoying!" Elena sniffled.
"No I don't!" I repeated. I felt like I'd been saying that a lot. Rude slung an arm around my shoulders and steered me away.
"He'll cheer her up," he said under his breath. I looked over my shoulder and his arm. Reno was squatting next to her chair, talking quietly. When he smiled, his face looked pleasantly homely, rather than mildly terrifying, and he had a hopeful expression that looked kind of familiar.
Then it dawned on me where I'd seen that look before. "Is he...?"
He nodded, a slight smile on his lips. "They went out when she was in training. Didn't work out. He gives up hard."
"Ah." I slipped behind the bar to get him his beer. I didn't really care about Reno's love life, and something else had been worrying me. "Rude, are you okay? You seemed kind of... I dunno, upset, the other day. And I haven't seen you since." I didn't want to suggest nervousness, for some reason.
"Comes with the territory," he said, which wasn't really an answer, but I let it go, just squeezed his hand when I gave him the drink. When I was across the room, taking someone else's order, I kept glancing at him; no change, though. I don't know why I expected one. Reno finally managed to get my attention while I was on my way back to the bar.
"Million miles away, huh, Lockhart?" Reno asked. I've gotten used to being called by my last name, but coming from his lips, it just sounded vaguely mocking.
"Guess so." The scars somehow make him look as though he's perpetually smirking, but on closer inspection, he wasn't really. "You guys want to order?" I asked inanely, as if he'd have flagged me down to settle a bet.
"Yeah. Another of whatever she had and a tequila sunrise for me."
Rude rejoined them, and I realized all over again how quiet he was. Of course, some of that was in contrast to Elena, who had cheered up quite well thanks to Reno and her second drink. Every so often she burst into song, though fortunately only for a line or two at a time. They probably recruited her just to liven up the company parties. I basically stayed away except to bring them drinks. Whenever I was near Reno gave me unsettling looks, and Rude was no help at all in breaking the ice.
Finally Reno took it into his own hands, lurking around the bar until I was forced to go there myself. "Lockhart, what the hell is your deal?" he asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I protested, wiping down the bar. Tir was mixing the drinks, keeping an eye on me but not saying a word.
"Yeah, you do. You've been staying away all evening. What's the problem? If it's with me, then just say it."
"Okay, fine, yeah. It is."
"If you're expecting an apology—"
"NO I'm not expecting an apology!" I half-shrieked, then quieted when Tir looked up. I was going to rub the varnish right off the wood if I kept up. "No point to it anymore and it's not me you need to apologize to anyway," I said, quieter but no less vehement. "I didn't die in Sector 7." I didn't look over my shoulder, but I was almost sure Rude was watching us.
"Okay, okay," he muttered, rolling his eyes and clearly biting back more that he wanted to say. "What is it, then?"
"You and your... you've been taking this weird tone with me the whole time."
"No, I haven't. This is how I always—"
"And you could stop calling me by my last name."
"But it's good enough for your boyfriend?"
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I just don't like it coming from you." I couldn't even explain why it bothered me, but obviously it did. Or he did. Belatedly, I realized I'd lost my chance to indignantly protest that he wasn't my boyfriend. And I didn't mind.
"Okay, fine. Tifa. Happy now?"
"Ecstatic," I retorted.
"He's the only one ever called you that until now. I picked it up since he said you didn't mind, obviously you do, my mistake." Okay, that was it. I didn't want to think he was just treating me the way all the Turks treated all of us. Which was really stupid, since I could be pretty sure Reno had never taken Barret out for dinner.
"What did you call me before?" I demanded, loading drinks onto the tray.
"Well, you all had nicknames, you know, the Ancient, the Brat, Spike, Tits, Huge Fucking Black Guy, things like that," he admitted. "Rude never used 'em, didn't like 'em much, and... well, I was the only one, come to think of it."
"You asshole," I said, with no real conviction. At least he was honest about it, and really, it could have been worse.
"So you guessed which one you were yet?" he asked, walking with me as I headed over for the table the drinks belonged to. I couldn't decide whether to punch him or to laugh. I decided on neither, since my hands were full.
"Reeeeeeeeeno!" Elena called, her elbows splayed on the table, head on hands. "Come over here! I learned a new trick!"
"She what now?"
"God knows. Look, I'll stay out of your way and I got no problem with you, so..."
"Yeah, that works," I said, hoping to shake him off before I got to my destination; the customers were looking uneasy. "I won't try and kill you and Elena wants you, so you better go."
I could hear them behind me as I chatted with the customers. "Reno, check me out! I can wiggle my ears."
"They ain't wiggling, 'Lena."
"Yeah they are. They feel like they are! Look!"
"That's your earrings moving, hon."
"Miss, are those people really the Turks?"
"Huh? Uh, I dunno exactly," I stammered. I didn't want to ruin their reputation, or on the other hand, scare off paying drinkers. "You guys enjoy now," I added, ready to hurry away.
"They feel like they're wiggling," she insisted.
"I bet they do," he was saying. Rude was sitting back, watching them with that half-smile of his, which just broadened when he noticed I was watching. I smiled back at him. And I brought her a cup of coffee in their next round of drinks.
At closing time, we split up; Reno was to see a giggling, swaying Elena home, and I got Rude. "Well, that was interesting," I said, unable to stop myself.
"She, uh, say anything about me?"
I smiled at the ground. "A little."
"Yeah?"
"You're gonna have to come out and ask me directly, Rude."
"Hellfire."
I started giggling myself – I hadn't had anything alcoholic, but Elena's giddy mood had been contagious. He tried to look ominous, but I didn't even attempt to stop laughing until he cracked a smile. "Okay, really, she didn't say a lot. Was she supposed to be playing matchmaker or something?"
"Dunno. Reno must have said something to get her to go. We think she needs a woman friend. She's started talking about her periods," he admitted, the last part all in an embarrassed rush.
"Oh, you poor baby!" I exclaimed, barely containing my mirth. I would have killed to witness a conversation like that. "Like, in detail?"
"No, just..... Some things I don't wanna know about people I share the bathroom with," he mumbled.
Not wanting to argue the point with him, I changed the subject abruptly. "Hasn't she done any drinking since she joined you guys?"
"This is an improvement. Three years ago, she was laughing at nothing halfway through the first. I guess she didn't get out much in college."
"Well, she is awfully little," I said. "She didn't tell me about her periods, though, so I guess I'd better keep spending time with her until she gets it out of her system."
"Shouldn't have mentioned it. Don't want you to just do it as a favor. Be her friend, I mean."
"No, I have them too."
"Aww, jeez, Lockhart!" he protested.
I couldn't stop myself from laughing. "It's just a part of life, Rude!"
"Yeah, but... but... hell."
"Hellfire?" I offered hopefully.
He gave one of those short barks of laughter. "You liked that?"
"It's the most I've ever heard you curse, I think. And it's funny."
"Always helps in profanity," he agreed. He seemed in an awfully good mood, too.
"But honestly, I'm not just trying to be friends with Elena for your sake. I'm not that friendly. She seems nice, you know, and she's a happy drunk, so that's two points already."
"That's good to hear," he said. Then, after a thoughtful pause, he added jubiliantly, "And you and Reno didn't try to kill each other!"
"Relieved, huh?" I said, smiling.
"Guess so," he said. We stopped at a crosswalk, though there aren't many cars around ever, especially not late at night, and he slipped his arm around my waist. I rested my head cautiously against his side, half expecting to feel a gun against my cheek. I didn't. He still fought like me, then. I could hear his heart beating, hard, and he turned half towards me. "You know, I don't think I ever hit you. I always tried not to. Kind of hard to remember," he was saying, and his face was awfully close to mine. He fumbled the sunglasses off with his free hand. "If I ever did, I swear I didn't mean anything by it."
"I don't think you did," I said pointlessly, and then he kissed me. I've never actually been so shocked by a kiss as to just stand there wide-eyed, and I wasn't this time, either, though it did take me a moment to remember how it went with hands and parting lips and everything. After just a moment he pulled back, and I opened my eyes, disappointed.
"Sorry," he said, sheepish, sticking the glasses in his jacket pocket, and I mumbled something inane like "that's okay" just before we started kissing again.