Reno Drannor: Reno Spiegel
~~~~~
Chapter 8
~~~~~
Reno awoke somewhere around midnight to the sound of a piano. He was confused momentarily, then remembered Tifa had one and probably played. That or Rude was going through one of his insomnia spells and felt like playing. Either one was likely.
Tossing himself into a sitting position, he fished around for the pair of loose-fit jeans he had swiped out of -- probably -- Cloud's old things. He walked out of the room and down the stairs, and when the noise faded away he attributed his knowledge of it to an air vent, and was about to swing into the kitchen when he glanced at the couch and paused.
There they were; Strife and Lany, curled together. He wasn't sure about Strife, but he knew Elena never moved in her sleep, so he immediately felt his protective side kick in and stormed through the kitchen, seeing the clock pulse 12:38 AM on the microwave, then into the piano room. There sat Rude at the keys, playing without the music. He apparently still had some of it left in him, and Reno politely waited until he'd finished his song and turned to look at him to speak. He scratched his head and whimpered. "Don't mention the hair, dammit." He was referring to the fact he'd had to cut many inches off due to the spring accident. "You see Lany and Spike?"
"It bothers you, I take it." Rude waved a pack of smokes at Reno and started to the back door.
Reno followed him and shut the door behind him, slipping one from the pack and taking the spare lighter Rude offered him, lighting it before speaking. "I dunno...just feels like a sister to me after all these years, y'know?" He took a drag and looked at the sky scratching his shirtless chest. Some of the poison ivy must've gotten to him.
Rude nodded his head, blowing out a puff of smoke. "And is Yuffie going to be pissy tomorrow?"
He grinned. They'd spent many nights like this. Reno and Rude, standing around outside of some near-stranger's house smoking and talking it up. "Nah. Just hacked a couple inches of my hair off with the scissors on the nightstand and got back into it. Amazing what a person'll sacrifice."
"Too much information, Reno." Rude looked into the living room through the screen. "You think Strife's got it together?" They had both read the files they could find about the blond hero of the planet. All it all it wasn't much. Enough to know he had some serious mental issues to put behind him.
Reno hesitated, ignoring the first comment. He'd told the bald man much more and gotten hit in the head with a pipe for it one night, resulting in eight stitches. "We talked last night. He seems to have his wits about him now, but... Shit, Panderfaust could crack somebody who's never even seen him. Makes me wonder if a reunion won't make him go nuts again."
Rude closed his eyes at the mention of the man's name and the spare lighter cracked in his suddenly clenching grip. The bald man growled and flicked the now leaking lighter to the earth.
Seeing that their spare was up, Reno took another pull to make the best of it. Panderfaust was a sore topic for anyone who'd been affiliated with him, he thought as he blew it out. The psycho had done much more than anyone would admit to an outsider. "Yeah...my feelings exactly, man..." He had to ask, though. "What're we gonna do when we do find him?"
"Let Strife rip him a new one, as far as I'm concerned. Sick son of a whore... I would actually be interested in seeing Valentine get a hold of him..." Rude smirked. He was never malicious, not like Vincent could be. All in all it took a lot to really piss Rude off. Seeing him like this was rare.
Reno cracked a grin. "Yeah. Strife'd go straight for the vitals, but Valentine... He could make even somebody like Panderfaust squirm with the right time and tools..."
Rude looked at Reno. "Watch your P's and Q's with him Reno. I mean it. Strife's a nice guy. Vincent will rip your heart out."
His friend nodded. "With the right motivation. And that's exactly what he had with Panderfaust and Hojo. With Vincent, even I know that it's spoke if spoken to, even if it means your last word was before you met him."
"Making sure you know it Reno. The man was a killer before Hojo dicked with him. Even Old Man ShinRa was scared of him."
"And rightfully so. Shit, I knew kids who were more afraid of him than the Boogie Man, and they didn't know the half of it." Valentine had a much deeper history of massacres than he let on, but the files told as much as anyone knew. "Then again, I doubt I do, and he still gives me chills, 'specially after meeting him."
"I just hope he doesn't feel protective about Yuffie..." The big man smoked and sighed. "This is a load of fucking shit. You know that?"
"Amen." Reno followed suit. "And now that we know the Jascoes even have a fast food chain at their every damn order, there's nowhere we can go that we're sure isn't bugged." He smirked and shook his head. "Guess we're lucky Cloud drives like a wheelman, huh?"
"Where the hell'd he pick that shit up, man? I couldn't even drive like that..."
"Street smarts." He tapped his head, almost with the lit end of the smoke, then switched hands and used his other index finger. "He could've been jackin' cars at eight, for all we know. You, me; we were taking "sophisticated" classes 'til we got into the Program, then it was a year or two of desk jobs that led into Turk work, and we had a driver half the time."
"You were taking sophisticated classes, Re. Until the terrorist attack I was learning Bach..." He lit another smoke with the butt from the first, giving a short laugh. "I wasn't built to play piano anyway, now was I?"
"You look like you should've played football," he laughed. "And those classes are probably what got me into Turk works. If I hadn't known that anyone who threatened to stick a rod up your ass is called "sir" thereafter, I wouldn't be standing here." He grinned and flicked his butt away, shaking his head at the second Rude offered to him.
"I never liked that game..." Rude looked at him. "I don't think you were made to be a Turk either, Mr., I-Got-Pissed-They-Only-had-the-English-Translation-of-Nietzsche." Rude smirked. "It wouldn't kill you if people knew you were literate..."
He barked a laugh and rolled his eyes, smiling wider. "Thank you, Incognito Wolfgang." He shrugged and turned serious. "People've just kind of got this image of me that I like to humor 'em with. 'Cept you." He gave him an odd look and quirked one side of his lips up. "God knows why you keep me around."
He looked down at Reno. "You know why I keep you around. Other than the fact that you bring interest into my everyday life..."
Reno showed a few teeth. "Which I appear to be good at." He remembered the way they'd met hadn't been too helpful with secrecy. Reno was walking backward through the library slowly, reading some novel that hurt to hold up, and he'd slammed into Rude, who was hunched over at the desk and quietly asking for sheet music. "Yeah... Probably a good thing you do, too, or I'd be home getting drunk now."
Rude rolled his eyes. "I really wish you'd lay off all that drinking. Who else would I talk to?"
There was a little squeak from Elena in the living room. Rude snapped his head to the door.
Reno's quickly followed his, and he eyed his companion. "Should we check, or assume Popper shoved her on the floor?"
Rude flicked his smoke down. "I can't believe he downed all of that..." Then he turned and made his way into the living room.
The redhead followed him in, but the tall man was stopped in the doorway, blocking his view. Deciding there were still sleeping people in the room, he waited for Rude to tell him.
Cloud hadn't moved, but Elena had, she rolled over, her head now tucked under Cloud's chin. Whatever squeaking was the result of a dream, it looked like.
"Wonder if she knows how bad we worry about her?"
Reno bent down and looked into the room, poking his head through an opening under Rude's right elbow. It was a scene to make him feel happy for her on one end and want to kick Strife on the other. "I doubt it," he said lowly. "But she still knows we've got as strong of a tie with her as we do with each other."
"I have this urge to kick Strife's ass, but he wouldn't wake up..." Rude sighed. "So, what should we do tomorrow? How are we going to do this?"
The other grinned at the first comment and leaned back into the kitchen, scratching his less-covered head again. "Strife said we've gotta go get the Highwind. Dunno if he means Cid or the airship, but either one means meeting the man himself. Never had any problem with him personally, but after that... Barret."
"Don't worry about Barret." Rude muttered. "I won't send you to talk to him anyway. But, then again, what do you think about splitting up?"
That had almost skipped his mind. "I dunno... I don't see the point, really, aside from finding Valentine, and if he's mad at one person and they're alone, we won't find 'em whole. But the professor and the Jascoes stick to Junon and Midgar, so..."
"Do they? That's the thing. And well, If we split up, then some people could get Barret, wise him up, some could get Highwind, and the others collect Vincent."
Reno paused. He kept getting the Jascoes and the ShinRas mixed up, which was an easy thing to do. It was like the evil mirror-image of what had once been ShinRa Electric. "I'd be willing to go get the Highwind with whoever...and, truth be told, I think Yuffie'd be good for Vincent to see, especially without me around. Something tells me he's not going to be too happy with me." He smirked. "But, then again, who is?"
"I was actually going to send you and Yuffie to get Vincent. Cloud and Elena can get Nanaki. It seems like the cat and Strife get along."
Reno did some quick tallying. "That leaves you, Scarlet, Reeve, and Tifa. Tifa's going to get Barret, I know, but what're the rest of you doing?" He would go along with anything. Getting Vincent just meant watching his eyes and mouth.
"I'll send Scarlet and Reeve to get Highwind... Shit, no, that won't fucking work..."
He did some more internal plotting. "You, me, and Yuffie go find Vincent. Strife, Reeve, and Scarlet go get the Highwind. And I think Lany'll be fine going to get Barret so long as Tifa's there with her, right?"
Rude shook his head. "I want to make sure she is safe..."
"True." He thought about Barret for a moment. "Maybe she should come with us and Tifa go solo to get Barret? Sounds to me like she's got the most control over him among us."
Rude frowned. "I suppose we'll talk to Strife about it in the morning. Between you and me, that Tifa is pissing me off..."
Reno looked at him through an eye and a half as he said this. He didn't need to be told twice. "She's tense. Strife and I just popped up at her doorstep looking to take her off on another big mission. I dropped the plate on our friends and he...well, I don't think I totally get what's between Strife and her, but it's enough to make her fly off the handle."
"No reason to beat the hell out of you both. Good thing Cloud is a nice guy. I don't think I could let someone scream at me and smack me like that. What if he got a good hit in, huh?"
He couldn't resist cracking a smirk. "Then Tifa wouldn't be pissing you off." A serious look made him silently retract that. "That's why I'm worried about Barret. He's pissed at us – me, mostly – for the same thing, and that motherfucker's a literal walking weapon."
Rude smirked. "I have an idea."
Reno still had a grin on. "Oh, shit. What is it now?"
"You get Valentine first and then Barret can try to go through him." The big man laughed. "AVALANCHE he may be, but the man was a Turk first."
The other nodded, no humor in his face. "Makes enough sense to me. We know rumors, but Barret fought beside him, so he knows what he can do. And Turks give their lives for each other."
Rude nodded. "So still the problem is that someone has to go with Lockheart... Oh, well. I suppose it can wait till morning huh?"
Reno nodded, yawning now that he was thinking about sleep. "Yeah, we'll figure something out." He paused. "Come to think of it, I've never seen you sleep...do you?"
Rude laughed. "Only when I know you won't draw on me."
*****
Back | Next | Table of Contents