Lights. They were blinding and beautiful and terrible...
For the moment.
He didn't really have a philosophy per se; he'd simply lived from moment to moment. Day by day. Hour by hour. Philosophy was for people that had time for such a thing. For those who believed in tomorrow.
Reno had learned that tomorrow was a fucking pipe dream. No better than a fairy tale.
"Do you do this all the time?" she asked, childish wisdom nearly suffocating. He'd never known an establishment that let children in. Especially a place of such ill repute.
"What the hell?" he asked to no one in particular, least of all the small Wutain that had questioned him earlier. Still was questioning him, judging by the look she threw him.
She'd seen weirder people than him pass by. It was that red hair that drew her attention, and his increasing uneasiness around her. For a child her age, avoidance was an automatic interest. Young wasn't curiosity; young was interest. Pure and unadulterated interest.
So, for Yuffie Kisaragi, to be brushed off was to practically be invited in. She'd seen enough dark haired and secretive men in her time as the "lady" of Wutai. Red hair in and of itself was interesting. Avoiding her constant questioning and her very presence made him worth more than the sharp and shiny objects she'd increasingly become interested in.
"Don't ya have someone else to pester?" he asked, feeling just a little too buzzed to realize that it was bait for a child. A child in a bar of all places. He'd find something immoral about it... except that'd make him one damned hypocrite. Damned was enough for the moment.
"No," she answered stubbornly, small hands placed on hips, "Dontcha look past your big nose?" She wasn't debating with him; she was lonely. He didn't have time to baby-sit some stupid Wutain kid who hung out in bars.
He figured something shiny might distract her long enough to pay for his drink and go back to the hotel room and sleep. He fiddled around in his pocket, to find something he might not mind parting with. The green orb hadn't even been mastered yet, wouldn't be worth more than ten Gil on the street.
He tossed it to her before slamming some more Gil down. It had been a hard day.
Her eyes gleamed as she turned the orb around in her little hands. It was the prettiest thing she'd seen... and she wondered momentarily why her great father didn't have any of them around for her to play with. Maybe she just needed to learn the name, and she would understand its secrets and maybe get past her father to get some more...
"It's called Materia, kid," Reno said quietly before taking a sip of his drink, "some heal, some harm; all have some value." He didn't quite know why he felt like explaining it, but sometimes the philosophical parts of his brain begged to be unleashed, begged to get past the moment to— no more drinks after this one.
"Materia," she whispered, letting the word melt in her mouth.
AN: This has been sitting on my computer, sans ending two paragraphs for quite some time. Silly me. XD