Chapter 12: The Red Carpet
Note: This site must hate Cid. Any string of symbols like half his dialog from the game gets cut down to just the first two symbols. So his cursing is represented by '--' since the site won't alloy proper crazy symbols and I want to keep this T rated...
Forced back in her seat by the G-force, Elena was having the time of her life. Pulling her T-8 trainer jet out of a tight corkscrew, she lets out a loud whoop of exhilaration. "Having fun?" Reno asks with a wide grin from the rear seat.
"You really need to ask?" she laughs. "It's the most fun I've ever had with my clothes on!" Ahead of her, she sees Rude's jet pull straight up, then break hard right when it was on the verge of stalling and begin a spiraling decent, right on the edge of losing control. He then pulls out of the spiral and climbs back to cruising altitude. With a grin plastered on her face, Elena imitates the maneuver, coming close to stalling several times. After she had gotten the hang of controlling the jet, Rude had challenged her to a simple game where he would perform an aerobatic maneuver and she would attempt to reproduce it. The moves had started simple and were becoming increasingly complex, but she was doing well at keeping up.
"Just picked up a blip on the radar, about the size we're waiting for."
"Already?" Reno looks down at his watch. "Damn, lost track of time. Let's check it out."
"Race you!" Elena challenges while pushing her throttle all the way forward. A short time later a shining speck appears on the horizon.
"Hey, you mother -- bogies, this's the airship Highwind, who the -- are you?" a rough voice says over the radio.
"Just your boss for the rest of the week. You're late." Reno replies with a smirk.
"Late! -- you, we're --ing early you goddamned piece of shit! The --'re you --s doing all the --ing way out here, anyway? Setting out the goddamned red --ing carpet or something?"
"Nah, just messing around, joyriding in some T-8s." he answers, now close enough to the Highwind that Rude and Elena begin to circle it at close range, startling it's passengers.
"Shit, now that's a fine --ing plane. Why the --'re you --ing around out here? Ain't you assholes supposed to be getting shit together for --ing up that --er Sephiroth?" Cid asks relatively politely, at least by his standards.
"Shit's ready on our end. We're just waiting for you to get your slow ass to Junon so we can finish up and get going." Reno baits, knowing Cid will be unable to resist firing back.
"The -- was that! --ing slow! Shit, mother --, you're talking to the fastest --ing pilot on the --ing planet! --! You losing your --ing memory or something?"
"Heh, just messing with you. We'll have a briefing ready when you get to town. See you on the ground." He then turns the radio off. "Let's head back." Elena turns her jet back towards Junon and Rude follows. Not being in a particular hurry since their jets are significantly faster than the Highwind, they perform several loops and corkscrews on the way back to the airfield.
When they get near Junon, Reno turns the radio back on. "Hey Rude, me and Lena're gonna get the briefing room ready and get some refreshments and shit. Hang out by the landing strip and show our guests to briefing room B when they land. Keep an eye out for your chance to make a move on Tifa."
"Right."
"Good luck! Go get her, big guy!" Elena encourages.
After watching the Highwind moor itself, Rude walks out onto the runway and meets the Members of Avalanche at the bottom of the Highwind's ladder. "Where's the others?" Cloud asks.
"Preparing the briefing room." Rude replies, making an effort to not seem cold, yet still preserve his professional image. "Reno's also getting refreshments, so if anyone doesn't want to drink liquor, tell me now and we can stop by the base cafeteria."
"Yeah, I want some --ing tea."
Rude's professional facade cracks enough for him to look surprised. "You're serious?"
"Yeah, Shera talked me into giving the shit up. Twelve --ing steps and everything."
"Reno'll be shocked." Rude proclaims, shaking his head in disbelief.
"What, was Red looking forward to --ing up some bars like in the old days?"
"You knew them?" Tifa asks, surprised.
"Mus' be how he got so ornery." Barret comments.
"Yeah, we were all in the --ing pointless war together. Say what you will about them, but those --s knew how to --ing party. We musta torn up every --ing bar and officer's lounge between Midgar and Wutai."
"We probably did. Good times, especially when Havoc was around..." Rude agrees.
"Shit, yeah. Good --ing times."
"Havoc? Colonel Havoc?" Cloud asks, recognizing the name. Although not as famous as Sephiroth, Havoc, along with every other high-ranked member of Soldier who appeared regularly on recruiting posters, had been among his pantheon of boyhood heroes.
"Yeah, the --ing air cavalry guy. One of the only high-up Solider-boys who wasn't a --ing stuck-up --. Shit, we were all drinking buddies back then. Damn shame he got his ass killed."
Rude nods his agreement, feeling nostalgic. "Brawling just wasn't as much fun after that..."
"Cause we all knew there was no --ing way in hell we'd have another Sake Offensive." Cid laughs.
"I've never heard of that battle." Cloud remarks.
"How the -- didn't you? It was --ing legendary. Everyone in the --ing military knew bout it. Course, it wasn't exactly a battle. I was on leave with my squad in this little shithole of a town back behind our lines, hanging out in a shitty little bar. Four pilots and four gunners, the toughest sons of bitches in the whole --ing Air Corp. We'd barely started getting --ed up when in walks Baldy here with Red, their sweethearts, and two other Turks."
"She was just a friend."
"Who the --'d you two think you were fooling, other than yourselves? Well, what--ing-ever. In walks Baldy, Red, Red's sweetheart, and three other Turks. Their crew spots mine right off the --ing bat, heads on over and yells for a round of drinks. Bartender's getting a little pale, cause we had some --ing reputations back then. Specially me, Red, and Havoc. Anyways, the party was starting to heat up, we'd already broken a few chairs and a table, when in walks that crazy --er Havoc with his command staff, about a half dozen officers and NCOs. Now, you see, Havoc's crew took the cavalry part of the whole air-cav thing a little too --ing seriously. Old-style cavalry boots, spurs, fancy-ass cavalry hats, all that shit. Probably on account of Havoc being the smart mother --er that came up with the idea. They see us and Havoc pulls out a --ing bugle, I shit you not, and blows an old-fashioned cavalry charge. That's when shit officially got out of --ing hand." he says with a laugh.
"We had that place --ed up in record time. Probably wasn't ten minutes later we were helping our buddies up, dusting ourselves off, then heading down the street to the next --ing bar. That poor --ing bartender damn-near shit himself when he saw us all come piling in through his --ing door. Same damn thing happened, so we headed on to the next bar. By this time, word was --ing starting to get around, and everyone was closing their bars early. MPs came by a couple times and got their --ing asses kicked trying to stop us. I forget how many places we tore through and --ed up before we couldn't find any open bars."
"Four." Rude adds, a faint nostalgic smile creeping onto his face despite his efforts to suppress it. The more observant members of Avalanche notice this, much to their surprise.
"Right. So we were outa bars and some -- gets a bright idea. We 'borrow' a few barrels of Sake from the officers club on base and haul the --ers down to the beach. Drank till we all passed out, then we kicked the MPs asses again when the --ers woke us up in the morning bitching about damages and --ing regulations. -- that shit. We all lost two months pay, but it was --ing worth it. Dumbass MPs wanted to throw us all in the --ing stockade, but we all had vital --ing missions coming up, so there wasn't shit they could do other than pointless --ing fines."
"Couldn't you just drink without destroying bars?" Tifa asks, feeling sympathetic for the bartenders.
"Life expectancies were very short in our lines of work. When we blew off steam we did it hard." Rude explains, professional poker face firmly back in place.
"He ain't --ing exaggerating. Out of the twenty of us that started that brawl, Me, Baldy, and Red were the only bastards lucky enough to make it through the --ing pointless war in one piece."
"Shit, the others all died? That's messed up! --ing Shin-Ra, using up their own people jus' like they use the planet!" Barret exclaims.
"They didn't all die." Rude says.
"No, but the poor bastards that got sent home crippled probably wished they'd been --ing killed. Buncha them eventually offed themselves. Anyways, I haven't brawled since the --ing war and haven't touched a damned drop of alcohol in over a year now.""
"Good job quitting. So, Shera couldn't get you to give up smoking while she was at it? It'd be good for you." Tifa says.
"Shit, it's like I told her. A man's gotta have some bad habits. I'll drop one for her, but I ain't --ing dropping all a them."
"As fun as it's been reminiscing, we need to get moving." Rude announces before leading the way towards the base's entrance.
"Right, let's mosey!" Cloud announces in a dramatic voice, prompting snickers from several of his teammates. Rude manages to suppress the urge to do the same, yet a corner of his mouth curls up a fraction of an inch. "What's so funny?"
"Why you always gotta say it so --ing wimpy sounding? Say something cool, like 'move out'." Cid demands with his usual tactfulness.
"Alright, move out?" Cloud tries. Rude rolls his eyes behind his shades as several Avalanche members chuckle.
Shortly after entering the base, a Shin-Ra army officer intercepts the group and walks up to Cid. "Excuse me sir, you can't smoke in here."
"Shit, come on, I won't be in here long."
"Sorry, base policy. You need to put that out."
Cid looks like he's about to put his cigarette out when Rude speaks up. "The surprises never stop. Looks like Howling Mad Highwind's finally mellowed out..."
"Mellow? Who's --ing mellow? -- you!" After saying that, Cid stubs out his cigarette in the center of the Shin-Ra officer's forehead, then strikes a match off the officer's face and relights his cigarette. "There, I --ing put it out! Happy? Want me to put it out again?" His teammates look shocked by his outburst, with the exception of Vincent, who's expression plainly says he finds Cid's actions about as shocking as watching paint dry. The officer runs off with an undignified squeak. "What the --'re you looking at?" he asks his teammates before continuing to walk down the hall toward the base's cafeteria, intent on finding tea.
"Crazy fool." Barret mutters. "What's this Howling Mad shit?"
"He earned that nickname during the war." Rude explains.
"It certainly fits him." Tifa comments. "So, do you have a war nickname too?" she asks, deciding that it couldn't hurt to at least be nice to two of the new members of her team, since they hadn't been responsible for destroying her new home, unlike their leader.
"Yeah, Rude."
"But, that doesn't fit."
Rude allows a small smile to briefly slip onto his face and directs it towards Tifa. "Yeah, that's the joke behind it."
She chuckles a little. "Oh, I see. Like calling a big guy Tiny."
"Exactly."
"So what's your real name?"
He hesitates for a moment, due to not liking his real name. Both of his teammates had advised him to be open, so he decides to start by being open about something small. "Rudolph."
"Rudolph?" Barret breaks out laughing at this.
"At least my middle name's not Cornelius." he retorts, causing Barrret to stop laughing and most of his teammates to start.
"How'd you know that?"
"It's in your file."
"Damned Shin-Ra, spying on everyone..." Barret mutters, putting some distance between himself and the bald Turk.
Tifa giggles. "I suppose this means you know my middle name too?"
"Yes, but I doubt anyone would laugh at it. Odessa's a good name."
"You think so? I always thought it was too old-fashioned sounding."
Rude recalls some of Elena's parting advice, given on the landing strip before walking into the women's locker room arm-in-arm with Reno, 'Remember to ask about things she's interested in. Show her you're interested and learn more about her at the same time.'
"Any plans for after this's all over?"
/I didn't think he'd be the type to make small talk./ "Not really. I'd like to run another bar someday, or maybe a restaurant. What I'd really like to do is run a dojo, but it's hard to make a living in that business."
"That'd be fitting, Zangan's finest disciple passing on his legacy."
"Thanks. That reminds me. I've noticed you use a few of my style's moves in battle. Where'd you learn those?"
"I picked them up during the war. I had two good friends who were students of Zangan."
"Had?"
"Yeah. The lucky one was hit by a sniper. Headshot, he never felt a thing."
"That's lucky?"
"The other stepped on a landmine and lost both her legs. When Reno and I came to visit her at the field hospital she was in, we found that she'd broken her own neck. Apparently she decided she didn't want to live like that."
"That's... That's horrible!"
"Yes. Unfortunately, horrible things were pretty common back then..."
"Oh. Sorry to bring it up." /No wonder Cid and those two are a little odd, after living through things like that.../
"It's alright. That was a long time ago." Rude decides changing the subject to something more positive would be a good idea. "Have you thought of running a bar for just enough days a week to make a living and teaching the rest of the week? That way profit from one could float the other."
"Hey, that might work. Thanks." /I definitely didn't expect to get business advice here. This guy's pretty sharp. And I always assumed he was just the dumb muscle of his group./
Farther down the hall, Cid kicks open the door to the cafeteria and bellows, "I want some --ing tea!" before storming into the room. The others follow at a distance.
Author's Note: As usual, big thanks go to Noroi for betaing this. Thanks for the great reviews RenoOfShinRa, TheDonutMistress, Yumesuta, Bruna Aquino, The Tiramisu Of Impending Doom, Cathy7, icewolf9, and Stormraven. The Rude/Tifa fans among you might want to check out my beta's work. Noroi has an interesting RxT AU that doesn't have nearly as many reviews as it deserves. Check the faves lists in my profile if you want to check it out.
Ah, it's so much fun writing Cid. He's almost as fun to work with as Reno. Havoc's loosely modeled after the crazy air cavalry colonel from Apocalypse Now. His name comes from a minor Full Metal Alchemist character that almost never actually does anything despite having a cool name. Odessa's a reference to Suikoden one and two. I figure there'll be at least four more chapters before I finish this fic and start work on the outline for the sequel.
Edited again because some site update deleted all the '--' lines I used to use to denote scene changes. So time to slap horizontal rulers into all my fics.