GRAWR! Late update, because I suddenly discovered I wouldn't know how people propose to each other. So um, yeah.
ITALY WON IN FIFA! OH MY GOD! (ahem, I'm done)
CookieKitten - Hahaha. I can so imagine Reno going "It ain't my kid, yo! Ya hear! Not my kid!" and Arien going "But you're the only guy I sleep with! What happened then, non-sexual conception?". That'll be funny, and I think I'll write a story about it at a later date, just to be stupid. I bet Reno has a host of bastards trailing him, though... I mean, he was quite active in Midgar...
Leah - Leon II... lol. Reno's kid will be a terrible kid, I must say, because his dad will be teaching everything bad conceivable upon earth to the innocent child from the early age. "Okay, -insert name here-, this is how you pickpocket." "Okay Dad!" "Reno! What did I tell you about teaching -insert name here- those things!" hahaha... good times, good times. The kid'll be really pretty, though.
Sora the Darkness - I probably know you from myspace... or something. Yep. I did write a Sephiroth fanfic but it's absolutely stupid. Oh well, it's a humor. I was thinking about making Arien have the kid, and then the kid (girl) would have a name like Christina Florence Miller (wow), and then being a total slut, but that won't work. So I threw away the idea. I think their kid will b a male.
Insanity - Thank you so much! I try. I think this story makes more sense reading C'Est La Vie, but I just read through it (and trying very hard not to giggle in the process... I hate reading my own stuff) and it looks like it might make sense standing solo. Dunno. There'll be a prequel to C'Est La Vie and a sequel to this coming up. I actually started writing the sequel! Yeey! So, please read on.
ODST girl058 - When two Turks are together... T.R.O.U.B.L.E. I saw some fanfic before I started writing that involved Elena and Reno or Reno and an OC and their life was just... perfect. And any tragedy that came wasn't from themselves, it was something like Hojo dropping manure on Reno's head. Wow! Such a travesty! Some arguments spices relationships up. I do not condone a lot, though.
SilverSanctum92 - I LOVE that song. It's the very definition of relationship (in my case, at least). And Reno's as well, because Reno tried to get Arien into bed then throw her away, but that didn't really happen. Smart girl! That song is my ringtone now, my alarm clock, on my mp3 player... god, I love Placebo. That and Franz Ferdinand... haha. Reno's probably regretting trying to get her.
NarcissisticRiceBall - I was wondering where you were! Natural relationships are good, because it's very hard to depict a natural one... at least for me. Most of the fanfics out there are either tragic or totally lovey-dovey, to such an extent that you want to blush and click the window out. And those smuts are really embarrassing. I made the family semi-normal... taking the middle!
Chapter 17: The Future and the Past
"Okay, so. Marriage."
Arien gave him a steady glare. "Yes. Marriage."
"Er…"
"Personally, I'm a Turk, and I don't want to get married. We're already living together, I don't see the reason to legalize it."
"I don't wanna be tied down too much," Reno offered truthfully.
"Yeah, sure. We'll talk this later." Arien stood up. "Hey, wanna go for a walk? That's what we're here for, isn't it?"
"Whatever, yo."
So the four started off, two in Turks suit and two others in regular clothes. On the way around the city they knocked on Shiv's door, adding Shivvalan, his wife, Elena and Rude. They were walking, talking nonchalantly about the old days through an abandoned alley.
"Palmer's space division was like a pocket full of money," Shivvalan grinned. "I always charged whatever I wanted to Palmer's division."
"So that's why Palmer's space schmuck was taking so much budget!" Zen cried, surprised.
"Yeah. I remember I ordered five male strippers for Rufus when he told me to go be 'more like Tseng'… I charged it on Palmer, heh." Reno grinned. "Arien didn't do it, though. She was a nice, rule-following Turk."
"That's an oxymoron."
"Exactly…" Arien just had enough time to turn her head and register danger as the large windowpane shattered behind Reno. Reno instinctively ducked and took shelter in a nearby wall as a man appeared through the broken window.
"Aw shit," Reno muttered.
Ivana and Zen tensed, and Zen pulled out a pistol. Arien, now alert and her gunblades out, whirled, recognized the two. Reno was pulling his EMR out.
"Zen, Shiv, go into that corner-" she pointed to a dingy corner about a yard away – "and stick to that corner. Take your wives with you. Don't move," Arien ordered coldly.
"But…"
"Ivy, now!" She turned toward Zen. "Take your pistol and your wife and try not to scream. It's not going to be a Costa del Sol beach party in here. It's going to be blood and gore."
"Uh, um, sure," he muttered, seeing the fighting stances of the two Turks. "Come on, Ivy," he said, as he supported his half-fainting wife to the corner. As soon as the four retreated, two more intruders appeared.
"What is this? Asshole Day?" Arien groaned. "Okay, gents, what do you want?"
The leader – the first one who came in – merely raised his machine gun. But before he could pull the trigger, Reno ducked and ran into the man, and punched up the machine gun out of the man's hands.
"Two more coming in," Elena pointed out.
"Great. Five to four. Great odds. Where's Tseng when you need him?"
"That's Tseng," Reno pointed out as he elbowed a man in the nose. Arien launched a kick into another while pulling on her trigger. She shot the man through the head.
"Two more incoming," Elena reported again as she expertly punched one of them in the stomach.
"Aargh! No, no you don't," Arien cried as the man she shot fell face forward toward her. "God knows what Rufus will say if I came back with blood on my uniform."
Rude delivered a kick in the groin, a punch in the abdomen and headed the same man in the head. "Ouch, Rudy," Reno chirped as he whacked his own victim with a fully charged EMR. It left a sizzling mark and a very distinctive odor of burned flesh. Elena made a face as she drove her knee into another's groin, and shot him in the face.
"Shit!" Arien cried as a man about the size of Rude smashed her hand against the wall. Cataclysm fell onto the ground, followed by Apocalypse. She checked if there was any help coming along, and registered no. Elena was tackling another, Rude was decidedly smashing another's nose, and Reno seemed to be having fun burning a poor man into a crispy roast. She executed the finger movements that slid down the knives on her arms down into her hands from the sheaths. Her fingers grasped the blades with a practiced efficiency. Turk maneuvers, Reno called it. They all had knives concealed around their bodies as a last resort.
She jerked her knee upward, catching the man in the abdomen. The man reeled; she slashed against the face with a knife, while driving her left knife into the temple. Blood spurted out, covering her hands.
By the time she managed to kick off the slumping man off herself, the others were finished. "Are we done?" Arien asked.
"Yeap."
"Okay. Ivy, guys! We're done."
The females peeked from their husbands' backs. Ivana shrieked; Zen had to muffle her. Meanwhile, Arien was cleaning her hands with a dead man's jacket. "Ew," she said, "this is disgusting."
"You're turning into Tseng," Reno whined.
Later, when they were walking back, Ivana got closer to Arien. She asked if Reno and she were going to get married; she asked gently, without being too trespassing. However, Arien laughed hysterically. "Can you really ask that?" she replied, still laughing. It seemed a hysterical, raucous laugh, not the kind of laughter one might voice when something was truly funny. "With lives like these, marriages aren't on our priority list, Ivy."
Arien didn't want to get married. Reno didn't want to be tied down.
Mutual agreement occurred.
It wasn't like the marriage would make a significant difference. All it meant was that Arien DeVir would turn into Arien Miller, and she would have to remember to sign her new name from now on. When it came to legal security, it was next to none. Like the Turks had legal security anyways. They were above – or out – of the legal junk. Reno could kill anyone easily and get away with it in the broad daylight. Yes, even after Shinra Company had collapsed.
Rude and Elena returned to Healin. Arien decided that it was better for them to just stay in their own house. No Rufus, no Tseng, less stress. Arien couldn't cook – the smell made her nauseous – so sometimes they ate out. But more often, she was living on a botanical diet.
"Hey, Re," she asked one night as she picked on the cherries she was carrying into her mouth steadily, "can I ask you a question?"
"Fyure." Reno swallowed, then tried again. "Sure."
"When you left home, what did you do to live?" She waited for the explosion. It was a touchy subject. Really touchy subject.
But Reno didn't explode into shouting fits. Instead, he just looked at her gently, his aquamarine eyes serious and… understanding? Was that it?
"I never told ya the story, did I?"
Another cherry disappeared into Arien's mouth, and the head turned left, then right.
"When I left," Reno said thoughtfully, "I lived in the slums. The living was… slum standards bad. I begged off the streets for coupla months. Then I turned into stealing."
Arien nodded.
"I killed the first guy when I was… how old was I? Fifteen, sixteen, somewhere around that. I didn't know people died that easily. I gave a lucky kick in the neck and the next thing I knew, he wasn't breathing." He drank the booze from the bottle and coughed slightly as the liquid felt like it was burning his throat.
"Some dudes wanted me to prostitute… said no way." Small smile crept to Arien's lips. "Lived off the streets, pretty much. Joined the gang and shit. First time I met Tseng, I tried to rob him. He flipped me over and tried to break my neck, but I ran away."
Another cherry.
"Tseng found me a few weeks later, asked me if I wanted to join the Turks. Didn't know what the fuck Turks were, but heard the amount of the pay and said yes. I've been a Turk since then."
Arien smiled. It wasn't dazzling, it wasn't blinding. But Reno loved it. It transformed her face into something that he loved, something gentle and beautiful. "I'm glad you tried to rob Tseng blind that day," she said, as she stood up from the chair, walked over, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
"Why, yo? I got flipped over."
"Because if you didn't do that, I would have never met you." She gently kissed his cheek. "Despite all the things that has happened to us, I'm still glad I got this job. I got scarred. I cried. I killed innocents. I murdered. I broke people's hearts." She kissed him on the left cheek again, right where the red tattoo sat. "But I met you, and that's a blessing."
The next day was the shopping day, which meant that Arien shopped and Reno carried. It was the way it worked. Reno didn't give a hoot whether he shoved in his mouth a pepperoni or a bologna; Arien cared. She wasn't a health freak, but she did disapprove all the "good stuff" Reno tried to shove into himself.
They had barely begun their quest when they nearly crashed into a face they knew well. Tifa Lockheart. She still looked stunning, although her clothes were now black instead of the white shirt and shorts. Her hair was shorter as well. Arien was inside a shop, scrutinizing vegetables.
"You!"
"Hey, I have a name, gorgeous." Reno winked. "Long time no see. How are ya?"
"G…good." Tifa stammered, eying Reno dangerously. She did receive calls from him to relay onto Cloud, but it had been a while since they faced each other.
"Nice to hear that. Have you and the Chocobo Head tied the knot?"
Tifa's expression darkened as Reno casually referred to Cloud as Chocobo Head. Well, Reno wasn't the one known for politeness. "No. Sod off."
"What an asshole."
"What!"
"Not you, Teef. Spikehead." He eyed Arien, who was waving him over. "Anyways, gotta get going, my jailer's gonna bitch at me. Toodles." Reno waltzed off. Tifa eyed the woman who was waving over suspiciously. Her raven hair was down, framing her egg-shaped face. She had long, slanted eyes the color of intense blue-green, and a small mouth. Her nose was straight. From the way she carried herself, she was probably one of the Intelligence members, or even a Turk. But Reno was listening to her, and he never listened to anyone. And she saw that the woman was looking at Reno just the way she looked at Cloud. The gentle way, the way it was focused all on him, like there was nothing else in the world.
Tifa sighed. Even those scoundrels had each other. Where was Cloud?
What did that smile mean, that gentle smile that seemed to say that everything was going to be alright?
Tifa shook her head and kept on walking, but could feel something hot behind her eyes.
A few days later, the two were back at Healin. The entire crew was watching a 60 inch plasma TV on the wall of the commons room, eating noodles. Arien was having a good day; she could eat!
Reno leaned forward, carrying the noodle into his mouth with the disposable chopsticks. It was a take-out, because they all agreed that they wanted a variety of cooking once in a while, and Arien refused to cook. Rude was already finished and was drinking water; Rufus had left half the plate alone. Tseng was eating slowly, and Elena was eating the rice. Arien was eating udon noodle soup, her own disposable chopsticks held in her right hand. They were silent as the video whirred on. It was a video of new fighting techniques that Rude had found in some video store. Sure, it was "cheesy and shitty and stuff" (Reno was never praised for his wide vocabulary), but they could note some things, Tseng said, so now they were watching. Unfortunately, Reno was watching it as some kung-fu or wrestling match.
"Oh… oh damn! His balls got buste-ed! That's gotta hurt, yo," Reno commented while using his chopsticks as pointers (noodle still held in between) and swished it left and right like a very short baton. "Ouch! His nuts got cra-acked! He's now sterile, too bad. Guess we won't have his kids running around."
"Reno," Elena said tiredly, looking at the redheaded neighbor who was yelling and shouting antics as he slurped the noodle, "can't you just sit still and watch this quietly?"
"Why, yo? This is so much fun. Thanks, bud." He threw a grin at Rude, who remained response-less. He then went back to commenting. "A-and the Mighty Macho takes off from the ring and smashes his foot into the Stick's crotch! God, I'm so glad I'm not him."
Arien wondered if Reno was hallucinating. She didn't see anyone getting kicked in the groin… then realized that Reno was just doing it for the fun of it, and yes, he was making it up, including the weird names like 'Mighty Macho'. Sitting next to Tseng and Reno, she was calmly eating her meal, when Reno's extended hand made contact with the bowl and sent the content flying over… to the two Wutaians. Unfortunately, the soup was still scalding hot, and it was nearly filled to the brim. Arien had left the soup alone because it was too hot; she had waited for it to cool.
The two started swearing in different dialects of Wutaian instantly, but Reno had no idea what they were saying. He wasn't very fluent in Wutaian.
"RENO!" Tseng screamed, freaking out as a noodle got draped over his head, ending just above his eyes. Reno looked at him, and cracked up.
"Jeez, boss, if you think you can look – what's the word? Dignie? Dignifeefee?– anyways, if you think you can look classy with a noodle on your head, well, you're so fucking goddamn mistaken." He gasped as he continued to laugh, eyeing the two as they spouted off probably the vilest things ever to grace upon the Planet. At him. Whatever they were saying, the words flew right over his head. There was only one word Reno could comprehend in Wutaian and that was baka, and as far as he heard they were so beyond that point that the word never came up. Well, apart from that word, it sounded like some magical spell.
After the fiery string of curse words left their mouths, the two stood up in unison. "We're taking showers," they announced angrily. Then, Tseng promptly upturned his dish on Reno's head.
"What the hell did I do!" Reno's yell chased after the two as they went in opposite directions to their bedrooms.
"Gosh, that was a surprise," she murmured as the hot water splashed on her skin. "Thank god I flew out of the seat as soon as I felt it, otherwise there'd be burns." She hummed a song as she dumped shampoo on her head. Sticking her hands into her hair and making circular motions, she lathered her hair in shampoo, noticing that the shampoo was almost gone.
Then a wave of pain hit her. And again. Like a sledgehammer, on her head. She knew this pain, although not at this intensity. It was so painful it was almost blinding, like three thousand sharp nails venting their fury at her scalp. There was ringing in her ears, and she went on all fours in the shower. Shampoo got in her eyes, and it stung like hell. Suddenly the water was beating on her like drumbeats, attacking her back with ferocity of raining stones. She wondered faintly if there were going to be punctures on the skin.
"Arien…"
Oh my god. Not that voice. Please no. Fuck. Fuck.
Sephiroth.
Her kin.
"Sister, why are you doing this?" His voice was soft and soothing, and she wanted to let everything go. "You can live a happy life. Your body is wracked with a virus and a disease incurable. You have a child of a man you love in your belly, but its life will be short."
"I can promise to get rid of your diseases, to give a long and fulfilling life for your child, if you promise to tell me where Mother is."
Arien was weak, sure, but she was not a dumbass.
But the voice was promising, soothing, gentle.
"Ye…"
Reno! She wanted to scream his name out. He was, comically enough, the only hold that she had on her sanity right now. Usually, he was the one who was driving her insane. His crooked smile, his hand on hers, his hair, the smell of his body, the way he raised his eyebrows… she dug through her mind and clung onto those images with her sanity, hoping, pleading to someone, that she'd come out of this encounter with her sanity intact.
"He's dear to you."
Oh fuck.
"No, I won't kill him," Sephiroth's voice entered her head. "It is you I need, not him, and killing him would accomplish nothing. Quite the opposite." His face came into her view again; it was utter perfection, with vivid green eyes, soft silver hair. His lips were full, almost feminine; his eyebrows arched elegantly above his slanted eyes. His cheekbones were high yet delicate; his skin was porcelain white. God, he was beautiful.
But he wasn't Reno.
She sighed in relief as her head confirmed Sephiroth's reply. A hand caressed her forehead as she slowly gave way to the darkness. It was slender, gentle. "Sleep," she heard as her vision darkened. Was it her mother?
"Sleep, little sister. Sleep."
Something was missing. Well, not missing. Wrong.
Arien had been in the shower for almost half an hour. Tseng took a grand total of ten minutes. Arien averaged about fifteen. Reno had finished his meal, and was waiting for her as he flipped through the channels. Chocobo racing, weather report, Shinra sightings… they've got my name wrong again… soccer... hmm, Costa's winning. More chocobo racing… porn, nope, not anymore…
"Goddamn it, where the hell is she?" Reno stood up, tossing the remote at Rude, who caught it. Digging his hand in his jeans pockets, he sauntered out of the room, nearly crashing into Tseng who had a bath towel around his head, stormed into their bedroom and opened the bathroom door.
"Arien?"
No response.
"Arieeee."
The shower was running, but there was no one there.
"Creepy, yo." He opened the shower sash door wide. Arien was sprawled on the shower floor, back exposed, head turned sideways.
"…Shit!" He slid his hands under her and raised his arms cautiously. Kicking the shower knob and turning it off, he barged out of the shower. He placed her on the bed, and pulled the covers up.
"Elena!" He shouted. "Get your ass in here now or I'll shoot it."
"Whaaaaat?" There were padding footsteps, then Elena appeared. "What?" She had slippers on, and a jeans and a T-shirt that said "Keep on Rockin' in Midgar". Shinra had printed the T-shirts and distributed it the day the monument went up.
"Can you check on her? She got knocked out in the shower."
"Get a thermometer and the things in the second cabinet!" Elena ordered as Reno ran out of the room.
"She's pregnant."
"She's what?" Rufus, Tseng, and Elena chorused together, each of their faces wearing the same startled expression.
"She's two and a half months," the young, dark-haired physician pushed his glasses to the bridge of his nose. Rufus had specifically instructed him not to tell anyone that this young Turk had Geostigma as well; that was going to send Healin into chaos.
"Is that why?"
"I think so. She hasn't eaten much, has she?"
Reno shook his head no. The red hair flipped and flopped everywhere.
"That might be it. No moving for a few days. Make sure she eats." The doctor stood up.
"Thank you, Doctor," Rufus said politely.
"Anytime, President. Please ring me up if there's any problem."
"Elena, see him out the door," Rufus ordered. Elena nodded and followed the doctor out of the room. It was only Rufus and Reno now; Tseng and Rude had discreetly retreated somewhere. The room was silent as the noon sun shot its beams on the wooden floor. Rufus watched the woman breathe, pitying her. What a time to be pregnant. He really had not made up his mind whether to let Arien keep the child in her. Infants tended to be nuisances, being taken as hostages and pinning his agents down, but Rufus was indebted to her. If she had not thrown herself onto him when the Meteor fell, he would be a crisp.
Being the president was such a bother sometimes. Rufus was a president. He was also a man of honor.
Reno was fidgeting. Rufus took the message, and left the room. A small pang of pain sliced through as he heard Reno gently call Arien's name.
"Reno?"
"Yeah? Feeling okay, babe?"
"Bit tired."
"I bet. You got conked in the shower."
"Shut up." Her arms slithered around his shoulders. It felt good; he liked it. She nuzzled the side of his neck. "It's not fair."
"What's not fair?"
"Why can't there be more of you? Only one Reno isn't good enough for me."
"Aww…" he kissed her on the lips that were in mock pout. "You want more of me? You can have it…"
