Victorious Retreat
"We may be retreating, but... we're still victorious."
With one last glare at the spiky-haired son of a bitch, Reno turned tail and fled the battlefield, rage seething beneath his cool exterior. His partner would soon be following him—because the Turks were supposed to have each other's backs and all that—and thank goodness Reno wouldn't have to wait to call him out on his bullshit. He was not going to tolerate silence for an answer this time.
Once they reunited at their makeshift hideout, behind some bushes and rubble not far from the ruined reactor, Reno wasted no time lashing out at him. "Okay. What the hell was that?"
Rude was bent over, clutching his knees and breathing heavily. "They're... strong..."
"You're shitting me," Reno spat. "We had them! We had them beat! Then you had to go all soft on that bitch!"
"I—"
"Didn't I tell you not to go easy on them? What happened to 'don't worry, I'll do my job'...? Huh? HUH?"
Rude stood straight after catching his breath, and took another moment to think of a response. Reno kept his eyes on him, furious. "I... I screwed up," he muttered.
Reno sighed loudly in frustration. A three-word response was just about what he'd expected, though he could tell right away that Rude was sorry. He opened his mouth to yell again, but was cut off by the striking pain in his shoulder, forcing him to groan instead. "Shit...!"
Alertly, Rude took a step towards Reno, pulling out a small medkit from his jacket pocket. "You okay?"
"It's... ah, just a pulled muscle..."
Putting away the medkit, Rude proceeded to cast Cure on him—a spell strong enough to soothe the minor cuts on his face and chest. As sparkles of emerald light enveloped his body, Reno breathed out a relieved sigh, realizing he'd been relying on Rude way too much for Cure spells. At least his partner was doing something right for the time being.
"Let me see if you have any other wounds," Rude offered.
"You want me to strip? In the middle of this disgusting forest?"
"Well—"
"Shit!" Reno cursed as he checked the messages on his phone. "Now we gotta think of an excuse to cover our butts. And Elena's never gonna shut up about—"
"Good job, guys," a woman's voice cut in, and sure enough, it was Elena jumping over the rubble to join them. "You got your asses handed to by Avalanche. What did I tell you...?"
"Tch..." Reno ignored her for a moment, avoiding eye contact as he stretched out his shoulder. "We didn't need your help. You'd've been even more dead weight than Rude was."
"Wow, blaming your partner now," Elena laughed sardonically. "Admit it, Reno. If you had me let me fight, you wouldn't be in tears right now, touching your boo-boo and making excuses like a little baby."
"We only lost because Rude didn't hit Tifa."
Elena gasped, her expression quickly changing from disapproval to disbelief. "What?" she murmured, turning to her other colleague. "Is that why we lost, Rude? You didn't hit her?"
"Didn't even lay on a finger on her," Reno clarified for him.
"My apologies," mumbled Rude, shyly adjusting the position of his sunglasses. Reno shot him another glare. "I failed us."
"You're joking..." Elena pondered, putting her hand on her waist. She then took a dramatic step forward, but Rude turned and looked the other way. "So it is true," she pressed on, "You really do like her... so much so, you willingly abandoned our mission by prioritizing the safety and well-being of our enemies." Pausing for a second, she scowled at Rude, and then Reno, and then back at Rude. "For fuck's sake, you guys. This is the kind of so-called 'professionals' I have to work with on a daily basis..."
"Reno did nothing wrong," Rude corrected her.
"Well, he could have let me fight, but nooo..." Elena argued back, pausing again as she heard another groan from the redhead. "You know what, though? I do feel kind of bad for you, Reno. Having to fight by yourself again. And that... whatever that's making you bitch and moan does look like it hurts." She reached for her pocket and pulled out a small vial, offering it to him. "Potion?"
"I'm good," he refused.
"You look like you need it."
"What I need is a vacation."
"A vacation?" Elena grimaced at the mere thought of taking time off. "In the midst of our Sephiroth hunt?"
"Yeah, a vacation..." Reno sighed tiredly. "An Elenaless vacation."
She wasn't sure she heard that correctly. "What was that?"
"Actually, all-you-can-drink booze sounds like paradise right now."
"Uh, okay...?" Elena frowned—she did not share the same sentiment. "Sorry, that's not happening anytime soon. Not while Sephiroth is around."
Reno didn't disagree with her, and so instead of continuing the pointless conversation, he pulled his goggles off and began to wipe his forehead. It was getting uncomfortably hot and humid at this time of day in Gongaga, and the polluted air was starting to make him dizzy. Putting his goggles back in place, he glanced at Rude for a few seconds, wondering how he was holding up in the weather. "We should probably get going," said Reno.
"Yeah, can we go now?" Elena agreed with a nod. "We have another assignment."
"Why do you always have to talk about work? It's work, work, work, all the fuckin' time..." Reno suddenly began to rant. "Yeah, I agree—we should get going. We should get going 'cause this goddamn humidity is killing me. Not 'cause of some stupid assignment."
"You're turning into a mini-Tseng," Rude chimed in.
"Except you talk too much and have no clue what you're doing half the time," added Reno.
Elena's jaw dropped. "Hey, that's... not—"
"Speaking of Tseng..." Rude cut her off.
"You like him, don't you?" Reno finished for him, grinning.
The rookie rolled her eyes, annoyed at her senior colleagues for the umpteenth time. "Not this again..."
After returning to Turks' HQ in the evening, Rude found his partner napping in the conference room. As much as he didn't want to interrupt Reno, he had some breaking news to announce—something he was sure was going to cheer him up... and something he knew was the perfect apology gift.
"I asked the director if we could take the weekend off," he said.
Reno remained flat on the couch, his hands clasped lazily behind his head. "You idiot..." he murmured in a sleepy voice, "What did he say?"
"He approves." Rude nodded. "We get the twenty-second and twenty-third off."
Reno's eyes lit up—how did Rude manage to pull this off? "Yeah...? Where are we headed?"
"Wutai."
"...Turtle's Paradise?"
"All-you-can-drink booze."
"Hell yeah, dude!" Reno sat up, elated. He was smiling again and that meant everything to Rude. "Just the two of us?"
He got the vacation, the all-you-can-drink booze... but the last criteria, he couldn't quite check off. "Elena's coming with us."
