SF15: I apologize for the long wait, but here's the next chapter!
Disclaimer: I only own Sam, Emily, and Kimmy. The town is a made up place.
--Chapter 3: Bonding--
Kimmy and Reno were finishing the laundry, and were having a nice discussion about Sam.
"So, has she always been such a slob?" Reno still couldn't get over the possibility of someone who looked so neat could live in a pigsty.
"No. That's just recently. Her boyfriend broke up with her because she got a job. They got into this huge argument, and he just left. Last I heard, he moved to another country. He really wanted to get away from her. He acted like it was so wrong for a girl to work for a living."
Reno thought about Elena for a moment. She'd probably try to punch him.
"So, she just didn't care after that?"
"Pretty much. She needs to be loved, just like all of us. She doesn't have a family, and I'm the only one who will talk to her around here."
"No family, no friends? That's pretty pathetic."
Kimmy actually stopped smiling. "Don't make fun of her! I won't stand for it!"
"Sorry. I really do feel for her. I do. It's just...she acts like nothing's wrong."
"To keep everyone from worrying."
"Figures."
At the restaurant, Sam sneezed a few times.
"Bless you." Emily handed her a napkin.
"Thanks." Sam blew her nose.
"You know, they say, when you sneeze, that means that someone's talking about you."
"That sounds ridiculous." Sam blew again. "But I think you might be right."
After the laundry was done, Reno hung, folded, and ironed all her clothes. Kimmy had already helped with the underwear.
"To keep Sammy from beating you black and blue!" She had cheerily told him.
The only thing left for him to do was to sweep, mop, and vacuum. And he had three hours until Sam came home.
Sam was praying for her shift to be over. She wanted to keep a better eye on Reno. He might hurt himself, and she would only blame herself. Like she did for everything that ever went wrong in her life. Like when Josh left.
'Kimmy might have been right about him. I can do better, but I miss the good times we had. He was so romantic.'
"Miss Space Cadet?" Emily was standing in front of her, hands on her hips.
"Huh?"
"Finish your side work so you can go home and keep an eye on that guy from yesterday."
"Got it." Sam grabbed the sugars bucket.
Finally. The house was clean. All the floors had been swept or vacuumed, the kitchen and bathroom had been moped, and all the dishes had been done.
The trash was out, the laundry done, and the furniture and the knick-knacks dusted.
The only thing Reno had to show for his amazing feat was a sore back, and a serious lack of energy. He needed a bed. That was all he could think about at the moment. He went into Sam's now clean room, and, without even taking off the frilly apron, collapsed on her now made bed, and fell asleep within minutes.
Sam walked up the steps to her apartment, grocery bags in hand, only to find a partially open front door.
"What the hell?" Sam pushed the door the rest of the way open. She caught a feint smell of bleach and lemon floor cleaner.
"Reno?" She placed her purse on the table by the door, and the groceries on the counter. "I'm back."
No answer.
That was when panic hit. "Maybe he was taken back?" She began to search the apartment like a maniac. Living room, kitchen, bathroom, linen closet. There was no sign of him anywhere.
"He couldn't be..." Sam opened the door to her room after an instant's hesitation.
She was met with a rather sweet surprise. Reno was spread eagle on her bed, wearing her frilly apron. She couldn't help but stifle a laugh.
"I gotta thank him somehow for cleaning the house."
After a minute of thought, she had an idea.
She shifted through her desk drawers until she found a Polaroid camera. She angled the camera down at Reno, then, leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. She snapped a quick picture of the sight, and with a permanent marker, wrote, 'THANK YOU' in big letters on the bottom of the picture.
Sam giggled, which was very unlike her, caught herself, looked around to see if anyone saw that, and went to order some chinese food for dinner.
Reno was dreaming. He dreamt that he woke up back in his apartment, and he had just had a nightmare. His cell phone went off. Rude was calling to tell him that if he was late again, he might get fired.
He felt something brush his cheek. But nothing was there. "Am I really home? Was that whole thing just a bad dream?" He just shrugged it off, and rolled out of bed.
Back in reality, Reno hit the floor in Sam's bedroom, waking with a start...and some pain in his abdomen.
"Just a dream..." He muttered, trying to clear his head. He was still in Sam's apartment, he had just cleaned the place, and, from the pain he was feeling all over, no, this was NOT a dream.
Taking off the apron, he made his way to the door, where Sam had taped her little 'thank you' note.
Reno was appalled. "WHAT THE HELL?!" The picture consisted of Sam kissing him on the cheek, and he was wearing that hideous apron. She had scribbled 'thank you' in big letters on the bottom of the Polaroid. Reno ripped the picture off of the wall, his hands shaking with anger.
He ripped off the apron and threw it to the carpet. "How dare she?! I've never been more humiliated in my life!"
He heard the front door open and close, followed by Sam swearing, and the rustling of plastic bags.
Following his instinct to watch her for a moment before making his presence known, Reno quietly observed what she was doing.
Sam had apparently bought some groceries, and was putting them away in the various cupboards that adorned the kitchen, and the refrigerator.
"Lettuce, ground beef, pizzas, ice cream..." Sam then got to the last three bags, which, Reno had noticed when a growl came from his stomach, smelled good.
Sam snapped her head around when she heard the noise come from Reno. A smile came to her face. "Oh, you're awake! I bought dinner." She pointed to the three bags.
Reno looked suspicious. "What's in them?"
"Chinese food, and groceries."
"Oh." He forgot the fact that he was angry with her for a moment, and went to help her dish out the food, letting the silence creep into Sam's tiny apartment. "I need to ask you something, Sam."
"Hmm?"
"Did you feel that it was necessary to take that picture of me and you?" He was obviously still annoyed.
"I just wanted to say 'thank you' without waking you up."
"So you took a picture of you kissing me on the cheek?"
"I think that's a thank you you'd appreciate. Would you have liked it any better if I wrote it on your face in permanent marker?"
Reno thought about this for a second. "No. I like the kiss better. The apron just annoys me."
"If you want, I'll buy a manlier one if you ever get the urge to clean the house again."
"How did you know it was me?"
"You smelt like bleach, the whole house smells like bleach. How could I not know?"
Reno chuckled. "Good point." They were silent for another moment, just enjoying each other's company, when Reno spoke up.
"Have you seen my Turks suit?"
Sam got really nervous. "Uh...no?"
"You have seen it, haven't you?"
"Oh! Look! Potstickers!" Sam sounded really nervous. "Let's eat them!" She tried to walk out of the kitchen.
Reno placed his arm across the doorway, blocking her path. "After I get the answer to my question."
Sam looked defeated. "You're not going to like it."
"Tell me."
Sam sighed. "I warned you." She took a deep breath and continued. "When you got here, you were pretty torn up. You had superficial cuts all over your body, like someone sliced you up with a scalpel. And, unfortunately, they had to go through your suit to get to you."
Reno looked horrified. "So my suit is..."
"I'm trying to fix it, but it looks like you made it out of a bunch of black scraps of cloth."
"My suit is..."
"Sorry, Reno, it's unfixable."
He sighed, and hung his head. The whole room became heavy and dark.
"This was a fun day." He remarked sarcastically. "I end up cleaning YOUR apartment, and now you tell me that my suit has been put through the shredder. Lovely."
"Don't worry. I went out and bought you something that might make you feel better."
"I had to buy that for work! Now, I gotta go and get another one!" Sam was in the living room, and she was pulling things out of bags, and putting them on the couch.
"Reno, can you come here?"
Really unhappy, Reno trudged into the living room.
"What?"
"Ta-da! A new set of clothes for you!" She gestured to a pile of clothes on the couch.
His angst over his suit completely forgotten, he picked up one of the shirts. "Woah! You actually went and bought these for me?"
Sam nodded, happy that he felt better. "While I went out to pick up the food. I figured my ex's clothes wouldn't fit you all that well, so I bought you some new ones."
"Sam, I don't know what to say..."
"It's okay. You deserve it, after you cleaned the house and all-"
He moved in close, and kissed her, his lips like feathers against her cheek. "Thank you."
Sam turned red. Really red.
"Are you okay?!" Reno was worried now. "You're not sick are you?!"
Sam refused to look him in the eyes. "I'm fine...I just need to sit down for a minute." She stumbled to the recliner, her surprise rocking her nerves. She sat down, and placed her head in her hands, contemplating Reno's actions. She breathed in deep, taking in the current calm.
"Why did you do that?"
"I thought that's how you people say 'thank you'." He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Or is that just you?"
"That was just me."
"Sorry. I didn't mean to freak you out like that. I was just..." He sat down next to her.
"I know. I do. It's just...I don't know. I guess I was just reminded of my last boyfriend..."
"The one who broke up with you for getting a job?"
"You talked to Kimmy, didn't you?"
"Um...no?"
"He didn't break up with me because I got a job. He broke up with me because he wanted to move me to England with him. I didn't want to go, and we had this huge argument over it."
''Oh. Kimmy had the job story."
''Josh made that up to make it look like it was his fault. He didn't want me to look bad. He was sweet to me, even when we were arguing.''
''You were lucky. Most guys would blame it all on the girl.''
''I was.'' Sam leaned her head on Reno's shoulder. ''I really was.'' She closed her eyes.
Reno seemed a bit uncomfortable at first, but he placed his arm around her, and leaned his head on hers.
SF15: That chapter was really long. Four and a fourth pages. My longest yet. Read and review!