Blood:7
So long Trey
"That's why, I wanna say thanks to this here moron!" Marlon chose not to say anything to Trey's announcement, standing still while his friend pulled his cheeks and giggled inanely.
The red head stood on the Turk's table in the employee lounge, rocking back and forth on his snake skin heels, barely hanging onto balance.
After many years of loyal, somewhat colourful service, Trey Henson was retiring. His last day had just come to an end, and now, at eight PM, he bid farewell to all those he knew and in most cases loved.
As token, he was drunk, but somehow still impeccably tidy.
The President was unsure about this display, but thought he should let it slide. He had set aside a time slot in his schedule to say good bye to Trey. After several loyal years with the Company, the red head deserved some kind of accolade. In this instance it was to be the second Turk in history to have a plaque put up on the 'Wall Of Shame' as it had come to be known.
It wasn't at all what it sounded like – one wall in the employee lounge set aside for the Turks. When a Turk was killed or went missing in action, their photograph was put up on the wall, along with a simple gold plaque engraved with their name and a quote. Retired Turks didn't get a photograph, just a plaque and a quote. That was what to aim for.
So far there were two photographs and one solitary plaque. The photos belonged to Irish and Michael Kehller, former head of department, killed in action. The plaque belonged to Ash law, AKA Raffles. He had retired some years ago and was now living out his days in Mideel. At seventy years old, he was doing well. The quote on his plaque read 'Why Raffles?'
Vincent shook his head, sitting at the table nearest to the stairs. He was avoiding the President. Though nothing had been said about his failure, Vincent was well aware of President Shinra's feelings on the subject (though he had enjoyed watching the sinney film of the warehouse tussle). It would be wise to stay out of his way until the target had been tracked down and neutralised. Kehller would never have let this happen.
He shook his head again at that thought, freezing as a tiny hand snatched hold of his fringe. The little red-headed boy sitting beside him had been uncharacteristically quiet until now. He grinned up at Vincent, showing a few tiny teeth against a backdrop of pink gums.
With a scowl, Vincent untangled the boy's fingers from his hair and turned in his seat to face him. "I know where your tomfoolery leads, I am not going to be a part of it today, Reno."
A little put out, Reno slapped the bench between his stumpy legs and huffed. He didn't know much about the world, but one thing he did know, was exactly what Vincent was, "Boring."
"Excuse me?" Vincent was stunned. Had he heard what he thought he had heard?
Reno repeated himself for good measure, "Boring!"
The little red head frowned as hard as he could, letting Vincent know exactly what he thought of him and his refusal to participate in his game. He forgot all about him suddenly and clapped his hands, spying Trey standing on the table. "Trey!" He called happily, winning a nod from his father.
Vincent sighed, bending one arm on the table behind and leaning on it. Things would not be the same without Trey. Admittedly it would mean seeing less of Reno, and that would mean less near-unexplainable pyres in the office, but he could put up with a small amount of fires if it meant spending time with Trey. Funny, but the spider-like red head was the first Turk he had ever met, back on that day when he was a small town boy unnerved by the big city. God, that had been an experience.
He snapped out of it, somewhat alarmed to find Reno crawling into his lap. To his surprise, the little boy just plonked himself down on his backside and resumed his vigil over Trey. He looked up at Vincent with a smile, "Trey funny." He sang, glad to see his moody friend return the smile.
"Yes, I suppose that's what you could call him." Of course Reno didn't understand, grinning like a fool and turning his eyes back to the crowd. Vincent chuckled, ruffling his hair roughly and glancing back over his shoulder at the stairway.
Dr. Hojo was standing there with Professors Gast and Crescent. The two men watched Trey, Gast smiling all the while, Hojo frowning. Lucrecia looked straight back at him with a smile, no, not at him. She was watching Reno. She shook her head looking up to meet Vincent's gaze. She flashed him a sweet smile, called to attention by Hojo suddenly as he murmured something to her. She agreed with whatever it was, nodding her head thoughtfully. She clearly disagreed with his next comment, shaking her head and pointing at Reno.
Vincent looked away then, not wanting to seem so interested in their conversation. That would be bad manners. Still, if he was to be spending a year or so in close quarters up a Nibelheim, then perhaps he should get to know them. No, that was not something he wanted to do. If he had to get to know any of them then it would be the one he was assigned to.
That was it, his punishment for failing so miserably. He was to accompany the Science department to Nibelheim for the Jenova project. As if that wasn't punishment enough, he had been assigned as bodyguard to one of the scientists. Which one he had no idea yet, but if the President had been meaning to rub salt into already gaping wounds, then he had succeeded. After nine years working for the Company and an up until now stainless service record, he had been relegated to guard duty, the first assignment allocated to new Turks. That was adding insult to injury on a massive scale.
He exhaled sharply, getting rid of all those pent up emotions before they sent him into a rage. It as no good to go raging on Trey's last day. Though he probably didn't want it, the man deserved a peaceful send off. The others would be going off to Goblin's bar with him afterwards to get rat-arsed and disorderly. That was not for Vincent Valentine. He had thinking to do, and a lot of it. He would go home, close the blinds and sit there while events sorted themselves out in his head.
"Hello, Vincent." He looked up sharply to find Professor Gast peering back at him through thick spectacles.
"Uh..." He scolded himself, clearing his throat before continuing, "Good evening, Professor Gast."
"Trey Henson's last day today, isn't it?" Vincent nodded dumbly. Gast politely ignored his awkwardness, taking a seat beside him and leaning back against the table in a leisurely fashion. "I hear you're going to be accompanying us to Nibelheim."
"That is correct, Sir."
"Good. It's reassuring to know that our staff will be in capable hands."
'Hardly.' Vincent thought to himself, bouncing his knee and unintentionally Reno too, 'This is my punishment.' He looked up at the ceiling, well aware that Hojo and Lucrecia were talking about him from the snippets of conversation he caught. "I will do all that I can to complete my assignment."
Gast laughed rather loudly, drawing the attention of some of Trey's crowd, "Come now, would it kill you to show a little emotion?"
Vincent neglected to answer, picking Reno up under his skinny arms and sitting him squarely on the bench between himself and the Professor. Gast looked at Reno thoughtfully a moment, pushing his spectacles up further up onto his nose. "The family resemblance is remarkable, wouldn't you say? Who is his mother?"
"Trey has never told me." The Turk lied. Trey had told him, and been quite tearful about it. What he had said had been said in confidence; Vincent was not at liberty to discuss it.
"I would be interested to find out. Most of my current work is around genetics. How old is he?"
"One year, two months." Trey had drummed that into his co workers, proud of how quickly Reno had picked up words, though he only knew some, choice ones.
"Trey funny." Reno told Gast, pointing at his father across the room.
"Yes, he is very funny." Everything about the child intrigued Gast. He had very good enunciation for such a young child. "You're a very smart boy. Can you say Gast?" Reno shook his head, clapping his hands and jiggling his legs against the bench.
"He likes fire." Vincent intoned almost unconsciously. Gast took immediate interest,
"Really?"
"Yes. He likes making it in Trey's 'in' tray."
"Fascinating."
Reno laughed, looking up at Gast with a broad smile, "Cogida wormy." He said with a look of sheer pride. Vincent was shocked, opening his mouth to say something, but no words getting out. Gast obviously didn't understand, smiling at the little child as though he had made the discovery of the century.
"That was Costa, wasn't it?" Vincent nodded, dreading Gast asking what had just been said to him. "Trey must speak to him in Costa."
"Rather a lot, yes."
"Monkey see, monkey do, or in this case hear and repeat."
"Yes."
Reno adored such attention, carefully getting to his feet and toddling up onto Gast's lap to take his spectacles and put them on his own head. "No, no," the Professor corrected him, taking the glasses, "These go on your nose." Reno gave a high-pitched snarl, taking them and putting them back on his head. "Decisive little tyke, isn't he?"
"Tyke is the perfect choice of word."
"Vinny" Reno said, toddling back to Vincent and plonking himself on the Turk's lap.
"I can't get rid of you." Vincent muttered, placing one hand on Reno's tiny shoulder to steady him.
He had been spending a lot of time with Reno lately, Trey forced to bring him in to work as the crèche refused to take him. Apparently Reno did not get on with other children; had a habit of hurling things at them. Trey knew all about the throwing arm, having been hit by various objects a lot over the past year. When Reno had first arrived, Trey had hated him, and because of that, Reno hated Trey also. He would throw anything that was light enough to pick up at him, especially things with pointy corners Trey had forgotten to put out of reach. He was a calculating little sod, that was the only way to describe him.
Vincent shook his head, looking over to see that Trey had come down from his table and was now throwing unceremonious hugs at anyone he could get his hands on.
The red head grinned like a moron, completely out of his skull and halfway to la la land. He slapped Morris Taran's hand, leaping on the Senior Turk and hugging him loosely, almost falling off him, "Morris, you are THE man. There's no other man like you in this WHOLE world. Peace to you and your whole family my man-friend."
Morris smiled, patting him gently on the back, "You go have a good life, Trey."
Evan was next, Trey turning on him, looking down on his 5'7 from his 6'4. "Evan, little Evan, you are a star in man's skin. I love you." He grabbed Evan's head and kissed him on the forehead, "Don't go thinking I want to go further. I don't want sex from you."
"Nice to know, Trey." Evan told him with a nervous chuckle, wiping the slobber away with his black suit sleeve.
Finally Trey turned to Shawn Richards, looking up at him, his expression twisting into what could only be described as a grimace, "You! You on the other hand, are chicken shit. You were born chicken shit, you are chicken shit and I'll be God dammed if you don't die chicken shit, ya disgusting piece of mu crap."
"Henson!" Richards snarled, Trey giving him the finger,
"Ahh fuck off and rot." Not done being derogatory, the red-headed Turk pointed at Hojo across the room, "You freak me out." and left it at that, turning to the President. "And as for you mi capitán. Éste es Trey Henson de los turcos, registrando hacia fuera por la vez última ." With that, he clicked his heels together and gave a snappy salute.
The President smiled and nodded respectfully. "We're going to miss you here, Mr. Henson,"
Heidegger extended his free hand to Trey, the other in a sling across his chest. Trey frowned, folding it across his chest with his injured one, "Look, man, I thought you woulda learned your lesson or something."
Vincent cringed at Trey's bear-baiting. It was his fault that Heidegger's arm was in a sling anyway. Earlier on that day, Heidegger had been walking up the stairs to the Turk's office, Trey had been walking down when the two had met in the middle. Heidegger had laughed, saying 'It's your last day today, isn't it Henson? You WILL be missed.' Trey had replied with 'Heh heh, yeah.' and punched him down the stairs.
Vincent had found Heidegger lying there at the foot of the stairs, looking up at Trey in disbelief, ''You punched me down the stairs.'
'Heh heh heh I'll do it again if you don't shut up.' Trey had told him, and stepped over him on his way to the john. Bad medicine for the red head. Heidegger was notorious for holding grudges.
"Vinny! Dear, sweet Vinny." Trey was standing over him suddenly, his arms outstretched, "You deserve the biggest hug of all, robo kid!"
Vincent had no choice, Trey snatching him up into a hug, the dark-haired Turk clinging onto Reno for fear of dropping him. "Trey." He said, his stern voice muffled, lost in Trey's mended jacket.
"Ah, God we had a great working relationship, didn't we? From the first time I introduced myself, to the first time you ground my face into the floor to this minute right now where I'm choking you to death in my clothes. I'm gonna miss you and Marly J. most of all." He let Vincent go then, taking Reno off him and hugging his child close to his chest, "But I gotta look after this little trouble, eh Cogida wormy?"
"You really can be vulgar sometimes, Trey." Vincent's disgust was clear, but Trey let it go, rubbing his own nose against Reno's.
"Ah, think what you want of me. I'm gonna go get stewed."
Then, Trey turned on one snake-skin cowboy booted heel and walked out of the employee lounge, halting just inside the stairwell and shouting, "Adios!" Before vanishing from the Shinra building for the last time.
It was the end of an era.
(Note:So there we have it. No more Trey the Turk. Wait 'til you find out what he's doing for money instead. What did Reno call Gast? Well, as far as I know, a 'wormy fuck'. 'Scuse the language. I was thinking of bumping the rating up a notch because of it, and the violence, but tell me what you guys think. Little Reno, he is possibly the cutest thing ever. I very rarely squee, but if I was going to, this would be it. And Shawn Richards, ugh. You have met him for the first time, and I assure you it won't be the last.)