Mission 04: Child
Rufus stared at his reflection in the mirror and fixed his hair for the millionth time. He looked at himself from every possible angle, smiling in satisfaction. "Is everyone ready?" He did not take his eyes off the mirror as he asked this.
"Ready when you are," Reno replied.
"Then let's-" Rufus looked away from the mirror for the first time in the past hour. "Reno!" He scolded.
"What?"
"I thought I told you, you had to look presentable!" Rufus complained.
Reno shrugged, "I do look presentable." He was in his uniform, mostly. He wasn't wearing a tie, but he never did, and his hair was messy, but it was always messy. To Reno, that was presentable enough.
"We're going to be on TV, you need to look more professional!" Rufus felt a headache coming on. The media had been very annoying lately and today's interview should quiet them down for a while.
"I don't know what the big deal is," Reno had been waiting at Rufus' office for the president to finish fixing his hair for a long time and he just wanted to get this over with.
Rude remained quiet as usual and Rufus gave an exasperated sigh. The door flew open and a little girl ran in, followed by Elena, "you're supposed to wait outside with the press people!"
The little girl pouted, "I'm only saying nice things about Shinra because they're finding my puppy for me. I want to see Lucky or I won't say nice things anymore!"
Reno pointed at the mutt who had been quietly eating in a corner of the office, "there's your dog."
The little girl shook her head and pointed at the puppy, "that's not Lucky! Lucky is white with black spots, that dog is light brown with no spots!"
Lucky had not lived up to his name, having died while Reno was trying to save him. He didn't know what to say except that accidents happen, but he couldn't tell that to the little girl. Surely the kid would start crying over her dead pet and that would ruin all the positive things she had told the press so far.
"You brought the wrong dog?!" Rufus threw his arms in the air dramatically.
"A dog is a dog, who cares?" The Dalmatian was dead and the mutt had been found just in time. Reno thought his resolve to bring the mutt instead, was a good enough solution.
"I care!" The little girl yelled.
"Of course you can't just replace a pet that easily," Elena agreed.
"Whose side are you on?" Reno picked up the light brown puppy. "Look kid, just take this dog, it's better than no dog at all, right?"
"I want Lucky!" The child refused.
"C'mon don't be so stubborn, just take the dog!" Reno tried to talk the girl into accepting her new pet, and maybe she wouldn't mess up the nice image she created for Shinra in front of the press.
Tseng entered the office, "the press members are getting impatient."
"Great, they want to see the touching scene of a Turk giving this little br-beautiful young lady her lost pet, but it turns out we don't have the right dog after all." Rufus dramatized.
"President, relax, I'll figure something out," Reno was fed up with everything and having a hard time staying there. He just wanted to hop on his chopper and fly away, far away. The new Shinra missions sucked and so did the new goody-goody image. "Hey kid, take the dog and don't complain, if you don't like it we'll get you another one later, just accept this dog now as a gift, alright?"
The little girl curiously tilted her head. "Then you're giving me this puppy as a gift?" She pointed at Reno, "A gift from you," then pointed at herself, "to me?"
"Yeah, that's right," Reno was relieved that it looked like the child would finally accept her new pet and quiet down.
"Okay, I'll accept it then, what's your name Mr. Turk?" The little girl asked.
"Reno."
The little girl squealed in delight, "then this puppy's name will be Reno Jr. and he'll be our baby!" She held the dog with one arm and clung to Reno's leg with the other, she was five years old but she was very small.
"Why do you have to name it after me?" Reno complained, and tried to pry the child off.
"Because you're his daddy, you gave me a gift so that means you like me. It's okay; I like older men anyway so I'll go out with you!" The little girl continued to cling.
"What? No! You're just a child!" Reno continued trying to get her to let go.
"I'm not a child, I'm a lady!" The girl argued.
Rufus covered his face with his hands, "this is bad."
Elena took a deep breath and walked over to the little girl, "hey little lady, I have an idea, you should keep this a secret."
The girl looked curious, "how come?"
"Because it's so much more exiting to have a secret lover than it is to have a boyfriend," Elena smiled.
The little girl was happy that she was apparently being treated like an adult and quickly accepted Elena's idea. "Okay! I'll keep it a secret!"
Reno was about to protest, but Tseng shook his head and the redhead remained quiet.
"When we talk to the press, tell them that I found your puppy and gave him to you. Tell them that Reno Jr. is Lucky, okay?" Elena continued.
The girl nodded, "okay!"
It looked like Elena had saved the day, "and what about Reno?"
"Reno who?" The girl asked as if she did not know of anyone by that name.
"Very good! Now let's do the interview." Elena left along with the little girl and the puppy.
Rufus checked his hair in front of the mirror once more and left with them to face the press. Tseng left as well, and Rude stood at the office door glancing back at Reno. The redhead shook his head, indicating that he wasn't going and grumbled about how annoying children could be, becoming fan girls at such a young age.
End of Mission 04
The idea for Mission 04 came from a comment sent by Sasami10. Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII.