Mission 41: Shot Glasses
Rude was busily cleaning a multitude of shot glasses, regretful that he didn't empty them himself. It was sad, but he had worked so hard during this mission that he didn't have time to drink, even if the mission took place in a bar. He didn't even have time to talk to Tifa, or listen to her since he wasn't very talkative. Though admittedly he was hired to work, not to socialize and drink, but it would have been nice if he could.
One thing that confused Rude was how the shot glasses piled up so much. There were not that many customers that night after the incident which made Elena leave the mission and pass it on to Rude. Tseng was also forbidden to take the mission because of that same customer scaring incident; and Tifa didn't quite trust Reno not to drink everything himself.
It was funny in a way, the situation with Reno, Rude and booze. Sure they went to bars together, but Rude, ever the calm and composed one, never gained the drunken reputation. In fact, Rude actually went bar hopping more often than Reno himself, and drank more than Reno as well. But somehow, Reno always got the rep, which Rude didn't really mind as long as he got the booze.
The bald man set another clean shot glass aside and picked up the next, washing it, drying it and putting it away. He had never seen so many shot glasses in one place, and wished he hasn't end up stuck with the mission.
Originally, this was Elena's mission. She was supposed to be the bartender while Tifa took a break. However, Tifa didn't warn her about how to handle flirty drunken idiots. An icy glare and the occasional waving of a fist was enough to make them back down. But Elena was a Turk so instead of an icy glare she used ice materia, freezing the drunken idiots that annoyed her. She scared many customers that way, until Tifa came to tell her not to do that.
The night was young and though after the frozen customers where dumped outside by Cloud at Tifa's request, they did not bother coming after they melted free; other customers did eventually arrive, oblivious to the icy misfortune of their fellow drunken idiots.
Inevitably, that new group of customers included more drunken idiots who also wanted to flirt with Elena. Tifa told her not to hurt the customers and she didn't want to fail the mission, so instead Elena glared, but it wasn't quite enough. She was about to wave her fist threateningly, without actually hitting the customer, just to give him a scare like Tifa said, but Tseng did the fist waving first, right into the drunken idiot's face.
The leader of the Turks had heard about Elena's mission and came to see her and get a drink. He didn't understand why Elena didn't freeze that guy immediately, and interpreted her lack of action as a call for help. Of course he couldn't abandon a fellow Turk, especially not Elena.
As it happens in bar fights, punches and kicks slip, drinks are knocked over, and chaos spreads. However, the drunken customers didn't know, or didn't understand, that Tseng was a Turk, and Turks are dangerous. Once again it was up to the unfortunate Cloud Strife to clean the mess of unconscious and badly beaten men after Tseng was done. That was what finally made Tifa request that someone else took over the mission.
Rude was currently in the clean up area behind the bar, since the customers had left after the bar fight, he was stuck there cleaning the glasses, which continued to pile up, especially the shot glasses, Tifa had many of those. This confused Rude, how could the used glasses continue coming in if the customers had fled? It couldn't be that the customers actually returned after all that happened, and even if they did, there couldn't be enough customers to use this many shot glasses with the bar being to quiet.
Tifa set another dozen shot glasses next to the sink for Rude to wash. "It will be closing time soon," she assured him, and Rude nodded in response, ever the quiet one.
However, Rude's confusion begged for an explanation. He paused his work and dried his hands, curiously looking to the front of the bar where a single customer sat. It was a familiar looking customer, "Reno..." and he was drunk.
"Hey Rude! Tifa told me about what happened, hic. I was going to give you a hand but Tifa said she rather hic have me as a customer. She didn't believe me when I told her you drink more than me," a string of silly laughter followed. "Gotta mess up more glasses like Tifa said, I'm helping!"
"I didn't say that!" Tifa thought back about what could have given Reno such an idea; then the realization hit her. When she was explaining what happened at the bar, while Reno was still slightly sober, but apparently less sober then she thought, Tifa sarcastically commented that "the success of a bar is measured by the mess left behind." It was an old saying between bartenders, but that particular mess had not been profitable.
Rude glared behind his ever present shades. Reno was the reason why he was stuck washing so many shot glasses. Rude was once again enduring the consequences of his partner's actions, but this was even more annoying than being hit on the head or having his shades stepped on. One of these days Rude would lose his patience, one of these days Reno would be in big trouble, one of these days...
End of Mission 41
Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Mission 41 was requested by Cherri. If you pay close attention during the original FFVII you'll find that Rude does go bar hopping more often than Reno. Rude is just quieter about it. There was a small reference to an episode of Reboot, but it was a little hard to catch, it was the eight bit episode.