A/N: Rated M for language and sexual content. Standard disclaimer applies.

Updated 9/1/20: Edits throughout and added Reno's Thursday to this chapter instead of including in it the next one. Reno's motives have also been changed and additional scenes have been added.

Chapter 16:

Tuesday

Reno woke up against his will. His whole body ached – from sitting in a desk all day, fighting monsters all afternoon, and then dancing and drinking and fucking a strange woman in a small storage closet while avoiding a mop bucket and boxes.

He looked over at his clock, which seemed to scream at him in bright red numbers: 8:53. He slowly closed his eyes and opened them again, too lazy to even properly roll them. His arm was extended toward the electronic device, but no alarm had been set for him to stop.

He should have set an alarm. He was already late for work. Oh well, at this point.

He rolled his head to look the other direction, his face brushing against the pillow as he did so. Light was streaming in through his blinds and he felt the need to scrunch his eyes. The heat was already getting to him. With a prolonged groan he rolled over onto his back and stared up at his ceiling.

He considered calling out of work. He didn't think he could take another day like yesterday, and it seemed like every day was now like yesterday. He'd go into the office, try to read through Hojo's chocobo scratch, think about Tifa, go on patrol with Rude, fight a crap ton of monsters, and then go to Seventh Heaven. The schedule had changed slightly, since he was no longer going to Seventh Heaven, but every day seemed to be on repeat, like some cycle he needed to break.

He needed to go to a different bar tonight. Elixir was too…dirty. Not in the physical sense, it was more like the people there were just… gross. The more he thought about his encounter the night before – he wouldn't even call it a conquest – the more he found the woman revolting. She couldn't hold a candle to Tifa Lockhart, and though he had gotten off, the satisfaction was fleeting.

If he were to fuck a different woman each night before Thursday, he shouldn't try to find one that looked like the girl he really wanted. He considered not sleeping with any women, since he no longer found it satisfying, but he figured forgoing sex would keep his mind focused like a laser on the one woman he was trying to forget. For the first time in his life, he actually regretted the way he treated the woman from the night before. She may not have been a saint, but she was a human being.

He groaned again, louder this time. He'd been an asshole since before he could remember, he couldn't possibly be growing that conscience he heard so much about over the years.

He figured at this point that he should get the day over with. He sighed heavily and sat up slowly, swinging his legs over the side of his bed. He placed his elbows on his knees and ran his fingers through his hair before clasping the back of his neck.

This day was just starting. Sixty hours until he would allow himself to return to Seventh Heaven. He knew that setting a date and counting down the hours wouldn't help his addiction, but he told himself that by Thursday he would have her out of his system, so it wouldn't matter.

His whole body lagged as he stood up and stretched his arms over his head, intertwining his fingers in the air and then leaning to each side to deepen the stretch. He was stalling. He dragged his feet into his slate-tiled bathroom and discarded his boxer briefs. He stepped into the shower and let the cold water run down his lean, naked frame to wake him up before it warmed, letting his mind wander back to that night at Seventh Heaven with Tifa in his arms. Of course, he let his imagination run toward the dreams he had experienced after that went further than reality.

He shook his head before knocking his fist against the shower wall to clear the thought. He couldn't spend the next few days thinking about her – he'd never make it. Only hopeless romantics thought about someone this much and Reno was no hopeless romantic. He had never spent more than a few hours thinking about any particular woman – and that stopped once he bed her. He hated this hold she had on him. Hopefully the next two days would bring him back to his usual self. She was a trophy and nothing else, or so he told himself.

He took his time scrubbing his skin and washing his hair. He was already late, might as well skip the desk aspect all together. He let the water run over his face as he closed his eyes and opened his mouth. He could be in a shampoo commercial, he thought as he enjoyed the warmth.

Reno shut off the water and grabbed a towel, drying his face and then rubbing it against his scalp. He stepped out of the shower onto the cool stone floor and wrapped the towel around his slim hips, below his Adonis Belt, as he walked over to the sink and placed a hand on either side, looking at himself in the mirror. He looked like hell, but he usually woke up like that. People didn't realize how much life his hair provided to his look and persona. When it was damp, it just looked awkward.

Of course, with Tifa… Dammit! There she was in his head again. With her, even the lack of volume in his locks didn't keep him from being himself. Strangely, she didn't tease him about his hair, even though she had plenty of material to work with. He certainly felt like a drenched rat that night at Seventh Heaven – for many reasons.

He slapped his cheek, hard. Then he slapped the other one. A couple more firm palms to each side of his face in an attempt to get her out of his head again.

He was pathetic.

He finished getting ready for work by the time his hair had nearly regained its usual shape. He grabbed a cup of coffee and headed downstairs. His car was still at the Shinra building, so he'd have to walk.

He started to perk up to his usual cockiness as he strolled down the street with caffeine in his system and a cigarette between his lips. He finished the cigarette and flicked it into the street before he entered the new Shinra building. Whether he felt completely like himself or not, he acted in his usual manner as he passed the front receptionist and anyone else on his way to the Turk's office. Elena and Rude looked up when he entered the room – he carried himself as if he were perfectly on time – but quickly returned to their work. Reno eased himself into his chair and was raising his feet up to his desk when a voice bellowed from the adjoining office.

"Reno, would you please come in here?" Tseng said in a tone that was somehow both pleasant and stern at the same time.

Reno lifted himself up and took a last sip of his coffee before carelessly tossing it into a nearby trashcan and strolling into Tseng's office.

"What's up, boss?" Reno asked, placing his hands in his pockets and approaching Tseng's desk. He appeared contrite, with a hint of confusion, as if he truly didn't know why Tseng would call him in.

Tseng looked up at him, his face showing no hint of what he was about to say. He laced his fingers in front of his chin and rested his elbows on his desk.

"What's with you lately?" Tseng asked.

"Whatcha mean, boss?" Reno's tone didn't change.

"You're distracted," Tseng accused.

That bitch, now she was interfering with his work. Reno shook off Tseng's comment and maintained his stance.

"Nah, I'm just bored," he said. "Reading Hojo's doodles isn't my idea of 'Turk stuff.'"

"I know," Tseng said, sighing and leaning back in his chair. "I hate it, too."

Reno was not expecting that. Even with Tseng's lack of expression he assumed he was about to get reamed.

Tseng stood up and walked around his desk to Reno, sitting back on the wooden frame.

"It shouldn't be too much longer. We're almost finished going through everything, and that should tell us how to stop the monster attacks," Tseng said.

Tseng was like Rude; he didn't usually say too much. He only said what was necessary, nothing more.

"I hope so," Reno said.

"Me too," Tseng said. "Just try to hang in there a little longer and I'll see if I can get Rufus to approve some real 'Turk stuff.'"

Tseng's words – however hollow they may have been – gave Reno a little motivation. The redhead's expression lifted as he turned to walk out of Tseng's office.

"Oh, could you do something for me?" Tseng asked as Reno was halfway out the door. Tseng and Rufus, always leaving one last comment to the very end. Reno twisted to face his boss, nodding.

"Sure."

"I'd like you to call Juget. I told her to see if she could find anything that might be of use in Professor Gast's old home."

Reno nodded again and returned to his desk. He had a particular fondness for Juget, since not only had he not slept with her, but she was more like one of the guys than any of the other female Turks. She was attractive, for sure, but she was the only woman Reno would actually enjoy having a beer alone with – without any expectations.

He sat down in his chair and rolled closer to the desk in order to reach his phone. He cradled the receiver against his shoulder and leaned back in his chair, bringing his feet up to the desk as he waited for her to pick up.

"This is Juget," she said tersely on the other end. Reno chuckled. Same old Juget.

"Heyyyy Martial Arts! How ya been?" he asked cheerfully, waiting for her disdainful reply. He was rewarded with a groan and an eyeroll he could practically hear over the phone. "Find anything at Gast's place?"

"Nothing," Juget said. Reno remained silent for a few seconds to indicate she needed to elaborate. She was even more brusque than Tseng. "The building was purchased by a local timber company for front office space."

"What happened to all of the professor's stuff?" Reno asked, finding an emptiness in his stomach at the news.

Gast was murdered before Reno joined the Turks, but he had learned about the scientist as a rookie. When Tseng said he had sent Juget to inspect Gast's old home, Reno thought they might find something actually useful, since Gast was a far superior scientist to Hojo – both in talent and morality.

"Office manager helped me locate a box. Everything else was donated or had already been taken, probably by Hojo when he raided the place," Juget informed him. "The box had nothing of value."

"Damn," Reno said, more to himself than to her. "Well, thanks for checkin', anyway."

Juget hung up the phone without saying goodbye. Reno returned the receiver to its dock and leaned back in his chair with some heft, causing the seat to bounce slightly.

The conversation caught Rude's attention and he looked over at his redheaded colleague. Elena was in her own world of colored pens, highlighters, index tabs, and the odd rush she got from organizing.

"What happened to the Faremis place?" the bald Turk asked.

"It's all gone," Reno replied. "Like he never fuckin' existed."

Rude released an agitated but sympathetic grunt in response. He wasn't a fan of decoding Hojo's notes or the daily patrols either. Tseng's mention of Gast's old lab started him thinking about other potential labs in the world where more useful information could exist.

"Can't anything be memorialized in this fuckin' world?" Reno interrupted, slamming the butt of his fist against his desk for emphasis.

The redhead could practically feel the pinch of Rude's eyebrows from behind his partner's shades, asking a question Reno didn't want to answer.

"Something wrong?" the bald Turk asked.

"Nah, forget it, let's just go patrol."

"Take Elena with you!" Tseng called from his office as Reno and Rude were getting ready to leave.

The blonde made a face to quietly express her dismay with the order.

At least with Elena, the Turks had access to some more materia, which made things much easier, though neither Rude nor Reno would admit it. She healed them between herds of elfadunks and Kalm fangs and more hedgehog pies and another one of those Goddamned houses. Even with the healing, the three were exhausted by the time they stood in front of Seventh Heaven.

Reno made a similar excuse as he had done the night before, prompting a hard look from Elena. She may have known Reno's feelings for Tifa, but that didn't mean she understood men and their courtship ways. She entered the bar with Rude, knowing she was in for a long silent night until hopefully Tseng arrived. Their boss had been tense ever since the team was relegated to reading duty, and needed to drink more than ever.

Reno, meanwhile, found a dive bar near his house, made eye contact with the first decent-looking woman there (she was on par with the woman the night before, but with blonde hair and implants) and began his usual process of seduction. It didn't take long for the woman to sidle up next to him at the bar, batting her false eyelashes at him accompanied with a flirtatious smile. Halfway through the drink he purchased for her, they were already making out.

As Reno tasted the fruity cocktail she had ordered mixed with his own scotch and a mutual cigarette flavor, his mind began to wander. The sounds of bar murmuring and the song playing on the speakers vanished, though if he had kept listening, he would have heard lyrics perfectly attuned to his current situation. It was as if the entire world ceased to exist around him, becoming nothing but a dark chasm that stretched in all directions. His mind blanked for a moment and he lost focus, his tongue still hovering in the woman's mouth.

His thoughts raced, filled with images of Tifa and the realization that the void he'd spent his whole life trying to fill with various vices was emptier than ever. Alcohol was no longer numbing the pain, and the thought of having sex with another strange woman made him want to vomit. The recognition hit him all at once and a panic began to set in. Suddenly, being the epitome of a hardcore Turk wasn't looking so admirable. This wasn't what he wanted anymore. But if the things he'd filled his time with previously were no longer desirable, what did he want?

He opened his eyes and slowly pulled out of the kiss, his hand still on the woman's neck. The song and bar sounds crescendoed quickly, leaving him slightly disoriented. He searched her eyes for something, his own pupils darting back and forth between hers in an attempt to find something other than the hollowness staring back at him. She looked confused, but not completely disappointed, like the action barely registered.

"I'm sorry," Reno heard himself say, still trying to find salvation in the woman's eyes. "I can't do this."

His forehead wrinkled with uncertainty, his mouth slightly agape as he finally put the pieces together of a shattered life that could not be mended with alcohol or sex. Now the woman stared at him with a stupefied expression betraying her anger, one eye narrowing as she tried to comprehend what was happening.

Reno didn't stick around long enough to explain or to hear her questions – he needed more than she could offer. Instead, he dropped some gil on the bar to pay his tab and simply left the establishment. He could hear her following him out of the bar shouting obscenities at him, but he tuned her out and returned home, flopping onto his bed and trying to gather his thoughts before falling into a fitful sleep.

Wednesday

"Same shit, different day," Reno thought as he reached out a weary arm, fumbling to find his alarm clock and the button on top that would shut off that incessant beeping. He gave up trying to reach the alarm button – he wasn't about to actually move to get to it – and settled on knocking it off the end table. His shove was too weak, however, and the clock instead dangled from the table by its cord, which was still plugged into the wall.

Reno let out his usual morning wail and pulled himself to the edge of the bed so he could reach the clock and pull it from the wall.

That shut it up. Smug little gadget.

He dragged himself into the bathroom and into the shower, again lingering as the water travelled down his body in streams. He considered taking care of himself in the absence of a desired partner, but it just wasn't his style. He didn't need to do that since he had always been able to find a woman, though only one woman was captivating him at the moment. He did spend a little extra time cleaning his manhood; he was a guy, after all.

He stepped out of the shower, drying his face and hair before wrapping the towel around his waist and stepping to the mirror. He had a pack of cigarettes waiting for him on the edge of the sink – a little gift from Tuesday Reno – and lit one up, holding the rolled tobacco in his mouth with one hand while the other brought the lighter up to the tip. He watched the flame of the light dance for a moment before flipping the top closed.

He dressed and grabbed a cup of coffee before again making the trek to work.

"You think the Gods will ever forgive us for we've done?" he asked Rude after a few hours of seriously working on Hojo's notes.

In the absence of other distractions, he dove headfirst into his work – just like he used to. He didn't go above and beyond like Elena, but he did keep his own notebook of information he thought might be valuable.

"Since when do you care about redemption?" Rude asked.

"Just a question, yo."

Rude brought his fist to rest under his chin in thought a moment. "I think some might."

"Yeah, but which ones?" Reno asked as he leaned back in his chair and placed his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling as if the answer would formulate in the tiles.

"Carbuncle, maybe."

Reno shot his partner a glare.

They took Elena on patrol again. The whole episode nearly passed Reno by as if he were standing still the entire time with the rest of the world moving on double or triple speed. People, monsters, even some vehicles seemed to fly past him in a blur as he walked at a normal pace down the main street of Edge. Elena appeared to be speaking, but her words weren't even registering, so consumed Reno was with his epiphany from the night before.

Some ark dragons attacked them from above but were put in their place. Some sahagins crawled up from the sewer, leaving their stench behind even after they were killed and the Turks were several blocks away. A stampede of levrikons gave them the most trouble, as their size, speed, and numbers managed to separate the Turks and knock them to the ground. Rude was trampled by at least two of the beasts before Elena was able to burn one to death.

Reno came out of his stupor to dash between the birds to get to his friend, stabbing any that came close with his mag rod. He helped Rude to his feet and dodged the massive birds to move him to the side of the road, under the awning of a building where the levrikons weren't running.

"You okay, partner?" he asked. Rude simply waved him off as if his concern were a burden.

Reno then leapt back into the fray, emptying his pistol and stabbing wildly with his EMR as if he were taking personal revenge for Rude's injury. Elena kept casting various magic spells to take out more of the birds as they continued their run into the city.

Rude finally recovered enough – with the help of a cure spell – to return to the battle. He kicked one levrikon in the neck, killing it instantly, then twisted to kick another in the wing, which merely caused it to stumble.

"Why the fuck is everything going the same way?" Reno growled before jumping onto the back of one of the birds and holding on for dear life to find out where the creatures were going.

With two handfuls of scruff and feathers, Reno felt a smile escape his lips, the thrill he got from riding the bird overtaking his pensive mood. Within seconds he was cheering himself on. He could be a chocobo jockey with these skills. He was hundreds of feet away from Rude and Elena now, and coming up on the Meteor statue in the center of Edge. The bird showed no sign of dodging the statue, but Reno saw the herd moving swiftly around it up ahead and tightened his grip.

The levrikons were soon approaching the wall outside Old Midgar and began running down various side streets with seemingly no plan. The bird Reno was on followed a few others down a narrow alley that had several fire escapes on the sides of the buildings. The Turk dodged the first one but had to jump off his mount to avoid the second one. He landed unceremoniously in a pile of garbage bags.

He stood up, now smelling of garbage and the sewer (stupid sahagins) only to notice that the birds were gone. He dusted off his suit and walked back to the main road (sidling along the wall just in case more ran down the alley) to look around. He saw just one more levrikon, running down the alley on the opposite street. It was limping and had singe marks on its side. The bird stumbled out of view, kicking up dust as it went.

"Well, it's the cops' problem now," Reno said, reaching his hands behind his head and sauntering back in the direction of Rude and Elena. At least he managed to have some fun, even if he did now stink.

He stopped, realizing he was close enough to his apartment that he could go and clean up before meeting up with them.

Rude and Elena were waiting for him outside Seventh Heaven, still looking disheveled. He relished the scowls on their faces as he realized he had not only kept them waiting, but he was now the only clean one of the bunch.

"Hiya guys!" he said with a jaunty little step in his gait.

"Where were you?" Elena glowered, her hands on her hips.

"The birds ran all the way to Midgar. I jumped off in an alley and they were gone, so I went home and showered," Reno said as if it were no big deal.

"We were waiting for you," Elena snarled. Reno shrugged. "Fine! I'm going home to clean up too, I am not sitting around that bar all filthy."

"Maybe you should try it," Reno teased. "Might get Tseng's attention."

Elena gasped before stomping her foot and sulking in the opposite direction, back toward her home. Rude had let out a little smirk at Reno's comment and Elena's subsequent pout.

"Will you be joining us tonight?" Rude asked, crossing his arms. Reno put his hands in his pockets and slouched.

"Nah, still seeking talent elsewhere," he claimed.

Rude grunted before heading home to clean up as well. He hadn't been able to talk to Tifa since their date and was fairly sure a woman wouldn't be too enamored with a man that smelled like a sewer lizard.

Reno started walking home, lighting a cigarette before Seventh Heaven was even a block away. He put his hands back in his pockets and held the cigarette between his lips, inhaling and exhaling without ashing. Eventually a long trail of ash, which had been desperately holding on to the paper, fell from the cigarette but missed Reno's leg by a hair's breadth. The redheaded Turk continued walking toward his home but stopped when the shadow of Old Midgar began to loom ahead. Trying to sleep with various women was not going to get him over the barmaid, and what happened to Gast's old home in Icicle still weighed heavily on his mind. The fact that the professor's house was turned into an office for a damned lumber company just didn't sit right, especially at the moment.

Reno stopped just outside the gate to Old Midgar and stared up at the wall. From this angle, just the top of the hollowed-out former Shinra building could be seen, an ever-present symbol of what sins wrought. He sighed and placed a hand on the heavy metal door next to the old Sector 5 gate, without applying the pressure necessary to open it. After a brief pause, he pushed the door open and stepped through, taking in the sight of what had become of the old metropolis.

Sector 5 was not his destination; he slipped easily into Sector 6, taking care to give wide berth to Wall Market. It had been somewhat rebuilt after Meteor, since Edge didn't have such an "entertainment" district. The Honeybee Inn had been too badly damaged for Andrea to salvage, so he opened a club in Edge. But for those who missed the seedier aspects of Wall Market, they could find them so long as they were willing to brave the old city. As it stood, the place was mostly frequented by the degenerates who lived in the old slums. Reno didn't want the allure of cheap thrills and bright lights to act as a siren tonight.

He approached the gate that separated Sector 6 from Sector 7 and stopped. This was where it all started to go wrong. It was here when he first started to question his employer – and himself. The thought didn't escape him that it was also the place where he first encountered Tifa.

So much pain and misery – caused by his actions. He took a deep breath and stepped back from the wall to look up. The gate had been crushed by debris from the plate drop, which was now stacked up to block passage into the sector. The sector looked as it did before Meteorfall, since there wasn't anything left to wreck on the Chosen Day.

Reno shook his head and turned to look over his shoulder to where the playground used to stand. The moogle slide and old tires were long gone, buried under rubble from the calamity. The redhead couldn't see much of the ground in the area, but the pieces of debris weren't too big. He scanned the area, imagining how it used to look. Reeve was an idiot to not want to clean this place up. So many people living in Edge had been affected by the collapse of Sector 7 specifically, and even though Meteor took care of the rest of the city, Reno couldn't help feeling haunted.

It was getting dark, and the lanky Turk could only imagine the kinds of fiends that would appear in the ruined slums of Old Midgar at night. He made a quick exit back to Edge, sneaking past a gang that seemed more interested in drinking and rough housing with each other than searching for victims.

Back in Edge, Reno shoved his hands in his pockets and headed toward his apartment. The past two days had been both eye opening and depressing, and he hoped tomorrow would bring him the clarity he so desired now.

Meanwhile…

Elena couldn't help herself anymore. This was the second day in a row Reno had declined to join them at Seventh Heaven, and she knew from Rude that he hadn't gone on Monday. It was throwing off her entire theory. She had to know, even though she knew what it might mean to Rude. She was just too damn curious.

"So, what's going on with Reno?" she asked as innocently as she could manage.

"Let it go, Elena," Tseng scolded. He had joined them about an hour ago.

Elena couldn't just "let it go." Something had happened. Either between Rude and Reno or Reno and Tifa. It was eating at her. She couldn't even concentrate on Tseng with this question nagging at her.

"You had a date with her, but you still haven't even told me how it went," she pried further.

"Elena!" Tseng said, more severely.

Elena sat back in her seat and pouted. She watched Rude's face, hoping to get an answer from him, but he offered little in the way of expressions. Still, she thought she detected a hint of confusion on his own face, as if he had his own questions about Reno's absence. She could tell his date hadn't gone that well based on how he and Tifa interacted. It was as if the date never happened. Tifa had been getting more relaxed around the Turks over the past five months, but there had been no significant change in the past week after that date. Elena felt bad for Rude, knowing how much he liked the barmaid. She wanted to blame Tifa for the date going poorly (assuming she probably wasn't over Cloud yet) but knew that Rude probably just wasn't able to speak around her.

Reno's absence, however, was fascinating Elena. Maybe he was protesting for Rude, or jealous that Tifa had gone on the date? Maybe Reno was now tongue-tied around the brunette bartender, though Elena found that implausible. She drifted back to her theory that something had happened between Tifa and Reno, something Rude didn't know about but may now suspect as well. If something had happened between the two, why would Reno be avoiding Seventh Heaven? Maybe whatever happened between them was unsatisfactory? Maybe she had been wrong about Reno's feelings for Tifa all along. Maybe he had slept with her and was now done pursuing her.

Elena didn't buy that either. Tifa was still too in love with Cloud Strife to give it up to a guy like Reno, whether she had a sex dream about him or not. Elena assumed Tifa was a prude. She carried herself like one of those girls, for sure. Not that Elena was any better, and perhaps that was part of the reason she disliked Tifa. The barmaid was just like her in that department, but far more successful.

Elena wanted to know the answer, but she was not going to discover it tonight. She instead spent the rest of her evening flirting with Tseng, who seemed to be lost in his own little world. Elena rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. What an awful day.

Thursday

Reno still hated waking up to an alarm. Why had he plugged it back in? And then set it? He stretched up to support himself on his arms, reached for the alarm, and ripped it out of the wall again.

He showed it who was boss.

He sat back on his heels and stretched, flexing the muscles on his chest and back. It was another sunny day in Edge, and when he glanced toward the window, he felt at peace. He fell back down on his bed. Maybe he could just sleep the day away and get his thoughts in order.

He didn't know whether he had found clarity in a dream or if a decent night's sleep – free of alcohol and sex – cleared his head, but he came to a decision.

If he couldn't get Tifa out of his head by traditional means, then he'd stop trying. It was time to just give in and hope he wouldn't drown. He'd been playing in the deep end his whole life; he couldn't just keep treading water.

The decision gave him a new sense of purpose. He'd return to Seventh Heaven tonight and hope she hadn't given up on him in his absence. He wasn't planning on doing anything in front of Rude, but he was going to stop pretending he wasn't interested.

He knew what that might do to his partner, but at this rate, Reno didn't think he could keep on his current path. Years in a slum gang followed by a decade and a half at Shinra had all been upended in a matter of months, and the possibility of a different, better life was far too enticing. Maybe Rude wouldn't find out – at least not until he was completely over Tifa.

But Reno had disappeared for days after he kissed her; it must have affected her negatively. If he was even going to attempt to show her there was more to him than just a murderous Turk, he couldn't keep antagonizing her or simply making lewd comments. He needed to be something outside his comfort zone – he needed to show he could be thoughtful and considerate.

He picked up his PHS and clicked on one of his contacts.

"Hey Shotgun!"

Click.

He called back. No answer. His eye twitched. He called again. No answer. His nostrils flared. He called again.

"WHAT?" the woman on the other end yelled.

"Heyyyy I got a favor to ask ya," Reno said quickly, holding his breath in the hopes she wouldn't hang up.

"Fuck you."

"Awww come on, for old times' sake?"

"What do you need?" Shotgun said with a heavy sigh.

It took some coaxing (and letting her curse him for a while followed by the promise of an embarrassingly large payment), but she agreed.

Reno hung up and pumped his fist in victory. He walked into the bathroom with a certain amount of swagger and removed his boxer briefs before entering his shower. He took extra care to ensure he was squeaky clean and smelling of, uh, whatever Rogue Mountain smelled like.

He exited the shower and wrapped the towel around his waist as usual. He walked to the mirror and looked at the scruff growing along his chin. He rubbed a hand over it and considered growing a beard, a thought he had at least once a week. But the stubble was too sparse to leave for a day. He'd grown a beard once, long ago. It took about a month to fill in properly. He wasn't going through that again, especially not by starting today. He lathered his face and shaved carefully but thoroughly. He slapped on a little after shave (Suave Panther, which he thought may have smelled like wood chips and some kind of plant) and walked to his dresser. He slipped on a pair of dark gray boxer briefs before heading to his closet.

He pulled out a freshly pressed white dress shirt and dark blue fitted suit. He buttoned the shirt up, leaving the top three undone, and put on the suit. He selected his favorite belt (no one knew it was his favorite) and buckled it, adjusting his pants so that the buckle sat nice and low.

He finished with socks and recently shined shoes, sprayed some cologne (Spice Noir? He couldn't even guess, but it worked in the past), holstered his pistol and secured his mag rod, and then headed to work after stopping for coffee.

He realized he arrived at the building just half-an-hour after he was supposed to be there. Too soon, might look suspicious. He hung back and smoked a cigarette, slowly. Still too early. He finished his coffee. Not yet. He looked around for something to do for a few more minutes and spied the store that had been attacked by the hedgehog pies a couple days earlier. He could kill some time looking at trinkets.

He entered the store and coughed. It smelled of earth and some candle a woman he once slept with had lit by her bed. It was rather pleasant, but overwhelming. The shop had all sorts of knick knacks, an obvious tourist trap. From statues of landmarks around Edge and Midgar to tacky t-shirts and fake license plates to some artisan brand soaps, the store had something for every poor sap who was prepared to drop gil just to prove they visited the city.

And then he saw them.

Had it been months ago, he might have smashed the display and threatened the owner's life, but today he found them hilarious.

Miniature bobbleheads – of all the AVALANCHE members.

"Oh. My. God," Reno said to himself, bending over to get a closer look. There was Cloud, Barret, Vincent, Cid – even that lion thing. Some appeared less popular than others. Reno was only looking for one.

There she was.

There was only one left. He grabbed it. She'd freak out. All part of the plan.

He paid for it and buried it in his inner suit pocket before heading into work. This day just kept getting better.

"What the hell, Reno?" Elena asked when he passed her desk. "What's with that smell?"

"I smell nice," he retorted. She wasn't going to bring him down. Not today.

"It's assaulting my nostrils."

"Yes, but after we patrol, it will mix with my natural manly musk –"

"Sweat," Elena interrupted.

"Natural manly musk and I'll smell like regular ol' me," he said, grinning.

Reno figured he may have gone overboard and hoped it would dissipate a little before Rude, who was out of the room at the moment, came too close.

No such luck.

Rude walked out of Tseng's office and Reno's heart started beating a little faster. They couldn't know anything was different about today. Rude sat down at his desk with just a nod and his usual grunt to Reno, apparently none the wiser.

Tseng came out of his office and cleared his throat. Elena immediately spun her chair around to face him – a little too eagerly for Reno's taste.

"It looks like today's the last day we have to look through Hojo's research," Tseng said. The three seated Turks all cheered. Reno looked up and thanked the Gods. "Rufus thinks he's found something, but he hasn't said what, yet."

"So, what do we do when we're done?" Elena asked.

"We're on patrol duty for another week, then we'll accompany Rufus to Junon. He wants to consult with the scientists there."

Well, it was something a little more – Turk-y. Anything to break up the monotony of the past week.

"Finish up whatever documents you still have and then go on patrol," Tseng said before turning back into his office.

Reno threw what was left of Hojo's papers in the air after he found nothing in them. He pulled out the bottle of scotch he had stashed in his desk and poured himself a drink, gloating to Elena the whole time.

"First!" he said after his first victory sip. Elena smirked.

"I bet you say that to a lot of women," she said.

Reno thought of a snappy comment, but before he could say anything, he had a flash memory of that time Tifa made a similar joke a few months ago.

"No comeback?" Elena asked.

"I could say something, but I choose not to in front of polite company," he said, lifting his chin smugly. Not today, Elena. Not today.

Elena scoffed.

Reno was practically vicious on patrol, like a man possessed.

"I'm just sick of this shit, yo," he said when Rude asked what had gotten into him today. "I want to get back to the Turk Stuff."

The answer seemed to satisfy his comrades.

The trio spun around to see a small swarm of gorgers running toward them from a side street. Reno was not going to let those bugs ruin all his hard work, so he danced around them, kicking any that tried to attack him but not so hard that he'd break their outer shell. Elena thankfully cast Ice to kill them in their tracks. No messy explosions splattering bug guts everywhere.

Another pride of zenenes attacked them, but they appeared even more emaciated than the last pack – almost like they were suffering from some disease.

"Just like the guard hounds," Rude said after the fiends were lying dead on the street.

"You've seen this before?" Elena asked.

"Yeah, the other day," Reno said. "They had lesions just like these and were pretty weak."

"Hmm," Elena said, bringing a hand to her chin. "I wonder if Rufus knows anything about this."

"As long as I don't catch whatever they have," Reno said, jabbing his thumb in the direction of a corpse.

It was getting late when they finally reached Seventh Heaven. Rude and Elena didn't even bother to ask Reno if he would join them. Instead, they just walked up the steps and toward the door. Reno was hot on their heels, however.

"You're joining us tonight?" Elena asked. His behavior was really confusing her.

"Yeah, I looked around. This place is as good as any as far as loose women go," Reno shrugged.

Rude didn't say anything. He reached for the door and opened it.

Reno's heart started to flutter – which he hated – and he felt that tingling feeling in his gut. What was it? Nerves? He hated that, too.

His pupils dilated and his nostrils flared when he saw what was inside. He and his comrades rushed in; weapons drawn.