Shut up . Traverse Town . [C omplete]

[recalcitrantly]

A lovely night was had. He didn’t accumulate too much more after that redheaded kid had went and left his bar. At the moment, Reno thought it appropriate to take a break from his newfound home, and take a walk around to calm a headache he had going on. Didn’t know where it came from. Must’ve been from that little incident in the past half hour

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[silver_soldier]

After a brief exchange between Aerith and Cloud about when they would meet up again, and once again adjusting his coat over his wing, Sephiroth had left the Second District hotel, feeling almost relaxed for the first time in years(of course, as he'd almost immediately stepped into a few Heartless fights that was something of a relative term, but nevertheless). He'd found Cloud and Zack, and for the first time in four years he could wander a world without feeling the need to keep an eye out for them. Knowing they were alive and nearby was even more of a relief than he'd expected it to be.

Finally, things were -

And then his train of thought jumped the tracks from sheer confusion.

The red hair, the outfit...even from the back, Reno of the Turks was pretty much unmistakable. That he was even THERE, that was Surprise Number One.

That he was punching a wall was Surprise Number Two.

He began closing the distance between them, more out of curiosity than anything else, and as he grew closer the mystery became clearer - Reno was visibly swaying, and as he got within arm's reach the smell of alcohol was palpable. Judging from the smell, Reno had enough booze on his breath to intoxicate a person just by exhaling in their direction.

"Reno?" He couldn't entirely disguise his distaste, and didn't try that hard; he'd never seen the appeal of being shitfaced, and had rarely become so himself - except on one memorable occasion, upon which he'd felt thoroughly justified for drinking himself into incoherency.

[recalcitrantly]

After that brief exchange with the wall, no less, in which he’d come to terms with hitting it, apologized, then hit it again just to make sure the bricks didn’t get the feeling he was going soft on them, Reno heard something most odd. In fact, Reno heard his own name? First thought-walls spoke back to him. That was tip-off number one that he really needed to haul ass out of that district. It took a minute of staring at the brick pattern that could only be described as a deer-in-headlights expression before he remembered that vital thing-that walls couldn’t speak. "Hey, hey, HEY." the man, in almost a keyed-up tone of voice spun around rather clumsily and pointed not at Sephiroth, but beside him at nothing. "There’s no need to YELL." Taking another one of his brilliant prolonged pauses, "All FIVE of ya, shut up." Reno blinked several times, squinted, and steered his finger slowly and methodically at Sephiroth rather than at thin air.

Yes. Person. One person. He didn’t know all those other four people but he knew that lurching, living stress ball with that girly silver hair even in the state he was in. Thumbing his goggles up to their proper perch on his forehead in order to keep hair out of sight, a double-check was in order to make sure it was that guy. "If it isn’t the General." Try as he might to seem more "organized" in composure his way of standing seemed to keep a slight tilt to it. Instead of the stereotypical manly punch to the shoulder, [more brought on due to his blood to alcohol ratio]The Turk didn’t hesitate to completely latching to the general with both arms clung tightly, "How you doing you deserter son-of a-bitch!" Slouched, putting his entire wait on the man, clinging like Sephiroth was a pillar of stability in the world that kept on spinning for a reason he couldn’t quite figure out. Reno snickered, finding it rather amusing. He also forgot that the word 'deserter' and calling him such names shouldn't have been such a good idea to someone with a sword taller than he was. Whoops.

[silver_soldier]

If Reno weren't so obviously drunk out of his skull, Sephiroth would likely have laid him out for either the comment or the uninvited embrace or both - but as it was, the man's impaired judgment was...not so much excusable as understandable. He was surprised the man had even managed to recognize him. "Hell," he muttered, putting both hands on Reno's chest and pushing them apart slightly - still supporting Reno's weight, but in a somewhat more socially appropriate way. A box of nails couldn't be more hammered than Reno right now, that much was evident; there was no way Sephiroth was going to get anything sensible out of him. Complete waste of -

The fountain sat there, innocently.

And Sephiroth had an idea.

It was not, by any definition of the word, a nice idea. However, it seemed as if it would be an effective idea, and that was more important.

"Come on," he said abruptly to Reno, spinning the man around (and that couldn't have felt good from Reno's drunken perspective, he reflected) and half-guiding, half-dragging him over to the fountain. He didn't waste any time - as drunk as he was, Reno was a Turk and Turks were resourceful; it was better if he didn't give the man time to get suspicious and start resisting. The man was already off-balance; he offered the man only the helpful words "Hold your breath" before placing a hand on the back of his head and forcibly dunking him.

He was doing him a favor, really. Damned idiot shouldn't be so drunk in a town infested with Heartless anyway.

[recalcitrantly]

It didn’t really occur to him that he was latching more than he probably should have been. Instead of noticing that he was being tugged along more like a rag doll, Reno enjoyed the fun little barnacle ride to wherever he was getting taken to. "Huh-" That was, until he was told to take a breathe and he didn’t understand what he was told until after he was forced under-it was even more unpleasant that he listened and took a breathe. Under water. Though drunk as a fish as he might have been Reno was quite sure that he couldn’t breathe under water. Starting to cough uncontrollably confirmed this notion! No matter how futile it was, the redhead started flailing his arms until he forced his way out of the fountain. [More likely, he was let go of. It was Sephiroth after all.]

Soaked, spitting out water, and plastered all at once with a hint of anger all at once was not a good combination, "What-" He sputtered between trying to get a little composure, "What is the big idea!" Trying to drown him? THAT was the greeting he got. "You know, more people just say 'hi'!" But no. He didn’t get a hello, he didn’t get a wave or greeting, he got nearly off-ed by the guy. Crazy BITCH. He always looked kinda shifty. All that stress back at Hollow Bastion that made him fly the coop probably made the former General into a real whack-job. Crazy. Off his damned nut Almost habitual, Reno reared back and took a swing at him for 'just' purposes. Not that he was going to hit the intended mark; After all, he had a one in five chance of that.

[silver_soldier]

Sephiroth easily dodged the man's punch - he obviously hadn't been entirely sobered up by the first dunking, as he hadn't even aimed the blow properly. So, using the man's own momentum, he spun Reno around and dunked him again, releasing him almost immediately afterwards and backing away slightly. He doubted he'd done anything that would improve relations between the two of them, but hopefully Reno would be in a more sensible state of mind...if not a more cooperative one. "I could throw you into the fountain entirely if you're not sober yet," he remarked once the man came up again, sputtering.

[recalcitrantly]

Being spun so fast and having a friendly reprise of his little underwater adventure wasn’t so bad. When the redhead emerged again, he was a little more calm, but more avidly confused and trying to figure out what just happened right there. Reno spit out a stream of water out of his mouth that he had taken in from the gracious lack of warning on this trip under. He glared. "You.." Swaying lightly from side to side trying to process something to say, "Suck." The thought of being tossed in the damned thing didn’t sound appealing, though it didn’t matter much my this point. Usually his vengeful side would have kicked in at this point-the side that would have jumped in the fountain himself and do all he could to return the favor of soaking. Alas, Reno didn’t feel that energetic at the moment.

Instead, he reached in his pocket and took out the hopefully still dry pack of cigarettes. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, pops. Business. Seriousness." Tapping the bottom of the box, he slipped on stick out and tried to force it in Sephiroth’s mouth. "Here. You need a relaxing hobby.” He took one for his own, too, If not to have lit up, than just to have the conscious presence of something there. "You’re still as tight-assed as ..uh.." Reno tried to retrieve a number out of his mind, "More than ten-ish years ago." Comment only meant to prove that while a little more coherent, still not in the right state of mind.

[silver_soldier]

Sephiroth couldn't have hid his amusement if he'd tried, and he wasn't trying. Reno's current half-drowned look was good for quite a bit of entertainment - and while Sephiroth bore the man no active ill will, dunking a drunken Turk in a fountain had been satisfying on numerous levels. He was in a better mood than he had been in weeks.

The cigarette was a mild surprise - not so much that Reno had them, that was no surprise at all, from what Sephiroth remembered Reno subscribed to every unhealthy vice known to man, but that the man was willing to share his smokes. He took the cigarette from between his lips and tucked it away into a pocket; he rarely smoked and didn't feel like doing so at the moment, but he never questioned gifts. "Thirteen years," he informed Reno, since the man wasn't apparently up to arithmatic yet. "And you've still got the survival instincts of a game bird on a gun range."

[recalcitrantly]

It didn’t take him but a second to process the horrible analogy, his brain snapped back with a response somewhat of the same. "Guess we..uh.." Pausing to get the right wording in Reno continued, "Both have our own faults." After all. It had been thirteen years, and the fearless General still seemed to cower away from a pair of shears for that ridiculous hair. Though as brash as he could be, saying that aloud and getting another trip to being half drown didn’t seem like a fun or smart idea. "What about you." In the middle of his sentence, the redhead cleared his throat deeply, motioned up and down at the former general, "Thirteen years and you still don’t wear a damn shirt." Oh yes. He went there.

For himself, on the other hand, he had a perfectly good reason as to why he was still alive and well [in a sense]. "What can I say?" Almost dropping the box of smokes, then deciding it was suddenly a good idea to put them away, the man tried to pick out the exact word to describe his skills. "I’m just ...re...zil..iant, what can I say? Like a .. like a.. cockroach. That's it. Like one of those doo-dads."

[silver_soldier]

At Reno's comment, Sephiroth instinctively glanced down at his bare chest before looking skeptically back up at the Turk. Of course he didn't wear a shirt - the rest of his outfit was made of heavy leather, if he added a shirt he'd probably give himself heatstroke. Not that Reno could be expected to put two and two together even on a good day. "Two minutes ago you were having a conversation with a wall - an abusive conversation - and my not wearing a shirt is some sort of personal failing?"

That was the thing about Reno - he didn't get his ass kicked nearly as much as he deserved because it was so hard to take offense at his insults, considering the source. Probably why he'd managed to live so long.

Given that Sephiroth's train of thought seemed to be - strangely - running parallel to Reno's own when the man spoke up again, he couldn't really argue. "I'll definitely admit that you and cockroaches bear some distinct similarities."

[recalcitrantly]

That conversation was pretty damned intellectual before all five of the General decided to show up out of nowhere and break it off. So as to the shirt being a down point for the general [hearing it repeated to him made it sound just as stupid as it probably sounded to Sephiroth] Reno did the only thing he could do to defend this statement. "....Yes. It is." Admittedly his comments probably didn’t make much sense to anyone else, but to him they made perfect sense. Profound sense. Buzzes tended to give him an extra boost in the intelligence that just succeeded in making him a little more not-mentally-there. The same situation seemed to follow with the comparison, "Aww, Gee. That sounds so lame when you say it like that."