Office #7, Tuesday

[raspberryturk]

So, Reno really hadn't been here at all this semester, with a couple of exceptions. It stood to reason, with him, that almost a week before his final class was probably a good time to make an attempt at that

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[wish_kebab]

All things considered, once she'd snuck on over to Fandom Island, it hadn't taken long for Aerith to track Reno down. All of life went back to the Lifestream, and Reno belonged to Gaia, in a way that resonated with her, no matter where he chose to make his home these days.

Aerith drifted through the school invisibly until she found his office (which she went through the wall to get into) and, still invisible, surveyed him curiously. He looked better than he had back when everything was falling apart.

He also looked dreadfully bored in her estimation.

She grinned at him, though he couldn't see it, and called down the rain. Aerith had been able to do this back when she'd been alive. Dying had only made her stronger. But this was just a small, localized rain.

Inside his office. Right on top of him.

[raspberryturk]

The first raindrop hit Reno's face, and he squinted up at the ceiling, wondering if there was a busted pipe somewhere.

The second raindrop hit his face about the same time he realized he couldn't actually pick out a soggy part of the ceiling anywhere.

And then the deluge happened, and his confusion was replaced with irritation and a stream of curse words that wasn't fit for use in polite company.

"--Shiva's tits, Fandom!"

Because of course Fandom was doing this, right? Reno was hurrying now, to pack some of the papers up off of his desk. Most of them weren't important, he was pretty sure, but there wasn't a hell of a lot of time to check before everything would be sodden through anyway.

He barely had time to hiss between his teeth at a deep papercut that his rushing had rewarded him with by the time the rain had already soothed it and healed it away.

...

"You're shittin' me."

So, probably not Fandom, then.

[wish_kebab]

Definitely not Fandom!

Girlish giggling answered him as Aerith took a seat on his desk. (All right, so she took a seat about an inch above his desk, but that was pretty much the same thing in her opinion.)

She faded into view, translucent and intangible, and familiar.

"Hi," she said, all bright, still-laughing eyes and an unrepentant grin.

[raspberryturk]

Reno let loose a groan as he sank back into his seat with a wet squish.

Well, that was fun.

"Friggin' hell," he complained, because really, he didn't have to keep up a cool-as-hell visage around somebody who was already long dead, did he? "The Ancient? Really? Little far from home, here, yo. Does Portalocity charge extra to open portals for the dead?"

Yep, that was his complaint. Not 'I'm soaked to the bone,' or, 'apparently I'm being haunted today,' or even, 'gods dammit my office.' Reno was clearly concerned about Aerith's travel expenses.

[wish_kebab]

"Their rates seemed pretty reasonable to us," Aerith said easily. She tilted her head slightly, pretending to think about things, and then said, "Who knows, maybe we got a discount and the living will have to pay more to make up for it!"

[raspberryturk]

"Us?" Reno wrinkled his nose a little. "Don't tell me you-"

Another familiar voice cleared his throat from the doorway.

"I'm not even turning around to look. I'm just letting you know that, right now. Not even going to dignify that with a glance, yo."

He should've taken more rum from the squirrels this morning.

[wish_kebab]

Aerith giggled again, covering her mouth with one hand, and smiling past Reno to Zack.

"It's really your fault," Aerith said, not even the slightest bit apologetic. "We wouldn't be here if not for you."

[dead_dogs_fly]

"That's right," Zack said, grinning over Reno's head right back at Aerith. "You guys are doing our work for us, so we can actually afford to take time off. You brought this on yourself."

It was also Reno's own fault because Turks were just fun to tease. That was just how it was. Sorry, Reno.

[raspberryturk]

"So, to say thank you, you... flooded my office."

Reno was not following your crazy dead person logic, here.

[wish_kebab]

You meant sorry-not-sorry, Reno, Zack. That's what you meant.

"Exactly!" Aerith said, because the logic was perfectly sound to her. "And we were curious about where you kept popping off to, especially since you've been bringing a bunch of kids around lately."

Of course they'd noticed that.

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah, well, Edge needed water. More water than that muddy puddle in the church you're so fond of," Reno mumbled. "Seemed worth makin' a project out of it, yo. Did some gardening while we were at it. I'm thinkin' Edge would be real appreciative if you'd let some useful plants grow along with all them flowers of yours."

Aww, lookit the little Turk, trying to atone!

Crankily!

[wish_kebab]

For the first time, Aerith's smile faded into something a rather more serious.

"We're trying," she said. "But there's not much life in Edge yet, and flowers always came more easily to me. As the flowers die, there will be a little more life in the soil, slowly but surely. It's going to take time."

Aerith leaned forward, towards Reno. "We really do appreciate your help. It's going to do a lot of good! It already is, even, but it's going to be a while longer before the ground is viable for much more than flowers."

[raspberryturk]

Reno sighed as he leaned back in his chair (with another squelch), thinking back on the work Karla had done with Aerith years ago in the church. He could see improvement in little ways all over, but the going was slow, and people were still suffering, and, so help him, he was going to take his frustration out somewhere.

Probably on himself, later. What the hell did he really expect the dead to do to fix the problems of the living?

"Should'a stuck with beans, is what you're sayin'," Reno muttered.

[wish_kebab]

Aerith couldn't actually smack Reno, but she leaned over and swatted at his head anyway.

"Don't be ridiculous," she scolded. "The beans were helpful, and if you want to grow more, we'll do our best to help, but water is just as important and you know all the reasons why."

[dead_dogs_fly]

"Right," Zack agreed, giving a little grin in spite of himself at the shiver that was clearly running down Reno's spine at the sensation of being swatted by a ghost. "Really, a Turk of all people should know there's only so much we can do. We figured that's why you were helping so much in the first place. We get a lot of prayers, you know, from the living, asking the Planet to change its mind and heal those places that... you know... we broke. You never send any."

The 'we,' in this case, was referring pretty exclusively to ShinRa. There was a certain note in it that was unmistakable for anything else.

"If you start sitting around and blaming yourself and everyone else for everything tough in the world, nothing gets done. And... you know... then you're kind of acting like an old friend of ours."

Cloud.

[raspberryturk]

"Eugh," Reno muttered, reaching up to fix his hair, even though the swat hadn't even done anything to that. The rain had been worse for it, really. "Gods no. Anyway, it ain't like I'm expectin' results overnight or anything. That is why we're workin' so hard in Edge right now. I ain't even gonna think about Mideel and other places that got it hard before that rock came down, there are problems everywhere."

The 'we fucked up' was unspoken. But pretty clear.

"The water's a start. Wasn't my idea, though. I just decided to bring in some outside help, and the rookies did the rest."