An Airship Over Spira, Monday Night (Fandom Time) [NFB-distance]

[the_merriest]

Things that Rikku hated: the temple at Kilika, New Yevonites, old Yevonites, Spira, people who insisted on trying to fight each other instead of maybe trying to get along for once in their stupid lives, and worst, having to hold all of that in while playing stupid freaking diplomat for a bunch of jerks

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[raspberryturk]

The phone? The phone was totally ringing. And it was Reno's favorite ringtone, too!

"Chick-chicky-boom," he answered, grinning a little. He sounded maybe a little tired, but that was completely because he'd been busy yesterday and today. After all, once the Bat Eyes were taken down, there was paperwork to do.

It was weirdly comforting to know that after the end of the world, at least paper-pushing had remained the same.

[the_merriest]

"I love you," she said quickly. That always came first, in case the reception cut out again. "I love you, I love you, I love you. I hate everything else in the known universe, though. How are you?"

[raspberryturk]

"E muja oui, duu," Reno replied easily. If he didn't get anything else into the conversation, at least he'd gotten that much, in. And a chicky-boom. that had seemed important. "I'm tired. Kinda... confused about some junk, but that ain't too big a deal. What's up that's got you hatin' everything, babe?"

[the_merriest]

"People," she said dismissively. "People being stupid. You'd think I'd be used to it, and I was, but I'm not any more, so I have to get used to it again."

Such as, 'some people do, in fact, care about your eyes. And will say so.' That was a painful one to relearn.

"What are you confused about?"

[raspberryturk]

"Wish I was there," Reno sighed. Because if he was there, he could hug her until it stopped sucking so much. And then he could stab stupid people in the faces. Which would make it suck significantly less. Yes, indeed.

"It ain't such a big deal, that thing I'm confused over. Fandom stuff, bein' Fandom, you know?"

[the_merriest]

"Wish you were here, too," she sighed. "You smell good and you cuddle really well and you would probably have punched a few people by now."

Rikku was very, very good at ignoring the slurs. Sometimes, she hated that she was.

"Tell me anyway," she insisted. "I wanna hear. Even if it's something really stupid. You could read the phone book and I'd wanna hear your voice right now."

[raspberryturk]

"There'd be a lot of jerks on Spira lookin' for their first set of dentures," Reno agreed, leaning back into the lumpy couch that he was starting to think of as close to home as it gets, anymore.

"It ain't really stupid, I guess. It's just... Awkward. More'n awkward. You know how Fandom likes to pull people from different times, even outta the same place? So that people there run into people there that they know, but one is older'n he should be, or stuff like that?"

[the_merriest]

"Sokka's sister wasn't really his sister," she nodded. "I mean, it was his sister, but ... his sister was back home. So was her brother, for her."

Fandom enjoyed messing with people's heads, apparently.

[raspberryturk]

It really, really did, yeah.

"Right. Just like that. There's a new kid this semester, comes from Midgar, too. Worked for ShinRa."

Which kind of hinted right there that the kid wasn't really from the here and now. After all, there wasn't much of a ShinRa left.

[the_merriest]

Wasn't much of Midgar left, either.

"So ... he was a co-worker?" she asked. "I mean, kinda-sorta. You were on the same side, at least, right?"

[raspberryturk]

"Well, yeah. He was in SOLDIER, yoto." There was a long pause, and then Reno dropped his voice just enough that he couldn't be heard by any large, bald men who might be lurking in other rooms. "He was a close friend of Tseng, actually."

That was a weird thing to say. Typically, 'Tseng' and 'friend' didn't go in the same paragraph, let alone in the same sentence, in the same context.

[the_merriest]

"Oh." Rikku leaned back and folded her arms behind her head. It was really cozy, hanging out on the roof like this. The wind whipped around, and you could watch clouds sail by, and best of all, most people left you alone. "So he's a friend of a friend. That's good, right?"

Had to be something she was missing, or else this would just be 'hey, neat, one of Tseng's friends is at Fandom now.'

[raspberryturk]

"Did I ever mention the member of SOLDIER that Tseng had us all searchin' for, a few years back?"

It was a neat little segue, Reno supposed. It lead nicely into the next bit. "The one the infantry found, first?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku winced. "Yoooooooou did, yeah," she said gently. "If it's the one I'm thinking of, he, uh. Didn't ... survive the infantry, right? Yeouch."

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah," Reno sighed, grabbing a lumpy cushion from the other end of the lumpy couch to use as a lumpy pillow. If he reached for the snoring ferret next, he'd have the closest approximation to Cuddle Configuration V that he was going to be able to manage for a while. "I didn't fly the chopper fast enough, or whatever. We heard over the shortwave that they destroyed one of the targets, and they presumed the other to be dead."

Deeeep breath, Reno.

"I don't know what the hell to do, Rikku."

[the_merriest]

"You can't save everyone," Rikku said with a sigh. "You can't. I blamed myself for Tidus, and for Hamlet, and for Keyakku, and everyone that died at Home, and I almost broke reality trying to get one of them back. But it's not ... I mean, there's grief, and guilt, but in the end you can't save everyone. That's just how it goes."

She shook her head, staring at the clouds, wishing he was there. He needed a hug even worse than she did. "I'm so sorry."