Happy Birthday, My Old Friend...
Characters: Tseng and Reno, and later Cissnei and whoever else Reno and Tseng tap who want to show up
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: Someone's having a birthday....
Location: Turk HQ
Date: January 14th (starting in the morning...)
Warnings: The possibility of Reno's foul mouth, Turkish fun.
( The cake is on the table, and it is awfully bright, cuz there's so many candles on top.... )
Three cups were removed from the cupboard, knowing that Cissnei would be up and shuffling around at some point and likely want coffee just as much as he and Tseng. While the coffee finished brewing, Reno fussed about to doctor his own cup to his liking - a little cream, lots of sugar - and left Tseng's alone. He'd never seen the man once put in anything to his cups, and sincerely doubted he'd be changing that routine today. Two cups were poured then, stirring his own to mix the add-ins, and back upstairs he shuffled, careful not to spill. A little tap to the door with his foot let Tseng know he was coming in, and set the door ajar once more - enough for Reno to squeeze back inside and close it with the same foot.
"Back with wake-up juice," he greeted with a little smile, sipping at his sweetened drink. "Hope it's decent. Smells good, at least." He had to admit, the coffee here, wasn't half bad. Better than shinra's office-crap, at least. The mug was passed over, and back onto the edge of the bed Reno sat, waiting for the other man to ready himself for the day.
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Still, he could hardly get everything done in the time in took to make a cup of coffee and thus, while the bed was once again properly made when Reno came in, Tseng was still only half-dressed, though he'd changed his nightclothes for the more usual set of pants and socks to match. But with coffee once again on offer he was more than willing to put the rest on hold for a moment.
"Thank you," he answered with a slight smile. Now the morning could properly start.
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He flashed Tseng a grin at the words of thanks, nodding and sipping at his coffee. "Anytime," he chirped back softly. "How long do we need to keep Cissnei out of the manor? I'll send Zack a text to get him to keep her out."
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"It depends a little on how many we plan to make, and how many the pans we currently have will hold. Do we have the ingredients?"
Because it was best to have what you needed beforehand than find you needed it halfway through the baking process. Or worse, try and come up with a suitable replacement, since that could often throw the whole thing off, if you weren't prepared for it.
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A year older. Joy.
She rubbed her eyes and opened the door to her room after she had completed her morning routine. Her hair was draped over her shoulder in a messy side ponytail and began to walk to the kitchen barefoot. Coffee, she thought desperately. Her footsteps were loud against the cold floor, louder than normal considering that she was still half-asleep. She passed by Tseng's room, noticing that Reno was inside with him. "Close the door you two," she said loudly and somewhat bitterly.
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He drained half his cup before responding to Tseng. "I'm... not sure? Last time I made anything in the kitchen, I nearly burnt down my apartment. But anything we don't have, I'm sure I can get later. Got eggs, flour, sugar, butter, milk, baking cocoa, vanilla, and some other things in the baking section of the store I thought might be needed. And that powdery sugar that I overheard someone say was used to make ic...."
Footsteps. Thank goodness Cissnei was tired. The girl was a ghost otherwise.
"Good morning to you, too, grumpypants!" he called out. "Coffee's in the kitchen, made it a few minutes ago." Coffee - the lifeblood of the Turks.
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Cissnei arrived to the kitchen and poured herself some coffee and a little bit of milk. She really didn't want to talk to anyone, it was too early for that. She simply sat down at the table and sipped on her coffee, looking over the latest news over the network on her Sky Phone.
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Still, he fell silent at the sound of Cissnei's footsteps much like Reno did (and thank Leviathan that she'd actually made noise this early in the morning), turning his attention fully on his own coffee until the sound of her footsteps faded away once again. Better to not have her accidentally overhear anything today, after all. Not if they meant to keep things a secret.
"I'd say at least a couple of hours. More, if we wanted to make sure we had enough time to get anything we may have forgotten."
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"I'll have Zack get right on it. But to get our darling birthday girl out, I'll send her on a few errands. I think, for example, that we're going to need some supplies delivered to us. Food, for one - while I did buy what I think we need for the cupcakes, I know we're low on some other things. Fruit, for example. And cooking oil. And ... We're running low on coal and sulfur." Coal and sulfur? Yup. Reno likes to make his explosives from scratch, and getting his hands on the more complex chemical explosives ShinRa was capable of making, basic gunpowder ones would have to be used. And Reno had made quite a few of the little beauties as of late, testing blends to see what worked best with the composition of both materials excavated in the area.
He tipped his head to the side, standing up and moving to wrap his arms about Tseng's middle while he still hand the chance to touch bare skin - who knew when the next time he'd get that chance would be! - leaning in to nibble lightly along the other man's throat. Playful, and very much teasing. "That should keep her out of here for a few hours. And Zack will contact her in an hour or so to see if they can meet up for coffee or lunch. And he's under instruction to keep her out till I give him the word."
He smiled, brushing lips lightly over the warm skin of Tseng's cheek. "Got it all covered." And since he'd have to leave Tseng's presence soon to get Cissnei out of the manor, forgive him for getting his 'fix' of the other man before having to part.
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"While we're at it, we should consider laying in a basic emergency stockpile. I don't expect we'll be visited by another Lucavi anytime soon, but it would be best to have a few things lying around on the off-chance that we might need them." He'd leave it to Reno to decide what those basic supplies might be. He'd been attacked within his own home once, and he didn't much intend to be so again, even it meant having to make a security system from the ground up. But that, he'd deal with at a later time.
"Zack should be up to the task," Tseng answered somewhat absent-mindedly, as he tried to resist the urge to give in totally to Reno's teasing. He still had things to do, and while he might have been more than willing to disconnect his brain for a good long while, he would still need to get the rest of the rest of the way dressed at some point.
But he supposed he could always blame things on Reno and have it be relatively accurate.
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"I'll go give our birthday girl the bad news that she's going to be the one to pick up our list of supplies while you finish getting dressed." There. Tseng's escape from Reno's amorous advances. At least for the time being. "Though if you should chose not to..."
And before Tseng could react - good or bad - Reno was ducking out of the room with a smile and a wave, heading down to the kitchen where he knew Ciss would be nursing her cup of coffee like it was a miniature god.
"Heeeeey, darling! Beautiful. Sweet, wonderful Cissnei!" Lay it on thick, Reno. She'll know you want something, and you know she can't say 'no' to you. She's like your little sister, after all! But it might take a little persuasion...
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"My lovely Cissnei... I know it's a horrible thing for me to ask this of you, and by all means, you've got full permission to cash in afterward on me, but we're running low on stock of some stuff here, and there's an appointment I -have- to get to today, and Tseng'll rip me a new hole if I don't get it all done by the end of the day, so... if you could get the stuff for me while I'm out?"
Insert a puppy-dog face here, big eyes and a nibbled-on lower lip - he knew he looked pathetic, but that was the intention. Cissnei, however much she hated doing favors for her crazy male counterparts, was much like a mother hen sometimes. If she thought he was that desperate, it'd be less of a fight. "You can have the stuff delivered here, no problem. Just as long as you don't come here to do it yourself. Cuz if Tseng SEES you come here, he'll know it's not me running the errands, but ... but..." What the hell was Reno up to?
Let Cissnei speculate. Reno often had odd ideas for surprises. Perhaps he wanted to get something special for Tseng, and couldn't run these errands at the same time. Maybe there was just someone Reno insisted on seeing? Whatever the case, he knew Cissnei wouldn't pry... yet. She'd wait till the opportune moment.
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"What is it that you need?"
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But Cissnei didn't know that. Yet. Which meant (Reno knew) that she'd likely be irritated that neither he nor Tseng mentioned her birthday, or had anything ready for her. Which meant that he still needed to tread a thin line with her. "Let me jot down a list for you, cuz it's a bit, and it's all sorts of things." And so he found a pad of paper and a pen, and began jotting down the things he and Tseng had come up with - sulfur, coal, fruit, cooking oil, roasted meat (for slicing up! mmm), and some accessories and weapons that would suit the three of them - preferably in necklace or wristband form, since rings had to be far more accurate in sizing. Stockpiling, as Tseng had noted.
When he was done, he looked at the list. It wasn't super-long, but it should keep her outside for a while, and they'd have supplies they needed, too! "Here we go. This is pretty much it."
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"You owe me huge and not just in gil," she said then sipped on her coffee.
This was going to be a very, very long day.
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