Edge, Sunday Evening
Tseng
It had either taken them seconds, minutes, or hours to locate the mangled propeller blade, Tseng wasn't entirely certain. He hadn't been paying attention to time, and time was the one thing that seemed to go on and on. Time, and the rubble, and the smoke, and the darkness above them. It could have been years, for all he knew.
But the blade had been found, and he had gone in one direction, and Rikku in another, and now they were digging like people possessed. Time didn't matter anymore. Either the world would end before they found bodies, or it wouldn't. Tseng didn't even notice the blood oozing from his cracked fingers, or the gravel working its way under his nails as chunks of concrete were heaved aside.
They were looking for two bodies. Two Turks. An arm. A leg. A torso. Anything.
Just so long as they knew for sure before even considering giving up.
Rikku
There were some rare items Rikku kept for special occasions. A healing water here, a three stars there, mix them together and you might have something that can permeate concrete. Something that can Heal someone injured and Revive someone ... worse-than-injured. She didn't know if it could break through concrete or not. But wasting her rare items ... didn't seem like a waste, right now. She could get more. Later.
For now, whenever the rocks cut into her fingers too deeply, when her knees wept and insisted she shift position, whenever she needed to stop and take deep, shakey breaths before continuing to look for Reno's body, she reached into her pouch and took out a three stars, and a holy water, and mixed them up, and tossed the result up into the air somewhere between herself and Tseng. The tiny shower that burst out might reach them. More likely than not, all she was doing was burning rare items to heal some of the scrapes on her knees and fingers. Stupid. Stupid. St---
There was a CRACKBOOM! and the enormous black cloud in the sky ... disappeared.
"Is ... that a good sign?" Rikku said nervously. She couldn't see the two fighters any more.
Tseng
Tseng was looking upward at the sky, too. Really, it was difficult not to. A good sign? A good sign for the world, certainly. It wasn't moving stones, however.
"So it would seem."
He was right back at the stones again, working at the dent they'd made in the heap. And that's when the scrap of black fabric caught his eye, torn away and burned. He grabbed it without a thought, held it to the sleeve of his own jacket...
And his efforts at digging were doubled, right then and there.
Rikku
"Tseng?" Rikku said, hopping up. He'd. Found something? Her heart was in her throat. She wanted to know she didn't want to know she had to know she --
The scrap of fabric. You wear that jacket well, yo. You should be a Turk. But no, because -- because then she'd be under a pile of rubble, too, near a chopper (was that the chopper? she hadn't thought to ask him and no one else might know) and this was real, this was really happening, scarred and burned under twisted metal and she was fighting back a sob.
She dropped down to her knees next to Tseng and was digging furiously, barely feeling the rocks slicing her hands, barely noticing that she was sobbing, now, except that it blurred her vision, stupid tears, but it went nicely with the rain. When did it start raining? Maybe when the sky stopped being scary.
Please, please, something, anything, please ...
Tseng
Tseng didn't even notice as his fingers were torn apart. They were now healing as quickly as he could shred them against the stones.
He didn't notice that much, either.
There was the fabric. Just a scrap. But scraps often led to something else. Another stone, hefted away, and another, and then a hand. The hand was connected to an arm. The arm was almost certainly Rude's, too heavyset to be Reno's, and now Tseng was focused on one thing alone. The rain might as well have not been there, except that it was oddly warm and strangely comforting.
All Tseng could focus on at the moment was the moving of stones. And the hand that connected to an arm. And the arm, which connected to a shoulder. A chest. More rocks
Rikku
A choking noise, in her throat, and she was digging furiously. That was a Turk jacket. That was Rude's hand. Rude. Rude was under here, this was really happening, smashed and buried under concrete and gravel, and what if this arm was just ... an arm, ripped clean out, no hint of where -- no. Stop thinking like that and dig.
"Rude, please," she gasped. He was warm. He'd still be warm, even if he was ... "Hang in there, please, stay with us, Rude."
Tseng
Warm. And another stone. In one piece. And another stone.
Tseng put his fingers under Rude's burned jawline, and he caught himself exhaling a breath he'd been holding for seconds, hours, days, minutes... However long.
"Alive," he reported, because it was something that had to be said aloud. Had to be. And then he moved to the side. Over there. The rain that was falling was oddly comforting now. If Rude was here and alive, then Reno might be the same. He'd be nearby, at least. Those two were practically inseparable.
And Tseng was digging again, through the rain-slicked stones.
Rikku
One hand was clapped over her mouth, and she couldn't control the sobs. Alive. Really. Rude. He -- no time for that, Rikku. And just as quickly she was fumbling through her leg pouch, come on, come on, come on.
She only had eight of them, and they were wrapped extra-carefully, so they wouldn't spill -- not that anything that dark and sludgy was likely to leak, but you couldn't take chances with anything this valuable.
Finally, finally the lid came off and she was crawling towards Rude's face. Don't spill it, don't spill it, don't spill it ...
One of these small black vials had kept her alive after Yunalesca had slashed her clean through. It tasted -- there weren't words for how bad it tasted. But living people could brush their teeth for a week and eventually get the taste off the bottom of their tongues. Dead people couldn't.
"Here," she said carefully, tilting it to his mouth. "Drink. Rude. Please."
Rude
Rude shifted, and then groaned, and then started coughing and spluttering. Somewhere in there he tried to knock Rikku's hand and the X-potion away. "Nasty," he muttered.
Tseng
Tseng was almost smiling as he heard Rude's voice nearby. Almost. One living Turk was better than nothing. Two would be...
Another stone. He'd never known the rain to be so comforting before.
Or perhaps it was the fact that, under the next stone, there was the familiar red flash of hair that could only belong to one person. The back of Reno's head.
"Rikku." He was going to be needing one of those x-potions of hers. Quickly.
Rikku
Rikku glanced up, her heart in her throat. He -- did that mean Reno might be --
He couldn't be. He. He.
She couldn't race over to see, couldn't let go of Rude, choking on his own potion. "Easy," she said, trying not to shake so badly. Hold it together, Rikku. "Rude. We're here. You're okay."
One had reached into her pouch; she'd left all the ones she could find right at the top, in case they needed more. She lifted it, considered the distance, and closed her eyes for one fraction of a second to pray, to whatever might be out there. Please.
And then she tossed the vial in a perfect arc to Tseng.
Rude
"'m fine," Rude choked out, trying to sit up. That didn't exactly work. He sighed and thunked his head back down on the rubble. "What the fuck just happened?"
Rikku
"You were s-stupid and you almost got your stupid butt killed," she said, giving him a very teary version of the stinkeye. "And you would have deserved it for being stupid. So you're gonna shut up and drink the potion and be glad I'm not punching you."
Because she was tempted, and he really shouldn't push her right now.
Tseng
Tseng had caught the potion and was throwing himself into moving enough rocks out of the way to turn Reno over at least enough to get access to his throat. He wasn't thinking, everything was a haze. One of his Turks was certainly alive, and the other was having black sludge forced down his throat. Right now. He hadn't even bothered to check for a pulse. Autopilot didn't allow for things like checking for a pulse. Potion for Reno.
And if Reno was alive enough to taste it, that was his own problem. He was the one who was idiot enough to bury himself under a highway.
Reno
That noise? That noise right there? That was officially the most sour noise Reno had made in a long while. That noise, combined with sounds that could very well be swear words, were possibly some of the best noises ever to come out of Reno's mouth.
Whatever he was saying, it was very much indicative of the fact that he'd just been hauled out from under a highway.
Rikku
Those. Were. Noises meant he was alive. He w-was ...
She couldn't breathe, the sobs choking her, and it didn't really hit her until now that he was dead, would've been dead, really dead, never see you again, never kiss you, never fall asleep in your arms, gone, dead until she heard him gurgle and swear and cough up liquid sludge.
She was going to kiss him until his lips fell off and then strangle him.
First, she had to make sure Rude was still drinking his potion. Because no one in their right mind would want to drink this disgusting swill.
That was how you could tell someone was coming around: they tried to spit it out.
Rude
Rude looked up at her face. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.
Oh, right.
He patted his jacket, pulled a pair of broken shades out of his inside breast pocket, and put them on, even though one lens was missing. Much better.
Then he snatched the vial away from Rikku and pounded the rest of it back. "Go to him," he coughed out, trying again to sit up.
Reno
Reno was perfectly content to be in that dark blackness and there was burning, and now it was just a world of hurt and that nasty shit in his mouth like someone learned how to bottle a hangover and give it a flavor and then ran it through a fucking distiller and he would have liked, very adamantly, to tell the world to fuck off and let him be dead, because at least it didn't hurt so fucking much when everything was black and there wasn't air to breathe and everyone should die, dammit. The lifestream wasn't supposed to have hot-sick in a bottle being put into his mouth and everything was all bright and rainy on his face and breathing hurt and living hurt and it was dark, where he had been a while ago. Dark and quiet.
The first quiet he'd had in a long while.
"Mmmdedgo'way." He wasn't sure he even had hands anymore, but if he did, they were making a lame, painful attempt at beating the nasty shit away from his mouth. Mostly unsuccessfully. Stupid whoever was being stupid and trying to put things in his mouth. Stupid. Ow.
Rikku
Rikku opened her mouth to argue with Rude -- he wasn't fine, he'd just had an overpass dropped on him -- but he was well enough to put his shades on, and that meant at the very least he was all right to leave here for a few seconds. She hoped. Please?
She dropped a hasty kiss on Rude's forehead before hopping up and darting over to -- he -- he was just -- he looked like hell, they both did, and he was almost dead and -- her fingers closed around his sleeve, he was warm and real and alive, and she couldn't see with all these stupid tears, dammit.
"Drink it," she said, her voice shaking, "or I'll make you wish you were dead."
Now would not be a good time to start with her.
Tseng
Tseng watched Rikku make her way over, and then decided that now would be as good a time as any to pass the vial off. This was between Rikku and Reno, for as much as he might have hated to hear that fact even a week before, and she certainly seemed better equipped to get words to ring clear inside of Reno's thick skull.
"I suggest you listen to her, Reno. I've come to learn that she's capable of being more frightening than me."
Tseng stood, regarding the pair for a moment. And then he made his way over to be absolutely certain that Rude understood the fact that blowing oneself up was not typically covered on the company health plan.
Reno
Heeey. The first voice had been familiar in a good way. But things were still bright and they hurt. So he was going to attempt to swat at the nasty-tasting thing again, with the one hand that was actually moving. The other, unfortunately, was still pinned under the rubble. A good deal of him was still pinned under the rubble. This meant that he wasn't going to have any easy sort of escape from the puke they were putting into his mouth and the scary girl that he loved and his hand just fell limp and hit him on the nose.
Ow.
"Meb'h juss' fiv'mor'minnts." Five more minutes. Five more minutes of being dead, and he'd be good, okay?
Rikku
"No," Rikku said, closing her hand around the vial and nudging it against his lips again. "Drink it now. This is not a discussion. This is not a negotiation. Drink it, or I smash your head on some rocks and then I pour it down your throat anyway."
If he didn't still look like hell, if she wasn't still terrified he was going to stop fucking breathing on her, she probably would.
It was not like Tseng was going to stop her, here.
Reno
... The fuzzy orange person was scary.
That was the first realization that Reno made. The one that caused him to, on some level, decide that swallowing the nasty crap was the better of his options.
The other realization was that he'd probably chase that junk down with Everclear. Or nail polish. Or vomit. And it would taste better. And the bright and the loud and the painful was still around, as was the weight on his arm and his legs and everything sucked right then. But he was drinking. Because Rikku was scary.
That was totally Rikku up there. Hey. Lookit that. And he was gagging on nasty. It had to be healthy, some voice in the back of his semi-consciousness supposed, because it tasted like death and Rikku was making him drink it.
He gurgled something not entirely coherent, then, which pretty much summed up exactly what he thought of that. He would have sooner taken the five more minutes.
Rikku
Rikku was completely okay with being scary if it meant he drank. She spared a glance over at Tseng and Rude, to be sure they were both all right, and that Tseng wasn't beating Rude's face in -- because this probably wasn't Rude's fault, she liked Rude, okay -- and then nodded to Reno.
"See?" she said. "Done. Good."
He still looked like hell. Maybe he needed another. She'd never known someone to need two, but then again, he had an overpass smash down on his head. She swallowed past the lump still in her throat and marveled that he was breathing at all. Her fingers brushed some of the hair out of his face, gently.
"Idiot," she said. It was supposed to come out harsh. It didn't.
Reno
"Who?" Wasn't him. Must be Rude. Reno totally wasn't an idiot, and it didn't matter how many times he swallowed, his mouth continued to taste like used motor oil and diseased foot concentrate. No idea why. "Lots'a rocks," he observed, twitching a finger to demonstrate that ... mostly that he still had hands, and that this was a quite fantastic sort of revelation. And also that there were rocks. Lots of them.
Hey. It was raining up here, on the top of the rocks. Hadn't been raining underneath. Kinda felt nice. Better than potion sludge.
Rikku
"You," she said. And there he got a kiss on the nose. It might be kinda wet. She was trying her damnedest not to cry, but there was still a slow leak working its way out. This was still better than sobbing. "Rocks are your fault. You got all world-savey on me. Stop that."
Seriously. She was allowed to bang Rude if he got himself killed being stupid. Kinda didn't work if he took Rude with him. Maybe she'd threaten that emo blonde guy, instead.
Reno
It... took Reno a minute to piece together what was going on, just then.
"M' not all... dead," he said, and it was said in a half-mumble that suggested that he was rather proud of this fact. Something like a preschooler with an unintelligible crayon doodle that just got a place of honor on the refrigerator. Trees with purple and orange spots and red grass that looked like puke and the whole shebang. Not being dead, right now, was the coolest thing ever. He'd put it on the fridge.
Or something.
"World's here?" ... The fridge would kinda suck it if wasn't. He had to make sure. "Can't move."
Rikku
"You can't move because you're an idiot," she said, almost cheerfully. Not crying. Mostly not crying. Success. "I have no idea why you're not dead. World's still here. Overpass, chopper, not so much. There was a scary guy and that Cloud guy took him out and Romeo and Dōjima are helping the little kids and you played with explosives and didn't invite me. I oughta leave you here to dig yourself out."
Because he had scared the crap out of her and later, there would be yelling, on this subject. A lot of it.
Reno
"S'fuzzy," Reno admitted, making a face as his head tried to sort out specifics and his brain fed him the mental equivalent of a dead-station snowstorm. "Can't dig. Rocks. Overpass?"
.... He had an overpass on him. That explained a great deal.
"People're okay?"
Rikku
"Dunno," she said, shrugging. "Kinda ... didn't care. Came here, for you. Thought you were ..."
Couldn't say it. Not even now, when he was okay. Mostly. She hoped. She had to hope. What if the potion hadn't fixed all of it and he was going to just keel over in five minutes and they'd come here to bury him and right now, Rikku hated the fuck out of his job and was going to pinch the bridge of her nose and keep it together. Okay. Keeping it together. Good. Good.
Reno
Okay. Reno was going to attempt to open his eyes. One. Two. Three.
Ow.
Reno was now closing his eyes again and attempting to shift his weight around some. There was pressure on his legs, and he was twisted around all funny, and he still couldn't move one arm- it was probably pinned as well.
"But you came, zoto."
People didn't come, for Turks. It just wasn't done.
Rikku
"Tseng said ..." Deep breath. Deep breath. Couldn't do this. Never realized, before, what it meant. Him being what he was. What happened next time? And the time after that? She --
Couldn't do this. Couldn't breathe. "W-w-we were gonna find ... what we could, to ... y-you deserved a ... a proper ..."
Couldn't say the word. Couldn't. Hold it together, Rikku. She bit her lower lip until she tasted blood.
Reno
One eye. One eye just barely cracked open was enough. It would do. He could kind of get an idea as to what was going on, and he could...
Could...
She looked like hell.
"M' sorry."
He... really didn't know what else to say. He wasn't sorry for what he'd done. He'd do it again, and he'd grin twice as wide before the explosion if he knew for a fact that people would be alright for it. But this- her looking like death warmed over, something. That. His fault. He was sorry for that.
Rikku
Okay, no, not holding it together. Pitching forward and resting her head against his chest and trying to breathe and stupid sobs, ripping through her, and he was sorry but he'd do it again, if he had to. She knew that. He knew that. It was who he was. What he was. And she didn't know any more how much of that she could take. And. And could they please just sit here for a moment and not think about any of that?
Reno
Reno wasn't going anywhere. They could sit here for as long as she needed.
He... couldn't cry, too. He was too sore, too tired, too numb to want to let himself fall apart any more than he had been, all weekend.
But what he could do was lift an arm- the one that wasn't still pinned under the rubble- and he could, with some effort, rest it on her back. And he could move it in little circles. And he could pretend, for that moment, that everything was going to be okay.
Rude
Memories of what they'd just done were starting to filter in, and Rude was just about able to feel his toes again, and now Tseng was there, with an unpleasant look on his face.
Also, it was raining.
He looked up at Tseng and tried to come to attention -- which was difficult, considering that his muscles still didn't seem to want to work, and every raindrop sent tingles shivering through his body.
"Orders?" he asked weakly.
Tseng
"Orders?" Tseng looked hard at Rude for a moment, a solemn frown pulling at his lips. He caught the movement nearby, the motion of Rikku lurching forward and grabbing onto Reno.
He found himself surprised, at that. The whole lot of them had been through hell lately, and the girl was hardly a Turk. She had no real obligation to stick around and pull Reno's idiot ass out of the wreckage. After all, if Tseng himself was hardly in the mood, he couldn't expect a civilian child to be able to deal with this all at once. And yet, there she was, pulling through and pulling Reno through it with her, and for a moment, Tseng entertained the notion that he might have been wrong, before. That perhaps Reno couldn't possibly have done better for himself than Rikku. That maybe, if things could only change...
"Go dig your partner out," Tseng decided. That was an order. They were both alive, they weren't in any danger of dying on them after choking down their respective x-potions. Everything was simply business as usual now. Naturally.
Tseng turned his back on Rude and started to make his way off of the heap of stones. He was going to go stand in the rain.
For whatever reason, it felt more and more like the embrace of a long-lost friend.
Rude
"That might take some... time." Rude grunted, finally managing to sit up. Standing would be another matter, and digging... Well, he'd manage, eventually. In the meantime, he'd just sit here and get wet. Funny how he didn't mind the rain all that much, really.
"Hey, Reno!" he called hoarsely, craning his neck to look at his partner. "Last one to stand up's buying tonight."
The Rain
The rain was falling, glowing and faintly green, cool and soothing. Tseng should stand over here and let the rain wash over him. He worried too much.
Tseng
Worrying was something that Tseng could do quite easily. It was probably one of the things, alongside Turk skill and sheer dumb luck, that kept him alive.
But the soothing rain was certainly doing a good job pushing the worry aside. Like maybe there wasn't any reason to worry, anyhow. The sky wasn't dark, everyone who had been alive that morning was still alive, so far as he knew.
And he had the strangest urge to mutter at the sky.
"Thank you."
It just... felt right.
The Rain
He was very welcome, though he didn't need to say thank-you. Everything was going to be all right, now. The rain had maybe been worried, too. That was a little close, with his Turks, and the rain hadn't been sure it would reach them in time. And had he seen all of this Geostigma? The rain would make a very expressive face for what it thought of that, if it could.
Tseng
Clearly it would.
But it was just rain, after all. Naturally. And rain could only do so much. Water the ground. Cool the air. Heal the dying. Keep a man from losing his mind. Be a familiar face without showing a face at all.
But it was just the rain. Which was why Tseng didn't feel at all like he was stepping over some sort of boundary when, for the first time in his life, he opened his mouth and admitted it.
"I miss you."
Because it was rain. And clearly, the rain wouldn't care.
The Rain
Of course it would. He was being silly again. The rain missed him, as well. Old friends should talk more often.
The rain accepted him. Did he understand that? Maybe, between old friends, comforting silence was just as good as a long chat.
Tseng
She was right.
The rain. Aerith. Aerith, the rain. Was right. Tseng was being... well. He was being a Turk. And it had been entirely too long since he'd taken a moment to be anything but. Before Meteorfall, before AVALANCHE and Zack and a million other things.
It had been all but impossible to just let himself be... himself.
Now was as good a time as any to just be silent and appreciate the company.
Perhaps in spite of himself, he was smiling.
Reno
The chopper was gone, buried under the rubble that was once the WRO's overpass, but the car that Tseng had commandeered had contained enough mako still to get the Turks and Rikku most of the way back into Edge.
From there, it was just a matter of looking around what was left of 'downtown' Edge for the rest of their party.
Reno squinted into the rain, his head swimming as he tried to sort out faces from the crowds. Hey. He was upright. It wouldn't be fair to expect him to be terribly observant, just yet.
Rude
Rude staggered along behind Reno, trying to remain stoic and composed despite the fact that his sunglasses were missing a lens and it felt like the ground was moving underneath him. The rain felt good, though.
"Anyone see the... cavalry?"
Dōjima
Two of the cavalry were headed towards them, holding hands as if it was the only thing holding them up.
It was a good thing that Rikku's bright colors were easy to spot in a crowd. As soon as she was close enough to register who else was standing there with her, Yurika broke into a tired smile. "Well well," she drawled, pitching her voice to carry as she squeezed her partner's hand. "Look what the cat dragged in, aijin."
Romeo
"Lucky cat," Romeo said, a large smile not hiding the exhaustion and confusion in his voice. "Lucky them, to be so dragged."
And then he let out a whoop, dropped Yurika's hand and headed toward Reno, intent on a hug. Did Turks hug? If they didn't, it was just too bad.
Reno
Though Turks typically didn't hug, for the the sake of not being dead, and partly because Reno was still in a bit of a daze, and possibly because he'd hugged damn near everyone else already this weekend, Reno tolerated it. Maybe even hugged back a little. A little. In a truly platonic sorta-
Oh, hell, Reno was hugging Romeo like he was intent on breaking his ribs for a moment there, before he got twitchy and backed off some.
"You guys okay?"
Gaia was big and dangerous and the world had been ending. He was allowed to check.
Dōjima
"We're fine, Red," Yurika answered cheerfully, not bothering to hide her relief at the hug-fest. "I'll be even better once I find some coffee."
Rude
"Coffee," Rude repeated, with a disdainful snort. "I think this calls for something... stronger." Maybe if he drank enough, the world would STOP spinning.
Dōjima
Yurika favored Rude with a smile. "Coffee to start," she clarified, "with a little something extra in it. I'm wet, I'm cranky, and I need something nice and warm to make me resemble a human being again. Otherwise I'm going to reveal my secret witch voodoo powers, and start eating people's brains."
No she wasn't, but it was so damn good to tease him. No one that mattered was dead, so Yurika was willing to call today a win.
Rikku
"A nap," Rikku said, weakly. "Could go for a nap. And then another one."
She didn't actually think she'd be able to sleep, but damn, it sounded nice right now, didn't it? Dragon-killing, fireball, fingers cracked and bleeding on rubble, please excuse Rikku, she was still in shock.
She was just going to put an arm around Yurika, and lean. She was closest and Rikku hoped she wouldn't mind.
Dōjima
"Nap sounds good too," Yurika agreed, sliding her arm around Rikku's waist. She really did not like how exhausted the other girl looked. "Maybe some food, too. It's been a long damn day."
Romeo
"I can't remember the last time I ate," Romeo admitted, reaching for his cigarettes as if that would help his hunger.
He directed his next question, and a curious glance to Reno. "Can we go back to the lodge? We can save talk until our bellies are full and we've rested."
Reno
Reno gave a bit of a nod. Food. Sleep. They all sounded good, to him.
"In a minute," he said, glancing sidelong at Tseng, who had spotted someone in a nearby alleyway and who was headed there to investigate. "We... gotta find the president, first."
He didn't seem so thrilled to be saying that. But it was his job. "You guys can hang tight for just a minute? Or start on without us, even- we'll catch up, yo."
Elena
The President thought she was crazy. Elena was sure of it. She had retrieved his wheelchair and insisted he come out in the rain, because it would help with his Geostigma. She was almost sure that he'd finally agreed because it was easier to get wet for a few minutes and return inside than to shut her up.
She was starting to wonder if she was crazy when a droplet finally landed on the President's hand, mixed with his stigma sore, and began fading it away.
She straightened up, standing at attention. She smiled as Tseng appeared. He looked calmer. Maybe he knew her news already. One victory, in a weekend that had been largely without. It felt good.
Tseng
Tseng nodded the faintest of hellos to Elena as he stepped over to her side, turning to face the president.
Standing on guard for the devil, he mused, and wiped that notion away as quickly as it had come. The rain was still falling. He was still relishing her company. But he was also still a Turk.
Rude
Rude stepped forward and nodded at the president. "Mission accomplished, sir." Nevermind the fact that Rufus hadn't ordered them to blow themselves up and probably took exception to it.
Elena
Elena stared at the other two, not trusting herself to speak. They looked like hell, but they were alive.
She reached into her coat pocket and, wordlessly, held out the pair of sunglasses that Rude given her.
His were looking a little smashed.
Rude
Only a little smashed, what with one lens missing at all. Rude looked down at the sunglasses, and then looked Elena in the eyes and made sure his own were straight. Those were HERS, dammit. She'd EARNED them.
"I'm good."
Reno
"He's good," Reno agreed, sounding more casual and confident at that moment than he really felt. He stepped up beside Rude, looking down at the president in his wheelchair, and he clenched his hands by his sides.
He had never been the sort to worry about what tomorrow might bring.
But now, standing there alongside three other Turks, he couldn't help but wonder.
What now?
[NFI, NFB, Sorry for the plot-spam today, I swear, there's only one more and it's going up tomorrow. Preplayed with the_merriest, fair_montague, dojima_hime, and sarcasm_guy, who all rocked around Midgar like rocking things. OOC? Yummy. Omnomnom.]