Room 429, Sunday Evening

[raspberryturk]

Still in his brother's room, still attempting to make heads-or-tails of the purple prose mess that was his twin brother's diary, Rone was starting to suspect that Reno was not just a romantic, he was a stupid one

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[the_merriest]

There was a Rikku, knocking at Reno's door. Because.

"I need to talk to someone," Rikku announced to the hallway. "Things just aren't right. This whole weekend is making my head hurt. And radio last night said the weirdest things! Maybe Reno knows what's going on?"

Rikku glared at the empty hall. "This can stop any time now, Fandom."

[raspberryturk]

Well. So much for another long stretch of reading. Rone cursed under his breath and tucked the diary away into the pocket of his suit, standing and heading to the door.

Yeah, sure, Reno would know what was going on. Locked and tied and dead in the closet like he was.

"What about things not being right?" Rone pulled the door open and frowned.

And then he got himself a good look at what must have been his brother's girl.

And then he wasn't frowning, anymore.

"Well, hello there."

[the_merriest]

"Hi," Rikku said, blushing. "I, uh. I was ... talking to myself? I've been doing that all weekend. I just announce what's going on to the hallways and the counterpeople at Chilly Boulder. That's where I was yesterday, having ice cream with Dawn. I'm so glad she's back in town for the weekend. You see? I can't turn it off."

[raspberryturk]

"You don't usually talk that much?" Rone wouldn't have been surprised if she did, really. All the cute, girly types were prone to talking and never shutting up. "Must be one really special sort of weekend, huh?"

The sort of weekend where your man's twin kills him for his fortune, and then decides to set his eye on his girl, too. That sort of weekend.

Really special, that.

[the_merriest]

She rolled her eyes. "Not nice of you to tease me," she said lightly. "No, I mean ... the whole, gratuitous exposition deal. I keep explaining things. Things everybody already knows. Like I'm doing now. Has anything weird happened to you, this weekend? The radio mentioned your name and then it was just static. I lost the station for a couple of minutes. Really strange timing on that. Sounds like a bad plot, you know?"

[raspberryturk]

"The worst," Rone cooed, stepping forward to lean against the doorway.

It gave him a better look at some of his brother's less monetary assets. Niiice.

"Plots don't come as bad as this one, you know. We really ought to do something about that."

If she didn't have any ideas, he would happily suggest a few.

[the_merriest]

She was blushing again. Damn him anyway.

"Can I come in?" she asked. "Not like that. I mean. I know we're not ... we're only sort of ... that it's messy? Because of last weekend, when you went home to Gaia and blew yourself up, and how you don't know where you stand with the Turks? So we're ... you know."

Awkward gestures could take the place of exposition. Good to know.

"But I need to talk and everything's crazy and you said ... it was okay, us being friends, and I could use one. A friend. I swear I'm not doing this on purpose."

[raspberryturk]

"Baby, you know you're welcome to come in here anytime," Rone said, stepping aside and gesturing into the room. "Talk all you want."

He wondered if maybe she would stop talking if she did come in there.

He wanted to find out.

And if it was messy over some fool thing that his idiot brother had done last weekend, then damn, he was certainly the man to fix it. After all, if anyone was good at dealing with blowing up Reno, it was Rone.

[the_merriest]

"You don't mind?" she asked, relieved as she stepped through the doorway and looked around.

It was okay to sit on his bed, wasn't it? No reason it shouldn't be. Just a bed. Just sitting. Good, then.

"I'm just so confused," she said. "My roommate, Ella, she's not acting like herself at all. I keep talking out loud and going on and on about stuff everyone knows. And I don't know what's up with us. We went to Homecoming and it was wonderful and I wish everything could be like it was but I'm not sure any more if it can. Maybe I'm thinking too much. Maybe everyone's gone crazy. What happened to you, anyway?"

[raspberryturk]

Taking a seat right beside her, Rone licked his lips and listened to what she had to say.

Well. He made the motions of listening. He was looking, more than anything else.

"It wasn't anything to worry about," he stated, and maybe if he fudged it a little, he could just apply that to the whole mess of words she'd just dumped at him. "I have it handled. If you want it like it was, then we make it like it was. If the world's gone crazy, maybe all we have to do is ignore it for a while."

Why yes, he was, in fact, leaning. Why?

[the_merriest]

She pulled away, hesitantly. "You know it's not that easy," she said. Softly.

She was seriously amazed that there wasn't more to that. Which is how she jinxed it.

"I've ... never really been okay with your job. And I'm not sure what that means. And ... if I close my eyes and kiss you? I'll forget everything and I'll stay here tonight and that won't ... help. It just won't."

Could she please stop thinking about how much she wanted to? That'd be nice.

[raspberryturk]

His hand was reaching for her shoulder, and he gave a little shake of his head, his voice dropping low, his eyes on hers.

She had some pretty entrancing eyes, he had to admit. Almost as easy to look at as the rest of hers.

"We can let it be that easy. Fall into one another's arms. Get lost in everything you wanna let happen when you close your eyes." He smiled. "The old Reno's gone now. We can start wherever you want to, baby."

And he wasn't even lying.

[the_merriest]

"And what happens tomorrow morning?" she said, letting out a frustrated sigh. "I can't ... we'll wake up and we'll start this whole fight all over again. I don't want to fight. I don't ... I don't know what I want."

That last bit might not have been entirely true, and she had to drop her eyes and blush harder. Damn him anyway.

[raspberryturk]

"I want you," he decided, right there and then. His hand reached up to cradle her chin with one finger, and he leaned close enough that he could feel her breath against his lips, warm and sweet and irresistible.

There was just something perfect about stealing his brother's life away. Something oddly fitting about taking his money and his name and his pedigree albino ferret, and then topping it off with his life and his girl, as well.

"No fights. No job. Just you. And me."

And then he closed the distance between his lips and hers.

[the_merriest]

She shouldn't -- she -- but they --

Rikku sighed and fell into the kiss. Warm. Real. Hers. The hell with everything that wasn't here. The hell with tomorrow morning. His lips were teasing hers, and his arms were safe, and she wanted to drown.

Could they? Drown?

[raspberryturk]

They could. They could drown in one another, Rone and the girl with the crazy eyes, the one his brother wrote about in what was practically a novella, on a stolen bed in a stolen room, while he reached for the bottom of that shirt of hers and made to push her back onto the bed.

Couldn't kiss her hard enough. Couldn't take her soon enough.

All to himself.