towerofanimus | With a thousand lies and a good disguise

Entry tags:

With a thousand lies and a good disguise

Characters: Reno, and any and open!
Setting: Beginning in 1-04 ROOMIES BOTHER HIM, Cafeteria, then the Meadow
Format: Honestly whatever you prefer.
Summary: Reno has been gone six months. The entire Tower has changed. Also, he is wearing the jumpsuit and a bedsheet because SOMEONE TOOK HIS CLOTHES, so characters may not recognize him.
Warnings: Well there might be some cursing... some tearful reunions...

1-04
Coming to consciousness was a sudden affair, sitting up so suddenly it almost cracked his back. No... Not here again, not again...

Not wearing this ridiculous jumpsuit again.

That was when he noticed the orientation of the room and his bed was all wrong... wait, what the hell? This wasn't 2-12. And he was wearing the jumpsuit... muffling a curse, he slammed his fist into the bed, cursing his luck that he'd gotten free of Hell Tower only to get pulled back.

He'd escaped... no horrors, no having to watch the people you care about being tortured... maybe it was selfish, but he didn't think he could take being here again. Especially if... no, they would be here. Had to be here.

Quickly, he jumped off the bed and checked his trunk, only to find it- empty? Empty. Cursing again, he yanked the blanket off his bed and pulled the sheet off to wrap himself in it, leaving an ample hood around his face. The last thing he wanted right now was someone to recognize him and know he was back in the Tower while he was scouting out for clothes.

There was no knowing who else was still in the Tower, after all.
---

Cafeteria

It was a hooded figure dressed in white that snuck out of the elevator, and was it just his imagination or did it take a lot longer than it used to? He would explore later, right now it was probably a good idea to get that damn oatmeal and find some place to hide and think before he faced the Tower again.

Grumbling under his breath, he grabbed a bowl of the stuff and started to head for the staircase again. Then he paused, and went back. Was that beer?

---

Meadow

Still no sign of clothing he could steal, but it seemed to get less important the longer he was here. It wasn't hard trudging up the staircase to the Meadow. He'd done it many times before, and was well versed in avoiding the hazards along the way, even on auto-pilot.

There was this overwhelming, smothering feeling that the Tower had shifted somehow while he was gone. Things looked right, but they didn't feel right, if anything could feel right.

He sat down in the flowers here, holding some wine he had taken from the Cafeteria, wondering when they had started serving alcohol there.

Being in the meadow reminded him... oh, Shiva. Elena... Elena. How long had it been? Weeks? Years? She'd been all alone... Would she even be here?

Somewhere along the way, he had stopped thinking, started forgetting. The wedding; Ruana, and Zo...
Ganondorf's party crashing, the way Elena looked walking along the aisle, Axel, Shion, and Xion.

He needed that drink more than ever.

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Shion moved over to Xion, taking her hand and nodded at her words. "Seven months, give or take a few days. We've only just entered September." He had finally found his voice, though he was still in shock. As if Reno was going to disappear again before his eyes.

It wasn't as bad as he feared, but way more than he thought...

After all that time, he didn't know what to say, not with the kids looking like he'd grown a second head or something. Instead, he just walked forward and grabbed them both up in a hug.

If they ever mention this to anyone he would deny it until his last breath.

There had been many things Reno could have done. He could have pulled out some witty line or comment. He could have said something reassuring. He could have done a lot of other things too. Whatever he could have done, this - what he was doing now - was not what Xion had expected. And the effect it wrought was immediate and pronounced.

Physical contact has always had a rather profound impact on Xion. Mostly good - a hairruffle, or the hand holding like Shion was currently doing, could help her calm down and feel better. Recently Jason's efforts had helped introduce the concept of profoundly bad physical contact, resulting in her being highly averse to people grabbing her upper arms or elbows.

But at the feeling of Reno's arms around her, feeling him solidly there, she couldn't help it. All of her defenses, which she'd been building ever since he'd left, were wiped away in a second.

She'd been acting so strong for so long. Trying to be the solid and unflappable one for Shion, since she knew he needed that so often to help balance out his more emotional reactions. She hadn't always succeded. Many times she'd outright failed.

Every bad feeling, every struggle she'd been keeping to herself, every horrifying memory from the past few months, every time and reason she'd wished he was back all bubbled up in her mind and then she was crying, crying harder than she had in so long.

He was here. He was back. He wasn't fodder for Ruana to use to power up the Tower again. He wasn't going to suffer the consequences of what she and the others had done and not yet been able to correct.

She clung back, refusing to let go for quite a long time.

Shion just blinked as he was pulled into a hug, he heard Xion begin to cry next to him and tears came to his own eyes. Because Reno was here, safe, safer than on his world. But there was so much, so much that had happened. He blinked them away though, because Xion was usually the stronger one, the one who Shion constantly failed to protect.

He tried to pull away, letting go of Xion's hand and wriggling out of Reno's grasp, so Xion could cling properly.

What. Crying. Tears. Xion was crying- oh Shiva, she was crying what was he supposed to do shit.

Reno shot Shion a look that meant, "I will kill you if you leave me alone with her," awkwardly patted Xion on the back gently and swallowed a little noisily.

"Hey, uh... I'm here. It's all right." Though, as soon as he said it, there was a sinking feeling that he was wrong. Something had happened to them while he was gone, and he was going to ask about it as soon as he could. But not now, though. Now was a time to mend. It had been so much harder being alone, than he realized at first...

Something tickled in his throat, making him cough a bit.

Under different circumstances, she might have laughed a little helplessly at his awkwardness. It was so very familiar. So very like Axel and like him. But alas, it was not to be. The pat helped a little, as did the hug itself. At last, she seemed to calm down enough to realize what was going on. She pulled away, wiping at her eyes hurriedly and trying to hold her hiccups in.

Man, she'd really lost control of herself there. Probably not very impressive or Turk-like at all.

"S-sorry," she muttered awkwardly.

It seemed there was still a bit of the young girl in a teenager's body there.

Edited 2013-09-03 21:00 (UTC)

He wasn't going anywhere, Reno might disappear again if he let him out of his sight, not to mention that he wouldn't do that to Xion. Wouldn't leave her.

"You missed a lot." He said quietly looking down, still unsure what he was even feeling.

"Yeah, I figured..." He straightened, mouth forming a thin line. "We can talk about that later." Taking a deep breath, and steeling himself in case of the answer he really didn't want to hear, he asked, "You know were Elena is?"

Xion hesitated visibly, shooting a glance over at Shion. She couldn't meet Reno's eyes though, even when she looked away finally.

She tried to open her mouth, to explain, to apologize, but as soon as she did, all the hiccups she'd been holding back resurged with a vengeance, and she let out a very loud one. With a soft squeak of surprise, she clapped her hands over her mouth. Of all the times to do that!

Shion met Xion's eye, hopelessness clear in his own. He blinked as Xion hiccuped and reached out to take her hand. "Breathe, take deep breaths."

He looked at Reno and braced himself, "She left the month after you did..." He looked down, "I'm sorry..."

Frozen. Time was frozen for the minute he needed to process that. He had thought he was prepared, but... hearing it from Shion, making it real, was an almost too vicious stab in the heart.

The expression on his face shifted slightly, from one carefully neutral to the corners of his mouth twitch in what was supposed to be a smile that did not quite cover the pain he felt. As a result, the effect was more psychotic than reassuring.

"...It's all right, I figured somethin' like that would happen eventually. We had those couple'a weeks..."

No, of course she was gone, after only what... two weeks? Three? They had known the risks, and a part of him was surprised at he was reacting so badly. None of the others, Siira, Rufus, Cloud, even Rude had gotten torn him so completely in two when they had disappeared. Despair welled up, trying to drown him inside.

They would never get the chance again. Even if she came back, with his luck, it would be another Elena... One where they had made the same choices and were always too busy to think of it.

But what did he care?! He was a turk! And he certainly wasn't Veld. He wasn't supposed to have a family that way, or be happy, just do the damn job because that was what he was and he'd never be anything else and they would all die because of duty and save the planet-

All too quickly, the moment passed, and the voice inside his head stilled immediately. The lid was tightly back on his emotions, and his face was back to normal. He frowned now- no, scowled, and folded his arms. "So who's been takin' care of you kids?

Xion glanced up briefly, saw the despair and everything in his face, and it was both terrifying and a match to the feelings she'd felt when she'd found Elena's letter. To the feelings that still echoed slightly even now. Not the same, perhaps, but still there. Still intense, still painful.

She wished she could say something, could do something to help. To make it better. Or at least not hurt as much. But how could she help him when she couldn't really even stop the hurting inside herself?

And then, the moment passes, and it's all business all over again. ... until Reno asks that question.

Xion scowls, half turning away, definitely not looking at Reno now.

"No one," she said flatly, almost bordering on frustration, "We've been looking after ourselves."

She didn't want to think about it. Elena had left. Axel had left. Hei had left. Diarmuid was here but he was not her parent, her mentor, the one she looked up to like that. He wasn't Reno and he himself had said that.

Shion couldn't meet Reno's eyes, too scared of what he saw there, afraid that Reno would give up all hope. It was an easy enough thing to do here.

He squeezed Xion's hand as she spoke. "Hei was, for a while, but he's gone too. He asked Diarmuid to keep an eye on us, but we don't know him that well..."

He looked down.

Xion's reaction distracted him long enough to completely mishear what Shion had said. "Sorry, what was that, Shion?"

"Diarmuid? Don't know the guy..." He reached out to touch Xion on the shoulder so she would turn around, and gave Shion a quizzical look.

The hand on her shoulder makes her sigh a little, some of the tension easing out of her shoulders. After a moment, she rubs at her eyes (she's not crying again but just in case) and looks back. A sudden realization hits her as she calms down a little, and she kicks herself a bit for not thinking of it sooner.

"Neither do we, really," she commented, before adding "Yu's been helping out, though. It's just been... really crazy lately."

Heh. Understatement of the centuary.

Shion nodded, he hadn't seen Yu much at all. "As we said... a lot has happened, and Xion's right, we looked after ourselves for the most part." You taught them well Reno.

Giving them both a good looking over, an eyebrow raised. He wasn't sure how well that worked out just by looking at them, but Shion was wearing his clothes...

"All right... I'm gonna let you guys to keep doing that for a while, and promise me ya don't tell anyone else I'm here. I need some time and I don't want Ganondorf finding out I'm back." He wasn't even going to ask if the Gerudo king was still here; it was his kind of luck that the jerk would be.

It was a good strategy, at least, and he trusted them to keep quiet, because they were turks.

Indeed, while she would have taken his orders seriously in any case, the mention of Ganondorf made a determined scowl to fall over her face. She even stood up a little straighter.

"Got it," she said firmly, her head moving up and down in a faintly jerky nod.

She wasn't going to give Ganon so much as a hint that Reno was back. The fact that she refused to stay in the same room as the Gerudo for longer than it took to leave it helped in that regard, at least.

Shion also scowled at the mention of Ganondorf, "Alright." He nodded, it wasn't like he ever went near him anyways, not unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Um... do you want your clothes back? I have a bunch of your things... the retrieval units dumped them all in my trunk when you left." Some of them had later disappeared with Elena, but he still had a lot.

Glancing down at the skintight white jumpsuit, he shrugged, and looked them over again. "No, not right now." Honestly, after that reunion, it was the last thing on his mind right then. "We'll deal with that later. I gotta take some time to regroup and figure out the situation around the Tower."

Though at the earliest possible convenience he'd take them down to the workshop and see about getting them fitted out. There was more to being a turk than getting a pin, after all.

Xion glanced over at Shion briefly. She'd been wondering when they'd get to this. To what all was different in the Tower since he'd been here last. Dax's death, the glamour, the brainwashing, Jason's true form, the collars, and most importantly, the countdown...

At last, she turned back to him.

"We can help with that, if you want," she murmured, quietly, "We've found out a lot... and how much there still is to find out."

Because before... they'd never really had a chance. Because they hadn't really had any clue.

Shion nodded as well, "We learned more in the last six months than we had in a long time I think." He said quietly, and none of it had been good.

"We can fill you in, but it will take time, and you might want to be sat down..."

"Yeah, I get the feeling I might. We'll deal with that later." But now, he wasn't quite sure what to do. Re-adjusting to the Tower was taking a bit longer than he'd thought. And here he was, thinking he used to adapt pretty quickly to things.

Taking a quick breath, he nodded. "You two keep on like nothing's happened. I'm gonna scout around the Tower, see what I can learn while nobody realizes I'm here. I'm in 1-04 now."

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With a thousand lies and a good disguise

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