Room 308, Saturday Morning

[the_merriest]

Rikku didn't want to wake up yet. It was warm and cozy under the covers, and just the sort of morning where you wanted to snuggle and be lazy and stay in bed all day. Or at least until it was early afternoon.

But there was knocking, at the door. Dang it. Rikku tried telling herself that it wasn't important, and whoever-it-was would come back, and she could pretend she hadn't woken up for the knock, but maybe it was important, and maybe they'd just keep knocking until she answered, and maybe just going to the door and answering it would mean they'd go away faster than if she kept laying here arguing with herself, and this whole argument had woken her up anyway.

So. She wriggled out of bed, trying not to wake the sleeping Turk, and tiptoed over to open the door.

(for the wee ones and reno, or if anyone wants to poke their heads in, afterwards)

Comments

[weetinyturk.livejournal.com]

The door didn't get a chance to open very far before a little boy launched himself forward to attach himself like cling-wrap to Rikku's leg.

He would have said something, but really, he got his expansive vocabulary from his taller, balder father, and he figured the hug just about said it all anyhow.

[the_merriest]

Rikku. Was.

She recognized that wee mop of hair and and and Rikku was trying very, very hard not to start crying.

She dropped to her knees to stare at him for a few seconds, brushing the hair out of his eyes, and okay, so much for not crying, because she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Rede?" she asked, her voice shaking.

And then she was going to wrap her arms around him and squeeze like he might disappear if she let go.

[raspberryturk]

Saturday morning. Week sucked. Prom was good. Night had been late and awesome and there had been teeth. Sleep time, now. So, so sleep time.

Knock at the door? Reno could ignore that. Bah, doors. They were stupid anyhow. He'd roll over, and hide under the covers, and the door person would go away. Yeah.

Or Rikku could get it. Yeah. That'd wor-

"Rede?"

Oh, you had better believe he was sitting up like a bolt, just then.

[weetinyturk.livejournal.com]

Rede didn't mind the squishy hug one bit. He hadn't had a hug quite this squishy in a year, and he'd missed it, and he was going to snuggle his face into Rikku's shoulder and not sniffle.

Turks didn't sniffle. Not even if his Reno and his Rude had told him it was okay to, sometimes. He was pretty sure they were just saying that to be nice.

"Hi," he said, because he really couldn't think of anything else to say.

[the_merriest]

The "hi" was what did it, was what finally got her eyes to leak. Rede.

The one kid that wasn't hers at all, last time, but had called her Mom anyway. Because he'd needed a Mom and he'd gone back to the lab with a gun and a prayer and he was alive.

Rikku pulled back so she could swipe at the tears with the back of her hand. And then give him a firm kiss on the forehead and smile at him.

"Hey, kiddo," she said gently. "Good to see you again." She couldn't say how much.

[raspberryturk]

Reno had pretty much tumbled out of bed in a mess of bedsheets by that point, and he was scrambling across the room to meet them. He'd heard Rede's voice, it wasn't some kind of cruel joke, the boy was alive, alive and he hadn't sent him running off to die or anything, and and and...

Well, at least one of the Turks in the room wasn't going to sniffle. Because Reno was failing horribly at holding back the waterworks.

"Oh, shit, kid..."

[weetinyturk.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. That was totally the younger Reno. The one Rede had met when he finally got out of that basement wasn't quite so... Huggy.

Rede managed a little 'oof' as Reno joined the group hug, and then glanced between Rikku and the redhead, wide-eyed.

"The portal came back," he explained. On the off-chance that they hadn't somehow realized this. And then he snuggled up against Rikku some more. "I wanted to say hi."

And he had. See? Mission accomplished.

[the_merriest]

More swiping at her eyes, here. Okay. Good. Right. "Hiya," she said, reaching up to smooth his hair back. "It's real nice of the portal to bring you back again. Are you ... i-is everything okay?"

There wasn't really a good way to ask, 'so, how did you survive, anyway?'

[weetinyturk.livejournal.com]

Rede nodded a little bit and offered a smile up to Rikku.

"Reno never changes his phone number, ever. Rude says it's bad form for a Turk, but it meant that I got through to him, after..."

... Well. He wasn't going to actually go into detail about...

He squeezed his eyes shut and snuggled some more. That was better, anyhow.

[the_merriest]

Rikku pulled him close and placed her lips on the top of his head. Okay, she might have been rocking him a little. So sue her.

"After you did what you had to do," she said gently. "Just like a Turk."

[raspberryturk]

"Damn fine Turk," Reno agreed, nuzzling into the both of them.

Rede was alive. He could sleep at night, not worrying that he'd sent his own blood off to get killed by Hojo or worse.

And, just as important, Rede was alive and he seemed okay.

Reno wasn't going to get many words out while he was having this revelation, really. He was going to just hang on for dear life.

[startswithanr.livejournal.com]

"Hug pile!" Ruba yelled happily. She liked hug piles! The door was open so she was just going to fling herself onto it. This mostly meant tackling Daddy's back, but he wouldn't mind. He said that Ruba-hugs were awesome hugs an' Daddy wouldn't lie about that.

[raspberryturk]

"Hug pi-OOF."

Reno was still sleeping, wasn't he? No, wait, he'd thought that last year. The day after prom. Well, duh, then.

"Ruba!" See, he was capable of putting his sniffles away in the blink of an eye. Turk Power. And hug pile power. Hug piles were pretty potent things, after all. "Been a while, kiddo!"

Well, to him, anyhow.

[startswithanr.livejournal.com]

"Nuh-uhhhhhh," Ruba insisted. "I saw you this mooooooorning. Just afore the glowy thing."

Obviously, if she had seen him, he had seen her. Four-year-old logic at its best.

Ruba was now going to wrap her arms around Rede's back, as well. "Hiiiiiii."

[weetinyturk.livejournal.com]

Rede blinked, but he remembered this sort of thing clearly enough from the last time he'd been here.

"Hi," he said, kind of shyly, as he craned his head around as best as he could manage in order to see his mysterious assailant.

Puddle-girl! "I missed you, too," he decided. If only because she was the best puddle-splasher that the world had ever seen.

[the_merriest]

Rikku was going to lean over and kiss Reno on the cheek. She could breathe again. Rede was okay. He was alive. And Ruba -- okay, Rikku needed to reach out and scoop Ruba up close and nuzzle her.

Without letting go of Rede, dammit.

"I missed both of you," she sighed.

[raspberryturk]

It was right about that point that Reno realized that he was standing by the wide-open door in his underwear with Rikku's bedsheets wrapped in a knot around his leg.

...

"So! How's about daddy gets some clothes on, and then we go for breakfast or somethin'?"

Breakfast would be an excellent excuse to catch up. And such.

Just as soon as Reno could pry himself from the kids. Pants could wait for another moment of squeezy hugging.

[the_merriest]

"Mommy should ... get dressed too," Rikku decided, standing up and shutting the door.

She had her PJs on, but PJs were not really Go Out In Public clothes. Even if they were a step up from Reno's underwear-and-bedsheets approach to fashion.

[weetinyturk.livejournal.com]

Rede had to take this suggestion into serious consideration.

...

"Waffles?"

Look, waffles were serious business for a young Turk. And Rude made very good ones. But Rude wasn't here. Which was fine. He had faith in Rikku's ability to make waffles, too.

[the_merriest]

He was a Turk, and a very fine Turk at that, and he was mature and big and absolutely did not need Rikku scooping him up and giggling and planting kisses on him.

He was just going to have to suck it up and deal, then.

"Waffles," she agreed. "As many as you like. And you can tell me all the silly things your dad does around the house."

[raspberryturk]

Well, if Rikku was going to heave Rede up into her arms, then Reno was going to have to do the same with Ruba, dammit, just because he could. And maybe hiking up her shirt just enough in the process so that he could blow raspberries on her bare tummy while he was at it.

Because he was kinda mean like that.

"Yeah, 'cause I'm sure we all wanna hear about Rude scratchin' his ass in the kitchen," Reno laughed a little. Because Rude was totally the dad that did silly things.

... Even if that kinda made him the mom. Uh.

[startswithanr.livejournal.com]

Rikku was going to tease him about that later. Being the Mom. And probably the little spoon, to boot.

For her part, Ruba was giggling and squirming and pulling on Reno's hair.

"Heyyyyy," she declared suddenly. "I wanna ride."

On his shoulders. Where else?

[weetinyturk.livejournal.com]

Rede liked it when Rikku scooped him up and gave him kisses. But he was a Turk, so he wasn't going to admit it. Honest.

"Can I have a ride too, please?"

Because watching Reno flip Ruba up onto his shoulders like that, he decided that it looked fun.

He was starting to learn the meaning of the word. Even if his own dads back home had weird notions of the word. Like wrestling and breaking stuff. Reno was Reno, no matter where you went.

[the_merriest]

"You bet you can," Rikku said, although that meant she had to set him down. (Reluctantly. And with another kiss on the top of his head first.) "But I think we should swap for that one."

She reached over to scoop Ruba up from Reno. She was wee, Rikku was tiny, and Rede would probably have an easier time of it on Reno's shoulders. Right? Right.