MHA #1, AKA Reno-and-Rikku-Land, Thursday Night

[the_merriest]

It felt weird using a key, because she'd been gone for like a month or so (... she thought? Really, she'd lost track, oops) and that seemed rude to just burst in? But it also seemed weird to knock at a place where you lived since you lived there.

She settled for using the key but jingling it really loudly, like, thumping it around in the lock a whole lot. As if she was the least efficient burglar ever. Except burglars didn't use keys. So the least efficient burglar that had a lockpick that resembled a key ever.

(just for the turk, zoto! i am feeling somewhat better, and so miss rikku is back :) )

Comments

[raspberryturk]

Reno's feet? Propped up on the living room table. Reno's hands? Clasped behind his head. Reno's attention?

Firmly on the door when Rikku opened it, regardless of those other outward signs of ambivalence. There weren't many people who had the keys to the door, after all, and there were even fewer that he was expecting to see come home any day now.

Give him a few more moments, and he'd relocate the small menagerie of housepets that were sharing real-estate on his chest, trying to sleep. You know. Once the burglar with keys opened the door and he was absolutely certain that it was Rikku at the door and that he didn't have to beat up the landlord or something.

[the_merriest]

Okay! Enough fiddling with the lock. She swung the door open and was greeted by ... her favorite Reno ever, propped up on the couch. And oh! The housepets, snapping to attention at various speeds!

Uh-oh.

Mako woke up first, and scrambled off Reno's chest, diving towards her toes because they were obviously something new and interesting and had amazing smells going on. Petey dove after him, still half awake, not entirely aware that Rikku was home. Nor that he was digging his claws into Reno's chest in order to get a good head-start. The important thing was that he had to chase Mako. Duh.

And that was when Bob the duck began bleating and flapping his wings into Reno's general face-and-torso area. Because the others were being noisy and he didn't like it.

Well.

That was certainly ... uh.

".... Hi?"

Oops?

(MOD WITH PERMISSION ♥ ♥ ♥)

[raspberryturk]

See Reno. See Reno get off his ass. Go, Reno, go!

... While grabbing hold of the duck by the body and trying for the life of him to not be flapped half to death. The bloody Petey-streaks down his chest, he could ignore. The feathers up his nose, not so much.

"Missed you," he intoned, from behind a violent blur of angry bird. "Yep. Missed-" Pbbth. Ugh, feathers in the mouth. "-You bunches, sweetheart."

[the_merriest]

Rikku managed to shut the door before it became too obvious that she was choking back a grin. She hoped. Petey had flopped onto his back and was wriggling in a way that suggested he had finally realized that she was home!!!!!!!!!!!! and might even have processed that she had been away for a couple of hours or something, and so she had to nuzzle the shit out of him while she got herself under control.

"You, too," she said. "Sorry I didn't c-call more? The satellite was cranky and --"

She had just about managed it when she stood back up, cradling Mako in her left hand and tossing her bag to the floor with her right, when she spotted Reno, standing behind BOB THE VERY CRANKY BIRD RIGHT NOW OKAY BOB WAS NOT HAPPY AND BOB WANTED YOU TO KNOW THAT.

And at that point, she burst out laughing so hard she almost dropped Mako.

[raspberryturk]

Dammit, Bob. There was a reason that Reno had wanted to call you "Dumbfuck."

Dumbfuck Duck. Had a nice sort of ring to it, here.

"Thanks, babe," Reno sighed, grabbing one of Bob's wings, tolerating some more angry mallard quacking, and eventually wrestling the bird to a slightly more secure position under one armpit. "Here, you hold him."

Reno still wasn't entirely certain why he let the wild damn duck live in his apartment, here.

Or why he continued to feed it.

[the_merriest]

He could probably forage in the wilds of the kitchen by now. Actually, Rikku wasn't entirely sure why they kept Bob, either. He just sort of grew on her. Like a fungus.

"Sorry, sorry," she said, sheepishly. She popped Mako onto the coffee table with a quick kiss on his head, as if to say "no hard feelings," and was by Reno's side a split second later, trying to negotiate the transfer of duck holdings. "C'mon, Bob, stop being such a crankybutt."

That might be a good name for him. Crankybutt.

"No nippings," she scolded, gently. "Are you hurt? I shouldn't have laughed, you just looked --"

She bit her lip. Because she had just thought of something really important, and not to keep herself from giggling again.

[raspberryturk]

"What, like I was gettin' my ass kicked by a duck?" Reno quirked an eyebrow as he dusted himself off, and then gave his shoulders a shrug. "Yeah, yeah, I looked ridiculous, yo. I can live with that."

All-in-all, Reno was generally fairly easygoing about moments where he managed to make himself look like a complete and total ass.

[the_merriest]

Rikku was going to stuff Bob firmly under one arm so she could grab Reno's jacket and give him the kind of "hi, I missed you" kiss that this conversation really should have started with.

Okay, ideally there wouldn't be so much muffled quacking involved, but it was close.

"I think you could totally take the duck," she said, loyally. "Sorry that turned into such a mess. It was boring, and then there were monsters, so that bit was fun, and I totally tried to get you in on the monster bits but that's when the uplink died."

[raspberryturk]

"Kinda figured it was somethin' like that," Reno murmured, grinning a little (and steadfastly ignoring Bob) as he twined his arms around Rikku. Most of Rikku. The part of Rikku that wasn't currently occupied by waterfowl. "We'll get a more reliable means of communicatin' workin' out there yet, if I gotta go back to Edge an' pick radio towers outta the wreckage of Midgar, zoto."

[the_merriest]

"We should steal an airship," Rikku decided, snuggling in. Ignoring the quacking. "Pops's ship is still kinda crappy. I guess Brother found a new one? But who knows if we can get it up and running. I mean, Brother thinks he can but he's not that bright. I'm glad you weren't worried. I probably would've worried. I think I worry more than you. I missed you. Did anything good happen while I was gone?"

Oh, look, Rikku could still talk the paint off a wall. That was good.

[raspberryturk]

Well, it wasn't bad, at least. The walls did kind of look like they could use another coat anyhow.

"Nothin' much happened at all," Reno replied with a shrug. "School's out for a few more days, I'm teachin' another class next semester, rookies show up on the island in two more days, an' none of the pets ate one another while you were away, yo."

That about summed it up, right there.

"There were robot spiders an' shit, and the island's moved to this place that don't believe in shirts," at least he wasn't denying that he looked? Reno had eyes, here. "An' that's about that. The hell does Brother figure he's gonna do with an airship, anyhow?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku shrugged far enough out of his arms that she could let go of Bob.

You know, one of these days, maybe they should take Bob back to the pond and see if he actually wanted to be free or not. Maybe he was secretly pining for his home and all the flamingos. Plus, less feathers.

"So there are pretty naked people?" Rikku asked, perking up. "Can we go look at the pretty naked people? I'm surprised you're not sunburned, yoto. And Brother thinks he would go around sphere-hunting. What he would really do is crash, probably."

[raspberryturk]

"Pretty, half-naked people," Reno stated, because it was a very important distinction to make. "An' sure, we can go look at 'em whenever, yo. At least until the island moves again, yo. Your brother need flyin' lessons before he ends up splattered halfway across Spira?"