The Causeway, Monday Evening

[raspberryturk]

Well. This was it. After a day of packing and a year and a half of a bloody island having its way with the contents of Reno's head, it was time to leave. Home. There was a chopper waiting on the other side of the walk across the Causeway, and Reno found himself dreading it.

Sure, it had taken some doing to cram the last of his stuff in there. They'd had to take apart the ferret cage, and there was no way all of the clothing Reno had picked up while he was here was going to fit. So he'd just tossed it out in front of some second-hand joint on the mainland in a garbage bag, and now he was wearing a cowboy hat and standing around with a ferret perched on one shoulder, a backpack filled with pink notebooks on his back, a cardboard box with two cactus plants in it under one arm, and a shiny yellow blanket stashed under the other.

It was totally a security blanket.

"So, Mako. If a fool is the kinda person who sacrifices himself for his job, what does that make me?"

The ferret simply blinked at Reno, once, honked, and then started chewing on the Turk's ear.

"That's what I thought, too."

[And that's that. Reno is on his merry way- Open for anyone who cares to wish him good luck, or for anyone else planning on leaving the island this evening.]

Comments

[bitchprince]

"Reno," Arthur called, as he made his arrival after scouting the island for some locations for the reserve.

He was always on the job. "Any last words?"

[ beyond x-treme sp omg *collapses* ]

[raspberryturk]

Reno considered for a moment, and then shot Arthur a wry grin.

"Yeah. Talk me outta this."

He was mostly joking, really. But the whole leaving thing kind of really sucked. A lot.

"An' call me, yo. As soon as you figure out that Blackberry of yours? Lemmie know how the reserves are goin', or I'm gonna go nuts."

[Sleeep, yay!]

[the_merriest]

This was a fidgety Rikku. One who kept staring at the Causeway like it was going to just ... start eating people.

It did. It ate people and then she never saw them again, and this time, it was her. And him. Both. And separate.

"I can't do this," she said softly, folding her arms around herself.

Petey was in a carrier at her feet, yowling. She probably shouldn't take him to Spira, but she couldn't give him up. He was her sunshine.

[raspberryturk]

"Ain't really home, is it?"

Reno walked over to her, taking a deep breath. He didn't want to leave yet, dammit.

"I keep thinkin' maybe I'll stand here long enough, an' someone'll jump outta the bushes goin', Surprise! Just jokin', you really flunked an' gotta stay another year, zoto."

[the_merriest]

"My home's a pile of ruins in the sand," she said, not looking up. "I watched it burn. We lived on an airship for a while, but that's not a home. Here was my home, but I can't stay. So I don't ... know that I even have one."

Staying another year sounded heavenly. But it only delayed the inevitable.

[raspberryturk]

"You an' me both," Reno noted, sighing and lifting the shoulder that wasn't balancing a ferret on it. "I get to hang out under the shadow of mine. And I helped cause that shit. So I don't even get to complain."

Awesome, between the two of them.

"Here's home. Kinda figures, we don't get to keep it."

[the_merriest]

"That sounds so final." She shook her head. "Like hey, it's inevitable, nothing stays, nothing lasts ... do you really believe that?"

[raspberryturk]

"That nothin' lasts?" Reno considered for a moment, and then shrugged. "I dunno. I'd say the only thing I ever knew of that really was final was death, but even that turned out to be some kinda fantasy, yo."

The Sephiroths and Seymours of the multiverse never did stay dead. Not to mention zombies. And vampires. And a whole slough of junk that Fandom had introduced Reno to.

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

Jamie found Reno at the Causeway. A causeway he'd soon be crossing himself.

"I guess this is goodbye, isn't it Reno?" Jamie said. Wistfully.

[raspberryturk]

"Looks like it is, yeah," Reno agreed, frowning as he looked down the length of the Causeway yet again.

He didn't wanna.

"It's been good while it lasted, though. Can't say I regret comin' here, yo."

[the_merriest]

"I don't like this Causeway," Rikku huffed. "You say good-bye here and it's only supposed to be temporary but the things happen and I hate it. Nothing lasts, except you lose people. I can't ..."

Why was that final, if nothing else was?

Rikku hated everything. Ever.

[raspberryturk]

Reno looked at her carefully for a moment, and then nodded a little.

Goodbye. That was always seemed pretty final too, didn't it?

"You got my phone number?"

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"There will be other times," Jamie replied. "At least for some. For others we may never cross paths again."

[the_merriest]

His. Phone number. They'd stay in touch. And. She was shaking her head viciously. No.

Not because she didn't have his number. But because she was going to grab the front of his jacket and kiss him like she was drowning.

"I'm not losing you," she said fiercely. It was a battle cry, maybe. It sounded like mine.

[raspberryturk]

"Damn," Reno mumbled under his breath, "an' I thought I was a pessimist."

He tilted his head, and then he shrugged again. "But there's always homecoming, for those of us who don't go an' get hit by a bus or whatever. Me, I'll do my damnedest to not get eaten by somethin', yo. After all, someone's gotta head back here to spike the punch at least once a year."

[raspberryturk]

"Mmnhph?" It was difficult to kiss and not drop everything he was hauling along with him, but somehow, Reno managed.

And then he grinned, leaned forward, and stole another kiss. Because he could.

"You ain't losin' nothin'. I'll call you every night we can both get a signal, yo. Send you pictures of me runnin' around Edge naked or somethin'. I'll be meetin' you in Spira quick enough, yoto."

He would. He would, dammit.

[withoutverona]

"... this is it, then," Romeo said, not bothering to hide how upset he was. It wasn't helpful, but Romeo's emotions tended to be more powerful than they were reasonable.

[the_merriest]

"Right," she nodded. "We stay in touch. I'm gonna write letters every night I don't get a signal. If you need me, I'll come running. This is just until we get things settled down, one place or the other. This isn't ..."

Another kiss. A quick one. "I'm gonna stop being so damn fatalistic. You're not going to slip away, because I won't let you. Spira's going to get better, because I'm going to punch people in the faces if they don't behave. I have you, and I have Yunie, and I have Petey. That's another kind of home."

[raspberryturk]

Eh. Reasonable was freaking overrated, anyhow.

"This is it," Reno agreed. "I mean, until I hit up Tokyo to harass you an' your girl, or you swing by Gaia, or homecoming. Just 'cause that 'g' word sucks don't mean it's gotta be forever, right?"

Unless something ate him?

[raspberryturk]

"That's a good way of seein' it," Reno decided, leaning in just enough to kind of rest his cheek against hers.

He didn't really have hands free at the moment. But that seemed more intimate, anyhow.

"E muja oui. Too damn much to slip anywhere. This ain't goodbye, it's just 'see ya soon, yo.'"

[the_merriest]

"E muja oui, duu," she agreed, nuzzling in against him. "Soon. Very soon. We've got promises to keep, that's all."

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"I hope that happens, Reno," Jamie said reaching out for a manly hug. "I really hope it does."

[raspberryturk]

Hey, Reno was fine with manly hugs, under the circumstances. Mostly. His arms were a little full, so it was mostly a sort of awkward lean against Jamie.

"Take care of yourself out there, man. You need any help, don't hesitate to call. I'll find some way to cross the friggin' multiverse, if you need it."

If anyone needed it, really. They were all family, or something like it. Dammit. He was getting soft.

[raspberryturk]

"That's right," Reno agreed. Something to atone for. And no idea where to start, except that he had to start somewhere. "I'll dig up them blueprints for the Highwind, if I can get my hands on 'em. See if there's any way we can use 'em for the Fahrenheit. Been makin' that promise way too long. Time to make good on it, yo."

[the_merriest]

"I'll talk to Pops, about how the plant-stuff worked at Home," she nodded. "We didn't have soil, so we had to be growing crops somehow. And if Pops doesn't know, I'll .... ask Gippal."

Gippal was an annoying dick, but he did know a lot about the machina from Home, and she was willing to put up with him being lame if it meant helping out Gaia.