Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Mark of the Phoenix ❯ Chapter 7

“Mark of the Phoenix”

Chapter 7

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*Disclaimer: The world that this story is set in and all characters therein belong to Square-Enix. This fiction piece is strictly a non-profit exercise of creativity and entertainment for people (like me) who can't get enough of this world and the characters.*

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“Mmm, you're making this hard on me, toots,” Reno murmured against his lover's mouth as they kissed. Her vehicle was getting serviced in the shop so he drove her to her latest assignment. She was kissing him feverishly and he was sorely tempted to arrange for someone else to take the job so that he could drive Cissnei somewhere private and have his way with her.

 

“Sorry,” she said softly when she finally broke the kiss. “I'll see you in an hour or so, Reno.” She looked into his eyes and smiled at him.

 

“Just give me a ring if you need me to pick you up sooner,” Reno said as he brushed his thumb over her kiss-swollen lips.

 

“I will.” Cissnei kissed his fingers before opening the door and getting out of the car.

 

He watched her walk across the street to the old building she was to meet her contact in and he admired the gentle sway of her hips. He loved the way the Turk uniform molded to her petite curves. With a little sigh, Reno watched her enter the building and disappear from sight. He shook his head to clear it of fantasies concerning himself and his lover and he put his car into gear. As he was driving away, something caught his attention in the rearview mirror and he frowned. The building that Cissnei was meeting her contact in was condemned, but according to his sources it wasn't due to be destroyed for another week. Why then was there a team of construction workers readying what appeared to be dynamite?

 

Reno's heart lurched in his throat and he slammed on the breaks, nearly causing the car behind him to rear-end him. He twisted in his seat and struggled with his safety belt, swearing desperately. There was no way he could get his car turned around in this traffic and he knew with horrible certainty that he only had moments to act before the building Cissnei had just gone into was collapsed. He got the seatbelt undone and opened the door, ignoring the honks and yells from people as he abandoned his car and ran toward the building.

 

“Hold it!” Reno screamed, waving his arms to get the construction workers' attention. “There's someone in there, assholes!”

 

He yanked his cellphone out of his pocket and selected Cissnei's cellphone number with shaking hands. “Come on baby, pick up,” he panted, his long legs carrying him swiftly over the pavement. He alternately hollered desperately at the construction workers while he waited for his lover to pick up her phone.

 

“This is Cissnei,” came that sweet voice on the other line.

 

“Get the hell out of that building, babe,” Reno yelled, “they're about to—”

 

The explosives went off before he could finish his sentence and he yelled her name desperately as the building began to collapse. “Cissnei! Cissnei, are you there?” The line dropped out and he stood stunned, staring as the building she was in went down.

 

~*******************************~

 

“This is Rude.”

 

“Rude, it's Tseng. I need you to go to west 49th street and pick up Reno. There's…been an accident and he's out of control.”

 

“What sort of accident?” Rude asked as he began to jog toward the parking garage.

 

“Cissnei's dead,” answered Tseng. “She went to meet her contact for her latest mission and apparently the city decided to collapse the building early. It took five construction workers to keep Reno from charging in to get her out.”

 

Rude stopped and froze. “How did this happen? What was she doing meeting someone in a condemned building?”

 

“It was for covert purposes,” Tseng explained. “It would have allowed privacy and as I said, the building wasn't scheduled for demolishment today. The decision was made without our knowing it and she was inside when it was collapsed.”

 

Rude's jaw clenched. “Do you think she was set up by the contact?”

 

“We're investigating it now. Just concentrate on getting Reno out of there and back to headquarters, before he kills someone or gets himself killed.”

 

Rude heaved a sigh and nodded. “Yes sir. I'm on my way.”

 

~*******************************~

 

Reno was cuffed inside a police car and raving like a maniac by the time Rude showed up at the site of the accident. His face was covered in soot, dust and tears and his goggles hung lopsided on his head. Rude approached the construction workers, firemen and the police officers on the scene first and showed them his badge.

 

“I'll take care of him,” he said as he frowned at Reno, who was struggling to break free of his cuffs and screaming curses at the top of his lungs. “He's my partner. Did the company send you an ID of the missing woman?”

 

“Yes,” one of the officers said. “We've got people searching the rubble for her now.”

 

“We're so sorry about this,” one of the construction workers said sincerely. “They bumped up the date for collapse and we had no idea anyone was inside!”

 

Rude said nothing, his jaw tense as he approached the police car and peered through the window at Reno. “Hey partner, cut it out,” he called as he saw the blood seeping down Reno's hands. “You're just hurting yourself, okay?”

 

Reno didn't even seem to recognize him. He was mad with grief and he continued to mindlessly struggle, chafing the skin of his wrists raw. Rude motioned to the cops and they joined him, looking in at the redhead warily.

 

“Maybe you should let him cool down for a while before you let him out of there,” one of the officers suggested.

 

“He's not going to `cool down',” Rude said with certainty. “Just open the door and let me take him out of here. I can handle him.”

 

The cops shrugged at each other and opened the door. Reno immediately kicked the closest one in the stomach and he crumpled to the ground in pain. Rude reached in and grabbed his partner, hauling him out quickly and holding on tight to him when he tried to break free.

 

“Reno, it's me,” Rude grunted in the redhead's ear as he struggled to keep his hold on the smaller man. “Cool it, man! They're gonna do everything they can to get her out but you're no help to her like this.”

 

Reno snarled and glared at the construction workers with feral animosity. “They fucking killed her! I'm gonna rip the bastards open…get off me!”

 

Rude wrapped a powerful arm around Reno's throat and caught him in a sleeper hold. “Sorry partner,” he muttered as the redhead's struggles weakened and he began to black out. He held steady until Reno slumped in his arms and then he hefted him over his shoulder and nodded at the officers and the fire brigade. “Keep looking until you find her,” he ordered. Without waiting for a reply, he carried Reno to his waiting car.

 

~*******************************~

 

“Reno, they found a body and we've identified it as Cissnei's.” Tseng regarded his second-in-command gravely as he stood over him. Reno was in the medical ward and they'd given him a sedative and treated his self-inflicted wounds. He sat there like a rag doll on the hospital bed, with his legs sprawled out and his bandaged wrists sitting between them. He blinked up at the Wutaian and shook his head.

 

“There's gotta be a mistake,” he insisted hoarsely, “I was just talking to her before it happened.”

 

“You got her message service,” Tseng corrected gently. We found her cellphone and went over the log. The last call was from you, but she never picked up.

 

“I heard her voice,” he said stubbornly.

 

“You heard a recorded message,” Tseng reasoned. “In your frantic state of mind you thought it was her, but that isn't important right now. Reno, she's gone. It's a terrible tragedy but you must accept it.”

 

Reno's hands clenched into fists and he breathed heavily. Rufus and Tseng shared a meaningful look between them and the president cleared his throat.

 

“Perhaps some time off would be best for you,” Rufus suggested.

 

Rude stood beside his partner and nodded silently in agreement, his face a mask of control.

 

Reno shook his head and looked up at them. He sniffed. “No. Keep me busy. I don't want time off, I wanna be so fucking busy I don't have time to think about her. Do that for me, will ya?” His eyes were feverish and bright, shining with unshed tears.

 

Tseng looked at Rufus questioningly and the president shrugged and nodded. “We can try it your way, Reno,” he said, “but I warn you, if your grief makes you become a liability we'll be forced to put you on sabbatical. Do you understand?”

 

He nodded slowly, his eyes unfocusing. “Yeah, I get that.”

 

Tseng gently squeezed his shoulder and then he and Rufus left the room. Rude stayed silently beside his heartbroken partner, lending his support with unshakable loyalty.

 

~************************************~

 

“It's a terrible shame,” Tseng sighed as soon as he and Rufus were in his office.

 

The blonde looked at him silently, his expression pensive.

 

“It's bad enough to deceive him this way,” Tseng continued, almost as if to himself, “but for him to have witnessed her `death' that way…it shouldn't have happened like that.”

 

“It's a pity,” Rufus agreed calmly, “but in truth, it's better this way.”

 

Tseng regarded the president with disbelief. “Sir?”

 

“He has to believe she's dead, Tseng,” Rufus explained, “He has his closure and he'll move on.”

 

Tseng sighed deeply and went to his cabinet, selecting a bottle of sake and pouring a glass for himself and his boss. “I suppose you're right,” he murmured as he handed Rufus his beverage. “I just didn't expect for him to take it quite so hard.”

 

“The girl's life is safeguarded now,” Rufus said coolly. “If you wish it to remain that way, you'll focus on other things and keep this to yourself.”

 

Tseng nodded and took a swallow of his wine. He hoped that Rufus was right and that Reno would move on. “What a pity,” he whispered. “He never even knew.”

 

Rufus frowned at him. “Never knew what, precisely?”

 

~***********************************~

 

Reno stared at the photobooth picture he and Cissnei had taken together, just days before she was taken from him. Her gentle brown eyes were smiling out at him from the picture and his hand trembled as he replaced the photo in his wallet. He wasn't even sure how she'd managed to dig a place in his heart. He'd never felt so strongly for a woman before and now that she was gone, he knew with even greater certainty that he'd really loved her.

 

“I told you I loved ya that night because you said it first,” he admitted aloud as he closed his wallet and put it back in his pants. “That's what I thought, anyway. But I do love you, doll. I fucking do.” He swallowed hard and fought the pain that rose to the surface again. It had been over a week since he was told she was dead but it felt like only hours had passed.

 

True to their word, Tseng and Rufus kept him busy. He was in Junon with Rude and Elena, following Sephiroth's trail. Outwardly Reno was the picture of cool, concentrating on his job and keeping it together. When he was off the clock he was usually drunk, however. Hell, even while he was on the clock he regularly imbibed. He was living in an almost perpetual state of inebriation and he nearly bit Elena's head off when she started boo-hooing about Cissnei on their way to Junon.

 

“How the fuck do you think I feel?” he'd snapped. “Quit whining, you're just making it worse.”

 

Knowing that he was only lashing out because of his grief, Elena kept her mouth shut and took the verbal abuse stoically. They missed Sephiroth and somehow he ended up on the barge heading out to Costa Del Sol. Even more interesting, Cloud Strife and his friends also managed to sneak onto the same barge. Reno didn't honestly care that they'd lost track of them. He just did his job with mechanical precision and went on one assignment after the other, traveling from one location to the other on his various missions. Sometimes Rude was with him and sometimes Elena was too.

 

Rude ended up dragging Reno out of bars more often than not, and commonly after the redhead had started a brawl with someone. One of the worst ones involved several people getting stitches and one man nearly dying. Reno had slashed his throat with a broken bottle in the middle of a fight. Tseng and Rufus decided he was getting too reckless and they sent him on vacation…with Rude and Elena tagging along to keep an eye on him. Reno shrugged it off and picked Wutai, figuring he could keep himself occupied learning something about the culture until they put him back on active duty.

 

While they were there, Don Corneo showed up and Reno showed the first signs of real life since Cissnei's death when Corneo kidnapped Elena and one of Cloud Strife's female companions. He wasn't interested in bringing the guy in until the girls got kidnapped and then he remembered what the man had tried to do to Cissnei and his blood boiled. They ended up cornering him at the top of the huge statue overlooking Wutai and Reno took great delight in sending him over the cliff, even though technically they were supposed to bring him in if they caught him.

 

After that, he slowly began to drag himself out of the downward spiral he was in. He went back to work and he and his fellow Turks had many other encounters with Strife's group. They never managed to capture them but Reno wasn't that concerned about it. Then Sephiroth summoned meteor and the redhead realized with faint surprise that he was almost looking forward to the end of the world.

 

~*********************************~

 

“What about that one?” Rude asked as he pointed out another stripper. “She's kind of petite.”

 

Reno sipped his beer and shook his head. “Nah, her tits are too big. You're the boob man, remember?”

 

Rude sighed. He was trying to drag his partner away from his memories and get him to try something a little different, but the only women Reno ever wanted to fuck were small brunettes…which weren't easy to find in the places one could go to get sexual favors for money.

 

“Why don't you just pick one, man?” Rude grumbled. “The fucking world's going to end and you'll only have so many more chances to get laid before that happens.”

 

Reno smirked and took another drink. His eyes caught hold of a girl with wavy chestnut hair and he stared with interest across the bar. She was topless and serving drinks to the customers. He couldn't tell what color her eyes were but she was dainty and her facial features were sweet and youthful.

 

“That one,” he said, gesturing to the girl with his beer bottle. “I'll take that one tonight.”

 

Rude followed the gesture with his eyes and grunted. “Figures. Okay Red, I'll see about getting her for you.”

 

Rude got off of the bar stool and went around to the back, where private rooms could be rented and meetings arranged. He'd already chosen a voluptuous blonde for himself and at least Reno would be getting a little action, even if he pretended it was his deceased lover he was having sex with.

 

~*****************************~

 

She ordinarily only entertained for a small handful of regular customers, but when her boss pointed out the man who had asked for her company for a few hours, she decided to make an exception. Not only was he a member of the Turks, but he was a fox. She agreed to the arrangement and changed into something more suitable before heading to the assigned room.

 

The customer was already in the room when she closed the door behind her and she smiled brightly at him and greeted him. He saluted her with his beer and finished the beverage before setting it aside on the bedside table.

 

“So what's your name, sweetheart?” he asked. He had an interesting accent and his long, sea-green eyes were mischievous and intriguing.

 

“Call me whatever you like,” she said with a smile as she gracefully approached him. He relaxed on the bed and watched her, his gaze roving over her form appraisingly. She was wearing a golden lace negligee that was sheer enough for her nipples to show through.

 

“All right,” he said huskily. “Come here, doll.”

 

~************************************~

 

He rutted desperately over the gasping woman, trying to feel something besides basic carnal pleasure. Her breathy moans could have been feigned and he didn't particularly care if they were. He gave her the same tender care he'd always given Cissnei, stroking her body and teasing her clit until she trembled. It was all just physical, no matter how much he wanted it to be more.

 

“Oh, god,” the woman cried raggedly as she came. She didn't have to fake it but she could tell he wasn't worried about that. The snap of his hips as he took her was skilled and eager and he was good with his hands, but he was distant. He looked through her as he fucked her, as if he were seeing someone else.

 

“Cissnei,” the redhead groaned in a desperate tone, his body tensing as the inevitable finish came. He shoved hard and deep into her and closed his eyes as he filled the condom. She stroked his long hair as he collapsed on top of her, guessing that the name he cried belonged to an ex of his that he'd never really gotten over.

 

She sighed and rubbed his back as they caught their breath. Customer or not, he'd been the most satisfying lay she'd had in a while. Most of them just jumped on her, did their thing and left. She almost considered giving him a discount for making it an enjoyable trick, but she needed the money to try and get somewhere safe before Meteor came down.

 

Reno levered himself off of the warm body he'd just plundered and sat up, reaching for his clothes. He rifled through his blazer pockets and found his pack of cigarettes. He lit one up and took a drag, then offered it to the stripper. She sat up with a smile and allowed him to bring the clove to her lips for a drag.

 

“Hmm, I've never had a clove one before. You're a man of class.” She blew the smoke out and nibbled his ear.

 

Reno didn't respond to the compliment. He put an arm around her absently and smoked, tapping the ashes into the tray sitting on the night table. After a moment, he gave her the cigarette and got up to go to the small bathroom adjoining the room. He flushed the condom and wiped himself off, then returned to the room and pulled his pants on.

 

“You got family here?” Reno asked as he zipped his fly and glanced at the girl. He wasn't asking because he cared. He was just breaking the silence until he could finish dressing and go.

 

“I have a sister,” she said. “We're trying to save money to go away.”

 

Reno paused in the action of pulling his shirt on and he frowned at her. “Go away where? You think you can get away from Meteor or something?”

 

“We won't know until we try,” she said with a shrug. Her hazel eyes appraised him, a flash of admiration lighting them as he tied his hair back into his customary ponytail. “Whoever she was, she made a mistake letting you go.”

 

His face went blank and cold and she wondered what she said wrong. “I'm sorry…I shouldn't have said anything.”

 

“Don't worry about it,” he said flatly. He pulled out his wallet and counted out a few bills. He tossed them on the bed and she stared in confusion. He'd already paid the charge for this visit. “Something extra,” he said, “so you and your sis can haul ass.”

 

~************************************~

 

Reno found a couple of seats by the bar and he claimed them and waited for Rude to finish up and come back out. The bald man emerged from the back some ten minutes later and spotted him. He crossed the room and sat down next to him and Reno ordered him a beer.

 

“So how was yours?” the redhead asked as his partner thanked him and took a swig.

 

“She was a biter,” Rude complained, wincing as he rubbed a fresh set of teeth marks on his neck.

 

Reno laughed at that and it was the first genuine laugh Rude had heard out of him since before the accident.

 

~****************************************~

 

The ache never went away completely but it did get better over time. Reno was unreasonably disappointed when Cloud and his friends stopped Sephiroth and meteor, but he never let on to that fact and he pretended to be relieved like everyone else was. Tseng recovered from the near fatal wound that Sephiroth had given him in the Temple of the Ancients and Rufus decided to take the company underground for a while.

 

ShinRa and the Turks survived the epidemic of Geostigma and for a while, they made their home base in Healin. Midgar was under reconstruction and a new threat rose from beneath the city in the form of a group calling themselves Deepground. This time, Rufus ordered that the Turks lay low and he worked behind the scenes to help end the threat, using his money to fund Reeve's organization.

 

Despite his company being out of the limelight, Reno had plenty to do during the three years after Meteorfall. He still went on missions along with his fellow Turks, but as far as the world knew the ShinRa corporation was all but dead and the Turks were working on their own. In truth, they still took orders from Rufus and their jobs were much the same as before…with a bit less murder and espionage involved. Liaisons between the WRO and ShinRa were a large part of their duties now.

 

Reno still had a weakness for women that reminded him of Cissnei but he began to interact more with other women as well. He wasn't interested in getting into another relationship so all of his encounters with the fairer sex were casual flings. He was careful about it, always carrying protection with him and keeping regular checkups to make sure he stayed clean, but he often wondered why he bothered. He supposed it was just instinctive self-preservation that drove him and he denied that he was hanging onto the impossible hope that Cissnei was still alive out there somewhere and he'd see her again.

 

After things began to calm down, Reno noticed that Rufus would look at him oddly sometimes. It was as if the president was measuring him, trying to decide something. He never asked about it but he grew more and more suspicious about it with each day. Finally one day, Rufus called him into his office and gave him a rather unusual assignment.

 

“Reno, I'd like you to fly me somewhere so that I can look at potential vacation homes.”

 

The redhead gave his boss a puzzled look, but it made sense that since the chaos had died down, Rufus was again interested in purchasing a bit of luxury. “Sure thing, boss. Where do you wanna look?”

 

“It's a place called Sunset Coast. It's a budding metropolis near Costa Del Sol and I hear there's some fantastic real estate opening up there. Have you heard of it?”

 

Reno remembered hearing something on the news about a new city being built in that area a couple of years ago but he'd hardly paid attention. “Think so,” he said uncertainly. “So when do you want to do this, Sir?”

 

“How about tomorrow?” Rufus suggested. “If we leave early in the morning, we can probably get there by mid to late afternoon. We can rent a car and I'll book us some rooms at one of the resorts there.”

 

Reno nodded, thinking that Rufus was being unusually nice. The man was almost talking to him like they were friends going on an outing instead of superior and subordinate making a business trip. “You got it, Sir.”

 

~**************************************~

 

The next morning, Reno got up earlier than he would have liked and fueled up a chopper to take Rufus on his outing. The president met him at the helipad and they were in the air before the sun even finished rising. Reno came prepared with a thermos of coffee and Rufus chatted with him when he wasn't dozing or reading. It was a good thing the helicopter was equipped with a lavatory and an auto-pilot because the amount of coffee he had to drink to stay alert filled Reno's bladder quickly. Rufus began to ask some uncomfortably personal questions as they drew nearer to their destination.

 

“Have you ever had to cull a deserter before, Reno?”

 

The redhead looked at his boss sidelong and nodded. “Once or twice. Both of `em were blabbing company secrets.”

 

“What about a deserter who never `blabbed', but nonetheless fled the organization?” Rufus's gray eyes were curious as they examined him.

 

“Never dealt with that kind before, Sir. They usually try to leave after they've already spilled the beans, yo.”

 

“I see,” Rufus said thoughtfully. “You've never been tempted to leave the Turks, have you?”

 

“No,” Reno answered immediately.

 

Rufus smiled. “Not even once? It's not a crime to admit temptation, Reno.”

 

The Turk frowned, wondering where he was going with all these questions. “The thought might have crossed my mind for a second the night I dropped the pillar,” he admitted with a grimace. “It never stuck, though.”

 

“Yes, I know that was a difficult assignment for you to carry out,” Rufus sighed. “I've always wondered what life must be like for the Turks, though. Let's face it, some people might want to eventually raise a family and have something of a normal life.”

 

Reno almost scoffed at that, but he remembered Cissnei and the idea didn't seem quite so ludicrous. He chewed his lip and checked his heading, trying to push such foolish thoughts out of his head. He'd never have been content with a “normal” life, even if it was with Cissnei. At least, he couldn't see himself with the white picket fence and the Frisbee catching dog. Kids, maybe. A wife? He could see himself marrying Cissnei if fate had allowed it.

 

“Boss, I'm sure you've got a good reason for all these questions,” he said warily, “but damned if I can see it. What's your angle?”

 

Rufus smiled slyly at him. “You always did have more balls than anyone else in your organization, Reno. Only you would come out and ask that.”

 

The redhead shrugged. “I don't have much to lose these days, boss.”

 

Rufus heard the underlying desolation in his voice and the president frowned thoughtfully.

 

~No, I suppose a man who's truly loved the way you seem to have wouldn't think he had anything left to lose by now.~

 

“I've just found myself wondering what might have been different, had your lover survived,” Rufus said aloud. He saw the color drain from Reno's face and he knew he'd made the right choice in arranging this assignment. The mere mention of her name still affected Reno so strongly.

 

“Guess we'll never know,” Reno said in a tight voice.

 

Rufus looked away and watched the landscape below.

 

~Won't we?~

 

~*************************************~

 

They arrived in Sunset Coast a little after four pm and Rufus paid for the chopper to get fueled up again before they went to the car rental to select an automobile for their needs. He picked out a sleek red Targus and Reno drove him around town. They got lost a couple of times but the redhead had a good sense of direction and with a little help from the city map, they were back on route soon enough. Rufus toured three houses before he decided it was time to book their rooms at the resort.

 

“Why don't we have some drinks down by the pool?” Suggested Rufus after they checked in. “I assume you brought some swimming trunks?”

 

“Didn't think about it,” Reno answered.

 

Rufus shrugged. “No matter. We can buy a pair for you at the gift shop. Let's put our luggage away and relax for a while.”

 

Reno knew better than to argue with him. For whatever reason, Rufus desired his company and wanted to treat him to a bit of luxury. The Turk put his bag in his suite and went with his boss to the gift shop downstairs to select a swimsuit. He walked out with a new pair of deep purple swimming briefs and the two of them went to their respective rooms to change before meeting down at the pool.

 

Rufus reclined on a chase lounge with a frozen margarita and Reno relaxed next to him with a beer. A pair of tanned women in skimpy bikinis walked past and glanced at the two men. Rufus noticed that their attention was mostly focused on Reno and the Turk threw them a wink. Reno was popular with the ladies, with his exotic looks and aura of confidence. The color of his eyes also seemed to appeal to the fairer sex. Rufus smirked, amused that even in his apparent misery the redhead couldn't seem to help but flirt a little.

 

“I'm surprised that you don't have a more permanent lady in your life by now,” Rufus observed as he sipped his drink and studied the Turk sidelong. “You seem to have no trouble attracting them, after all.”

 

“Sooner or later it goes down the pipes,” Reno stated. “I don't bother anymore. It's just easier that way, you know?”

 

Rufus thought of all the brief encounters he'd had himself and he nodded. “I suppose I can't fault you in that. There are family men and then there are men like us.”

 

Reno didn't dare even glance at the president.

 

~Men like us? We ain't nothing alike, except maybe for the shitty batting average we both seem to have with lasting relationships.~

 

They had a couple more drinks and Reno took a dip in the swimming pool, while Rufus carried on a conversation with a young woman who'd had a bit too much to drink for her own good. He was a gentleman about it and he didn't take advantage of her condition, content to chat with her instead. Reno witnessed this and he wondered if Rufus was gay or just possessed of a sense of chivalry when it came to such matters. Not that he was in the habit of taking advantage of inebriated women himself, but he never expected Rufus to have such scruples.

 

It began to get late and Rufus decided it was time to retire. “I'm going to bed,” he said to Reno as he stood up. “I suggest you retire soon too. Tomorrow's going to be a big day.”

 

“See you in the morning, Sir,” Reno said. He knew Rufus wanted to look at more housing in the morning and he wasn't looking forward to it, but the sooner it was over with the sooner they could go back home. He sighed and relaxed in his chase lounge, looking up at the stars twinkling overhead. He just watched them for a while, drinking his beer slowly while he thought about all of Rufus's bizarre questions and the painful reminders of Cissnei. If he wanted to, he could probably charm himself a companion for the night. There were plenty of attractive women around and it had been a few weeks since the last time he'd been laid.

 

He looked around half-heartedly and finally decided he could just jerk off before going to bed. He didn't feel like expending the energy or the effort to seek out a partner for the night.

 

~****************************~

 

They spent most of the morning looking at houses and by noon, Rufus said he wanted to check out the Entertainment Square and surrounding park. Reno located the area on the map and drove the car there. He was searching for a parking space and Rufus was also peering around with sharp eyes. Oddly though, the president wasn't scoping out parking spots on the street—instead he was searching the fenced park.

 

Reno spotted a vehicle that was getting ready to leave and he stopped the car and waited for the parking spot to open up. He caught movement out the corner of his eye and he glanced into the park to see children frolicking in the playground area. The parents watching over them were mostly mothers, but there were some fathers present as well.

 

Reno was about to look away when one of the young mothers caught his attention. He did a double take and his eyes popped wide in his face. He went hot and cold at once as the petite, smiling brunette gently pushed a little toddler girl on the baby swing. The sunlight shining through the leaves of the trees caught her hair, making it shine with a unique brassy tint. She had a light tan and her hair had sunny highlights in it. It was longer than he remembered and fell to her mid-back in soft waves, but it was HER hair. The gentle brown eyes were HER eyes and the dainty sandal-clad feet were HER feet.

 

“Cissnei,” Reno gasped, his eyes feasting on her as his heart rose in his throat.

 

Rufus followed his stunned gaze. “Why, so it is.” His voice was smug. “Imagine that.”

 

~*********************************~

 

-To be continued