Salle, Wednesday Midday

[withoutverona]

Romeo wasn't sure why Reno even wanted to speak to him, or if he felt like speaking to Reno in turn. His best friend's words from Sunday tangled with his own and sat like a knot in his stomach, and if Reno were to try to kill him with the rod, he would not blame him.

But they'd made a plan, and so Romeo was there in the Salle. Waiting and, somehow, almost hopeful.

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[raspberryturk]

"You do." Reno took a deep drag from his own smoke as he slipped his Materia back into place in his baton. "We both said some pretty hard shit there, didn't we?"

[withoutverona]

"We did," Romeo acknowledged.

He still thought Reno had, if not started things, made the much worse by referring to Angela the way he had, but ... well. There had been what even Romeo had to admit were extenuating circumstances.

"Might we call it forgotten?"

Not forgiven. Not vanished. Just ... moved past, elided for the moment.

[raspberryturk]

Reno looked at Romeo evenly for a minute. Just... thinking on it.

"I knew the consequences of what I was doin', too," he said at length. Just to get that out there. "Did it anyhow."

That was maybe the one reason, higher than any other, that compelled him to want to return to Gaia after graduation.

"If you can deal with that one way or the other, we can call it whatever you wanna call it, yoto."

[withoutverona]

That was the kind of statement that took thinking on, and Romeo was glad he had a cigarette to fill up what would otherwise have been the fiddly bits.

He wasn't okay with it, truthfully. An eye for an eye, he knew that, and violence was easy to him, but there was a span between justice and what Reno had done, and bridging it stretched his imagination.

But he could, would try to understand.

"I'll deal with that, if you'll deal with that sometimes I forget how to think."

That seemed fair enough.

[raspberryturk]

"That, I can do." Reno inhaled some more smoke, holding it in for a minute and shutting his eyes. "Thinkin' is hard anyhow. To hell with it."

[withoutverona]

"Amen," Romeo agreed. "Though I think I need to think a little bit more, from now on, just to stay alive and unbloodied."

[raspberryturk]

"So we work on findin' you a balance," Reno replied in a breath of words and smoke. "I want you workin' with that baton on a regular basis, zoto. You do it enough, and your arm won't hate you no more. When your Materia gets here, that don't mean you ease up with the baton itself. It means we spend twice as much time workin' with it."

He grinned, the cigarette clamped between his teeth. "You are gonna be so sick of me by the end of the semester, man. You got no idea."

[withoutverona]

Romeo flashed a genuine grin. "When's our next session, then?"

[raspberryturk]

"How long you figure it'll take for you to get your arm movin' again?"

[withoutverona]

Romeo shrugged, lifted the arm experimentally.

"Friday?" he tried.

That would give him time to practice a little on his own, too.

[raspberryturk]

"Friday, huh?" He tilted his head, thinking that over for a moment before picking his cigarette from the corner of his mouth, dropping it on the floor, and stepping on it. "Your Thursday evening free?"

Romeo didn't think he was going to be that nice, did he?

[withoutverona]

Romeo liked to live in hope, but he wouldn't back down.

"I can make it so," he said. "I'll see you Thursday, then."

He might even be unwed again by then.

[raspberryturk]

"Good," Reno replied with a grin and a nod, holding his hand out for his lighter back. "Class dismissed."

[withoutverona]

"Thank you, sensei," said Romeo, who had not been dating a Japanese girl for a year for nothing. He made as if to toss the lighter back, thought better of it, and placed it in Reno's palm instead.