InsaneJournal

10 drabbles
All these are from the same universe that sphinxofthenile and I are writing for, even though they work as a standalone nonetheless. All of them are rated PG-PG13 at most.

Title: New Acquaintances
Challenge: Pets
Characters: Reno
Team: Turks

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Reno hates it. He hates all of it. The damned ShinRa and the Turks and their idiotic rookie training in the Slums. Not like he doesn’t know his way around the fucking Slums!

Has to waste his skills on this little fish, materia smuggler who wouldn’t know level two if it bit him in the ass. And not like him packing was unexpected. Blue suits in the Slums? What was Tseng thinking?!

He growls, hits the nearest thing with his foot, then instantly softens as his eyes catch a small black fluff producing a purr.

He squats, smiles. “Hello there…”

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Title: A Bath
Challenge: Pets
Characters: Reno
Team: Turks

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The small ball of fluff smells like rot but Reno doesn’t really give a shit. And it devours chocolate even quicker than him, which is an accomplishment in itself, considering the fact it almost fits in one hand.

Reno pats it, wraps it into a shirt that has seen better days but will meet an incinerator tomorrow. He turns the tap in the bathtub and learns the hard way that the creature hates the water.

He screams but doesn’t let go even after seeing red stains forming on white cotton.

Good thing he planned on throwing the shirt away anyway.

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Title: Housebroken
Challenge: Pets
Characters: Reno, Tseng
Team: Turks

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Sure, it looks like a dog but Tseng’s not sure. He holds it in the air and it curls its lower legs and tail like a typical kitten, and the sounds it makes are nowhere near a puppy’s.

“It likes to be rubbed under the chin,” Reno offers and Tseng complies, squeezing the creature onto his chest.

Sure, Tseng hates pets, but it’s hard to say no to Reno now.

“What do we do with you?” he coos, heart warming with every purring sound.

“Umm… Tseng?” he hears Reno say meekly and then feels something very warm over his chest.

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Title: Arrangements
Challenge: Pets
Characters:Tseng, Veld
Team: Turks

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Since Veld lives both alone and pet free, it surprises him to see a familiar car parked before his house as well as the sounds of a very large cat purring as he enters his living room.

He softens instantly, the tension of a very long Friday leaving his body for good as he sees Tseng sitting on his sofa with a little loud ball of fluff on his chest, both sleeping, completely oblivious of him.

He chuckles and regrets it as his two guests become aware of him.

Sleepily, Tseng smiles at him. Tiny black eyes demand a rub.

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Title: Love at First Sight
Challenge: Pets
Characters:Reno, Rufus
Team: Turks

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Tseng did say no and Reno really doesn’t want to choose between a comfortable home (where his superior, of all others, cleans for him) and an unidentified creature, no matter how cute it is.

Still, his mind works in a strange way and it thinks of a solution where he could both keep his comfort as well as the animal off the streets.

What he didn’t expect was Rufus ShinRa running into the other side of the room, demanding for this bag of fleas and diseases to be removed from his premises instantly.

The plan worked better in his mind.

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Title: Strange Friends
Challenge: Pets
Characters:Reno, Rufus, Dark
Team: Turks

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“Careful, you might scare him,” Reno says warmly, smiling as Rufus finally breaks under the pressure and decides to touch the creature. After an hour long convincing how it had been bathed several times, as well as checked for numerous diseases and parasites.

“It’s a she,” Rufus says matter-of-factly.

“Sorry?” Reno asks, not quite sure what this is all about.

The look Rufus gives him is one a person gives to someone very slow and dense. “It is a she,” he states once more, touches the softest fur ever. “And her name is Dark Nation.” He smiles and Dark purrs.

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Title: With Friends Like These…
Challenge: Pets
Characters:Reno, Dark
Team: Turks



Nobody is quite sure how Rufus, of all people, manages it, but the strange animal follows him everywhere, incredibly protective over her master. You have to be a common guest in Rufus’ rooms for her to let you near him without jumping on your back and digging her far too long claws deep into your flesh.

Rufus just chuckles at her affectionately and says she likes him because he gives her lots of food.

The problem is, in the past month, the tip of her tail turned from soft to razor sharp and she loves playing with her new toys.

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Title: Better When Shared
Challenge: Pets
Characters:Reno
Team: Turks

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Reno isn’t sure whether he loves or hates her. She makes Rufus happy, but also shares his bed.

While Reno isn’t really on the modesty side, he’s quite far from exposing his ass to inch long claws, not counting the teeth and that damned tail that left mark on every wall in the house.

He has to promise to iron his suit and wear a tie for a month for Tseng to finally take her in for a night, though he has a distinct feeling whose room she’ll end up sleeping in. So much for his collection of model planes.

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Title: Security
Challenge: Pets
Characters:Rufus, Dark
Team: Turks

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They’re the same, she and he. Both cast away, both living lives that they haven’t deserved, both never learning the warmth of a mother’s touch, both having to grow up and face reality since they first opened their eyes.

Rufus puts his arm around her, pulls her close. She’s heavy, weighs more than he does, a pack of bones and muscles and raw strength waiting to kill any threat.

But she is more than that, he knows it. Nobody else does and it’s not their business anyway. She is capable of so much more.

Nothing offers security as she does.

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Title: Old Comfort
Challenge: Pets
Characters:Reno, Rufus, Tseng
Team: Turks

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Since Veld’s gone, Tseng’s been playing with his gun a lot, they both know that. Reno’s worried like hell and even Rufus’ impermeable mask of indifference starts to shatter.

They know it, but they’ve no idea what to do about it.

One night, after a long phone call where Reno spends twenty minutes talking about how Tseng doesn’t even sleep anymore and all he hears are footsteps up and down the room, Rufus pulls out a big bag and starts filling it with Dark’s things – food, toys and sand.

“I’ll be right over,” he says and calls his driver then.

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There'll be OH SO MANY MORE of these, I'm afraid. :P I just need time. :D