Wednesday Morning (really), Causeway and Onwards

[withoutverona]

As soon as he could escape from his Heroing final, Romeo dashed back to his room to pick up his overnight bag, then went to the causeway to wait for Reno and their portal back to Verona Beach. He couldn't help but pace a little nervously; not only did he have his concerns about what his father would have to say, but he wanted Reno to like his home.

And, he thought ruefully, he wanted his home -- because Verona was home, even if he lived in Fandom or Tokyo all the rest of his life -- to appreciate Reno.

[OOC: For the person going with him.]

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[withoutverona]

"I had to pack a suit as well," Romeo said. "And thou art right. Benvolio brings it out in me, and my father will do the same."

He eyed Reno, considering his theory. "Perhaps. There was only one yo in all of that, you know. And no zotos."

[raspberryturk]

"No zotos? What's this world comin' to?" Reno offered Romeo a lopsided grin, and then reached forward to make a friendly shove at his shoulder. "You can blame me for your bad English if I get to say I'm talkin' all properly because of you. How's that sound?"

[withoutverona]

Romeo skidded back and shoved in return, grinning. "I'll blame all my bad behavior and malformed tongue on you -- and lo, a portal, are you ready?" He shouldered his bag, suddenly eager.

[raspberryturk]

Reno danced back a step or two and the shove, and then laughed and held out a hand toward the portal that had appeared before them.

"Am I ever not ready? Lead on, Romeo, lead on!"

He was kind of excited about this trip too, actually.

[withoutverona]

"That I can do," Romero said, and all but danced through the portal.

And then they were on a beach, and it was 30 degrees warmer. The Ocean gleamed beyond them; loud Latin music floated through the air.

"Do you see," Romeo asked, as he soaked in home, "why I say the colors are different?"

[raspberryturk]

Reno's response as he stepped through the portal as well was a low whistle and a pair of slightly widened eyes.

"Damn, man. Why the hell didn't we make this trip sooner?"

Verona, Reno decided, was niiiiiiiice.

[withoutverona]

"I wasn't allowed to, most of junior year," Romeo reminded him. He was scoping out the scenery; there were some rather distracting bikinis on the girls.

"After that ... I don't know why I brought Yurika and never you. Perhaps because it would be too hard to leave."

He was, perhaps, glossing over that whole thing where he could quite readily get killed over his last name.

[raspberryturk]

Eh, what was in a name, anyhow? Reno had just traded his own in for a new one, back when he joined the Turks.

"Not as much foliage as Fandom's got," Reno noted, and then grinned. "But it's brighter. More alive, or somethin'. How is that?"

A beat.

"Possibly the same way Edge is so gray, huh?"

[withoutverona]

"Only palm trees, really," Romeo said. "I could say it's more alive because of the heat, or make something else up, but I think the place just has a different soul. Just as Edge does."

His grin faltered, then spread. "Do you want to stay here on the beach, or could I kick your ass at pool? My father won't expect us until this night."

[raspberryturk]

"I can kick your ass at pool anywhere, man. Let's take in this beach some more, huh?"

He glanced sidelong as a gaggle of nice swimsuits strolled on by. Niiiice swimsuits.

"I could take in the beach all damn day, yo."

[withoutverona]

"Did you get better at pool since last time we played?" Romeo wondered innocently as he collapsed onto a patch of sand.

Ahhhhhh, sand.

"Keep an eye out," he said, not quite as calm as he looked as he stirred the sand with his fingers, "for anyone who seems like he wants trouble, so we can distract him before he gets his wish."

[raspberryturk]

"Man, no need to worry. I can smell trouble at fifty paces, yo." Reno grinned lopsidedly as he plunked himself down onto the sand beside Romeo. "I'll even make a point not to be the guy who starts it for you, how's that sound?"

[withoutverona]

"Like you're my Reno," Romeo answered. "I'm going to miss you, man. And I'll repay the favor by not going out of my way to find trouble when I visit you in Edge."

[raspberryturk]

Reno chuckled at that, running his fingers idly through the sand. Even the sand was more vibrant than the dirt that covered the wastes outside of Edge. It was damn fascinating, actually.

"You don't even gotta look for it out there, yo. Trouble kinda tends to come lookin' for me, first. But hey, it'll keep me on my toes if somethin' does go bad, right?" Reno didn't seem to mind. Reno was possibly not sane enough to mind. "There's more to Gaia than Edge, anyhow. You gotta wander around for a while, but there's green if you head far enough out, even. We don't gotta stick around the city if you visit."

[withoutverona]

"... are there parts without dragons?" Romeo asked, not sounding as if he quite believed it. "You know whenever you mention it, it's all killing things, mostly things that deserve it. I don't like monsters, I'm not a fighter the way you or Arthur or even Ino are."

[raspberryturk]

"I promise you, man, the dragons are pretty rare, yo." Reno drew an 'x' over his chest. See? Totally telling the truth. "There are monsters, sure, but most of the towns that are still standin' are pretty safe from that kinda thing. Gaia as a whole ain't so bad as the cities that got the worst of the collapse. Smaller towns are doin' pretty good, last I heard. You might even like Kalm."

Kalm was... quaint, actually. It seemed almost medieval, at a glance. And it wasn't terribly far from Midgar, for people who didn't care for long treks across monster-infested deserts and grasslands.

[withoutverona]

"Oh." Romeo sprawled further, relaxing at that. "I must sound like your mother, the way I'm clucking about it. We'd go to Kalm, then."

[raspberryturk]

"See, sounds like a plan. A bunch'a the refugees from Midgar moved there, instead of helpin' build up Edge, so it ain't even the little hole in the middle of nowhere that it used to be, yo."

Kalm had gotten one hell of a view of the destruction of Midgar, actually.

"Monsters ain't for everyone. Hell, most people on Gaia can't handle 'em, either. Go on and cluck, man. If you don't mind ridin' on the back of a bird, we could even rent a pair of chocobo for the gettin' there. Ain't no monster alive can keep up with a chocobo."

[withoutverona]

Romeo laughed. "Do you think I'd fall off?"

He idly raised his head, watching the waves roll in and out.

[raspberryturk]

"Probably about as many times as I would," Reno agreed, laughing. "An' then we'd spend the whole way to Kalm just tryin' to catch the damn birds again, yo."

Not easy birds to catch. Unless you had greens. And patience. Reno lacked both.

"Even the ocean feels... bigger or somethin', here. How's that?"

[withoutverona]

"Battered, bruised, and limping about," Romeo laughed, reaching out for an imaginary chocobo. "We'd go hoarse calling them back."

He squinted. "I don't know. It's the same Pacific we saw when the island went traveling. I'll never get another summer like that."

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah, that'll make two of us," Reno mused, leaning forward and squinting out over the water. "You're goin' to Tokyo, huh?"

[withoutverona]

"That's the plan."

Romeo threw a rock to frighten away an investigating seagull. "I want to hear what my father has to say. If he just wants me to make money for him, I can say no, and leave, and be happy. But if he wants me to do something to make the city better ... that might be different."

"Why can't Yurika be from here?" That, to Romeo, would solve everything.

[raspberryturk]

"Because Fandom wouldn't be so nice as to introduce you to a girl from a place you already call home," Reno decided. He idly scooped up a handful of sand, and then watched as it drained back to the ground between his fingers. "Damn, man, you got me not wantin' to leave. Tell me we can hang out here now an' then, once life settles down wherever we end up after grad?"

[withoutverona]

"I lost it once. I couldn't lose it again," Romeo answered, serious. "I'll be back as often as I can. Perhaps someday Yurika will be done with her job and ..." he sighed. "She loves Tokyo, too. We'll spend half our lives in airports and portals."

[raspberryturk]

"Gaia to Spira an' back again," came a lazy sort of reply as Reno flopped backward into the sand, too. He'd be scratching it from his scalp for months. "I know what you're talkin' about, there. Both too much like home to wanna leave forever, and can't let go of the girl to be home, too."

Why did life after grad have to be so complicated?

"I gotta say, though, Verona's just hit the top of my list for one real important reason."

Romeo had three guesses, the first clue being the nearby quartet of attractive ladies in swimwear that left very little to the imagination. Reno had a much better view from the flat of his back, like this.

[withoutverona]

"And then swing by Maryland for homecoming," Romeo added, following Reno's downward flop.

The view was impeccable. "I think Verona tops your list because .... we have the most beautiful scenery."

[raspberryturk]

"Gorgeous friggin' scenery. They sell this view on postcards around here? They should."

Reno would buy all their stock.

[withoutverona]

Romeo breathed out a laugh, then raised his cell phone with the camera turned on. "We can take a few home movies, I think." He wasn't quite focusing on the girls, but he also wasn't making any effort to avoid them.

He frowned a little, trying to recognize them. "... I think I know that tall girl, in the blue."

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah?" Reno rolled over, thus effectively coating his chest and one arm with sand, too. He really didn't seem to care. "She's got a nice ass, yo. You got zoom on that thing?"

[withoutverona]

"I've never used it...." Romeo said. That wasn't a no, and he handed the phone to Reno to see if he could figure it out.

"Teresa. She used to come and watch us play pool, with her sister." A beat. "Her sister's ass is nicer."

[raspberryturk]

"Sibling rivalry is one hell of a sin," Reno decided, making an eager snatch at the phone in order to poke around for the zoom. "I mean, when it keeps the nicest asses from travellin' in packs, yoto."

Being unable to touch didn't mean for an instant that they couldn't look, dammit.

[withoutverona]

They wouldn't dress that way if they didn't want to be looked at, right? Romeo was only doing them a favor.

"Now I wonder if they have other sisters," Romeo mused happily. "Four or five girls, with that hair and that ass, in one house."

Apparently, he had decided daydreams were also fair game.