Reno opened his eyes to the sound of running water coming from the bathroom. Looking to see that he was alone in his bed, he could only assume Yazoo was in the shower. He smiled to himself, glad that the Remnant was back. He rolled out of his bed and decided to make his way to the kitchen in order to get something to eat and wait for Yazoo to be done. Once in the kitchen, he opened the fridge and was greeted with nothing but bottles of water and a moldy loaf of bread. The redhead frowned. This was a problem.
Now knowing he would have to go get something, Reno ran back to his room and pulled a pair of his work pants (the only pants he seemed to have) and a t-shirt off the ground. When Yazoo exited the shower, he found the shirtless redhead furiously hacking at his rat tail with a brush, a hair tie in his teeth.
“Stop, you’ll hurt yourself,” the silver haired man said gently. He took the hair brush from Reno and began to comb his hair for him. “Why are you in such a hurry?” he asked.
“I need to go to the store, unless you want moldy toast for breakfast, yo.”
“Slow down, I need to come with you anyway,” Yazoo said still focused on his lover’s hair.
“You can stay here if you want,” Reno said turning to face Yazoo. “I don’t want to rush you.” The Remnant merely smiled sadly.
“Tseng told me I’m not allowed to be separated from you for more than a second.”
“Oh,” Reno said blushing slightly. “I forgot. Sorry.” Yazoo laughed slightly to himself.
“Turn around, I’m not done,” he said chuckling. Reno chewed on his lip for a bit and allowed Yazoo to continue to brush his long red rat tail.
They left the apartment not more than five minutes later. It was still just as unbearably hot as it was the day before, and the day before that too. Yazoo was walking ahead of Reno, but the redhead knew he had no idea where he was going. He ran to catch up with the Remnant, and took his hand in his own.
“You’re going the wrong way, yo,” he said, steering him the opposite direction. Yazoo smiled and squeezed his hand. Reno smirked. He liked the way Yazoo smiled. After they had reached a particular corner, Reno pointed to the colorful and rather conspicuous store to their left. “It’s that one, by the way,” he said, finally beginning to pick up his normal tone once again. Yazoo looked at him and rolled his eyes.
“I’m not Loz you know,” he said in mock annoyance. Reno stuck out his tongue. Yazoo gave an evil smirk. “Keep doing that and I’ll bite it,” he said. Reno just laughed.
“You’d enjoy that though,” he said as they walked into the store. After getting a basket, Reno made immediately for the orange juice and placed two cartons inside it.
“You’re going to drink both of those?” Yazoo asked incredulously.
“No,” Reno replied sheepishly. “I thought you might want your own, since I sorta drink straight out of mine.” Yazoo shook his head.
“What am I going to do with you Reno?” he said, now looking through different boxes of cereal. Reno just laughed and said nothing as they continued their shopping.
As they were walking home in the roasting heat, Reno’s phone began to ring. He answered it, giving an apologetic look to Yazoo whose hand he had to drop in order to do so.
“Yes?”
“Reno, this is Tseng,” the Director’s voice said.
“Oh hi boss! What’s up, yo? You don’t usually call, y’know.”
“Glad to hear you’re sounding better,” Tseng said. “I was afraid you were going to be a miserable mess forever, and we all know how upset that would make Elena.”
“Oh yeah,” Reno said through laughter. “I wouldn’t be able to steal her stuff off her desk or duct tape her to her chair when she falls asleep on the job. It’d be too dull for her, yo.”
Tseng laughed quietly to himself, and then sighed.
“Is the Remnant with you?”
“Yeah, he’s right next to me, yo.”
“Tell him if he keeps you this happy, he’s forgiven.” There was a click as Tseng hung up. Reno looked at his phone as it were some sort of unidentified object. What had the Director just said?
“Are you all right?” Yazoo asked. Reno gave his head a brisk shake.
“Yeah. Yeah, just a bit confused.”
Yazoo rolled his eyes and laughed.
“When are you not?” he said, running ahead and entering Reno’s apartment. The redhead paused for a moment and thought about what Yazoo had said.
“Hey! That wasn’t very nice!” he said, running after the Remnant. When he entered the apartment, Yazoo was on the other side of the room, laughing. Reno smirked. He dropped the groceries and ran after the Remnant. Both men were extremely fast, but Reno was slightly faster and by the time Yazoo had escaped into Reno’s bedroom, the Turk had tackled him to the ground. “Gotcha,” he said, smirking.
“So you did,” Yazoo replied, smirking as well.
“Apologize,” Reno said. The Remnant shook his head, now grinning. “I’m not letting you up until you do.”
“Fine,” said Yazoo. And he apologized by kissing the redhead once again. Reno kissed him back and began to run his hand through Yazoo’s silver hair when his phone started ringing again. Reluctantly he answered.
“Yo, kinda busy right now,” he said, short of breath.
“Reno, are you sitting down?” Tseng’s voice said. He sounded serious.
“Well sorta boss, but—”
“Reno, I need you to sit down. You aren’t going to like this. Please.” Reno sat back on his feet.
“Yeah?” he said, slightly annoyed.
“The President has made a decision regarding the Remnant Yazoo. Despite my urging, it has been decided that…” Tseng faltered.
“What?” Reno said, now slightly alarmed.
“Tomorrow Yazoo will be returned to the Lifestream.”
Reno dropped the phone, incapable of even comprehending what he had just heard.
