Too long to be a drabble, but still very short. I may add more related Reno-centric flashes in the future, in which case the rating may change and there exists the possibility for explicit material, including yaoi, but for now I'm calling it complete. No pairing is intended here.

I neither own nor profit from ffvii or its characters.

Enjoy.

fire mystic

First Encounter

Tseng watched him carefully, but confidently. He was young, possibly younger than the rumors had led him to believe, but not too young. No, he had given his Turks a run for their money, and now he was like a cornered animal, staring back at him with fierce blue eyes that radiated hostility.

Tseng relaxed, letting the tension run out of his body. He didn't want this to turn into a fight to the death.

"What the fuck, yo?"

"I am Tseng, of the Turks. And you are Reno, if I am not mistaken."

"Turks, yo." He spat on the ground between them. Tseng didn't look. It didn't matter if it hit his shoe; he would forgive it. "I fuckin' knew that. Everybody knows the Turks. What the fuck you want with me, yo?"

"I have heard about you and I am here to recruit you. I want you to join us."

"So why the fuck're they here?" He nodded over Tseng's shoulder at the two men that had raced him down, never so much as flicking his eyes from the man he knew was the most dangerous of the three.

Back-up. That's why they were there. But that was a word Tseng carefully avoided.

"They," he took his eyes from the red-head, giving him a trust he hadn't earned yet, "are here at the moment as my security." He turned back to meet blue eyes. "You've heard about us, know about us, so you know what we do. What you may not know is that we work as a family, helping, supporting each other in whatever way we have to. That means different things at different times, but today they are here simply to assure my safety. Do you know how that works, Reno? Do you know what it's like to be part of something like that?"

"I don't got no family, yo. Never did."

"You will now." Tseng extended his hand. Even this wild, impetuous creature would know what that meant.

"All you have to do is choose it."

Reno warily studied Tseng's face as well as the two men behind him, contemplating what he knew, what he had heard, what he was hearing now.

Tseng's hand never wavered.

Reno's was just as steady when he met that hand with his own.