(no subject)

[sleazeoverstyle]

"Strap in, Chuck." He does the final check and all systems are a go. Of friggin' course they are; he does the maintenance on this helicopter himself whenever he can. Shin-Ra 3, ready and waiting. Because he can, he reaches over and adjusts the noise-reduction phones on Charlie's head, shows her how to use the mic so she can talk to him over the noise of the rotors, makes sure her seat belt's all fastened up the right way, and hands her a map of the known world, or the planet Gaia, whichever she wants to call it. There's a big red X next to Midgar.

"We're here. We got enough fuel in this thing to make it just about anywhere, and I can always put down for more if we need it. Any of those place names strike your fancy, Pie Lady?" There are some places he'd talk her out of goin' on general principle. Like... he just went to Costa del Sol and Gold Saucer with Lara and he ain't sure how much more fun in the sun he can stand. But there's all sorts of shit to do, from the port at Junon to a flyby of the Northern Crater, to the pretty little town of Nibelheim. The only place he ain't gonna go is Wutai, 'cause there's people there who don't like him real well.

Wait, what the hell's he sayin'? There's people everywhere who don't like him real well. But still, he ain't goin' to Wutai.

"Except here." He points the skinny little sliver of world out to her. "Or if nothin' calls to you by name, we can just fly around for a while and stop where we feel like stoppin'." He has to file some sort of flight plan, but he'll figure that out.

Comments

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

Charlie lets him help her get situated. She's never been in a helicopter before. A fact which might be obvious from her breathless excitement at simple things like strapping in and having noise canceling headphones at all. She's beaming as she takes the map and looks over it.

"Where's that crater thing you mentioned?" Charlie asks. Because that's the part she really, really, really (really, really!) wants to see. She remembers every word of the description he gave her back when they met, and if it's even close to that she wants to see it.

[sleazeoverstyle]

"Right here." He points it out on the map, then pauses to consider what the could do after flyin' up there. He's pretty sure he doesn't want to go snowboarding or skiing, so that shit ain't even gonna get mentioned, and like he gives a fuck about some archaeological dig. Taking the map, he eyes it critically: okay, he knows what he's gonna do. They'll make a big circle, end up back down in Junon, then fly back up to Shin-Ra HQ and turn in the chopper. And by then, it'll probably be time to get her back to the bar anyway. Or his place. Whichever comes first.

So he files the flight plan and starts 'er up without another word. Time to take off, and he knows the big vertical lift ain't for everyone, but what the hell, right? Might as well enjoy what this helicopter has to offer.

"We're gonna head up past Kalm, then over water for a while, and then over the crater. You need anything at all, tell me." If it's something he doesn't have on board she'll have to wait for it, but otherwise, he's got the usual thermos of coffee, a little bit of food (but no pie), and plenty of music.

And spare sunglasses; he hands Charlie a pair. "Once we get up there, you're gonna want these." HEY. It ain't easy thinkin' of everything.

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

Charlie beams at him when he hands her the sunglasses. "Is this so I can look cool?" she laughs. She puts them on, and looks more slightly-ridiculous than cool, really. That's what happens when you put a pair of relatively aggressive frames on someone like Charlie.

As for the flight plan, she's got not objections. It's Reno. She trusts him.

[sleazeoverstyle]

"No, Chuck. It's so I can look cool." He spares the time to give her a little wry grin before he pats her on the cheek and turns all his attention back to piloting for a while. They're up and off the top of the building, and behind them Midgar and its ruins spread out, and in front are some low mountains and other cities: Edge, and Kalm further in the distance. The lodge at Healin's pretty well hidden and he ain't gonna take her there, for fuck's sake. He spends enough time there as it is.

But it's real pretty and as the ground falls away beneath them, he makes a concerted effort to stay below any cloud cover so she could see it all as long as possible.

It ain't every day he takes someone this innocent around with him. Shit, it really is like havin' a sister along for the ride most of the time.

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

Charlie's face is pretty much glued to the glass of the windscreen. Everything is so small from this high up! There's a hint of sadness in her eyes as she watches Midgar fade behind them, but it's mostly buried in all the wonder.

If Reno's paying attention he'll hear her stop breathing for nearly a moment as they come up over the mountains revealing Kalm. It's a sort of breathtaking thing, after all.

"Wow," she manages after taking a sudden breath.

[sleazeoverstyle]

It ain't that he'd mind givin' her mouth-to-mouth, but then who'd fly the chopper? And anyway, he doesn't notice she's been holdin' her breath until she breathes in hard again, and by then whatever's caught her eye is below and behind them anyway. For him, it's all just business as usual, and she wouldn't know from lookin' that Kalm's increased so much in size since Midgar got pretty much destroyed, and that if they put down in the grasslands they might come upon an Elfadunk or a Levikron or somethin', and as a matter of fact, he ain't said a whole lot about monsters 'cause that ain't been necessary. If he has to, he'll explain about 'em.

It's not so very far until they're out over the start of open ocean. From here, the whole Northern continent ain't much more than a distant speck but it comes up on you fast from the air.

"Pretty, ain't it."

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

"It is," Charlie agrees enthusiastically, still a bit breathless. "Everything seems so small from up here, but... some things seem even bigger." When you can't see all of something from the air, it really reinforces that it's huge.

Once they're out over the ocean her gaze moves forward. Her face is still pressed up against the glass, of course. "What's that?" she asks, squinting at the rapidly growing speck ahead of them.

[sleazeoverstyle]

"That's the Northern Continent." It's kinda like a wasteland, but that's just 'cause so much Mako went into tryin' to heal the gap where the crater is. Or some shit like that: yeah, yeah, whatever. What he knows even more about is the inside of that friggin' crater. He has it memorized like he has the back of his hand or the shape shade and color of his tattoos memorized 'cause that... well, that's his next big mission, but it's secret and he can't tell her about it. Shit, he ain't even told Rude about it and that's somethin'. His partner will learn when he needs to, but so far as he knows it's just him and Tseng and Elena 'cause that's how the boss wants it.

Soon. It'll happen soon. Whenever they get the nod to go ahead.

"Which we're just gonna fly over today. But you'll see when we go over it, there's a couple towns up there. One where people are doin' an archaeological dig, and another where you could do cold-weather sports. Which I ain't dressed for," he adds hastily. Nah, that shit's not his style.

For now, though, she could enjoy the way it keeps gettin' a little bit more visible out there in the distance. It'll be a while till they get there, but the only reason to be in a rush in a helicopter is if someone's chasin' you, you're doing medical evac, or you really have to take a piss. And neither of those three apply... yet.

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Charlie sits up a bit straighter at this information. "It seems small from here, though."

That's the thing about distance: if you don't know how big something really is you can't tell if it's huge and far off, small and close, or something in between. Charlie believes that it's big, Reno told her it was, but she can't really get a feel for how big from this far away.

[sleazeoverstyle]

"Yeah, well, just think how small we look to it." He's teasin'. As far as he knows, the crater ain't lookin' at no one, although he could sure as fuck be wrong.

Not that he thinks he is.

"So you never flew in a helicopter before?" Shit, he's been a pilot for like... ever since he was done with school. In fact, if he has to pick any one thing he really loves, it's probably flying.

Everyone has to have something. Even good-for-nothing Midgar-bombing Turk asshats like him.

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

"No!" she chirps. "It's my first time."

[sleazeoverstyle]

Good thing he ain't drinkin' his coffee yet or he might just have had to spit it out. As it is, he's able to swallow back how friggin' cute and inappropriate it is to put it that way, turns his attention to the control panel, flips a few switches. Music plays real soft in the background in the headsets now. Any talkin' they do will still take precedence over that, but what the fuck not, right? He must've flown up here twenty times in the past couple months and that's cool; he has to know the routes and the ins and outs and especially his way around the maze inside the crater's lip, so this is actually good exercise for him as a pilot.

Like he needs it.

"Well, Chuck. It ain't my first time." He tries pretty friggin' hard not to smile too hard. He ain't even gonna make no jokes about the mile-high club or none of that.

Beneath them, sunlight glints off the water and the water itself stretches out in every direction. Because it'll be fun, he dips 'em down close to the water's surface.

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

Charlie squeaks at the sudden drop and looks over at Reno quickly. Then she realizes that it was all on purpose and turns it into an enthusiastic whoop.

That, in turn, dies out as they get close enough to the surface to really get a feel for how fast they're going (it wasn't that obvious from high up). "The water's beautiful," she declares exuberantly, face pressed even harder against the glass now as she struggles to get a good look.

[sleazeoverstyle]

It is pretty. But he doesn't want to put down in it, so it's back up again, and full forward on the throttles, and the Northern Continent gets closer and closer. He pulls out the thermos, pours a cup of coffee for Charlie, digs out a second cup, pours one for himself. Might as well pass the time over open ocean somehow.

He ain't sure if this almost-sisterly shit is better or worse than havin' someone like Lara along for the ride. But they had a whole different understanding about the thing and Charlie... well, she's adorable and innocent and wide-eyed, like a kid, and he can't help it if he can't even muster a single friggin' bad thought about her.

What the hell is wrong with him? Maybe he's gettin' old.

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

It takes a couple of seconds before Charlie even notices that he's offering her coffee, what with her full attention glued on the approaching continent. When she does look over, she blinks in surprise and then gratitude as she takes the offered drink.

She sips at it and smiles. "This is nice." Whether she means the coffee or the helicopter ride or the entire trip isn't entirely clear. Maybe she means all of them.

[sleazeoverstyle]

There's this thing about flyin' in a helicopter as opposed to, say, a jet or a passenger plane, and that's the freedom of movement. Because the thing has rotors instead of propellers, you can go whatever direction. Up, down, back, forward, sideways. It's cool, and he brings 'em around -- when the land's finally close enough -- so Chuck gets the best view of Bone Village below them, and he flies low enough so she could make out a couple things. Not like the details of the shit on the ground -- the bones, the debris -- but so she could see some of the structures, and even the tiny little people down there milling around. It's kind of cool, and he warns her to hold onto her coffee cup as they angle in so she gets the best view.

And then he pulls the helicopter up again so they're flyin' nice and level, and it's a good thing too 'cause the view of the crater is pretty friggin' spectacular from here, what with that back wall of it all taller than the rest, and the mist rising from it, and the way the clouds catch and swirl around it, and the closer they get to it, the smaller he feels.

Like the crater or whatever lives in those caves inside it could swallow them whole and spit 'em back out again. Before they get any closer, he drains his coffee and sets the cup down in its holder and gets friggin' ready, and there ain't no jokin' around, no small talk, no innuendo about size mattering.

Here, it actually does.

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

Charlie grins over at him as they fly over the village and laughs as she grips her cup of coffee so it doesn't get spilled. And then her face goes completely blank and she just stares.

Reno's got a way with words sometimes, but he didn't do the view justice. It's huge and magnificent, and Charlie is suddenly intensely glad to have a perfect memory. The fact that she'll be able to recall this image whenever she wants is one she'll be glad of later, but at this moment all she can do is stare. No thought, no analysis, just a long, hard struggle to take it all in.

She's stopped breathing again.

[sleazeoverstyle]

Now he reaches over and takes that cup out of her hands, flips the lid on it shut, and sets it down safe. She's pretty much riveted to the view and by this point he can't remember when the fuck he saw this for the first time, but he always likes the way it looks. It comes along with a pretty good amount of danger, especially the closer a guy gets to it.

There's friggin' monsters down there. And who knows what the fuck else? Well, he does, or at least he has a pretty good idea. And the point of this ain't to scare Charlie but to impress her a little, so he raises the helicopter up so they could have a good view lookin' down into the crater. They hover there for a little bit, the mists from the inside licking the outsides of the helicopter, but this thing they're flyin' in is a big beast and a safe heavy one, and it's all cool. It's fun.

"Pretty impressive, don't you think?" He could stick around here for a couple hours, but he ain't so sure that's the best way to spend their time. They didn't have to time the flight for sunrise or any of that wow-the-lady shit. It's pretty cool enough on its own.

"You get a sense of how big it is now, right?" He can't remember if he told her how it got here but if he didn't and she asks, he'll tell her. And if he did, then he doesn't need to bore her telling the same friggin' story twice.

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

She never asked, and she's not about to now. In fact, if her expression is anything to go by, she doesn't even hear him talking.

The enormity of the crater, once she's seen it up close and as they pull away for a wider view, is quite literally mind-boggling. Her eyes remain wide and staring, and she doesn't even seem conscious that he's taken the coffee from her.

Suffice to say that Charlie is more than a little impressed.

[sleazeoverstyle]

So she's pretty glued to the window and it's adorable and attractive and all that good shit, and he ain't gonna fuck with the moment or nothin'. If she was someone else he'd probably be sittin' here in the pilot's seat planning on how he could use this to his advantage, but there's this funny thing about Charlie: he likes her. A lot, and in this sweet and genuine way that's about a hundred percent foreign to him. He doesn't get like that. Not over anyone. So it's like... like he ain't got a clue what to do about it, and he almost wishes he could've pulled Tasha aside yesterday and sat her down and said what the fuck do I do?

But he didn't, and he wouldn't, and that's that, and they're here over the crater, so he keeps 'em here for just a couple more minutes before heading north-northwest, up and around, then turning back toward the south. He has to be mindful of fuel.

This time they take a little different route, over Icicle Inn, and he points that out to her, tells her people go there for snowboarding. But he's got the feeling that after the crater, some mountain town ain't gonna be all that interesting so they don't linger.

There's more to see in other places.

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

As they pull away from the crater, Charlie's head swivels, trying to keep it in view as long as possible. As the helicopter swivels to finally put it out of sight she seems to shake herself from her reverie. "Wow," she breathes. "You were right."

And then things settle back to something approaching normal for her. Charlie looks where Reno points and listens to his explanations and his stories and asks occasionally ridiculous questions ("Is it actually made of icicles?") and generally has a whole lot of fun and isn't shy about letting him know.

"So where are we going next?" she asks, still glowing a bit from her experience over the crater.

[sleazeoverstyle]

Yeah, she's all impressed and everything, and he's had a change of plans. "Look on the map and see if you can find Costa del Sol."

Change of plans, change of pace. "We're gonna put down there and refuel, stretch our legs, get somethin' to eat, and then we're going over to Junon if we have time. You'll get to see two real different coastlines in one day."

Why the fuck not, right? All this tryin' to keep shit different from what he did with Lara, and how come? 'Cause Lara's a different type of lady? Maybe. But they have to refuel sometime, and that's the best and closest stop for it.

And Charlie deserves it too. There's all those little shops there and he could buy her a bangle or somethin', as promised. She's suddenly the last person he wants to disappoint.

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

"I see it!" Charlie exclaims proudly as she points at the dot on the map. "It's..." she starts to point out the window in the appropriate direction, but she doesn't actually know which way they need to go, so her hand drops and she blushes. "Um... I hope you know how to get there."i

[sleazeoverstyle]

"You're a fuck of a copilot, Chuck. Now we're gonna be stuck circlin' around until we run out of fuel." Fuck, Chuck, stuck: what, he's turnin' into a friggin' poet. He gives her a smug little grin and heads southeast. They'll be over open water again eventually, but for now he hugs the coastline of the Northern continent 'cause it's prettier and more interesting and pretty much just because.

Reaching over, he pats her cheek. "You doin' okay, lady? Still havin' fun?" For whatever reason, it matters. Shit. He hopes that doesn't become some friggin' habit with him.

What the fuck ever: he radios in the change of destination, gives an estimated arrival time over to the heliport at Costa del Sol. Refueling, he figures, can be on Corporate but the rest is on him.

[timedeniedme.livejournal.com]

Charlie's face heats at his touch but she grins at the same time she blushes. "It's all so amazing," she gushes. "The crater... Your description didn't really do it justice." Charlie tries to sound chiding and disappointed, but it just comes out as giddy and excited.

She laughs and blushes again and looks down at her lap. "I'm really glad you invited me," she says quietly.