"What do you do in your delivery business, anyway?"

"My delivery business?" Cloud blinked. He was standing by the front door, in the process of strapping his complex sword holster to his back. He gave Yuffie a rather blank look. "People give me packages, and I bring them to someone else."

"Well, I know that," Yuffie put her hands on her hips. "I mean, like... what's it like?"

Cloud thought that this question was hardly any more clear than her last one, but he tried anyway, "...It's nice. I like getting to go to places I wouldn't ordinarily. And I like to ride,"
"And Zack does the same as you?"
"Well, we're half mercenaries," he explained, strapping the holster securely across his front and lifting his pauldron. "Sometimes we do deliveries, and sometimes people ask us to clear out monsters that're causing trouble. But yeah, pretty much the same,"

Yuffie seemed to be thinking something over. Cloud hadn't missed the way her eyes had flashed when he mentioned his bike; she often pestered him for a ride when the topic came up. As he turned to leave, she asked suddenly, "Can I help, too?"
"Hm?" Cloud seemed surprised. "...Why?"
"'Cause I'm bored," she drawled, as if her emphasis would help convince him. "You and Zack and Tifa and even Aerith are always getting to go do stuff, while I always just..."

"What do you always do?" he asked genuinely, as it occurred to him then that he didn't actually know.
"I dunno! Ninja training. Looking for treasure," she explained, things that Cloud knew could could be translated to "just running around." "But nothing, ever... helpful," the ever-confident Yuffie broke eye contact, glancing to the side for just a moment.

"...Well, you're in luck," Cloud decided. Yuffie perked up curiously. "I did just get a package in that's going to the other side of Midgar. It's low priority, and I was going to get to it tomorrow since today is already booked. It's going to Sector 4. Do you think you can handle it?"

  She seemed slightly disbelieving. "You mean it? Yeah! That's no problem! Where is it?"
"In the garage," Cloud inclined his head, denoting that she should follow. She was practically nipping at his heels as he took a small brown parcel from his workbench.
"Here," she took it from him with surprising gentleness, "the address is written in the corner. If you get lost, or something happens, just bring it back and I'll take it out with me tomorrow. Be certain you get the right place, and don't let anything happen to it," Cloud spoke as he affixed a larger package to the back of Fenrir, tying it securely with rope.
"You can count on me!" the girl bounced on her heels, "now, just drop me off at Zack's place so I can borrow his bike—"
"Nice try," Cloud half-smirked. "Ninjas don't ride motorcycles, they're too loud. You'll have to figure out some other way to get there. I'll pay you for the delivery, so don't hesitate to take the train if you need to,"
"Ninjas don't take trains!" Yuffie countered, to which Cloud had no argument. "Wait, I'm getting paid? How much? Could you pay me in mater—"
Fenrir's engine roared to life. "I've got to get going, Yuffie," he said loudly over its thrum. "I'll be back this evening. Good luck on your delivery,"
"Okay! See you then!" she replied even more loudly, but Cloud knew she hadn't let the matter drop; they would discuss it that evening.

~

Yuffie watched as Cloud pulled out of the garage and into the street. She held the package under her arm and close to her chest. Sector 4 wasn't as far as it could be, but a trip there and back on foot would take the entire day, even with her extensive knowledge of hidden shortcuts. She could do it, of course, but didn't particularly want to.

Well, she wasn't going to get anywhere by just standing there. First dashing inside to grab some spare gil and a snack, she started off down the street. Their rental place was probably the sturdiest-looking building in sight, thanks mostly to Tifa's good business sense (Strife Delivery Service had been her idea, after all). That on top of what the bar brought in ensured they had enough to live somewhere clean and relatively spacious, even with the four of them and the guests they sometimes hosted. They lived in a newly (and rather hastily) constructed residential district, with 7th Heaven only a short walk away. Despite the hardship that Midgar had uniformly fallen into after Shinra and the plate's distruction, the dust had settled and Sector 7's residential area was a much better place to live than the slums would have been. Society was still repairing itself after the damage that both Meteor and the lifestream had caused, but with the World Regenesis Organization in Shinra's place, the planet was slowly healing.

But that didn't mean that she could be complacent. Yuffie scanned her surroundings on high alert, as if she might run into any pickpockets at 8 am in front of a row of apartments. Though she was strong, she always was careful and carried at least one weapon with her; her shuriken had come in handy a few times, against both wayward monsters and on the odd occasion, shady-looking guys. But nothing was gonna happen to this package, not on her watch. She wasn't even going to open it, even if her immediate thought upon seeing it had been, "what if there's materia in there?"

But she knew Cloud would get in trouble if anything happened to it, so she left the thread around the parchment paper tightly knotted. Stealing from him directly was one thing, but... he'd entrusted his job to her.
Yuffie headed down a narrow side street and came out onto a main road. She had become very familiar with Midgar in her time with little better to do than explore it and train her combat skills. After Jenova's defeat, she had returned to Wutai briefly, but with Shinra's demise there was no longer a pressing threat to her home country. She'd assisted (and taken pleasure in) dismantling the reactor nearest to her hometown, but after spending some time with her family ultimately she decided to return to Midgar with her friends to help Reeve with the WRO. She'd had an adventure with Vincent, and was eagerly awaiting her next one, but since then, things had been very... dull.

"Am I really going to have to walk all the way to Sector 4?" she muttered to herself. She really didn't want to have to take the train, either, since she'd already told Cloud that ninjas didn't take trains. No sooner had she begun to mentally complain than she spotted a familiar and unmistakeable shock of red hair fly past her on a motorcycle.
"Wh— Reno!" she shouted, and the former Turk flinched, screeching to a halt as he managed to pull over to the side of the road. He whipped around in his seat to spot Yuffie, wide-eyed.

"Woah, don't do that, yo!" he scowled, as a driver honked their horn at him as they passed. It was lucky that Midgar's roads were still relatively empty, as cars had become much more of a commodity lately. Yuffie was already running up to him. "Where's the fire?"
"Can I have a ride?" she asked, hopping onto the seat behind him before he could answer. "Pleeeaase?"

"Um, why?" he asked, forced from his own bike to stand with his hands on his hips and eye her with annoyance. "I've gotta get to Sector 4 to deliver this package for Cloud!" she held it out for him to see. "It's super important!"
Reno looked it over swiftly and carefully. It didn't look particularly suspicious, and he doubted that Cloud wouldn't want to hand-deliver anything that really was important.

"I'll get you free drinks at 7th Heaven," she offered, and the former Turk sighed.

"Well, I'm headed that way anyway, I guess. Alright, let me back on,"
Yuffie scooted back so he could take his place behind the handlebars. "Yesss," she practically giggled, "finally I get to ride a motorcycle, you don't even know how much I've been bugging Cloud—"
"Oh, I can imagine," Reno started back onto the road. "So, what's the story, yo? Is he too busy to take this one himself?"
"It's not that. He's letting me deliver this one because he trusts me," she said proudly. The package was held carefully against her chest as she hung on to Reno's arm with her free hand.

"And Tifa knows you're going around offering her booze up for free?"
"Cloud's paying me for this, so consider it a business expense," she said, somehow with even more pride.
Reno chuckled. "Wow, look at you. A regular, grown-up—owch! What the hell?!"

"Don't patronize me," she huffed, having just pinched his arm. "Aerith's been teaching me how to use materia, and I could totally kick your ass if I wanted to," it seemed that she was still a little bit embarrassed about having to be rescued by Shinra operatives in her own home country that one time. Of course, she didn't mention that so far Aerith had only let her near restoratives.

"Fine, yo. Gonna make me crash this bike with both of us on it..." he muttered, but she seemed to not have heard him.

"So what are you doing here, anyway? I heard you were up by Cosmo Canyon a little while ago,"
"Sorry, ki—I mean, uh... princess," Reno flinched, as he was powerless to defend himself if Yuffie decided to pinch him again, but fortunately it seemes she'd decided that because she really was a princess it hadn't counted as patronizing. "Top-secret WRO business. Ask Reeve, maybe, he's the one with clearance to spill. But yeah, I'll be in the area for a little while," he said, turning along to the less-developed roads between sectors. It had been a relief and one of Reeve's top priorties to get the trains running again so people didn't have to pass through the more dangerous area where monsters attracted to the city could gather undisturbed. "I was going to drop in on Cloud sometime soon, actually—shit,"

The breaks screeched as Reno skidded to a halt, pulling up sideways in front of a group of two sniveling, grunting hedgehog pies and three boundfats. They reared their toadlike heads up at them as the bike approached, and as Yuffie had only checked to make sure the package hadn't been crushed between them, two more scampered out from a teetering, half-singed pile of junk into the middle of the road as if this was their territory.

"Shit," Reno cursed again, dismounting and snapping his wrist to extend his electro-mag rod, which buzzed to life. "This must be a nest or something. A lot of 'em—it doesn't look like they're just gonna let us by,"

"I'll cover you!" the ninja declared, withdrawing several shurikens from the inside of her large sleeve while holding the package securely under the other arm.

Reno launched himself forward almost as quickly as the electricity he commanded, darting off to the side of the group to pick at their flanks. He needed only to touch them to deal damage, and could hit several targets in quick succession. The monsters screeched while their rough skin burned with an acrid stench, though rather than incapacitating them it seemed only to make them more angry.
"Tough little bastards," Reno spat through gritted teeth as he dodged a fireball. The red creatures, he knew, could only withstand a few hits, but their larger cousins would pose a challenge, especially in numbers as they were.

One hedgehog pie opened its mouth to expel another bout of flame, only to then find an expertly thrown shuriken lodged into its throat. It gave a strangled cry before keeling over. "A-ha! Take that!" Yuffie punched the air in triumph, leaping deftly onto a stack of tires that teetered on a pile of junk. She wanted to put some distance between herself and Reno, giving him space to continue his full-frontal assault while she covered him from the shadows.

At least, that was her plan, until another spiny red creature leapt up at her from underneath the discarded hood of a car. It threw itself at her, its small razor teeth glinting dangerously, and even with her dexterity she only just managed to leap back in time to avoid damage—though the same could not be said for the parcel.
One of its claws sliced cleanly through the thick parchment, rending the bundle in two and sending its contents scattering to the ground. Yuffie let out a cry so alarmed that Reno whirled around to face her, allowing one of the monsters an opening to singe the end of his ponytail. "Ah! Shit, Yuffie, are you alright?!" he asked, bashing a boundfat that had leapt at him with his rod as if it were a baseball bat.

But Yuffie had found herself distracted by the colorful objects that now lay about her feet. Colorful, spherical, softly glinting objects. "...No way," she muttered, breath caught in her throat. She seemed to have frozen in place.

That is, until the hedgehog pie made an attempt to chomp down on her heel. With laser focus she leapt out of its way and darted toward one of the fallen materia. The moment she touched it, cool, powerful energy settled into her core and she knew instinctively that it was an ice elemental.
"Eat this!" she shouted at the sorry creature, her eyes glinting brighter than the orb in her hand, before there was a sharp cracking sound and a strong gust of icy wind that made Reno suddenly wish he knew how to button up his shirt.

"What's going on over there, yo?!" Reno spared a sideways glance to see Yuffie giving a large fractal ice cube a good kick. Realizing she no longer held the package, he put what had happened together in that instant, but she was happy to explain anyway.

"I found materia!!" she was practically bouncing on her heels, thrilled to have lived up to her self-appointed title for once. "Heads up!"
"Careful!" Reno shouted, dodging out of the way just in time as another huge icicle split the air. Not five seconds later a bolt of lightning cracked to his right. "I said careful!"

At that point Reno wisely decided to make a tactical retreat when he saw that Yuffie was now clutching two handfuls' worth of crystals and hellfire was raining down onto the battlefield. She held no reservations and in a matter of less than a minute, their path was completely clear, all of the monsters either scared away or lying dead. Her eyes darted quickly about and when she realized that there were no more moving targets for her to obliterate, she punched a fist into the air and celebrated with a short tune.

Reno rose from the oil drum he'd taken refuge on, brushing dust from his clothes with raised eyebrows. He whistled lowly. "Damn. You really went all out,"

Yuffie beamed at him. "You're welcome!" she declared. As far as she was concerned, her debt to the Turks had been absolved. No matter that Reno could've taken care of it himself anyway. She didn't think about that.
Reno decided to give her this one, and let the matter drop. "Impressive, yo. So, what are you going to do now?" he eyed her with mild curiosity.

Yuffie's head tilted a fraction and she blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I seem to remember you being something of a materia thief. Are you gonna make off with the goods?"

The ninja froze as the question hit her. She'd counted four beautiful, powerful lustrous, shining orbs as the package had torn. Four materia, each of a different element, she now held in her two hands. Even as she stood still their power buzzed through her limbs and raised the hair on the back of her neck. After a moment's consideration, she asked, "...would you tell Cloud?"

"I'm no snitch, yo," Reno said. Of course, as a Turk, this was not true. One could say that snitching was essentially his job, but equally so was manipulating people for information, and Reno was curious to know what Yuffie would decide on her own.

Yuffie looked down at the ground. It was true, she'd stolen from Cloud and the rest of the party before, but this felt... different, somehow. It wasn't as if her target had been unwitting, that she'd claimed her prize with her own skill and cunning... Cloud had staked his reputation on entrusting this delivery to her.

Suddenly she cursed and kicked an old tire as hard as she could. "Ugh! No, I'm not..." Her shoulders drooped as she sighed. "I'm gonna deliver them. To some random person who probably won't even appreciate them. I'm just gonna give them away..."

Reno couldn't help but suppress a laugh at her melodrama. "Alright, then, hop on. Lucky for you I remember the address, you'll just have to explain what happened to the package,"
"...Do you think I could keep just one? Just the fire one, maybe. They wouldn't miss it, right? ...Damn it, fine!" she grumbled as she clambered on to the back of the bike again, as Reno revved the engine with an amused smirk.

~

"Clou~d!" Yuffie was practically bouncing on her heels as Cloud pulled into the garage that evening.
"Hey," he greeted her with a nod, unfastening his headgear and putting it back up. He turned to face her, as she was blocking the doorway. "How did the delivery go?"
"It went perfect!" she announced. "Better than perfect, actually, because—okay, well, maybe not perfect, because we did get attacked by some monsters and the package did get busted open but wait, don't get that look on your face! It was okay, because I totally took out all the monsters and guess what, I didn't even take any of the materia."

Cloud looked at her rather blankly as he tried to process what she'd just rambled about. "I didn't take any of the materia!" she reiterated emphatically. "I delivered them all! Ask Reno, he was there the whole time,"

"...Oh," Cloud said, with a small smile. "Well, thanks, Yuffie. I can go get your payment, if you'd just..." Yuffie leapt aside. "Instead of gil, could I have one materia? I know you have tons, don't even try and deny it,"
"Maybe next time."

a/n: all of my "objectively best" fics involve Reno in some way. I don't want to know what that says about me.