.-°-..-°-. Easy Rider .-°-..-°-.

Per fare a meno di te
non so dove me ne andrò
che cosa inventerò.

(Giorgia)

"C'mon! C'moooon babe! Push hardeeeeeer! WooooHoOooO..!"

Reno's wild scream echoed in the emptiness spreading around the abandoned infinite strand of the Continent – there were no cities there around, nor other hints of civilization. Just the void strand they were running through with Reno's luxury roadster car.
He was sitting outside the window, one foot on the white leather seat, completely uncaring of dirtying it, and the other one directly on the steering wheel. Both his hands were thrown up in the air, while the salty seabreeze ruffled his red hair, flaming under the sun, and making his loosened tie wave behind him.

In the seat beside him there was Elena – she was the one pushing on the accelerator, and she really was pushing hard, even if when she drove by herself she couldn't really define herself as a fan of speed. Maybe it was because she was completely drunk, just as Reno was.

Maybe it was because when you are surrounded by nothingness you don't actually realize how fast you're running.

And she could see nothing beautiful around her, even if the view of the sea was stunning in the midday sun, even if the irregular trail the car was leaving in the wet sand was fascinating, and even if the seawater droplets were splashing on the glossy polish of the car, making it shimmer. She could see nothing because there was nothingness in her heart, since the moment Tseng had died. To be honest, she knew there was nothingness in Reno's heart too, even if this was just his personal way to show it – yes, it was saying 'Lena, babe, why don't we get drunk and ride my car down on a deserted beach?', childishly hoping that such a random thing could make her feel better.
Well - she didn't quite know how she felt.

That was, until her foot slipped of the accelerator, and in the moment the car decreased its speed, Reno lost the balance of his foot on the wheel too, making the car turn right to the sea all of a sudden, almost in an about-turn.

When the roadster reached too far into the sea, the engine roar stopped, and just in that moment Elena realised how much deafening it must have been – but her silly thought was brutally interrupted by the sight of Reno being shot out the car and into the sea, his sunglasses falling into the water not far from him.
For a moment her heart stopped, and she felt an unwanted sense of déjà vu, her rationality fooled by the lingering taste of alcohol – and she found herself yelling his name with shrieking voice without realizing it.

But then she saw Reno rolling up the surface and assuming the position of a wet cat, spitting and laughing as if he hadn't had the time to realize what had just happened, all his hair plastered on the side of his face.
Elena burst into laughter - and they were so dragging that she didn't know how to stop, even if in every second of it she felt guilty for being able to laugh just the day after it had happened.
By the way, that was life.

She opened the car-door with difficulty, now half sunken into the water, and jumped down it, seeing the lower part of his Turk suit growing darker for the contact with water. She dragged herself towards Reno, walking unsteadily.
"Are – are you okay?" she asked him quite dumbly, while he seemed busy searching for his lost sunglasses into the crystalline water.

"Yeah – just fine." Reno turned to Elena and winked to her, before plunging his hand in the water again "How could you even think that such a minor thing would do me i-"

Elena interrupted him, falling on her knees and throwing her arms around his neck, making the both of them roll into the low water in a pointless position, his tie floating on the surface like a seaweed.
"Thank you so much Reno"

A seagull was flying above them, and Elena spotted Reno's sunglasses underwater not far from them and smiled - she just knew he would have been desperate if he had really lost it.
So some things would change, some other things just never would.
There in the water, so unprofessionally wrapped in a suit which was soaking wet, with a madman as her partner, Elena though that maybe an indefinitely far future in which she would be okay again might exist.

AN: Inspired by a movie in which Jack Nicholson was acting, but don't ask me which movie it was because I only know the italian title ;) - don't know why, the car scene made me think about these two immediately. By the way , working with Reno must be real fun, ahah.

Swamp-Eyes

PS: I didn't want to translate the song in English because I love the way it sounds in italian, but if you reached this point you deserve it =P ' To go on without you - I don't know where will I go - what will I think up.'