Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII and its characters.

Tseng sat behind his desk in his office and eyed the clock from time to time. Various files were scattered across his desk, some in staggering piles. His desk lamp was lit, giving a warm, yellow glow around it.

A phone call woke Tseng from his thoughts; it was from a Turk, who had encountered something unexpected at the investigation site.

"Tseng."

...

"Yes... hmm... that's right. Did you get any additional information?"

...

"Proceed as planned, but with extra caution. We don't want any more casualties."

Tseng put down his phone and sighed heavily. This line of work was great, if it wasn't for cases like this. Being the kind of leader he was, his mind was disturbed when everything didn't go as planned. Luckily, this time no one was at the risk of death.

Tseng focused at the paper in front of him again. Where was he? He searched for the right line and let his pen rest on it. Should he have ordered otherwise? What if... Tseng looked up at his phone, but returned to this writing almost immediately. They are experts, he thought, I should trust their abilities. Tseng continued the task at hand feeling frustrated. He had thought that he had gotten over that incident already.

After a while someone knocked on the door.

"Yes?" Tseng said with an irritated voice without raising his gaze. The heavy door opened silently and a woman with a short, blond hair peeked in.

"Oh, it's you Elena."

"Senpai, I came about the investigation Reno and Rude were sent to do yesterday."

Tseng had turned back to his work and made a correction to the text.

"What about it?"

Elena's face was uneasy.

"They haven't come back yet."

Tseng looked right up.

"You're sure?"

Elena nodded. Tseng put down his pen and talked to her again.

"Not even a phone call?"

"Nothing."

He sighed. What was he thinking? Of course they would've called him if something came up. And if those two were late, it could mean anything - Reno could be delaying them, or the investigation took longer than expected.

"Tseng?"

Tseng looked at her confused.

"Sorry, I... What were you talking about?"

"I asked if we should start searching for them."

Tseng shook his head in his mind. There's no time to be dwelling in your thoughts...

"Are you alright? Just now you looked quite exhausted."

"... I'm alright."

Tseng turned around in his chair to face the window. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. This really wasn't his day.

He heard footsteps and shortly after felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Senpai... Please don't overdo it."

He met Elena's eyes, who looked at him with worry. Tseng smiled at her slightly, which made her blush fiercely. Despite his current mood, Tseng couldn't help eyeing Elena teasingly. She looked away hastily and coughed.

"Anyway... See you tomorrow, senpai!" she said while bowing slightly before leaving the office.

As Tseng heard the door close, he reached for his cellphone. He searched quickly for Rude's number and dialed it, leaning back in his chair. He listened to the alarm for a whole minute, and still no answer.

"There's still him..."

Reno's number was right before Rude's. Now his elbows on the desk, Tseng was answered by an automatic message.

"The phone you're trying to reach is currently out of service."

Tseng closed his phone - it wasn't for granted that they would always be able to answer their phones. Agreeing with himself Tseng tried to call each of them once more. After the second round an uncomfortable thought crept into his mind: if he couldn't get a hold of Reno, Rude would always answer, no matter the situation. Even if his phone was lost or broken, he would find a way to answer his boss's calls.

"Damn."

Tseng covered his face with his hands and really regretted getting up that morning.

Author's Note: A quite short, two-chapter fic about the Turks. This was written in late September 2009, and was actually my first FFVII fic. Thanks a lot to my wonderful beta GothMana!