Don't you worry: I havn't forgotten about my other story which is still in progress! I just thought I'd take a little break while I think, and maybe do another little story that doesn't seem so...'tragic' and serious! Here it is: anyone care to guess my favourite Final Fantasy VII pairing? Go on: I dare you! :D
This is a nice little short one, so there probably won't be any sad moments in this one! Go ahead and enjoy.
Her shift had ended, but she had a feeling that her work wasn't quite over for the day yet:
"Five...four...three...two...one..." the young blonde counted down, looking up at the door of the office just in time to see Reno stumbling in, an almost cheshire-cat-like grin spreading across his lips from the moment he had laid eyes on her. Within a matter of seconds, Rude also entered, and taken his place by Reno's side. As always, Rude was the exact opposite of Reno: mysterious, tidy, quiet and...well...bald, whereas Reno was easy to read (most of the time, anyway) scruffy (it was almost as though he feared organisation of any description), loud (there was nowhere within the ShinRa building where it was at all possible to escape the sound of his voice...and even when you had left the building, it is likely that his voice would still be ringing loud and clearly in your ears), and it only took one glance at his head to see how hairy he was. Sometimes Elena couldn't help but wonder if he had grown that mane himself, or if he had stolen pieces of hair from other people (and possibly animals), put it all together and assembled a freakish wig of some sort. In any case: as soon as the word 'one' had left her lips, the two men had approached her 'Right on time...' Elena thought to herself, appearing amused but also inwardly dreading what kind of proposition Reno had in mind that would make him grin like that. Well, she was about to find out, it seemed...whether she wished to or not.
"Laneyyyyyy, my dear!" the redhead called, his arms outstretched as though expecting a hug as he approached her. Hesitantly, Elena opened her arms to return the incoming hug, only to find that Reno changed his position as he came closer, and simply ruffled her hair instead. "Hey, soft as ever!" he joked, giving her a flash of that infuriating smile. Removing his hand from her head, he placed both hands on his skinny hips and simply gazed at her in a rather enthusiastic way, Rude standing a little ways behind him as stoic as ever.
"Fine, fine, fine. What do you want...?" she questioned, her suspicion of the situation quite obvious. Right now, she was still rather bitter due to the fact that her efforts at attracting Tseng's attention had again, gone unnoticed. Elena was well aware that Reno knew of this, and only hoped (for the sake of his health) that he hadn't come to play a cheap trick on her, or tease her about it. She knew him well, and with that came the knowledge that taunting (however strong or mild it may be) was to be expected. "If you've come to make fun of me, you know what the consequences are, don't you...?" she muttered, narrowing her eyes a fraction at her co-workers, her mildly cold stare flicking from one man to the other. "So?" she eventually asked, now rather keen to get an answer out of the men so that she could leave this place and just go home.
"As impatient as ever, aren't you? Aww...well, what d'ya think Rude? We tell her now? Or make her guess and watch her go insane?"
"..." The stern glare of the tall man which was accompanied by the quirk of his eyebrow obviously knocked any of the more sadistic ideas Reno had straight from his mind, and an apologetic expression graced the redhead's face for only a few seconds, before the more 'devilish' side of him awoke once more, and his gaze returned to meet the cold stare of Elena's.
"My buddy and I have decided: we'll just tell ya outright." he announced rather proudly, clasping his hands together as his bright eyes clashed against Elena's honet-coloured eyes. "Bar time! You're comin' with us! No excuses! I know what you've been through today, babe, and those sorrows of yours could do with a good drowning! Come on, rookie!" Before Elena was even given the chance to give a reply such as: 'I'd rather jump out the window!', a mischevious glint had appeared within the redheaded man's eyes, and Elena did not notice this until it was too late. "Ready?" It wasn't a question to Elena, but to Rude. With that said, he grabbed one of Elena's arms, and Rude seized the other. It seemed that they had been planning this, as the two men nodded to eachother once, before forcing Elena to begin moving, manouvering out of the office and towards the elevator. As they waited at the dull silver doors, Reno drowned out Elena's weak protests and struggles with a loud statement of: "You'll thank me for this later!"
They stood in wait, Rude and Reno exchanging odd glances every so often as they tried to restrain the struggling female Turk. "Man, this is taking a long time...shoulda taken the stairs, eh, buddy?" he asked, followed by his usual amused little snigger. Really there wasn't much funny about the statement, but he had amused himself at least, so that was the important thing. When the elevator finally arrived, Elena was forced inside, shortly followed by Reno and Rude, neither of whom seemed to have any regrets or feelings of guilt about pushing her around like that.
"Y-...you can't do this to me!" Elena protested, as she was finally dragged from the elevator, and taken from the ShinRa building by her two co-workers. "Don't you remember what happened in Wutai?! The last time I came to the bar with you, I got kidnapped!"
"Yeah! Because you left, and went wandering around on your own! You'll just have to learn to stay inside bars where it's nice and safe when there are sleazy men running around without leashes...I promise you, babe: you're going to enjoy this."