She looked around the bar, dark brown eyes piercing the haze in a manner that had become all too common to the sun-bred beauty. The date was nothing special to anyone in the bar save her: just another day mid-spring that sounded like a good day to get trashed. Instinctively, she started watching people, figuring out why they were there...maybe if she figured out enough of them, maybe she'd figure out why she was.
A girl down the bar from her pushed her empty glass toward the bartender, never moving her eyes from the wood of the bar directly in front of her. Her long dark hair fell in slender locks over her eyes, hiding the tears anyone could have seen she was trying to hide. That one was easy; she'd seen enough heartbreak wandering around headquarters on the average Friday to identify it from a mile away. Hell, she'd felt enough of it herself...
A young man at a table in a corner stared into the dim lamp in front of him, his hazel eyes glittering strangely. One glass sat in front of him, half finished and out of arm's reach. Obviously the drink was not his – he had been left by his companion. Her eyes flickered back to the brunette at the end of the bar; it wasn't her though. Not angry enough. Probably not in the bar anymore. Shiva only knew where she was now...
The sound of breaking glass drew her eyes to the other side of the bar. A red-haired man was towering over a blonde girl, screaming something half-coherently at her as he brandished a broken beer bottle in his bad hand. At least she hoped it was his bad hand; anyone wielding anything in their good hand in that manner, no matter how inebriated they were, should not be allowed to hold anything. The girl started apologizing fiercely, but the hot-tempered red-head didn't seem to be listening. The bar's bouncer finally stepped in after the guy took a swing (which he missed by a mile) at the girl, and he was removed from the bar, kicking and screaming all the while.
She winced as she turned away from that last scene; it had run all too true for her. Not long ago were the days when she would be the blonde being threatened, and he would be the hot-tempered, foul-mouthed, yet still ridiculously alluring redhead towering over her, threatening her with fates worse that death (at least, to him) if she didn't shit her mouth this instant...
"You okay, Elena?" the bartender said, a sympathetic smile on his lips and another tequila sunrise in his hand.
She took the drink without meeting his gaze; she'd taking all the sweet smiles she could handle for the night. "Fine, Brett." He paused for a moment, not sure whether to take her lie and leave or press farther, but a flash of her gaze sent him off to find a less feral customer.
What did he expect her to say? "No, Brett, I'm not. I'm desperately depressed, I don't know why, and I'm not interested in the psychoanalysis you're so fond of shoving down your customer's throats tonight?" She knew what he thought, she knew that Tseng and the rest of her former team thought, she knew they all had their little ideas about what made her the way she was. And she wasn't going to be the one that told them how close some of them were.
Hearing Reno talk in the break room that one day had really been the end of the rope for her. Hearing him elaborate on all the graphic and unspeakable (for anyone but him, of course) methods in which her mother must have beaten her, and the way she probably cried in her room every night over the scraps of fabric she had left from her father before the accident...she'd snapped, both her temper and nearly his neck. No, it wasn't scraps of fabric, it was the last letter he'd sent before he vanished from her life, postmarked her seventh birthday. Did it matter that they worked in the same building most days? Did it matter that she fought right under his nose as she trained herself as hard as she could to measure up to her sister? Of course not. No, her mother didn't beat her, but sometimes the silence that would pervade the house was worse. Which is worse, Reno? she'd wanted to scream.Having your mother beat you to within an inch of your life, or have her pretend that you don't exist?
But she hadn't said anything. She'd simply walked in, told him her usual freak-out lecture about how he had no right to be speculating about a past he had no reason to know, slapped him across the face, and walked out fighting back tears. A usual day for the two of them by the end of her time there. After that, Reno had stopped talking about her...and to her, for the most part. Their on-again, off-again relationship had fizzled out between the problems Reno had with commitment and her personality (he said), and her problems with physical closeness and his personality (she said). She's never been the touchy-feely type, and while Reno wasn't cute about it, he liked his sex and she just wasn't what he was looking for. That feeling, if nothing else, had certainly been reciprocated as well.
Elena didn't really know what she was looking for in a man, she'd decided in the end. Someone willing to be distant when he needed to be, but equally ready with a rose or meal or something on Valentine's Day or her birthday. Someone that knew what'd she'd been through at work, but preferably not someone she'd worked with. A rough, arrogant, son-of-a-bitch with a heart of gold.
Not too many of those in the world, but she knew of one she'd had her sights set on from day one.
And as luck would have it, he was in the bar tonight.
"Anyone sitting here?" she asked as softly as she could and still be heard over the obnoxious wailings of the karaoke stand. Sapphire met chocolate as he looked up at her, eyes automatically narrowed and suspicious of her presence. Well, former member of Shinra or not, what could she expect from a former member of the sole group she'd fought for close to a year?
"Not unless you got claims on the chair," he responded cautiously, indicating that she was welcome to sit down. "Whatcha want, Elena?"
"Can't a girl come over to talk to a guy all on his own, Highwind?" she replied, sliding into the chair across from him. "I'm surprised you're not with someone."
"Got no one to fuckin' come with; that a problem?"
She felt the corner of her lips twitch up in the beginnings of a smile; he hadn't changed a lick since they'd met all those years ago. "No, not a problem at all. Came on my own myself."
Cid glanced around, checking out the crowds around them. "Sure, don't see any'a them blue suits around, I guess." He glanced back to her. "What you in Rocket Town for?"
"Visiting," she said with a shrug. He raised an eyebrow; not sold. "You're working on a new rocket."
"Damn straight," he replied with a nod, a smile starting on his lips now too. "WRO's funding it through the airship division. Reeve thinks it'll do good to try'n get back up to the stars and actually have a look around. Forgot how damn slow it is to build the fuckin' thing, but should be done in a month or two, give or take."
She nodded. "Impressive. Id forgotten how focused you can be when it comes to mechanics."
"Damn right," he muttered. "What you remember 'bout back then? You weren't in the damn Turks then."
"You didn't have to be in the Turks to follow the news and gossip of Shinra," she replied blithely, leaning back in her chair.
"Well, ya got that fuckin' right." He leaned back to match, putting the stub of a cigarette butt he had left in his mouth in the ashtray and pulling out a fresh one from the pack tucked safely in the band of his flight goggles. There was an awkward pause, then Cid's eyebrows furled as he patted down his pockets, muttering obscenities under his breath. She reached into her pocket and threw a lighter at him, which it him in the chest before he caught it. "What?" he managed to ask before lighting the cigarette.
"Reno smoked," she responded immediately, indicating quite obviously that it was a topic she most certainly did not want to get into. He just nodded, catching the blatant hint with ease, and offered her the lighter back. She just shook her head, and he pocketed it. "How much of a crew does that rocket need, anyway?"
"Why you all damn interested all'a sudden, Turk?" he countered, leaning forward. "What's my rocket got ta do with you?"
She matched his gaze for a moment, just long enough to make him uncomfortable and send him all the way back into his seat, before she leaned forward to match his former stance. "I want to see the stars."
"So go outside."
She scoffed. "You know what I mean, Highwind. I want to go, to see them up close and personal. and I want you to take me there."
Cid pushed the table back slightly, forcing Elena to lean away from him if for no other reason than she needed to push it back out of her chest. "The hell? Why me?"
"Who better?" was the simple reply. Even Cid couldn't argue with that. "And besides, Highwind, you look like you could use the company."
The tips of Cid's ears and the back of his neck started burning bright red – the classic sign of embarrassment. "Don't know what the hell you talkin' about," he muttered, scratching the back of his head and looking away. "Got plenty o' people I could bring with me. Got more than enough o' a crew."
"If you have plenty of people to be with, Cid, why are you alone in a bar in your hometown?"
"Jes shu'up!" he shouted, slamming his mug onto the table, making the liquid inside slosh onto his hand and illicit another string of choice words.
She reached over silently and set a cloth napkin she'd been toying with over his hand. He went to flinch away at first, but once he realized what she was doing, he just froze, not quite sure what to do. "Burned?"
"What?"
"Are you burned?"
"No," he said, pulling his hand away once she moved the napkin. Instinctively, however, he brought his hand to his mouth. From the looks of it, he was fine – just a little red, and Elena was willing to let that lie.
"I was just trying to help, Cid," she said softly after a pause. "You're not the only one that doesn't have much of anyone to turn to anymore."
Cid went to say something, but a strange look flickered across his face and he stopped. There was truth to her words and he knew it. She knew that Shera was in and out constantly, doing one thing or the other, and while the rest of the old AVALANCHE was probably floating around somewhere, Cid would either have barricaded himself so well into the airships or the others had gone on creating new lives long enough that they wouldn't see each other often.
"I..." he started. "Yer not serious."
"You were quite the attractive figure back then, Cid."
"I'm too old. Yer too young; damn, yer what, twenty two? I'm getting' married once Shera gets back from Cosmo Canyon in a few months. I can go on for a while, Elena; there's nothin' here for ya."
"Cid, what else do I have to lose? All the people I called my friends are either not talking to me or have been thrown in jail for treason – to what crime or government, I can't ever tell anymore, but there they sit. I've never actually known a moment when I felt like someone wanted me, needed me, anything. Friendship is barely a word I understand, let alone love. The last hope I have is that somewhere out there is a world I can belong in, so I'm putting every last scrap of faith I have into the stars and your damn rocket." Cid was speechless; not even a sound would come to his lips. "I've got my bags packed; I can move out of the inn as soon as you say 'go'. Just give me one chance to live every dream I ever thought...and I'll fly to the moon and back with you, and I'll leave forever once we're back on solid ground."
Russet met azure in a desperate battle of emotion and logic, and finally Cid sighed and looked away. "Git yer damn bag. If yer comin', yer helpin' me build the fuckin' thing."
She's taking her time making up the reasons
To justify all the hurt inside
Guess she knows from the smiles
And the look in their eyes
Everyone's got a theory about the bitter one
They're saying momma never loved her much
And daddy never keeps in touch
That's why she shies away from human affection
But somewhere in a private place
She packs her bag for outer space
And now she's waiting for the right kind of pilot to come
And she'll say to him, she's saying
I would fly to the moon and back if you'll be
If you'll be my baby
Got a ticket for a world where we belong
So would you be my baby
She can't remember a time when she felt needed
If love was red then she was colour-blind
All her friends, well they're been tried for treason
And crimes that were never defined
She's saying love is like a barren place
And reaching out for human faith is like
A journey I just don't have a map for
So baby's gonna take a dive and
Push the shift to overdrive
Send a signal that she's hanging all her hopes on the stars
What a pleasant dream
Just saying
I would fly to the moon and back if you'll be
If you'll be my baby
Got a ticket for a world where we belong
So would you be my baby
Momma never loved her much
Daddy never keeps in touch
That's why she shies away from human affection
But somewhere in a private place
She packs her bag for outer space
And now she's waiting for the right kind of pilot to come
And she'll say to him, just saying
I would fly to the moon and back if you'll be
If you'll be my baby
Got a ticket for a world where we belong
So would you be my baby
Lyrics and title of "To the Moon and Back" belong to Savage Garden. Wonderful band.
Elena, Cid, and Reno all belong to Squeenix.
I think the bartender belongs to me...? XD