It was early in the morning; just dark enough for Midgar to still have a green tinge from the mako reactors. Despite the time, the Shrina building was bristling with movement. A girl in a lavender suit made her way slowly into the building, looking around quickly in a way not unlike a tourist.

"May I help you, miss?"

The girl gave a start and looked at the man sitting behind the information desk in front of her.

"Oh, um yes. Which way is the employment office?"

"Third level, take a left and go right through the cedar doors," droned the man obviously bored.

"Ah, thanks…" Wow, bored already at this early in the morning? The guy must love his job.

Three floors, and a left later found the girl facing twin cedar doors, employment office written above in shiny gold letters.

She smiled to herself.

Ah, and so it begins…

Time certainly flies when you're having fun, so naturally it seemed like a month since Jania had been busing tables for the employee lounge on the 56th floor.

Well, it's better than janitorial work.

She had her interviewer to thank for that. She had originally been aiming for a janitor spot since they could move around a lot without looking too suspicious, but he had said she was too pretty to be stuck scrubbing toilets. Not really wanting to become friends with the toilet duck in the first place, Jania had taken the busing job. Besides, lounges are a great place to pick up gossip.

Speaking of which…

Jania picked up a rag and began wiping a table near two off-duty guards.

"…and after I told him what I put in it he turned pale as a bleached shirt!" Ha ha ha ha…

"Dude! That's disgusting. Did he up-chuck?"

"Not at first…I gotta give him credit. He kept it down for almost five minutes, but his face was turning a shade of green which was making me feel a bit queasy just lookin at him…"

They both laughed.

Jania rolled her eyes. She glanced up just as a redheaded man in a blue suit walking in and plopped down, propping his leather shoes up on a table Jania had cleaned just five minutes ago. She frowned slightly, but quickly replaced the frown with a hearty smile as she walked over to him. She didn't expect to get any useful information out of him, but it couldn't hurt to be on good terms with a Turk.

Besides, she glanced back at the guards who were still laughing, I don't think I'm missing anything valuable.

"And what can I get you, sir?"

"A beer and a turkey sandwich, no mayo. And call me Reno. Sir is what my boss is called."

Jania just looked at him, slightly taken aback by how friendly Reno was. She had always assumed that Turks were serious and always the down-to-business type, seeing as their job consisted of intimidation, kidnapping and probably murder.

She returned a moment later with his drink. He flashed her a grin and she slowly returned it.

"You're new around here, ain't ya?"

"It'll be a week tomorrow. Why do you ask?"

"Eh, no reason. I've just never seen ya around before." He took a sip from his beaker. "Say, how old are ya?"

"That depends on whose asking and why." Jania responded. Playfully, batting her eyelashes.

He blinked at her response and then laughed.

"You make it sound as though I'm interrogating you."

"For as much as I know you are, Mr. Turk. Either that or you're hitting on me." Jania smiled, "Either way, I don't intend on delving out personal info to someone I just met,"

He just laughed harder, "a wise strategy, Miss…?"

"The name's Jania."

"Mhnn, isn't a name considered 'personal information?'" He took a swig, the beaker hiding his grin for a split second.

"Ah, but you have no way of knowing if that's really my name or not."

"I could always use my Turk powers to find out."

"Hmn, and I could make you go and get your own sandwich, which I'm sure is ready by now. If you'll excuse me." She went to the kitchen and returned with one turkey, no mayo sandwich. "Why so interested anyway, if I dare ask?"

"I just thought you seemed a little young to be serving beer, that's all." Reno smiled mischievously and took a big bite out of his sandwich. "Disappointed?"

"No, not in the least bit. And since that's your reason, I'll be twenty next month."

There was a moment of silence as Reno continued to munch on his food.

"So, twenty, eh? Good age, yo. Not as good as twenty-one, though." He pointedly polished off the rest of his drink.

"Say, are you allowed to drink while on-duty?"

"Say, are you allowed to stand there ignoring all your other customers? Besides, I've got the rest of the day off."

Jania looked around and snorted. "What other customers?" She gestured to the only other two in the lounge, who were still laughing over who knows what. "They paid their bill ten minutes ago."

Reno finished his sandwich. "Well, I've got to go run some errands. You take care of yourself, kiddo."

"Considering the source, I'll be sure to do that," She winked.

Chuckling, Reno left.

Jania busied herself with cleaning up the crumbs Reno had left behind. Her eyes wandered about in her boredom. The guards still hadn't left and didn't seem like they were anytime soon since they had moved from their previous topic to crud jokes.

Great, just great…

Sighing, Jania pulled her apron over her head. Besides her brush with Reno, not much had been accomplished today. All she had learned was that some males never seemed to grow up, white socks were bad to wear when traveling through Cosmos Canyon, and one of the soldier's pet bunny had died when he feed it one too many cheese sticks.

"But they were his favorite," followed by a bout sobbing had been heard for at least fifteen minutes before his friends could calm him down enough to convince the crying soldier that drinking wouldn't bring his bunny back.

"See you tomorrow," she called over her shoulder to the bartender, who was mixing a martini. He simply nodded in acknowledgement.

Jania had gotten the noon shift today. Though the evening shift would have been preferable since that's when the lounge was busiest, she was glad to be off early. She didn't want to deal with any drunks tonight.

Lost in thought, she turned a corner and ran smack into a hunched-over figure, papers flying everywhere.

"Look what you've done! You imbecile!"

"I'm so sorry!" Jania immediately dropped to the floor, picking up the scattered papers. Looking up, Jania saw that she had run into non-other than Shinra's head scientist, Hojo, who was glaring down at her over his round glasses.

"I'm really sorry, sir. I wasn't looking where I was going. Here you are." She handed him his papers in a disheveled pile.

He looked at her and sniffed, grabbing for the papers. However, Jania discreetly held onto a corner, causing a few papers to flutter back to the floor.

"Clumsy fool." Hojo snapped.

Both she and Hojo bent down to get the last few papers. "Move! I'll get them myself."

She slid to his side as he quickly scooped up the remaining papers. He straightened his pile into a more hold-able stack as he stalked off, muttering about the stupidity of the common people.

As Hojo disappeared from sight, Jania put a finger up to her lips, grinning deviously.

Target found…