status complete
prompts princess diaries the movie, just one night by Flame of Hikari, i'd come for you by nickelback
warnings language
pairings none
disclaimer i do not own ffvii

NEVER ALONE

"Are you punishing me for driving alone after midnight in a deserted street?" Elena yelled at the sky and lied down on her seat, tears falling from her eyes and mixing with the rain that was soaking her to the bone.

"I'm invisible and I'm wet," she sobbed.

There was no going back. She had ran out in the middle of the night on her Mustang Convertible, which's hood wouldn't come up and apparently didn't have enough gas, and no one knew where she was heading to. She didn't know either. She just felt like running away. From Shinra. From her life. From everything.

But just when she was about to pass out from exhaustion, she heard a car pull over next to hers. She used all her strength to sit up on her seat to look at the person that pulled over. It was raining heavily and she couldn't see clear; she just hoped it wouldn't be some twisted pervert.

"Elena!"

How right she was.

Blinking, she managed to clear her vision and caught glimpse of Reno's red hair. What was he doing here? Had he followed her? Why?

"Why are you here?" she asked in a small voice. She felt so tired.

Reno looked angry and somewhat hurt. "Are you fuckin' out of your mind? What were you thinking? I thought you had gone suicidal and were going to drive your car off some cliff! Are you nuts?" he yelled at her, not caring that she was wet, tired and cold. Her powers seemed to abandon her as moments passed, but Elena was not going to give in to unconsciousness just yet.

"You didn't answer my question," she said sheepishly, feeling warm inside. The fact that he had come after her was heartwarming and, not to mention, a little awkward.

Reno sighed deeply, his anger wearing off. "I followed you." He ran a hand through his soaked hair. "After you hung up, I thought you had gone crazy. I fuckin' combed Midgar to find you."

She cocked her head to the side. "How'd you know I was here?"

"I remembered you saying once that you always went to Kalm when you wanted to calm down and think," he explained, mentally cursing himself for giving away too much info. He had always been a good listener.

She could swear she saw a caring smile on his lips.

"And you came," she said slowly, as if putting the pieces of a puzzle together.

"I couldn't leave you alone in a time like this."

She looked up at him with drowsy eyes. "You couldn't?"

Reno cracked a small smile and shook his head. "Of course not. I'm your friend, right?" He opened the passenger's door and scooped Elena up in his arms. She was cold and soaking wet. She wrapped her weak arms around his neck and snuggled against his chest. It was safety she craved for, and Reno was the one willing to offer it.

He placed her carefully, like a china doll, on the back seat of his car, not caring if she soaked the seat. She hesitated before letting go of him. When he put her on the seat, she snuggled like a child. Reno had to suppress a smile. She may was a Turk, but Elena was a gentle person. Sometimes, he found it rather contradictory how she was able to be so gentle and fire a gun at the same time. He had even considered the chance of her having a split personality.

Reno got in the driver's seat and took the way back to Midgar, after calling the company to tell them to send someone to take Elena's car back in the city. On the road back, he would occasionally glance at her peacefully sleeping form through the rearview mirror and smile. He may not have been able to say it, but he cared deeply for his female coworker.

He brought Elena to his apartment that night. It didn't seem right to dump her at her apartment in a state like this - exhausted and soaked to the bone. He parked the car in the building's parking lot and carried Elena in his arms all the way to his apartment. It took Reno a lot of maneuvering in order to manage to unlock and open the front door of his apartment, and keep Elena balanced in his arms at the same time. Once inside the apartment, Reno decided he should take the wet clothes off of Elena to prevent her from catching a cold. Placing her on his bed, he nudged her shoulder softly to wake her up. Elena stirred and opened her big brown eyes to look at him.

"Hey," Reno said.

She smiled sleepily. "Hi," she whispered in a drowsy voice. "What's up?"

"We've got to get you out of these clothes, Lena. Otherwise you might get sick. Think you can do it?" he asked, nodding at a small pile of clothes he had placed next to her.

"Yeah.."

Reno nodded slightly and took some clothes from his drawers, leaving the room to give her some privacy and get dressed himself as well. He took a quick shower and put on some dry clothes. By the time he entered his bedroom again, Elena was fully-dressed too, and was sitting right where he'd left her. She looked up at him with her honey eyes and a genuine smile.

"Thank you, Reno. For everything," Elena said and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

Reno folded his own arms around her waist, holding her close and burying his face in her hair in the process. "You're welcome."

She pulled away from him and he observed her from head to toe. His clothes were pretty large on her, but she didn't seem to mind. Her hair was still a little damp and it was messy. He couldn't resist the urge to tuck a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. Elena, who had woken up fully by now, blushed a pale shade of pink.

"Can I crash here tonight? I don't think I'll be able to go back to my place with that storm. It surprises me how I decided to drive in the first place," she said.

"Well, you do have the tendency of doing crazy things when you're upset. Remember when you drank like a fish and wanted to give me a lap dance?" Reno said, bringing back not so happy memories to Elena.

"That was a moment of weakness!" Elena defended herself.

"I think of it more as the moment you revealed your true feelings for me."

Elena gave him a playful shove. "You wish. I was drunk, for God's sake!"

"You can't change the facts, Lena," he said with a shrug and a cocky smirk.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh, bite me."

"I'd love to," he said suggestively, earning another blush from Elena.

"So... Can I crash here?"

"Duh, do you really need to ask? Of course you can!" Reno exclaimed.

Elena nodded. "Thanks. I'll take the couch," she added quickly, not wanting him to think that she'd knock him out of his own bed.

Reno stepped in front of her, preventing her from taking a step farther towards the living room. "You honestly don't think I'll let you sleep on the couch, do you?"

She folded her arms over her chest. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do."

"Well, you think wrong, Laney. You're the guest, so you'll take the bed."

"Now's not the time to be chivalrous, Reno. The couch's fine."

Reno gave her an incredulous look. "My couch sucks. You're sleeping on the bed. End of story."

Elena rolled her eyes. "Fine, Mr Knight in Shining Armor. You can take the couch."

"Mhm, you know I like it when you call me names," Reno said suggestively.

Elena chuckled and pushed him out of the room. "Goodnight, Reno."

"Dream a little dream of me, Lena!" she heard him say before she shut the door.

Reno laughed and scratched the back of his head while heading to his couch. He grabbed a blanket from the closet and plopped down on the sofa, stretching out with his hands behind his head so he could stare at the ceiling. His mind wandered from the fast driving he'd done in order to find Elena as quickly as possible, to the blonde woman sleeping in his room.

It wasn't that he loved her. No, Reno was not the kind of person to open up and let love inside. His job had taught him to keep his shell closed and never let anyone get too close. And he would keep it this way, because it was safer for everyone. Elena was his friend, and it would be better for both if things stayed that way. All the flirting with each other made them feel alive. It meant nothing more. They were just two people who shared a deep friendship and were there for each other. There wasn't any room for love.

Meanwhile, in the next room, Elena was thinking of almost the same thing. She was glad Reno had found her and brought her back, when she was lost and insecure. Now, she felt safe, wrapped in the sheets Reno slept in every night, like a security blanket. Reno was someone precious to her, someone she could rely on. He never asked for anything in return and he was there to help her find her way when she felt disoriented. And Elena was glad for that. Elena turned her head, buried in blankets and pillows, seeing the large window before her. She smiled to herself, closing her eyes.

It had stopped raining.