Dark Kiss

I don't own anything related to Final Fantasy. It belongs to Square Enix.

It was a cold set in rain this early October day. It was 6:00 and she was on overtime. Elena typed away on her laptop, glancing at the document beside her and then back at the glowing screen. It was a wonder the Shinra Electric Power Company had a leg to stand on after everything that had happened with JENOVA and the remnants. The remnants. Elena stared at his file picture: LOZ. Then the next: YAZOO. And then the last one: KADAJ. In that very order. Rufus Shinra and his subordinates had actually gone to great lengths to clean up Shinra's image and to rebuild faith in the people. It had worked. At least to a certain extent it had. Reno and Rude were on a scouting assignment; they had been for the majority of the day.

It had been four months since it happened; four months since Tseng and Elena were rescued from the cold north - the Forgotten City. Neither of them had hardly said one word about the ordeal to each other since they had been back in Midgar. It was like an elephant in the room in fact. They tried to go on with business as usual. They still took orders together, practiced on the range together and occasionally…very occasionally…had a glass of wine together. But in spite of their normal routine, there was still a wall between them. Both Reno and Rude could see it; and it frustrated them to no end to watch Tseng and Elena go through the motions of every day life with a great deal of unspoken tension. They did their job; and they were damn good at it. But the problem was…even over that occasional glass of wine…they were still doing their job.

In the first month after they had been rescued, Elena didn't smile at all. Not even once. The reports documenting her condition from the incident were under lock and key up at Healen. There had been only two people who had read those records, one of them being the chief Shinra Doctor. By August, Elena had retrieved at least some of her sense of normalcy. It was such a pleasure to hear her laughter again.

Like Elena's reports, Tseng's too were under lock and key at Healen. The Head Shinra Doctor also was one of only two people who had read about his condition. Tseng had stayed glued to his office window after they had returned. He would just stare out the window until someone snapped him out of his daze. He didn't answer the phone, didn't return emails…he just stared. That was only through that first month though. He had always been a marvelous conversationalist and Rude had always loved Tseng's dry and sarcastic sense of humor. Those traits about him had finally returned, at least somewhat, by late July.

There was a knock on Elena's doorframe. She looked up from her work. "Hey." She said, stopping her typing and rolling around in her chair.

"What are you still doing here?" Tseng asked her.

"Rufus wanted this on his desk by six." Elena said looking at her computer screen.

"Aren't you going to be late for you session?" Tseng asked.

"Yeah. I probably should call." Elena sighed.

"No, here. Just e-mail it to me. I'll finish it. I don't want you to be late." Tseng insisted leaning over against the doorframe.

"Tseng, you don't have to do that. There's at least thirty more minutes to go on…" Tseng stopped her.

"Really, it's okay. Go. I don't want you to be late." He insisted. Elena gave him a soft smile.

"Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow, then?" Elena said saving her document and quickly e-mailing it to Tseng. Tseng shook his head and tapped the edge of her doorframe before leaving her alone to gather up her things. She shut down her laptop and began shoving her things into her large black tote. She sat the bag down in her rolling chair and grabbed her long black trench off the back of her door. Thank goodness she had remembered to bring her umbrella with her this morning when she came in to work. She killed the lights in her office and locked the door behind her. She was grateful that not only was her car equipped with remote start, but that the Shinra Company had a parking garage. Tseng always worried about her going into the darkened parking garage after dark like this. He never confessed to her that he worried about her. Shinra Administrative employees had designated spaces close to the building. The spaces on the 6th floor of the parking garage were marked: SHINRA EMPLOYEE PARKING ONLY and each car had a numbered parking permit hanging on it's rear view mirror.

Elena was the only one in the cold elevator as it lunged downward from the 56th floor. It rattled and slightly shook as it dinged, passing up each floor. "Level F Parking Garage." The automated voice of the elevator announced before the tone signaled that the doors would go flying open. She punched a button on her car's keyless remote and she heard the ignition start. Tseng always parked beside Elena. There weren't many employees left on the garage level tonight. The cold air moved through the garage level pulling sheets of rain in with it. Elena shivered a bit as she unlocked her car doors, threw her bag in the trunk and climbed into the driver's side.

She didn't want to park two blocks away from the building but she didn't have a choice. There wasn't any parking to be had. She paralleled into the nearest spot she could find near the municipal building. Elena dodged the puddles as she began the rainy two block walk. Dusk was falling over Midgar as the October rain pelted her. The headlights from the passing cars were beginning to become brighter and the slosh of tires against pavement was a comforting rhythm. She pulled her umbrella tighter against her head as she continued down the crowded, wet pavement.

Tseng rubbed his fingers over his forehead before opening his desk drawer. He knew he needed to get busy on the project Elena had been working on. But he couldn't, He was too distracted. He sighed and picked up his cell phone, flipping through his phone book. He stopped on Elena's name. There was her home phone, her cell and her e-mail. He had no idea why the hell her company e-mail was in his phone. Everyone's Shinra e-mail account was the same and he was staring at his new mail message from her in his inbox on the computer screen. There it was: First name, dot, last name, at ShinraEP dot org. He sat his phone aside and spun around in his chair. He gazed out of the gray, damp Midgar evening; the sun hidden away. His office phone rang. He looked over at the ID readout: RUFUS SHINRA. He turned back toward the window and wondered if Elena had made it to her destination yet.

DR. LAURA M. CARDIMUM, LPCC. The door read. Elena opened it and stepped inside the neon lit hallway. She put her umbrella down, closing it and shaking off the excess water before preceding any further. She wiped her feet on the long carpet that lined the hallway.

"Hello." The receptionist greeted her after Elena had made her way down the hallway into the office at the end.

"Hi. Lovely weather, huh?" She said softly as she scribbled her name on the sign-in sheet. She sat down in the office chair. Her entire body ached and her mind was exhausted.

"Tell me about it. Can you believe it's been doing this all day?" the receptionist made idle chatter with her. Elena looked over beside her: VOYAGE THE NEW HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. Voyage was one of the few magazines available in Midgar that reviewed wines, wineries and the like. It was a hard to find magazine unless one subscribed to it. There was always valuable information to be had.

"Um…could I….could I have this magazine?" Elena reluctantly asked the receptionist.

"Sure! By all means." The receptionist assured her.

"Elena?" a woman smiled pleasantly at her. "I'm ready for you now." Elena stood up, gathered her things and followed the woman through the door.

"I don't know, just fax it or something." Tseng said as he ratted around in his kitchen. "Better yet, can you scan it and e-mail it to me? No, no, no…don't even bother with it tonight because I won't. I was at the office until nearly seven thirty and I have a headache." He balanced his phone against his ear while he attempted to not break any dishes unloading the dishwasher. "I can only do Wednesdays up until 4:30. I have to be walking to my car by 4:30. Because I have an obligation at 5:15 every Wednesday." He said to whomever it was he was talking to. He had unloaded all of the smoke colored glass goblets into a cabinet. "What am I doing? I'm unloading my dishwasher, then I'm going to pay bills and read. Yeah, yeah okay. Okay. Hey, thanks for goin' on that run today. Alright, Reno. See you tomorrow." Tseng hung up his phone. Well, that was almost everything he was going to do tonight. He had been through countless books of all sorts since it happened. But as much as he tried to read himself to sleep, many nights for him always ended in tears. Even the people who had it together the most fell apart sometimes.

There was no better remedy for an early morning than coffee; whether it be hot or cold. Tseng, Elena, Reno and Rude all awaited Rufus' arrival for this meeting.

I'm sorry…I have to know what that is. It smells amazing." Rude told Elena.

"Pumpkin spice latte. Seasonal. The only sell these in October and November. You want a drink?" Elena offered her hot insulated cup to Rude.

"That's okay. But I assure you, I will walk across the street and get one after this meeting." Rude said. Elena watched as Tseng picked up her drink and tried it.

"Did they make this for you in your own thermos?" Tseng asked her.

"Yep. They do things like that if you ask." Elena said.

"Wait…do they do straight up black coffee if you ask?" Reno wondered.

"Sure do." Elena assured him as she pulled out her tablet pc.

"Oh, wow. That's sweet." Reno said as the door opened.

"I'm sorry. I got distracted several times on the way here." Rufus admitted. He quickly had a seat at the head of the table. He scattered out some papers before him and sighed. "I'm so unorganized. Tseng, this packet is for you. I need you to review all of the information and sign off on it's accuracy. Elena….for you." Rufus said shoving two large packets toward them. Tseng looked at the front page: DETAILED REMNANT REPORT FORGOTTEN CITY: LOZ, YAZOO, KADAJ. Tseng continued to sit there motionless staring at the words but not actually reading them. Elena's face turned suddenly serious as she took the packet of papers. "Could the two of you sign off on the accuracy of the reports?" Rufus asked as he scribbled his signature on something. He looked up when he didn't get a response from either or Tseng or Elena. "Tseng? Elena?" he repeated. Elena reached up and tugged on her collar.

"Uh….yeah….yeah…I can…I can have them reviewed and…on your desk by Monday." She said in a bit of a hushed voice. Tseng shook his head.

"Yeah…yeah, what she said." Tseng said after Elena had broken Rufus' unanswered question.

"Great. Now, what we need to do…" Reno and Rude glanced over at Tseng and Elena and then at each other as Rufus talked. Their exchanges said it all. Reno looked back across the table. Tseng was still staring at the packet of papers and nervously gnawing on the end of his pen. Elena had her head buried in her tablet. She reached up quickly and shoved the packet out of her sight. It was the aggressive way she did it though, that bothered Reno. He thought perhaps she would have ripped those papers to shreds had she been given the chance. "…so really, eight days in Healen with the four of you going through the file room should take care of it. I'm sure there are many files up there that can be shredded or brought here and filed. There's no longer any reason to leave those documents at the lodge. Really, the four of you need to simply decide when you'd like to leave. This should be a beautiful time at the lodge so, enjoy it. Seriously." Rufus said tapping his pen in front on him. He looked around the table. "What do you think? When would you like to leave?" Mostly, he was awaiting from a response from Tseng, since he was Director and all. Tseng shook his head and looked across the table to Reno and Rude and then over to Elena.

"It really don't matter." Reno said.

"How about next Friday? Leave Friday morning?" Tseng suggested.

"That sounds good." Elena said.

"Yeah, next Friday it is." Rude agreed.

"Great. It's settled then! The four of you leave next Friday for Healen and return the Sunday the week after. We'll Skype back and forth or in your case Elena, we'll facetime it." Rufus told her teasingly. That got a laugh out of her. "Alright, that's all. Thanks." Rufus said standing up.

"I guess I'll get back to taking a look at those chopper blades." Reno said.

"Yup. I'll go with you and check out what's up with the control panel." Rude said.

"Rufus, were those files Tseng e-mailed you acceptable?" Elena asked as she closed the case of her tablet.

"They were exquisite. Thank you." Rufus assured her.

"Well, Tseng finished them." Elena said pushing her chair in.

"Oh hey, can you come up to my office for a minute? I need to give you that flash drive I mentioned the other day." Tseng said.

"That's right. I'll password encrypt the stuff on it." Elena promised him as she and Tseng followed Rufus out the door.

"Bye, Rufus. Catch up with you later?" Tseng asked.

"Indeed." Rufus answered. Elena followed Tseng to the elevator.

"Um…about the reports Rufus asked us to look over." Tseng said to Elena staring up at the floor numbers that lit up as the elevator passed over them.

"Yeah…" Elena said in a rather saddened voice.

"Um…" Tseng nervously shook his fist a little in the air. "…I uh…I don't…really know how to…ask you this…but uh…" he sighed nervously. "Do…do you think….maybe….maybe it's a…a good idea…if we…read the report together….you know like…like we could do it….over dinner or something?" Tseng tugged at his collar, feeling sweat on his neck.

"Yeah….yeah that would be a good idea. The reports are the same and…well…" Elena didn't finish her sentence because she didn't know how. As mentioned, she and Tseng simply didn't talk about what happened to them up north.

"Um…are you…free tonight?" Tseng asked her perhaps a little too seriously.

"I gotta do something after work today but…but after that….if it's….not too late….for you." Elena said meekly as they stepped out of the elevator.

"No, no. That's fine. Is uh…is some kind of pasta okay? I mean…do you like that?" Tseng wasn't any less nervous in his tone.

"Sure. That's…that's great." Elena assured him.

"Okay…just uh…just come by at…like around 7:15?" The look on his face was more like that of someone being grilled on the witness stand.

"Alright. Oh! I have something to give you, but…I'll just…bring it by tonight." Elena said as she awkwardly began to walk down the hall; looking over her shoulder at Tseng.

"Okay." Tseng answered her. Elena was nervous about reading these reports with Tseng. It wasn't that she was nervous around him; it was quite the contrary. What she feared was what would happen if she couldn't control the feelings she had been privately fighting and holding back for so long.