Elena stared in total disbelief at Marlene. "Do you…are you…what are you thinking, young lady?" she said as sternly as she could manage. At fourteen, Marlene was blossoming into an intelligent, brave, pretty, and extremely stubborn young woman. And she was usually very sensible, so her asking Elena for help on such a thing threw the older woman for a loop.
"Are you going to help me or not?" Marlene persisted with her original demand.
"You're not old enough yet." Elena pointed out. "If things go wrong, you're probably going to wish you were dead."
"I will be old enough when I put my plan into action! I'm just wanting information right now. I can't ask Aunt Tifa cause she doesn't have the access you do. That won't hurt, will it?" Marlene asked.
Faced with Marlene's intractable stubbornness, Elena smiled as she thought of what trouble her superior was in for. Reno needed a wakeup call, and he wasn't getting any younger, even if he refused to accept that he was getting older. "Okay, I'll tell you what you need to know about Reno." Elena told her while pouring them both tea.
Marlene nearly giggled with delight and clapped her hands, but she stopped herself in time, so she wouldn't prove to Elena that she was still the little girl she was when she first met the Turks. In the intervening years as she grew up, the crush she had developed on Reno had never gone away, like hers for Cloud did. She only knew him as one of the good guys, brave enough to fight the Remnants who had kidnapped her to help Uncle Cloud and save the world. He was silly sometimes, but he was always handsome, intelligent, strong, and he just….he was the most unusual man she had ever known. And as her body started maturing into a woman's, her feelings for Reno started maturing as well.
Reno felt a sudden unearthly chill as he was walking home from another unsuccessful night trying to pick up women at Tifa's bar, and then noticed he was passing by a fortune teller's store that happened to be open this late at night. Shrugging, he decided to ask them something that's been bothering him.
"Welcome to Mommy Fortuna's! I've been expecting you, but I was not able to decipher your problem. Sit, sit!" A garish-looking older woman started gushing over Reno as soon as the bell above the door went off when he entered the establishment.
"I just want to know…" Reno sat down at the small table and paused, feeling uncomfortable about admitting his problems.
"Ah, don't tell me, just give me a twenty and your palm!" Mommy Fortuna said.
Reno reached into his wallet and pulled out a twenty and when he handed it to Mommy Fortuna, she grabbed his hand, examining his palm after she shoved the twenty between her breasts.
"Hmmm…your hesitation must mean you have questions about your love life, I notice the line is having difficulties. Let me consult my crystal ball to get more information." Mommy Fortuna got up and got a divination ball from the wall stand and put it on the table, uttering some gibberish with closed eyes, then opened them and stared at the ball and soon started cackling. "Well, it looks like two younger women will make your life more interesting very soon."
Reno relaxed and smiled. He didn't know why she was so amused by him getting lucky with two women, but he was just glad to hear he was going to get lucky again. "Thanks, lady!" He stood up and left.
"What are you doing here?" Tifa asked Marlene. "You know you aren't allowed in the bar during working hours!"
"That's why I'm here, Aunt Tifa. I want a job." Marlene replied. Reno frequented this bar so much, and she needed to see him interact with other women to confirm what Elena told her about him. Then she'd know enough to get his ring on her finger when she was of age.