Author's note: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters. This is set after Advent Children.

Heart's Desire

Elena was utterly exhausted. She reached for the stapler with a sigh. At least she would be able to call it a night as soon as she got this report finished up. It had been a long day and an even longer week. And while she was looking forward to the weekend, Elena did not hold on to much hope that it wouldn't be interrupted by some sort of emergency or another. That would be perfectly in keeping with the way the week had been.

She left out a sigh of relief as she turned in her report to Tseng's box. Gathering up her coat, Elena headed out the door. Midgar was in the grip of a cold snap, and by the time that Elena reached her apartment, she was shivering despite her thick coat, and even inside her gloves, her fingers were nearly numb. She fumbled in her pockets to find her keys only to discover that they weren't there. Swearing, Elena began searching through her purse. She finally let out a sigh of defeat; her keys had to be back at the office. And breaking the new lock she had just installed on the place did not seem like a great idea.

So instead, Elena began the trek back. She made it about half way to the office before she was shivering so badly it was getting hard to walk. Glancing around, she realized that she wasn't that far from Tseng place, and while she was a little embarrassed to be dropping in on her partner unannounced like this, she didn't think she'd make it all the way back to the office, and it was starting to snow again.

Tseng's reaction to her presence on his door step, shivering and looking rather bedraggled, was not what Elena had expected. Within minutes Elena found herself out of her coat and wrapped in a warm blanket. Tseng was frowning at her.

"I'm going to run you a hot shower. What were you doing out in this weather?"

Elena shrugged. "I left my keys at the office."

"You can pick them up later. I think we're going to be stuck here for the weekend. The snow's coming down harder now, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon."

After a hot shower and changing into some sweats that Tseng had left for her, Elena was feeling human again. And it wasn't long before she found herself curled up on the couch in front of Tseng's fireplace. Elena was once again wrapped in a blanket, and she had a mug of warm soup in her hands. Tseng occupied the other end of the couch, reading a book. Elena let out a soft little sigh. She was finally warm again, and she had to admit that this was far more pleasant than spending the weekend snowed in at her own apartment.

Tseng glanced over at her with a small smile on his face. "Feeling warmer?"

She nodded. "Thank you."

He rose to his feet and brushed a kiss across her temple. "You're welcome. I'm going to fix some hot chocolate."

Elena smiled and let her eyes drift shut. This wasn't exactly how she had planned to spend her weekend, but somehow it had turned out to be exactly what she needed.