Title: Edge Beer
Author: Traxits
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Rating: General audiences
Content Notes: Chose not to use notes/warnings.
Word Count: 859 words.
Summary: Everything went sideways after Meteorfall.
Author's Note(s): Written for "Three Weeks for Dreamwidth."

[[ ... One-Shot ... ]]

Everything went sideways after Meteorfall, Elena mused. It wasn't enough that people had simply dropped dead the streets, black ooze leaking from their bodies; it wasn't enough that she'd been forced to defend herself against more than one innocent civilian who simply hated every last remnant of Midgar, of Shinra Electric. No. It had to be even worse. Alcohol had to become one of those things that they were forced to relearn.

Her favorite beers— all Midgarian— were gone; breweries destroyed in the chaos that had been the evacuation of the plate. She wouldn't have thought that she'd ever miss even that piss-colored pale ale that had been the specialty in under-Six. Now though, with everything gone and decimated, she found herself paying the exorbitant prices that 'real' beer cost. She even took to removing the labels so that Reno wouldn't spot them and snatch them from the fridge in the lodge. They were her last memories of Midgar, each one bottled up and waiting for her to relive them.

They were celebratory drinks though, not every day ones. For that, she had finally broken down and begun to accompany Reno and Rude on their jaunts to Seventh Heaven. She didn't like the name. It was a remnant, a reminder of life in Midgar just as much as their own suits were. It wasn't fair that Tifa Lockhart could keep something without being fought every step of the way. But Tifa had a small brewery of her own in the back of the bar, and she could make decent beer.

Elena hated having to give her credit for that, hated the way she was petty enough to be envious when Reno and Rude watched the way Tifa walked across the bar. Hell, she found herself watching with the same expression from time to time, and it wasn't fair. Tifa was an AVALANCHE member. She was the terrorist there, not the Turks. She had just as much blood on her hands as Elena did. Those reactors hadn't been empty when they exploded, after all.

The first time she went, she'd hardly been able to stand it, to sit there and drink that woman's beer. Had Reno not grabbed her by the back of the shirt and hauled her out of there, she was pretty sure that Seventh Heaven would have been trashed. That would have been the first just thing that had happened since Meteorfall, but Reno ruined it. He smacked her on the back of the head— unlike Rude, he hardly seemed to notice that she was a woman at all— and informed her that she'd either play nice or go home.

Elena had gone home.

She went back several days later, when Reno and Rude were working some angle, some batch of employees that Rufus wanted to hear from. Tseng was staying with Rufus, and he'd sent her out for the day. Their days off were far and few between, no longer regulated. Days off came up whenever there happened to be a few spare hours. Honestly, Elena didn't mind. Without the work, she might have gone a little crazy.

She was looking for a fight when she walked into Seventh Heaven. Elena was always honest with herself; never let herself hide behind any pretty lies about who she was or what she did. She ordered her first beer and had somehow decided that she would go ahead and let herself get drunk before she provoked a fight. Tseng and Reno would kick her ass less if she were completely drunk.

But as she turned up the bottle— and damn if Seventh Heaven didn't have some of the best beer she'd ever had, even considering her favorites back in Midgar— her eyes skimmed over the bar, and she felt her heart stop. That little girl, Marlene, was sitting with the boy, the orphan that Tifa and Cloud had adopted, looking over some kind of papers. School work, Elena thought, even though there wasn't actually a school proper in Edge. Everyone simply taught their children as best they could. Reeve had some sort of school designs ready, but it hadn't been built yet. It was a luxury that they hadn't been able to afford right away.

Her mouth went dry and the bottle almost slipped from her fingers as she looked at the two of them. Tifa walked by her at least two more times before Elena dragged her attention back to the bottle, back to the entire reason she'd come in there. The bar was rapidly filling, and Elena felt herself beginning to shake slightly. Without another word, she stood and walked around behind the bar with Tifa. Her beer was left on the surface. She didn't bother tying an apron on, but she did start taking orders, mixing drinks. Tifa shot her a glance, and in that moment, with Tifa holding a tray and Elena wiping out a glass before she poured, there was a truce between them.

Elena couldn't forgive her. Could stop the jealousy that flared whenever she saw her. But somehow, she thought that things might get better. Might be better.

She could learn.