Zen Fellows awoke to a dimly lit room and one hell of a hangover. For a moment she thought that maybe she had passed out again after one too many beers, but the floor of the bar was colder, less comfortable. And also, the dark wooden slats of the bar floor were stained, and smelled like things that Zen would rather not mention.

At the moment, her head appeared to be resting on a very soft, very white thing that smelled like washing detergent. She was pretty sure it was a pillow, but as the hangover was blurring her vision, she couldn't be sure.

The door creaked open, and Zen's eyes snapped towards the direction of the sound.

A blonde head poked around the door cautiously, followed by the body of a young woman, clad in a black business suit.

"Good morning!" The blonde said cheerfully, crossing the room.

"Um…hi. Where am I?"

"ShinRa Enterprises, apartment division, residence of President Rufus Shinra and the Turks!" said the woman jauntily. "I'm Elena, and I'll be showing you around today!"

She reached for the window.

Zen bolted upright. "No, don't open that-!"

She fell back on the pillows, shrieking and shielded her eyes against the blinding light of the open curtains. Elena turned around, a concerned look on her face.

"What's wrong?"

"Light…hurts…eyes…"

"Huh?"

"Really…bad…hangover…"

"Oh. Sorry." She closed the curtains. Then she was perky again.

"You should get dressed now. Breakfast will be in five minutes!" She bounced over to the door. "See you then!"

"Um, thanks." Zen said, but Elena had already left.

Ten minutes later, Zen was fully dressed and walking down the hall to where she thought the dining room was. She felt uncomfortable in the over starched black suit, and the white, fluorescent-lit hallways were stark and bare, which gave a rather unnerving sense of stillness.

She turned left, and saw a white door. She could hear voices coming from within. With a sigh of relief, she opened the door and stepped inside.

Inside the room was a long rectangular oak table, covered by a spotless white tablecloth, which was, in turn, covered by plates, trays of food, and bowls of fresh fruit.

Sitting around the table were four people-three men and Elena-in dark suits almost identical to Zen's own. Seated at the head of the table was none other than Rufus Shinra himself. Everyone was picking daintily at their food with forks, knives, spoons, and other utensils, except for one of the dark-suited men, a redhead, who was shoveling food down his throat like there was no tomorrow. The others were ignoring his bad manners.

"Ah, good morning, Miss Fellows." Rufus said, barely glancing up from his grapefruit.

"Um, good morning, Sir." Zen replied awkwardly, looking for a place to sit down.

"Psst! Zen! Over here!" Elena whispered loudly.

"Oh. Thanks." She pulled out the chair to the left of Elena, noticing too late that she had sat down directly across from the impolite redhead.

Elena eagerly started to introduce her to the others seated at the table.

Gesturing to the huge man who had picked her up last night (who was still wearing his sunglasses), She said, "This is Rude. Rude, say hello to Zen!"

Rude looked at her over his sunglasses. "I believe we have already met."

Zen blushed. "Er, hello."

Rushing on, Elena pointed to the other man who had been in the bar last night, a dark haired man with a strange black dot in the center of his forehead. "This is Tseng…"

"Hi."

And then, she gestured vaguely towards the bad-mannered redhead.

"That's Reno."

Reno looked up, smirking slightly. "Yo."

Elena gave Zen a pitying smile. "Reno'll be showing how things work, and how to get around. Hopefully you'll be able to learn something without being sexually harassed."

Zen felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Elena swiftly changed the subject. "Wow, these look like great…um…toast! Um, yeah, the toast looks great today! You should have some, Zen!" She said nervously, piling food onto a plate.

It's gonna be a looong day…