Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, or its franchise, in any way possible. All characters and mentioned names belong to Square Enix.

Ch. 03: Pinhole

Reno stood and with his bottle in hand, he walked over to her with a certain sway that could only be marked as a drunken man's walk. But he didn't care. He leaned over the edge too, but stayed away from her for some 3 feet away.

"Whoa, Ciss… I didn't know you came here often, yo."

The girl had to take a second glance to realize who it was, and she blinked as she looked back down at the city. The redhead Turk some few feet near her was a man she'd known for years in the job, but being quite isolated from the whole business he got himself into – say, his vices – it felt like she'd never known him at all. "Around this time, yeah. You get to watch the city from a very quiet viewpoint, so…"

Reno could only nod. He couldn't look at the city below just like she did; it made him feel so nauseous. So he looked up or far, past all the surrounding buildings' rooftops, past the new ones that were just recently built to make Edge more pleasant. The stars, however, always caught his attention.

Cissnei, on the other hand, was fascinated with stars too, but she wasn't a genius with them. She wished sometimes she could be one of them, hovered in space and suspended in time, and the mere thought of it suddenly made her smile. But all of a sudden she remembered the night before – she had gone to the bar with the Turks and Reno apparently made a quite 'crude' and perverted move on one of the Turk women. Her colleague turned him down, however, and instead opted for Rod. Reno suddenly became rude to everybody. So why was he suddenly talking to her now?

Reno didn't know where to start. But he figured, since they were up on the rooftop and the velvet blanket hovered above…

"…Orion's Belt," he said.

Cissnei looked at him. "Hm?"

Reno smiled wearily as he looked up at the full, pin holed, blanket of stars. "… Orion's Belt. Very familiar constellation, yo. Ya know it?"

Cissnei looked up like he did. "…Ah. Yeah. 3 stars aligned next to one another. Orion's Belt… from mythology, right? My knowledge is getting rusty, so pardon me."

"Yer' right, yo." Reno smiled. "I dunno much either, so, you'll have'ta pardon me." He grinned and nodded once, and just focused on the said set of stars up above. "…So, 'side from the city, y'come here for the stars?"

Cissnei nodded. "…Sometimes…" she said quietly, "… but mostly it's for the silence."

Reno didn't respond after a while, and she tried to spot some more familiar constellations in the night sky.

"… Sounds odd comin' from me, but…" Reno prompted, to which after a split-second he smiled sheepishly, "… I wanted t'be one of those 3 stars. Always thought the three stars were me, Rude and Elena. Or the President. Or even Tseng, yo."

Cissnei listened to him intently as he spoke, and her head tilted down as she looked at the almost-empty streets below. She sneaked a glance with her eyes only, watching as he turned around and leaned back against the concrete, waist-high, borderline of the building.

"…'Guess I won't be one of the stars. Everyone knows I drove myself right through a black hole, yo. And I keep drivin' m'self through it." Reno pondered for a moment, and raised the bottle to his lips. He snorted as he seemed to be embarrassed, but drinking from the bottle afterward. The sound of the liquid washing down his throat was audible to Cissnei, who said nothing at all. "So somehow, the stars aren't so much of a good sight, after all," he added. "They're kinda depressin', yo. Dunno whether to cry wishin' I was one of 'em or feel hopeful."

The female Turk felt some sort of pity for him. She liked him, and with what he was doing to himself, she wanted to help. But he couldn't even carry himself, the sway in his standing position making her feel all the more bad for seeing him like this. Cissnei wanted to scold him for being such a restless bastard, having the guts to go through life hurting other people's feelings – missions excluded, of course. But the incident last night and how he talked to the President made her want to slap him in the face. And if she were to ever scold him tonight, she had a good reason to.

"Right, well," Cissnei said, facing him, "that's a nice way to put it, and 'wake me'. I'm so glad you know it yourself."

Reno looked at her, a brow raised, but not so much as a mock.

"But, you weren't so nice last night. You're such an asshole when you're drunk, and maybe even so much more. You were retorting at the President like he wasn't even there. I hope you realized today while you were at your desk pushing pencils."

Reno neared her, narrowing his eyes. "I'm not so sure ya know how we're like, missy." He stepped up to her, looking down at her as she scowled up at him. "We're buddies, yo. An' I think since ya've been in the Turks long 'nuff, ya should know, the President's used to it. So, at least I'm okay in the mornings."

"Ah…!" Cissnei snorted and scowled. She felt like she wanted to get mad, but the kind of 'mad' where she wanted to cry. "Wow. So much for a veteran Turk. So just because you hang out with Rufus so much, you've lost all respect for him and you can act like some kind of jester in court. I'm appalled." She shook her head and walked away, but stopped halfway when she remembered to add something.

"Forgot the keys to m'house, hun?" Reno smirked. "Better c'back 'ere if ya want it, yo."

Cissnei glared at him. "I wouldn't be telling you what I said if I wasn't concerned, yo." She paused, letting a silence drift by. "…Go home and sleep, Reno…" Her eyes softened. "…You need it." Cissnei turned on her heel, wordlessly, as she decided to take the lift down to her office space to clean up.

Reno snorted to himself and sighed, embarrassed with how he acted. He decided to take her advice, and just go home.

… He had a good 10 hours of sleep, but was still bothered by a lot of things the following day.

It was another night where it hit 9 in the evening. And as always, he left his office space with a bottle of brandy, this time, in hand, and took the elevator up to the rooftop to see the stars. As he expected, Cissnei was there… again. He smirked to himself as tired eyes focused on her, swollen from all the tears he cried. She turned, about to leave, but scoffed.

"Oh great…-"

"Hey, wait a sec, yo." Reno called out. Cissnei looked at him, her weight shifted to one side. "… I'm not gon' be an asshole t'night, yo." He waved it off. "Keep me company? I'm not gon' molest ya or anything, promise."

Cissnei didn't know what to say.

At the same time, the Turk paused. "…Look'a me. I'm drunk, yo. Ya'd shoot m'head off if I touched ya. And I just need someone ta' talk to… just tonight." A sad smile creased his lips. "…Please?"

What a nice way to say 'please', she thought. Some sort of sympathy crossed Cissnei's mind and emotions as she observed him. Please…

He was trying, effortlessly, to stand straight and on his own two feet. And he was doing fine. She figured, "Well hey, he's gone this far with alcohol and spends much time alone, he seems to be fine nonetheless. He doesn't need me, or anyone else to help him."

But then again… he was lonely. And here he was, honestly saying he needed someone to talk to, and yes, she would shoot his head off if he tried to touch her.

Cissnei crossed the distance between them and stopped a foot away from him. She nodded slightly, and quietly eyed the bottle. "Well, let me just say, I'm sorry for how I acted last night. Was really sudden… I think."

"Nah, s'bout time someone shut me up, yo." Reno frowned. But he smiled afterwards, quite sheepishly. "S'okay."

"Right…" Cissnei ran her palms down her pants, as if wiping them. She pointed at the bottle he held. "So… you done with that?"

"Yeah, pretty much, yo." Reno raised the bottle to the dimness of the rooftop, seeing that around five millimeters of liquid was left. His chest was heavy and burning with the alcohol; he couldn't finish it anymore. "I think I'mma leave this here, yo."

Cissnei took the bottle from his hand gently and set it aside. She had an intricate idea. "… You said you like the stars, right?" she asked.

Reno only nodded, rubbing his nape. "Cheesy of me, huh…"

"… There's a place where you can see tons of stars, as much as you'd like," she noted. "And I guess no one's really noticed that, since no one comes there at night."

"Oh?" Reno questioned as he blinked. He rubbed his eyes with one hand. "Where's this… 'place' ya say, yo?"

Cissnei, offering to be a friend, quietly took out her handkerchief and softly pushed his hand away, stepping in close. With the cloth in her hand, she stared up at his aquamarine eyes and noticed they were red. Some part of her wanted to break when she noticed the wetness circling his eyes, but blinked in quiet surprise when she realized they were tears he cried – apparently, earlier. Cissnei only smiled when she started to dab at the wetness that gathered.

"…Costa del Sol."