I should warn you, there is a lot of scene jumping around in the next two chapters
"Okay, honey. These are for you and me." Cissnei said shoving a mirror with two lines of cocaine in front of Zack. "I go first 'cause I got naked-er than you did tonight." Cissnei said shoving her face into the white powder. "Here, now you go…" Cissnei said pushing the mirror closer to him and holding her head back.
"My god! You snorted that like it…like it was…well I can't think of anything but damn!"
"I have to keep up with Reno! He's had two lines!" Cissnei said still holding her head back. "Angeal, Reno's cutting your line right now."
"You two do too much blow. I can tell by the way you two just….suck it up like it's sugar." Angeal said.
"We don't do that much!" Reno insisted.
"It's true they don't dothat much." Rude reassured Angeal. "But I will say, they're on the verge of forming a habit."
"Hey, Angeal…Angeal…have you ever fucked a girl when you're trippin' on this shit and she's trippin' on this shit?" Reno asked with his head back on the couch, cigarette in hand.
"Never." He answered, taking the mirror from Zack. Cissnei laughed stupidly.
"Oh Angeal…you have no fuckin' clue…"
"Then you, my man…have no idea what the hell you're missin' out on. You'd go on a cocaine binge too if you only knew what we've done." Cissnei said waving a finger back and forth between he and Cissnei.
"Where's Tseng? Why the hell didn't he come over here? Who talked to him last?" Cissnei asked lighting a cigarette and leaning over against Reno.
"Let's see. He hates cigarette smoke, he hates drugs, and frankly I'm suspicious about what he's doing right now. I don't think he went home but I don't have the slightest where he is."
"Shit, I need another line." Cissnei said wiggling her nose and wiping it on the back of her arm. "I also need….some music. Reno cut me another line. I gotta get my theme song…"
"Oh god, you and your theme song." Rude shook his head.
"So, what? You just tell your boyfriend you want a line and poof! You get one?" Zack asked her.
"That's exactly how it works." Cissnei answered him.
"Zack, she could tell Reno to go buy her the world and he'd do it." Rude said whispered. Zack laughed at him.
"Alright…my theme song!" Cissnei said happily as she joined Reno again. She threw her arms around him when she saw the sweet, white, toxic powder cut into a perfect line before her. "Thank you. I need a cigarette and a…my beer and…those Doritos to go with this. Zack, give me all that stuff I just mentioned." Cissnei demanded pointing to the side of the TV stand beside Reno.
"Oh my god, how much poison are you gonna put into yourself tonight?" Zack asked her handing her everything she requested.
"Reno's the only poison I'll be having tonight, stupid." She answered him before inhaling the line in one swift motion. She slapped the bottom of the pack of cigarettes against her palm repeatedly.
"Rude, come on…here. Do this line." Reno said cutting another line of snow on the small mirror.
"No! You know I get all touchy feely when I've had too much blow and too much to drink." Rude defended himself.
"So? I'm…" Cissnei paused to light her cigarette. "….you can stay here tonight and I know you won't be touching and feeling all over anyone in this room."
"Is my face supposed to feel hot and numb?" Zack asked.
"Yes." Reno answered him. "You've never had a line of coke?" Reno was surprised.
"No!" Zack reminded him, taking one of Cissnei's beers from her little personal six pack.
"Oh my god! What…the…hell! No! Those are mine….bitch! You want somethin' to drink, Rude will get it for you." Cissnei said twisting the lid off one of her beers.
"How did I just…become your personal slave, Cissnei?" Rude asked getting up from the floor beside Zack.
"It's because you love me so much. And because I took my clothes off tonight. That's my excuse for any ridiculous demand I have between now and tomorrow. Angeal, you're too quiet and stop picturing me naked!" he laughed at her while Rude slipped into the kitchen to make Zack something to drink.
"I am so not picturing you naked! I am quiet though. Does cocaine do that?"
"No! You wait. In fifteen minutes me and Reno will not be able to shut the hell up and you three will be as equally talkie."
"Seriously, you don't understand, Me and Cissnei get goin' on this stuff and Rude can never shut us the fuck up."
"He's right! God, one night these two would not shut up about some stupid ass show on the nature channel. I had to listen to them analyze a praying mantis for an hour!" Rude said handing over a drink to Zack. "I'm so sorry Angeal, I didn't even ask if you wanted something."
"I'm good man, I'm good." Angeal assured him.
"You didn't have to listen…you chose to because you were so drunk that we feared you couldn't even make it to the train station to get home!" Reno reminded him.
"Exactly! I was hostage here with you two and the damn praying mantis!" Rude complained.
"One time, I saw a show about fish and uh…fish stuff…happened." Zack said out of nowhere.
"Oh my god…you fuckin' trippin', baby!" Cissnei said finishing her cigarette.
"Does he get jealous at all when you call him that?" Angeal asked of Cissnei. It was a good question actually.
"No…" she blew a puff of smoke in front of her. "…'cause I call him daddy." She said the last part as seductively as she could even though she had never EVER called him that in all the time she had been with Reno. Zack laughed stupidly at her. "God, give him another line so he'll really be goin'." Cissnei reached for the razor blade. "On second thought, you cut it. You cut a good line." She handed the blade to Reno.
"No! No! I shouldn't do another one." He insisted.
"Yes! Now, Reno's gonna cut you a line and you better shove it up your nose or I'll shove it up your ass." Cissnei said picking up her beer.
Her smile could have set the world on fire. "Did I not tell you this was the best place to get noodles at nearly 3:00 in the morning? I bring my books down here a lot, order a bowl of vegetable lo mein and study. I just like it here I guess. Midterms are coming up soon."
"What classes are you taking this semester?" Tseng asked her.
"Um…practical law II, tactics II, Urban development I just because I couldn't get into the section I wanted last semester, Field Training and firearms III."
"How did you get into Field Training? That's an upper level course."
"I tested in. Someone dropped the class at the last minute and Kaldwell suggested I take the entrance test and so I did aaand they took me."
"What was your score?" Tseng asked mixing his noodles around.
"185." Elena answered. He stared at her like an overly-excited fourteen-year-old boy.
"What?" she asked.
"Do you realize a perfect score on that test is 200? That's amazing." Tseng complimented her. Elena turned a bit pink.
"Thanks…thanks…I uh…I studied for it and all. Probably not at much as I could have." Elena said finishing off her noodles.
"So what is it? Why do you want to apply to administrative research?" Tseng would have never admitted it, but he was smitten right now. Elena sighed dreamily and shot her big brown eyes toward the ceiling fan over the counter in this sparsely populated place.
"It's the thrill. You know…spying, espionage, conspiracy, undercover orders…helicopters. Workin' for Shinra himself. A job that…makes you get up in morning and wonder whether or not you'll need a bulletproof vest to get you through the day. Ever been shot at, boss?" It was as if Tseng hadn't heard a word she said. "Boss?" she repeated.
"Huh? Oh…yeah….yeah I've…I've been shot at." He answered her.
"How about we get the check, go back to my place, and you tell me all about it." Her words were more intoxicating than a hundred bloody Mary's.
"Yeah…yeah let's…let's do that." Tseng said as calmly as he could.
Zack was practically laying over Angeal's lap in a fit of laughter.
"I've never seen anyone have that reaction after only a couple lines! Look at him! You'd think he had smoked a joint or somethin'." Reno said with one arm around Cissnei. He could easily hold on to her and light a cigarette with his other hand.
"How long are you….Zackary! Get the hell out of my lap!" Angeal said shoving Zack away from him. Zack was in a half ball on the floor.
"Shit…he's fucked. Give him something else to drink or another line!" Cissnei insisted.
"What are you going to do with this pole now?" Rude asked looking over at the pole that was near the stairway to the lower part of their apartment.
"Rude…." Reno took a long drag on his cigarette. "…if you can figure out how the fuck to get that thing down without tearin' a freakin' hole in the ceiling…you go for it. Otherwise…it's stayin' there and we lose out security deposit." Reno admitted.
"We got it up…and now it won't come down." Cissnei said.
"I had that problem once…" Zack said drying the tears in his eyes form all the laughter.
"ZACK! Shut the fuck up! Shut the…oh my god….you only WISH you had that problem! I've fucked you Zack! I've fucked you…sooooo many times! And though you're good at what cha' do. You do NOT have that problem!" Cissnei said practically flying off the couch at him. Angeal thought this was hilarious.
"That reminds me….and you know what tis reminds me of…" Rude said pointing at Cissnei.
"Yeeeeessss. Okay, now I'm gonna' have to stand up and re-enact that afternoon." Cissnei said standing up. She was preparing to do the Reeve safe sex speech that Reeve gave her when he found out she was seeing Zack Fair during the time when she and him were still young academy students. Reeve had barely taken over as Director and Cissnei hadn't even been promoted to the department yet…
"Do you live alone?" Tseng asked following Elena into her apartment. Everything was so neat…so clean. Just the way he liked it.
"Yeah." She said turning on a lamp just inside the door. It cast a faint yellow glow over her room. "Thanks for dinner." She said throwing her keys on a nearby table and taking her shoes off.
"Believe me, it's my pleasure." Tseng assured her, doing the same.
"You don't have to just stand there with that bag. Go ahead, put it wherever you want back there." Elena pointed as she walked into her kitchen.
"Yeah, yeah…ok…" He did as she instructed him. There was a lamp on in her bedroom as well. He could feel his pulse race. There was an empty wine glass on the nightstand and an open book. He couldn't help but be a little nosey and see what she was reading. There was a diagram of a MK-802…one of Shinra's early model handheld guns. He noticed she had parts highlighted and some notes made in the margin. She had several pages in the book flagged. Tseng suddenly felt overwhelmingly nervous. Was this seriously real? A woman with an academy purchased text book open on her night stand and an immaculate apartment? So immaculate in fact, he feared sitting his bag down somewhere would make it ridiculously out of place. Nonetheless, he laid his things down on the opposite side of her dresser near her closet then laid his phone, wallet and keys on her vacant night stand on the opposite side of her bed. Those actions made him weak: it was the ultimate sign that he was staying here tonight…with her…under these covers…her skin against his…her sweet, sweet virginal skin against….
Tseng snapped out of it and quickly returned to where he had come from. "Um…you have…you have a very nice place here."
"Thank you. Ginger ale?" Elena offered.
"Thanks. What are you studying here?" Tseng asked looking over her couch onto the coffee table where she had several books opened. Elena turned the kitchen light out and plopped down on her couch. She motioned for Tseng to join her.
"It's for the practical law midterm. I have to know it because it's cumulative on…" Elena laughed. "What the hell am I saying. You already know it's a cumulative final. You did this once." Elena was embarrassed, rambling on about something that Tseng obviously had plenty of knowledge about. He leaned forward and picked up one of her books.
"Okay, tell me the three protocols for indicting a person of interest." He asked of her.
"Report to department head. Secure the person of interest in isolation and ensure person is under surveillance." Elena answered.
"Is it legal or ethical to release an informant who has failed to provide information after twenty-four hours of detainment?" Tseng asked. He moved in closer to her.
"A detainee, by law, cannot be released from company property until all information has been acquired. However, if the detainee poses a low risk to company motives the pursuer believes that the informant has exhibited unsuspicious behavior after a 24-hour observation period. The pursuer can then, ethically release the detainee after tagging their ID as having been a person of interest to the Shinra company."
"Nice, very nice. Verbatim, in fact." Tseng flipped a couple pages. "Under what circumstances must misconduct be covered?"
"Oh shit…" Elena laughed. "Uuhhh….okay….in the event a mission or assignment unknowingly makes the Shinra company responsible for damages….in the even a Shinra employee abandons or abuses company orders…uhhhh…" Elena leaned her head on Tseng's shoulder, inhaling the sweet and somewhat spicy scent on him.
"You can't look!" he laughed at her seeing as obviously, this was a divine way to get up against him and try to see the rest of the answers to that one.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I can never remember the other two. She let her hand play lightly over his. Tseng could feel a wave of heat rush through his body. He toyed with her fingers until his were interlaced with hers.
"Okay…okay…let's try….stop looking!" Tseng moved the book away from her and put his head against hers. "Here we go…Name the two types of order execution exceptions."
"One…failure to reach a target in proposed time frame and two…failure to find necessary or adequate personnel." Elena answered.
"You're good at this." Tseng assured her. His lips were buried in soft blonde hair. Elena slinked her hand over the back of his after wiggling her fingers free.
"I'm good at a few things." Elena whispered before pushing herself closer to him. "Ask me something else."
"What year was the Shinra company founded?" Tseng did the unthinkable and kissed the top of her head.
"Mako energy research began in 1937…the company first broke ground in 1943 with a single building constructed in north Midgar. It's employees were solely researching the effects of Mako energy efficiency on a theoretical city built on a plate." She answered.
"It's obvious to me…that you'd be dedicated to the company." He kissed the top of her head again, working his way toward her temple. He put her book on the floor beside the couch. Elena shifted her body around until she had a hand on his cheek and her lips against him. When she had kissed him earlier, it was simply a quick tease of what was to come. Her kiss was deep, passionate and hungry for him. Tseng pulled her over onto his lap, her knees on either side of his thighs and the weight of her body resting in to him. He sighed heavily and let eager hands rub her back and down to her hips. His tongue collided with hers and Elena dug her fingers into coal black hair. Elena barely pulled her lips away from his, blonde hair tossed around her shoulders.
My utmost apologies for typos and the like. I didn't proofread closely.
