Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long! I was out of town, and then my internet messed up for a bit, so yeah...Hopefully the chapter is good enough that you guys can forgive me! =P I had some confusion for awhile about where I was going to go next in the story, but I've definitely started to get all of it worked out, so we should get moving along here pretty soon. I hope you are all enjoying it! I know I am. So yeah. You guys are awesome! I"ll shut up now and let you get to reading. xD Enjoy!

By that evening, Elena still hadn't managed to find a chance to sneak into her father's room. She knew there would be an opportunity later that night once business really picked up in the front room. During her several outings so far though, she'd managed to gather armloads of extra pillows that she'd arranged in a corner so Reno wouldn't have to lie on the floor anymore.

"I think this is more comfortable than a normal bed," Reno declared, collapsing on the cloud-like pile of pillows. He'd dozed on and off all afternoon, but he was still looking tired and weak. Elena could only imagine the stress going through something like that must put on the body. Elena plopped down next to him, curious to see how comfortable it really was.

"Huh," she snuggled into the pillows a bit, "I think you're right. This is fabulous. Wanna trade? I'll sleep here and you can have the bed."

"Nope, not gonna happen," Reno turned to look at her, giving the biggest grin he could manage without hurting his face. It wasn't very big. "This is my corner full of pillows. Get your own." He shifted, the movement pulling at his abdominal muscles. "Damn," he muttered, grimacing, "What the hell did they even do?" He laid a hand lightly over his stomach.

"Don't you remember?" Elena glanced towards the spot where she knew the sick smiley face was carved into his skin.

"Actually, I don't remember a lot of it," Reno spoke softly, "It's probably for the best. I do want to see though." He pulled up his shirt, straining to get a look at his torso without pulling on the cut muscles too much. Quickly seeing that it wasn't working, Elena hopped up, dashing over to her dresser and retrieving a handheld mirror.

"Here, this might help," she handed it to him, "If you're sure you want to look." Reno took the mirror, a small smirk on his face, implying his amusement at the fact that she doubted his courage to look at his own wounds. The amused look swiftly turned to one of surprise as his eyes fell upon the reflection of the smiley face.

"Well that's…creative," Reno commented, a small frown growing on his forehead, "Wait…I remember that now…" His voice drifted off, and Elena doubted his thoughts were going anywhere pleasant. She took the mirror from his hand and carefully pulled his shirt back down, covering the wounds.

"On the bright side, they're healing already," Elena put the mirror down on her desk, fumbling for something to talk about to take his mind off it, "So as long as we've got all this time together," she settled down on the pile of pillows next to him, pushing his long blood-red ponytail out of her way, "We should get to know each other properly. I mean, all I know about you is that you hate your job, you're sneaky, and you're landlord is a jerk." And you're the most gorgeous guy I've ever seen in my life with the most amazing smile and a fabulous, if sometimes annoying, sense of humor. Elena stopped her mental list before she caught herself admitting any emotions that maybe she wasn't ready to acknowledge head on yet.

"You have a point," Reno laughed, "All I know about you is that you don't like being followed to school, your father's a bastard, and while you may pretend to hate a guy, you'll help him out when he needs it."

"Well, what was I supposed to do?" Elena argued, "Let you bleed to death on my floor?" Reno shrugged.

"That's what pretty much any other person in the world would do with me."

"People are jerks."

"Agreed," Reno sighed, "Now about getting to know each other. Introduce yourself properly to me. I'm talkin' name, age, birthday, favorite color, favorite food, that kind of thing." Elena grinned, ready to play along.

"Hi, my name is Elena," she reached her hand over to shake his, "I'm sixteen, my birthday is October twenty-seventh, my favorite color is purple, and chocolate is my favorite food."

"Good start," Reno praised her, "I'm Reno, I'm seventeen, not entirely sure when my birthday is-" Elena cut him off at once.

"You don't know when you're birthday is?"

"I told you my parents were either dead or gone, right?" Reno glanced up at her, "It's not like anyone stamped a date on my arm or anything. I know how old I am, just not down to the month or anything. I think it's sometime in Summer though."

"That's sad," Elena declared, imagining what it would be like to not even know when your own birthday was.

"You think so?" Reno shrugged, "I don't really care. Now can I please say the rest? You didn't let me finish!"

"Yeah, sorry."

"My favorite color is red. I know you're goin' to ask, so I'm just gonna go ahead and tell ya. That is my real hair color. I don't dye it. As far as favorite food goes, I'd have to say…food."

"Food?"

"Yes, my favorite food is food in general. I'm not picky," Reno smiled, evidently pleased with their conversation, "Now how about something you hate?"

"I hate my father. More than anything," Elena was suddenly serious, her words spoken viciously.

"Understandable," Reno nodded slowly, "I hate my landlord. From day one he's been a jerk, but there's not a lot of other apartments as crappy, and thus as cheap, as this one. I mean, I'm just goin' for a roof and some walls really. I don't ask for much. But the bastard thinks he can pick on me or somethin' just because I'm not an adult. He's always tryin' to push me around. I've gotten in more than one scuffle with that dumbass. It's complicated though because I can't let him get too mad at me or he'll kick me out. So every now and then I have to let him beat me around a bit, just so he doesn't get too mad. Pisses me off." Reno and Elena both sat silently for a moment, absorbed in their own and each other's misery.

"I think we need to talk about something else," she ventured, her arms wrapped about herself protectively. It was her instinctual reaction whenever she thought about her father too much.

"Yeah," Reno tapped his fingers against the wall thoughtfully for a moment, "Ok, tell me about some people that you do like. Who's your best friend?"

"I don't really have one, I guess," Elena shrugged, glancing lazily over the strange shadows the lamp cast on the ceiling, "I've got friends at school, but that's kind of where it ends. I don't really go out and do much with anyone. It's not like I'm inviting anyone to come hang out here."

"Good point. So how does this whole thing work anyway?"

"What thing? You mean, my father's business?" Elena spoke the final word as if it was a joke, which was how she viewed it. It was one, big, sick joke to her.

"Yup," Reno behaved as if casually inquiring after someone's father's prostitute business was perfectly normal and appropriate for random conversation. Elena laughed.

"Well, there's about ten ladies that live with us and do most of the…work," Elena spoke awkwardly, carefully selecting her words. She'd never had to describe how her father ran his whore house before, "And at nights several others come to…work, and leave when the customers do. My father handles all the payment, and he takes a percentage of the money earned. He takes more from the ladies that live here, to pay for room and board. That's pretty much it." She looked at him strangely, but with a smile. Of all the people in the world, he was the only one that would go for the most awkward conversation topic.

"I see. Are you friends with any of them? I mean, ten of them live right here with you," Reno didn't bother trying to hide the grin on his face. He knew it was a weird conversation topic, but in all honesty, he wanted to know everything about her, including the place where she lived.

"Sort of. You may have noticed, I don't exactly like to hang out anywhere but my room. Some of them are nice to me and treat me as something of a little sister, or a pet, but then there's a few who think I'm supposed to wait on them or something," Elena laughed, "I never say this to them, but I'm always thinking, 'You're a prostitute, not royalty. You don't get servants'." Reno laughed, holding his side as pained gasps broke into his laughter here and there.

"Say it, promise me you'll say that out loud next time," he grinned.

"I can't!" she smiled at the thought of doing it though, imagining the shock it would give them if little, push-over Elena spoke back.

"And why not? It's the truth, and it's not like they're better than you or anything."

"I just can't. It's not what I do," Elena sighed, "I stay out of peoples' way, and don't make anyone mad, and they leave me alone. It's how I get by."

"Well do what you want, I'm just sayin' you shouldn't have to put up with shit from anyone," Reno's sparkling aquamarine eyes blinked tiredly up at her.

"Thanks, Reno," Elena smiled thoughtfully to herself. That was something she'd really needed to hear. Her whole life she'd been treated like she was some how lesser than the people around her, and didn't deserve any respect. For starters, her father beat her, and many of the unrealistically gorgeous women that worked there had treated her poorly over the years, a combination that had long since worn through any respect she had left for herself. Elena had come to believe that she wasn't worth much, and it was constantly surprising her when Reno treated her as an equal, with respect and kindness. Even though he teased her occasionally, it was never mean. Elena liked the way he made her feel, like she was worth something, even special.

Realizing that a silence had developed while she was lost in contemplation, Elena turned her head to glance at Reno, wondering why he hadn't said anything. The redhead had fallen asleep, his breathing steady and deep, an improvement over last night. Smiling to herself, she stood up, careful not to disturb him. Pulling a blanket lightly over him, Elena crept over to her own bed and grabbed a book, not quite ready to go to sleep yet herself.

Almost an hour later, Elena drifted off. She'd only managed to get through two pages since the majority of her time she'd spent content to just listen to Reno breath. For some reason the sound was entrancing, and she wasn't sure why.

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Tseng tried to refrain from slamming his office door behind him as he entered, collapsing exasperatedly in his chair. Pinching the bridge of his nose, the man focused on breathing slowly until he regained his composure. He'd just returned from a particularly obnoxious meeting with the President. Tseng had wanted the SOLDIERS responsible for the brutal treatment of the captive, not to mention letting their only possibly good source of information go, fired entirely. Sadly, Heidegger, head of the SOLDIER department, had intervened for no other reason then to get on Tseng's nerves.

"Sneaky bastard," Tseng muttered. The man had managed to get to the President first, telling a watered down version of the story and convincing Mr. Shinra that Tseng was overreacting. It hadn't helped when Tseng had lost it a little bit upon finding Heidegger with the President. Tseng shook his head, annoyed. The unauthorized torture of hardly more than a boy was now being referred to as a "minor, unfortunate incident" and the SOLDIERS responsible were merely demoted a rank.

As if that weren't enough, the President had taken the opportunity to reprimand Tseng for his lack of progress in breaking up any of the larger drug rings. It was the truth, but it wasn't his fault, and even though he was perfectly capable of taking criticism, did it have to have been when Heidegger was present? The man had practically had a stroke trying to hold in his laughter.

If it hadn't been for Heidegger's pathetic SOLDIERS, Tseng would have had the chance to interrogate the captive personally. They claimed he had refused to admit anything but insignificant details, but they were evidently not the brightest of the bunch. What they saw as an insignificant detail could have blown the whole thing wide open to Tseng. He needed to make progress with this project, and quickly. He'd have to start getting more hands on with the investigation. Tseng decided to go home, change into something less conspicuous than his Turk uniform, and wander around the slums to see what information could be picked up. In the back of his mind, he knew it was something more specific he was looking for. Tseng wanted to find the escaped captive. It wouldn't be hard. He'd noticed the boy had an unusual shade of bright red hair. It was really only a matter of time. Assuming he hadn't been beaten up too much and had died in some dark alley somewhere by now. Tseng frowned, refusing to believe that had happened. He trusted his instincts, and his instincts told him to go after the young man.

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"Come on, keep up!" Reno called over his shoulder as he walked briskly ahead, Elena's backpack slung lightly over one shoulder.

"But you're walking too fast!" Elena whined, dragging her feet and fighting to keep her eyes open. It was one of those mornings were it felt like as soon as your head hit the pillow, it was time to get up and start another day. "Aren't you supposed to be hurt?"

"People recover, Elena. And after all that time spent laying around, I'm happy to be walking around!" It had been almost two weeks since the night Reno had come banging on her window, bruised and bleeding. All but the most serious injuries were healed by now. The cuts along his cheekbones had healed disturbingly slowly, and it was obvious they were leaving ferocious looking scars. Elena sighed and trudged a little faster, feeling a bit of a smile creep onto her face as she watched Reno walk along, a slight bounce in his step. It was clear he was happy to be up and about, although he'd stated on multiple occasions how much he enjoyed doing nothing but laying around all day on his pile of pillows. He was lazy, but energetic, a combination she didn't really understand, but then again, she didn't really understand Reno in general.

"I'm going back to my apartment now," Reno announced, handing her the backpack, "I was well enough to take care of myself days ago, so I guess it's about time."

"You're going?" Elena always knew he would go back to his apartment at some point, but she still felt disappointed. It was easier to get through the days when she had something to look forward too. Before, she'd dragged her feet on the way home, putting off getting there as long as possible. In the past two weeks through, she'd hurried, almost jogging some days, eager to get back to Reno.

"Don't look so sad," Reno smirked, looking rather pleased, "I'll be here waitin' for ya when ya get out. I gotta sort out some things first though." Elena guessed he meant his job. After all, he hadn't shown up for two weeks.

"I'll see you then, I guess," Elena smiled, an impulsive hand reaching up to touch his cheek, fingertips sliding just under the healing wound, "Take care of yourself." Elena turned abruptly and tried to refrain from running into the building as she blushed furiously, mentally slapping herself for not restraining her impulses.

Reno didn't move until the girl was out of sight. Even then he stood pointlessly in front of the school, vaguely wondering why his skin felt tingly now. Shrugging it off, he hooked his thumbs in the corners of his pockets and slowly walked off, unable to move his mind on to the task before him. Eventually, the importance of what he needed to do managed to drag his attention away from Elena. For obvious reasons, he'd been unable to show up to work as usual for nearly two weeks. As he directed his steps towards the meeting place where he was given the packages for delivery, Reno hoped they were still using that location and that someone was there. He couldn't afford to lose this job.

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Reno had no trouble locating the boarded up old building behind which lay the meeting place. Even though it was always pitch dark when he went there, he'd never had difficulty memorizing locations. Casually taking in the surroundings, Reno made sure no one was watching before he ducked off the street and around to the back of the building. The semi-light that seeped through the Plate above and kept the slums from being entirely dark didn't reach back here, leaving the space in a shadowy darkness much like dusk. Reno had to blink a few times to adjust his eyes to the dimmer lighting, and looked around quickly. A small sigh of disappointment escaped his lips when he saw no one. The place was deserted. He should have known as much. They switched meeting locations every few weeks to throw anyone who should happen to be looking to closely off.

"Well, well, look who's back." A man stepped out from the even more shadowy depths of the doorway, throwing a faintly glowing cigarette to the ground and crushing it out with his shoe. Reno instinctively stiffened at the man's appearance. He knew the outline and the voice well enough, since this was the man who normally gave him the drugs to be delivered and told him where to deliver them to, but he'd never been entirely comfortable around the man. His sudden appearance wasn't helping the dangerous aura the man already emitted. "You'd better be glad you've had a good track record until now, otherwise there's no way in hell we would've waited around for you to show your sorry face around here again."

"Sorry," Reno spoke gruffly, all his natural cheerfulness suppressed entirely, "I got held up."

"Got held up?" the man took a threatening step closer, speaking with sarcastic politeness, "Elaborate, please. You'd better have a damned good explanation for failing to deliver the goods and disappearing for two weeks!"

"Shinra's people grabbed me," Reno responded to the man's threatening tone by making his own fiercer, "They're trying to break up the drug rings and spent a day interrogating me. You're lucky I don't know anything." The man's attitude changed at the mention of Shinra.

"You're the one who's lucky you don't know anything!" the man grabbed Reno by the collar of his shirt and slammed him against the brick wall, hard. Reno refused to show any pain, although his already bruised body cringed at the impact. Knowing better than to fight back, Reno simply looked the man steadily in the eye as he continued his rant. "If you so much as breathed a word to Shinra, you'd find yourself praying you'd never been born! How can I even be sure you're telling the truth? You could be working for them now! You don't have any proof to back your story." Reno's eyes glinted as he shook his head to get the hair out of his face, pointing a finger at one of the gashes in his cheekbones.

"That proof enough?" the redhead was really starting to get irritated now, "I've got more to show for it!" Pulling his t-shirt up, Reno revealed the angry red lines of the mostly healed smiley face and the other cuts on his abdomen. The man noticed the wounds on Reno's face for the first time with surprise. He glanced down for a moment at the other injuries and his grip weakened a little, offering no resistance when Reno roughly shoved the man's hands away from his collar. "I was gone for two weeks because I wasn't fit to be running around distributing your drugs for you. They took the stuff I was carrying that night and didn't exactly leave it where I could take it when I escaped. Believe me now? All I want is my job back."

"You've got it back," the man said begrudgingly, "I'll meet you here tonight as usual, but you've got to pay attention to what you're doing! Don't get caught this time."

"No way in hell I'm lettin' them get me again," Reno muttered, "You'd better warn the others though. Not everyone knows we're being hunted now."

"You did good, kid," the man grunted, sounding slightly less harsh then usual, "There are some pansies higher up in this operation that would've squealed a lot quicker than you."

"I'm just doin' a job," Reno shrugged, "And I don't know anythin' to tell even if I wanted to."

"You'll go far," the man patted him in a rough, comradely manner on the shoulder before pulling out a new cigarette and a battered lighter, "Wait ten minutes than you can leave." The man puffed on his cigarette as he shuffled off, leaving Reno alone behind the abandoned building. The redhead didn't bother mentioning that he didn't want to 'go far' in this drug ring.

He glanced at his watch. He had time to get something to eat, sleep for awhile, and then meet Elena at her school. He'd probably spend the rest of his afternoon with her, before it was back to the job he hated. With a sigh, he shoved off the wall he'd been leaning against and ambled casually back out into the street.

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"Reno, what are you doing?" Elena looked up, perplexed, from her math homework. The redhead was on his back, laying over the edge of her bed, his head almost touching the floor.

"Lookin' at the room upside-down," he explained calmly, as if it were completely obvious and in fact quite normal, "What? It's not like you're being anymore interestin'."

"I already told you, I have to do my homework!" Elena was actually relieved for an excuse to ignore the papers in front of her. She had enough problems of her own to deal with, so why was math making her solve it's problems too?

"Are you sure it's mandatory?" Reno pulled himself awkwardly up, wincing and rubbing a hand briefly over where the muscles were still healing in his abs. He rolled onto his stomach, resting his chin in his hands and looking at her with his gorgeous aquamarine eyes. "Because I think it's more like a suggestion."

"I'm pretty much positive that I have to do it," she reassured him, trying to keep a serious face, but failing miserably. She could never hold back a smile when she was with him.

"So there's a slight chance you don't have to do it?" he continued his interrogation.

"There's a slight chance I'll throw you right back out that window if you don't shut up and let me finish my homework! It's hard enough without you interfering."

"So there's a big chance you won't throw me out the window?" Reno's eyes sparkled as a smirk slowly spread it's way across his face.

"Reno!" Elena grabbed a pillow and hit him across the head with it as hard as she could. He laughed, the only damage being that his hair was now messier than usual. He pulled the pillow from her grasp and smacked her back. Elena didn't retaliate. Instead, she pointed a finger warningly at him and turned silently back to her work.

"Aw, but we were just starting to have fun!" Reno whined.

"Here, play with this," Elena tossed him a snow globe, dug quickly from her desk drawer, a relic from some outing or other with her mother years ago. The little red-roofed Wutian buildings inside stood strong against the swirling simulated snow. So easily amused, Elena laughed to herself, watching how instantly captivated Reno was, content to sit quietly on her bed, shaking the little glass globe and watching the 'snow' settle on and around the buildings. Turning back to her homework, she couldn't help but feel a little bit proud of herself for thinking of it.

Author's Note: So the lines I just put in to mark the changes in scene disappeared...I'm going to try again. Let me know if the separators showed up or not! Please review and let me know what you think! Much love!