Obligatory Disclaimer:

I don't own any characters you recognize from Final Fantasy VII, they are all the property of Tetsuya Nomura and/or Square-Enix.

Author's Note: Seriously, people. Reviews. Comments. Even a flame would be fine.

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The next morning when he woke, he realized that his biological clock had gotten him up just in time to head to work. He wandered over to his bed, and saw Alcestis sleeping there. She looked…different, somehow, when she slept. He'd realized that before, when he was standing watch in the woods with her and Lerina, and it hit him again now. She looked more…at peace with herself and her world, he decided. Perhaps she was dissatisfied with her life as it was? That would explain a lot about her body posture…and the aggressive and secretive manner in which she spoke and acted. Perhaps she had a reason for not believing in love… Reno found himself staring off at nothing, and decided it best to dress before waking her.

In his usual lazy fashion, he left the top two buttons undone, and his shirt untucked. He put on the same jacket as yesterday, checked for the tissue sample, and gently shook Alcestis. Her eyes didn't open, but she responded: "Yes, sweetie?"

Reno stared at her with wide eyes. She must think I'm someone else. "Alcestis, I'm going to work."

"Be safe, sweetie."

Okay, too weird. I'm waking her up all the way. And he gave her a slightly more vigorous shake.

Her eyes flew open. "What is it you need, Reno?"

"I'm going to work. I thought you ought to know so you didn't wake up and think I'd just ditched you. I left the key on the table by the couch so you can come and go. Just be here at 2, I should be coming back around then, yo."

She smiled at him sleepily, a great big smile that gave him the weird happy feeling again.

"Reno, I know I haven't been the nicest to you, but I thank you very much for your kindness. I truly don't deserve it."

Reno smiled back at her, and waved a hand. "It's nothing. Besides, you've more than paid your share of the rent with that sack of gil, yo."

She blinked sleepily, still smiling. "Well, I thought I should pay for it somehow."

He grinned at her. "Maybe you can pay for more of the rent in something else, yo." He raised his eyebrows a couple of times, the innuendo clear as day.

"In your dreams, Turk," she yawned. "Well, have a good day at work, Reno."

He smiled softly at her she closed her eyes and rolled back over. "I'll try, yo." he said quietly.

She sighed a little, and as he left the apartment, he couldn't help but wonder what the hell this woman did to him that he was leaving her alone in his apartment with the freedom to do whatever the hell she damn well pleased.

--Å--

When Alcestis woke up two hours later, she couldn't get the image of Reno standing over her smiling gently out of her head. It was there as she dressed, tied her hair back and raided his fridge for breakfast. She wasn't sure what it was about the man, but he fascinated her. He was so lax about so many things in his life, yet at the same time…he was a Turk. The Turks were a pretty straight laced bunch – or so she had always thought. She wondered if Reno would describe her to his cohorts at work… and if the Turk she had fought not but six months ago would recognize her from his description.

She had fought a Turk just outside Midgar not long ago… She had made it sound like to Reno that she was just meeting Tifa, when in reality the two knew each other quite well. She had been out searching for a particular plant of some kind that Tifa described as an excellent healing salve. She had ran into a young blonde woman hauling a child through the woods bound and gagged.

Alcestis vaguely recalled the woman calling her all sorts of names as Alcestis threw her repeatedly into trees and set her uniform on fire. She had left the woman unconscious when she had made off with the child – one who was inflicted with Geostigma. Tifa had greeted the boy openly and he had thanked Alcestis for rescuing him. And so she had gone to work for Tifa, finding children in need of care, and sleeping night after night in the woods.

Alcestis left Reno's apartment with his key in her pocket and decided to head towards Seventh Heaven. Lerina would enjoy seeing her again, she thought.

--Å--

"What the hell do you mean, 'it's not enough'?" Reno asked, slamming his hands down on Tseng's desk. "I have a freakin' huge tissue sample here. There are more strings of DNA here than there are hairs on your greasy little head! How much more did you want, yo?!"

"Rufus certainly wanted much more than that. Probably about 100 times that amount."

"You have got to be shitting me. You'd have to cut her damn arm off to get that amount, yo."

"Whatever is necessary."

Reno glared at him and let out a string of cuss words.

"Your mouth isn't going to satisfy the boss, Reno. Go get the little girl and bring her here."

"This is a load of shit, Tseng. Killing a little girl for her cells? What the f-"

"If that is what is necessary to cure Geostigma-"

"You don't get it, do you, moron?! Geostigma is not your average disease, yo. Having three strings or three million of a little girl's DNA isn't going to cure it one way or the other!"

"Reno, I suggest you calm yourself. You have been given an order-"

"So help me, if you bastards-you know what? You know what? I'll bring her here. I'll do it. On one condition."

"You are in no position-"

"I'm the only one who knows where she is and I'm probably one of three people on the whole damn Planet she trusts right now. I've got this nailed, yo."

"What the hell do you want, Reno?"

"I'll bring her here, but I have to be present for everything. If you idiots do anything to harm her, I swear to Holy, you people will have some serious freaking problems on your hands, yo."

Tseng stared blankly at Reno. He was at a loss. He'd never seen Reno angry before.

"Fine. But I have a condition, too."

"Name it, yo."

"We won't harm your little friend. I assume that's why you're so vehement, you like her or something. But you have to bring in the woman in your report, too. The one who was protecting her. Rude will go with you to ensure you make it happen."

Reno frowned. "What will you do with her? Why bother with her, yo?"

"We haven't decided yet. We might ask her to work for us. We might kill her. We're not sure. She sounds an awful lot like the woman in Elena's report, from not too long ago."

Reno shook his head. "The woman hates ShinRa, I will tell you right now. Once she figured out I was a Turk, she wanted blood. Bringing her here would be like bringing Sephiroth in. I'm not sure if anything would stop her from killing us all. Besides that, I wouldn't even know where to find her."

"Probably with the girl, eh? And you said that she ceased hostilities once you convinced her that you weren't going to harm the girl. So she might play nice with you."

"Tseng, you are a spineless bastard."

"It's what I do. Do hurry, Reno, I'd like to get home in time for that new reality show tonight."

"Go to hell, yo!"

Reno was sure to slam the door on the way out.

--Å--

"So do you like the little girl?"

This was about the thousandth question Rude had asked him about the situation, and if he kept it up, Reno felt sure he was going to nail his friend in the head with his weapon.

"Yes, Rude, I like the little girl. She's cute and easily entertained. She refers to me as her Chocobo."

"That's cute, Reno."

"Shut the hell up, Rude."

"And the woman, do you like the woman?"

"She seems all right, yeah."

"I think you actually know where she's at."

Reno glanced at him for a minute. "What makes you say that?"

"You've got a long, brown hair on your jacket."

Reno glared at him, and picked it off. "Yeah, I know where she is, for the most part. Just don't tell Tseng that part, all right, yo?"

"Fine with me. Is she staying with you?"

"Mmhmm."

"Have you laid her yet?"

Reno laughed openly. "Ice queen of the year, yo."

"Think she hates men?"

"Romantically speaking, yeah, yo."

"Any interest in her?"

"She's good-looking enough that I can't get her out of my head. But the part where she hates both my gender and my job kinda puts me off. And the fact that she could probably kill me on a whim if she felt like it kinda gets to me, too, yo."

"So why are you letting her stay with you?"

Reno sighed. "I've been asking myself that for a while, yo. I just… I get this strangely happy feeling whenever she smiles at me. But I'm certain I'm not smitten with her or anything. She's too damn scary for that, yo."

"I've heard that mages have this thing where they can discreetly influence people they want to like them. They do it without realizing it, and most of the time they don't even realize they want the person to like them." Rude said thoughtfully.

"Really, yo?"

"So I've read."

"That's messed up, yo. Where do you read this crap?"

"It was Elena's turn to bring in reading material for the break room last week. But you say the woman strikes you as a loner?"

"Mmhmm. Except for kids. She loves the kids, yo."

"Then it's pretty unusual that she wants you to like her, eh?"

Reno laughed a bit. "Must be my charming good looks, yo."

And at that moment, they rounded the corner and entered Seventh Heaven.

"RED-HEAD CHOCOBO!" A familiar voice cried. Lerina ran from the next room and leaped into Reno's arms. Rude smirked. "You've got a way with kids."

"Shut up, yo." Reno hissed at him. He turned to the girl he was holding onto. "How are you, Lerina?"

"HAPPY, MR. CHOCOBO!"

Rude almost lost his composure. "Mr. Chocobo…?"

Reno glared at him. "One word to the guys at work…" Reno warned.

"Blackmail…" Rude muttered, barely concealing his amusement.

Alcestis followed the same route Lerina had taken around the corner to the lobby. "What're you doing here, Mr. Chocobo? I thought you were at work."

"That the woman?" Rude whispered.

Reno gave a small nod.

"You were right." Rude said. "Scary."

"Well… Alcestis, I need to speak with you." Reno put Lerina down and said, "Mr. Chocobo has to talk with Ms. Magic now, mkay?"

"OKAY!"

"So you stay here and talk to Rude, okay? You can call him Mr. Shiny."

"His head is kinda shiny." She giggled. She stuck out her hand. Rude just stared at her. "Hello, Mr. Shiny!"

Rude patted her awkwardly on the head. She wrapped her arms around his leg, and he sighed. Reno was right. She was unbearably cute.

Reno and Alcestis stood in the back corner.

"Reno, what is it, I thought you got what you needed, what-"

Reno grit his teeth. "I know, I thought so, too. I threw a damn fit, yo."

"So, why…?"

"They want more samples. Not just skin cells, a small bit of muscle tissue, marrow samples, blood samples. I agreed to bring her in on a condition, yo."

"Which is what? This better be good, Reno, or I swear-"

"Anyone who hurts her gets a broken jaw from me. If they do anything to harm her in any way, I take her away, they never see her again. I get to stand guard over her. I promise you she won't get hurt, yo."

"Okay, so what did you have to give up in return for her not being harmed at all?"

"I have to bring you in with me, yo."

"And what's to stop me from slaughtering all of them?"

"Nothing, basically. Nobody but Mr. Shiny – eh, Rude – knows that you're staying with me. They think I have no idea where you're at, yo."

"Can Mr. Shiny be trusted?"

"Rude's the best friend I've got. He'd never turn me in for crap, yo."

Alcestis stared him straight in the eye. "You realize that I never trust anyone as much as I'm going to have to trust you for this."

Reno met her gaze openly. "You're going to have to trust somebody sometime, Alcestis. Especially if you want to go on protecting and rescuing kids, yo. You know that I won't let anything happen to her."

"That's not the question. The question is, will you let something happen to me?"

Reno shook his head simply. "Look, everyone in that office is going to be damned scared of you. I'm damned scared of you. I'm not sure if I can trust you not to kill me if something happens that we weren't expecting. But you have my word, yo, that if anything happens to you that Rufus is going to have a few good assassins after his head."

Something weird happened at that point that Reno couldn't hope to explain. Something in her eyes changed, her demeanor morphed, and he was sure that she was seeing something far away. He'd heard that seers blanked out like this sometimes when they had a vision, but he was certain it wasn't that. That was a passive magical tool, the sort of thing that Alcestis expressed as having no appeal to her.

When her eyes came back into focus, she stared very hard at Reno's face. "You…you are…"

And she walked off abruptly, and took Lerina by the hand, and asked Rude where to go.