Obligatory Disclaimer:

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

Author's Note: Mmm, I'm sorry that the last chapter apparently had some issues with the apostrophes, it looked all right on my end. I hope it's fixed with this chapter.

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Alcestis had wandered about Midgar, just as Reno had suggested. The only truly interesting place she had seen was a church over by the slums – there were flowers growing in it. She was under the impression that nothing grew in Midgar. What really intrigued her about it though, was that she swore she saw someone inside it, wearing a pink dress, but when she did a double-take there was no one there.

And so she returned to Reno's apartment around four-thirty, to wait for the arrival of her new…yes, she would dare say it, now…friend.

Around five, Reno came in with a familiar face – Rude – and found that Alcestis had all kinds of materia spread out over his coffee table. She appeared to be sorting it by function.

"Alcestis, Rude's sticking around for dinner tonight." He turned to his friend. "How do you feel about Mystery Meat, yo?"

"Look on the counter, Reno." Alcestis said, carefully ordering her summoning materia.

And there it was. A perfect dinner. Sitting there, all made up. It was potatoes and meat and vegetables. Reno looked at his friend and mouthed the word, "crazy."

"There's enough for you too, Rude, pending you don't eat much more than Reno does."

"Oh, I think I eat less than Reno. He's a pig."

"Oink, oink, whatever, just let me at it!" Reno announced, taking a plate from the counter and digging in.

"Rude, you can have the other plate, I'll make myself another one in a minute. Reno, be sure to toss any scraps left over to Zan."

Rude set down at the table with his friend who was eating ravenously. He spoke in a low voice. "You need to keep this one."

Reno nodded. "Did I pick the right woman to invite home or what?" He managed between mouthfuls. He tossed a small hunk of meat at Zan, who eagerly caught it in his mouth and wagged his tail.

After a couple of minutes, Reno saw that she had scooped away the materia somewhere – he had no idea where she could be hiding it – and Alcestis sat down at the table with them, pulling out another plate and making herself up a pleasant meal.

"I had no idea you knew how to cook like this." Reno said, chewing swiftly.

Alcestis shrugged. "You learn how to make things in the countryside edible when you have no home for a while. Here, everything is processed, so over half the preparation time is cut out. It took me twenty minutes."

Reno swallowed and grinned. "You are incredible."

Rude nodded. "I can't even make a proper microwave meal in twenty minutes. This is great."

Alcestis blushed a little. "Well, thank you. It's kind of nice to be feeding someone besides myself, I suppose." She paused, and then asked "So how was work today?"

"Elena tried to take a piece of me, again. Said she wants me to bring you in again so that she can take you out."

"I wouldn't worry about it." Rude threw in. "You could take her easily."

"Please do, would you?" Reno added. "She's such a bitch. Gets on my nerves, yo."

"She was dragging a child bound and gagged through the woods when I met her." Alcestis said disdainfully.

"Probably because she can't handle a kid."

"I think she's just incapable of being nice." Rude said.

"Let's kill her."

"I never imagined that Turks had such views about their co-workers." Alcestis commented.

"Oh yeah." Reno said. "We hate everybody, don't we, Rude?"

Rude shrugged. "They aren't so bad all the time. But they could be better. Tseng is something of an ass."

"No kidding, yo."

"Oh, and Rude, thanks for not actually trying to kill me when Rufus told you to."

Reno's eyebrows raised. "Rufus actually told Rude to kill you?"

Rude nodded. "I figured it wouldn't be worth the effort. Alcestis would just toss me into a wall and you'd break my jaw."

"Damn right." Reno said, finishing off his potatoes.

Rude sat back, his meal finally finished. "Thank you. That was the best I've eaten in a long time."

Alcestis nodded. "Anything I can do." She finished off her own meal, collected the empty plates and threw them unceremoniously into the sink.

Reno leaned back. "How about a game of Chocobo Run?"

"Oh, so not only do you drink and whore, but you gamble, too?" Alcestis said.

Reno grinned.

"You're a real class act, Reno."

"And you're living with me. What does that say about you?"

She smirked. "You're ridiculous."

Rude put a small sack onto the table. The chink noise made it obvious that it was Gil.

"Twenty Gil. Dealer's fee starts the pot." And Rude began to toss cards at each person there.

"Do you know how to play, Alcestis?" Reno said, picking up and sorting his cards.

She sighed. "It's been a while. Refresh my memory."

"Whoever has the ten of flames starts – besides that, the players are forbidden to look at their cards. The player to the left makes a bet as to whether the next card will be higher or lower. The player to the right lays out the next card. If the player to the left was correct, they get to keep their money, if not, it goes into the pot. The lowest you can bet is five gil, yo. That pattern continues until the last card. The last card, everyone makes a bet as to whether or not it will be higher or lower than the one before it, yo. If you bet correctly – it's a chocobo run, you take the pot. More than one person is right, you split the pot equally. If nobody gets it, than it's a bust. You play five hands, yo. If the last hand is a bust, then everybody splits the remainder of the pot. Remember, there are five suits – ice, fire, thunder, earth and water. Values are one through twenty, yo."

Alcestis nodded. "Okay, I remember, now. Let's play."

Rude laid out the ten of flames. Alcestis was the player to the left. "I bet…hm…twenty gil that it will be higher."

Her coins chinked out onto the table. Reno laid down the twelve of thunder. She kept her coins.

Rude was now the player to the left, as Reno had laid out the card. "10 gil that it will be lower."

Alcestis laid down the eighteen of water. Rude nudged his gil towards the middle – 30 gil in the pot.

Reno bet, he was wrong. 60 gil in the pot.

Alcestis bet, she was right. 60 gil in the pot.

Rude bet, he was wrong. 85 gil in the pot.

Reno bet, he was right. 85 gil in the pot.

Alcestis bet, she was right. 85 gil in the pot.

Rude bet, he was right. 85 gil in the pot.

Reno bet, he was wrong. 120 gil in the pot.

The game went and went and went, hand after hand.

Last card.

1000 gil in the pot.

The last card had been the nineteen of leaves.

Alcestis nudged out 20 gil. "Higher."

Rude and Reno both shook their heads. The odds were against her. They each contributed ten gil, and bet lower.

Rude laid out the last card.

It was the twenty of ice. Alcestis took the pot.

"1020 gil for me." She said. She smirked a little.

"You're a shark, yo." Reno said. "Where did you learn how to count cards?"

She shrugged.

Rude frowned. "Reno and I have been playing this game for years, but we've never been able to count all 100 cards in a game. Not without a pad of paper, anyway."

She grinned sheepishly. "Let's just say that before I began traveling I amassed a small fortune."

The two Turks stared at her deadpan.

She grinned awkwardly.

"Okay." Rude said. "Now that I'm broke…I'm going home."

"Hold on," Alcestis said.

She scooped up the original sack that he thrown the beginning of the pot in, and filed in some of her newly-attained coins. Chink! Chink! Chink!

"500 gil for a good game." She said, smiling.

She pushed another 500 at Reno. "More of the rent." And she pocketed the final twenty.

"A generous winner. Let's hope she wins every time we play, yo." Reno said.

Rude stuffed the small sack inside his coat. "Let's. See you at work, Reno. Nice seeing you, Alcestis."

And the new roommates smiled and waved goodbye at Rude as he left the apartment. Alcestis rested her head on her fist and looked at Reno.

"Does Rude come home with you often?"

"About once a week, yeah. Usually we spend the time getting thrashed, but this was all right, too, yo."

Alcestis smiled, and yet inwardly, frowned. She thought the social activity of doing something recreational with Reno and his co-worker would fulfill the social ache that the healing magic had left her with. Instead, it made her hunger for it more. She wanted to be even more social, which was unusual. Which made her conclude that it was because she genuinely wanted to spend more time with Reno and anyone else; that she truly wanted to spend more time around people.

Reno stacked the cards neatly, and then made a face. "Eh. Rude left his cards. I totally forgot that they weren't mine."

"Just leave them on the table and remember to take them to work tomorrow."

"Bright idea, yo." Reno yawned, and checked the clock on the wall. "Holy crap. It's already nine."

Alcestis pulled the large tie out of her hair, allowing it come forward to the sides of her face, half-in, half-out of braids. "What time are you going to work tomorrow?"

"I have to be there at eight tomorrow morning."

"That's later than usual."

"Rufus is being weirdly generous. Did you do something to him?"

"Not on purpose. Maybe accidentally."

"You know, Alcestis, the fact that you do magic accidentally sometimes kind of scares me."

"I thought the fact that I did it on purpose sometimes kind of scared you."

"You got me there, yo."

She stared off into space for a moment. "I told him that in spite of his money, he was still very poor. Any man who does not have the goodwill of their fellow men will have no one to pick them up when they fall. I had the staff at that point."

"Was it doing the glowy thing?"

"Probably. I was trying to scare him."

"Maybe you changed his way of thinking or something. Whatever. Nicer Rufus is good for everybody."

Alcestis nodded, and rotated her shoulder. It popped, and she winced. "Agh…it hasn't done that in a while."

Reno stood up, and brushed himself off. He threw his new sack of Gil into the fork drawer, and pulled Alcestis' chair out from the table, her still on it. She frowned at him. And before she could do a thing, he picked her up.

"Reno, what the hell are you doing?!" As he walked, her medium-sized figure bouncing slightly in his arms.

He dropped her gently onto his couch (and the six articles of clothing residing there), and pointed a finger at her. "In my experience, only people who need to relax have popping joints. Especially shoulders. You have got yourself wound tight about something and you are going to stay in this apartment until you've loosened yourself up."

Alcestis crossed her arms. "And what do you recommend?"

"Well, I'd recommend a glass of good, strong liquor, but for some reason I don't think you'd go for that." He sat down on the end of the couch by her feet and put his elbows on his knees and rested his head in his hands. "You know what? No. That's stupid. You like nature. You've spent most of your life in the outside world, right? You need something growing. Something to nurture. Besides Zan." Zan laid lazily on Reno's feet, and rolled over on his back so that Reno would scratch his tummy. Reno did so absent-mindedly. "I got it!" He turned his head to Alcestis, who gave him an "Oh, really?" look while he continued to pat Zan. "I saw a little tree once…it had magical properties or some crap, and it only grows if someone magical tends to it. Or if you bury materia in the soil, but I figure the latter is better for it, yo."

Alcestis stared at him in wonder. "You've actually heard of the tree of the Fallen Star?"

"Yeah. The leaves are red. ShinRa is raising a couple. It's supposed to be able to heal a great many diseases, but it doesn't grow more than two foot tall. ShinRa's been doing research to see if it can help heal Geostigma."

"Reno?"

"What is it, yo?"

"Why are you trying to help me so much? I mean, it's enough that you're allowing me to intrude upon the place you live, and eat your food-"

"Actually, I'm eating the food you make."

"-and allow me to curse the place you work and knock your boss out of his chair, and trust me enough not to cast a spell on you in the middle of the night and let me sleep in your bed when it's your apartment, but why would you try to actually help me?"

Reno leaned back on the couch for a moment, her toes tickling the small of his back. "Because…I can't get you out of my head. I think about you when I'm at work and I wonder if you're okay." He gave Alcestis a good, long look. "Because you're at a point in your life where you're not really certain about your place in the world, and I hate seeing people in that position, yo. I've been there. It sucks. Besides which, you're right, you are living in my apartment, and it would be stupid not to help you feel happy. I don't want to live with a brooding, bitter mage. That'd suck."

Alcestis gave him a small half-smile. He felt a pleasant tingling sensation go down his spine. "Well, regardless…thank you. I need someone like you right now."

Reno grinned. "I know. Who doesn't need a sexy red-head?"

She threw a pillow at him. "Oh, come on." He said. "You can't tell me you don't think I'm good-looking, yo. Why else would you want to stick around so bad?"

One of his dirty shirts from two days ago came flying off the coffee table to hit him in the face.

"I can't believe you're teasing me." She said, smiling yet looking offended at the same time.

He pulled the shirt off his face and leaned closer to her. "You like it."

"Shameless."

"You bet."

"You remember what happened the last time you told me to bet, Reno?"

"You cleaned me out."

"Chocobo Run's a great game, isn't it?"

"Shut up, yo."

And there was silence between the two, but for once, it was a comfortable silence.

"Reno, I have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"I know you're good-looking enough to bring home easy women any night of the week. And I get the feeling that that was basically the norm in here, too. So why hasn't it happened in the three days I've been here?"

Reno removed the dark goggles from his forehead, and massaged the small red marks they had left there. "I don't actually know. I have thought about that, yo. I think it's because I want you to think of me as better than that. Don't know why I'd care, but I guess I do."

He looked her straight in the eye, and Alcestis felt a strange pull towards him that she'd only felt once before in her life. And more than ever, she desperately wanted to ignore it.

"Plus, you know, it'd be rude to be busy with a lady on the couch while you're trying to sleep on the bed."

"Disgusting."

"Unless you wanted to come join us."

"Reno, you are awful."

"Or am I awesome? Hard to decide, isn't it, yo?"

She inclined her head at him, a few strands of hair and a braid flopped over onto her face, tickling her cheek. She gave a little smile and sighed. "Sometimes."

Reno gave her a cocky grin. She gave him a not-very-gentle nudge in the back with her feet. He shook his head at her, the stupid grin never leaving his face.

"I think I need to get some sleep." Alcestis said, and yawned a little. "I've got a big day, tomorrow."

Reno frowned. "How's that?"

She smiled at him a little, and he felt a pleasant sensation in his fingertips. "I'm going to do as you suggested and spend tomorrow with Tifa. Or get a hold of her, anyway."

He smirked in return. "I'm just full of great ideas."

"You're full of something, for sure."

"Hey!" Reno said, standing up indignantly.

She made her left hand into a tight fist and used it to make a small, jerky upwards motion a little. She disappeared, reappearing not a second later over his bed and falling onto it, the springs bouncing her up and down a few times. She waved over at Reno, who was shaking his head at her, as he found himself doing often.

"I thought mages weren't supposed to use magic for anything non-productive."

"That was very productive. It saved me a whole eighteen steps."

"And you say it with a straight face, too. I'm proud of you."

She gave him a wide smile. "Goodnight, Reno."

"G'night, yo."

Reno settled down on his couch again, Zan leaping up to lay across his lap. He flipped channels, the volume on low, searching for something to waste time with. Alcestis is a strange chick. Weird, weird, weird. She was awfully playful this evening. She usually seems like she hates the world, but not tonight, yo. Maybe she's found whatever it is she's looking for. Naw, that's stupid…What the hell is there of value in Midgar? Eh, gotta head to work tomorrow…I wonder if Elena will try to punch me again? Would be kinda funny if she did, yo… Maybe I'll just knock her on her ass and see if she backs off… or report her to Tseng. He'd love that. Having to discipline his little girlfriend for trying to take out the second-in-command…

And so, whilst pondering tomorrow, Reno fell asleep leaning back on his couch, Zan snoring quietly on his lap.