Chapter Seven

Reno

Just because you're a Turk, and therefore one of the most highly trained individuals on the planet, doesn't always mean you can see danger when it's right ahead of you. I mean, no-one can really train you to see when someone's screwing you over, even if that person has been at your side all along, claiming loyalty, pretending they'd do anything for you...

I'm getting ahead of myself. I do that sometimes, when I'm nervous or sometimes when I'm angry. Then stuff just gets even more confused.

I can't pinpoint exactly when stuff started to get fucked up, because actually, it was a total mess from the beginning. Not that there's anything that could have been done. I don't particularly believe in fate, but I do believe that sometimes there's fuck all we can do to change things. Doesn't stop us from wishing to the gods that we could though.

Things changed between me and Elena, slowly but surely, after the oven incident, and the whole phone call with Tseng., where he ripped into me for making a tiny mistake on a report. Truth be told, we were gonna have to start getting on at some point, shoved together as we were. There's no alternative, when you're stuck on an airship with a chick, but to make friends with her, otherwise you're gonna be very bored and very miserable. Especially when they're one as capable of evil as Elena is.

Three days passed, and we quickly found a routine. I would sleep most of the day, whilst Elena did work for college. I would get up mid afternoon and shower, then Elena would take a bath whilst I watched a movie. Then she would make food, we'd eat, she'd go to bed. I'd 

watch a movie, then go to bed at three a.m ish. Then I would sleep most of the day, whilst etc etc. This worked fine for us, only it was pretty lonely. Not talking to anyone at all for hours on end can drive you pretty crazy, pretty quickly. So on the fourth night, I asked Elena if she wanted to watch a film with me.

She eyed me, warily. 'Not 'Mog's House',' she said, a smile almost flickering over her soft pink lips.

'Cross my heart and hope to die. You choose the film.'

She did smile then, but it was one of pure wickedness. 'Fine. I want to watch 'Loveless.''

Inwardly I groaned. You'd have to have been living in the Mythril Mines for the last few years to not know what freakin' 'Loveless' is, but just in case you have, here's the gist of it- 'Loveless' is the biggest, most repulsive chick flick in the history of film. Truly. It's about a knight (gods save me) who rescues this damsel (gag me) and they have a relationship (i.e. do it a lot in a bunch of uber romantic, uber improbable situations), only then the knight gets called to war, and he leaves the damsel. They both promise never to love again, only of course he's lying, and he ends up marrying some rich bitch and having tons of kids all with totally stupid names, like Cloud and Zack. Years later, the knight and his wife walk past the damsel chick on the street, and she's all lonely and stuff (hence the film's title) only the knight doesn't care, 'cause he's a total cad, who never loved her anyway. It was a stage thing for years, but as if that wasn't bad enough, they had to make a freakin' movie adaptation of it.

Ugh. I shoulda known Elena would be the type to go for that crap. I bet all her upper class buddies are the types of people to name their kids after the main characters, so people can hear them in the street, cooing over little Cloud. Ugh.

I didn't let her see this though. I just shrugged. 'Okay. Sounds good.'



Whilst she was putting the disc in the machine, I poured two glasses of wine. She smirked when I handed one to her.

'You're not going to get drunk of this, are you?'

I stuck my tongue out at her. 'Ha ha. No. Why, scared that you will?'

She glared at me, and rose to the challenge, taking a huge gulp of her drink. She'd finished her first glass by the time the adverts had finished.

Of course, the opening credits of the movie depressed me so much that I obliterated my drink in a matter of seconds as well. I poured us a second.

'Trying to get me drunk?' asked Elena, not taking her eyes off the screen.

'Would I?' I asked, innocently.

She just smiled slightly. Huh. She may not be drunk, but the wine sure was loosening her up. That was the first smile I'd seen in three days.

Gawd. What an awful film. After half an hour, I was ready to kill myself. Elena, on the other hand, looked like she was in heaven. When the knight promised the damsel chick he would never love anyone else, I swear there were tears in her eyes.

'You are such a girl,' I teased her.

She glared at me. 'It's a moving moment,' she snapped.

I snorted. Yeah, right. The only things that's moving is the vomit.'

'Reno!' she shouted, whacking at me with one of the cushions. I grinned at her.

'Kidding. Gawd, Laney.'



'It's Elena!' she shrieked, throwing the remaining cushion at me, then hitting me with her bare hands. As she drew back, one of her nails scraped on my skin. I felt the sting, then a slight dampness where she'd cut through. We both blinked at the vivid red on my wrist. After a moment, she clapped her hand over her mouth.

'Oh, shit, I'm sorry. Fuck...' She pulled a tissue from the box on the coffee table, then took my hands, pressing the thin white material to the cut. She shook her head. 'Sorry.'

'That's okay.' I was transfixed by her golden skin against my pale hand.

She sighed. 'I didn't mean to do that.'

'S'okay. It's just a graze.'

She sighed again, moving the tissue away. My wrist had already stopped bleeding, the slight redness just a streak across otherwise clear skin. She stood up, put the tissue in the bin. When she sat down again, she poured two more glasses of wine, but turned the movie off.

'What'd you do that for?' I asked, surprised.

She shrugged. 'You're not enjoying it.'

'Yeah, but... you are.'

'I've seen it before,' she said, dismissively. 'I don't like it after he leaves, anyway.'

'No? Why not?'

She considered this for a moment. 'I like happy endings, I guess,' she said, finally.

I wasn't sure what to say to that. She didn't seem to need a reply though. We both drank more of our wine: Elena topped hers up before she'd even finished the glass.



It was uncomfortably quiet without the T.V on. I had a mouthful of the wine: the sound of me swallowing was like an aeroplane taking off in the silent room. I blushed.

I think Elena could sense my awkwardness, because she asked me 'So, where are you from?'

'Um, I was born in Gongaga. But after the reactor blew, me moved to Midgar. Below the plate. I was only a baby at the time, so I don't really know anything but Midgar.' I wasn't about to tell her that my father had been permanently damaged in the blast, and that his death three years later ended my mom off too. Or that after they died I had no-one, and so I'd grown up in an orphanage. When I'd reached eleven, the age they kick you out of places like that, I'd just lived on the streets, 'til Commander Veld, the old leader of the Turks, had found me trying to steal from a Shinran electrical goods store and, for some unknown reason, paid for me to go through Turk's training myself.

She didn't need to know any of that yet. It would just depress her probably, if she liked happy endings so much.

'How about you?' I asked.

'I was born in Icicle, but I went to high school in Costa del Sol. I'm at MU now.'

I whistled. 'You must be pretty smart then. Midgar University is big time, right?'

She shrugged. 'It's a good place,' she said. 'I worked hard to get there.'

'Good for you. I did a couple weeks at Icicle University when I was seventeen, part of training. It was really difficult.'

'Oh yeah? What kind of course was it?' She sounded genuinely interested.

I blushed. 'Well... It was stuff like, important things you'll need to say in other languages, y'know? Like, Costan and Midean. And Junon Midgarian, 'cause the dialects different there.'



She looked impressed. 'That's really cool. I didn't realise Turks did stuff like that.'

I nodded, and at that point I could have just changed the conversation, moved onto something else, whatever. But because of the wine, maybe, or perhaps just because I was really starting to like Elena, I found myself saying 'I had to do basic literacy stuff, as well. I, uh, I didn't learn to read and write til I was fifteen. My level wasn't high enough by Shinra standards. So... I did an intensive course in that, too.'

Elena blinked. I tried to read her expression. Did she look surprised? Disgusted? As though she pitied me? I squirmed as I waited for her to make some kind of reply. Eventually, she said 'It's a pretty awful world when someone can get to fifteen without being taught such basic life skills.'

Because I'm a total jerk who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut, I found myself saying 'How do you know that it's not just 'cause I'm really dumb?'

This time she did look disgusted. 'Because you're obviously a very intelligent person, despite evidence to the contrary.'

I gaped at her for a moment. 'Really?'

'What, really you're obviously intelligent? Well, yeah.' She looked surprised. 'Why'd you sound so shocked?'

'Well...' I floundered, unsure how to explain it to her. Truth was, no-one had ever called me intelligent, or smart, or clever or anything like that.I guess, to be fair to everyone else, they've never had much cause to. As Elena had pointed out, I do act like an unintelligent jerk most of the time. 'I don't know,' I managed, finally. 'Just... you seem to think I'm an asshole is all.'



'Just because you're an asshole doesn't mean you're an idiot,' she said, smirking.

'Oh, ha ha. Nice, Lena. Real nice.'

'Elena,' she corrected me, a little grin on her face. She lifted the wine bottle to top up both our glasses, but when she tipped it, we realised it was empty. Elena blinked. 'We finished the bottle?'

I shrugged. 'There's tons more in the cupboard.'

She blinked. 'Oh.' She went over to the kitchen, a little unsteady on her feet. I smiled at her back, thinking how endearing she was when she let her guard down.

When she'd managed to successfully uncork the bottle, she did top us up, filling both glasses a little higher than she'd made them last time.

'So, Turk.' She moved slightly on the couch, so she was facing me. I couldn't help but notice the way her golden blonde hair caught the light, or how her thick black eyelashes sent charcoal shadows across her cheekbones. I wanted badly to touch her, suddenly, but it didn't seem like a good idea, so I didn't. I just waited for her to continue what she was saying.

'You enjoy your job?'

We were getting into tricky territory, talking about Shinra. As glad as I was that Elena was acting like a normal human being, at least while she was drunk, I wasn't entirely sure it was a conversation we should be having.

'Who truly enjoys their job?' I said, trying to be as vague as possible.

Elena examined me closely. 'We're talking about you though. Do you like what you do?'

'I... It's all I've ever done. I dunno. I like it fine, I guess.'



'You ever wanted to be anything else?' She asked this like she was genuinely interested, not like she was going to have a massive blow out at me if I said 'No, I've always wanted to be a killer for hire.' Not that that's what we do. Not even slightly. We kidnap and torture, too.

The sad truth is, I do like my job. And even if there was maybe a time when I thought I could do something else... well. After a while, I just got so comfortable being a Turk, that I forgot about any of those dreams. My dream now is just to be the best Turk I can be.

'Not really,' I answered, honestly. 'How about you? What do you wanna be?'

Elena shrugged, stretching languidly over her half of the sofa. I caught the scent of her perfume: it was fresh and clean, like linen, or something.

'For a while I wanted to be a translator. My father arranged work for me, through Shinra, but I wouldn't do it.'

I frowned. 'That seems a little dumb. I mean, it's all work experience, right?'

She gave me a look like I was dirt.' I won't whore myself for Shinra. Not that you'd understand, that is.'

I was warming to Elena, but I wouldn't take this. I didn't care how pretty she was, or that she was a little drunk- I wouldn't have her insult me, and my choices.

'Not everyone is born with the advantages you had, Elena. I know the schooling system in Costa- musta set Daddy back a mill or so every year, right? You'd accept Shinra's money for that, of course. And who's paying you through college?' She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. 'Yeah, yeah. You probably had a job in a skeezy little bar, just s you could say you were working for it, but really, whose gil are you riding on, huh El?'



She flushed, and I knew I'd hit the nail on the head. A bit more kindly, I said 'It's great to have principles, Elena, but no-one'll ever listen to you unless you stick to 'em.'

She was silent, and for a moment, I was worried she was really gonna lay into me, But she just sighed.

'I know,' she said, quietly.

I blinked. 'You do?'

She sighed. 'I keep telling myself that one day I'll give my father back every gil he's ever spent on me, the debt will be settled and I'll finally be practising what I preach... Until then... He doesn't know how much I hate Shinra, you know? I can't tell him, because if people knew what a hypocrite I was... they'd hate me as much as you do.' She sounded close to tears.

I gaped at her. 'Elena- I don't hate you at all. Why would you think that?'

'I know what I am, Reno. A spoilt little brat, a trust fund activist...'

'You are who you are,' I said, shrugging. 'Just like I'm a Turk, you're rich. You can't change that.'

She looked at me suddenly, right into my eyes, and my stomach jumped a bit. God, she was so beautiful... Her skin was soft and dewy, her cheeks just slightly pink, soft strands of hair hanging over her face... Her eyes were huge and brown, and sadder than I'd noticed before. Funny, growing up in the slums, you never stop to consider that those you envy, the rich ones with cars and houses and money to burn, might be just as unhappy as you.

'I wish things could have been different,' she said, softly.

Gazing into those eyes, I kept forgetting to breathe. 'Eh?' I managed to choke out.



'I wish we could have met differently. Like, in a bar, or just on the street. I wouldn't have had to be me, you wouldn't have had to be you... We could have been anyone. We could have been friends.'

I felt a stab of sadness at that, because it was true. We might be getting on all right at the moment, but we could never truly be friends. And anyway, the second we stepped off this ship...

'Guess it's fate,' I said, even though I don't believe in all that stuff. 'Maybe we weren't supposed to meet like that.'

Elena was still staring at me. 'A second ago,' she began hesitantly. 'You called me El.'

I smiled a bit. 'Sorry, Elena,' I enunciated, teasingly.

'N,no.' She shook her head. 'I... no-one's ever called me that before. Tons of people call me Laney, and I don't think my mom's ever called me anything but Lena, but... no-one's ever called me El.'

'It's the nicest shortening, I think,' I told her. 'You like it?'

She smiled at me. 'Yeah, I do.'

We sat there for a minute, just kinda smiling at one another. I'm not sure who moved first, really- if she leaned up to me, or if I came down to her. All I knew was that her lips were on mine, and without wishing to sound soppy, nothing had ever felt better. What I didn't know, of course, was that it was all gonna go downhill from here, and pretty swiftly, too.

A/N- Uh oh, stuff's about to get a little bit difficult for our favorite Turks... Thanks to V for helping me think up a plot for Loveless- may I just point out, I have no clue what it was 

intended to be about by the guys who made the game as, sadly, I am not one of them. As this fic is AU, I figure it doesn't really matter too much though. Oh, and this is finished now, so I'll post it in the next couple of days. Please review XD