{the conscript}

iii. unpretty morning streetlamps

Jeffrey Gaunier was unattractive and boorish, a swaggering length of hairy skin and slimy eyes that wrapped itself within the folds of sophisticated jackets and gold-rimmed cigars. He was smoking one now, inhaling ponderously as nicotine dragged its tendrils along greying bronchioles.  "So what is it this time, Reno? Another security overview?"

"Well, yeah." The Turk shrugged. She barely hid a commending smile; the nonchalance that trickled from lacklustre shoulders was deserving of some sort of award. "You see, my partner here hasn't been briefed on the case yet. We just recruited her services two days ago and the boss thought she would be a perfect addition for our assignment."

"Well, he's absolutely right. She's perfect." The older man was smirking now, stout fingers rubbing against the coarse papery skin of his cigar lasciviously, and she felt something bitter-saltish threatening to purl from her throat. Reno was still talking, unperturbed by her nausea.

"-Needed to show her the ropes, and check on the sensors at the same time, you know, that sorta thing."

"Very well. With the Turks in charge, I'm certain that my secrets are in good hands."

"You won't be regretting your decision, Mr Gaunier." Reno granted himself an insidious twist of lips. "In fact, Miss Kisaragi has effectively managed to correct any existing technological glitches, and should you need a second copy of the documents, I'm sure she'll have a backup ready."

He was being bitchy, and she glowered at him. Gaunier thanked them frivolously, his beetle-black eyes now trailing along her cleavage. Reno returned a smile equally as false, and cleared his throat. "In any case, we had better get going. The boss needs us back at the headquarters – "

"Oh, surely the charming Miss Kisagari would care to linger for a drin-"

"-Immediately." A puncturing gaze from the Turk withered the invitation, and drooling syllabuses died at crumpled, grotesque lips. Turning to her, he extended a hand. "Shall we, then?"

She accepted, and he was mildly amused to discover that her hand was calloused. It felt papery, her fingers small and veined with paleyellow lacerations. It seemed at first that she was leading the way out, though all too rapidly the hand that held hers wrenched her wrist into an excruciating yet unobtrusive hold. She stiffened but recovered quickly, and unfazed orbs posed a searching look.

"Is there a problem, Sir?"

He smiled back at her. "Haven't you forgotten something, Yuffie?"

She was biting back a hundred million urges to slap his teeth right out of that haughty, maddening mouth, but swigged down sourspit and rolling tempers and reached for the compact disc by her thigh.

"Thanks, sugar." He snatched the plastic case and handed it over to Jeffrey Gaunier with an apologetic grin. "Sorry about that. You know, being new and all. She does tend to be a bit of a scatter-brain."

The businessman managed an obnoxious chuckle. "What were you trying to do, Miss Kisaragi, make away with the codes?"

The irony brought a kind of tasteless humour appeal to her. "Well, the thought had crossed my mind."

_____________________________

"Get into the car."

Rubber soles grounded viciously into dried grime, and she was furious. "Still think we're playing this stupid little game of yours, aren't you? Look, I don't know what you were trying to pull back there-"

The shove of a nightstick against her spine whisked away a further onslaught of oath-making, and her lips fell into an indisposed silence. "Shut up."

She did not, swerving around crossly, the lamplights capturing flailing arms and ricocheting expletives. " – Why, excuse me. I'm missing something here, apart from those extremely vital codes that I failed to acquire, no thanks to your fucking distraction – "

"You're welcome."

Her eyes were colder now, and he desisted a step backwards. "You goddamned bastard! Even if I screwed up the job, I could be walking out of the bloody thing."

"Well, at least you walked."

She chose to disregard his last retort. "Okay then, if you weren't going to let me get away with it, then why did you let me go through it?"

"I don't think I'm obliged to tell you, considering I'm rather at an advantage here." His voice was unconcerned, and it did not seem to match his eyes, which were smothered over with a thoughtless sort of danger.  "I could fry you."

"But you won't."

He almost frowned. Her contempt did not sit well with him, and he voiced out his dissatisfaction with a twist of fingers upon steel. The nightstick dipped along the hollow of her neck and collarbone in a malevolent kind of caress, but she merely followed its shadow with impassive eyes.

"You won't kill me, because you can't."

There was an unnerving pause, and it slicked edgily at the back of his throat like wet cotton. The car headlights suddenly became very prominent and irksome at the same time, as if every insidious glimmer, every white-orange blink was dulling itself into his very breathing, throbbing and pumping along the veins that coiled about wary knuckles.

Without warning, the nightstick was gingerly lifted off her and tucked beneath a slide of navy.

"You're right."

She tried not to release the breath that shimmered and dipped into her lungs too quickly. "What do you want?"

"What?"

"I know enough of you Turks and the damned Shinra to expect getting my ass saved out of kindness. What do you want, Reno?"

"Maybe I was thinking of recruiting you, if you could lose a bit of that catty shit and the insolence. Unfortunately, though, it isn't my position to make a final call on that matter. Anyhow, we'll see what Heidy has to say of your much desired assistance in the Shinra."

"Bullshit." She almost snorted. "Whatever it is you are talking about, there is no way you can possibly require my services after tonight's performance."

"Hey, you didn't do a bad job back there."

She cocked a sceptical eye at him. "Now you're apologising for me? Quite a gentleman, aren't you?"

"Not really." He held up a small device that resembled a remote control of sorts, and pressed the central button. Instantly, the discotheque behind them let loose with an ear-splitting shriek as revolving security alarms dipped the building into waters of blood. "You see, I triggered the security system."

She reacted too swiftly for him to expect, as unkind revelation left its fingerprints on her anger-flushed cheeks. Her fist was directed towards his face and he dodged it, but received the blow on his shoulder instead.

She lunged at him once more, something like a strangled, sob-muted yell ringing his ears and churning even above the sirens. There was an unnatural kind of strength unfolding out within her like a malignant tumour that ate through her heart, and he could barely prise her possessed fingers off his collar, let alone block the flurry of harsh blows she dealt.

A pant-covered leg found its way to her stomach, but still she had a larger surprise up her sleeve, for something sparkled in the confused dark and a superficial cut on his chest discoloured his shirt with light red.

"You fucking bitch!" He was swearing now, and grappled for the knife, arms caught up in hysterical writhing that were joined hastily by legs, and they both lost their balance, crashing onto the dirty ground simultaneously.

"It's your bloody fault, dammit!" Her words were not so unintelligible any more. "Now I can never go back!"

"You won't be able to go back, bitch!" He finally succeeded in pinning her down, the blade cast overhead to the pulsating gloom where a satisfying clatter was heard. "Not till the Shinra's done with you."

She was on both feet again, swaying slightly like a flickering wet candle. Her voice was lanced across with frost. "You can forget about the offer, Reno. I'm not fucking joining your gang of misfits-"

She was interrupted by the nightstick; the lightning was vehement in its attack and filled the insides of her bones with molten electricity. She slumped face first this time, silverwhite streaks cackling over her fallen form, and he rendered her side a couple of kicks.

 "That's the Turks to you, Miss Kisaragi."

He was being ferocious, and she refused to whimper. The sirens were soundless now, and his voice swarmed mistily above her.

"Have you learnt you lesson yet?"

He dragged her brutally to her feet, hurling her against the wall while twisting one arm behind her back. She was immobile and breathing shallowly, her mind raking its fingers desperately in between sliding layers of consciousness.

"Have you?" His mouth was right next to her ear now.

She did not reply, and he slapped her forcefully. "Think a lousy Hex like you could get away with this? Hmm?"

And then something wet was tracing her jaw line, his tongue a drag to insanity and a sadistic insult at the same time. Her legs were unsteady and the fog seemed to purl sluggishly amidst thin ankles in a slow coagulating process. "Did you think you could be much better off with Carlson and his rats-" His head was lowered beneath her chin now – "Than to ally with us?"

He did not even know why his words were reduced to a sleekish whisper, but the skin behind her ears and at the dip of her neck was tripping his senses, stretching and twisting his brain matter into broken delirium and dried firecrackers, and he bit down on it.

"Nn..no.." She was speaking at last, but he ignored her, his free hand ascending silkily under the hem of her dress. Her eyes scorched, and his fingers felt like cold acid – they withdrew so facilely she felt pinpricks rushing and assailing her all over before dissipating into a spiritless swirl of imaginary gold-white lights.

"You will obey the Shinra." He sported a brazen grin and liberated his vice-like grip on her, that she may turn around to a considerable extent. The moon played along and shed a wraithlike beam on her face, turning her into a ghost once more; the ghost that capered and drifted through dancing hoards and glasses of cheap beer. She matched his grin with one of her own, only hers was wider and exotic in a chilling way, twin reds parting like a licentious pandora's box.

"Always the manipulator, aren't you, Reno."

He found the change in temperament disconcerting, but took up her bait with nary a thought. "I told you, I'm good at my work."

She bestowed him with a listless nod, feeling the films of deceit seeping through her pores and encompassing them both even as she turned away from him.

"It's impolite to turn your back to your superiors, you know."

Her smile waned a little. "Oh fuck you, Reno."

His palm connected with powder-dashed flesh, and the roseate on her cheek darkened. She barely caught her breath, for the force that followed his slap hurled her onto her hands and knees.

"You never learn, do you, Kisaragi?"

She rose to her feet, one hand mauling the lapels of his jacket for support. The ghost was a hairbreadth away from his face before he knew it, and then her mouth silenced him.

They parted, barely, her nose still grazing his own.

 "Then teach me."

Lips on lips once more: heat-snagged breath purloined the air, and sex dangled with night quixotically as two bodies moved and thrashed on the alley. Grappling fingers that clawed at one another and the sound of torn shirts were all that his mind's eye devoured, and suddenly she was panting and swathed under coloured sheets that he recognised as his own. Midnight stole away, daunted by the madness that pounded and pumped in his dishevelled apartment, and she was screaming. Screaming and screaming, screams that were joined by his own as rumpled clothes stood watching by the floor.

.to be continued.