What the Turk Dragged in : Chapter Four

Reno Spiegel and Drakonlily

It was around noon the next day that Reno's eyes finally opened, and he was faintly aware that he was staring directly at the wall, no more than an inch away. He groaned as he rolled onto his side, seeing the ceiling and side of the bed at once, and realizing something.

"...That bastard stole my bed."

Grinning at the irony of it all, he fished around beneath said bed for his clothes, resigning when he had Cloud's pants on, and stood up, trying to ignore the popping of every joint from his neck to his knees.

Indeed, Cloud lay sprawled across the bed beneath Reno's best comforter, and the redhead probably would have smacked him had it not been who it was.

Instead, he patted the blonde lightly on the calf that was hanging off the bottom of the mattress -- he had a guess that he would be up soon due to the fact he had muttered and curled up at the action. He walked right out the open door and noticed his answering machine's light was blinking on and off.

"RENO!" He gasped. "God, we've been looking all over for you. Finally got Dio's number and figured out you were there. We'll be over around two this afternoon; be ready to go out for lunch." The message ended, and Reno was left gaping, shaken a bit.

Cloud's voice drifted groggily from the other room. "Who was that? She sounded familiar."

The other's response was walking stiffly back into the room, jaw still hanging down. "Cloud...Elena and Rude are coming here in an hour and a half. I recommend getting dressed and out of my bed before then. Clear?"

"Huh?"  Cloud sat up  He looked around the room and made a face. The place looked like there had been a holy war

If he'd said that aloud, Reno would have feebly argued the usage of the word war. "You know, the blonde chick and the bald guy? They're coming for lunch, and if they don't see this place spotless like my old apartment always was, they'll know something's up." He would have normally been shouting, but the thought of Rude's reaction -- especially after the redhead's brief relationship with Tseng...

"Shit," Cloud muttered, moving quickly.  He threw on his shirt and boxers and then blinked at Reno.  "You have my pants on. I can't fit in yours."  Setting the alarm clock back up on the nightstand, the blonde sighed.  "Well, if they find me here they are going to know something is up.  Should I clear out?"

"No, no. If anything, Dio knows you're here and told them I dragged your heavy ass forty-five miles to get you here. They'd think it was weird if you just scrammed," he informed him. Reno then remembered the pants...then smirked. "Makes it all the more interesting, Spike."

He quickly darted out into the main room, flinging open the closet and taking out the vacuum -- Planet knows how it happened, but there were potato chip crumbs all over the floor -- and leaving it there for the blonde. "Vacuum, Cloud," he called back, grabbing the steam-cleaner and getting to work on the mud that had now had time to set in the carpet.

Cloud blinked at the banana peel Reno was picking up from the TV.  He had no idea how that, of all things, got there.  Starting the vacuum, Cloud also realized that the couch was somehow on its side.

The ex-Turk preferred not to know how the banana peel got there, but he decided he had enough theories about the couch to know how it had gotten set as such an angle, tipping it back to where it had been and then working on the mud on the cushions, watching Cloud out of the corner of his eye the entire time.

Vacuuming the apartment was the easy part; the kitchen was more of a mess. He didn't notice that Reno's boxers from last night were in the sink... the fridge door was slightly ajar... After loading the dishwasher to what he was sure was overflow, Cloud went into the bathroom and muttered one word.  "Fuck..."

Reno's ears had become tuned in to swearing of all kinds, due to the fact it usually signaled a fact he wanted to be a part of, and put down what he was working on, walking over and standing on his toes slightly to see over Cloud's shoulder. "...Shit."

"How did we --?"  Cloud looked at Reno.  The only thing in seemingly good order was the toilet.  The sink was broken, the faucet pulled up from it's place.  The towel bar was sitting on top of the toilet seat, the shower curtain -- part of it, at least -- was on the floor.

Reno paused as well, gaping almost as widely as he had at the answering machine. He wasn't sure where the towels themselves had went, but had a sneaking suspicion they weren't clean, wherever they were. He scratched his head. "Mighta been...I had a couple drinks when you went down to cancel our wakeup call...you remember anything this bad?"

Cloud only shook his head, then leaned on the door.  "Know anyone who is out of town?  Give me a toolbox, a new faucet, new towel bar, I can fix it." Then he laughed.  "Damn, we're good."

Reno smirked, knocking heads with him, and then went back to all-business mode. "Neighbors went out on their honeymoon, lucky us, but I don't know what they've got in the way of tools. Go check it out; I'll try to get things..." He took a beat and laughed at himself. "Straight."

Cloud laughed.  "Ah... no, I'm quite fine."  He ducked out of the apartment.

The redhead watched him as he left -- certain parts of him, anyway -- and wondered if he should give his pants back sometime soon. Chuckling, he took a moment to reflect on just what had happened over the past three days -- maybe four by now...he didn't remember.

"Either way," he muttered, going back to cleaning up everything cleanable in the main room and throwing away anything that looked like it had been out of the fridge or freezer for too long.

The main room was relatively easy, and Cloud returned looking triumphant before disappearing into the bathroom with the tools he needed, and then it was on to the bedroom.

This took a bit longer.

Inside the bathroom, Cloud sat down one of the two duffle bags he had borrowed without asking and hefted the other to the sink. Changing the faucets didn't take long.  Dio had had them cheaply installed.  That had to be why it broke so easily. After putting up the new shower curtain -- thank Holy they were not a flower couple -- Cloud sat down on the toilet with a smirk.  Not bad.  Hell, in fact, this whole week was turning out pretty good. 

As little bits of last night came back to him he laughed.  "Yeah, worth floating in the ocean for two weeks, I think."  He opened Reno's window, looking to the broken bath items and down to the alley of sorts below him. He decided against it, taking them into the bedroom.  Knowing how neat Reno was, they would fit under the bed.

Speaking of under the bed, Reno was, at least half of him.  "Now that's interesting."  Cloud commented to the half sticking out from under the bed. 

Reno's legs seemed to dance a mid-air jig just to humor him, and then he pulled himself out from under it, three towels in hand. Strange thing was, nothing seemed wrong with them. He looked and Cloud and cocked a brow.

"Now I'm upset. Here I thought we had managed to tear everything up...."  He picked one up, turning it around.  He opened his mouth, closing it then opening it again.  Only one word could form, "Why?"

Reno kicked him in the back of the knee, plucking the towel from his grasp as he fell, smirking down at him. He wriggled out of the poor blonde's pants, dropping them onto his face with his foot and walking to the bathroom to hang the towels up with a chortle.

"Don't be a cock-tease!"  Cloud yelled, pulling his pants on.  Walking out into the apartment, he was impressed.  They had express cleaned the place in less then an hour.

The ex-Turk couldn't resist sticking his tongue out as he went by, obviously in a much better mood than he had been in the past few days, and shutting the door to his bedroom after disappearing inside.

His dresser was out in the main room, but he hopped on the bed and popped a ceiling tile loose, sliding it aside and reaching in, feeling around.

Finally his hand hit a square box and he pulled it out, dropping it onto the bed with an underlying look of nostalgia as he hopped down and opened it, knowing the navy blue suit like he knew his own body.

Knowing this was the last time he would be wearing it professionally, he put it on in a short time, haphazardly as always, and walked back out to the main room after making up the bed.

Cloud started. The suit made Reno look, well, different.  Not that it didn't look good on the man.  But it made him look entirely unlike the one who threw a hissy fit when there was mud on the floor.  "Reno?"

Reno seemed distracted, and not by any type of mess. He was focused solely on the fact that this was it; he was about to meet Elena and Rude as friends, no longer as co-workers.

The knowledge that the Turks were over hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Hm?" he grunted, Cloud having to repeat his name to snap him out of it.

For the first time since they met, Cloud was legitimately worried about Reno.  "Are you alright?"

He nodded, but Reno's eyes were far away. Maybe five, ten years back when Tseng had thrown him a suit, sunglasses, a lighter, and a mag-rod, saying to him, "Put these on and forget everything you were, Mick. Today, you're Reno Drannor. Today, you're a Turk."

"Your a shitty liar for a Turk."  Cloud muttered.

Reno fixed him with burning eyes, now seeing him as an AVALANCHE member and not the man he'd seen him as the day before. "Turks are the lowest of the low, Cloud. I'm not a shitty anything for a Turk. You can't go below Turk in the social-status dog pile." He was back to his suit voice, the voice he used in conferences.

The voice that haunted orphans' dreams. 

Cloud growled.  "Fucking bullshit.  You want to know what the human shit pile is? It starts with Shinra and ends with Hojo, and they are rotting in fucking hell where they belong."

The redhead's hand found his sunglasses in his breast pocket, flipping them on and staring defiantly at him. "And I worked for one and under another. Take that how you like, Strife."

"'Doesn't make you one of them," Cloud snapped.  He stood up.  "You know what?  Fine, hide." He made a motion to the other man.  "But you have had a shit for life; that isn't your fault.  Where you were when we met the first time wasn't your fault anymore than it was mine.  But if you want to play that game. I won't."

"People who hide don't flaunt the suits of madmen who murder to get a fucking paycheck, Cloud!" he burst out. "People who hide don't wear an electric rod with a bloodstained handle on their beltloop! People who hide don't drag Planet-wide heroes forty-five miles in the open and walk through an amusement park with them over their shoulders! So don't preach to me about hiding; you've done plenty."

Cloud shook his head.  "I know I have." He rubbed the back of his neck.  "Fuck, Reno you have to be so damnned defensive.  What is it?  You weren't very loyal when you let us walk away from you all those times.  You weren't loyal to Shinra,  so who the fuck was it, Reno?"

"I was loyal to the Turks!" he cried out, like he'd said it before. "I was being loyal to Rude, to Elena, to Tseng when I could. Fuck, I would've gladly let myself die in Tseng's place if it meant he were still running the Turks today. Loyalties lie where emotions run thick, Cloud. Not where gil is the highest-sought-after reward."

Cloud balked, insulted. "Reno, never once would I accuse you of that! A drunk ass, yeah.  Fucking defensive?  Sure.  Dodging your damned life? You fucking bet. But I never thought any of you were greedy." He looked at the hallway, thinking about going to the door.  "I'm sorry, Reno."

Two words was all it took to bring him back to the ground. Reno'd known from the moment he put it on that a Turk suit changed people in the worst way, but at the same time made them loyal to their counterparts. He shoved his shades up into his hair and rubbed his eyes, heaving a sigh. "Shit... I...I just miss when it wasn't all about ShinRa against AVALANCHE. I miss doing a job, going home, going to sleep, and waking up the next day ready to do it again despite a massive hangover."

"I don't know what there is to miss about that kind of a life, honestly, Reno," Cloud responded, not looking at Reno.  "But I am sorry...for not being able to help him."  He laughed.  "For a lot of things, look, I don't want to be in your way."

Reno couldn't help but smirk. "Strife, if you were in my way, you wouldn't be standing here in my apartment. And..." He sighed again. Apologizing was a thing he still didn't do well, and he hoped Cloud got the hint.

"You know, you look much better in your jeans...." Cloud muttered.  He sat back down.  "I can stick around. Not like I have anywhere else to go."

He muttered something about Cloud looking much better out of his jeans, then shook his head to clear his mind and took on one of those creepy Wutain priest voices, making mocking hand motions. "Someday, you must hunt your past and meet it full-force. If you do not, peace shall never be achieved."

Cloud stuck his tongue out at Reno and then quipped in a pretty good imitation of the same voice.  "Man who stand on toilet high on pot."

Reno chuckled and rolled his eyes. "You're such a moron," he said in a passing voice between laughs.

"But I have a great ass."  Cloud responded.  Then there was a knock at the door.  Cloud swallowed.  Just because Reno was not holding grudges... He didn't quite know how Rude or Elena would feel about him sitting where he was.

He was given the 'be cool' look as Reno straightened up and walked to the door, taking a breath before opening it to reveal just who they'd been expecting. Elena looked ready to leap on him, but then she made a face at his suit. "You, too?" she demanded, stepping to the side to reveal Rude was wearing his suit as well, face fixed into a grin as he socked Reno in the shoulder.

Elena herself was a bit dressed-up, but not terribly so. More like casual-church clothing, Reno judged, returning the embrace she latched onto him with, then she stepped back and let Rude have his turn. Instead of the usual bear-hug plus elevation he was typically greeted with, Rude just hugged him and slapped him on the back, expression not changing.

Once they were in the door and talking hurriedly, they noticed Cloud on his couch and their moods took a change.

Cloud didn't bother to play friendly.  He only shrugged off the curious looks.   Rude looked from one man to the other, his eyes scanning the apartment before making a 'hmph' sound and sitting at the table. 

Elena seemed to have a bit more of a vocal reaction to the blonde's appearance; re-appearance to be proper. She pointed at him from just inside the apartment, Reno closing the door behind her. "Um...what the hell are you doing here?"

"Had no where else to go," Cloud responded to the other blonde.

Rude looked at Reno again, thinking.

The blonde woman rephrased. "Then...maybe I'd be better of asking how you GOT here?"

Cloud pointed at Reno. "Apparently, he lugged me here."

Rude then blinked, but said nothing

Elena looked skeptical, but Reno shrugged. "Hey, he looked pretty helpless washed up on the shore. Figured, why not help him out. Want something to drink?"

The woman arched a thin eyebrow at him. "You've changed over the past few weeks. Water, if you've got it," she said, taking a seat.

"Rude?" Reno called.

"Alcohol," the big man responded simply. 

Of course, Reno commented silently, walking to the kitchen-esque area and throwing open the fridge door, tossing the first beer of the night to Rude before grabbing a bottle of water -- for coffee, of course -- for Elena.

Rude shook his head.  "How the hell did your little ass carry his ass all the way from the shoreline?" It was plain Rude thought it a rather long way to go to "help out."

"Dragged him. Glass isn't too hard to slide a wet sack of shit forty-five miles across," he said nonchalantly. "Only took six hours."

"And so you just stuck around?" Rude questioned to Cloud.

The blonde man shrugged. "Like I said, where else'm I gonna go?"

Elena offered a suggestion. "Go hunt down your AVALANCHE partners? Shit, they've been doing interviews for the Junon Times for weeks asking for information on where you are. Didn't you at least catch one of those?"

Cloud blinked at her for a moment, recovering his shock too quickly for Elena to notice, but Rude was already looking at Reno.  The blonde threw Reno a glare before responding curtly. "I was floating around the damn ocean for two weeks.  In all honesty I have been sleeping."

Reno looked prepared to gut his former co-worker where she stood.

"Yeah," she said brightly. "I even ran into Highwind a few days ago; asked where you were. If you're confused, the Junon Times is running out of a remote location since the city went under, by the way."

"Thanks."  Cloud responded, seeming more shocked that Highwind had asked for him then the fact Reno had lied to him. "Where at?"

"I don't remember, exactly...where're they running out of again, Rude?" she asked, oblivious to the shady glances being thrown around among the men.

"Kalm," Rude responded, downing the beer.  He then got up, looked in Reno's fridge and frowned.  "We need to do a run. Come on, Reno."

Reno knew as well as the bald man did that there were about four cans of beer and a bottle of tequila in the crisper, but he followed Rude out the door with a wave nonetheless, knowing the big man was well onto him. "Run my ass," he said halfway down the hallway.

"What's going on?"  The bald man hit the elevator looking down at Reno.

Even Rude couldn't be let in on it, or he'd shoot Strife point-blank the next time he saw him, despite knowing about Tseng. "I was running around looking for betting money and I found him on the shore. Figured I'd be decent for a change and dragged him here. Bastard won't leave yet."

"So why didn't you tell him that his friends were looking for him?  That would have been an effective way to get him out of your hair."  Damn Rude for being smart.

"We were just bitching at each other the whole time; it skipped my mind to tell him once he got up," he defended.

"I'm going to shoot the bastard then, get him out of your hair," Rude offered with a straight face.

Getting more defensive now would just prove Rude's suspicions correctly, so he replied, "Whatever. Just wait until we're done at the bar tonight; fuck knows 'Lena won't like knowing you just shot Strife and went out to celebrate. And where the hell are we going, anyway?"

Rude snorted, pointing down the mall to a twenty-four-hour liquor store. 

Reno smirked. "Fine, but when I drink you under, you clean up your own mess, buck."

Upon returning to the apartment, Cloud was watching television, Elena shuffling a deck of cards.   The newscast showed a rather beaten-up Tifa Lockheart. The watcher glared at Reno again, before turning back to the TV.

Rude pretended not to notice by opening another beer.

Elena's head whipped toward Reno upon their reentrance. "You must not watch TV much, either. This's been running since you left."

Cloud turned it off with a snort.  He had heard his name more times in the past five minutes then he thought he had heard his whole life... well, minus yesterday with Reno...

Reno scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, well... Anything I read in the paper's all about the Wutai carrier... Morbid me, you know?" He sounded too nervous for Elena not to pick up on, but she seemed not to notice, thankfully not mentioning AVALANCHE articles had been page one news every day since Meteor.

"I should probably find a way to Kalm, then." Cloud muttered. He didn't sound like he really wanted to, though.

Elena couldn't resist, apparently. "Rude and I are shacked up there. We could bring you back with us tomorrow afternoon if you'd like. Everyone's been looking for you there anyway; I'm sure they'll want interviews." She was shuffling the cards repeatedly, like the true definition of insanity.

"Interviews?" Cloud was truly confused.

"With you!" she laughed, her bubbly self once more. "The papers all want to know where you went, what happened to you, what really happened after you disappeared...they've all got their theories, of course, but with you back in town, they'll be fighting over who gets the real story first." He still looked puzzled, so she threw her arms up. "You're a hero, Cloud. Jeez..."

The "hero's" head fell to the table.  "Fabulous...."

Reno tried to blend in with this. "I'm sure everyone'll shut up after a public speech or something...always worked with us after a mission," he muttered.

Cloud glared at the other man.  "Tifa seems to like being on TV, she can give the damn speeches..."

Elena shook her head. "Heroines are good and all, but they want the scoop from the leader of the pack."

Cloud let out a growl, getting up and going to get a beer of his own

"Issues, Strife?"  Rude asked

"Always," Cloud responded gruffly, sitting at the table across from Reno

Reno grabbed his own beer before sitting down, Elena finally putting the cards down and staring at them like they had Tarot marked on them. She looked around. "So...what's the game?"

Rude looked at Elena.  "Dealer picks"

She very-obviously slipped the stack of cards toward Cloud, then nodded in agreement and looked at him expectantly.

Reno had his own eyes on the tabletop. The blonde was either getting shot tonight or leaving the continent tomorrow. He flipped his shades down and went into business mode, no longer trying to sugar-coat things.

"No way. You shuffled, you deal 'em," Cloud muttered, downing the beer and getting up to get another.

Reno's eyes followed him as he went, sinking into predator mode. Rude was looking directly at the redhead, and he sourly offered up, "Russian roulette? I've got pistols."

"I'm in," Cloud responded coldly.

Elena sensed tension here. "C'mon, guys, quit screwing around. You were in decent moods when we got here, too."

Reno fell into silence, looking at Rude. Despite the sunglasses, he knew the bald man knew he was watching him. "Any suggestions, Rude? Elena seems to mind the fatal ones, remember."

Rude snorted.  "How about you just tell us how your past two weeks have been; we'll do the same."

Cloud flopped back on Reno's couch, turning the TV back on, but taking the volume down to a barely audible level

Reno hit the table as though he wished he'd thought of the idea sooner. "Good one, Rude. Let's see, I bought this apartment, wasted fifteen-thousand gil on the chocobo races already, and Dio's going to evict me if I can't scrounge up the rent for the month. That and I found Strife and brought him back here." He took a breath. "What about you two?"

Rude thumbed at Elena.  "Got a girlfriend." Then he turned back to Reno.  "Been looking for your bitch ass.  Highwind directed us this way, funny how the old shit comes asking us questions."  He regarded Cloud out of the corner of his eye. 

Reno grunted. "Surprised you didn't check here first. Not many casinos left, and my bitch ass has been gambling away all my savings from work." He looked Elena up and down with an amused expression. "And congratulations...I think."

She smacked him lightly and went back to her game of Solitaire.

Rude shifted, a bit uneasily.  "You know Re, you could just come move in with me and Laney."

The redhead gave pause. Normally this would have crossed his mind, but he'd let it slip him up this time. Only half-thinking of Strife -- who would surely be given a house -- he shrugged. "Thanks. I'll think about it; 'soon as Dio kicks me out, I'm sure I'll be looking for cheap rent anyway."

Rude rolled his eyes. 

***

As usually happens, beers loosen up even the toughest rooms.  Rude even warmed up to Cloud, perhaps because Elena told him to.  And at this moment, Reno was being chased around his couch by Elena, for some teasing or another, and the other two were still seated at the table, locked in a vicious arm wrestling match.

Rude grunted in response to Cloud's strength. The big man was unused to having a match last this long.  Then there was a crack.  Both Cloud and Rude looked down at the table.  Then back at each other.  "He's gonna be ticked…"  Cloud commented.

"...Yup," Rude responded.

One further crack was all the table needed, and it split down the middle. Cloud and Rude moved their other hands to support their arms, continuing as if the table hadn't just collapsed.

Even though Elena and Reno were now yelling at each other in the latter's bedroom about something horribly trivial, the snap of a thirty gil table got Reno out quick, albeit staggering, and he looked at them in shock. "You are so replacing that, Rude."

Rude ignored him, but then there was a knock on the door, loud and very aggressive.

Reno sobered up considerably at the knock. With everyone he knew on a visiting level that would knock that hard in the room already, he knew there was trouble behind that door. Nonetheless, he crossed it and threw it open.

He'd been right.

"What the fuck is going on here?!  Last night you were so loud three different people couldn't get your fucking attention!"  Dio yelled.  His name meant "god" and he was more than happy to think that he really was half the time.

Rude then let go of Cloud, glaring at the blonde man.

Reno decided to answer the first question, thumbing over his shoulder. "Arm-wrestling. Table broke. Sorry, Chief."

Dio looked shocked to see Cloud.  He stormed into the apartment.  "What the fuck are you doing here?!"

The redhead he'd just shoved out of the way got a devilish smirk on his face and softly shut the door, connecting eyes with Rude and mouthing something about payback.

He looked from the blonde man then to Reno.  "Or should I say who were you fucking here?"

At that Rude turned from Reno to look at Cloud, who was feeling a few effects of the alcohol.  The smaller blonde man stalked up to Dio.  "Look, buddy.  Fuck off.  We'll be outta yer hair tomorrow.  If you don't fuck off your going to get your spine so far up your ass you will choke on it."

Dio backed up, feeling his back hit the door.  Suddenly, the big man started to rethink his position.

Reno was tapping his mag-rod against the doorknob, leaning against the wall like nothing was wrong. "What's wrong, Dio? You look flustered."

"Reno, let me out of here, you skinny little twit," Dio hissed

He looked like this was a massive internal debate for him, finally looking at Rude. "Should I, the skinny little twit, let our dear friend leave, Rude?"

Rude stood behind Cloud and Reno, a full foot taller then the other men.  He cocked his head from side to side.  "Laney?  What do you think?"

The blonde slinked around behind Dio, lightly hanging her arms around his neck from behind and resting her head on his shoulder with a little assistance through raising on her toes. "I dunno...we might want him to stick around for a bit..."

Cloud walked around to the window, he pushed it all the way open, looking down to the dumpster.  "Hey, Re?  What goes in this dumpster?"

"Hmm..." Reno actually did have to think about this one; he forgot often. "I'm not quite sure. Any shit that's too dangerous to be towing through the casino...usually my garbage..."

"I know. Dio, you should make sure that dumpster is in working order, I think."  Cloud smirked

Dio threw his elbow towards Elena, who dodged to the side.  The little scuffle ended with Rude jacking Dio's arm behind his back and Reno holding the nightstick at Dio's neck.

"You shouldn't hit girls..."  Rude warned

"Ah! Shit, that fucking -- "  Rude pulled up further. "AUGH!"

"'Specially Turks," Reno added menacingly, finger itching to press the On button.

Cloud moved Reno's furniture, tilting his head to measure the distance.  "Bet you can't make that in one throw, Rude."

Rude laughed.  "Oh, you're on Strife."  The big man pitched Dio, clear across the room and nearly out the window.  The annoying land-lord hung on the widow ledge with one hand. 

Reno couldn't resist, as he trotted over to the ledge and turned his mag-rod down to a mildly irritating shock. He put the tip of the rod against Dio's index finger and pressed the button. "Little piggies don't get shit tonight!" he howled, jacking up the power to the point of Dio's body going into twitching spasms before his considerably-burnt hand let go and he fell the two stories screaming into the dumpster.

Rude smirked.  "I give him a five on the landing."

Reno was looking out at him, and shook his head. "Four. Foot dinged off the edge. You didn't hear that?"

Rude looked over.  Sure enough, the dumpster had a large dent in it.  "Yup.  I owe you a beer when we get to Kalm."

The redhead pulled back in and leaned against the wall, folding his arms in that resigned and defeated stance. "Not going to take no for an answer, then?"

Elena smirked. "Nope."