A/N:

Holy frick, I can't believe I'm starting on this NOW. Wow I'm getting better at this whole fanfic thing, eh? It only took me about, oh, a year. o.O SHI-NE HOMEWORK! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M WRITING A FANFIC?! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR ACADEMICS! Geez, teachers just don't understand.

Rach, don't get mad at me for writing this so late. TT I'm sorry! I'm a slacker by nature!! cowering in fear

Mai

It was a bright, sunny day, golden light spilling down the cobbled streets like honey. Lamirra yawned and stretched. The new house in Kalm was definitly smaller, but it still had that cozy touch that she looked for in the place she called home. Nadesiko had gotten there just after dawn. Lamirra had fallen asleep on the hardwood floor waiting for her. After they settled, the two relished the new town.

"I like it." Lamirra said happily, obviously pleased with the location. Nadesiko smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. It's a nice town."

"Now I don't have to ride ten miles to get to the grocery store, and we're closer to work!" the two continued to smile and nod aimlessly, neither one wanting to end the peaceful lull the morning offered. Finally Nadesiko sighed.

"But to the point." Her expression suddenly became grave. "What did you hear from Palmer?"

Lamirra bit her lip. She hadn't wanted to tell her partner what she had heard, but she knew it couldn't be avoided. Sighing, she said simply, "Rufus is looking for the key too."

Nadesiko stared. "Excuse me?"

"Rufus is looking for the key too." Lamirra shrugged, and stared off into the distance.

"Lovely." Nadesiko leaned against the nearest wall, processing the small amount of information Lamirra had just supplied her with. It never ceased to amaze her how everything seemed to go wrong all at once. "Well that certainly brightened my day."

"Believe me, I know." Lamirra muttered.

Reno skipped work that day. He knew they didn't have a mission for him, and he was just too damn tired, and he was afraid that one of the three female Turks wouldn't come back after last night. After his mission...

He clenched his fist. Normally he had no problem killing people. They were just people, right? Sure he was ruining lives, but he did that on a daily basis. And it wasn't as if they didn't ruin his life. It was because of them that he joined the Turks. He gingerly touched the thin scar on his right cheek. He remembered how much it stung to feel the razor sharp debris tear across his cheek bone. He remembered the blood that trickled from the second scar parallel to the first, but being too numb to feel its pain. He remembered being only seven years old and seeing his home collapse into to dust, sending more debris and dust flying. He remembered running...

Reno shook his head to rid himself of the memories, as vague as they were. He realized that he used the hate he had felt that day as an excuse to justify his actions, but in his mind that was enough. He didn't need to look deep into his own psyche to follow orders, and he had no good reason to rebel. His task was simple: carry out any given mission as quickly and efficiently as possible, return alive, get paid. There was no point in quitting; the abilities he had gained could be used no where else.

But the last mission opened his eyes. He was well aware of the fact that he could not possibly sort out which of the people he killed were part of his disgust for mankind, and which were not. But could he really continue to refuse to factor that truth whenever he killed? In doing so, he became what made him join the Turks. He became what he hated the most.

Wading through the piles of junk on the floor of his living room, Reno plopped down on his couch, resting his arms on the backing. He smirked and stared at his lap. "Forget it." he muttered to himself. "I don't need to worry about this crap. I don't need to care."

As if cued by his words the conversation between him and Nadesiko the night they destroyed Sector 7 flooded his mind.

"Reno Damn it! You do care! QUIT HIDING INSIDE OF YOURSELF! IT'S GOING TO EAT YOU ALIVE! I don't want to see that happen! As a friend Reno." she placed her hand gently on his shoulder and smiled sympathetically. "I'm telling this to you as a friend."

Brushing her hand off roughly, he scoffed. "What are friends? Siko I'll tell you what friends are. Friends are things that tie you down, make this kind of job more difficult. I have no friends."

"What about Rude?"

"He understands."

"What about Lamirra?"

"...Get out."

"Reno, whether or not you want it I'm you're friend, and so is Lamirra. I'll go home, but I won't go away, and neither will your conscience, no matter what you bury it under, it will always surface."

His temper rising, Reno slammed his fist against the wall, causing Nadesiko to jump with surprise. "Nadesiko, go home! I don't want to talk about it and especially not to you! Get the hell out!"

As the memory faded, Reno covered his face with his hands and sighed. This was going to be a LONG day.

Nadesiko and Lamirra sauntered into the office, both of them awake and chipper. Rude was quite puzzled by this new attitude, especially after the grim mission. He smiled slightly when he noticed Lamirra was in one piece. It would be impossible to replace either one of the two girls, and the thought of losing one of them was awful in itself. Plus, Reno in a bad mood was never good for any situation. Then he took a good look at Nadesiko. Her light in her eyes seemed dim and flickering, the smile on her face faint. A hidden pain was etched across her face. Typically one would never notice, this girl had practiced the face long and hard, but Rude had done the same for much longer, and he knew all too well how to identify it. Something was out of place. Calmly pushing his chair back to greet them, Rude cocked an eyebrow when he noticed Tseng walk up to the girls. Shaking his head, he sat back down and continued to work; With the constant stress of Rufus making the Turks tie up the loose ends his father left behind, Tseng hadn't been in the best of moods as of late. He would save his greetings for another time.

Outside Rude's cubicle, Tseng greeted the girls briskly. Lamirra cocked her head at the faint black rings around his eyes. "Not a whole lot of sleep, eh?" Nadesiko realized her mistake too late, and winced as Tseng, obviously not in a joking mood, shot her a venomous glare.

"And where have you two been while we were working our asses off? If I had enough Turks right now, I'd fire you both, but since we need all the workers we can get, I'll let it slide. Don't ever let it happen again. I just came out here to make sure you two are still in one piece, now get over to your desks NOW." with that, Tseng stormed off, raven black hair flowing behind him. Lamirra wrinkled her nose.

"That was a pleasant 'Hello.'"

Nadesiko shook her head and herded her partner into her cubicle. attempting not to break into hysterics. Tseng was normally cool and calculated, simply to unnerve his employees, now it looked as though they had finally gotten to him. "I'm sure he's just overworked. After everything that happened a few days ago, I guess the Turks would be." the memory of Sector 7 chased away her embarassment, and she snorted in disdain. "We've got to do Shinra's dirty work. I bet the Pres-" she sneered. "- left tons of stuff for us to be busy with for months." Lamirra just rolled her eyes and plopped into her seat. She spun around in it a few times and grinned stupidly at Nadesiko.

"I forgot how comfy these chairs were." Nadesiko shook her head sadly and ambled over to her own cubicle, pausing on her way by Rude's own space to pop her head in with a cheerful hello. Once her partner was gone, Lamirra immediately jumped out of her seat and peeked over the top of her cubicle into Reno's. She sighed in dismay when she saw he was absent from his desk. Sitting down once more, she stared with disgust at the towering pile of papers in her inbox.

"The comfy chairs won't make work any easier though..."

Curious, Lamirra reached over to the tower of papers and pulled the top sheet off, making sure not to topple the precariously stacked work. She moaned when she saw what it was. Bills, complaints, and lawsuits for Sector 7 had somehow "slipped by" the social and finacial departments of Shinra and were sent straight to the Turks. Continuing to read, she noticed the fine print stating that the Turks were to find some way to either pay back all the citizens for their losses, or silence them. Disgusted, she leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling.

"I wonder how many times Reno's done this. Just stared at the same ceiling, the same tile for hours on end because of the vomit-worthy work he would have to face otherwise..." she whispered to herself. Perking up at the thought of Reno, she decided to give him a call. Hell, the least she could do is let him know that she was still alive. Springing into the upright position, she grabbed the phone and scanned the slip of paper push-pinned to her cubicle wall. The numbers and addresses of each of the Turks were listed there, supposedly incase of emergency. She deftly dialed his number and waited impatiently for him to pick up the phone.

For what seemed like hours the phone continued to ring, with no sign of an answering machine or Reno. Discouraged, Lamirra sighed and began to set her phone down when she heard a faint click. Unsure of whether or not someone had picked up his phone, she said nothing for a moment. Reassured by light, ragged breathing on the other end, she stuttered nervously, "R-...Reno?" No answer. Another heavy silence weighed down upon her, making her hesitant to speak another word. The young woman bit her lip, wondering if he had even heard her in the first place. Finally, a low male voice came from the other line.

".......Hello?"

Relieved, Lamirra's smile was unsure, but her joy was immeasurable. She wanted to be cheerful and loud, to remind Reno of the Lamirra he was used to. She wanted to laugh, to make jokes, to reassure him that she was alive and kicking. But a mixture of worry and nervousness washed over her, choking off her prior ideas and emotions, and causing her voice to sound hesitant and quiet. "Reno? I-It's Lamirra." despite her disappointment at herself, an audible gasp was heard from the other line. "Lamirra? Lamirra, that's you isn't it?"

"Y-yeah." her smile brightened, but her voice was still nervous. "This...this is Reno, right?"

But to her dismay, another, louder click was her reply, and the dial tone echoed in her ear. A sadness settled in her stomach, sweeping away her elated smile. Sighing, she slumped in her chair and allowed her eyes to unfocus. It wasn't long before Nadesiko sensed something wrong, and entered her companion's cubicle. She smiled nonchalantly and sauntered over to Lamirra.

"Hey girl. What's up?"

Startled, Lamirra sat up. "Huh? Oh. Nothing..."

Nadesiko rolled her eyes. "There's nothing worse than a bad liar. Now c'mon, tell me."

"It's nothing. Really!" she removed her hair tie and let the light brown locks tumble down. Agitated, she ran her fingers through her tresses, upset at being such a terrible liar. "I just...called Reno and...yeah. That's honestly it." not content with the vague explanation, Nadesiko pressed on.

"So? What happened? What'd he say?"

"He didn't say anything..he didn't really say anything at all."

"Details, now."

"Well...I called him up, and he didn't answer for quite a while, but when he finally did, he hung up practically right away..."

"And you're worried that he might be mad or something?" Nadesiko smirked slightly.

"Well, sorta..." blushing, Lamirra waved her hands frantically. "B-but it's not like I really care or anything! It isn't that important and I'm sure I'm just overreacting or something, I mean maybe he-"

"Was on his way?" the same low, mild voice sounded from the opening of her cubicle. Reno had assumed his normal postion and leaned casually against the entryway, the same cocky grin on his face. Highlighted chestnut hair flowed behind the young woman as she leapt over her desk and threw her arms about the redhead fondly. Reno's smile brightened as he returned the gentle embrace with a firm hug of his own, ruffling her hair with a friendly hand. Nadesiko grinned and sidled quietly out of the room. Staring over Lamirra and at the tidy blue cubicle wall, he murmured, "I guess you missed me?"

Reno's voice brought Lamirra back to reality, and she gasped when she realized what she was doing. Reno tightened his grip around her when he felt the gentle tug of her trying to pull away. Smirking, he asked in a honeycoated voice, "What's the hurry?" Lamirra just rolled her eyes and quickly ducked under his arms. Reno then clutched at his heart and stumbled back a few steps.

"Mirra, why? I put my trust in you, and you betray me so cruelly? Why? WHY MIRRA?" Lamirra laughed as he smacked into the corner of the entry way, causing him to spin out into the hallyway. Not one to ruin a good opportunity to goof off, he continued to spin, constantly spewing random quotes from Shakespeare that Lamirra was surprised he even knew.

"But soft! What light on yonder window bre-" suddenly a firm hand gripped his shoulder and threw him to the floor. Reno came in contact with the cheap carpeting with a loud "Umph!" His ungainly landing on his rear caused his sunglasses to fall low onto his nose, so his bright aqua eyes glinted over their rims. Lamirra began to laugh even harder, but her merriment was quickly cut off by an icy glare from Reno's thrower. Reno, unabashed, straightened and spread his legs and leaned back on his arms, leaving a childish look about him.

"Awww, wuzzamatta, Tseng? Bad day?"

Tseng grabbed Reno's forearm with such strength the redhead winced. Dragging him to his feet, Tseng pulled Reno into his office and slammed the door shut, causing his captive to jump with alarm. Tseng then stomped behind his desk and slammed his hands on its smooth, wooden face. Reno winced again, and could not meet his boss' brittle stare. When neither of them spoke, Tseng began in a dangerously quiet growl, his voice slowly getting louder.

"We have been working our asses off trying to cover up the former president's tracks. Papers and missions that should not be sent to our department has been, and believe me, by no mistake. Rude has had to do all of the missions, all of the work, by himself. Elena doesn't get back from Wutai until tomorrow, and Nadesiko and Lamirra had conveniently taken some time off to 'move closer to Midgard.' And you, Reno, with no plausable cause or reason, suddenly refuse to work. I'm sure all you've been doing is sitting at home, moping about absolutely NOTHING but self pity!" he slammed his hands once more on the desk. "And NOW, you come WALTZING back into work, and immediately FLIRT WITH LAMIRRA. Well I for one have had it with your antics, Reno. If it weren't for your skill, I'd-"

"'Fire you right now.' Yeah, yeah I've heard it before." Reno flapped an uncaring hand at Tseng, now red faced and flustered. "Don't worry, I'm always here when you really need me, aren't I?"

"You just don't understand, do you?" Tseng lifted a shaking palm off the desk and smoothed back his hair, pulling his head up at the same time. Glaring down angrily at the insubordinate Turk, he smiled coldly. "You have, one, and I repeat, ONE"- he held up a pale, graceful finger and leaned closer to the redhead, as if this action would drill this information into the younger man's mind- "more chance to screw up, Reno. Have a nice day."

Reno was left speechless for a moment. Eyes darting from one thing to another, he backed towards the door. "O-kaayy. I'll keep that in mind..." As soon as he found the door knob, he zipped out of the office and slammed the door behind him. Heaving a sigh of relief, he noticed that Rude, Nadesiko, and Lamirra were all staring at him with quizzical expressions. To save face, he laughed lightly and glanced at the clock.

"Break time! Who wants coffee? I'm buyin'."

All three Turks jumped at his offer.

A/N: One more round of applause for my wonderful partner. Chap 17 comin here REAL soon