Paperwork. Mountains and mountains of bloody paperwork. You know in those cartoons, where all the paper stacks up higher than the person's head? Well, you get the idea. Reeve had had enough of signing forms. The Turks were in the other room drinking coffee; maybe he could get them to help? I mean, come on, how long does it take to learn a signature? No. Reeve shook the thought from his head. He had only been Mayor of Midgar for a week, he couldn't give up so soon. Regardless of how he had despised the previous Mayor, he had to admit now, he was gaining a bit of respect for him. He had been doing it for seven years by the time he was killed by diamond weapon.

God; Reeve was lucky he had lived through that, but he was damned glad he had. It gave him a chance to make up for all the terrible things he had done by not standing up the ShinRa president. Still. Had he been too opinionated he probably would have been killed anyway.

That was beside the point, he decided, and he commenced signing paper after paper. By the fiftieth one he had giving up reading the terms of the forms, and he was just signing them; the Turks would read them later anyway. They were making a habit out of looking through Reeve's papers, making sure that he hadn't messed up. To be honest, they were a damned godsend. He had already almost signed Midgar away to a hobo, but it was lucky that Reno happened to know said hobo personally. It might not have been so bad, however, mused Reeve. At least then the hobo would be tearing through all the paperwork. If he could write that is. And read. Well maybe not read. Reeve had given up on that. He wasn't even sure he was signing on the dotted line any more, as the sunlight had dimmed since he started, and he knew that getting up to turn on the light would hurt his eyes and waste his energy.

With a sigh he dropped the pen. He was going to have to resort to something drastic. He opened the desk drawer with guilt, doing it gently so that Elena wouldn't hear the squeak that it made when done without care. He pulled out a packet and flicked it open, pulling out a long cylindrical cigarette and sticking it his mouth. He fished around for his lighter, the cigarette hanging ungracefully from his pursed lips, and he smiled triumphantly when he unearthed the silver lighter from the sea of biros and post-its. He clicked open the lighter and it make the satisfying noise of metal on metal as the lid contacted sharply with the body. He rolled the metal cylinder which ignited the spark, and sighed contentedly as the flame lit his cigarette. He sharply moved his wrist so that the lighter closed, making a loud, contacting sound, and just as he was about to take the first drag from his newly lit cigarette, his bliss was interrupted by a female voice from behind the door.

"I knew Reno'd break you!"

In a swift movement, eased by long practice, he took the cigarette out of his mouth, put it in his breast pocket and put the box and the lighter back in the drawer. Elena was trying to force him to quit, as she knew it was bad for his health, and he had been trying, but she really didn't know how stressful being mayor was. She had given up on trying to get Reno to do the same, but it didn't help that the redhead was encouraging Reeve to keep it up.

"I don't know what you mean Elena," he said with fake surprise.

Reeve felt a little guilty lying to her. He knew she was only doing it for his own good, but God damn it, he had earned it. As he saw the door handle turn, he quickly picked up his pen and began signing papers again. When the door opened, a bright shaft of light came from the room outside where the three Turks had gathered, and as he looked to the figure in the doorway, he had to squint as his eyes adjusted to the light.

"Don't lie. If you're going to smoke, do it with a little dignity. I heard the lighter."

"I wasn't smoking Elena, honestly!" He was lying through his teeth now, and he knew that Elena wasn't that dumb. "I really am taking your advice."

"You forgot to put it out Reeve."

"Put what out?"

"Your damned cigarette, for Christ's sakes, Reeve, your shirt's on fire!"

"Huh?" He looked down and, sure enough, the cigarette had begun to ignite his shirt. "Oh, fuck!"

"Shit, I'll be right back!"

Elena ran frantically out of the room while Reeve began to pat it down the flame down. It burnt his fingers, and when he tried to do it with a tissue, it just made that catch alight, so he began undoing the buttons of his shirt, fumbling as the heat began to burn his skin. As he finally managed to undo an adequate amount of buttons, he ripped off the shirt and began to pat it out with his foot. The broken buttons fell to the floor, and Reeve couldn't sew for food money, but the flame finally went out and he sighed with relief, when he heard running footsteps approaching. As Elena rushed furiously past Reno, the redhead's voice could be heard as he said sarcastically:

"Christ Laney, where's the fire?"

Reeve turned his head to the door where he could see Elena rush in and throw a vase of water all over the unfortunate Mayor of Midgar. She clamped her hands to her mouth as she realised that he had actually managed to help himself, and, he looked at her through his soaking wet locks of ebony with a thin eyebrow raised.

"Cheers Elena," his said dryly (no pun intended).

"I," she began, her eyes wide with embarrassment as the reality of what had happened began to sink in, "am SO sorry!

"Ah, don't worry about it. At least it will give me more incentive to quite smoking." He shrugged, smiling. He gave a quick shiver. "That was…really cold water."

"I know, I thought that might help?"

"Oh yeah. Tons."

A fiery red head poked out from the doorway, and a pair of bright green eyes squinted at Reeve to make sure he was seeing correctly. A bald, sunglassed head peered from the other side of the doorway, and Reeve knew that Rude was doing the same, even if he couldn't see it. The two Turks exchanged a bewildered look, until Reno decided to ask the burning question:

"What the fuck happened here?"

"Brought you a towel Sir," said Elena meekly from the doorway.

"Ah, cheers Elena."

Reeve began to rub the towel through his dark hair, and, as it dried, it fell about his face in long strands. His dark eyes flashed over Elena, and he smiled at her appreciatively.

"You're looking very pretty at the moment. You've put new make up on. I do hope it's for my benefit," he joked.

Elena smiled and gave a little laugh. She really did look a picture. Her wine coloured eyes were rimmed with green eyeliner and eyeshadow, and she had given herself long, fluttery eyelashes with mascara. Her china doll lips were shiny with pale pink lipgloss, and her cheeks were an English rose, which gave her skin a healthy glow. She had changed out of her Turk uniform and into a long black skirt, which was embroidered at the bottom with metallic threads, and white gypsy top with large, flowy sleeves and flower embroidery around the neck. She really was very attractive, Reeve decided, under all of the Turk toughness.

"Didn't think you'd notice. They," she said, indicating her two colleagues in the room outside, "didn't."

"Typical," teased Reeve, rolling his eyes. "Go on then, I know you're itching for me to ask. What's the occasion?"

"I'm going on a date!" She smiled happily, bouncing excitedly. "For the first time since I joined the Turks!"

"Yeah, joining the Turks has that effect on people. Reno hasn't been on a date since he was about fifteen."

From beyond the doorway, a loud, long burp could be heard, and afterwards, hysterical, proud laughter. Elena and Reeve exchanged a sidelong look, before the female Turk asked sheepishly:

"Sure it's being in the Turks that did it?" She smiled wryly. "Any way, do you mind if I shoot off early? It's not like we're doing much anyway. All I've done for past half-hour is try to get the coffee smell off of my breath. Not attractive. I was on the verge of drinking my perfume before I found a pack of mint chewing gum in Rude's locker."

"How'd you get in there?"

"Nicked his key." She gave Reeve an impish smile. "Oh, I found you a shirt in there too."

She produced said shirt from behind her back and handed it to him. It was way too large for him, as Rude was taller and more bulky with muscle, but at least it kept Reeve warm.

"Cheers, I was getting freezing."

"Well then why didn't you turn down the air conditioning?" asked Elena confusedly.

"I didn't know how!" he said, his voice muffled by the shirt he was tugging over his head.

Elena pointed to the thermostat on the wall with a finely attended eyebrow raised in light insult. She twisted it around to the red colour on the little plastic box, and immediately, from the air vent, shot a burst of warm air.

"It ain't rocket science Reeve."

"No, rocket science I can do, I've got rocket science covered. It's just domestic appliances that I have trouble with."

"I'm sure you wouldn't have too much trouble turning Cait Sith into a toaster," Elena laughed.

"You'd be surprised."

They shared a smile for a split second, before Reeve looked away and cleared his throat nervously. He said with false enthusiasm:

"Well, guess you'd better get on that date. If you come into work tomorrow with a smile on your face I'll know it's not because of my brilliant company."

"You never know Reeve." She flashed him the same mischievous smile. " 'Sides, I never kiss and tell."

"Night Reeve! Want us to lock up?"

"Yeah go ahead, I'm not getting out of here any time soon. Night you two."

The lights from the room outside Reeve's office turned off, which rendered him sightless, as he had still neglected to turn the light on. He had rather been relying by the small beam of light, which had been coming from the keyhole of his door. It was a very well placed beam, as it projected itself directly into the centre of his desk, so that he could just about manage to make out the dotted line. He sighed and ran his fingers through his long hair, rubbing his eyes in the same movement. He pushed his wheely chair away from his desk and stood up on legs which nearly gave way as he realised he hadn't actually stood since he nearly burnt himself alive. Regaining his balance, he walked over to the light switch and flicked it on, immediately closing his eyes as he did, as he was nearly blinded by the sudden illumination. He sat down once more, propping his legs up on the desk where he had finally cleared a small space of papers. Arching his back, he stretched, feeling about twenty different bones in equally painful places, before going back into his previous position, which clicked another twenty bones. He picked up his biro once more, chewing on the end of it to distract himself from his severe need of nicotine, and small voice that seemed to coming from the drawer which he knew was saying: 'Reeve…! We're so lonely…! Smoooooooke…!'. Why didn't Elena take away his cigarettes? Apparently she wanted him to give up for himself. Great. He chewed harder on his pen and downed a mug of cold coffee, grimacing as the liquid went down his throat, the taste lingering unpleasantly as he swallowed thickly to try and make it go away. As he was about to put pen to paper once more, he heard a door slam, and a feminine voice muttering:

"Where the bloody hell is everyone?"

Reeve frowned and scrambled once more to his feet. He opened the door and sure enough, there was Elena, making a coffee and rubbing her tired eyes.

"You're back early. It's only…" Reeve glanced at the clock. It read 2:30. "Well, maybe not early."

"I thought Rude and Reno might be here," she sighed. "Oh well. At least you're here."

"It didn't go well?"

"I have never been more humiliated or insulted in my entire life.

I found the place he told me about. It was call the Oyster Inn. Sounds like a nice restaurant, huh? That's what I though Sounds like a classy place, but it is just a bar. And it's not a nice on either. It reeked of vomit and urine, and that was just outside. And if you could smell it from outside, imagine how bad it was inside. Still, I gave him the benefit of the doubt you know? Maybe he was a little low on funds or something, he still seemed a nice guy. Where did I meet him? Oh, he's a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend…It goes on. I met him once at a party, and he asked me out. He was good looking, had a sense of humour, all that jazz, so, you know, I said yeah. Why not? It's not like I have them queuing up, is it? That's not the point. So anyway, I go inside, and a bloke runs up to me and nearly throws up on me. Fair enough, I probably would have been more annoyed if he had actually done it on me, but it wasn't nice that my first date with him was in a place like that. So, I see him at the bar, he's drinking some tequila, so I walk over to him and say Hi. He stands up, kisses me on the cheek and grabs my arse. I didn't say anything, I would have felt a little uncomfortable doing so. He leads me over to this table, and it's surrounded by his drunk friends and their cheap little tarts. And I'm not exaggerating, they were all slum whores, probably being paid to be there. They were nastily dressed, you know, cleavage, legs, all that, looked like they belonged in a Burlesque House, and they were tarted up to the nines, I tell you. Garish red lipstick, bright pink eyeshadow, painted on beauty spot, the works. I could just imagine them doing the can-can on a stage. The first thing one of his friends said to him was: 'She's got a nice pair o' tits on 'er ain't she!'. Now, instead of defending me from this remark, he goes: 'Yeah, ain't she just!'. All the little whores gave these nasal laughs, while all of these blokes just leered at me. I felt about this small. I mean, I had gone to a lot of trouble to look nice. I wanted to look smart and pretty, but I hadn't realised that they were just going to laugh at me! One of them asked me why I hadn't got all dressed up for the date! I mean, look at me Reeve! I look nice right? I'm wearing a nice skirt, nice blouse, but it's just not enough! I just hadn't realised that 'being dressed up' meant that I had to be baring as much as possible without actually going there naked! Halfway through the evening, one of the blokes went to the toilet, and his ladyfriend followed him, and I knew what they were getting up to and I just wanted to throw up. I mean, you could get an STD just being there! Then my date put his arm around me and said that he knew somewhere we could go where we wouldn't be interrupted, and I just cracked. I had put with so much by then, I just slapped him around the face and stormed out of there. What kind of bloke would take you somewhere like that on your first date? And how dare he imply that I would be remotely interested in being 'not interrupted' with him? Did he think I was a prostitute? I mean, you noticed that I'd done my make up, was it too much? Did I look like a slum whore?

"Elena, you looked like anything but a slum whore! You looked like a nice girl going on a nice date."

She sat down on the blue leather couch with her coffee and sighed, resting her head on the back of it. Reeve sat beside her, fidgeting awkwardly with his own coffee mug. Elena turned her head towards him and flashed him her beseeching burgundy eyes with a small smile.

"You think I'm overreacting don't you?"

"No," He shook his head and put a comforting hand on her arm. "I think you're reacting very well considering the date you just had. But look at you. I mean, come on. You don't get whores as nice or as pretty as you."

"You know," she said with a weary smile, "I'm glad the other two aren't here. You're way more comforting to have around than they are."

"It's always nice to hear that," he said with a smile.

Elena rested her head on his shoulder for a second, and both momentarily forgot their state of employment, sitting in the quiet room. It was oddly comforting, sitting in one another's company, until Elena suddenly shot up and said:

"I'm sorry sir, that was very unprofessional of me."

"Well," replied Reeve, weaving his fingers together and pushing them out to make his knuckles crack, ""So is forcing me to give up smoking, but I've over looked that."

"You know," she said meekly, "if you crack your bones like that you'll give yourself arthritis…"

"You just don't want me to have any fun at all, do you?"

"Hey, my Nan had arthritis, and by the time she died she could hardly hold a pen!"

"How terrible that would be!" mocked Reeve, "I wish I had arthritis right now!"

"You wouldn't if you had it," said Elena, nodding knowingly. She sighed. "I will get another date. A nice one. I'll make sure of it."

"Wish I could. It's hard picking up girls when you're stuck in your office all day with two hands cramped from writing and a wilful young Turk banning me from smoking."

"Oh come on. I bet you have a different girl hanging off of your arm every night! Probably have to threaten set your cat on them to get you to leave you alone!"

"Yeeeah. Sure. Cooped up in here all day, sure I have the time."

"Well, Maybe you've gotta look closer to home? I mean, the secretary girl looks pretty nice..?"

"She's married."

"A married secretary?" said Elena, feigning shock, "what is the world coming to?"

Reeve laughed and pulled his legs up to his chest, and the blonde Turk sat down again. For a ShinRa executive, thought Elena, he had always seemed way too chilled out. He wasn't aggressive, he didn't want to bring nations down to their knees, he was too humane to be in ShinRa. To be honest, she had always thought he was a little vulnerable, as he didn't have a mean bone in his body. All he cared about was making other people's lives a little better, so a career in ShinRa was hardly ideal. He was young, idealistic, calm, centred and had the cutest, floppiest hair in the entire city. Wait, she said to herself, that's beside the point.

"I can't be arsed to do any more paperwork, I'm gonna go," decided Reeve. "You coming?"

"Yeah, there isn't much point in me staying here. I do have a home to go to. My flatmate's got her boyfriend over though, she asked me to stay out for a bit. Oh well; she'll just have to put up with it, I pay half the rent."

Something flashed for a split second in Reeve's mind, and he turned his head to look at Elena, his dark brown eyes always gentle when he looked at her. He said mildly, and with a little embarrassment:

"You could…Well, you know, you can stay round mine. You can have my bed, I'll make the sofa up."

Elena blushed and smiled girlishly, incredibly shy all of a sudden in front of the former Head of Urban Development. She said to him nervously:

"Well, I mean, I wouldn't want to impose…"

"It's no problem. Cait Sith might get a little jealous, but he'll live."

"I…well, if you're sure that I wouldn't be in the way…"

"Sure, I don't mind."

Reeve took her coat off of the peg and opened it for her, like a true gentleman, and she eased into it gently buttoning it up tight, as it was a cold season. It was a pale blue trenchcoat, and was warm, which was necessary in the cold weather that Midgar brought. Reeve simply put on a scarf, before pressing the button for the elevator.

"Aren't you going to get cold?"

"Probably, but I'll survive."

"I don't know, Midgar winters are pretty harsh."

The elevator 'binged', making Elena start slightly, and she shuffled into the elevator with Reeve. The descent from floor 65 was long and quiet, made somewhat uncomfortable by the position that they were in. Elena never stayed over people's house, men's houses, unless she was dating them. So never, really. She wasn't entirely sure what to say, so she decided to keep her mouth shut as she stood beside the lanky man.

He was hardly muscle bound, to be sure, but he wasn't scrawny. Elena had to admit, he was attractive in a geeky, quirky kind of way, from how his long hair always fell in front of his eyes, no matter how tightly he tied it, to his fascination with his cat. Elena herself loved cats, so this didn't present itself as a problem to her. He was sweet too; Reno had his moments, but in general he was more of the lovably insincere brother types, and Rude wasn't a big talker. Reeve was the happy medium: cheerful, laid back, funny, kind, the list could go on. He was also her boss, she had to remind her self.

The lift finally stopped, and Reeve indicated for Elena to leave. That was another one for her list: gentlemanly. She smiled at him and did so, turning her head to make sure that Reeve was also coming, and she slowed down so that she could walk beside him. She soon learned that this was a mistake, as, being taller, he had a longer stride, and she had to practically jog to keep up. When he realised that she having this trouble, he slowed down considerably, teasing her a little, while she just glared at him.

The ground was slippery in the winter weather, and as Elena jogged a little to make sure that she wasn't about to lose her host, she slipped, and landed in an awkward position on her ankle. Her eyes opened wide, as did her mouth, and she gave a little gasp of pain. Reeve turned his head back, and, upon seeing the pathetic heap that Elena had become, he rushed over to her, sliding over the ice. Watching how easily he glided over the dangerous ice, she scowled at him, and asked bitterly:

"How come you don't fall over and break your ankle?"

"Because I'm brilliant."

"If you're so brilliant then how come you don't know how to use- ow! – bloody air conditioning?"

"Because I have a brilliant assistant to show me how." He prodded her already swollen ankle, which was going purple from bruising quickly. "Well Miss Elena, can you stand?"

"I can give it a shot."

She leaned on Reeve's outstretched arm to aid her in getting up, and, standing on her uninjured foot she regained her balance. She gingerly touched the ground with the other foot, and then, with a little more confidence, put it on the ground. She leaned on it, and in an instant, she nearly fell to the floor once more.

"Well, it looks as if that's a no."

"Come on then. We can't have you hobbling home; it's still about five blocks away."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it means that I'm gonna have to carry you."

With that, a red faced Elena was promptly picked up by the legs and, before she knew it, her arms were round Reeve's neck and he was giving her a piggyback.

"Do you even eat, Elena?"

"Yes, why?"

"Because you're light as a feather! It isn't natural!"

"I like to keep in shape!" she retorted with a laugh.

Their playful banter carried on down the empty street, and any lonely passing vehicles saw an extremely odd sight, which just made Elena laugh even more. Reeve's house was a little way away, and when they finally got to his block of flats he had to juggle Elena, and key and a bottle of milk that he picked up on the doorstep.

"Want me to carry the milk?"

"If you don't mind."

She did so, and as he got in, he closed the door behind him and sighed in the pleasant warmth of the building. It was a nice looking place, clean, modern, lots of wood and stainless steel. Reeve walked a little to the left and groaned when he saw the notice on the lift.

'OUT OF ORDER DUE TO BROKEN WIRING.

SHOULD BE FIXED BY WEDNESDAY."

"Hey Reeve?" Said Elena from beside his ear, "What floor is your apartment?"

"Floor 36," he said with a sigh. He shifted a slipping Elena comfortable on to his back and said with a hiker's enthusiasm, "Well, we'd better get started!"

"Are you sure you don't want me to hobble? It's a very long way."

"I maintain my position of a gentleman, and a gentleman would never make his lady hobble," he said with a decisive nod.

"Well Reeve, don't say I didn't warn you." She went closer to his ear and said in a gentler tone," Thank you for this."

"Don't worry about it Laney," he told her with a smile.

With that, he began his long, steep trek up the tall stairways, stopping every ten levels for a break. It was really quite tiring; Imagine running up 72 flights of stairs. Well, with two people, that's what it feels like. When they got to about floor 32, a small mewing could be heard, and when they looked up the centre of the stairwell, they could see a small black and white head poking through the banisters.

"Aw, your cat waits for you?"

"Yeah, but usually only because he's hungry."

This was probably the case, as, when Reeve finally got to his door, Cait Sith began worming his way between Reeve's legs, almost causing him to go flying through the air with Elena. Once again, Reeve fumbled with his keys in the lock while trying to keep Elena on his back, and when he got the door open, Cait Sith ran through like a lightning bolt and sat beside his empty food bowl.

Reeve sat Elena down on the sofa and grabbed a sealed pouch of kitty food from the kitchen cabinet, laughing as Cait Sith seemed to react to the sound of the foil ripping. Elena watched his antics fondly, a smile on her face. She snuggled into the comfortable sofa and called over her head:

"You know, I could sleep on the sofa instead, I don't mind."

"Don't worry about it; Cait'll prefer it there anyway. It means that he can have the fire without having to leave me."

"You really love that cat, don't you?" she said, burgundy eyes on the feeding animal.

"Sure I do. I live alone, so it'd get pretty lonely here without 'im."

"Wish I had a pet, but my flatmate's allergic to anything with four legs, it's so annoying. I brough hone a gerbil once to keep in my room and she told me that 'the allergy toxins would waft into her room!'. I don't even know if allergy toxins even exist!"

"I couldn't stand having an allergic flat mate."

Reeve picked up Cait Sith delicately and propped him and Elena's lap. The cat began to purr immediately, nuzzling it's head into her neck and rubbing it's face over hers. Reeve clicked on the kettle in the kitchen before walking over to the living area and sitting beside Elena. He smiled and scratched the kitten behind the ears, exclaiming:

"Well, would you look at that. He approves of you."

"Approves of me?" laughed Elena.

"Yep. And in general, he's a pretty good judge of character."

Elena looked straight into Reeve's deep brown eyes, and saw that he was being completely sincere, although, she thought, what else could I expect from Reeve? He's an honest guy. Cocking her head to once side, she purred provocatively:

"That so?"

Reeve nodded silently, his eyes wandering nervously from his cat to Elena's heart shaped face. Their faces were about thisclose to each other's, and he could see his reflection in her beautiful round eyes. She looked tired and vulnerable, but strangely warm and content and God, Reeve just wanted to take her into his arms and sweep her of her feet in that one moment, that split second where their eyes met, but he didn't know what would happen if he did. He looked away and stood up, saying over his shoulder:

"Kettle's boiled."

Elena slumped onto the sofa, breathing a heavy sigh. Cait looked at her with a scrutinising expression as if to say 'well, what are you waiting for? Make a move! You said you wanted a nice guy!'. She could hear theodd cat's voice so clearly in her head that she wasn't completely sure that he hadn't said it.

An arm appeared before her, holding a tall mug of steaming coffee, and she looked behind her to see his tall figure leaning on the back of the sofa. She took the mug gratefully and smiled at him.

"Thanks." She exhaled deeply. "God, it's been a long night. You know, you're the perfect end to an evening like the one I've had."

"Cheers very much," came his voice from beside her head. "I'll go make that bed for you."

With that, he left her and Cait Sith on the sofa. The cat still had it's clever eyes settled on Elena, and she found it very unnerving, because it seemed to be looking straight into her, pulling apart every little detail which she was trying to hide from her boss. They say cats can read minds, and Elena was certainly beginning to think that this was the case. The cat's crafty expression was still on it's face, and it seemed to have a perpetual smartarse grin tattooed on. She tried to outstare it, but found that it seemed to think it was too mature for such a silly game. She gave up and asked desperately:

"You want me to make a move, and I'm trying here! When I tried to be sexy he was so close to going through with it, but he just chickened out! What, does he think I'll pull out my gun and shoot him for sexual assault?"

She could have sworn she saw the cat roll it's eyes before it looked away from her, and she was on the brink of throwing herself on her knees and asking it what she should do. It seemed to have a silent opinion about everything.

"Well what should I do then? There's no point in giving me looks, they aren't helping. I mean, come on, I've been telling him all night that I would love a date with a nice guy, and I think I've made it perfectly clear that he's a nice guy! What more can I do?" The cat gave her a glance, and then looked straight at the door leading to the room that Reeve was making up for her. Elena looked shocked. "What! No way, I could not make the first move. I am not a first move kind of girl, I would just turn to jelly and I'd get all my words mixed up and…and…" the cat stared at her. "Oh shut up you stupid cat."

"Hope he hasn't insulted you?" A cheerful voice came approaching from down the hall.

"No," replied Elena, feeling a little silly at being caught arguing with his cat. "He was just acting like a know-it-all."

"Yeah, he does that. Thinks he knows more about engineering than me, and whenever I'm making something he jumps up and tried to tell me how to do it."

"You're kidding me." Laughed Elena.

"Nope, deadly serious," said Reeve, his face deadpan.

Elena just laughed again as she looked from him to the cat. Reeve was good at making her laugh, and the cat seemed to pick up on this, staring harder at her as if he was trying to send her telepathic messages, trying to entice her to make her move.

"You're a quirky guy, you know that?"

"I've been told often and oft," he said, fondling strands of longdark hair. "Unfortunately I heard that girls don't like quirky."

"I reckon you heard wrong. Quirky has a personality. You can always depend on quirky."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I told you, you should be having to beat girls of with a stick! If you ventured out of your office once in a while they'd be swarming round you!"

"You have to say that," he said, sitting down with a grin, "I pay you."

"Hey, I'd say the same thing if I wasn't employed by you, honest."

Elena stretched, wincing a little when her anklebone clicked, and Reeve looked at her. He stood up and offered her an arm, saying graciously:

"May I help you to your room milady?"

"Certainly sir," replied Elena, playing along.

"'Tis an honour, milady, to be touching the hand of one so majestic as yourself."

Elena just laughed and leaned into Reeve as he helped her hobble into the room through the closed door. As she entered she gasped and smiled with a wide open mouth in awe of the scene before her. He had changed the sheets into dark purple satin ones, and lit tiny candles all around the room, giving it a purple glow. She turned to Reeve who had his face turned away from her with a timid smile on his face, and she hopped at him on her good foot and hugged him tightly, whispering a soft 'thank you' into his ear. She pulled away from the embrace and looked him in the eye once more, before sweeping up to kiss him, hands clamped firmly on his shirt collar, pulling him close to her. His hands found her waist and he pulled her petite body towards his as they kissed passionately, releasing all feelings of tension which they had previously harboured. Elena finally pulled away and smiled, hopping a couple of steps away, over to the door. She smiled shyly before saying:

"Good Night Reeve. And thank you."

With that she closed the door on a speechless, breathless Reeve, who looked like he needed nothing more that a strong cup of coffee and another kiss from his girl.

Cait Sith slept with smug satisfaction that night.