Author's Note:

Reno: Holy crap! You're back!

Reeve: What are you talking about?

Reno: Cait Sith! You're back!

Reeve: I am not Cait Sith.

Reno: Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. Your secret identity is safe with me.

Reeve: I constantly wonder if it's possible for you to grow more retarded, and you never cease to amaze me.

Reno: I'm not retarded!

Reeve: You're right. People affected by retardation have a genetic excuse. They are, as well, generally nice people who frequently try to make the best of their situation. You, on the other hand, like to stick your electro-mag rod into Game Boys and such.

Reno: So?

Reeve: You, my very, very stupid friend, are a mongrel.

Reno: I'm your friend? Yai! Does that mean we can go out drinking after this disclaimer?

Reeve: ... Sure. Anything to blunt the pain of having to associate with you.

Reno: Hoorai! To celebrate, I'll say the disclaimer! Tyramir doesn't own Final Fantasy, Game Boy, and any label of beer. Now, enjoy the fic!

Chapter Seven

Girl Talk

Elena gave her suit one last look over in the mirror and sighed. For the first time since becoming a member of the Turks, she nearly regretted it. She didn't like Avalanche. They were, after all, responsible for Tseng's death. They claimed otherwise, and while that made her doubt, she still felt, deep down, that they had done it. But, despite it all... Avalanche was about something. They began as a group dedicated to saving the planet from the raping Shinra did to the land with their Mako reactors. Beginning as a group of idealists, they quickly turned into a rebel faction that was no better than a group of terrorists. When she had been first assigned to the Turks, it had seemed right to hunt them down. Now... after defeating Sephiroth, and Jenova, and saving the Planet from Meteor... it all seemed so wrong. But she knew that as soon as she left this room, her association with this group of heroes was over. Any further interaction with them would undoubtedly involve fighting them.

"Gawd you look at yourself a whole lot," Yuffie said from behind her.

Elena turned around, and looked at Avalanche's youngest member. Shinra intelligence reported that she was the daughter of Lord Godo of Wutai, the descendant of a long line of disciplined ninja. Those same reports had also said that she possessed a mastery of Materia few could equal, and was adept at most forms of armed combat, but preferred thrown weapons. Those reports, however, had not mentioned that she was a stuck up little brat who couldn't keep her mouth shut.

"I was just thinking," she responded defensively, not wanting to make the girl think she was vain. Now that would be an embarrassment. This puffed up girl thinking she was vain.

"Thinking about what?"

"Just... things. And how funny life is sometimes."

Yuffie groaned, sitting down on her bed with a huff. "You're not gonna get all serious on me, are you? I was hoping we could do something fun before you left."

"Fun? Like what?"

The girl sighed, rolled her eyes, and sat up. "Well, y'know... like maybe... girl talk?"

Elena burst out laughing.

"What? What's so funny? I just want to do some innocent girl to girl talking! Is that so bad? What's so funny about it? Huh?" The young ninja was practically sputtering in outrage.

"It's just... I didn't expect Yuffie Kisaragi, daughter of Lord Godo himself, to ask me about ... girl talk." She nearly started laughing again from the look on the ninja's face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to laugh like that. It's okay. Really. I was just caught off guard. What did you want to talk about?"

Yuffie's face took on a pouty look, as if she didn't want to participate in any girl talk now. But Elena knew otherwise. She had played this game before when she was sixteen. Now that she thought about it, that wasn't all that long ago.

"Oh come on. You wanted to talk before. Just because I laughed doesn't mean you don't want to."

"Never mind," she said. "This was a dumb idea. I just wanted to try it once, y'know? See what it was like."

"What do you mean 'try it once?' You've done this sort of thing before, haven't you? Talked to other girls about stupid things that don't matter, like boys?" Sitting down on the bed beside the ninja, Elena grinned, and Yuffie, after a moment, took on the same expression.

"It's just..." Yuffie started. "Well... Training at Dad's pagoda, learnin' how to be a ninja and all that. I never really had time for it. Or get to meet many girls. There were a few, but they all had the same workout I did, so they didn't have time either. Dad was always pushing me, since I had to be the son he never had."

"Didn't you ever just sit and chat with Aeris or Tifa?"

"With those bimbos? You kidding me? I mean, Aeris was okay, but she died before I could actually sit down and get to know her. And Tifa? Look at her. She's all 'Oh Cloud, look at my boobs. Don't you want me?' Then gets that puppy dog look whenever he mopes about Aeris or how he's weak or something. Gawd he can be such a loser sometimes. I mean, sure, he's kick ass in a fight, but let's face it... he whines a lot."

Elena laughed at that comment, then added, "And look at his hair. How does he even stand up? I thought Tifa would have gravity issues, but with all that gel in his hair, you'd think he'd fall face first into the dirt all the time!"

Yuffie giggled. "The funny thing is, he doesn't even use gel. His hair is like that naturally. You'd think he'd know how to use a comb or something! But he never touches one! At least, I've never seen him use one. Not like Vincent. I've never seen him do it, but when he's in the bathroom, he's in there for a long time. I think he likes to groom himself extensively, make sure he's got that angsty 'I feel pain, pity me' look going on and have his hair perfect."

Elena couldn't help but think, God, I'm enjoying this. I can't believe I'm enjoying this. I should have outgrown it. Maybe it's Yuffie. All that enthusiasm must be contagious.

And then, Elena was surprisingly caught off guard by Yuffie's inevitable question, "So, who do you like?"

Immediately defensive, she said, "Who do I like? What kind of question is that? If this is girl talk, then I've done it with the Turks a lot. That's all they can ever seem to talk about."

"Come on. I'll tell you who I like."

"You're going to tell me that anyway. You want to. That's why you brought up this silly subject in the first place. Can't we talk about something else?"

"Please?" she pleaded.

"Fine. I liked Tseng. Happy?"

"But... he's..."

"Dead. Yeah," she said, her voice suddenly bitter and her mood soured. And she had been having such a good time, too. She started to stand up, but Yuffie grabbed onto her arm and yanked her back down.

"We didn't kill him," she said firmly.

"What? I never said--"

"Yes, you did. Back at Icicle Inn. You said we 'were gonna pay for what we did to Tseng.' We didn't do it. Sephiroth did. He was wounded when we got into the Temple of the Ancients. Wouldn't let any of us near him, either, except Aeris."

Elena's expression contorted, turning to anger. "Why didn't you try to heal him then? You could have done something."

"You think he'd be dead if we could? He'd been stabbed by Masamune. Just like Aeris. If we could have healed Tseng, don't you think we would have done the same with her?"

The words hit her, and she slumped forward. If Cloud had said it, even with the conviction Yuffie had just had, she wouldn't have believed him. But the young ninja was so forward, so despicably and offensively honest that she couldn't help but believe her.

"I feel dumb," Elena said. And she did. She had so believed that Avalanche had killed Tseng, when there were so many signs that they wouldn't have just all ganged up on the Turk leader and mercilessly killed him. And, now that she thought about it, the wound in Tseng's chest had been most definitely been caused by some sort of piercing weapon that had gone all the way through him. Cid's spear blade was too short for it to have made that kind of wound, and Cloud's sword too wide.

"You feel dumb? I'm the one who brought up the subject in the first place."

"It's okay... you cleared some things up for me. It kind of makes sense now. Thanks, I guess."

"No problem." Yuffie grinned, "So, you wanna hear who I like?"

Elena rolled her eyes. Flighty didn't even begin to describe Yuffie. And she thought that she herself was bad at times. She'd have to go along with it, though. Putting on a tough face, she asked, "Who do you like?"

"Reno."

Elena made a gagging sound. "Are you kidding me? What on the face of the Planet makes you think that Reno is suitable dating material of any kind?"

"What's wrong with Reno?" Yuffie said defensively.

"What's wrong with him? Don't you mean 'What's right with him?' Where do I begin? He's a complete slob, he drinks too much, he has no respect for women, he has no sense of responsibility, he's not very bright, he has no morals... is any of this getting through to you?" Complaining about Reno slowly began to make the painful memory of Tseng's death recede in the background. It was still there, but she was able to force a smile again.

"But... he's cute."

"But... that's a horrible excuse," she said, mocking Yuffie's tone and wording.

"Well, he did save me from that Don Corneo pervert, remember? He saved you, too. That was kind of romantic."

"I am never going to live that moment down," Elena grumbled.

"Me neither, but he did save us."

"He didn't save us. He had Rude kill Corneo so that we could get a paycheck from Shinra. Saving us was just a little something extra. Mostly so he could tease me with it. You only got cut down because Cloud and the others were there."

"And there was that time during that battle against all those monsters and Soldiers where he nearly sacrificed himself to save us all. He would have died if not for Tifa, and he did it all the same."

"I'll give you that. But that was so completely out of character for Reno. He's normally the kind of guy who drops sector plates on people and then goes out for a drink afterwards to celebrate." She winced after she said that. It wasn't entirely true, and she regretted it the moment it passed from her lips. "That came out wrong. Here, I'll let you in on a secret. Only me and Rude know it, and I only know it because Tseng told me, so don't tell anyone, okay?"

Eager to hear a secret about her crush, Yuffie leaned in close, casting a conspiritorial glance around the room as she did. "I won't tell anyone. What is it?"

"Reno... he drinks a lot. You knew that already, but... He doesn't do it because he likes the alcohol all that much. He does it because he hates doing what we do. Normally, he keeps the drinking down. Tries to put on a happy face, and does it while at bars and tries to make it look like he's celebrating, but he's really not. Tseng told me that after Reno dropped the Sector Seven plate, the first thing he did afterwards was go back to the Turk locker room and cry. It really got to him."

"Oh no. He didn't really, did he?" Yuffie's face looked sympathetic.

"That's what Tseng told me. Half the time, Reno's an immature putz, but the other half... he's almost a decent guy. You could probably go worse than Reno, I suppose. Not much worse, but it's possible."

The air took on a solemn tone again, and Elena stood up. "It's been nice talking to you, Yuffie, but I have to go now. It's about noon, so Reno should be awake by now. We have to head back to Junon."

"Why do you do it?" Yuffie asked abruptly, standing with her.

"Do what?"

"Work for Rufus. Why are you a Turk?"

Elena shook her head, not really sure herself. "I... I don't know anymore. Same reason as Reno is, or why Rude was. Fighting's the only thing I'm really good at, and everyone needs a job. Besides, I think Tseng would have wanted me to stay, even with everything that's happened."

"Why don't you stay with us? You're all right. You can be a member of Avalanche, join up like Rude did. He's a Turk, he likes to fight, and he's with us. Why not you?"

Elena crossed the room, and turned to face Yuffie as she opened the door. "Being a member of a rebel group ... sounds like the pay would suck. Goodbye, Yuffie. May you get better taste in men next time we meet."

"Bye, Elena. You're okay in my book. Drop by in Wutai any time."

Closing the door behind her, Elena found Cloud and Reno waiting in the hall for her. Reno gave an annoyed grunt, probably at her taking so long, and Cloud nodded to her. In his hand was an envelope. He held it out for her.

"What's this?" Elena asked.

"A letter for Rufus," Cloud said. "I wanted you to hold onto it, since I don't think Reno is dependable enough to hold onto it. Make sure he gets it."

"What's it say?"

"Like he'll tell you," Reno said. "Wouldn't tell me."

Cloud frowned at Reno, then seemed to consider for a moment. "Consider it... consider it a peace treaty."

Author's Note:

Holy crap that one was long. And oddly enough, I enjoyed writing it. I despise Yuffie with a passion that could be closely defined as 'insanity' or 'homicidal rage', but would you believe I actually liked writing that conversation between her and Elena? I almost humanized her! ... I think I'm going to take a shower now. A rather long one.