Two Shades
A fresh graduate of the Shinra Military Academy is tossed into the (none too wonderful) world of Turks for about several months, and suddenly she finds herself promoted, ranking among the higher echelons of the shady organization, partnered with none other than Reno himself. (I SUCK at summaries, so I will stop here.) NOT an OC/Reno romance. Will deal with somewhat mature themes in later chapters.

Chapter 3
Reno

Toril managed to recover and find her voice straightaway. "Who the hell are you?"

The strange man's eyes opened. Toril noticed that they were an unusual shade of blue, and quite a contrast with his somewhat fiery, long red hair. "Oh, you're her then." He jumped up from his previously sprawled-out position, with surprising agility—and grace, for a man of his stature and build. He stretched his long arms, and yawned, rather lavishly.

"I'm sorry, I'm just tired. Tseng told me to wait for you here, and I couldn't sleep at all the other night, so I sat on the bed, and one thing led to another, next thing I knew, I was in the bed, and it felt so good, there's nothing like the feeling of a good—"

Toril interrupted him, rather rudely. "Who are you? Again?" She stared at him, eyes narrowed, all thoughts of Hikaru and promotions and partners out of her head. She couldn't really place his face, he seemed familiar, somehow but not really, but still, this entire thing was just, strange. Tseng told you to wait for me here? Something clicked again, in her head.

Oh. Wait.

Realization dawned in the man's eyes, and his mouth, his lips somehow fell into place, into a half-smirk. "Ah. I see you don't even know who your superiors are." He strode towards her, his long, strange, spiky red hair falling to just above his hips, swaying gracefully along with him. He had goggles pushed up onto his forehead, in a headband of sorts, maybe to keep his locks from falling into his face. He stopped within inches of her, and peered down, into her face. "You don't know me?"

Toril remembered now. Unkempt suit (no tie, first three buttons on his button-down white shirt unattended to), the goggles, the unmistakably long, red hair. She noted the hoop glinting in his left ear, she had never noticed that before.

"You're…you're Reno." Reno. She had never met him, never in person, but she'd heard of him. He was one of the best at what he did, at what they all did. He'd been around for quite some time now, and his fighting skills, they were almost legendary. As were his sloppy, troublesome ways. But at least he always got the job done.

She'd heard of him, but she'd never noticed him, because… "You…you were Hikaru's partner?"

He raised his eyebrows imperceptibly, and nodded. "Aa, she was my partner." He seemed pleased, now that she knew him. "And you're my partner, now."

Toril nodded, almost absently. "Okay." So he had been Hikaru's partner. She found herself wondering if Reno and Hikaru had been close. They had been partners, after all. Hikaru had always seemed like quite a nice person to her. She began to mull over what sort of person Reno was, if he had been friends with Hikaru, had they gotten along well…he didn't seem very much affected by the news of her death. Or maybe that was just how it was, the longer you were in the business—

"So," Reno began again, rather loudly, jolting Toril out of her thoughts and inward mulling, "You're new around here, and as far as we're concerned, we're partners, but not really. I am still your superior, since you are still very much the rookie." He looked her over quite appraisingly, circling her. "How long have you been here? And how old are you? Sixteen? Seventeen?"

Her eyes flashed, somewhat angrily, but Toril tried to control herself. She still couldn't really tell whether he was saying that to rouse her temper, or he was just being brutally honest, as most men were. She decided not to take any chances, either way. "I've been here six months. And I'm nineteen."

Reno started. "You're younger than I thought."

Toril wanted to point out that he had asked her if she was sixteen, or seventeen, several years younger than what she said she was, but she decided against it. Maybe he had said that to try and get a reaction out of her.

Reno went on, oblivious to his new partner's silences. "Get your things, you're moving into my room. You do know partners are supposed to sleep in the same room, right?" His eyes flashed mischievously. "And don't go getting any ideas about anything. You're not my type."

Toril blinked. Did he just…? "Um. Okay."

He looked at her from over his shoulder and laughed. "You don't talk much, do you?"

xx

"Wonder girl," Reno mused that night, as they walked into his still darkened room—their room now, Toril corrected herself inwardly. She flopped down, soiled black-and-white suit and all, onto the unfamiliar bed that night, exhausted from the sudden turn of events that day, staring blankly at the ceiling, nothing in particular running through her head.

"Top of her class, drafted in by Tseng. You've been a Turk for six months, and you're suddenly upgraded to special top-secret missions, with the big boys." His eyes glinted when he said the big boys. "How does that feel?"

She rolled her head to one side to take a look at him. He was still leaning against the doorway, looking quite bemused. He flicked the overhead lights on.

Toril sighed, unable to meet his eyes. "Tiring. It's tiring. And please, turn off the lights."

Reno shrugged, the slightest hint of a smirk on his face. "That's the longest thing you've said to me all day."

He turned the lights off, walked into the room, and closed the door behind him.

Author's notes: I'm so sorry, this chapter didn't really say anything much—I just felt I had to end somehow for last night, so the ending was somewhat rushed. But I'm contented with it but not really.

Okay, I'd like to get one thing straight, first of all: there will be NO romance between Reno and Toril—this story isn't about how they become partners, and don't get along at first, but then they eventually fall in love, or what. I could do that, but I won't, that's just too easy. (grins) So yeah, hang on and bear with me. (Man, I shouldn't have said that, that takes a lot of 'suspense' about the story out.)

Sorry for any OOC-ness. I'm still trying to get a firm grip onto their characters and personalities and all. I'm trying! This is my second fanfiction piece in around four years, and things are a bit rusty, but it's coming back to me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII, or any of their characters, they belong to Squaresoft, etc. You know the drill.