A/N: thank you everyone, for your great and bountiful reviews! I'm only kidding, though it sounded bitter in my head. I have to stop with the sarcasm. However:

Ergheiz: Thanks for the first review, have a raspberry jelly bean. I didn't actually know AC was set two years after, I though thought it was just one, so sorry, just a coincidence. Hope you'll still read it, despite the lack of AC induced plot turns ;; Thanks again for the review! hugs

Now, to continue. Please R&R kiddies!

Reeve and Elena sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes, the sound of the clock on the wall driving the normally patient man closer and closer to sheer frustration, and he kept glancing at the blonde woman who was sat in the stool before him. His eyes darted over her features, taking in the aesthetic changes that he could see immediately.

To be truthful, there was very little change in her, save for the fact that he had never seen her caked in a veritable mountain of make up. The most he'd ever seen on her was a swipe of lipgloss, and even then, it was only because she knew she's be seeing Tseng. Tseng... Did she ever think of him anymore? Did she think of Rude or Reno, Scarlet even, her self appointed bitch buddy? His brow creased a little as he frowned thoughtfully, eyes downcast, and he wondered to himself: Does she ever think of me anymore? Glancing back at the woman in question, he thought that the answer was probably a negative. She seemed to be the one who had moved on the most, grown away from her past. Reeve had seen Reno and Rude in the past couple of years, and their lives were pretty much empty; they had each other, and relatively steady jobs, but there was still something of their lives as Turks which lingered in them. It'd been their lives for as long as they could remember. Reeve just figured that it was hard to switch off a livelihood as quickly as they had been forced to.

Elena was chewing on the nail on her little finger distractedly, one of her idle feet tapping merrily away on one of the legs of the stool. She was staring absently at the glass of wine in front of her, one of her hands twitching as she decided whether or not it would be safe to move to grab the glass, or whether she would be breaking the taboo of the silence. Reeve was staring down at one of the blue stains on her red carpet, obviously wondering what the hell it could be, one of his fine mahogany eyebrows cocked with interest. Elena licked her lips as they began to dry, and once more she longed to reach out for the glass, but as she moved her arm, the various bracelets on her arm clinked together, and Reeve's eyes shot up to look up at her. To her great relief, Reeve walked beside her and crouched down, so that his head was at the same level as hers, and he commented gently:

"You sure took a strange career turn."

Elena took one sheepish glance at him before bursting into laughter, her eyes showing something very different to mirth. She stuck her hand out and grabbed the glass of wine, taking a long swig from the gleaming cup, coughing a little as it trickled down her choked up throat. Reeve put out an arm, touching her shoulder as she stared down at her lap, biting her lips as she tried not to make a sound akin to tears. She shook her head as she chuckled, but when she looked into Reeve's honest face, tears swelled in her burgundy eyes and began to drip down her cheeks, and he wrapped his arms around her slim frame and held her as she cried her crystalline tears into his jacket. She shook softly in his embrace, delicate little hands tightening and gripping the material beneath her fingers. Reeve rubbed his hand up her back and made whispery noises at her, calming down the tears.

"Oh Ellie..." Reeve began, but Elena cut him short when she pulled her head from off his shoulder.

"No Reeve; don't you dare pity me. Reno or Rude, sure, they've always pitied me, for my meagre abilities, my inability to do anything that they can do. But not you."

"I don't pity you Elle; I sympathise. There's as fine line dividing them, but there's definitely one there."

Elena gave him a grateful smile, not a big one, but there was certainly a ghost of a smile hovering on her lips. Reeve's eyes creased slightly as he returned it, but his somewhat tactless question was burning to be asked. He crossed his legs and sat on the floor by her feet, and he cocked his head to one side as he asked:

"Ellie, how the hell did you wind up in a place like this?"

Elena took Reeve by surprise with a laugh, and she slid down to the floor by his side, playing with a string of pearls that she had laced around her fingers. She sighed and began her sorry story with a wistful smile.

"Well, as you well know, you, me, Reno and Rude were pretty much the only ShinRa inc. members left after AVALANCHE kicked our sorry butts. Oh sorry, I forgot you helped. Well, after I moped for a couple of months, bumming 'round a friend's house with a bottle of cold Sake, she reminded me that I should probably find a job somewhere. She hooked me up with a lot of job interviews, places she's worked, places her friends had worked, and so I tried them all. For Jenova's sake, I couldn't even get a job as a secretary! A secretary! What's the job description there, sleep with your employer? So anyway, my friend took me here to drown my sorrows, and it was an open mike night. We decided to give it a shot, and I sang a lovely rendition of 'Eyes on Me'. Ever heard that song? It's a classic. Now, I get down off the stage, truly embarrassed, getting more applaud than I had thought possible, and I get confronted by the manager of the club, Dione De Mont. This was about a year ago, and he gave me a full time job here. The pay's great, Dione is... he's great. About two months ago, he proposed to me. We're getting married in about three weeks. I really, really...like him."

Reeve's face was unreadable; There was something in his eyes, the way they shifted downwards, the incredulous crease at the sides. Elena frowned softly, her mouth opening in a soft 'o', question in her eyes. After a smile appeared on his face, her little china doll lips turned up at the corners and she breathed out her bated breath. Reeve chucked her under the chin and commented cheekily:

"Knew you'd be the first out of us lot; had to find someone to put up with you Little Canary."

Elena laughed at the nickname that she had not heard for the longest time, before sighing and looking at the creamy perfection of the string of pearls, rubbing them together softly, weaving them throughout her delicate fingers to form a Cats Cradle. Reeve watched her as she fidgeted uncomfortably,

"So...are you happy here?"

Elena looked thoughtful for a moment, remembering the sudden torrents of tears that had secreted from her own eyes not ten minutes ago. She shook her head gently, but put she hand up quickly before Reeve could question further, trying to get a chance to explain herself.

"I mean, I enjoy singing, gives me a sense of purpose. But don't think for a second that I don't hear what the men say about me. I know how it must look to you Reeve." Her eyes dulled for a moment as she whispered shamefully to him. "It may look like nothing more than a peep show to you. I mean, you've probably moved onto bigger and better things, what with being one of the 'Heroes of the Planet' and all, but it's my love, and I love what I do."

"And who you do it for, apparently," said Reeve, with a cheery smile. His smile, however, drained from his face, and he continued with a wry pout, "Besides, being a 'Hero of the Planet' isn't all it cracked up to be. We've all gone our separate ways, 'cept for Teef and Cloud. I think Barret and Red still see them sometimes, but...I don't know. My life is kind of open to change at the moment, I really haven't got much on at the mo. Basically, I'm the one who got the whole ShinRa account after they all died, so I'm living off that. After all, who else is gonna claim it? But you, hey, you've got a job, and you're getting married, it's all working out for you, right?"

To his surprise, Elena just nodded mutely, and he cocked one of his fine eyebrows with concern. Suddenly though, as if remembering her part in the conversation, she gathered her thoughts and shot him a winning smile, one that was much akin to the one he had seen painted on her face up on stage. He gingerly took one of her still gloved hands and he slipped off the shimmering material, pinched at one of the red, satin fingers and pulled until it shed itself, and, handling it like it was made of the most precious material fathomable, he examined her delicate hand and the ring on it. It was small but expensive looking piece of jewellery, a thin gold band with intricate weaving patterns of white gold on top, leading up to a small diamond, which was flanked by a pair of garnets, facets of the gems glinting in Reeve's eyes as he moved it lightly.

"It's lovely Lacey. I hope you'll be really happy."

"Yeah," confirmed Elena with a nod, "me too."

Reeve opened his mouth to respond, but the door to Elena's dressing room swung open hurriedly, and a thickset man poked his head through the door. He was an intimidating man, over six feet tall, with a heavily bulked abdomen. However, there was a gentle crease around his eyes which proclaimed no monster. His mouth moved lightly, as if he was searching for words, like a nervous child before an adult, but his eyes narrowed at Reeve, but then he returned his attentions to the star, and he spoke softly to her, despite his deep, throaty voice:

"Miss Cardinal? You're on in ten minutes." He looked once more at Reeve, and he bit his lip awkwardly and whispered to her, "is...every thing all right in here?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I'll be ready in a moment. This is just an old friend of mine."

The man nodded and turned on his heel, but he took one more look at Elena before closing the door quietly and retreating down the hall. Reeve watched him go before asking:

"Who was that?"

"Just one of the bouncers. I don't know his name, he's never told me."

They both paused, Reeve's eyes wandering over the dressing room at all manner of memorabilia which Elena had accumulated. It was her hobby, collecting things pertaining to her favourite singers, though she went about her collection with a much healthier obsession than Dio and his famous fighters. There was a large, slightly torn poster of Julia Heartilly, curled at the edges with the colour faded, and various framed discs, carefully shone and polished, obviously taken good care of. Reeve idly wondered whether she looked after them, or whether she had someone employed to do it. He was shaken from his thoughts when Elena stood up, pulling her red glove back on and examining her face in the mirror. She picked up a swab from a pack amidst the clutter of her heavily laden dressing table and, after unscrewing a lid on a tall plastic bottle, she dipped the end of the cotton bud into the clear liquid and swiped it beneath her eyes where her thick black mascara had run. She shook her head, before saying to him sternly:

"Listen, I have to go. It was really nice seeing you Reeve."

Reeve took that as his less than subtle hint to leave, and he nodded dumbly, his mouth screwing up at the side as he accepted the fact that it was time to go. He stood up and brushed down his trousers, an automatic reaction, even though there was nothing to taint his trousers where he was sitting. He blew his long fringe away from his eyes and he stuffed his hands into his pockets, eyeing Elena as she rearranged herself frantically, glancing every minute or so at the clock. Reeve nodded to himself, before turning away from the blonde showgirl, calling to her over his shoulder:

"It was good seeing you too Ellie. I'll see you."

Elena stopped rushing around for a moment to look up at the retreating figure of the ex- Head of Urban Development. She sighed softly to herself, but jumped when Reeve turned around and said to her with a hidden firmness in his voice:

"But hey, Elle? If you ever need someone..." he paused and smiled at her, "well, you know. I'm here for you Little Canary."

Elena nodded, not daring to speak in case her breaking heart betrayed her in her voice. Reeve turned back to the door and opened it with a lightly shaking hand and, looking once more at Elena, her left the room, closing it gently and walking down the corridor which was now nearly empty. He tugged his tie back down and unbuttoned his shirt, before cramming his hands back into his pockets and leaving the bar.

Elena picked up a soft, beige, iridescent lipstick and smoothed the waxy stick over her soft, plump lips, before rubbing them together and pouting into the mirror, satisfied with the pretty face that looked back at her. She then picked up a bright red lipstick and swivelled the gold case so that the entire thing rose, and she leaned over to the mirror and began to write. The red stick of wax was soon spent, as she was pressing hard on the cool, flat surface of the mirror to make it leave an impression, and so she made her message short and sweet, before she threw it down to the floor. After rummaging through her wardrobe, she finally located a short black rain mac, which she wrapped around her slim body tightly, buttoning up the double breasted front and tying the belt. She took down her old poster and rolled it into a cylinder, before tucking that into the coat with her and approaching the door. She gave the room a swift look back, before biting down on her bottom lip with determination, and slamming the door behind her. She looked up and down the hall and, as she found it now empty, she walked confidently to the fire door and slid out, closing the door on the bar.
Reeve lingered in the street, waiting by a flickering streetlight as he vainly waited for a bus. He knew that the next one wouldn't arrive for about half an hour, and so he had resigned himself to fate and given up trying to hide from the near torrential rain. He glanced at his watch through his sopping wet bangs that fell before his face, but sighed as he realised that the hands had stopped turning. He shook it about, but had already realised that the rain must have gotten into the watch's glass casing. He growled and looked for something to kick, and the lamppost seemed like a convenient target, but when he did kick it, the flickering light blacked out completely, along with all the other lamps in the street. His hands flew to his mouth, and he garbled and cursed to himself, but when a voice behind him spoke, he stood up and tried to look innocent.

"Reeve, you've always been clumsy, no point trying to hide it."

Reeve immediately recognised the voice, and as he peered through the veil of rain, he jumped back, startled. He ran towards the figure, brushed her soggy blonde hair out of her face and called to her through the noise of the downpour and the thunder:

"Laney!"

"Reeve..." Elena whispered in his ear, "Reeve, take me home."

Har har! Now we can get this party started! Review and I'll give you all cinnamon flavoured jellybeans!