Chapter 9: Twenty Questions

Minutes later, a light rain began to fall. "Your car's getting wet," Elena observes, glancing at the car which still had it's top down.

"Let it," Reno says while nuzzling the side of her neck. He then plants a trail of soft kisses up her neck to her earlobe and across to her mouth, where his tongue resumes it's interrupted exploration of Elena's mouth while his hands slowly caress her back. The pair attempt to ignore the light rain, but the weather is insistent, increasing the volume of falling water over the next several minutes.

"Maybe we oughta take this inside," Elena suggests.

"Yeah. Damn rain." Reno raises one hand, middle finger extended, and waves it in the general direction of the rain clouds, causing Elena to laugh. The pair then stand from their perch at the end of the pier and turn towards Reno's car. After standing, he slips his jacket off and places it over her shoulders while walking towards the car.

"Thanks Reno."

"Hey, it's nothing," he replies as they climb into the car and discover one of the lesser-known drawbacks of water-proof bucket seats when they both sit in shallow puddles that had formed on the seats. After turning the ignition, Reno immediately presses the buttons to raise the roof and windows and turn on the heaters built into the seats.

"It's still pretty early," she states after glancing at the clock on the dashboard while Reno backs up the car. "What else's fun to do around here?"

"Aren't any good movies out right now, and store's are all closed by now. Guess we could hit a bar."

"Alright, just remember you still owe me drinks for passing probation."

"Heh, guess you're not gonna let me forget," he jokes. After a short drive they arrive at the small bar they'd spent time in when they'd passed through town with Rufus's entourage earlier in the year. When the two damp Turks walk in many of the customers cast nervous glances at Reno's uncovered shoulder holsters since Elena was still wearing his jacket. "How about a little drinking game?" he asks as they walk up to the bar, where a space quickly clears for them.

"What's the rules?" she asks after they order their drinks, a Bailey's Martini for him and a Velvet Hammer for her.

"Simple. It's a variation on twenty questions, only instead of trying to figure out what each other's thinking of, the goal's just getting to know each other better. We each get twenty questions to ask about anything and take turns asking. If you don't want to answer, you have to take a shot of Vodka. Since I weigh more and've been drinking heavy longer, I'll take two shots if I don't answer. So, you in?"

"Sounds like fun. Hey, get us a bottle of Vodka and a shotglass," she orders the bartender. The two then carry their drinks to a small table in the corner of the bar.

"Alright then," Reno says after taking a sip of his sweet Martini, "you want to ask first or answer?"

"Hmmm. I'll answer first."

"Thought so. You want that last question, huh?"

"Yeah. Okay, my turn."

"Damn!" he exclaims after accidentally wasting his first question. "Devious woman..." he teases with a lopsided grin.

"All part and parcel of being a Turk," she says with an amused smile.

"Heh, yeah. And I'll take devious over boring any day. Alright, ask away."

Elena's silent for a few moments, thinking. "What's your greatest fear?"

"Being alone," he answers without hesitation. "I don't mean like being in a room by myself alone, I mean if something happens to you and Rude alone. You know, the type of alone I was before becoming a Turk. I couldn't deal with going back to that. That's another of my recurring nightmares, screwing up and losing the two of you. What's your big fear?"

"Rejection."

"And you asked me out anyway. Gutsy move."

"Thanks. It wasn't easy, but I was getting tired of that damned fear getting in my way. So, do you think that Holy thing Avalanche was going on about's gonna work?"

"Clever. If I take the shots you'll know my answer anyways." He pauses and takes a deep breath. "I've been all over the world, seen lot's of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe the planet's alive. There's no mystical Holy thing coming to our rescue just because some half-Cetra chick prayed to it before getting skewered. What'd you think of it before asking me?"

"That it sounds too good to be true. Midgar's S.O.L.. Probably the rest of the continent too."

"Maybe the whole world. But we might as well enjoy the time we've got left."

"Yeah," she agrees with a sigh. "I just wish we had more time. It's a shame neither of us asked for a date earlier."

"Hey, don't be like that," he says while reaching out and gently laying a hand over one of her's. "We can't change the past and there's no point wasting the little time we've got worrying about what could've been. And you never know, we might live to see next week after all. But until we find out, we oughta do like I used to in my downtime back in the war and live in the moment. Cause no matter how much time we get, it'll never be enough. So forget the past, forget the future, and just take whatever you can from now. You've still got eighteen questions left. Go on, anything you wanna know."

"Thanks. Hmmm. You allergic to anything?"

"Yeah. I picked up a Penicillin allergy during the war from getting it pumped into me all the times I got wounded. Then there's bee stings. I got stung on the hand on a mission last year and my hand swelled up so much there wasn't any space between my fingers anymore. Heh, Rude laughed his ass off when he saw it. Now I know copying your questions isn't all that creative, but're you allergic to anything?"

"Chocobos."

"Chocobos?" Reno laughs.

"Yeah, chocobos. I found out when a guy I was dating thought it'd be cute to tickle me with a chocobo feather. Gave me a real nasty rash and the dumbass didn't know when to quit. Funny thing, the next day at work he wouldn't tell anyone how his nose got broken. Guess I hurt his ego worse than his face."

"Heh, I'll have to remember to just use my fingers when I tickle you. I've had my nose broken enough times already."

"Yeah, you'd better. Alright, here's a more personal one. Not sure how I'm gonna phrase this..."

"Shoot."

"I managed to talk Rude into telling me what your unfulfilled promise was. Now, I already know what was holding you back since you told me in the hot tub the other day. What I'm trying to ask is, are you still having trouble with that fear?"

"It's still there, but it only held me back from starting serious relationships. Now that we've gone ahead and taken the risk, it's not really a problem anymore. We've both made ourselves vulnerable to some serious pain by opening up to each other like this, but feeling like this's worth the risk. I've missed this feeling more than I thought."

"What feeling?"

"Heh, you just wasted a question, Lena. You can read people well enough you oughta know the answer already."

"Yeah, but I wanna hear it."

"Falling in love. It's been too long. After all those years of pointless one-night stands I wasn't even sure if I could feel that again. But here I am, getting spun dizzy by the whirlwind again. That what you expected to hear?"

"Pretty much. You might want to stop wasting questions like that."

"Heh, yeah, that might be a good idea. But you asked two in a row, so I've another. Just out of curiosity, what was your first impression of me?"

"A sudden pain in the back of my head and then I woke up in a holding cell wondering what'd hit me."

Reno grins. "That's not what I meant, smartass. That doesn't count, cracking you over the head with my EMR wasn't exactly a formal introduction."

"Heh, it never hurts to try. Well, the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw you was wondering if your hair color's natural."

"I dye it."

"What?"

"Ha, tricked you into wasting another question! No, I'm messing with you. It's natural."

"Clever bastard," she says with an amused smile on her face.

"Hey, that's why you love me, right?" he asks, trying to look innocent.

"That's part of it, and I'm counting that as your next question. Anyways, after our first meeting, I had you pegged as an asshole with a big mouth. But I figured that at least working with you wouldn't be boring."

"Well yeah, when've I ever been boring? Shit, didn't mean to phrase that as a question."

"Too late. Being around you's never boring. So, ever have any phobias?"

"I used to have a problem with deep water, had to get over that the hard way. Heh, my first few amphibious missions sucked. Kept thinking I was gonna piss my wetsuit or something. How about you?"

"Large crowds make more nervous than I should be."

"Hey, at least it's a rational phobia. Crowds're dangerous. I can walk right up to a target in one that's dense enough and knife them and no one'll know what happened."

"Yeah, I guess so. Still, I wish my pulse didn't race in crowds."

"Be back in a moment, gotta go grab another round of drinks." he says before walking to the bar. He returns shortly with two fresh cocktails. "Alright, I think it's your turn."

"What was your hardest mission to go through with?"

"Destroying sector seven."

"I thought so."

"Why's that?"

"I was browsing through our files one day when I found the radio log for that mission. The file didn't seem right, so I got suspicious and managed to find an unedited copy cached in the company's central radio subsystems."

"And that's why we wanted our own IW specialist. I bet you coulda done a better job hiding that."

"Yeah. The uncut version really shocked me. I had to re-think my impression of you after hearing your reaction. And I never thought I'd hear Tseng or Rude beg."

"Yeah, I wasn't thinking too clearly. What I'd just done was... kinda overwhelming me. Good thing they were around to save me from myself."

"Hey, Turks stick together. It's what they were there for."

"Heh, yeah."

"Hey Reno, you've been with a lot of women. Ever catch any, you know, social diseases from any of them?"

He quirkes an eyebrow at this question. "A few times. Thankfully, nothing materia couldn't cure. The whole burning and itching until I figured out what was going on and cured it got annoying enough that I got into the habit of always using rubbers. After that I hardly ever caught anything."

"How'd you manage to catch stuff using a condom?"

"Hey, rubbers can't protect my mouth," he explains with a wink and a crooked grin. "And you skipped my turn again. So what was your hardest mission to go through with?"

"One of my first solo missions. It was the first time I had to go kill someone up close. Can't remember the target's name. I made the mistake of hesitating. It wouldn't've been so hard if he'd fought back, but he started begging instead. Kept going on about his wife and kids. I knew he was probably just bullshiting me, but it didn't make it any easier to pull the trigger. I never hesitated again."

"I think I know which mission you're talking about. We all went out drinking afterwards and you drank a hell of a lot harder than usual. It was the first time we had to run you by the hospital for alcohol poisoning, right?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Hmm, what was your first mission?"

"To provide sniper support from half a mile away to a battalion from Soldier that was assaulting a regiment of entrenched Wutai troops. What's the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten?"

"Moldy pizza from a dumpster back when I was a kid. You?"

"I ate raw chocobo meat with maggots in it once back during the war. Rude and me were stuck behind enemy lines and out of rations when we found some dead cavalry. So we ate their birds."

"Heh, you got me beat on that one."

"Just another of my proud accomplishments," he says with a sardonic smile. "Beats starving."

"Hell, yeah."

"Alright, time for something more positive. What's your proudest moment?"

"Being told I'd passed my probationary period. What's yours?"

"Getting promoted to second-in-command. Ever have any serious relationships before this?"

"Once, back when I lived in the slums. It lasted two years. I lost Kahr when he ended up in the crossfire between two gangs. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was the only one I ever trusted until I learned I could trust you guys after being a Turk for a while. Hey, there's this rumor going around that you're an exhibitionist. What's the deal with that?"

"Heh, I can explain that. Technically, I'm not an exhibitionist. But the way I lived in the war kinda destroyed mosta my inhibitions. Adjusting back to, you know, 'normal' society after coming back to Midgar was kinda hard. Heheh, I had this habit of washing all my clothes at once that really annoyed Tseng."

"How was that annoying?"

"I mean I took off what I was wearing and tossed it in the wash with the rest of my clothes. In a public laundromat with big windows up front looking out on a fairly busy street." Elena breaks out laughing at this. "Heh and for the longest time I couldn't figure out why everyone was giving me those strange looks. Hell, I thought they were staring at my scars, not my package. See, a lot of the time during the war, taking a bath meant stripping and walking into the ocean with a bar of soap, so I didn't see anything wrong with what I was doing. By the time Tseng'd broken me of that habit, the rumor'd gotten started."

"Every now and then someone'll wake me up by knocking on my door and being half-asleep'll make me slip up and forget to pull some pants on before opening the door. It doesn't happen often, but it's often enough to keep the rumor going. Hey, it's your turn to get drinks." he says handing her his company credit card. Elena quickly makes her way over to the bar, and then returns with their third round of drinks. "So, you got any bad habits aside from snooping through computers?"

"Not unless my drinking problem counts. And I guess smoking too."

"Nah, those're normal for a Turk. Anyone who can do work like we did and not become an alcoholic's either seriously messed up in the head or addicted to something a hell of a lot stronger than booze."

"I'm not sure if I should feel reassured or depressed by that..."

"Hey, at least neither habit has any consequences that can't be fixed by materia."

"Yeah, that's true. Alright, Reno, what's the most embarrassing mission you've been on?"

"Probably the time I had to dress as an obvious drag queen to infiltrate a club and plant bugs."

"How obvious?"

"Why aren't I surprised you asked that? Damn, there I go wasting questions again. Very obvious. Five o clock shadow, fishnet hose with leg hair sticking out, the works. Hell, I thought Rude was gonna hurt himself, he was laughing so damned hard. I couldn't help it, I looked so ridiculous that I joined in, laughed so hard I couldn't stay on my feet. Ever laugh so hard your eyes water?"

"A few times. Any chance there's a picture?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if Rude took one for blackmail when I wasn't looking. So there we were, sitting on the floor laughing our asses off, when Tseng walked in to tell us to hurry up. Guess we were contagious or something, cause then he starts laughing and has to sit down."

"Excuse me," the bartender says after walking up to their table, "we're about to close. You two'll have to leave."

Reno glances at his watch. "Damn, time flew. Alright, we're going." He then takes the bottle of Vodka in one hand and Elena's hand in the other and exits the bar. "Guess we'll have to finish this some other time."

"Only two questions left and we haven't even touched the bottle," Elena observes as they climb into his car for the short drive back to the safehouse.

"Must be a sign of trust or something." After shifting the car into drive, he drapes his right arm over her shoulders and she leans towards him, relaxing into his side. "Have fun?"

"Of course. At least that part of your reputation's true."

This draws a laugh from Reno. "Hey, my rep's not all rumors, you know. I earned at least some of it."

"Oh really, now? Which parts?"

"You really want me to answer that when it'll be more fun to have me show you?" he asks while pulling into the garage.

"Well, when you put it that way..." she chuckles. The two Turks then exit the car and stroll hand-in-hand to the elevator, where they silently ride up to their floor, wrapped in each other's arms.

After the short walk down the hallway, they spot a note taped to the door. 'Figured you two might want some privacy, so I'll be sacking out in the Falcon tonight. Have fun. -Rude'

"Considerate, isn't he?" Elena remarks while walking into the apartment.

"So, did he guess right?" Reno asks while closing the door. He then walks up behind her and folds his arms around her.

"Normally I end a first date with a kiss goodnight, unless it didn't go well, then they don't even get that. But I don't usually have first dates four days before the world's supposed to end." She turns in his embrace and tilts her head back, looking into his eyes. "It'd be a shame to waste any opportunity when we've so little time left. How about I make an exception for you and you show me the truth behind those rumors?" Elena suggests while reaching up and wrapping her arms around Reno's neck.

"Sounds fun," he answers before allowing himself to be pulled down into a deep kiss.

Author's Note: Thanks again for betaing this, Noroi. Thanks for the great reviews secretselphie-tilmitt, Yumesuta, Bruna Aquino, The Tiramisu Of Impending Doom, Cathy7, and icewolf9. It's great to know that my work's appreciated. Tiramisu, if it's any consolation, I actually made myself hungry writing that part. And I happened to write it late enough at night that I couldn't just run out to the nearest(and it's not very near) Italian restaurant to satisfy that urge. Kinda sucks having to drive forty minutes just to buy my favorite dessert. Guess I'm gonna have to start rolling my own, now if only I could find a place around here that sells mascarpone cheese...

I think this might be my fastest update yet. Hopefully that makes up for the excessive wait on last chapter. You might've noticed my chapters getting smaller lately, I'm trying to break the story into smaller pieces so I can update more often. As a little side-note, when I wrote See You on the Other Side, I used the same Reno characterization I'm using for this fic. So you could look at that as an example of the type of recurring nightmare Reno talks about in this chapter. S.O.L. stands for Shit Out of Luck, another way of saying screwed. There's another Star Wars homage in this chapter, Reno stating his skepticism about Holy's phrased kinda like Han stating his skepticism about the Force. Kahr's another name borrowed from Xenogears. Here's hoping the next chapter'll go as quickly.

Edited again because some site update deleted all the '--' lines I used to use to denote scene changes. So time to slap horizontal rulers into all my fics.