i apologize in advance for factual errors i may have made; i'm starting to get ff7ac CANON mixed up with ff7ac FANON after reading so many fics
--
elena is waiting.
all she can remember is blood, a streak of silver-hair laughing, blades in his hand, is there more than one of him? two? three? it was cold, tseng's yelling her name over static, abort mission too while they were at it, too late for that now. blade is too close, be a turk elena, be brave, where is tseng?
the last thing she thinks then is, damn, that man looks like sephiroth, and then she remembers black. next thing, red. black again. gold. vincent valentine's stupid arm. vincent valentine has red eyes. vincent valentine is still creepy. where is tseng?
tseng is in vincent's other arm, hair matted in blood against his face. unconscious but he was still gorgeous and if it weren't for the circumstances, if they were still in their shinra office, maybe she would be blushing and stammering and trying to figure out what to say. but instead she closes her eyes again and everything is black again. just like tseng's hair. oh, tseng...
next thing she remembers: rufus is hovering next to her bedside, white bandage haphazardly concealing his off-coloured skin, arms folded just so across the steel of his wheelchair. god, he looks like shit. geostigma, right? rufus tells her she's only been out a few days but god it feels like it's been forever and where's tseng? now rufus is talking about some kadaj fellow and something about cloud strife hey, didn't that bastard fix all their problems last time? where was he now?
no, where is tseng?
now she's waiting. dingy hospital waiting room, florescent lights buzzing above her. she should sleep, she knows it, there's still a sea of ugly bruises across her face and her entire body and god would it kill to get a coffee or maybe a bottle of foundation for a lady down here? but there are more important things like--
tseng walking out the door and she's running despite the fact her entire body is on fire, screaming out for a few more hours of recovery but damn it all to hell it's tseng. she stands in front of tseng for what seems like an eternity; now he is waiting for her to wrap her lean scratched-up arms around him and cry and cry.
she does. she wonders if he loves her or if he's simply too doped up on narcotics to stop her.
rufus interrupts, wheels squeaking gently against cold tile, and elena immediately disentangles from the older turk trying to hide her dismay. rufus is passing out their blood-stained id cards and telling them that he expects them both back in commission by tomorrow morning because they have a world to save and you guys are turks, i expect you to do your job (elena wonders why rufus shinra is still a thoughtless bastard after geostigma and after being blown off of a 70 story building by a weapon)
as rufus wheels himself out the door, tseng follows him out, brushing by elena. careless, like she's not there. then she starts to wish kadaj had killed her when he had the chance because tseng doesn't love her, will never love her, he still owes her a dinner date but he'll never do it because he hates her and--
"you know, elena..." he stops. her heart stops. his voice is beautiful he's smiling. she decides his teeth are beautiful. "i never did take you out to dinner."
oh.