I just realised that today is the seventh-month anniversary of this series. Yeah, I started C'Est La Vie seven months ago today. Wow...
I think I'm also a dumbass. I didn't realise there wasa "stats" page until my boyfriend told me. To all of those who added me or my story/ies to your favorite/alert list, THANK YOU SO MUCH! Yeah. I was oblivious, but I didn't realise that a lot of people liked these stories. Some of the people are those who made me start liking Reno too! I feel so... honored? Is that the word? Anyways... I decided to get through with this series until it ends, because it looks like there are people who want to read it. Yeah. I'm really pessimistic. And I don't know if I spelled that right.
I'm going to update at a faster pace now that school is out.
Devil-Angel: The reason Arien doesn't like rollercoasters is simple: my friends and I went to amusement park the week before, and the friend sitting next to me screamed like the world was going to end. I found that very amusing. She screamed like an opera-singer. Elena and Tseng... Tseng keeps falling for girls he can't get (AKA Aeris) so I'm hoping they get hooked up.
ODST girl058: Reno's like a little kid. He's also a complicated character. I'm glad you laughed! I think humor is one of the hardest genres to write. Yeah, I pity Arien too. And she pities herself later. Elena's happy, though. She's with her fav. guy in the whole wide world, and she gets to be clingy to him. I should write a Tseng-romance with mary-sues... see how that turns out... (snickers evilly)
RaspberryPolarBear: If you read on, you'll realise that your dream had come true. Okay, maybe it wasn't your dream, but it was Elena's. I was going to have Reno barge in screaming "FIRE!" but I didn't know how to put that in with the situation, so I just had Elena fear about it. Actually, you gave me the idea about Elena walking into the foyer looking frazzled. Turks seem to be liberal about sex. Not that I'm complaining. By the way, whaaat happened to your fic? (haunts)
Seeeeee: I'm not sure if I have the right number of 'e's in your name. Anyways. I don't know if Reno's going to find out soon, because I really don't have a set outline for this story. I'm just writing as I feel. Thus the crappiness and the uncohesiveness and the incoherence of the storyline. Reno'll find out, though. Sooner or later. I'm not sure how he'll react. I'll probably have to call him and ask :-P.
NarcissisticRiceball: Did you know Narcissistic is one of my favorite words? Random thought there. I'm very hyper right now, so my responses don't make much sense. Anyways, my fear is that their communcation sounds artificial. I hate artificial conversations. It sounds cheesy. I want to make this couple not loving but a funny one, because I haven't seen much loving couples except in movies.
cookiekitten: Tseng and Elena... I think they're cute. I thought I can give Elena to Tseng (yeah, I sound sexist right there) because Reno already has a girlfriend, and Rude... well, he likes Tifa. If Reno wasn't hooked up I'd pity him so I won't be able to give Elena to Tseng, because Reno acted like he liked Elena a little in the game. Reno is adorable. Especially chibis. As far as they aren't with me.
Leah: My mom's name is Leah! Hey, coincidence. Speed Square... I never could do anything there. I just lost lots of gils in that part of the game, and then decided I wasn't going to give so much dough to Shinra Company, they had enough already. I went on a date with Yuffie though, and she was adorable. I was mean to Aeris. She was too nice for me to like her. I had fun being mean (is evil).
EternallyJinxed: I'm glad you like it, despite the differences of Reno's portrayal. I think I can see what you mean... maybe you mean something more subtle in Reno? I'm really sorry if I'm getting this wrong. I'm kind of a person who should never ever be a lit major. (What was the word... yeah, blunt, that's it.) I'm trying to get Reno to what he is like, but it's a toughie. Thanks for the criticism!
Uh, mild sexual scene. And sexual references. Beware.
Chapter 14: Elena finds love, Reno finds beer
It was six o'clock sharp in Gold Saucer, and Arien DeVir woke up wondering why exactly was Reno's arm on her face. Then she realised that he was splayed on top of her, and that explained why she couldn't breathe throughout the night. He did have a habit of moving around, sure, but this was the worst by far.
After beating off Reno who seemed more than willing to procreate, she determinedly fell asleep ignoring Reno's whining. She had a disturbing dream where some tall figure with long hair was waving over, then a voice – whether it was a male or a female, she had no idea – telling her to "follow her destiny". Or whatever. And another voice telling her that she was an egg, but that made absolutely no sense. She made her own destiny, goddamn it, and she was not following any kind of predestination. And she was not an egg. And then she fell asleep again and had a dream about how Rennie and she were arguing over who was going to get the cake first. And then she woke up with Reno quite literally on top of her.
"Reno… move… please," she whispered as she tried to push him off. Unfortunately, he was much heavier than what he looked, and she had difficulty pushing him off.
"For… god's sake… you need to lose weight!" she fumed as she rolled Reno off of her and off the bed. He landed on the floor with a loud crash. And the impact woke him up.
"Ow! What the fuck!" he swore, rubbing his head. "Why the hell am I on the floor?"
"Because you were on top of me and you were heavy," Arien said, stretching. "Honestly, Reno, would it kill you to lose some weight?"
Reno gave her an incredulous look. Reno was underweight. Arien was underweight. The Turks were underweight, except for Rude. It was a constant joke among their colleagues. "I'm gonna get back at ya for that, yo. You bitch."
"I've been called worse expletives. I'm taking a shower." She disappeared into the bathroom. When she was out of eyeshot and earshot, Reno grinned, rubbing his bare shoulder.
"She's in for a big surprise."
Arien DeVir discovered much to her chagrin, five minutes into the shower session, that the shampoo was all gone. Completely.
Shampoos were restocked before new guests came in. That meant…
"Reno!" She flew out of the bathroom, with a small bath towel around her torso. At least he didn't put his hair dye in there. Reno refused to admit that his fire-engine red hair was not natural all the while showing his roots, but he did have a nasty habit of putting dye in an empty shampoo bottle. She had accidentally used it once, and realised to her horror that no, she wasn't washing her hair, she was dying it. She had screamed at him for a good hour, then made him go buy a black hair-dye. She was not going to walk around with red patches on her head. Hair was a tricky subject between them. They both valued their hair beyond considerable norms.
Sopping wet, she hopped over to Reno, who was watching TV on the bed. He was not a morning person, and he looked drowsy and tired. She really hated the feeling of her wet feet on the carpet; it felt like bugs were crawling on the sole of her feet. Shaking an empty shampoo bottle under his nose and spraying water everywhere, she demanded, "Explain this to me, will you?"
"It's empty?" Reno looked at her and a nasty grin came on his face. "You look great when you're wet."
"Thank you, that's not the point." She looked annoyed. "Please get another shampoo bottle. Now."
He took a drag of cigarette, blew the smoke on her face. She made a motion with her hand like an annoyed cat, trying to fan the grey smoke out of her face. He stood up and said, "After this show, yo."
"What show?" She turned her head toward the TV, where it was broadcasting some advertisement for a new brand of baby wipes. Okay… she didn't know Reno was so interested in baby wipes.
"This show." Reno grabbed her and pulled her down. Okay, maybe not.
"Reno, shampoo. Please."
"After this…" He pulled her down even further, then kissed her. Her wet hair painted strokes of water on his bare shoulder and chest; he somehow found that a little turn-on. Not quite a turn-on, but getting there.
"Reno, shampoo. Now!"
"Later."
"Re…mffgnh," she flailed her legs as Reno stuck his tongue in her mouth. She couldn't exactly flail her arms without the bath towel coming off, and she didn't want to think about what would happen if her bath towel did come off. Reno tasted the mint of toothpaste that she used in her mouth. Reno's arms snaked around her waist.
"Reno…" this wasn't a threat. It was a plea. It was Round I KO, Reno winning all the way. "Shampoo. Please?"
The redhead was satisfied with the woman's gentle surrender. He gave her a lick on the lips then grinned and said, "Right, shampoo."
Okay, Tseng wasn't a virgin. Elena could give him that. But if a Turk was going on thirty and a virgin, he (or she) had a serious problem. Actually, if anyone was thirty and an unwillingvirgin with a regular profession, that person had a serious problem. It wasn't like Turks were regular spies who just slept with the target and retrieved information, but jobwise, they were pretty popular for some reason. Well, maybe it was the pay, or that for some reason, Rufus picked "pretty" people as Turks. Was Elena herself a virgin? No. Come on, she was twenty five!
For some reason, what was supposed to be a light kiss turned into a heavy make-out session, then clothes magically came off by themselves – Elena could swear – then somehow, well, they were "fucking", as Reno would say. Elena felt unprofessional; she was doing this on her job. Very unprofessional. (She was also afraid that Reno might barge in. or maybe he had the place rigged up and was spying on them right now. He had nasty tendencies to do the exact thing she didn't want him to.)
But back at the Edge people were literally walking into each other, and that meant no privacy. Sure, Healin was a pretty big place, but someone was always shouting for something, most often Reno, and that was hardly a romantic setting. Well, this hotel, filled with ghosts, wasn't exactly romantic either, but it was better than the place where Reno was yelling that someone didn't buybooze for the week. Rufus had banned alcohol on most occasions, but did Reno give a care? Of course not.
She wondered why she didn't wear her favourite pair of lingerie, then realised that they were going to come off anyways.
Tseng was a gentle lover, and romantic. Elena liked that. She wondered if he was skilled because he was just experienced, or because he instinctively knew. She hoped for the latter. But she really didn't care. What she cared was that she was with the man she loved.
Tseng slammed off the alarm clock that trilled shrilly next to him. His arm was under Elena's blonde head; he opened his eyes drowsily, then realised why Elena was stark naked, next to him, her small head on his arm. He gently caressed her cheek, wondering, thinking… was this how Reno felt when he was with Arien? This gentleness, this tenderness?
Uh, Reno? Definitely not.
But he had seen the look he gave her, not the lust-filled one as Reno used to look upon women, but something more gentle, something more tender.
Well…
Elena looked small and childish. She wasn't a tall woman to begin with. With her blonde hair fanning out and her head hidden in the shadow of her arm thrown as if cradling her own head, she slept like a small girl hiding in the corner to cry. The sunlight hit her pale skin, casting shadows that danced on her face.
Tseng tried to remove his arm without disturbing Elena's sleep, and failed. Elena's eyes fluttered, then opened. Blue-green orbs gained focus. Then she extended a hand, touched his cheek with her manicured fingertip.
"Tseng…"
Tseng suddenly understood everything about Reno. Why he stayed with the Wutaian woman. Why he seemed to be ready to do anything and go anywhere for her. Why he had a tender look every time he watched her. It was painfully obvious. It was simple.
"Good morning, sir," Arien greeted as she sat down next to Elena. Reno sat next to Tseng. Elena had changed her turtleneck to a beige cardigan, and Tseng was in a black shirt instead of the menacing long coat. Reno was in a tight black shirt; Arien had a black turtleneck on. The Turks were used to wearing double-layer, just in case. But they weren't used to wearing bright colors; their uniforms were dark colors, and they felt more comfortable in black and navy.
Tseng and Elena were eating breakfast. Elena was eating toast and eggs; a small orange and a yogurt were beside her plate. She looked like she had just found heaven's door, but fatigue peeked from her demeanour; her hair wasn't as set properly as it usually was. Tseng was eating a little more heavily; his plate had bacon and fried eggs and baked tomatoes. Reno stared at Elena for a moment, then grinned knowingly. Elena blushed. Arien poured herself some water, trying to ignore the silent innuendos that passed between Elena and Reno.
"May I take your orders?"
Reno flashed a grin at the waitress. "I'll have pancakes, fried eggs, bacon, sausages, potatoes, toast, and beer."
Tseng stopped his hands and stared at the redhead. "Reno, you're piloting. No beer."
"What the fuck! I am so having beer." He looked at the waitress again and said, "I am having beer. Don't listen to this guy, okay, babe?"
"No, he is not having beer," Elena said crossly. "I am not putting my life in your hands when you're drunk."
"Or anytime, for that matter," Arien jibed. "I'll have toast, medium-done eggs, and a grapefruit." Arien often wondered if Reno was going to die very soon from all the crap he shoved into himself when she was not around. Before he moved in, his diet consisted of: booze, beer, more booze, pizza, junk food, beer, booze, and did she already mention booze? He was literally committing a diet suicide. She did not even want to know how many arteries he was going to clog up.
"Rabbit food," Reno muttered.
"And this ginger gentleman is not having beer," Tseng added without a pause.
"What?"
Tseng gave him "the look". He became silent. The waitress nodded and fled before a fight broke out over beer.
"I was gonna go light, yo! That's why I chose beer!" Reno complained loudly when the waitress was gone. The three ignored him.
"Any information?" Tseng said as he cut a slice of bacon.
"No, sir. Just that they are probably headed for Wutai."
"Same here," Elena said. "Well, I guess we're going there then. Right?"
"To the crypts, eh?" Reno snickered. "Ghosties and creepies and spidies."
"That's not the problem," Arien said, sighing in content as she received the tray from the waitress. Reno raised his eyebrow. She nodded thanks. Arien had one big fear that made everyone laugh: spiders. She had a major arachnophobia, and even with a micro-spider that was about two millimetres big she always called Reno to kill it.
"Well, okay, spiders are a problem for me, but that's not the point. That crypt hasn't been officially opened for almost two centuries now. How are we going to get in?"
"Can't we just ask the priest dude to open the goddamn thing up, yo?" Reno said as he stuffed his mouth with a sausage. Elena looked at his plate in disgust.
"That's a lot, Reno."
"I'm a growing man," Reno replied as he took a large chomp out of the toast.
"Sir, this is going to be difficult," Arien said. "We need to enter the crypts without the priest. They'll never open the crypts for us."
"How many entry points?"
"I have no idea, sir. I know one other than the front entrance from the temple grounds, but there might be more. I can find it on my laptop."
"Where is your laptop, yo?"
"In the VTOL."
"Well, that's useful," Reno commented wryly with a strong emphasis on "that's". Arien grabbed a grapefruit spoon and attacked her ruby red grapefruit while ignoring the comment.
"Where is this entrance? I've never seen it before," Tseng asked, wiping his mouth. Arien looked at him, surprised.
"You didn't know, sir? It's in the children's playgrounds, under the green elephadunk slide."
"I never played there," Tseng replied dryly.
"I'm surprised Rufus hasn't enlisted any help besides from us," Elena noted, switching the subject. Tseng's deprived childhood was a touchy topic, and the Turks generally avoided it. "It sounds like they're a little formidable."
"We tried," Reno butted in. "Rufus thought it was a brilliant idea to enlist THE Chocobo Head as his bodyguard, no less."
"You know, Reno," Arien said as she carried a piece of grapefruit into her mouth, "Cloud did save the world, why don't you call him by his proper name?"
"Because he's not here. And don't tell me you've never thought he looks like a chocobo. I swear to Shiva and Holy, I bet Cloud's grandma was bored one winter and dallied with a chocobo, yo."
"That's disgusting, Reno."
"Maybe."
"How did that go, asking Cloud, I mean?" Elena asked. Reno shrugged.
"Said he wasn't interested. He slammed the door in my face."
"Big surprise there," Tseng noted wryly while looking around to see if everybody was done.
Not everyone knew this, but Tseng Uzuki was one of the elites even in Wutai. There were classes within the continent, five to be exact: the political class, including Godo and the princess Yuffie, the priesthood, the merchants, the professional ninjas, and the regular citizens. Sure, all people in Wutai had the basics of being a ninja, like running quietly and using weapons to a certain degree, but the each expertise were left to the professionals. The faith formation of the mountains, for instance, was quite conservatively left to the priests. People were born into these classes, and it was almost impossible to break out of them.
Each class had distinctive dress, but when they were in regular clothes it was indiscernible of what class they were from.
Except the priests, of course.
For some sheer twist of fate, Tseng Uzuki happened to be born into the class of priesthood. His father was a priest. And like all priest-borns, Tseng was tattooed a red dot on his forehead as a baby. Unfortunately for the Uzuki family, Tseng was not exactly cut out to be a priest; he happened to be a mastermind, a schemer, not a man dedicated to prayers and meditation. So when he was sixteen, he fled Wutai and his oppressive father who was trying to force the young man into a life as a priest. The rest of the story was a history among the Turks, and no one ever discussed anything about it. There was nothing to discuss.
Arien's family was from a merchant class, and so they were anonymous. But Tseng's distinctive bindi could be a problem… or an advantage.
As Reno piloted the VTOL over toward Wutai, Arien discovered that there was only one entrance, under the elephant in the children's' playground. Unfortunately for the Turks, that place was never deserted, even in the darkest hour of the night; children happened to be there twenty-four seven, no days excepted.
"We have a problem," Arien said as she closed her laptop. Behind her, Elena was adjusting her tie and Tseng was zipping up his jacket. "The only entrance other than the one in the temple is the one under the green elephant, and the kids are always there."
"They have to go to bed sometime," Elena said as she pulled on her jacket.
"Nope. Those kids are there even in midnight. We Wutaians don't sleep until we're twenty-one, figuratively speaking."
"No other exit, huh?" Reno asked as he pulled the VTOL up.
"There is an exit. There's no other entrance. The exit only opens from the inside," Arien replied. "And we can't walk around too much, Tseng's going to be a little obvious with his bindi…"
"What, yo?"
So Arien explained briefly what the bindi meant. Reno laughed after the explanation and said, "Well, what's the problem, yo?"
"What?" Elena asked. "What do you mean, what's the problem?"
"Tseng's from the priest family, right?"
"That's right," Tseng replied, rubbing his red mark self-consciously, as if rubbing it would make it go away.
"Then we can pose Tseng as some priest or something. I've seen those priests before, and they wear those long-ass Wutai robes and some hat big enough to hide an elephadunk, so have Tseng disguise himself and open the door for us. We can sneak in later."
"Reno, you're brilliant," Elena admitted grudgingly.
"Yeah, sucks to be dense, doesn't it?"
The VTOL landed quietly a little inland from the coastline, as Tseng had directed. The four stood, watching the sea attack the coast then retreat, attack, then retreat. It was peaceful, and the town of Wutai was still a few miles away. It was still before noon, and Tseng had decided to determine their courses of action before heading toward the town.
"Tell me," Arien said quietly as she played with a blade of grass in her hands, "How is it like, fighting with them?"
"The silver-haired trio?" Reno tensed slightly. He remembered clearly, the day when Rude and he got defeated, in front of Rufus, no less. Arien was not there; she was gone, out to find Tseng and Elena, and to bring them back to the Edge.
-flashback-
"I don't like lies," Kadaj said, walking slowly toward Rufus, who was draped in a white cloth to conceal his Geostigma. Ever the dramatist, Rufus was in his wheelchair again. It was all a façade, Reno knew; Rufus could walk around and do things almost as well as any normal person could. But he was in his wheelchair again, looking like a white spectre.
He could not see very well. He was on the floor, and his back hurt like hell. He could only twitch and groan. Rude was somewhere closer to the door, face down and struggling to get up. And failing. It seemed like it only took Kadaj about three minutes to take him out. And he, Renaldo Miller of the Turks, was not an easy one to go down. No sir.
But, he amended, he was taken unawares. If he was ready, he would easily take that goddamn fucking kid out.
"My mistake," Rufus admitted. "I'll be honest next time." He paused, then continued. "While they were fleeing, it seems like they dropped it from the helicopter. Ridiculous story," he added like an afterthought.
"Truly…?" Kadaj's voice was soft, but it was lethal.
"I swear it."
"Fine. Swear on this, then." Kadaj threw the ID cards smeared with blood. Rufus did not even glance at it, but Rufus knew what it was.
Tseng and Elena's Shinra ID's. Smeared with their own blood.
-End Flashback-
"Reno?" Arien was looking at him. Reno shook his head, his eyes mischievous.
"Arie, they're kids who keep their 'mother' in a box." Reno made it sound like that was explanative enough.
They walked to Wutai silently, each brooding about their own problems. Tseng had enough problems to deal with during this entire mission; Elena was reminiscing about the night before, and felt like she was in a dream. Reno was trying to figure out how to drink booze without Tseng finding out; and Arien, of course, had enough troubles on her hands. She couldn't remember if the trapdoor was under the sand under the said Elephadunk's nose or under the sand in the tunnel of Elephadunk's stomach. Their walk was quiet as the result.
As soon as they entered the town they realised that the town was abnormally quiet. They walked by the children's playgrounds, and to their dismay, they found no one there.
"Where is the entry point?" Tseng asked. Arien silently pointed to a forlorn elephadunk slide sitting in the corner. It was polka-dotted, and quite distinctively yellow.
"The exit point?"
Arien pointed to the mountains.
"I don't see any kids," Reno noted.
"That is really really weird."
"Maybe the kids don't play late in the night after the Meteor incident?" Elena spoke up. She was uncannily close to Tseng. Reno smirked again.
"Elena, it's one in the afternoon." Arien pointed out. "No, this is odd. Something's up."
And so that meant snooping. Of course, Arien could have just asked her father, but the silent rule of the Turks was not to contact anyone you didn't want to involve. Arien refused to involve her father; he was retired, she said, and she was not going to pull him back into the brutal world of espionage again. The snooping did not take long; Tseng just grabbed a newspaper, where the headline was big and large:
"Children gone missing?" Elena read out loud. "We-ell, that explains."
Tseng thought for a moment. He nodded, but to himself or someone in particular, no one knew. He just said, "We go in. Tonight."
