Uh, sorry for the delay, but this chapter is extremely sub-par, because it's a filler. Heh. Next chapter will be ON TIME, and much better! So PLEASE, don't abandon me after reading this chapter!

I nearly cried when I saw 11 or so reviews for the last chapter. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I love you guys.

ODST Girl058 - Yessss, Reno is out of that odd funk. They're back together. Yey! So we now know who's going to be in the sequel. Arien and Reno of course :-D. Hope you're doing fine with school, because I'm not. I hate school. I hate English. I hate Beowulf. Stupid Beowulf.

NarcissisticRiceball - Haha. Arien changed too, you know. She became... softer. She won't shoot Reno's head when he says something sexist. The last chapter was probably one of my favorites. I planned that scene for SO LONG, so I'm very happy that everyone liked it.

cookiekitten - Errr, this fic is almost over, but a sequel and a prequel is still in line, so no. This series will yet continue. So heh. The prequel will not contain Arien DeVir, however. The next fic will contain Vincent Valentine as well! God, gotta love Vincent.

Echo - here's what happens. Read below :-). This chapter is a filler, though. There'll be a grand fanfare ending type for this fic. This fic was hard... because I had to squish the poor heroine into the storyline. I did my best, though.

Raspberry Polar Bear - this fic is nearly ending... yes... BUT! There's a sequel coming up! So don't worry! Never fear! The next fic will be awesome schwarsome as well. :-D You, my longest reader, deserve a humongous crown... or a cookie. Or a cameo. Or something.

Moonshine's Guide - I tried to portray Rufus as the guy in denial. He kept stealing girls from Reno in the setting :-P. Maybe I'll marry him off in the next fic... or something. I haven't decided. That's a really good idea, though. I feel so bad for him, so he deserves a girl.

Reaping But Never Grim - AWWW, Thanks! I don't have talent, though. I just read a lot. I do. And the last chapter was planned for about 3 months. I think it's one of my best, you know. I'm so happy you enjoyed it. The last scene was cute, I think. :-D

Insanity - Romance can be good, when it's the right person and the right time. Don't jump into it just for it, though. I dunno how it works, but sooner or later the "Mr Right" or "Miss Right" comes by. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, though.

Mister Bigbucks - I'm sorry to disappoint you... this chapter is short and rather sub-par. But it will get better, I promise! Reno's steadily changing into a version 2.0 in my mind... it might be kinda cool to have Reno as a dad. No? Well, at least he won't care about my grades...

GacktLover14 - First of all, Gackt is MINE, damn it! Just kidding. I like his songs, but I don't want him. No, this isn't the end. There's a sequel coming up, and I already have the introduction written out. So watch out for those! We won't have much separations, but still it'll be fun.

As I had said before, sorry for the 5 day delay and the very crappy chapter. I hate it when the writers just stop writing, and I freak out when they're late for couple of days, so if you are out there to kill me I won't blame you. But doooon't Abaaaaandon me! Yes, I have abandonment issues.


Chapter 24: Rebuilding

"Arien!"

The woman turned, her long hair twirling along with her in the wind. She smiled at him, a gentle smile with lips curving up.

"Come on! I'll take you to the sea. Costa Del Sol, where I used to play, remember? I promised you?"

She shook her head.

"Why not, yo?"

"I can't go back," she said sadly. And then, she raised her arm and shot him…

Reno felt himself sinking into the darkness. Arien's blue-green eyes were sparkling in the darkness, like to gems on a velvet.

I'm no longer reflected in those eyes I love, Reno thought lamely, fighting the pain.

My voice won't reach you anymore…

But…your eyes, the last things I've seen, were more beautiful than a miracle… Arien…

It's really pretty, Arien, gleaming, reflecting the sunlight…

Just like your eyes…

"Reno! Reno!"

Eyes fluttered open, and Reno sat up groggily. Arien did not have a gun in her hand. It was a dream. Her white tank top looked almost luminous in the moonlight through the window curtain; her black hair fell onto her collarbone, down between her breasts and onto the duvet.

"What happened?"

"You were dreaming," Arien explained, her voice trembling. "You sounded choked, then you screamed once. I woke you up."

"You were in my dream," Reno said, scratching his head. "You shot me."

Arien said nothing. Mental wounds healed more slowly than physical ones; although both of their bullet wounds were healed, Arien knew that Reno was still having traumas about it.

"Do you want anything?" The soft voice was a whisper in the darkness.

"Stay with me," he replied, burying his face into the nape of her neck. He inhaled her scent, took comfort in it. He was bathing in sweat.

Clock ticked away, marking down the minutes and the hours in silence. Reno felt a pair of soft lips on his skin, just a small peck. He hugged her more tightly, wanting to make sure that she was not a threat to him. She gently raked her hand through his mane.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, before the phone trilled. Reno reluctantly let go, reached over, sighed, and picked it up.

"Reno here."


"What the hell is this?"

"It's a new combat suit."

"It's about the size of my hand."

"Precisely." Tseng looked at him. "It'll stretch."

"Yeah? And it snaps? And I go naked? No thanks."

Arien's voice floated from the adjacent room. "You are NOT walking around naked, Reno. I know you love to do that."

"It won't snap." Tseng didn't mention that it was extremely uncomfortable in the new elastic combat suit. Sure enough, it was about the size of Reno's hand, its black, rubbery texture unnatural. He could just imagine Reno fitting himself into it and swearing loudly in due process, explaining - quite explicitly too - how it was uncomfortable around his privates. It provided the least amount of thermal control, and it stuck to the skin like gum, but it allowed free movement with minimal weight and most ease. Rufus had bought six of them, although Tseng had no idea who the sixth person could be. It certainly wasn't going to be the president.

Shinra Company was reviving itself, slowly, unwillingly. It still dealt with energy supplies, but with Barret Wallace's discovery, it switched from Mako to oil fields. Rufus knew too well that in twenty years people will start saying that the oil was hurting the planet, but as for now, people were grateful of Shinra Company. It provided jobs and energy and products made using the energy. Shinra had the money to develop the oil fields into a stable energy source, so with much goading and persuasion, Barret Wallace finally gave up and share his discovery with Rufus.

As soon as the business began to expand, the Turks went back to being what they were – assassins. They were good at it, and many rivals were looking at the oil fields with covetous eyes and even hands, and Rufus wanted them discreetly out of the picture. All of a sudden, the Turks found themselves going through one mission after another. Reno grumbled that he thought he was promised an easy job with good pay, but nobody paid attention. Tonight was their 9th mission since the Jenova fiasco in the span of 5 weeks– Tseng kept count – and the first time they were in the new Turks office. It was infinitesimally small compared to their previous one in the Shinra HQ, but it had a full weaponry room as well as ID locks.

"Hey Tseng!" came the rude voice. "What if it won't hold my penis, yo?"

"Reno, your genitals can fit in a matchbox," Tseng retorted. Elena started to chortle. Reno barged out of the room where he was changing, half in the suit and half out of it. His naked torso looked paler against the black.

"I am not gonna to go around looking like a freakish version of Nightcrawler, okay!" Reno shouted. "I'm too cool for that shit."

Arien emerged behind him, buttoning her suit jacket. "Is it supposed to be this uncomfortable, sir?"

"Yes," Tseng replied, making a mental note not to mention how it could get even worse as time passed. Most likely Reno would just strip it off and wear it the wrong way. Or cut holes into it.

"Reno, get in it," Arien prodded. "Come on."

"Only if you fit me in it with your mouth."

Arien raised her eyebrows and walked to the weaponry. Swiping her newly issued card, she placed her fingertips on the scanner. The alarm beeped, the light panel above the door went green. Arien stepped in, and the door slammed behind her.

Tseng pondered, not for the first time, what Arien saw in Reno as he heard Reno screaming his head off that he was not going to walk around in a full body suit. Pulling up his suit to the collar, Reno repeated the steps and stormed into the weaponry room.

Tseng sighed.


"False alarm. What the fuck!"

Arien sat down tiredly. Apparently Rufus' "emergency mission" was nothing but a false alarm. She felt awfully tired, and the combat suit was less than comfortable. It was bright dawn, and they had just managed to go back home and crawl into bed.

It was bad enough that Arien had to stay after the rest had gone home. Or so she had thought. When she tiredly entered her car and turned on the engine, a very slender hand touched her neck and she nearly shot the culprit into smithereens. Turning around with a gun pointed at the forehead, she realised that the culprit sported flaming red hair. No wonder she never realised; he was still in the combat suit but nothing else, and his pale face and his red hair were the only indications that he existed. Slumped deeply into the back seat, she could not have seen him. Nightvision was in full use, but the front seats quite successfully obstructed the view.

Now Reno was slumped onto the bed, still in the combat suit, too tired to get out of it despite its discomfort. Reno was still slender and muscular, not the steroid kind but the natural type where the muscles built up after years of use. "I ain't gettin' up," Reno declared. "Not until I get sleep."

"Reno," said the woman in black, "you can't go to bed in the suit."

"You can take it off for me. With your sweet little mouth, of course."

Arien stared at him. What was up with his obsession with her dressing - or stripping - him with her mouth? Were all males like this? First he was nice and sweet, and then he went in for the gropes. Apparently testosterones were all that controlled Reno. She vaguely remembered the joke Ivanna had told her when she first started to go out:

"God had created two species, man and woman. There were two body parts left when he was done. First God went to Adam and asked, 'Which one do you want? The first one lets you pee while standing up...'

Adam did not listen to the rest but thought that nothing could be better than to be able to pee while standing up, so he immediately picked that one. So God went to Eve and said, 'I made Adam be able to pee standing up; so I'll give you the brains to think."

Arien had laughed about it. But now, when she thought about it, it wasn't exactly laughable.

"Come on, baby," Reno crooned as she sat there dumbly, furrows between her eyebrows. "Come to daddy. Strip yo' daddy with yo' mouth, yo."

"And your compensation for that exhausting labour?" Arien asked tersely. "I'm as tired as you are, you know."

"I'll strip you with my mouth, if you want."

"That's quite okay. I don't think I'll do it." She stood up and started to peel off the suit. She winced a few times as she lost the hold of it and it snapped onto her skin. When she was about half-way done, Reno stood up, yawned, and took her into his arms.

"Can you wait until I'm out of this plastic suit?"

"No." He pulled the suit off her. Her hair fell onto her shoulders softly. He buried his face in her hair.

Dawn was coming outside; the light streamed through the window. Reno, still wearing the black suit, lay down, Arien still with him.

"Let's take a nap," he said impishly. "We're ditching work."