Author's Note: In honor of the beginning of Elegant Tragedy, my very own y!gallery club dedicated to Tseng and Reeve, I figured I should write something about how they met in my mind.

Theme: Work

Confidence

Before the large doors of the boardroom stood a young man with wide eyes who was practically shivering in the sweltering heat that the President insisted upon. Five hours ago he'd been nothing more than another employee in another small office with no windows. Five hours ago he'd had problems keeping the mess of the person he shared his office with from his desk. Five hours ago he'd been studying a pointlessly simple reports to check them for spelling errors before they were sent on to the executive in charge of Urban Development. Now he stood before large and sturdy doors of the executive board room as the executive of the Urban Development department.

It was a substantial promotion that he could not for the life of him understand. There was no obvious reason that he should be given the position before people with more experience and seniority, but here he was none the less. Part of his mind echoed that he was no more than a scapegoat for the problems created by his predecessor. Another part commented upon the fact that the man was at the moment adorning a cold metal slab in the subbasement morgue. That part also commented on how easy it would be to put him on a matching slab.

After another moment of staring at the large doors, the young Reeve Tuesti backed up a few steps, running right into a person who had been coming towards the doors, and knocking them both to the floor. Eyes that had already been wide in awe were filled with shock and horror as he rushed to his feet, mumbling apology after apology as he attempted to help whoever it was up.

The fallen man refused the help and rose with such grace that one could easily mistake the whole fall as something that had occurred on purpose just so that the man could stand up once more. A dark blue suit, nearly black, registered in Reeve's mind and the young man backed away in horror.

He'd knocked down a Turk.

And from the looks of it, not just any Turk.

He'd knocked down Tseng, the LEADER of the Turks.

"I'm… I'm sorry sir…" he stuttered, backing away and bowing repeatedly. His mind was filled with a mantra of 'please don't kill me'.

"Are you alright?" the Turk asked, straightening his suit at the same time.

"Are you alright sir?" Reeve countered. It wasn't that he was stupid enough to ignore a Turk's question. It was that he was more concerned that the man might break his neck for getting his suit dusty.

Tseng took a moment to look over the young executive, and Reeve couldn't help but shiver from the sheer intensity of the look. It was as if the Wutain Turk could see right through him, and he didn't like that feeling very much.

"Mister Tuesti, I presume," Tseng said at length. "I hope I have caused you no harm."

"No really, it's okay. I'm fine. I didn't mean to…"

"No, I suspect you did not. But you cannot be blamed for wayward feet. It seems they have inadvertently lead you away from your destination."

As rattled as he was, it took Reeve a few moments to figure out just what Tseng meant by that. Was the man really trying to brush the whole situation off, call it an accident? Well, it was, but that wasn't the point. He'd seen Tseng threaten people for less than this offense.

"Here, I will help you sir. It would be rather unfortunate if you missed your official instatement as an executive. One would hate for the honor to be received posthumously."

Threat, warning, whatever it was, Reeve understood as plainly as if a diagram had been drawn for him. Either he went into that room now, or ShinRa would do away with their next executive before he even became one. This was a life or death situation already. There was no escape now was there?

"Oh. Okay. Thank you," Reeve said nervously, flinching a bit as Tseng brushed past him to place his hands on the door handles.

"And, sir," Tseng said, "If you flinch, they will eat you alive. Be confident."

With that the Wutain threw open the doors to Reeve's future, never knowing just how much those words would help him in the future. Maybe, just maybe, he could do this.