"Is this seat taken?"

Elena briefly looked up from her self-imposed exile from the crowd. A young man - barely a man, really, though she wasn't that much older than him herself - had interrupted her morbid thoughts. He was in a grunt's uniform with spiky blonde hair. She felt irritated at his presence, preferring to be left to her thoughts and not have to deal with anyone's crap right now. Finally she let out a small, imperceptible sigh and spoke.

"What's stopping you? Go ahead." she said.

He sat with the chair backwards with his legs at the sides and his arms resting on the backrest. He stared at her for a moment, like a bandersnatch caught in the headlights. She briefly likened his choice of hairstyle to the ruffled feathers of a chocobo.

"You don't seem to be enjoying yourself," he pointed out. Gee, is it that obvious?

"Not really, no." She felt her voice drip with bitterness, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Maybe I could do something to help?" he offered kindly.

"How could you help?" she shot back, though she cursed herself in her own mind for being unfair to him. It was obvious he wanted to ask her out or something, but the kid was trying.

"I can start by listening," he offered.

She pointed to his grunt's uniform. "It's classified Turk stuff, that's pretty above and beyond your clearance level."

"So don't give me any details," he smiled gently.

What could it hurt? She finally resolved. So she told him everything - leaving out any details - about how she failed her training mission and feels like a monumental dissapointment. She told him that she was having serious doubts about her chosen field, and should probably go back to being something insignificant, some low government official's secretary. She even told him how it was all to try and impress the turk leader, Tseng, because she had feelings for him, and she had even gone to the girly extreme of buying new perfume and painting her nails navy blue to match her uniform.

A few moments after she finished spilling her guts out to the youth, he returned from his thoughtful silence. "You're trying too hard," he said with some finality.

"What?"

"See that dark-haired Soldier over there?" he pointed to a raven-haired young man who was looking pretty sick with all the alcohol he'd consumed that evening, and staggering slowly in the direction of the bathrooms. "He's a friend of mine. He recently hooked up his friend Sephiroth with a girl he likes. He's too thick to tell, but Sephiroth doesn't seem to care about her, but Zack really cares about her. He's just not sure how to respond to his feelings yet so he set her up with his best friend, and now he feels like he can't do or say anything to her because she's Sephiroth's girlfriend, in his mind."

"So he's pretty much trapped himself, emotionally."

"Exactly," he said. "Guys are pretty thick; We make stupid mistakes like that all the time, and we can't see anything unless it's put right infront of us." He smiled sweetly. "Takes an idiot to know one, I guess."

Elena thought it over for a minute. Tseng is smarter than that, isn't he? He was the leader of the Turks for his attention to detail, and whether it be an office prank or a life-or-death situation in a mission, he always remained ten steps ahead of the game. But in love... Elena knew that he was somewhat pining for that girl - the same girl she had been asked to watch that night, Sephiroth's supposed girlfriend - but he hadn't made a move yet. Maybe he is oblivious to it, she thought.

The young man looked up for a moment, listening. Then he checked the clock. "I think they're playing the last song..." he began.

"It's a slow one," she pointed out.

He stood from his chair and offered his hand. "Would you care to dance with me?" She was about to shoot him down, thinking this might be a thinly veiled attempt to get into her pants. Some words of wisdom proclaiming all men are idiots and then something suggestive, leading to a one night stand and then she'd never hear from him again. It would be a Reno thing to do, and the thought of it made her sick. But he somehow caught the bitterness in her expression, then offered; "It doesn't have to mean anything. Just a dance between friends."

She thought about it for a moment, then smiled slightly and took his hand.

Author's ramblings and other stuff:

Finally, Cloud makes Elena's day. I have to admit, I never really liked Cloud all that much. Not in the game, the movie, or any fanfiction I've ever read of him. He starts out thinking he's some hotshot from Soldier, but he's really dumb. Like, really REALLY dumb, and thick, and points out the obvious a lot. It gets on your nerves after a while, though I thought I'd give the kid a small break and make him say stuff that, while a bit out of character (Read also: dumb), was appropriate for what I had in mind anyway and it won't break any kinda continuity. Right now to Elena he's just some kid recruit (He is 14 in this timeline, after all), and they haven't exchanged names or anything so it's not like this would imply she'd recognise him in the game.

This is coming to you at great cost to my sanity and my sleep. You'd better review :P