Just A Job
Chapter Two:
Elena looked at her reflection in the stained Wall Market store mirror and wrinkled her nose. The tight, black mini-skirt she currently wore was so short that the blonde worried that the rest of the people in the shop could see her knickers. The bright pink boob-tube that 'covered' her chest was no less revealing and the heels on the shoes she wore were so thin and high Elena was afraid to move in case she snapped them.
"Whaddya think?" Candice asked from behind her, nodding approvingly at her masterpiece. Elena merely stared. Was that a trick question…?
Shaking her head, she said bluntly: "I look ridiculous."
Candice cocked her head and slowly circled her unimpressed friend. "Hmmm…" she murmured, though she did not seem to have found anything to criticize.
Elena sighed, pulling up at the edges of the boob-tube that had slowly been slipping down every time she breathed in. "I think I need something a little more… modest," she suggested to Candice's reflection, the brunette having moved back to her initial position behind.
Stepping lightly down from the twin towers she had been using as shoes, Elena wandered barefoot around the stop, browsing through various shelves, before returning to the change room with an armful of items. Emerging only a minute later, she presented herself before the mirror for Candice's inspection.
Now it was Candice's turn to stare as though Elena were somehow toying with her. "Umm…" she said, brow pinching slightly in doubtful frown. "El, ya need to show a little skin. You're not gonna get any tips if ya dress like a nun!"
"Maybe it is a bit too modest…" Elena thought aloud, chewing the inside of her cheek as she looked at herself.
"I like the jeans!" Candice said hurriedly, as though afraid Elena would take offence, nodding towards the light denim pants Elena had picked out. "But… yeah, I'm thinkin' the whole long-sleeved-turtle-neck thing won't really suit the theme of Steam."
Accepting the advice gracefully, Elena retreated back into the change room to try on the other outfit she had chosen. When she was satisfied that nothing was tucked in anywhere it shouldn't have been, she stepped out ready for Candice's expert critique. The delighted exclamation that greeted her immediately indicated that she had pleased her judge.
"Oh, Elly!" Candice gasped. "That looks gorgeous! Oh, I'm gonna have to bring out the big guns just to compete," she said with a laugh. "You're gonna pinch all me customers!"
Elena laughed along, slightly nervous of Candice's comment about competition, but glad she looked nice. Elena had always enjoyed getting dressed up, but because of the many layers of clothing required to live up in the North at Icicle Inn, she never had many opportunities.
Twisting around the see herself from behind, the blonde indulged her very small amount of vanity and admired how the pretty turquoise skirt accentuated her subtle curves. The skirt reached to just above her knees and flared out, only slightly, in a style she remembered being popular with the surfer girls at Costa de Sol a few years back. She had seen the style in various magazines, but alas, the all-year-round snow and ridiculously low temperatures of Icicle Inn prevented her from ever trying one on. The skirt was complimented by the simple, white double-strap singlet she wore.
"Well, I guess we're done here, ay." Candice was already walking towards the counter, the jeans Elena had discarded earlier and a pair of turquoise heels in hand. "I'm gonna get ya the jeans too, and if you don't wear these shoes… you'll just not going to wear any at all!"
Elena laughed as Candice reached the counter and dumped her load in front of the clerk. "I guess since it's your money I can hardly complain. Thanks so much for this, Candy," she said, the gratitude in her voice hardly measuring up to what she felt inside.
"Hey, no problem, honey," Candice leaned against the counter. "Hurry up an' get changed, I'll shout ya to some lunch." Elena knew better than to argue. If Candice wanted to do something for somebody, then do it she would, regardless of anything and everything else.
Returning to the change room for the last time, Elena carefully folded the newest edition to her mostly empty wardrobe and threw on the dark jeans and red t-shirt that had become her favourite casual clothes since coming to Midgar. Wearing nice things in the slums usually meant a sore head and mysterious disappearance of said nice things within a few minutes of being on the street. This uncheerful fact had caused the blonde's previously sharp fashion sense to just about evaporate.
Exiting the change room, Elena joined her companion and carefully placed her neat little bundle on the counter before the clerk, who had them scanned and bagged in a few seconds. Candice handed the required gil to the bored-looking shop owner and was half way out the door before Elena had even grabbed her bags.
Hurrying to catch up, Elena listened happily to Candice's chatter about the Wall Market sushi bar and their seventy gil specials.
……
"Alright, quiet!" Reno ordered, his eyes not leaving the leaning derelict of a building he was marching towards. "We're approaching the church," he added, unnecessarily, to the now silent Shinra soldiers that followed him.
'Gotta enforce authority,' he thought with a mental grin.
Ancient Duty, as the Turks had somewhere along the line begun to call it, was never taken very seriously by any of Shinra's most dangerous trio. The Turks followed the orders of the President alone, and Shinra's personal lack of interest in the girl meant a Turk was only every spared for Ancient Duty when he could no longer handle Professor Hojo's ceaseless nagging. Today happened to be one of those increasingly more frequent times.
Reno and his fellow Turk, Rude, had also come to the conclusion that their leader, Tseng, had some kind of history with the girl which added to their reluctance to capture her. Having chatted with her himself on more than one of his less-than-serious Ancient Duty days, Reno could also admit that a chick so sweet and innocent wouldn't last long in the Shinra science department.
However, after last night's pathetic example of a failed mission, Reno had thought it necessary to do his job properly. The President had been extremely upset with the Turk's unsuccessful retrieval of his… personal belonging, so the red head had gone all-out and organised a few of Heidegger's most able squad leaders to accompany him.
As they approached the huge church doorway, the echoed sounds of conversation met the Turk's keen ears. Holding out a hand to signal the soldiers to halt, he continued slowly and identified two voices: the high, female voice he recognised as the Ancient girl, Aeris. But the other, deeper voice belonged to someone he did not know.
Stepping silently through the door, Reno casually positioned himself against the edge of the last church bench, hands deep in his pockets. His first glimpse of deep-voice gave him the odd feeling he was going to be seeing a lot of this guy in the near future.
In a crowd, he would certainly stand out like a sore thumb. His hair was so blonde it looked yellow, and styled in the most ridiculous fashion Reno had ever seen: spiked up like some kind of electrocuted chocobo. Fairly short, but solid, Reno felt it safe to assume that the massive sword lying among the flowers at his feet did not belong to the Ancient.
The red head jumped as a loud 'thunk' echoed suddenly through the church, and ground his teeth as he realised his squad had become tired of waiting and decided to investigate themselves. The sound immediately drew the attention of the pair at the other end of the room and two sets of eyes snapped towards the source. Reno could not control the involuntary jerk his scarlet eyebrows made as he got a good look at Choco-head's face. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but his eyes looked suspiciously like they were glowing.
Aeris nervously took hold of the blonde's arm and the two murmured among themselves for a few seconds more. The conversation ended with Choco-head giving the girl a strange look, he then turned and approached Reno, who removed his hands from his pockets and stood straight to meet the stranger.
"I don't know who you are, but…" the blonde started, but stopped mid-sentence with a frown. Reno watched curiously as his eyes became distance and he mimed a few words soundlessly. From what he could read from the guy's lips, Reno was pretty sure he had said '…I know you.'
"Oh yeah…" Choco-head said, jerking out of his daze and recognition settling on his features. "I know you. That uniform…"
"Hey sis," Reno called around the unusual individual. "This one's a little weird."
"Shut up!" the blonde spat. "You Shinra spy!"
'Touchy…' Reno thought with an open smirk.
"Reno!" called a voice from behind him. "Want him taken out?"
"I haven't decided yet," Reno responded, his smirk still plastered on his face. Reaching to the holster attached to his hip, the red head pulled his Nightstick loose and gave it a lazy twirl. Choco-head braced himself into a defensive stance, his sword still laying among the plants a few steps behind him, but a low sound from the Ancient dragged both of their attention back to the front of the church.
"Don't fight here!" she begged. "You'll ruin the flowers!" Rushing forward, she grabbed the blonde's hand and pulled him away from Reno. "The exit is back there." Giving the red head a wary glance, Choco-head allowed himself to be drawn to the side door at the front of the church, leaning down to scoop up his weapon as he passed.
"Those were… mako eyes," Reno murmured thoughtfully, watching them disappear. "Yeah, alright, back to work, back to work!" Marching straight through the garden, he added to his squad as an afterthought as he reached the door: "Oh! And don't step on the flowers…"
Chuckling merrily at the curses and protests from the soldiers, Reno passed through the rickety door frame and immediately spotted the pair on the second floor of the church. 'Didn't even realise this joint had a second floor,' he mused as the soldiers caught up with him. "There they are, over there!" he pointed, eyes widening as Choco-boy took an impressive leap across a big break in the floor boards.
Whirling around at the complete lack of response from behind him, Reno stared at the three soldiers. They stared straight back. "The Ancient is getting away!" he yelled at their clueless expressions. "Attack! Attack! Attack!"
'And these are Heidegger's best!' he thought with disgust as the trio took aim and open fired at the flower girl. When she fell with a strangled cry, Reno was pretty sure it wasn't because she had actually been hit by any of the oh-so-skilfully aimed bullets. "Think we killed 'em?" he asked nobody in particular, more for the sake of just saying something than actually seeking a response. He hoped they hadn't; Reno could not think of a single person who would be happy with that news.
A movement from below caught his eye and the red head grinned in relief as Aeris's head popped up from behind a fallen pillar. However, he was not the only one to have caught sight of her as an instant later the three soldiers under this command leapt down to her level. Reno arched an eyebrow as the closest to him turned around and gave him an 'it's all under control' military nod, before resuming his slow advance on the Ancient.
"Just grab h-" Reno began, the absurd tactics of the soldiers finally grating on his nerves, but a flash of colour on the edge of his vision pulled his eyes to a platform high above the church floor. A tuft of bright blonde hair was poking out from behind one of the barrels that had been stored up there.
"What the hell..?" he muttered as the barrel began to rock slightly. Realisation dawned and he had to keep himself from laughing out loud. "Watch out!!" he shouted as warning to the soldiers just as the barrel finally tipped over the edge – right onto the head of the soldier closest to Aeris. Reno winced at the loud crack as the soldier flattened to the ground, an arm all that was visible from under the pile of broken wood planks and wire. The other two soldiers paused for a moment, unsure of how to respond to the unexpected attack on their fellow, but barely had time to consider it before two more expertly aimed barrels knocked them out cold with him.
Reno watched from the door way as the Ancient scrambled up a diagonal pillar to rejoin her strange companion, and the two disappeared from sight. After a display like that Reno decided that they deserved to escape, so he turned his attention to the pile of broken wood shards and limbs that once resembled the most pathetic military squad the red head had ever worked with. Leaping down to their level, he gave each one a gentle nudge with his foot. No response. Whipping out his PHS, Reno pressed the memory button for the only number he ever called on the device.
'Turk HQ, Rude speaking,' answered a familiar voice. These days there was so much paper work for the Turks to get through there was always someone in the office.
"Hey, Rude!" Reno exclaimed in the annoyingly cheerful tone he always adopted when speaking to his solemn friend. "Look, mate, I'm gonna need you to send some medical staff and a few stretchers or something down to the church in Sector 5. Had a little trouble…"
Anyone else would have wondered what in the Planet's name Reno had been doing to cause enough damage to need a medic and a few stretchers, on Ancient Duty no less, but Rude had never been the curious type and merely replied with: "Right. They should be down within the hour."
"Great! Thanks!" Reno replied brightly. The dial tone beeped in his ear before the red head had even had a chance to take another breath. A sigh escaped his lips as he paced aimlessly around the unconscious soldiers.
"I don't want to wait for an hour…" he moaned, already bored after 30 seconds of silence. Surely no one would miss him if he just left now… It's not like these guys needed supervising anyway. Where were they gonna go? Making up his mind, Reno strolled back out of the ancient door frame he had come through and headed for the church doorway. "I need a drink," he mumbled to himself as he exited the building.
……
"Two Screaming Orgasms, a Blonde Virgin and a beer…" Elena repeated under her breath as she returned to the bar, balancing an assortment of empty beer and cocktail glasses on the fancy serving tray the managers insisted she use. "Two Screaming Orgasms, a Blonde Vir-"
"Oi!!" Elena turned to face the voice. "Who do I gotta kill ta get a refill!?" slurred a man in the uniform of a Shinra grunt, waving his empty glass.
"Nobody, Sir," Elena called back. "I'll be right over."
The man nodded and Elena turned back towards the bar. A loud crash, followed by hoots of drunken laughter, told her that the Shinra soldier had missed his chair. Hoping fervently that his was not the only empty glass on that table, the blonde weaved through the maze of tables and people, nearly tripping over misplaced feet and chair legs every few steps.
A hand snuck out from somewhere and pinched her sharply on the behind. Elena nearly dropped her tray but did not pause, clenching her jaw tightly to control her urge to lash out. She had been working in Steam for four hours and had decided that it was definitely not her kind of scene. The first guy to have pinched her arse could have left with a lot worse than a red cheek, but before Elena had had a chance to break every one of his fingers and kick him so hard he probably never would have had children, Candice had intervened. Explaining that the blonde would run out of breath before the night was over if she yelled at every person who touched her butt that night, the curvy brunette was able to convince her fuming friend to back down.
"Y'exhaused, honey?" Candice asked from behind the bar when Elena finally reached her destination.
Elena grunted and dumped the tray and its load unceremoniously onto the bench. Candice laughed. "Yeah, it's a bit like that, ay."
Elena recited her order and Candice had the drinks whipped up and presented for serving in what the blonde guessed would have to be a record time. Picking up the tray she did a quick scan to ensure everything was there.
"Candy, who's this one for?" Elena asked, noticing the extra drink.
"Oh, that's for that guy over there," she said, leaning over the bar to point. Following Candice's finger, Elena looked over to the far left corner of the room at a table she had passed numerous times that evening, but had not noticed its occupant.
She imagined that her eyes were being held in by only the tips of her eyelashes, they felt like they were popping out so far. This man… he was beautiful! Sleek black hair so dark that it looked almost blue, shining even in the dim lighting of the smoky, crowded bar, was pulled back into a loose pony tail at the nape of his neck. His features could only be described as perfect. Fascinating contrasts which caused Elena to wonder what his personality would really be like: he looked fierce, yet gentle; masculine, yet feminine. Judging by his olive skin tone and almond-shaped eyes, he appeared to be of Wutain descent.
"Gorgeous, isn't 'e?" Candice's voice interrupted her examination. "His name's Tseng, comes here a few times a week after work. He's a Turk."
Elena's eyes left the raven-haired man for the first time since she'd looked at him, to stare at her friend with raised eyebrows. "A Turk…?" she asked, disbelievingly. She'd always imagined Turks to be big, rough men.
"Yeah, no joke," Candice replied knowingly. "Ya can't see it now, but his jackets on the chair. I find it hard to believe meself – he's always so polite. Anyway, he comes in 'ere few times a week, just likes to sit an' watch, I think. Always gets the same, I usually just send one over after 'bout ten minutes."
"Ten minutes!?" Elena asked, genuinely surprised. "He's been sitting there for ten minutes? How could I have not noticed him before now…?"
"Like I said," Candice grinned. "He's a Turk. Ya won't notice him til he wants ya to."
Nodding absently, Elena moved away from the bar with her load, keeping the Turk's drink until last while trying to keep her eyes away from him as she sorted out her other customers. Finally, with no excuses left to distract her, she approached his table. With the crowd blocking most of her view, the blonde only noticed a few steps away that the Turk now had company.
How she had not noticed this guy from any other part of the room, crowd or no crowd, Elena had no idea. Though not as enchanting as his companion, the newcomer was definitely handsome: his most distinctive feature being his wild, flaming red hair. The blue jacket tossed carelessly across the back of his chair indicated that he, too, was a Turk.
The red head was completely forgotten however, when Tseng looked up from their conversation and Elena found herself looking into the deepest, darkest, most beautiful pair of eyes she had ever seen. Noticing the sole drink left on her tray, the edges of his mouth curved up into a gentle smile. All Elena could do was to stare stupidly.
"Thankyou," he said simply, silky voice causing colour to flood into her cheeks and jerking her out of daze. Placing his drink down awkwardly in front of him, she avoided his eyes when he handed her a few gil, touching his hand momentarily. Blushing even more furiously she turned and walked as quickly as she could, without appearing desperate for escape, to the corner furthest away from the two Turks where she blew out her cheeks in humiliation. Man, she was just about ready to hang herself from embarrassment!
……
"Cheers, man," Reno toasted happily, once the waitress had walked away. Poor thing, Reno had been pretty sure that every red blood cell in her entire body had taken a pilgrimage to her face. 'Tseng just seems to have that effect on people,' Reno thought, taking a sizable gulp from the massive glass of something-with-alcohol he had ordered before joining his superior.
"How was Ancient Duty?" Tseng asked casually, sipping how own Black Russian much more slowly.
"Interesting," Reno said, once he had finally lowered his now considerably lighter glass. "Created plenty of paperwork for Rude, that's for sure. He prob'ly won't be joinin' us."
"Hope he gets it finished then, I've got Office Duty tomorrow." Tseng's façade of disinterest was rather good, Reno had to admit, but the red head knew that the Turk leader would want to hear every detail of his encounter with Aeris.
"So," Reno began, once he had finished relating the day's events. "You have any luck talking to the President?"
Tseng nodded. "Shinra says that he will provide funds for the training of a new recruit, if we can find a suitable candidate."
"You got anyone in mind?"
"No," Tseng shook his head. "Nobody already associated with the company matches the criteria, so we'll probably have to look outside of Shinra."
"Mmm…" Reno agreed, only half listening as the alcohol in his system began to settle in. Green eyes meandering lazily over the room, he found himself following the movements of the little blonde waitress and absently measuring up her qualities with those required to be a Turk.
She was pretty, for a start. Pretty enough that, with the right training, she could probably manipulate a man into getting what she wanted; but still plain enough to remain inconspicuous if the need to blend should arise – very important. She was quick on her feet, from what Reno could see: responding instantly to the constant, unpredictable movements of people in the bar. Though she did have a few close calls, he noticed with a grin.
The red head made a mental note to slap her on the arse next time she walked past, after witnessing the barely restrained rage written on her face after a particularly big, hairy hand had made itself known. A Turk always had to remain in control; though bum pinching tended to be a touchy issue with a lot of women.
"How 'bout her?" Reno nodded towards the petite blonde, who was at that moment sweeping up broken glass from underneath a dripping table.
Tseng gave the girl a long, hard look before raising a raven eyebrow. Reno shrugged.
"She physically fits the description," he reasoned.
"Maybe," Tseng said evenly. "But so do a lot of women. Her behaviour towards us earlier tells me that she probably does not fit the psychological description. If a pair of off-duty Turks are enough to make her nervous…"
Tseng's expression turned to open surprise as Reno broke into loud laughter. "Nervous of you, maybe," he chucked. "How many women don't respond to you that way though, Boss? Especially when you give 'em the 'subtle-smile'," Reno continued to laugh.
Tseng frowned. "My smile is not subtle…" he defended, only sending Reno into newer, louder peals of mirth.
"We have no way to prove that she is mentally capable of dealing with high levels of stress and fear," the Turk leader said, distracting Reno long enough for him to forget what he thought was so funny.
"Well, we could always mug or in the alley or something," the red head suggested. "See how she reacts?"
Tseng made a sound of disgust. "Reno, that's a horrible idea and you know it!"
"I dunno!" Reno said loudly, his not-quite-drunk mind annoyed at being snapped at. "Go ask her, then!"
Tseng leaned back into his chair and the pair sat in silence.
……
Midnight could not have come any later, or Elena would have been forced to do something rash in an attempt to force time into moving faster. But, thankfully, it arrived just in time meaning that her shift for the night was over!
Candice was helping to clean and would probably remain there until the early hours of the morning. Elena could not even imagine staying at Steam for any longer and had rushed out the door the second the manager had said she could leave.
Stepping warily out the back door of the bar and into the alley, Elena slipped her hand into her bag to feel the little pistol she kept in the side pocket. Wandering around alone in Midgar in the middle of the night, even above the plate, was not the safest idea but she wanted to get home. On edge and alert, the blonde heard the heavy, uneven footsteps behind her long before she saw their creator and flinched visibly when a gruff voice called out to her.
"Hey, sweetheart!"
Elena turned her head slightly and caught sight of a big, hairy man stumbling along behind her.
"Where you goin', doll face?" he called out, his voice echoing unpleasantly in the narrow alleyway behind Steam.
Elena said nothing and picked up her pace. The man behind her appeared to pick up his too, keeping up surprisingly well for someone so intoxicated.
"Oi!" he yelled, a lot closer. "I said: where you goin'!?"
Elena stopped and turned around to face him. Her hand finding the pistol inside her handbag, she held it tightly. "I'm going home," she said. "I think that you should do the same, Sir."
The man grinned widely, showing a row of crooked, yellowing teeth. Taking a few steps closer to her, he leaned down and breathed in her face: "You interested in joining me?"
Stepping back Elena fought the urge to cough, the rank odours of sweat and alcohol breath overwhelming her nostrils. "No," she said, distain dripping from her tongue.
"Any chance of changing your mind…?" the man leered, crossing the steps between them he grabbed roughly at her arms.
Twisting out of his grasp, Elena turned quickly only to have her head jerked back roughly by her hair. Letting out a cry of pain and fear, she slammed her elbow back into whatever she could hit of the man's body. He let out a pained cough as her elbow connected with his ribs, but he did not let go until she stamped on his foot, feeling the toes crush beneath her heel.
Pulling away, she realised that one of his hands was still grasping her handbag which wrenched off her shoulder, the pistol still held tightly in her hand. Looking at the leather shoulder bag for a second as though confused, the man discarded it before returning his attention back to Elena.
"Stop!" Elena ordered, raising the pistol and aiming it at his chest. The man paused and looked at the tiny weapon, before drawing out a knife from his own pocket. Taking another step forward, he held up his dirty blade with a feral grin.
"I said: stop!!" Elena said. She was surprised at how steady her voice sounded while her heart hammered in her chest. "You take one step, Mister, and I swear I'll shoot you where you stand!"
The man seemed to consider this for a second, his drunken mind weighing up the pros and cons. Making his decision he lifted the knife sluggishly and charged forward. Elena fired the moment his foot landed, the blast echoing loudly off of the concrete walls around them for several seconds after. Leaping back, Elena was forced to then jump to the side in order to avoid the body of the big man as he was carried forward by his own inertia. Collapsing nearly 3 paces from where he was hit, he died face down in the dirt with a sickening gurgle.
Eyes wide, Elena dropped her gun in horror. She had just killed him! He was dead! She had warned him, he had ignored her, so she shot him! Stumbling back, Elena's eyes flitted to the door of Steam and froze in fright. Two pairs of eyes, one green and one so dark she could not even make out where his iris and pupil separated, stared at her from the doorway. The red head Turk had his scarlet eyebrows raised in surprise. The other Turk, the beautiful one called Tseng, kept his expression blank.
Elena did not want to wait for his reaction, she turned and fled. Cursing her heels for being so difficult to move in, she ran awkwardly in the direction of the train station that would take her back below the plate. 'Back to where I can hide with all the other criminals…' she thought miserably, hoping passionately that no one else was following her.
……
End of Chapter Two
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