Disclaimer: I don't own Reno, the Turks, ShinRa Electric Company or its executives, Midgar or its slums, only my OCs. And neither do I own the song "Aviary". That belongs to Ego Likeness.

Tiny A/N:

This isn't really a songfic like the previous one. I guess that I won't stick to a series-type of format, and just post any song-related drabble here.

And it's Miyuki's turn! I like her, and the song I chose for her is called "Aviary", by Ego Likeness, like I said above.

And as always, (though very few of you ever do so):

Read and Review!


Miyuki was smoking out in the small, open-air terrace provided for cigarette breaks. She let the rich, heavy cigarette smoke float from out her mouth. She looked through the glass window at the ShinRa Company executives, saw Palmer complaining to whoever paid him attention about the low budget his Department was issued.

"In come the vultures
thru dusty air
to take you down
and tear the ribbons from your hair
," Miyuki thought, marveling at their greed. Did they ever sit and think that, every time they argued and bitched about low budgets, people below-Plate were going hungry? Kids were being made to work, kids who'd never even seen a beautiful, sunny day.

Now Miyuki could see them in her mind's eye, remembering them from the times she'd gone to the Midgar slums, to the lower Junon Village. To her own beloved Wutai, still struggling after ShinRa destroyed it. The children begged for alms, or simply walked aimlessly around, looking for something, anything to make things better.

"In come the songbirds
with bitter melodies
to sever all your heart strings
as they light upon the trees
,"

She sighed, thinking of her own younger brother and sister, the last time she'd seen them. They had been a poor, but mostly happy family. Then she'd started sniping, becoming a mercenary. The bounties she collected and brought home had made things better for them.

The last time she'd seen them, she'd snuck out of guarding Vice-President Rufus ShinRa after he'd gone to bed. She risked her life to see her family, and they wouldn't acknowledge her, claiming she was dead to them for having betrayed her country so shamefully. She'd thought they might be happy to know she was alive and well, even if she was serving her former enemies.

She'd thought wrong. Miyuki clenched her jaw, the pain of her rejection still fresh in her mind, musing, "This place can sometimes be so ugly, this place can sometimes be so strange."

So she'd gone back to ShinRa Company, and the Turks, any plans of reconciliation with her family dashed to pieces.

Miyuki tossed her cigarette and went into the building, to the floor known as the 'Turk floor'. She looked around, saw Reno, Tseng, Rude and a few of the other come out of the Turk lounge. Miyuki glanced at their black uniforms, knowing that, as much as it hurt, she had a new family now.

"In come the blackbirds
in murders and in droves
to cover you in shadow
as they clean you to the bone,
" she thought, wondering why Tseng, who was Wutaian like her, was so different from her. She always ended up frustrating him, angering him. He had, she remembered, made it a point to congratulate her on the Wutai New Year, then reprimanded her when she blew up firecrackers in the Turk lounge.

She always felt like a foreigner here.

She wondered why Reno acted as if he was such a comic buffoon all the time, when she could tell he had a secret ache. It was in the way he looked up expectantly when his PHS rang, and it was in the frustrated look on his face when he had to work overtime and couldn't get out of ShinRa Tower for days at a time.

Personally, she thought he had someone waiting for him on the outside.

She wondered why Rude was so quiet, all the time, and wondered why he always wore shades. His eyes were beautiful. She remembered them clearly from one memorable occasion when, having finished a tough assignment in Junon, she, Reno and Rude had drunk much more than their share, and Miyuki had woken up in Rude's room.

She and Reno teased Rude mercilessly for weeks.

Miyuki went into her own room in the ShinRa Living Quarters. She caught a glimpse of herself on the mirror over the bathroom sink. Reno had left the door open again, damn him to hell.

She looked at herself, and sighed, aware of all she'd been through to get to where she was now. She remembered her breakdown in Gongaga a few weeks earlier, how desolate she'd felt. But not today. Today she felt better. She thought,

"And here I come a firebird
don't offer up your sorrow
today you see me crash and burn
but I'll be back tomorrow,
"

Miyuki grinned to herself, peeling off her Turk jacket, kicking off her shoes. Her toes sank into the plush carpeting ShinRa splurged on for its employees. A plush, beautiful prison, really, as Turks weren't allowed to retire.

She pulled off her tie, tossed it away. She didn't care where it landed. Under her breath, she whispered,

"This place can sometimes be so perfect
This place can sometimes be your cage,
"

Miyuki often felt as if she didn't really belong to this world. She'd never fit in, either in Wutai, or here. She'd never known love, never let anyone close enough, though she did feel a strong sense of kinship with her Turk companions.

Still, for all the losses and heartbreak she'd withstood, all the uncertainties she'd known, all the anger and pain she'd caused, she realized she liked being alive.

She went to the window Reno had also left open. The wind coming through the window had scattered papers all over the room. She vowed to successfully housebreak the damned redhead.

A heady wind ruffled her hair, and Miyuki looked out at the city of Midgar.

"This place can some times be so beautiful

This place will always be so strange," she thought, letting out a satisfied breath as she closed the window and set about organizing the papers the wind had scattered.


A/N: There you go! Hope you liked it.

If you haven't yet read my big fic, "Dreams Cloaked in Shadows", the incident Miyuki remembers as her latest emotional breakdown happened in the 'Confessions' chapter. It's one of the last ones there. The incident where she and the boys get drunk and she jumps Rude's bones is a memory of hers, not a particular chapter I've written.

If you're a Miyuki fan, then I hope you enjoyed the more in-depth look into her psyche, how she views the world, her past, that sort of thing.

If there's anything at all, comments, suggestions, anything, please be kind enough to leave a review. That's how crappy writers get better, you know. Anything helps. Except flames.

Bye then!