Chapter Seven

Now

For three weeks, Elena worked all day and drank all night. The second she finished her shift at the hospital, she went straight back to her house, changed her clothes and went to the bar. Almost every night she went home with a man. Sometimes she saw them a couple of times, when she couldn't be bothered to find someone new, but mostly she went with different guys. The one cardinal rule she stuck to was that she never told them her real name, or where she lived. It was fun in a way, thinking up a new identity for herself every night, creating a character who'd never come across Shinra, or Reno. One night she was Alexandra, a student from Mideel, visiting family. The next night she was Julia, a young lawyer from Nibelheim in Junon on business. If the men suspected anything, they never said- Elena was young and blonde and didn't want a second date. No man would question that.

Until one night, when she was sitting by herself, and a man approached her. There was something familiar about him, though she couldn't place it at first. He was tall, with quite dark skin, dark hair, green eyes. He was handsome, but not amazingly so. His face was a little bland, his shoulders rather too narrow for his stocky build, but there was something about him, nonetheless. Elena always thought there were two kinds of good-looking men- the absolute perfection of guys like Tseng, who were unfair representations because only about three percent of men in the world were that beautiful, and then the imperfect but somehow comforting guys, like the one before her. Reno... well, he fell into neither category. As with so many other aspects of life, he was a law unto himself.

She looked at the man, who was smiling broadly at her.

'Hi, Elena right?' he asked her, still smiling.

Elena felt all her defences go up. Who was this man? How did he know her name?

'We met here, a few weeks ago?' he said, in reply to her unspoken question.

She still said nothing. The man laughed slightly. 'I'm Nikolai.'

Elena shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to be rude, but not wanting to engage. 'I don't remember meeting, I'm sorry,' she said, politely.

He smiled. 'You had drunk a little bit, I think.'

She glared slightly. 'I'm sorry, I'm meeting someone,' she said, pointedly.

Nikolai sat down beside her. She rolled her eyes, trying to ignore him.

'It is Elena, right? I'm sorry, I'm awful with names.'

She sighed, seeing she wasn't getting rid of him anytime soon. 'Yes. It's Elena.'

'What do you do, Elena?'

She bit her lip, unsure what answer to give. Nikolai saw her hesitation and laughed. 'You can lie if you want.'

Elena found herself laughing. 'Okay. I'm an astronaut.'

Nikolai nodded, seriously. 'Wow. That must be exciting, hm?'

She rolled her eyes again, still grinning slightly. 'Very.' She looked at him, a little closer. He had a kind face, and a nice smile, and his hair couldn't physically have been any less red. 'What do you do?' she asked, impulsively.

'I work for the Junon Times. Assistant editor.' The Junon Times was a pretty big deal, but he said this with no sense of bragging, and Elena believed him completely.

'You're a big shot, huh?'

He smiled. 'Not really. Our local interest stories have really dwindled since just after Meteor. Midgar's where the news is these days.'

Elena snorted slightly. 'Edge, you mean.'

He nodded, a sad look on his face. 'What an awful place. When I think of what's happening there... I'm glad we don't have any big news here.'

Elena gazed at him for a second, a little smile on her. 'That's true,' she said, softly.

xoxoxoxo

Elena and Nikolai went for dinner a few days later, and then to see the movie of 'Loveless' couple of days after that. After their next date, they slept together for the first time, and on the date after that Elena let him come back to her house.

When she was with him, there were no sparks of chemistry, no moments when he touched her innocently and she gasped like her breath had been stolen. She wasn't in love with him, nor did she envisage ever being that way. But she liked him. He made her happy, and it was such a long time since she'd been truly happy that it made it easier to pretend she was falling for him. He certainly seemed to have fallen for her, and it was so nice to be with someone who was so open, whose every emotion was written on their face. She started to look forward to every moment she spent with him.

Her colleagues at work noticed the change in her. They kept making little gestures that they'd never bothered making before, because no-one had liked her that much. They thought she was cold and hard, and most also suspected that she'd gotten such a good contract due to her former position as a Turk, something they were probably right about. But now... she was invited on their nights out. When people made coffee, they poured her one too. On cigarette breaks, the others offered her their lighters. They were just little things, but they made such a difference. Elena felt herself relaxing around people, talking more easily, smiling most of the time. She had gone from being bitter and lonely, just as Reno said she was, to feeling lighter and freer, if not happier, than she ever had.

xoxoxoxo

She was lying in Nikolai's arms, bare skin pressed to bare skin. The window was open, letting in the mild breeze. She felt content, safe.

Nikolai pressed a kiss to her shoulder, making her smile.

'Laney,' he murmured into her skin, using his own pet name for her. She wasn't mad about it, but as long as he didn't call her 'Lena', she didn't really care.

'Mm?'

There was a pause. 'Have you ever been in love before?'

Elena stiffened. 'In love?' Reno's face flashed into her mind. She pushed it away as best she could, tried to say 'No, not really,' but her voice betrayed her.

'You have,' he said softly. His tone was not pressing, but there was a certain amount of curiosity in it.

She sighed. 'I...maybe,' she conceded. 'But I'm not...' she trailed off. 'I don't really think about it anymore.'

'He was from Midgar?'

Elena had reluctantly told him where she came from, when she was drunk and his tongue had been doing things to her that made her lose her senses. She regretted it now, wishing she had told him she was from Rocket Town, or somewhere completely unrelated to her former life. After all, who was going to tell him otherwise?

'Yeah. We... worked together.'

'You were a nurse in Midgar?'

She shook her head. 'Honey, I'm tired. I'll tell you another time, okay?'

He smiled. 'It's okay. We have time,' he told her, kissing her again.

She smiled at him, wishing not for the first time that she could fall in love with him. He was almost the perfect man. In fact, for anyone else he probably would have been. All Elena could do was keep trying, and just appreciate the fact that he was with her, making her happy.

The next evening, she was making them dinner, when Nikolai came in, a funny look on his face.

She smiled at him. 'Hey, hon. I made pasta.'

He didn't reply. In a voice that didn't sound like his own, he asked 'What did you do in Midgar?'

'Hmm?' She looked at him, surprised. 'My job?'

'Were you a Turk?' he asked, bluntly.

She opened her mouth, closed it again. Then she took a deep breath. 'How did you find out?' she asked, softly. She saw no sense in denying it.

'I was looking through the archives, found your name as a reference point. Elena, sister of Rosalind, another Turk. Daughter of an instructor at the Military Academy that trains Turks...' he recited it, as though he'd been reading the same words over and over again. 'Shinra in the blood,' he hissed, sounding disgusted.

'I... I left Shinra,' she told him. 'I want nothing to do with them anymore.'

He shook his head, seeming not to listen to her. 'You murdered people, kidnapped them, maimed them... you can't leave that behind, Elena.' Her name sounded like dirt. He was looking at her like she was dirt. 'You make me sick,' he told her.

She felt tears fill her eyes. 'Nikolai, please, I-'

He cut her off. 'I never want to see you again,' he told her. 'You murdering bitch.'

She flinched. 'Nikolai...'

His eyes narrowed. 'You're disgusting,' he told her. And then he left, without another look back.

Elena stared at the door where he'd just been. She wished that he'd shouted, or hit her, or done anything rather than talk to her like she was...

She swallowed hard. Who she wasElena was everything that Nikolai had said. A murderer, a liar, the scum of the earth.

I am a Turk.

And for the first time in a long while, Elena knew what she had to do. She had to go back to Edge.

A/N- yeah, kinda angsty lol. But it gets happier. Kinda lol. Anyway, I think there's five more chapters to this. The next one will be up soon, featuring the Turks gossiping, and Rude getting his ass wupped. Please review XD