A/N: An ever-so-slightly rushed chapter by me, I don't think it turned out too bad though, I may have gotten lucky

Enjoy

Chapter 18

Elena sighed as they left the hotel, entering the bright, sunny day. They had managed to get a few hours sleep, but since it was during the day, it was difficult. It became apparent after only a few minutes that Reno was indeed being cynical in his comment about Bone Village. Although Elena herself didn't mind the village, Reno seemed to be on a never-ending quest to annoy Elena in his complaints.

"Look." She said finally, trying to keep her temper. "If you hate this village so much then why don't we just start the mission now?"

"Never said I hated it." Reno replied.

"Well, why don't you stop complaining them?"

"Terribly sorry…" Reno said. His voice was far from sarcastic but it was too obvious to Elena that he was mocking her. "'Sides, we're better off sticking here for a while, in case our guy decided to stay put here."

"I guess you're right…" Elena muttered. "But sometimes I swear you just talk for the hell of it."

"Aw, you got me nailed down already." Reno said winking, "Now c'mon, let's go talk to these excavation guys."

Elena watched, staying a few yards behind Reno as he went over to a man dressed in green. He was quite clearly busy with his excavation job, but he talked fairly happily to Reno.

"… heard there were funny people startin' to hang 'round here." Elena heard Reno say as she approached the two men.

"Ya get 'em." The man replied, pounding the ground with his shovel. "There was this one guy though…"

"Oh yeah?" Elena saw Reno smirk. "What happened there then?"

"I dunno really, I didn't see 'im. But I heard he was some weird lookin' guy… a scientist or somethin'… guy at the hotel said he tried to book a room, but they turned 'im away. No one saw 'im after that…"

"How curious…" Reno said in a voice positively dripping with sarcasm. The man didn't seem to notice his tone though.

"Yeah, well…" he forced his shovel back into the ground. "Better get on with this work…"

"How do you do that?" Elena asked.

"Skilled conservationist. How else?" Reno said, without even having to ask what Elena was talking about. "And that tells me one thing…"
"What?"

"He definitely high-tailed into the forest. This crap-hole is so small someone woulda noticed him."

"Right, so what now?" Elena asked.
"Now…" Reno looked over towards the north. "We head out on our fun quest."

The first thing that struck Elena was the beauty. Reno seemed to take it for granted, having been here a lot of times before, but the environment surrounding them made Elena truly speechless.

The blonde breathed in deeply, inhaling the first bit of truly fresh air she ever had. Being stuck in Midgar her whole life, the air was always thick with traffic fumes, factory fumes from the reactors, and all sorts of other things. Of course, she had gotten used to it by now, since she had spent everyday of her life there, not including the time she had spent at Costa del Sol with Reno and Rude.

"Noisier than the fuckin' towns up here." Reno said quietly. Elena smiled; he was right, but the noises here were much more pleasant to listen to. The birds whistled away in their afternoon song, and animals scurried about beneath them. It was like music to Elena's ears to hear something so peaceful.

"What you thinking about?" Reno asked Elena. The blonde smiled, vaguely noticing how well Reno's slightly nasal voice complimented the background noise.

"Nothing." Elena said, gazing happily at the redhead. For some reason, she was a lot calmer now than what she had been before. "Let's go."

The two of them made their way slowly through the woods, treading on the crunchy bracken as they went. Reno seemed a little distant as well, so neither of them really said anything. Then, almost instantaneously, Elena sensed Reno's attitude change, and he stopped walking.

"Stop." He said in barely a whisper. Elena stopped dead still and listened. Nothing sounded any different to her. Reno stepped forward, somehow not making a sound, and looked somewhere of to his right. Elena watched him as he turned around and beckoned her to come closer. Doing as she was told, she walked towards Reno as he kicked some leaves apart.

"That way." The redhead said. His voice had been so quiet before it sounded like he was shouting before.

"How do you know?" Elena asked as the two of them carried on walking.

"Just the way the leaves were trodden down… someone's been in a rush." Reno said distantly.

The two of them walked again in silence, only comforted by the sound of their own footsteps, when once again, Reno stopped. This time though, Elena knew why he had stopped.

"And this is where it ends." Reno said, raising his head in a surprisingly amused fashion.

"The footprints have gone, so what now?" Elena asked, knowing from the smirk on his face that Reno knew exactly what he was doing.

"Well, either this guy sprouted wings and flew, or he's somewhere very…" he took a step forwards, "very…" and another, "close…"