Chapter 4 - Twenty-three, going on eight, why?
Dr. Howari sat still at her desk, the results of the latest experimentation lying near her hands, discarded for the moment. In her hands she held a picture frame that she stared deeply into, reaching back in her memory for long forgotten times. The couple in the picture stared back at her with brilliant, youthful smiles. As she set the picture back down in front of herself, the scientist absently played with her wedding band still placed on her finger. She detected a movement out of the corner of her eye through security camera monitor that recorded the hall in front of her office. She was on her feet with the previously abandoned file in hand before he entered the room. She responded to him without looking up.
"What do you want Alexander, I'm busy." The cold greeting was intended to cut the powerful man and dissuade him from completing whatever task had brought him there, but it was no use. Corin simply wouldn't be put off so easily.
"Whatever makes you think I want something, my dear Kaylynn." At that, the scientist looked up with a dead look in her eyes.
"Dr. Howari, will be fine, thank you." The title was emphasized with what Kaylynn hoped would be enough of a threat to stop a repetition. Once again, the founder of A.E.C. continued unabashed.
"Very well. Whatever makes you think I want something, Dr. Howari." Again the title was emphasized, this time mockingly. "I've merely come to visit my favorite employee. How have the day's experiments been? Fruitful, I hope." Again, she turned away from him and read over the results.
"The results are satisfactory as far as I can tell. I will need those notes of Hojo's before long if we wish to proceed though." A smile, unseen by the woman, spread across Corin Alexander's face.
"Those notes will be in your beautiful hands soon enough." Howari ignored the comment. "My men will be retrieving them from the Turks within the next day or so." At this, Kaylynn wheeled around to face him, uncommon surprise and something akin to fear clearly written across her expression.
"The Turks? You've gotten the Turks involved with this, Corin? Are you a damned fool? If they discover the contents of those files you've sent them for, they won't hesitate to try and hunt you down." At this, the smile on the C.E.O.'s face grew even wider.
"Yes, I thought you would enjoy that little tidbit. But, it is of no concern. The Turks will retrieve the information we require from the Shin- ra Building, but they will not leave Midgar." Howari placed the file down upon her desk again and moved to leave the room. At the door's threshold however, she hesitated and spoke over her shoulder.
"I sincerely hope you're right, Alexander. For both our sakes."
________________________________________________________________
Elena stepped off of the ferry to Kalm with Yuffie keeping pace beside her. The blond Turk turned to her close friend.
"I'm not too sure you tagging along is such a good idea." Elena continued at the look she was receiving from the younger girl. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're here, but this isn't exactly a walk in the park. Plus I think you might be distracting Reno."
"What, just cause he thinks I'm gonna screw everything up since I'm not a Turk?" Elena looked at Yuffie sheepishly.
"Actually. I think he's more worried about you getting hurt." Yuffie stopped dead.
"Good one, Elena. Reno doesn't care what happens to me, he's just worried about the mission." Elena looked back to the ferry where Reno and Rude were trying to retrieve their luggage. The red head was dancing around Rude playfully shoving him, bothering him about lord knows what.
"I don't know about that Yuff. I've never even heard of Reno going out with someone as often as you two seem to, much less seen it." Yuffie looked surprised.
"Going out? Those weren't dates. I told you, we were just hungry." Elena patted the ninja on the shoulder before moving once again to their hotel.
"Sure you were Yuffie. Rude and I are going to be on our own for dinner tonight. Maybe you two should do the same." The female Turk disappeared into the doorway. Yuffie looked at the other two with uncertainty, just in time to watch Reno point and laugh at Rude. Apparently, he hadn't noticed just how close he'd gotten to the bigger man during his dancing. One right hook later and Reno was down. He decided it wouldn't be a good idea to get up, but kept laughing anyway. Rude grabbed what he could and walked off, passing Yuffie as she walked towards Reno. She couldn't help but smile into the dark sunglasses. Rude adjusted them before speaking.
"What? He's a dick."
_______________________________________________________________
Reno and Rude stood beside the dock watching the two girls walk away, chatting. Stepping towards their luggage, Reno turned to his taller friend.
"Hey, the hotel you got us booked in. Is that the one with the club on the first floor." Rude simply nodded in response. "Awesome. You wanna hit that for a while tonight, after we've got everything ready to go?"
"No."
Reno stopped walking for a moment in surprise, before jogging to catch up to his partner again. "What do you mean 'no'? You don't say 'no' to a club, bar, pub.any drinking establishment really. What gives, man?"
"Elena and I have reservations." They both stopped in front of the luggage as Reno looked at his friend with pure disbelief.
"Elena? As in Elena that chick we work with? As in Elena, the ditsy blond who we all just hate to love?" Rude didn't react, and Reno's smirk broke out into a full out smile. "This is unbelievable. You and Elena? Elena and you?" Reno began dancing around. Rude simply shook his head.
"It's not that unbelievable." Reno paused while standing on one foot behind the bald man, the smile disappearing for a moment of contemplation.
"No, I suppose it isn't. Kinda expected really." Again, the dancing started. "So. Do you loooooove her?"
"How old are you, really?"
"Twenty three, going on eight, why? An you didn't answer the question." The seriousness of the reply caused Rude to examine the words in his head again, ensuring he didn't mishear. He simply chalked it up to idiocy.
"That's none of your business." Again Reno stopped dancing, this time in front of his friend.
"Great googily moogily, you do!" The red head excitedly exclaimed. When it came to being a Turk, nothing could crack Rude's cold exterior. When it came to being a man talking about women, he blushed like a little school-girl. "Dude? Are you." Reno trailed off and took a step in to look closer. "Holy hell, you are blushing. This is un-fuckin-believable." Out of intelligent things to say, Reno fell back on his most primal instinct for the situation. He pointed and laughed.
It's very uncommon for Reno to be caught off guard. Much less twice in one day. He had already reprimanded himself for being surprised by Yuffie on the boat. Fortunately, he didn't have to reprimand himself for not noticing just how close he was to Rude, or just how his friend was pulling his arm back. Rude did all the reprimanding needed for Reno being so damned inattentive. And annoying.
"You're a fucking child." Rude left his friend on the ground with these words, the laughter still emanating from within the mess of a downed blue suit. Walking swiftly away, Rude came upon Yuffie, who, obviously having witnessed the entire ordeal, approached with a smile. Rude fixed his glasses before speaking.
"What? He's a dick."
_______________________________________________________________
The Highwind touched down outside of Nibleheim as Red and Barret walked over to the rope ladder that had just descended. Moments later Cid Highwind dropped to the ground beside them with a cigarette clenched in his teeth. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the captain voiced a question that had been bothering him.
"Where th' fuck is the vampire at?" The other two members of AVALANCHE glanced at each other briefly before looking back to their friend. Red was the one to speak up.
"Vincent is not with you?" Cid stared back at the fire-lion with a look of undisguised curiosity.
"Spike didn't tell you guys to find him? We're supposed to check the mansion before we head 'er." Barret looked over his shoulder to the decrepit building that stood taller than any other building in the town behind them.
"Fuck."
"Yeah, that's what I said." The giant man looked back at the smaller blond.
"Can't we jus' call his PHS?" Cid shook his head and pulled the object in question out of his jacket pocket.
"No good, he left it at my place."
Red began to walk away. "Very well. Better begin the search now then." Barret and Cid exchanged a look before stepping quickly to follow him.
"Yeah. Great idea, cat."
Cid nodded and lit a fresh cigarette.
______________________________________________________________
Yuffie bent down beside the fallen Turk as his laughter faded into a slight chuckle. Reno pulled himself into a sitting position while rubbing his jaw. A few last snickers escaped from him as he looked up at the woman beside him.
"Are you ok?" She asked with a smile on her face, telling him she really think he was hurt. The Turk clambered to his feet and cracked his back. Yuffie stood up with him.
"Ow. That really hurt y'know. But, I suppose it really was worth it." Reno walked over and picked up what luggage Rude had left for him while Yuffie waited.
"What were you laughing at anyway?" Reno looked back at the girl with a sly smirk before answering.
"Oh, nothing at all, really." Yuffie put on a look of mock hurt.
"What, you're not going to tell me? Don't you trust me?"
"That's exactly why I'm not going to tell you." This time she really did seem to be hurt, but she hid it quickly. If Reno had noticed, he made no indication of it. He simply moved onto the next point of conversation.
"Hey, what're you doing tonight?"
"Umm." Yuffie hesitated. "I don't really know. It's not like I really thought anything through when I jumped on that boat. I guess I figured I would be tailing you guys around."
"Yeah, I guess. You want to go get something to eat, or drink. Or something later?"
"Yeah, sure." Yuffie spoke nonchalantly, but her mind was working furiously. 'It's just dinner. Not like it's an actual date. So why am I getting so excited? I mean, it's not as if he wants me. Even though this is just what Elena had said. Oh Gawd.'
The two walked on in silence, while Reno would cast glances in Yuffie's direction when she wasn't looking. And paid attention to when she did the same while he looked away. 'Why can't I stop looking at her? It's not like she's the most beautiful girl ever. So why was it so hard for me to just ask her out? This is all such bullshit.'
"Hey, Yuff?"
"Yeah?"
"Why'd you follow us?" The young ninja's heart and mind froze. She scrambled quickly for an answer.
"I told you, I wanted to come on a mission." Reno looked skeptical and Yuffie started thinking again, even before the inevitable question was asked.
"Quit lying. Why'd you come?"
'Oh, I don't know Reno.' Yuffie thought. 'Some crackjob called Cloud up and told him you guys were going to steal Hojo's notes, so instead of just asking like a real friend would have, I decided to spy on you. Yeah. That'll go over great.' Reno began to get impatient.
"Well?" Yuffie realized that a flat out lie wasn't going to cut it in this situation. What she needed was a different reason for her being here, even if it was only a half-truth. So she came up with the first thing that came to mind.
"I really wanted to come with you." Reno looked like he was going to get mad, so Yuffie cut him off. "Not just with you on the mission. With you as in you." Reno's eyes widened with shock almost imperceptibly and Yuffie found herself backtracking. "Like you, Rude and Elena."
"Yeah, sure." Reno started walking again and Yuffie heard him mumbling to himself. "Yep. This really is gonna be one hell of a mission."
______________________________________________________________
Red, Cid and Barret entered the Shin-ra mansion as quietly as possible. They were surprised at what they saw. Cid whistled, while Barret spoke.
"Would you look at this place. So that's what Fang-boy's been up to."
The entire building had appeared to be refurbished down to the smallest detail. Red stepped into the middle of the room and looked around.
"Everything seems different, yet familiar as well. I believe nothing has been changed from the mansion's original designs. It has merely been restored to how it was intended to appear." Barret and Red heard Cid call from a different room.
"I don't know how about you guys, but I sure as fuck don't remember this being here. Come check this out." Exchanging a quick look, the other two intruders of Vincent's home joined their friend beside a fully operational grand piano.
"Wow."
"This piece is breath-taking."
"See, I told you."
In front of the three adventurers there was an oil painting mounted on the wall behind the piano. The work, while not massive, was an impressive size. In the picture, a strikingly beautiful woman sat at the very same piano steps in front of them. Wearing a majestic green dress and her hair lifted up in a bun, the woman appeared to have been captured directly after a performance. Her eyes seemed to sparkle as they followed anyone who looked into them around the room, and the smile on her face was one of pure happiness, of someone who had found love.
"Hey. Do we," Cid squinted, looking closely at the face. "Do we know her?"
Realization donned on Barret's face. "Yeah, that's that waterfall lady. The one who gave Vince his gun. Lucy, or somethin'." Red corrected his companion.
"Lucrecia, I believe her name was."
"Yes, you are correct Nanaki." The sudden appearance of another person's voice ringing throughout the mansion caused the members of AVALANCHE to jump. They wheeled around at the source of their surprise.
"Shit Vinnie, you scared the hell outta me." Vincent Valentine stood in the door way to the piano room, his dark cape still falling about him.
"I apologize. I simply intended to make my presence known."
"Vincent. Did you paint this?" Red had turned his attention back to the painting. Vincent looked up to it as well, the ghost of a smile crossing his lips.
"Yes."
Barret scratched the back of his head. "Damn. Good lookin' woman Vince. But that wasn't here last time we came through. Has it been in storage or something?"
Vincent turned towards the other man. "No, It was only recently completed. I painted it from the memory of that night." Cid placed a cigarette in his mouth.
"Musta been one hell of a night."
"It was. Now what can I do for you gentlemen?"
_____________________________________________________________________
Dr. Howari sat still at her desk, the results of the latest experimentation lying near her hands, discarded for the moment. In her hands she held a picture frame that she stared deeply into, reaching back in her memory for long forgotten times. The couple in the picture stared back at her with brilliant, youthful smiles. As she set the picture back down in front of herself, the scientist absently played with her wedding band still placed on her finger. She detected a movement out of the corner of her eye through security camera monitor that recorded the hall in front of her office. She was on her feet with the previously abandoned file in hand before he entered the room. She responded to him without looking up.
"What do you want Alexander, I'm busy." The cold greeting was intended to cut the powerful man and dissuade him from completing whatever task had brought him there, but it was no use. Corin simply wouldn't be put off so easily.
"Whatever makes you think I want something, my dear Kaylynn." At that, the scientist looked up with a dead look in her eyes.
"Dr. Howari, will be fine, thank you." The title was emphasized with what Kaylynn hoped would be enough of a threat to stop a repetition. Once again, the founder of A.E.C. continued unabashed.
"Very well. Whatever makes you think I want something, Dr. Howari." Again the title was emphasized, this time mockingly. "I've merely come to visit my favorite employee. How have the day's experiments been? Fruitful, I hope." Again, she turned away from him and read over the results.
"The results are satisfactory as far as I can tell. I will need those notes of Hojo's before long if we wish to proceed though." A smile, unseen by the woman, spread across Corin Alexander's face.
"Those notes will be in your beautiful hands soon enough." Howari ignored the comment. "My men will be retrieving them from the Turks within the next day or so." At this, Kaylynn wheeled around to face him, uncommon surprise and something akin to fear clearly written across her expression.
"The Turks? You've gotten the Turks involved with this, Corin? Are you a damned fool? If they discover the contents of those files you've sent them for, they won't hesitate to try and hunt you down." At this, the smile on the C.E.O.'s face grew even wider.
"Yes, I thought you would enjoy that little tidbit. But, it is of no concern. The Turks will retrieve the information we require from the Shin- ra Building, but they will not leave Midgar." Howari placed the file down upon her desk again and moved to leave the room. At the door's threshold however, she hesitated and spoke over her shoulder.
"I sincerely hope you're right, Alexander. For both our sakes."
________________________________________________________________
Elena stepped off of the ferry to Kalm with Yuffie keeping pace beside her. The blond Turk turned to her close friend.
"I'm not too sure you tagging along is such a good idea." Elena continued at the look she was receiving from the younger girl. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're here, but this isn't exactly a walk in the park. Plus I think you might be distracting Reno."
"What, just cause he thinks I'm gonna screw everything up since I'm not a Turk?" Elena looked at Yuffie sheepishly.
"Actually. I think he's more worried about you getting hurt." Yuffie stopped dead.
"Good one, Elena. Reno doesn't care what happens to me, he's just worried about the mission." Elena looked back to the ferry where Reno and Rude were trying to retrieve their luggage. The red head was dancing around Rude playfully shoving him, bothering him about lord knows what.
"I don't know about that Yuff. I've never even heard of Reno going out with someone as often as you two seem to, much less seen it." Yuffie looked surprised.
"Going out? Those weren't dates. I told you, we were just hungry." Elena patted the ninja on the shoulder before moving once again to their hotel.
"Sure you were Yuffie. Rude and I are going to be on our own for dinner tonight. Maybe you two should do the same." The female Turk disappeared into the doorway. Yuffie looked at the other two with uncertainty, just in time to watch Reno point and laugh at Rude. Apparently, he hadn't noticed just how close he'd gotten to the bigger man during his dancing. One right hook later and Reno was down. He decided it wouldn't be a good idea to get up, but kept laughing anyway. Rude grabbed what he could and walked off, passing Yuffie as she walked towards Reno. She couldn't help but smile into the dark sunglasses. Rude adjusted them before speaking.
"What? He's a dick."
_______________________________________________________________
Reno and Rude stood beside the dock watching the two girls walk away, chatting. Stepping towards their luggage, Reno turned to his taller friend.
"Hey, the hotel you got us booked in. Is that the one with the club on the first floor." Rude simply nodded in response. "Awesome. You wanna hit that for a while tonight, after we've got everything ready to go?"
"No."
Reno stopped walking for a moment in surprise, before jogging to catch up to his partner again. "What do you mean 'no'? You don't say 'no' to a club, bar, pub.any drinking establishment really. What gives, man?"
"Elena and I have reservations." They both stopped in front of the luggage as Reno looked at his friend with pure disbelief.
"Elena? As in Elena that chick we work with? As in Elena, the ditsy blond who we all just hate to love?" Rude didn't react, and Reno's smirk broke out into a full out smile. "This is unbelievable. You and Elena? Elena and you?" Reno began dancing around. Rude simply shook his head.
"It's not that unbelievable." Reno paused while standing on one foot behind the bald man, the smile disappearing for a moment of contemplation.
"No, I suppose it isn't. Kinda expected really." Again, the dancing started. "So. Do you loooooove her?"
"How old are you, really?"
"Twenty three, going on eight, why? An you didn't answer the question." The seriousness of the reply caused Rude to examine the words in his head again, ensuring he didn't mishear. He simply chalked it up to idiocy.
"That's none of your business." Again Reno stopped dancing, this time in front of his friend.
"Great googily moogily, you do!" The red head excitedly exclaimed. When it came to being a Turk, nothing could crack Rude's cold exterior. When it came to being a man talking about women, he blushed like a little school-girl. "Dude? Are you." Reno trailed off and took a step in to look closer. "Holy hell, you are blushing. This is un-fuckin-believable." Out of intelligent things to say, Reno fell back on his most primal instinct for the situation. He pointed and laughed.
It's very uncommon for Reno to be caught off guard. Much less twice in one day. He had already reprimanded himself for being surprised by Yuffie on the boat. Fortunately, he didn't have to reprimand himself for not noticing just how close he was to Rude, or just how his friend was pulling his arm back. Rude did all the reprimanding needed for Reno being so damned inattentive. And annoying.
"You're a fucking child." Rude left his friend on the ground with these words, the laughter still emanating from within the mess of a downed blue suit. Walking swiftly away, Rude came upon Yuffie, who, obviously having witnessed the entire ordeal, approached with a smile. Rude fixed his glasses before speaking.
"What? He's a dick."
_______________________________________________________________
The Highwind touched down outside of Nibleheim as Red and Barret walked over to the rope ladder that had just descended. Moments later Cid Highwind dropped to the ground beside them with a cigarette clenched in his teeth. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the captain voiced a question that had been bothering him.
"Where th' fuck is the vampire at?" The other two members of AVALANCHE glanced at each other briefly before looking back to their friend. Red was the one to speak up.
"Vincent is not with you?" Cid stared back at the fire-lion with a look of undisguised curiosity.
"Spike didn't tell you guys to find him? We're supposed to check the mansion before we head 'er." Barret looked over his shoulder to the decrepit building that stood taller than any other building in the town behind them.
"Fuck."
"Yeah, that's what I said." The giant man looked back at the smaller blond.
"Can't we jus' call his PHS?" Cid shook his head and pulled the object in question out of his jacket pocket.
"No good, he left it at my place."
Red began to walk away. "Very well. Better begin the search now then." Barret and Cid exchanged a look before stepping quickly to follow him.
"Yeah. Great idea, cat."
Cid nodded and lit a fresh cigarette.
______________________________________________________________
Yuffie bent down beside the fallen Turk as his laughter faded into a slight chuckle. Reno pulled himself into a sitting position while rubbing his jaw. A few last snickers escaped from him as he looked up at the woman beside him.
"Are you ok?" She asked with a smile on her face, telling him she really think he was hurt. The Turk clambered to his feet and cracked his back. Yuffie stood up with him.
"Ow. That really hurt y'know. But, I suppose it really was worth it." Reno walked over and picked up what luggage Rude had left for him while Yuffie waited.
"What were you laughing at anyway?" Reno looked back at the girl with a sly smirk before answering.
"Oh, nothing at all, really." Yuffie put on a look of mock hurt.
"What, you're not going to tell me? Don't you trust me?"
"That's exactly why I'm not going to tell you." This time she really did seem to be hurt, but she hid it quickly. If Reno had noticed, he made no indication of it. He simply moved onto the next point of conversation.
"Hey, what're you doing tonight?"
"Umm." Yuffie hesitated. "I don't really know. It's not like I really thought anything through when I jumped on that boat. I guess I figured I would be tailing you guys around."
"Yeah, I guess. You want to go get something to eat, or drink. Or something later?"
"Yeah, sure." Yuffie spoke nonchalantly, but her mind was working furiously. 'It's just dinner. Not like it's an actual date. So why am I getting so excited? I mean, it's not as if he wants me. Even though this is just what Elena had said. Oh Gawd.'
The two walked on in silence, while Reno would cast glances in Yuffie's direction when she wasn't looking. And paid attention to when she did the same while he looked away. 'Why can't I stop looking at her? It's not like she's the most beautiful girl ever. So why was it so hard for me to just ask her out? This is all such bullshit.'
"Hey, Yuff?"
"Yeah?"
"Why'd you follow us?" The young ninja's heart and mind froze. She scrambled quickly for an answer.
"I told you, I wanted to come on a mission." Reno looked skeptical and Yuffie started thinking again, even before the inevitable question was asked.
"Quit lying. Why'd you come?"
'Oh, I don't know Reno.' Yuffie thought. 'Some crackjob called Cloud up and told him you guys were going to steal Hojo's notes, so instead of just asking like a real friend would have, I decided to spy on you. Yeah. That'll go over great.' Reno began to get impatient.
"Well?" Yuffie realized that a flat out lie wasn't going to cut it in this situation. What she needed was a different reason for her being here, even if it was only a half-truth. So she came up with the first thing that came to mind.
"I really wanted to come with you." Reno looked like he was going to get mad, so Yuffie cut him off. "Not just with you on the mission. With you as in you." Reno's eyes widened with shock almost imperceptibly and Yuffie found herself backtracking. "Like you, Rude and Elena."
"Yeah, sure." Reno started walking again and Yuffie heard him mumbling to himself. "Yep. This really is gonna be one hell of a mission."
______________________________________________________________
Red, Cid and Barret entered the Shin-ra mansion as quietly as possible. They were surprised at what they saw. Cid whistled, while Barret spoke.
"Would you look at this place. So that's what Fang-boy's been up to."
The entire building had appeared to be refurbished down to the smallest detail. Red stepped into the middle of the room and looked around.
"Everything seems different, yet familiar as well. I believe nothing has been changed from the mansion's original designs. It has merely been restored to how it was intended to appear." Barret and Red heard Cid call from a different room.
"I don't know how about you guys, but I sure as fuck don't remember this being here. Come check this out." Exchanging a quick look, the other two intruders of Vincent's home joined their friend beside a fully operational grand piano.
"Wow."
"This piece is breath-taking."
"See, I told you."
In front of the three adventurers there was an oil painting mounted on the wall behind the piano. The work, while not massive, was an impressive size. In the picture, a strikingly beautiful woman sat at the very same piano steps in front of them. Wearing a majestic green dress and her hair lifted up in a bun, the woman appeared to have been captured directly after a performance. Her eyes seemed to sparkle as they followed anyone who looked into them around the room, and the smile on her face was one of pure happiness, of someone who had found love.
"Hey. Do we," Cid squinted, looking closely at the face. "Do we know her?"
Realization donned on Barret's face. "Yeah, that's that waterfall lady. The one who gave Vince his gun. Lucy, or somethin'." Red corrected his companion.
"Lucrecia, I believe her name was."
"Yes, you are correct Nanaki." The sudden appearance of another person's voice ringing throughout the mansion caused the members of AVALANCHE to jump. They wheeled around at the source of their surprise.
"Shit Vinnie, you scared the hell outta me." Vincent Valentine stood in the door way to the piano room, his dark cape still falling about him.
"I apologize. I simply intended to make my presence known."
"Vincent. Did you paint this?" Red had turned his attention back to the painting. Vincent looked up to it as well, the ghost of a smile crossing his lips.
"Yes."
Barret scratched the back of his head. "Damn. Good lookin' woman Vince. But that wasn't here last time we came through. Has it been in storage or something?"
Vincent turned towards the other man. "No, It was only recently completed. I painted it from the memory of that night." Cid placed a cigarette in his mouth.
"Musta been one hell of a night."
"It was. Now what can I do for you gentlemen?"
_____________________________________________________________________