A/N: Yay, this chapter is exactly the same length as the last one XD I'm trying to bulk up my chapters, starting with this story, coz to be honest 500 words isn't long enough.

I tried very hard again, I hope you like it. And please review. Thanks to everyone who reviewed chapter 1

Chapter Two

Elena awoke promptly at just before seven in the morning; she had beaten her alarm clock and lay in bed, thinking about what she might face that day. She had dreamed strangely, especially as she never usually remembered her dreams. Her night-time thoughts had been haunted with images of the Forgotten City, Sephiroth and Avalanche. It took her a few minutes to recover from the strange thoughts when she woke up, and just as soon as she had calmed down, her alarm begin to ring, causing her to jump.

Sighing, she reached over and turned off the loud, obnoxious alarm and turned over in her warm bed, not wanting to retreat into the cold. It was dark outside, which was surprising as it was nearly the end of March. The weather was murky, and as far as she could see out the window, it had been raining heavily through the night.

'Great weather for a mission…' Elena thought grimly to herself, crawling out of bed and grabbing a clean shirt from her cupboard.

It didn't take her long to get dressed into her Turk's uniform, and she pulled her hair brush through her blonde hair, wincing slightly as the brush caught in the tangles caused by the night of disturbed sleep. Looking at her watch, she saw that she only had 10 minutes left before she had to meet Reno. So much for getting up early for the mission; she must have stayed in bed longer than she thought.

'Oh well… Reno won't be up anyway…" she thought to herself, shuffling into the kitchen to make herself some coffee.

As she poured her coffee, she was still thinking about what had been running through her head when she went to bed last night, and what Tseng had said about Reno when she was talking to him yesterday. Her mind wondered to after her meeting with Tseng, and when Reno had met her outside. He had seemed jumpy, and even though he had said he was running way from Hojo, he wasn't breathing heavily enough to have been doing so. Could it have been that he was listening to her and Tseng's conversation? She wouldn't put it past him, but why would he? That would mean that he'd heard everything, and he knew exactly the reasoning behind the way Tseng treated him… but maybe he already knew in the first place.

Taking a sip of her freshly made coffee, she looked out of the window again. It was already getting light, or supposedly, but the clouds made it seem all-round darker. It was truly a depressing day. She drank the coffee quickly, and then headed back to her bedroom to pack some things to take with her. She figured she would only need a few clean clothes so she put them carefully into a pale green duffel bag. Sighing heavily, she looked at her watch again, it was exactly 8 o'clock. Perfect timing.

It only took Elena about 10 minutes to walk to Reno apartment, but by the time she got there, her clothes and hair were saturated. She knocked loudly on Reno's door, but got no reply. As usual, the door was left unlocked, so she just welcomed herself.

As she entered the living room, the first thing she saw was the materia on the table. The blonde remembered how much the strange magical substance had fascinated her when she was a child. If only she knew then that she would grow up only to kill with the thing that had soothed her with its glowing warmth.

Tearing her eyes away from the materia, she looked at Reno. The redhead was predictably asleep on his couch. Somehow he had managed to get himself half-dressed and then fallen asleep before he could finish the job. He was wearing his black trousers, and no shirt, revealing an impossibly pale stomach and chest, where his ribs jutted out slightly. He held an empty cup of coffee in his hand and his mouth was slightly open, his fiery hair was messy, obviously from a sleep just as rough as Elena's had been. The blonde smiled at the slightly pitiful sight, and set her bag down on the floor behind Reno's couch,

"Reno?" She poked the redhead in the stomach, but got no reply. Instead, he moaned slightly, and put his coffee-cup free hand on his forehead.

"Reno, wake the hell up. I rushed here on purpose so we could get off early; I knew you'd do this." Elena ranted loudly.

"Jesus, calm down 'Laney. I'm awake." Reno said, although he hadn't moved an inch. Elena looked at him warily, not sure whether to trust that he was awake or not. He had been known to say some very peculiar things in his sleep.

"Reno?" Elena said loudly.

"What?"

"What's your name?"

The redhead opened an eye sceptically. "You don't trust me at all, do you? I'm fuckin' awake."

"All right." Elena said, slightly taken aback. "You need to calm down Reno."

"Yeah, sorry." He replied slightly wearily, looking at his empty coffee cup. "Do me a favour?"

"What?" Elena sighed.

"Go get me a clean shirt. They're in the cupboard in my bedroom." Reno said, smiling sheepishly.

"Fine." Elena sighed and stood up. She didn't really know why she always agreed to do anything he said, but he was just so hard to say no to. Besides, she didn't want to deprive him of the privilege of wearing a clean shirt for once.

Elena prepared for the worst as she opened Reno's bedroom door. For some reason that she would never understand, he had picked the smallest of the rooms in the 2-bedroom apartment for his bedroom. Predictably, the floor was covered in various varieties of Reno's belongings, but what was actually there; she didn't dare to find out. She stepped her way carefully over the things on the floor, and grabbed the first white shirt she saw in his cupboard. It wasn't too hard, since there wasn't really much in there anyway. Sighing, and ignoring the mess as much as she could, she walked out again, closing the door behind her. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to go in there again any time soon.

"Here." Elena said, throwing the white shirt so it landed on Reno's head. The redhead took it off, grinning.

"Cheers, 'Laney." He said happily, putting on the shirt, but not bothering to button it. Then he grabbed the materia that had been sitting on his table, and looked at Elena.

"How much space ya got in that bag?" he asked, grinning in that strange, sheepish way again.

"Give them to me." Elena said sighing; he truly was a master at getting whatever he wanted. He smirked and handed the materia to Elena, who stowed them away in her green bag.

"It's a good job I'm patient." Elena told him, while she zipped her bag up.

"You ain't patient, not at all." Reno said, still smirking. Elena was astonished; she could quite easily hand that materia back to Reno, and he would have to carry it himself, yet he still persisted to be rude to her. But then again, she had the choice to not take it, but she had chosen to do him the favour.

"I'm more patient than you. And if I wasn't patient, you would have found yourself murdered several times over by now." Elena said, although she was smiling slightly.

"Our job is to kill other people, not each other." Reno said, knowing without even looking at Elena that she was joking.

"Whatever, Reno. You have a strange idea of what our job is." Elena said, less amused, "If it was as simple as that, I wouldn't be any where near as nervous as I am now."

"You nervous?" Reno said, looking at her. "Don't be. It's not a hard mission."

"It's not the mission that I'm worried about." Elena said awkwardly. Reno moved closer to her and put his arm around her.

"What's up then? Is it 'cause of what Tseng said, 'cause… shit." Reno trailed off.

"So you were listening?" Elena said, smiling smugly at Reno, whose grip on Elena's arm had significantly tightened.

"I happened to overhear a little of it." Reno said, raising his eyebrows. "Don't listen to him 'Laney, seriously. I've only caused two deaths while on these stake out missions… forget that."

"How comforting." Elena said sarcastically, pulling away from Reno.

"Aw, c'mon 'Laney. I'm only jokin'." Reno said, pouting slightly. "C'mon, we gotta get a move on."

"Are you sure you were joking?" Elena said, dropping her angry barrier again. "I don't trust you sometimes."

"Can't you tell when I'm jokin'?" Reno said playfully.

"No." the blonde replied bluntly. She grabbed the green bag and put it on her back. "Come on then."

Elena cringed as the two of them were jerked forwards. Her stomach lurched and she looked at Reno.

"Are you sure you actually took those piloting lessons?" she asked him palely.

"Sure I did." Reno said happily flicking some switches on the dash of the helicopter. "Why? You feelin' sick?"

"Um… yeah…" Elena said, she felt her throat tightened as they lifted full off the ground.

"There. There was a glitch there." Reno said, flicking another switch. "Don't worry, I'll be good now." He grinned and turned to face forwards.

Elena watched the redhead carefully as he worked in silence. It was hard to believe sometimes that this Reno, and the one she had seen shirtless and asleep, were the same person. He was so immature at times, and so unprofessional about the way he went about things, but when it came down to it, he knew his stuff. What Tseng had told her the day before was already starting to show; she was starting to see how he was a lot cleverer than he usually let on. The look of immense concentration on his face was amusing, but only because she so it so little. She had to admit, with that cocky smile gone from his face, she felt a lot safer.