Mission 18: Apology
"You're such good children..." It was the seventh time so far that Elmyra had said this.
Elena endured it with a smile and nod; she wasn't too bothered by it. Tseng nodded with a neutral expression, Rude remained as still as a statue and Reno twitched.
"We're not good children," the redhead grumbled, loud enough for his Turk companions to hear, but not loud enough for the sound to reach Elmyra. "We're Turks."
Tseng elbowed Reno, while Elena kept Elmyra distracted by asked, "is there anything else you need?" despite Reno frantically shaking his head for her to stop. He didn't want to do anything else.
"Tseng, dear, could you water the flowers, Aerith used to water them all the time," Elmyra requested.
"I will water them..." Tseng left to do his assigned chore, trying his best not to sound like it was a drag, even if it was.
"Elena, sweetie, could you get started in the kitchen? Let's all have lunch together!" Elmyra continued assigning chores.
"No problem!" With her best media face, Elena went off to accomplish her next task.
"Rude, darling, you look like a strong boy, you can help me rearrange the furniture." Elmyra only received a nod as a response this time and Rude remained characteristically quiet. "Reno, strawberry, could help clean around the house?"
Reno twitched, dear, sweetie and darling were silly enough, but strawberry? "Strawberry?"
"Oh yes, your hair is the same color as a strawberry, it's so cute," Elmyra giggled.
Reno continued to twitch, doing his best to keep his temper in check. The solitude and the trauma of losing all her family was getting to Elmyra, and she was now convinced that the Turks were the grandchildren that Aerith never gave her. She didn't even realize that they were close to the age Aerith would have been if she was still alive, some even a little older.
In reality, the Turks were there to bring an apology from Rufus to Elmyra for all the trouble Shinra had caused her, including the death of her husband serving Shinra in the past and the sacrifice of her adopted daughter who was trying to stop Sephiroth. As usual Rufus was sending off the Turks to do the hard work, because no matter how much Shinra changed, some things never changed.
A giggle came from the kitchen, and Reno knew that Elena had heard Elmyra calling him strawberry and was laughing at his account. Then he noticed Tseng looking inside the house from the window when he should have been out watering the garden, he too had an amused expression. Even Rude almost laughed, almost but not quite, because he was Rude and Rude never laughed out loud. But on the inside, Reno was sure that Rude was laughing like never before.
"You're such good children..." Reno glanced at Rude searching for support, as Elmyra repeated the phase yet again. Then he looked towards the window but Tseng had already left to water the flowers. The sound of pot and pans was head, and the scent of food filled the house indicating that Elena was busy in the kitchen. "Let's move this couch over there, so strawberry can clean behind it." Elmyra was oblivious to it, but that day Reno hated the new missions more than ever.
End of Mission 18
Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Mission 18 was requested by Death Korps, an apology for Elmyra and it's also for evenstarfictionfan who wanted to see more missions with all the Turks.